Virtually Everything
With costs going up on just about everything, many of us are looking for a bargain. The Web has myriad resources to compare a variety of shopping sites.
You can find some decent deals on just about anything from apparel to wireless products with shopping bots.
MySimon (https://www.mysimon.com) offers details such as availability and shipping. The site offers extras as well. For example, in the pet supplies department, it has a pet food calculator, designed to help determine how much you should feed Fido, based on his age and weight.
Another site, ConsumerSearch (https://www.consumersearch.com), lets you look at what online and offline reviewers say about everything from bread makers and digital cameras to snow blowers and weight-loss programs. After you pick a category, such as exercise videos, the site gives you several reviews, which are ranked by their value. It also offers a quick list of the top-rated products.
Then there’s Epinions.com (https://www.epinions.com), the granddaddy of them all. It covers more than 2 million products and services in more than 30 categories and offers tools such as how-to guides. You can customize it to e-mail you every time your most trusted reviewer has something to say.
If you’re buying online, you’re probably a credit card holder. Well, you can shop online for better interest rates too.
Check out https://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/cc_home.asp and https://asque.com/creditcards/cci_rnf.htm to compare the annual percentage rates available, so you can trade in that card with a 25% APR. The sites provide links to the companies offering cards if you wish to pursue the deal.
Maybe you’re looking to run a tighter ship, so to speak. You can weigh the shipping rates for several carriers at https://www.intershipper.com, https://www.smartship.com and https://home.iship.com.
These free services also let you track packages that are en route, find drop-off locations, schedule pickups and look up ZIP Codes.
Ever use those 10-10 numbers? At https://www.10-10phonerates.com, you can find explanations on how dial-around long-distance services work in addition to the rates and how they compare with one another.
If you’ve got to be free--from phone cords, that is--check out https://www.point.com for a comparison of features and plans available in your area. Point.com also provides tips on how to get the most from your cellular service.
So now that you’ve got that wireless phone, you might want to consider boosting your auto insurance. To get quotes on just about every category of insurance, stop by https://www.insweb.com. InsWeb lets users compare prices on auto, life, homeowner, renter and health insurance.
If you’d rather have insurance companies reach out and touch you via phone, fax or snail mail, then NetQuote (https://www.netquote.com) might be more your cup of tea.
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Michelle Maltais is a broadcast producer and copy editor at The Times.
