Yapta.com

We all know that airline ticket prices can fluctuate significantly from day to day. I can remember a few times while planning a vacation that I would be quoted a price for a ticket and the next day the price changed.

Yapta was created to help individuals with this issue. On Yapta, individuals can search flights, track flights and instantly notify you when the price drops. But one of the best features by far is that once you book the flight, Yapta will continue to track the price of the ticket and if the price drops, will help you rebook at the lower price. And all this is free.

I have not used this service yet since the past couple of flights I have booked have been with airline miles. But on the surface, this seems like a great service. The site claims that over $66 million dollars have been saved since May 2007 with an average savings of $227 per ticket.

Couple observations -

• Most airlines charge a rebooking fee to cancel and rebook your flight. Yapta does consider the rebooking fee when considering a price drop
• Most major domestic and international airlines are included in their tracking feature. Most domestic airlines are included in the rebooking feature while most international airlines are not. One notable exception for both is Southwest.

This is definitely a site I plan to use in the future.

Are you escrowing your RE tax bill?

One of the easiest ways that homeowners can save an additional $150+ annually is to remit their own real estate tax bills to their towns rather then escrowing the payment. Let's walk through some of the numbers.

Our 2008/2009 tax bill is $12,144. Although the mortgage holder will pay interest on any escrowed funds, it is pathetically low. In fact, it is almost zero, so for rounding purposes, let's call it zero. If you take the same balance and invest it in any online bank (ING Direct is currently offering 3%) you earn about $364 for the year.

Let's say your real estate taxes are $4,000. At 3% you still save about $120 per year. Not bad for a simple phone call to the bank.

Shortly after we purchased our home in 2007, we called the bank and asked if we could stop escrowing our real estate tax bill. Without any pushback, the bank agreed and our escrow balance was refunded to us and the monthly payment reduced. It was really that easy.

The one caveat is that you need excellent credit in order for the bank to allow this. If your credit score is low, don't expect them to agree.