The Best in Services to Make Life Easier
See our picks for first-rate legal advice, cheap long-distance, online calculators, music downloads, great customer relations.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, November 2006
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Whether you're looking for ways to boost your take-home pay, give back to the community or save money on your phone bill, we've found the best places on the Web to turn.
RELATED LINKS | |||
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Slide Show: More of Our Favorite Things | ||
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The Best of Everything | ||
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Kiplinger.com Tools and Calculators | ||
BEST COST-OF-LIVING CALCULATOR
Moving.com
The calculator at this site (www.moving.com/ find_a_place/relosmart) doesn't just tell you what your salary would be worth in a different city. For example, if you own a home and want to buy another, fill in basic mortgage details for both cities and the calculator will estimate your payments and property taxes. You'll also get an estimate of how much you'd gain or lose on state and local taxes, auto insurance, sales tax and electricity bills.
BEST WAY TO BOOST YOUR TAKE-HOME PAY
Don't overpay your taxes
If you regularly get a refund, you're paying too much. Give yourself a pay raise by using our tax-
withholding calculator at kiplinger.com/tools/withholding. Then revise your Form W-4.
BEST LONG-DISTANCE RATES
Skype
Switching to a phone service that taps your broadband Internet connection can save you hundreds of dollars in long-distance bills. Skype (www.skype.com) is the friendliest of the Internet services we've tried. You can hook up with millions of other Skype users -- but first you must turn on your PC. Then you can chat by speaking into your PC's microphone. Or turn on your PC and use your existing phone by plugging in an Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard (about $40 at Buy.com).
BEST SALARY-RATING SITE
Salary.com
This site lets you search by job category and zip code, then zoom in on the description that most closely matches the job you're looking for. Personalized reports cost $30 to $80, but the free basic service gives you a median salary for your position to help you judge potential offers. You can also see how bonuses and benefits sweeten the deal and get a net paycheck estimate -- which lets you calculate actual take-home pay after taxes and deductions.
BEST PREPAID PHONE CARD
Nobel
Skype and other Internet phone services occasionally suffer from poor voice quality. For consistently high-quality calls, keep your land line and buy a prepaid phone card. Our favorite is from Nobel (www.nobel.com). Its long-distance rates are about a penny a minute, and to place a call you just dial a toll-free number and the number you're calling. No special codes are needed.
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FIRST-PERSON PICK: BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE | |||
HSBCWhen HSBC recently offered an online savings account paying 5.05%, I applied for one on the bank's Web site (www.hsbcdirect.com). But during the 20-minute process, I entered some information incorrectly and gummed up the works. D'oh! Luckily, a pop-up Web box appeared, with an invitation to get help by clicking on a link. I clicked, and a clerk actually called me at the phone number I had entered on the online form. Presto! Just like that the problem was fixed. A few days later I forgot my password. D'oh! I called the toll-free customer-service number and was instantly connected with a person -- not a computer -- and got access to my account. Overall, HSBC's online customer service is the fastest and most courteous I've encountered, both personally and as a consumer-affairs reporter. -- Sean O'Neill | |||
BEST CELL-PLAN SITE
LetsTalk.com
LetsTalk.com can tell you in minutes the best cell-phone plan in your area. Simply enter your zip code, the minutes you'll need and your primary calling area, and it filters plans for you. Narrow your choices further by selecting plans with mobile-to-mobile minutes, free nights and weekends, or free incoming calls. It also allows you to compare as many as eight plans side by side.
BEST MUSIC SERVICES
iTunes/Urge All Access to Go
Steve Jobs, you win. The best digital music service is iTunes Store for selection and convenience. But if you don't own an iPod, iTunes is just a cute name. For other digital audio players, the best service is MTV Networks' Urge All Access to Go. You can tap about two million songs for $14.95 a month, or $149 a year. Before you subscribe, visit www.urge.com to make sure your portable music player is compatible.
BEST DO-IT-YOURSELF LEGAL ADVICE
Nolo
You don't need to hire a lawyer to handle many routine legal matters. All you need is Nolo (www.nolo.com), a publisher of self-help legal fare that counsels you on writing a will or a living trust, buying real estate, or minimizing estate taxes. Nolo's 140 paperbacks are edited by lawyers, and many come with CDs containing downloadable forms. They're authoritative -- and yet they clearly explain when your situation calls for hiring a lawyer.
BEST CHARITY-RATING SITE
Charity Navigator
Look up one of the more than 5,000 charities on this site (www.charitynavigator.org) and you'll find a breakdown by percentage of how much an organization spends on program costs, administrative expenses and fund-raising. Charities that spend less than one-third of their total budget to carry out their mission get a zero for efficiency. Charity Navigator also rates an organization's donor privacy policy, compares the charity's overall efficiency rating with its peers, and gives an example of an executive-level salary.
BEST VOLUNTEER DATABASE
VolunteerMatch
To find out where you're needed in your community, search this site (www.volunteermatch.org) by zip code and specify an area of interest, such as education and literacy, environment, or crisis support. Click on a listing and you get a detailed description of the position, along with the date, time and estimated hours. The site also includes opportunities for "virtual volunteering" -- that is, tasks that don't require you to show up in person.
Next: See our slide show More of Our Favorite Things
Or go back to our master list The Best of Everything