I am a skeptic about absolutely everything.  I rarely take someone’s word, especially if I don’t know them or am unsure about their credentials to be making the claim they are making.  This has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. 

Yesterday I went to a quick change oil place and got a new pitch I hadn’t heard before.  They asked me how much I’d gone over my last oil change, which was about 1,000 miles.  They tsked and told me there was “built up gunk” in my engine and I needed to do an “oil flush” for an extra $15.  Then they showed me a sample of my motor oil which they said was “dirty” exemplifying the horrifyingly personal moral failing of my filthy engine.  I thought, “well, yeah of course it’s dirty it’s in a friggin engine, and isn’t that part of the point of getting an oil change?” but didn’t say anything as I figured it would be futile.  I told them I would consider the procedure for next time (translation: I think you’re full of crap and I’m going to go ask Dr. Google about this “required maintenance” before I fork over a dime).   They tried three more times in the 20 minutes I was there to convince me that not only did my engine need “flushing” but that my power steering fluid, transmission fluid, etc.. also required this car colonic–total cost: $200.

So I get home, and I do what I do with everything I’m not sure of: I research it.  And gee, guess what?  Found multiple sources stating basically this.  Saved myself $200 bucks with the BS detector.  A couple of other examples of skeptical savings:

1. Extended warranties.  Best Buy especially really pushes these, a very small percentage of people ever use them, they are not worth the money. 

2. Car rental insurance.  Agents telling you to get insurance are usually full of crap–your personal car insurance will almost always cover rental cars (make sure to check of course).

3. The “we can’t qualify you for the interest rate we first stated” trick at car dealerships.  They try to do this after you have taken the car home so you’ve gotten attached to it–don’t EVER take a new car home without the financing in place (and even then they may still try this), and know your credit rating before stepping in the door.  Better yet, don’t finance through car dealerships at all, secure financing through someone else, then go in to buy (don’t tell them you have the cash until after you negotiate a price however).