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Best Solar Panels for 2016

That 30 percent tax credit on solar panels that was supposed to expire this year? It’s been extended, all the way to 2019. I feel like we just got an extension on a term paper — but if we don’t start writing now, the deadline is going to be here again before we know it.

To get the full Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), we’ve got to get our panels purchased and put up in the next three years. After that, the credit fades out: to 26 percent in 2020, and then to 22 percent in 2021. By 2023, the residential tax credit will be $0. And after that, who knows? We may all be living in egg-shaped, self-reliant, solar-powered tiny homes. The time really is now.

The price of solar panels — even for top-rated panels from SolarWorld and Canadian Solar — is down. It’s fallen by more than 75 percent since 2009, according to prominent environmentalist Bill McKibben. This drop reflects increased efficiency, both in the manufacturing process and in the panels themselves. Still, the initial cost of buying and installing a full system, including panels and supporting parts, can run between $10,000 and $40,000.

But, you don’t need to have a spare $10K to plunk down. Options like leasing and power purchase agreements (PPAs) from well-known solar names like Solar City and Vivint allow you to generate solar energy without up-front costs. Depending on where you live, there might even be a way for you to buy power from a solar farm.

There’s more than one route to the best solar panels.

If you own your home, and you can afford it, buying your panels outright is the best option. It’s the only way to take advantage of the ITC and other incentives, and it’s the only way to earn renewable energy credits (RECs) — actual income from selling your excess power back to your local utility.

Although solar panels are expensive up front, they pay off in the long run. According to EnergySage, a solar energy marketplace, the average solar payback time (or time required to recoup costs) is eight years. Panels, by contrast, last upward of 25 years, leaving you with a potential 17-plus years that’s pure savings.

A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows solar energy systems add value to homes — in its comparison of California residences, every kilowatt of brand-new solar panel system added $5,911 to the selling price. (Granted that value decreased by $2,411 for every year the system had aged.)

Many solar installers will also give you the option to lease panels, and an increasing number are beginning to introduce PPAs as an option. But buying is the simplest option — it just requires cash up front, or you can take out a loan.

When you lease solar energy, the company you lease from will install panels on your roof at no charge. It’ll take care of maintenance, and you’ll pay a set monthly fee (think of it like a subscription) for the length of your lease, which will likely be about 15–20 years. The company, not you, will get to claim the ITC and other benefits. Just like with a car lease, at the end of your term, you’ll have the option to buy your panels, but solar developer Tom Kacandes cautions against buying. “Unfortunately, the leased systems I see sometimes have used second-tier panels and old technology string inverters to make more profit for the leasing company,” he says, “which bothers me as an advocate for solar power.”

The PPA option is very similar to leasing; instead of paying a subscription, you’ll pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of solar energy that you use. (If you need more than your panels produce, you can buy more energy from the grid — aka the power company you used pre-panel.) The biggest name in PPAs right now is SolarCity, chaired by Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, with Vivint not far behind.

Leasing, and its sibling the PPA, sound like lower commitments than buying. In a couple of ways, that’s true: You have no up-front cost (or at least a comparatively low one, if you’re asked to make a down payment), and maintenance is included, which can feel like a big weight off your shoulders. But solar leases have much longer terms than the ones we’re most familiar with: car leases.

I chose a three-year lease for my first car for a few reasons: I didn’t want to worry about maintenance; I wanted the lower monthly payments on a fuel-efficient car I wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford; and I wanted the option to walk away after three years in case I moved to a new city. In the end, I bought out the lease and paid more than I would have if I had just financed the car from the beginning (or bought a used car). I wouldn’t make the same decision now, but as a 22-year-old, I was paying for the privilege of a low commitment.

With a solar lease, you’re usually signing up for 20 years, which would have been long enough for you to purchase your own panels through a loan — and the subscription you’d have paid during that time could actually be more than the loan payments you would’ve made. If you lease and sell your house before the terms end, you have to either pay off your remaining time (eek!), or convince the buyer to take on the lease (eek again!).

“The lease system mostly benefits the banks, whereas owning the system outright yields a much greater return over the life of the system,” says Paul Maylone, a project manager for Standard Solar, a commercial installer based in Maryland. “However, I would encourage anyone thinking about a residential or commercial installation to carefully do the math and come to their own conclusions.”

So let’s do the math.

After contacting more than 10 solar installers in my area and receiving six quotes, I wound up with two top choices to compare, both from LA Solar Group: purchasing SolarWorld panels or leasing SunPower panels through my local utility. (Unfortunately, neither of the major PPA providers, SolarCity or Vivint, services my Southern California neighborhood.)

Because I currently rent an apartment, I used a sample 1,500-square-foot, two-bedroom house with the average monthly utility cost in my area ($152 for 9,125 kWh) to get my quotes. I asked to put $0 down so that I could show the highest monthly and total costs possible.

Lease: I’d save as much as $5,810 in 20 years.

With the lease, LA Solar Group estimates that I would be able to generate all the power I need with my SunPower panels. If this is true, my energy bill would fall to $0 and, with a lease payment of $136, I would save all of $16 per month. Over 20 years, if my utility bill stayed exactly the same, I’m projected to save $3,840.

But the US Energy Information Administration projects that the price of residential electricity is going to go up 11 percent by 2036. If that’s the case, and it increases at a consistent rate, I would save $5,810. (The plan LA Solar offered me includes maintenance, so my upkeep costs should be minimal.)

Buy outright: I’d save as much as $22,287 in 20 years.

If I were to buy SolarWorld panels, I would have a starting cost of $20,648. After the ITC and a utility rebate, that number would drop to $13,380. LA Solar Group thinks that with SolarWorld panels, I would still have to pay around $11 per month to my utility because my panels may not produce all the energy I need. So that’s a savings of $141 per month. Over 20 years, if my utility bill stayed the same, I’d save $20,460. If electricity costs rise by 11 percent, I’d save $22,287.

This plan includes 25-year warranties for the panels, inverter, and workmanship, so my upkeep costs should be minimal here too. Plus, there’s always the property value I’d be adding.

Get a loan: I’d save as much as $18,561 in 20 years.

My quote also came with two loan options: an 8-year term or a 20-year term, both with $0 down. With the 8-year loan, I would pay $17,088 total (about $178 per month). With the 20-year one, I would pay $26,160 total (about $109 per month).

Over the course of 20 years, if power costs stay the same, I’d save $16,734 with the 8-year loan and $7,661 with the 20-year loan. If power costs increased 11 percent, I’d be saving $18,561 with the 8-year loan and $9,488 with the 20-year loan — all not including the theoretical uptick in my property value.

My verdict: I’d choose to buy and do it outright if I could swing it. But these are just my numbers, based on my neighborhood, climate, and available rebates and installers. You should absolutely get some quotes and do a cost-benefit analysis of your own.

If you aren’t in a position to buy right now, keep an eye out for community solar.

Community solar (or a shared renewable energy arrangement) lets you use solar energy without having to install panels on your property. Instead, you’d use energy from panels on a solar farm. The energy generated by the farm goes into the grid and is disbursed to members through a credit system. There are 89 community solar projects operating so far, but the only state where it’s widely available is Colorado. This option isn’t just the lowest-commitment model out there — it’s also available for apartment dwellers like me who are interested in switching to green energy.

Don’t leave any credits or rebates on the table.

In addition to the big ITC, there are often state and local credits to cash in on. Both Kacandes and Ruby Theresa Nahan, an independent communications specialist focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy, recommend checking the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE). I also like Solar Power Rocks — it’s the antidote to dense, all-gray government websites, like this one outlining Vermont’s solar benefits, and is big on color-coding. There are detailed ratings of all 50 states based on available incentives and overall solar friendliness. (California earned a nice green “B” and Oklahoma is feeling the sting of a big red “F.”) Use all these helpful sites to get a general sense, but ask your local resources for help; your installer, utility, and local government will have the most up-to-date and definitive information.

“My advice would be to always check with your electricity provider regarding any incentives or billing programs they may provide for solar-producing homes (or other efficiency upgrades!).”
Andie Marsh
Home performance consultant
TreeHouse

If you’re living on a limited or fixed income, you might qualify for even more. Arleen Novotney, the executive director of the nonprofit Association of California Community and Energy Services (ACCES), works with several California departments such as the Department of Community Services and Development (CSD) that handles state and federal low-income energy programs. She explained to me that ACCES and other groups like it (including GRID Alternatives) operate under the philosophy of energy equity, the belief that we should all have equal access to efficient, clean energy. To sort through this tangle, she suggests that you look to your state’s consumer-facing solar website, like Go Solar California.

At the end of the year, the power company might even pay you.

Your panels are usually going to be connected to the grid — unless your power company doesn’t play nice with solar. (If that’s the case, and it is with some smaller power companies, you’d have to get a massive battery to store all your energy. Not ideal.) When they produce more energy than you need, the excess energy flows into the grid and serves other customers in your area.

Meanwhile, your meter measures your energy use. If your utility provides net metering, when you produce more energy than you need, your meter runs backward, subtracting from the energy you used. You will only be charged for your net use. If at the end of the billing year, you have produced more than you used, you will be paid for that extra energy — that is the utility will buy your energy off of you in the form of a renewable energy credit (REC). In some states, all utilities are required to net meter; in others, it’s optional. (And in others still, there are smaller utility companies that don’t play nice with solar at all. In those situations, you’d have to store all your solar energy in big batteries on your property.)

Ready to go for it? You can start with a manufacturer or an installer.

All of the experts I spoke to recommended the latter option: Once you decide you’re going to buy, you’ll want a trustworthy and experienced installer who’ll be there to service your panels. But your approach doesn’t have to be all one way or all the other.

“In my experience, quality installers pride themselves on their service and product choice alike,” says Andie Marsh, a home performance consultant at TreeHouse, a sustainability-focused home improvement company in Texas. “If you find an installer you trust, odds are they are partnered with a trustworthy vendor/manufacturer. Always get to know the people who will be working with you and ask them the questions that matter to you.”

According to Marsh, these questions might include where panels were made, the fine print of warranties, or the specific technology you’re signing up for: Are you getting an outdated string inverter that measures all of your panels as one unit, for example, or a microinverter that can tell you which specific panel is falling below expected output? “If they cannot provide answers to the questions that matter to you,” she says, “then they’re not the right fit.”

Pick the right manufacturer (and its best solar panel).

Reviews.com evaluated 188 solar manufacturers and walks through its process for finding the right panel and the right manufacturer. It stresses four things:

1. Longevity. In this new, and rapidly evolving industry, companies can come and go before your warranty has a chance to run its course. Look for manufacturers that have been around for at least 10 years and seem likely to stick around even longer.

2. Power. Your roof only has so much space, and not all of it will face the right direction, or have the right angle or exposure to accommodate solar panels. Having fewer, more powerful panels will maximize your roof space and lower your installation costs. Go for panels that pull in at least 230 watts each.

3. Efficiency. Again you’ll want fewer, more powerful panels. The magic number here is at least 16.5 percent — it’s the average efficiency rating of the best solar panels, so scoring even higher means your panel is doing its job pretty well. (Efficiency is a measure of the power output in relation to the panel’s surface area and power input from the sun.)

4. Customer service. Hopefully, you’ll only ever need to contact your installer, not your manufacturer. But if your installer happens to go out of business, the only way you’ll be able to take advantage of your warranty will be through your manufacturer. The manufacturer’s website should be easy to navigate and it should have a way for you to call or email.

If you find a manufacturer that checks off all your boxes, call to find its preferred installer in your area. The Reviews.com top pick was SolarWorld, the largest US manufacturer, followed by Canadian Solar, Centrolsolar, Axitec Solar, and Kyocera Solar; they might have installers they work with in your neighborhood, too.

Then, find the right installer.

Most installers, even before giving a rough estimate, want three months of energy bills and also want to stop by your house for an evaluation. A few I spoke to wanted to do a credit check as well. It makes perfect sense for companies to collect this information before drawing up a contract, but for the consumer with privacy concerns who wants to shop around, the process can feel opaque and intrusive.

My biggest lessons: Call for a quote. Don’t bother with online forms — I got slow responses from every single one.

During my search, I had the best experience by far with LA Solar Group. Its customer service and warranties were both excellent, and it was able to give me a handful of quotes to compare, including thorough information about projected savings, within minutes.

I also asked a homeowner (remember I’m an apartment dweller who called about a sample home) to call for a few quotes, this time in rural North Carolina. He had an easier go of it: Two of the four installers he called couldn’t service his home, but the other two gave him quotes with no problems. (His utility company, on the other hand, was one of the ones that don’t offer net metering — so if he wanted solar energy, he’d have to store it all on his own.)

Here’s what to look for when you call:

1. Customer service. If you’re not getting great customer service now, imagine what it will be like to deal with this same company for the next (and far less lucrative) 25 years.
2. Warranty. Look for 25-year warranties for panels, inverter, and labor. If you don’t have to replace your inverter before your panels, you’ll have one less thing to worry about. Accelerate Solar, one of the installers in North Carolina, only offered a 12-year warranty.
3. Guarantee credit. Some installers, like LA Solar Group, will pay you per kilowatt-hour if your panels fall below their promised production rate. Keep an eye out for this and ask how the production rate will be tracked.
4. Location. Kacandes says it’s best to go local. “Find a locally based business with a real person as the owner if at all possible — they are the best people to work for or buy from in my opinion,” he says. “Buying solar from a local business primarily means that the person who makes the ultimate decisions is accessible to you and accountable to you, or at least they should be. I think it is much harder for a regional manager in a big company to make hard decisions when their bosses are just pushing sales and cost goals down on them.”
5. References. “Choose a reputable installer who readily makes referrals available upon request,” says Kacandes. “And you want a number of referrals, not their top happy customer and no one else. It’s worth talking to the folks they’ve referred even if it is not a guarantee that your result will be equally good. You can also run the name of an installer you’re liking the sound of past your local building inspector. They usually won’t bad-mouth anyone, but if they suggest you get more quotes, pay attention!”
6. Certifications and licenses. “When I go to look for an installer, what I choose will depend on which route I want to go (e.g., buy, lease, PPA), but I will confirm the specific installer person doing the work on my roof is NABCEP-certified or, at the very least, could demonstrate quality training and competency based on qualifications set forth by a credible organization,” says Nahan. But she wouldn’t stop there. “I’d also check with any local or state licensing authority to ensure there are no outstanding complaints. IREC’s (Interstate Renewable Energy Council) solar-licensing database is a good place to start to find out how a local installer might be regulated, or not.”
7. Consumer reviews. Nahan says it’s worth the investment to check with Angie’s List: “I would also pony up for the services of a consumer review or advocacy organization and ensure the company/installer has good reviews.”

The Bottom Line

To take advantage of the ITC extension before it starts to fade in 2020 you’ll need to buy your panels. But, that’s not the only way to go solar: Lease, enter a PPA, or join community solar and you can get still score major savings without any initial investment. To find the best option for you, get a handful of quotes and run the numbers.

The post Best Solar Panels for 2016 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Best Extended Car Warranties of 2016

I’m guessing you’re here looking for the best extended car warranty for one of two reasons: fear or bartering.

If it’s bartering, you’ve been doing your research: The vast majority of extended car warranties are sold when you buy a car and hagglers know the best way to negotiate any price is to have a better one in your back pocket. (If it’s quotes you’re after, I’d start with Endurance and Delta Auto Protect, my two top picks.)

If it’s fear, the manufacturer warranty on your favorite ride is probably about to expire, and the threat of an unexpected repair bill outweighs the fact that you might never even use your extended warranty.

That’s right: In 2014, Consumer Reports published survey results that found a full 55 percent of car owners who purchased an extended warranty never used it for repairs — and 75 percent wouldn’t buy one again. In fact, few automotive products stir up as many conflicting opinions. Even the phrase “extended car warranty” is contentious: Strictly speaking, most of the products offered under that name are actually vehicle service contracts.

A typical extended car warranty website will have a disclaimer explaining the company actually offers vehicle service contracts, not warranties.

So what makes these contracts worth the extra cash? For a lot of people, nothing. The Consumer Reports survey shows the median out-of-pocket savings on repairs covered by extended warranties across all brands was $837 — and the average initial cost of a policy was $1,214. That’s a loss of about $377 for all but those unicorn customers who got walloped with more massive repairs.

But if you’re someone who thinks $377 is a fine price for peace of mind, a car warranty will suit you well: The best will offer features beyond what’s available through a manufacturer’s warranty, pay for repairs after that warranty has expired, and are insured to guarantee payment, even if the provider goes under.

If your car has to go into the shop — like mine did for nine days because they had to order a new computer and remove my dashboard to replace it — the automobile manufacturer’s warranty doesn’t entitle you a rental car. But my service contract paid for nine days of rental car service for me.
Tim Meenan
General Counsel and Executive Director
Service Contract Industry Council

The Simple Dollar’s Top Picks for Best Extended Car Warranty

I’ll admit, finding the top providers from a list of more than 40 service contract companies turned out to be a more difficult task than I anticipated (and resulted in a much shorter list than I imagined). Part of that is because the industry is incredibly entwined, with companies falling into three categories: sellers, administrators, and ones that do both. Sellers offer you a contract; administrators are the companies that actually fulfill the terms of the contract. A lot of times the same administrator will work with a bunch of sellers, including car dealerships.

I wanted to find an extended warranty provider that both sold and administered its own contracts because it cuts way down on liability issues: Who actually services your claims? How does the other get paid? What happens if one half of your two-party system goes out of business?

Some third-party sellers choose heavily regulated insurance companies to administer their contracts to help answer these questions, but I say cut out the middle man.

The crazy thing is, that decision knocked my list down to only two companies. And because I also wanted a company that was backed by an insurer (again, that pesky liability issue) I was left with one option. Yep: There’s only one insurer-backed vehicle service contract company that both administers and sells its own product directly to consumers.

• Best Overall: Endurance
• Good, but Uninsured: Delta Auto Protect

Endurance is definitely the standout, but Delta has a lot going for it: easy access to sample contracts, a quick online quote process, and coverage that is transferrable to a new owner if you sell your car. And while it isn’t insured, it actually has more robust coverage offerings than Endurance, including in-vehicle technology like GPS. Both have easy-to-use websites, but Endurance wins again here, allowing you to log in and make a claim online (a feature I love — it’s so hassle-free!).

Yes, it’s a pretty short list. But if you want to do business directly with the company that will be handling your claims — rather than a third-party seller — Endurance and Delta are two solid options to get you started.

In theory, service contracts make a lot of sense.

Manufacturers across the board are slashing the coverage offered by their warranties: A typical one is only three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. But according to Experian, nearly 30 percent of today’s car buyers are financing their vehicle for over 72 months — that’s six years! — and a survey by AutoMD.com shows that most people plan to keep their vehicles for at least a decade. If you plan on driving your car for the long haul, a vehicle service contract is worth considering.

But the industry is loosely regulated — and has a lingering reputation for scammy behavior.

Much of that bad rap stems from the 2010 bankruptcy of US Fidelis, one of the country’s largest providers of extended vehicle service contracts at the time. The bankruptcy was the result of a consumer fraud lawsuit, specifically regarding an “additive scam,” which let the company sell unlicensed, unauthorized, and therefore illegal insurance contracts.

The one good thing that came out of the US Fidelis scandal was a sharper regulatory focus on service contract providers. In Missouri, the state where US Fidelis originated, providers are now required to register with the Department of Insurance — something they can’t do unless they’re backed by an insurance company, or either have a net worth of $100 million (this is typically the case for auto manufacturers that offer extended warranties) or can prove that they have a sizable reserve account. Similar laws exist in more than 35 states, including Florida and New York.

Insurance-backed providers are the safest bet.

That said, $100 million is a lot of money for one company to blow through, and providers that rely on their own reserves to pay claims have to jump through a lot of hoops to prove they are financially stable. But if you buy a service contract from any uninsured company (like Delta), you’re potentially taking on an added risk: If the company goes out of business, you may be left with no one to pay out your policy.

It’s the reason that Endurance ended up as my top pick: You have more peace of mind knowing that an insurer will step in to continue paying claims in accordance with your original contract, regardless of the status of the business.

Case in point, my top picks originally included three companies: Endurance, Delta, and Wanted Auto Protect. But about a week ago, Wanted went out of business. I have an email out asking about what happens to existing policies. I’ll let you know what I find out.

You’ll most likely get your extended warranty from a dealership.

My top picks all offer the option for consumers to purchase their contracts directly, but it’s more likely your seller will be your car dealership. For California residents (like me) that’s my only option — it’s illegal for California providers to sell directly to consumers. This absolutely limits your options: Your car dealer will only offer coverage from the contract provider it has a relationship with. (Maryland has a law similar to California’s — you’re not allowed to buy a service contract from a third-party seller — but you can buy directly from a company that administers its own contracts, meaning that my top picks are fair game for Maryland residents.)

Direct-to-consumer service contracts and dealer offerings have some crossover — for instance, Endurance sells its service contracts both directly to consumers and through dealerships — but, for the most part, these providers operate independently of one another.

So, what’s the difference?

If you get one from a car dealership, it happens while you’re buying the car.

Once you’ve picked your vehicle from the lot, you’ll be escorted to the “F&I” office — shorthand for finance and insurance — where the finance manager will offer you products like paint protection, dent and ding coverage, and, yes, a vehicle service contract.

I was the editor of an industry magazine for finance managers for several years, so I’m very familiar with the ins and outs of buying ancillary products from dealers. Some things you should keep in mind:

The finance manager can roll the cost of the service contract right into your car loan.

You’ll be paying an interest rate on that loan that is set by the dealer — part of which the dealer will get to keep, as compensation for arranging the financing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing according to Tim Meenan, general counsel and executive director for the Service Contract Industry Council. “When the payment for a service contract is folded into the car price, it’s fairly small each month,” he explains. “In comparison, depending on the payment plan you have with a direct-to-consumer company, your monthly cost for the service contract could be higher.”

The dealer also has the discretion to set the price of the vehicle service contract.

For instance, in order to close the deal, the finance manager might discount the product. You’re well within your rights to work with the finance manager to obtain a lower sale price for the coverage — like I mentioned, having a quote from a company like Endurance can give you some leverage. Edmunds also recommends calling other dealerships and asking for their quotes on the same kind of warranty. It pays (and saves) to shop around.

Make sure you check your paperwork for the final sale price.

Your monthly payment might sound good, but the grand total could surprise you. “The biggest mistake a consumer can make is to start to negotiate the price of the car based on what they can afford for monthly payments,” explains James Bell, an industry consultant formerly of General Motors and Kelley Blue Book. “If you tell the dealer, ‘I can afford $399 per month,’ they’ll tell you they can meet that number — if you put an extra $1,000 down, or if you extend the terms of the loan. You always want to look at that final up-front price.”

Getting a direct-to-consumer contract is more appealing if you already have a car.

Say you get a sweet ride off Craigslist. Or maybe your manufacturer’s warranty is about to expire. You could go back to a car dealership for a service contract — but it will cost you extra. I talked to Paul Chernawsky, the CEO of our top pick, Endurance. His company sells contracts both through dealerships and directly to consumers, and he explained: “If I came back to the dealer and said, ‘Look, I want to protect my car because my warranty is expiring,’ the dealer would have to do an inspection on the vehicle. That’s costly — and that cost is passed on to the consumer.”

Purchasing a vehicle service contract aftermarket directly means you won’t have to get your car inspected or pay a hefty fee. (That said, you’ll usually have to wait 30 days — and 1,000 miles — for your coverage to begin. Why? If your car fails in that time, there was probably a pre-existing condition that the contract administrator doesn’t want to be held responsible for.)

Another pro: You likely won’t pay interest. Direct-to-consumer providers typically offer payment plans — not loans — meaning you won’t pay more than the cost of the service contract, even if you want to pay it off over a year or two.

Only 3 percent of Endurance customers pay up front. The other 97 percent make monthly payments. We take the first 5 to 10 percent down on the purchase, and then for the remainder, we set the consumer up in a no-fee payment plan over 12, 18, or 24 months. So now the consumer is not paying interest, and doesn’t have to qualify for a loan.
Paul Chernawsky
CEO and President
Endurance

So, what does an extended warranty cost?

It’s the million-dollar (okay, more like thousand-dollar) question. Consumer Reports cites the average warranty at $1,214, but I asked eight providers to give me a ballpark number, and not one of them complied. And there’s a reason for that: The cost of a service contract is completely dependent on the company and the car it’s covering. A service contract for a new Mercedes-Benz S-Class is going to cost you a lot more money than one for a used Toyota Camry — and Endurance and Delta will each have different prices.

But there’s an added layer to service contract pricing, especially if you’re buying through a dealer. Like I mentioned, the finance manager at a dealership will often discount the price of the service contract to sweeten the car deal (or, in some cases, they may inflate it if they think you’ll buy it at a higher price). That means every customer who buys a service contract from that dealership could be paying a completely different price for the exact same coverage! Hagglers, come prepared.

You can get your money back if you change your mind in the first 30 days.

And after that, you’ll typically be refunded a prorated amount based on time and mileage. It’s a nice safety net to keep in mind.

Take Action

Endurance and Delta Auto Protect are a great place to start if you’re in the market for an extended warranty, but if you want to shop around, the experts I spoke with had a few quick and dirty tips for eliminating shady companies right off the bat.

Check if the provider is licensed.

Before you sign any dotted lines, visit your state’s Department of Insurance website to do a quick search for the company. If your state doesn’t have such a licensing requirement, it’s likely the company is also doing business in a state that does — meaning you can check elsewhere.

If the company says they’re nationwide and you can’t find their name on any of those insurance commissioner websites, you’re probably dealing with a false prophet, not a real company.
Tim Meenan
General Counsel and Executive Director
Service Contract Industry Council

Request a copy of the full terms and conditions.

Any provider worth your money will give you the full contract for review as soon as you ask for it. While the sample contracts you can find on many providers’ websites are handy for getting an idea of what the terms and conditions might look like, they are no substitute for the real deal.

Endurance breaks down its levels of service, plus provides PDFs of sample contracts for each. These are a great resource, but always examine your full contract before buying.

There are many documented cases of service contract scams (so many, in fact, that the Federal Trade Commission issued guidance for consumers just on this topic). Many of these scammers will call you or send you mailers claiming to be a legitimate company that is reaching out to you because your manufacturer’s warranty is about to expire. You can quickly separate the legitimate providers from the fraudsters by asking them to email you the full contract. If they won’t do it, don’t buy.

Choose the right coverage for your vehicle.

Once you’ve determined that the company you’re planning to buy from is legitimate, you need to dig into its offerings to find out if they fit your needs. Those needs will be different depending on whether you’re covering a new or used car, if you’re interested in just bare-bones coverage, or if you’re looking for something that offers extra benefits, like roadside assistance or coverage for your Bluetooth system.

Most providers offer several levels of coverage so you can select a contract that works for you — if it makes your decision any easier, Consumer Reports suggests to “go all in.” (Its survey found the difference in price was small enough that springing for a beefier product for nice extras like rental car coverage was worth it). If you’re not sure what you need, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Manufacturer drivetrain/powertrain warranties last for a long time.
   Although General Motors has rolled back powertrain coverage in the past year from 100,000 to 60,000 miles, that’s still a good chunk of coverage (and similar to what other manufacturers are offering). For that reason, basic powertrain coverage is only probably something you should buy if you have a higher-mileage used vehicle — or drive a lot.
2. In-car technology causes the most problems.
   One downside to Endurance is that it doesn’t cover GPS, internet, Bluetooth, or other high-tech items. (Delta’s premier package does.) That’s pretty important — these systems are the number one problem area for vehicles this year, according to J.D. Power. If you have one, you might want to consider this type of coverage.
3. You could invalidate your coverage if you don’t maintain your car.
   It’s important to check what you have to do to uphold your part of the service contract. No service contract is going to let you drive your car into the ground, and then swoop in and cover all the repairs. Both my top picks stipulate that “you must properly maintain your vehicle by performing maintenance services, at the proper intervals, according to the requirements of your owner’s manual or as otherwise specified by the manufacturer.” Miss an oil change? Busted.
4. Exemptions are make-or-break.
   The phrase “bumper-to-bumper” gets thrown around a lot, but there are always exemptions — and sometimes lots of them. Some things your warranty should definitely cover: your engine, transmission, and drive axle (plus anything you know is going to be finicky). Jump right to the exemptions section of your contract when you get it and take note. It’s not unusual for a service contract to exclude repairs you haven’t reported in a specified amount of time, fees for ordering special parts, any repairs that are the result of a collision, or damage to aftermarket parts you’ve added to your car.
5. Your mechanic might not be “covered.”
   Service contracts have in-network mechanics, a lot like health insurance has in-network doctors. If you have a go-to mechanic, confirm that they’ll be able (and willing) to work with the claims department of your service contract provider.

The Bottom Line

Extended warranties aren’t essential to car ownership — and chances are you won’t use it if you get one. But if you prefer peace of mind over the possibility of an unexpected repair bill, Endurance and Delta Auto Protect are a good place to start. They cut out the middleman to sell their own contracts — and Endurance is even backed by an insurer.

 

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Best Identity Theft Protection Services of 2016

The first thing to know about identity theft protection services is that they don’t actually protect. Just like having AAA doesn’t make it less likely that you’ll get a flat tire, signing up for identity theft protection, even from my top picks Identity Force and TrustedID, doesn’t mean your wallet is less likely to be stolen or a scam email less likely to appear in your inbox.

It’s an important thing to understand because that word — “protect” — is one of the reasons the industry gets flack. Starting in 2010, federal regulators began cracking down on deceptive marketing that claimed these services could provide complete identity protection; one of the biggest players, LifeLock, was hit hard and got hit again in 2015. Does that mean these companies are a sham?

Not necessarily. Most experts agree that understanding identity theft and planning for what to do if it happens will make it less scary and less damaging — and the best identity theft protection services help you do both.

The Simple Dollar’s Picks for Best Identity Theft Protection Services

I inspected 22 services (and talked to a trio of fraud experts) before finding two that have the best monitoring, alerts, customer service, and recovery assistance.

• Best for Individuals: Identity Force
• Best for Families: TrustedID
• Others to (Maybe) Consider: Identity Guard, Privacy Guard, LifeLock

Identities are stolen all the time.

“Identity theft” simply refers to the unauthorized use of a person’s identifying information. That can include your name, your Social Security number, street address, email address, credit card, medical records — even your likeness.

Identity thieves use this information in all sorts of ways; they might open a bank account or line of credit, hide from law enforcement, or get a job all as you (or a version of you). They might even go to the doctor as you (and forward you the bill) or file your taxes “on time,” snagging your refund before you do. (The IRS reported that it rejected 4.8 million suspicious return filings in 2015 alone.)

Sometimes your information is physically snatched, from your phone or wallet or computer, but most times it’s stolen electronically. In recent years, identity thieves have nabbed huge amounts of personal info from retail databases and sold it on the black market – the 2013 Target breach exposed as many as 70 million customers. More often, though, computer software (like malware or ransomware) is hidden in email attachments or as seemingly benign files on the web and, once downloaded, collects logins and passwords. Likewise, phishing and other email scams try to trick users into giving up personal information voluntarily: A website will look just like the one you use to bank, only the login and password go directly to an identity bandit.

This is all to say: People in the business of stealing identities can be very creative, and they’re betting on your inattention.

As a consumer you need to be the equivalent of a professional manager of your credit or your identity. You need to build it, nurture it, manage it, and protect it.
Adam K. Levin
Former Director of New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
Founder IDT911 and Co-Founder Credit.com
Author of Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves

Credit card fraud is the most common.

In 2014, there were 17.6 million victims of identity theft in the U.S. — the equivalent of 7 percent of Americans over the age of 16! According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 86 percent of those thefts were credit card or bank account fraud. That’s why most credit card companies include fraud monitoring in their suite of services — if you’ve ever received a text or call from your bank to confirm a purchase (or even to confirm how much you tipped your waiter), you know what I’m talking about.

Some think identity theft protection is an expensive overkill — others that the service is worth it.

For lots of people, having their credit card monitored by their bank is plenty. In fact, in 2013 Consumer Reports advised to skip identity theft protection services entirely, citing statistics for the frequency of credit card fraud and the infrequency of all the other forms of identity theft. What Consumer Reports doesn’t take into account is the seriousness of those infrequent forms, and the sheer amount of work it takes to resolve them — I’m talking hours on the phone, over the course of months.

In his rebuttal piece to Consumer Reports, founder of IDT911 Adam Levin agrees that some companies charge opportunistic rates for services you might already have from your bank or credit card company for free. Robert Minniti, a certified forensic accountant and certified fraud investigator concurs: “One of the problems with these programs is that they’re calling themselves identity theft protection, but they’re really credit monitoring services.”

To find the best (and the ones worth paying for), I combed through the products and services offered by 22 providers, looking for ones that would know when something’s wrong, and those that would help me figure out what to do next.

Some were immediate no-gos: They either weren’t accepting new customers or were business-to-business services that onboard whole companies (which brings up a good point: You should check with your HR department to see if they’ve got you covered).

But for the rest:

I made sure they checked all three credit bureaus.

The earliest indicator that you may be sharing your identity with another person is often your credit report: a fraudulent account opened under your name. The three US credit bureaus – TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian – use different data to compile your scores, and not all financial institutions report your activity to all three. Plus, credit bureaus receive information about people at different times, so one bureau may see an issue sooner than another.

True, credit reports are the easiest part of your identity to self-monitor, but if you’re going to be paying for a service, its credit monitoring should be comprehensive.

And I made sure they had their priorities in order.

It’s easy to get distracted by shiny features like social-media monitoring, but “your Social Security number is your most vulnerable piece of information,” says Levin. Most experts agree and, it turns out, so do most services: Every company I looked at monitors those precious nine digits.

I also favored services that track channels difficult for the average person to self-monitor, like public records, medical records, and the black market (ID theft services sweep chat rooms, blogs, and forums for your Social Security number, address, and other personal details — not something you want to be doing on a Saturday afternoon yourself). Services that look at credit cards and bank activity also got points, but since most banks and credit card companies already offer this type of monitoring for free, it wasn’t as critical.

I appreciated when I could tailor the type of alerts I would get.

Responding quickly to identity theft can minimize the damage — the sooner you know that something’s been compromised, the sooner you can cancel your credit card, contact authorities, etc.

If I’m paying for my identity to be monitored, I expect to be alerted quickly and efficiently. Some people prefer a phone call over a text; others an email over a call. Really you should have a range of options.

And I compared their recovery assistance.

“Identity recovery” is the process you have to take to prove that actions or transgressions made in your name were not, in fact, made by you. Undoing the damage can be grueling: State Farm says it takes, on average, 60 hours to resolve. The FTC has a complete list of steps to take, but it nearly always involves talking to all three credit bureaus, your bank, local law enforcement, and institutions like the IRS. Sometimes it requires lawyers and investigators too — This American Life reported on the story of Jessamyn Lovell, whose identity theft fallout included court dates states away from where she lived.

Most identity theft protection services say they help you with this part. What most of them actually offer is a $1 million insurance policy to help cover the costs of restoring your identity; only a couple actually do any of the heavy lifting.

If a service asks for limited power of attorney, it will be able to act on your behalf and get to work notarizing documents, making phone calls, filling out paperwork, and hand-holding you through the rest. If it doesn’t require power of attorney, the most it can really do is recommend the steps you need to take, and send you paperwork to fill out.

Identity Guard, for example, can help get a stop put on your credit cards and liaise with your bank to get you up to $2,000 from your compromised accounts, but beyond that its “victim assistance” is just a phone number you can call to ask for advice. Helpful? Sure. Real assistance? Not so much.

If you’re getting a service, you may want to consider one that actually assists you in doing some of the work in restoring your credit and identity — and covers legal fees that might be involved too.
Steve J. Weisman
Author of Identity Theft Alert
Scamicide.com

Then, I put their customer service to the test.

Realistically you’ll be in touch with customer service more often than a recovery team (and that’s a good thing). So, I vetted each service for its ability to answer my questions over the phone, live chat, and email. LifeLock’s customer support was the strongest of the contenders; the agent I spoke to after only a few rings knew the service in and out. We chatted about credit bureaus and I asked about its cancellation policy (cancel anytime), and it felt like I was talking to somebody who thoroughly understood the coverage his company provides.

On the flip side was Identity Guard: a big name in the business with less-than-impressive customer support. I waited on hold for a few minutes (not a big deal), but while the agents I spoke with wanted to be helpful, it sounded like they were reading scripted answers. One didn’t know how much Identity Guard’s various plans cost; another didn’t know any details about the company’s victim assistance — something that’s included with all of its packages. My email query was another dead end: It just asked that I call my questions in.

Top Picks – Best ID Theft Protection

It came down to two companies: Identity Force and TrustedID. While both advertise fairly comprehensive monitoring, testing which actually monitored better was problematic: if no one is trying to steal your identity, it’s pretty impossible to know which company would find the fraud first. One thing that is easy to compare, though, is their recovery assistance because:

Identity Force and TrustedID have basically the same exact recovery assistance.

Both have $1 million insurance policies underwritten and serviced by AIG, which means that even though each company provides the service, neither actually does the recovery — AIG does.

TrustedID and Identity Force share the same insurance underwriter — and essentially the exact same recovery service.

The insurance policies (which are designed to cover any excess costs associated with reclaiming your identity that aren’t already covered by your homeowners or renters insurance) are similar with a few small tweaks. TrustedID covers loss of wages for four weeks or $5,000; Identity Force for five weeks at $1,000 per week. TrustedID won’t cover loss of wages for anyone self-employed; Identity Force will reference last year’s tax returns. TrustedID has provisions for elder and child care; Identity Force limits coverage to just lost wages. These are small things that will make a difference to some more than others. It’s worth it to read the fine print.

TrustedID wins for user experience.

Its dashboard is airy and easy to use, and features at-a-glance stats, including how much of your personal information is searchable on the internet. Identity Force has a similar gauge, but apparently with much more lax scoring — a good thing or a bad thing depending on what makes you more anxious.

TrustedID (top) rates my risk for identity theft a Medium; Identity Force (bottom) says it’s Low.

Updating your information on TrustedID is quick — it’s all done right there from the dashboard — whereas an Identity Force account requires clicking around and opening new windows to update or add information like bank accounts and credit cards.

That said, creating an account with Identity Force is faster: All you need is your name, and you can fill in everything else whenever. TrustedID requires a quiz to verify your identity, including questions on which lender your car loan is through and how much you pay each month. You only have five minutes to answer before the quiz is timed out, so if you don’t know the info off the top of your head, it can be a barrier to getting started. Are any of these things deal breakers? Not really — just worth noting.

A comparison of services offered by Identity Force (top) and TrustedID (bottom).

Identity Force is more expensive — but it also monitors more.

Identity Force’s $24/month (or about $240/year) UltraSecure+Credit plan covers more bases than TrustedID’s $17/month ($170/year) IDEssentials: On top of the black market and credit monitoring, the UltraSecure+Credit plan from Identity Force also has alerts for change of address, court records, payday loans, and if a registered sex offender moves into your area (even though that last one has nothing to do with protecting your identity).

TrustedID is more focused on credit fraud and the black market, but also rolls in lost wallet protection (which will help you cancel and replace your credit cards) as well as some assistance with accessing your medical benefit statements — something Identity Force only offers as an add-on.

Where TrustedID really shines is its family-inclusive plan: For $30 per month ($300/year), your account will monitor you and another adult, plus monitor the credit and Social Security numbers for an unlimited number of children under the age of 18, as long as everyone lives at the same address. With Identity Force, each adult requires their own membership; its ChildWatch package is an additional $3 or so per month per kid.

Other Identity Theft Protection Services to Consider

• Identity Guard provides only a help line as “victim’s assistance,” but it does have a very affordable Essentials plan: for $10 per month, you can have your Social Security number, your accounts, and the black market monitored, plus $1 million in insurance. But, that leaves all the credit monitoring up to you. Its regular customer service wasn’t super impressive either.
• Privacy Guard is Identity Guard’s opposite in terms of monitoring: For $20 a month, it only tracks your credit, and doesn’t provide extra services like scouring the black market or keeping tabs on public records. (That said, it does send you one medical record per year that you can review on your own.)
• LifeLock, one of the originals and a powerhouse in the industry, hits all the marks for monitoring and recovery (and had the best customer service to boot). But as recently as December 2015, LifeLock was forced to pay a $100 million settlement to the FTC for contempt charges — the largest monetary award ever obtained by the Commission — after violating the terms from a 2010 federal court order that hammered the company for not securing its users’ private information, as well as deceptive advertising. In its statement, LifeLock “neither confirms nor denies the allegations of the parties.” Nice try.

How to Self-Monitor Your Identity

The best identity theft protection services aren’t cheap. They are going to cost a couple hundred bucks a year — and most of us (hopefully!) won’t ever even use the features that make them so appealing. Just like a monitored home security system, you’re paying for peace of mind as much as the service itself.

Just like DIY home security is possible, DIY identity theft monitoring can be effective and save you money. You need to know what to look for, need to be looking regularly, and you need to be prepared to untangle any damage completely on your own. As Minniti points out, “For the most part, people don’t have the discipline to self-monitor; they forget about it. They don’t do it on a regular basis, and that’s where a service can come in handy.” Even so, incorporating some basic steps into your routine can help you feel more secure:

Check all three of your credit reports every year.

All Americans are guaranteed access to their credit reports once a year through AnnualCreditReport.com; those reports show all of the open accounts that are associated with your name. Setting a yearly calendar reminder is a good way to stay on top of pulling them regularly, and staggering them throughout the year will help compensate for the coverage you’d get with a service, which typically pulls monthly or quarterly reports.

If you do suspect some sort of fraud (say your wallet was stolen or you’ve been notified of some sort of security breach), place a 90-day alert on your credit files and get the free report that comes with it. These alerts will ensure a business will verify your identity before issuing new credit in your name. You can renew the alert every 90 days to make sure you’re safe in the long term.

Consider placing a freeze on those reports too.

If you’re not planning on doing anything that will require an inquiry on your credit anytime soon — applying for credit cards or loans, signing a new lease, opening a new bank account, etc. — it might be a good idea to freeze your reports.

One of the best things people can do to protect themselves is to put a credit freeze on their credit reports.
Steve J. Weisman
Author of Identity Theft Alert
Founder, Scamicide.com

To do this, call each credit bureau and your banks — it’s a bit time-consuming and will cost around $10 per freeze (and another $10 per unfreeze), but it leaves no room for funny business with your finances: Consumers with a credit freeze in place must be contacted anytime there’s an inquiry on their credit. This is also a good protective step for senior citizens, children, and dependent adults.

Actually read all your mail.

Examine your health insurance statements when they arrive to see if you’ve been charged for an appointment or procedure you didn’t receive. Take note if you’ve stopped receiving notifications (either paper or electronic) from your banks, utilities, loan providers, or credit card companies: Identity thieves will most often file for a change of address if they have access to your financials to keep you out of the loop.

Likewise, if you get any password-reset emails, don’t ignore them off-hand; a notice might mean somebody has been trying to log into your accounts.

Run a background check on yourself.

While most of us aren’t able to self-monitor black market sites that traffic identities and financial information, background checks are typically free and will highlight any erroneous charges. If you find some and are going it alone, you’ll have to contact the authorities to dispute them.

Look into identity theft insurance.

It acts the same way as the insurance provided by an identity theft protection service — if you spend money recovering your identity, insurance will cover it. Your home and renters insurance policies might already include this as an add-on option; likewise, some employers add it to their benefits bundle.

Don’t Be a Target

Identity theft is a tricky crime to predict: Wealthy individuals with lots of accounts aren’t necessarily targeted more often than someone with, say, a low checking account balance or a dinged-up credit score. And, Weisman explains, “As technology improves, the problems with identity theft will, unfortunately, also increase.” Levin agrees, “The reality is that everywhere you go, everything you do is being tracked, gathered, stored, disseminated. With all the things out there collecting our data, we have to focus on what I call the 3 Ms: Minimize the risk of exposure, Monitor accounts, and Manage the damage.”

The steps for prevention are all pretty obvious and you’ve likely heard some version of them before. But they’re worth a reminder — especially if you’re not already following the advice.

• Be extra careful with physical documents that contain sensitive information. “The least amount of information you can carry, you should,” says Minniti. That personal information includes your Social Security card, medical ID cards, credit card statements, bank account numbers, tax documents — even your driver’s license. Don’t carry them unless you have to and make them difficult to find in your home too.
• Use challenging passwords. Don’t use personal information like names, birthdates, and addresses as passwords. $ecuR!tY!! is a much more complicated password than security. And remember: If you can Google your name and find out your high school mascot, your mom’s maiden name, or the street you grew up on, those don’t make great “Forgot your password?” prompts.
• Don’t click on mystery links. If it’s a brand-new email notification your bank has never sent before, proceed with caution.
• Never authenticate yourself to anybody who contacts you. “Theoretically, they know who you are. That’s why they’re contacting you,” says Levin. You shouldn’t need to, say, rattle off the last four digits of your SSN to anyone who’s calling you.
• Get to know your smartphone’s security features. “Phones are data storage devices, not just communication devices,” Levin explains. “Have a complex PIN number. Have it shut off faster. Opt in to remote data wiping.” Apple iPhones equipped with Find My iPhone can remotely wipe all data off of a stolen phone, and Google Android phones with Android Lost perform a similar function. Back your phone up regularly so that you can wipe without remorse!

The Bottom Line

Identity theft is real and it’s serious — there’s just no way to sugarcoat it. To stay on top of all the ways your identity could be compromised, you need to be monitoring it regularly. Too much for you to take on? That’s where identity theft protection services come in. My top picks, Identity Force and TrustedID, have some of the most comprehensive monitoring available and, even better, a team in place to help out if something goes wrong.

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One Monroe County home builder is flooring the competition

One Poconos home builder is defying the odds in a challenging market by selling more homes, at much higher prices, than his competitors.The total number of Monroe County home sales increased last year by more than 10 percent, but the average sale price dropped by five percent from 2014, according to an analysis by certified appraiser Joe Fisher. The 1,658 “arm’s length” home sales not subject to foreclosure fetched an average price of $158,076. The 2015 median [...]

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Looking for a Summer Job? You Might Want to Consider Gigs Instead

What was your summer job in high school and college?

For most of us, you could probably guess the answer in less than 20 tries.

Did you bag groceries? Scoop ice cream? Wait tables? Man a checkout line?

Yep, that’s what I thought.

But with the advent of the gig economy and its plethora of flexible, on-demand jobs, everything might change for this summer’s crop of job-seeking teens.

How The Gig Economy is Changing Summer Jobs

What do I mean by “gig economy”?

I’m referencing the trend toward temporary positions for independent workers — in short, gigs.

Lots of these gigs are peer-to-peer sharing services facilitated by an app — think Uber, Postmates, Fiverr and TaskRabbit.

You’re almost definitely familiar with these apps as a consumer.

But using them to work is becoming increasingly common, whether it’s a side gig or a main source of income.

And because gig-based work offers flexibility and independence, more and more students are turning to the sharing economy to fill their pockets over the summer months.

It makes sense.

Making your own hours is way more attractive than begging your movie theater co-workers to trade shifts if something comes up — to say nothing of getting the job in the first place.

“[Students] don’t have to sell themselves to neighbors or managers to get work” in the gig economy, observes Wall Street Journal writer Alina Dizik. “The on-demand jobs are largely there for the asking.”

I don’t know about you, but I remember filling out a lot of tedious retail applications every April, and I’m pretty pumped to (hopefully) never have to do so again.

Lots of sharing economy companies are embracing the influx of student workers, WSJ reports.

They call them “smart” and “enthusiastic,” and like that they tend to populate the platform during high-demand evenings and weekends. Postmates even advertises on college campuses.

But Dizik brings up some valid drawbacks students might not expect from these positions.

For instance, students might be used to the highly structured, school-day lifestyle and lack the discipline and time management skills required to make a decent amount of money as an independent contractor…

… Which might mean they don’t end up earning much at all.

Looking for Flexible Student Jobs?

Even if you don’t have a car to use for Uber or any skills to sell on Fiverr, you can find flexible work appropriate for students.

Here are 13 online jobs that pay $15 or more per hour.

If you’ve got a story to tell, you could try your hand at freelance writing or blogging, too. One guy’s blog did so well, he paid off his student loans before he graduated.

Or consider one of the more flexible options from this list of 100 summer jobs.

But if you do think you need some structure to stay on track, some retail options are better than others. Here are five high-paying retail jobs to get you started.

Plus, Target recently raised its minimum wage, and Costco’s pay rates are way higher than we thought.

Just make sure to disclose to managers you’re only going to be working seasonally. Otherwise, you may cause them some headaches when you suddenly resign in mid-August.

Your Turn: Will you ditch bagging groceries or flipping burgers to drive for Uber this summer?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She got (really) lucky in college and got to drive horse-drawn carriages for summer work. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere.

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How to Turn Puerto Rico into Hong Kong

How to Turn Puerto Rico into Hong Kong

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Want to Earn $360/Week While the Kids are in School? Apply for This Job

Flexible, reliable and well-paid work you can do from home isn’t easy to come by.

That’s why we always have to share these opportunities when we find them.

This company will pay you $15 per hour to work from home part time — no experience necessary.

Work Online as a Virtual Role Player

Stockholm-based global professional services firm BTS is hiring virtual role players for its assessment centers.

An assessment center uses a variety of resources — including virtual role players — to vet candidates for jobs with BTS client companies.

Role player jobs are part of the assessment process. You’ll run through exercises over the phone, specific to the job in question. After the exercises, you’ll rate a participant’s performance.

What You Need for This Remote Job

Because the job requires chatting online with potential candidates, you’ll need:

• a computer with Windows 7 or higher, or OSX or higher

• a reliable internet connection (hard-wired preferred)

• a headset with headphones and mic that plugs into the computer (like Apple EarPods)

You’ll be a part-time employee with the flexibility to set your own schedule, and you’ll work between eight and 24 hours per week. Full- or half-day shifts are available Monday through Friday:

• 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Eastern time (ET)

• 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET

• 1 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. ET

This could be the perfect opportunity if you’re a mom looking for a way to make some extra money while the kids are in school. Take a morning shift, and you’ll be free in time to pick them up!

This kind of flexible, part-time work can also also help supplement freelance work or a small business you’re just getting off the ground.

The best part? You can take it anywhere!

You’ll be able to punch in as long as you have a computer and an internet connection, so this job travels well, too.

Go here to apply.

Your Turn: Do you work from home? Would you apply for a job like this?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

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Want to Earn $360/Week While the Kids are in School? Apply for This Job

Flexible, reliable and well-paid work you can do from home isn’t easy to come by.

That’s why we always have to share these opportunities when we find them.

This company will pay you $15 per hour to work from home part time — no experience necessary.

Work Online as a Virtual Role Player

Stockholm-based global professional services firm BTS is hiring virtual role players for its assessment centers.

An assessment center uses a variety of resources — including virtual role players — to vet candidates for jobs with BTS client companies.

Role player jobs are part of the assessment process. You’ll run through exercises over the phone, specific to the job in question. After the exercises, you’ll rate a participant’s performance.

What You Need for This Remote Job

Because the job requires chatting online with potential candidates, you’ll need:

• a computer with Windows 7 or higher, or OSX or higher

• a reliable internet connection (hard-wired preferred)

• a headset with headphones and mic that plugs into the computer (like Apple EarPods)

You’ll be a part-time employee with the flexibility to set your own schedule, and you’ll work between eight and 24 hours per week. Full- or half-day shifts are available Monday through Friday:

• 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Eastern time (ET)

• 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET

• 1 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. ET

This could be the perfect opportunity if you’re a mom looking for a way to make some extra money while the kids are in school. Take a morning shift, and you’ll be free in time to pick them up!

This kind of flexible, part-time work can also also help supplement freelance work or a small business you’re just getting off the ground.

The best part? You can take it anywhere!

You’ll be able to punch in as long as you have a computer and an internet connection, so this job travels well, too.

Go here to apply.

Your Turn: Do you work from home? Would you apply for a job like this?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post Want to Earn $360/Week While the Kids are in School? Apply for This Job appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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10 Tools That You Need to Use Before You Start Your Next Business

Starting a new business takes a ton of work.

Even with your initial passion, it’s never an easy undertaking.

There are a great number of things that you need to research, plan out, get created, etc. before you “launch.”

And you’ll always be wondering, “Did I forget anything?”

What I’ve put together here is a list of great tools that you’ll want to know about, and possibly use, before you start your next business.

They cover the most important and common things you’ll need to address.

These tools will help you do them faster, cheaper, and/or better than you would be able to do otherwise.

Wherever possible, I’ve given you both a free and paid version to choose from. 

Market research tools

When you have a business idea, first you need to confirm that it’s a good idea.

Basically, you need to answer two questions:

• Is there a market for this type of product or service (if so, how big)?
• Will that market like my product or service?

Those are the most important questions to answer. Beyond that, it’s helpful to know how the market is distributed (by location or medium) and whether it will grow in the future.

These tools will help you gain insight into your market.

1. Google Shopping Insights: You’ve probably heard of Google Trends but maybe not the Shopping Insights tool.

They do similar things, but this tool is geared much more towards business in the US.

If part of your market is in the US, you’ll want to use this tool.

It’s simple to use. Just type in a specific product (e.g., a competitor’s product) or a general type of product:

As an example, I put in “microwave ovens,” which gave me these results:

There are two main things you get from these results.

The first is that you learn whether there are any places that are much more interested in your type of product than others. In this example, it’s clear the the states on the East Coast buy many more microwaves than on the West Coast (who knew?).

In addition, if you look at the graph on the bottom, you can see the popularity of searches related to buying microwaves.

You don’t get absolute numbers—this is a relative scale. But you can see whether your product type is trending up or down in popularity.

A graph like the one above, where searches have more than doubled in about 2 years, is perfect to see. It shows that your market is still likely growing.

2. QWILR’s Ad spend calculator: Getting traffic for your new business from the start is tough. There won’t be much organic traffic right away, and even content marketing takes a while to get going.

That leaves you with your standard public relations and paid advertising for the most part.

This ad spend calculator is great for two reasons:

• It makes a complicated topic simple
• Everything is based on real numbers

The tool guides you through a few questions where you input one or two numbers about your business to find what your target CPC (cost per click) should be.

To start with, you’re asked about your average revenue per month as well as your churn rate.

Obviously, you don’t have actual data to use, but you can make a good estimate on the revenue side.

You can also use industry standards for churn rate. I went with 5% as an example even though that’s not a good churn rate.

If you’re selling individual products and don’t have recurring income, just put 100% here.

That’s one big area down. Next up is your customer acquisition cost.

You need to answer how long you’re willing to wait until you recoup your initial cost. While patience is good, if you wait too long, you might run out of money.

The tool provides default values, which are good for most cases.

Finally, you’re asked to estimate a conversion rate of your traffic to the site.

This will allow the tool to calculate a CPC:

I left out one or two basic questions, but you get the point. In a quick example illustrated above, I found that my hypothetical business could pay up to $0.66 per click (visitor).

Use this tool to plan your initial advertising budget for the first few months.

3. SurveyMonkey: One thing that all good business launching guides will tell you to do is talk to your market.

The only feedback about your idea and product that you must listen to is from your potential customers.

If you know some of your potential customers in real life already, you might be able to interview them in person (or through Skype).

That’s the best option.

But when that’s not an option, consider using SurveyMonkey.

Originally, the tool was used to create surveys and collect answers, but now it can do much more.

Most importantly, you can pay a modest fee and get your survey sent to a panel of survey takers.

While you won’t get perfect targeting, it’ll be pretty accurate, and the results you get will help you design your product and know which features to focus on.

4. Buzzsumo: I’ve mentioned Buzzsumo in many previous lists but need to include it here for anyone who doesn’t know about it. I’ll keep it brief.

Buzzsumo allows you to search for a keyword and see the most popular articles that focus on it (based on social shares):

Immediately, you’ll be able to see which social network is most popular with your target audience.

On top of that, you can enter the URL of a competitor and find their most popular content.

Those results will help you plan your content marketing and learn about the main problems of your market (the more popular, the bigger the problem).

Putting together your first impression

The next area of a business launch is your product and website (which may be one and the same).

The tools in this section will help you with your branding and creating a favorable first impression.

5. NameMesh: Every business and website needs a name. You probably already know that it can be difficult to find a good one that’s actually available for registration (without paying thousands of dollars for it).

Even if you’re good at coming up with names, it might take you an hour or two to do so.

NameMesh is a free tool that may be able to help you with this.

To use it, type in 2-3 words that describe main features of your business.

For example, if I were starting a business that helped others bring their product ideas to life, I could enter:

• Product creation
• Product life
• Product idea creation

Think of as many combinations as you can to improve your chances of finding a good one.

The tool will automatically try hundreds of combinations and see whether the domains are available. You will get a final list of what you could register:

There are tons of other free tools like this. You can find them by searching for “domain name generator.”

6. Name Geniuses: Sometimes you can find a great name with those free generators, but most of the results aren’t very good. You get what you pay for.

Name Geniuses is not free; it’s a pay-what-you-want tool with a $20 minimum that allows you to crowdsource your domain name.

Basically, you pick the amount you want to pay. A large portion of this payment is offered as a prize to a few hundred users on the site.

These users come up with domain names (that are available) and submit them to you. Then, you pick a winner whenever you want.

The good part from your perspective is that only the winner gets paid. This incentivizes users to spend a lot of effort to come up with names that are much better than those created by a free generator.

To use the tool, answer a few questions about your business idea:

Then, your project goes on the job board once you pay for it.

Depending on what you pay, you’ll get anywhere from 50 suggestions to hundreds:

By all means, come up with your own name, but this can save you hours of time and potentially generate an even better name.

7. DesignMantic: After the name, comes the logo. While it’s sometimes optional, you’ll likely need some sort of logo.

DesignMantic is a free tool that is very quick and simple to use.

All you do is type in your company name and then choose what industry it’s in:

It will quickly generate several logos you can use, complete with your business name:

They’re obviously going to be generic, but they’re fairly attractive and will work as temporary logos.

8. 99Designs: At some point, you’ll need a unique, professional logo. No free tool will do that for you.

You can cheap out on a designer from Fiverr, but that will cost you more in the long run and won’t get you a much better result than what you’ll get from the free tools.

99Designs is another crowdsourcing site/tool I really like.

You buy a package and then get tons of designs (30+) from different designers.

Again, you pick the winner, and they get paid.

Just about all the designs are of great quality, so you can’t go wrong.

Payroll and accounting

The tools in this final group have varying levels of importance.

They will help you manage incoming and outgoing payments, which just about all businesses need to do.

If you’re starting really small, you can probably handle it manually, but I recommend using tools to simplify things (and keep them accurate) once you have a decent cash flow.

On top of that, if you have employees right off the bat, you need to make sure they’re paid on time and that their taxes are taken care of. Hire an accountant, or use these tools.

9. Freshbooks: If you have a service-based business that requires you to send out invoices on a regular basis, Freshbooks is a great tool to help you stay organized.

The time it’ll save you on generating invoices alone is probably worth the cost. On top of that, it will also let you send payments if you work with any freelancers or buy products for your business.

You can then generate reports of all your invoices, expenses, and payments, which will make doing your taxes much easier.

How much does it cost? Not much.

Depending on whether you’re going to allow any employees to use the tool as well (you could have them handle invoicing and expensing, etc.), you’re looking at $30-40 a month:

10. ZenPayroll: This is a great tool that helps you handle employees as you grow. You may not need it right away, but keep it in mind because you might in the future.

The main purpose of ZenPayroll, as the name suggests, is to make your payroll simple.

It automatically takes care of setting up taxes for new employees and paying contractors (and taking care of their tax needs), and it can even be set up to do automatic tax filings for you.

Keep in mind that this tool is made for the US. As far as I know, it won’t work as well in other countries.

As far as the pricing, it’s very simple: you pay a base fee and then an extra $6 for each person you add (all per month):

You can then configure it so that you just have to add new employees, and it will get all their tax and payment information set up without you having to do anything:

For small- to medium-sized companies, it’s more or less HR and accounting departments in one simple tool.

Conclusion

You have a long road in front of you.

By all means, expect to put in a lot of work. However, if you have a problem that can be solved by the tools I’ve given you, take advantage of them.

To end off, I’ve got to ask you whether I’ve left any tools off this list that you love. I know that I haven’t included every tool in the world here. Please share any of your favorites in a comment below.

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