Price Shop using the Net Most people use the internet mainly for email, chat, recipes, news and getting the latest weather report.  Although these are useful resources, the Net has so much more waiting for you.  Looking up phone numbers, ordering pizza, purchasing software, downloading grocery coupons, and even buying a new car are all just a few clicks away.  Why don’t more people harness the wealth of information that is at their fingertips?  Short answer, they don’t know how to search effectively.  If you want to use the Net effectively, the first thing you must learn is how to search!  I have covered basic techniques of searching in the following article: Search Help.   Where to Start? If ordering pizza online just doesn’t do it for you, maybe you should take another look.  It's Monday night and you don’t feel like cooking dinner.  You call Pizza Hut to hear about their current promotions and instead all you hear is... “Can you hold please?”.  While on hold, you flip through the TV channels and suddenly realize…it’s Monday Night Football.  Of course Pizza Hut is busy, you will just have to wait.  This is when it would be beneficial for you to logon to http://pizzahut.com, look over the coupons, and quickly place your order.  You don’t have to wonder if they are writing down "no olives" as you hear all the commotion in the background.  Ok, so maybe I haven’t sold you on buying your pizza online, but this is just one small example of how the Net can save you time and money.  Save money?  Yes, you can.  Pizza Hut offers special deals which are only available for online purchases!     Moving Past Pizza Honda has just released the new Accord, $1 over invoice!  As we watch the ads we are all thinking the same thing, how much was the invoice marked up before the dollar was added?  I do not know anyone who looks forward to stepping onto a car lot.  An afternoon of high pressure sales and wondering just exactly how far the truth can be stretched doesn’t appeal to the vast majority.  Why do people tolerate this sort of treatment?  There really isn’t any other way, you just nod your head as you hear blah, blah, blah.  It is time to shift the power to the consumer.   What if you simply walked in, paid the price you wanted, and drove off the lot?  People do this all the time!  You can use a site like http://carpoint.msn.com to customize a vehicle and look up the invoice price.  Maybe you are thinking to yourself, “Where have I been?”  Almost anything can be price shopped on the internet, even a car.   More than Price Price isn’t everything, but knowledge is power.  I wouldn’t search for the cheapest V6, but I would search for the cheapest Honda Accord V6.  The point being, know what you are buying.  You should also know from whom you are buying.  Service is worth something, especially if you need to return the product or need to take advantage of a warranty.  It is a good idea to compare prices from vendors you trust.   Where to Shop There are many sites available that will price shop for you.  For example, Yahoo!Shopping allows you to search across all Yahoo stores and will display the price of each store for a particular product.  NexTag is similar, while also showing the vendor’s rating. Customers have the ability to rate vendor performance after the purchase.  Maybe a vendor’s price is good but their shipping takes 4-6 weeks.  You should know this before actually placing your order.  Sometimes it is well worth spending a few more dollars and getting the product sooner.  Also pay attention to how many people have rated the vendor; a small number of reviews wouldn’t be enough to convince me one way or the other.    Maybe you would like to stick more mainstream and purchase from local stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Staples, etc.  If you are like me, you don’t want to wait or pay for shipping.  In that case visit each site (http://walmart.com, http://staples.com, etc.), find the cheapest price on-line and print it out.  Most of the big stores will price match.  All you need to do now is find a store that price matches and has the item in stock.  Now you have the best of both worlds!  An important thing to remember, just because a site has it online doesn’t mean they have it at their local store or for the same price.   Usually a store will not match it's on-line prices, but other stores will.   What about Security Stay with vendors you know and trust, this will greatly reduce your risks.  Always use a credit card; the vendor will be at your mercy.  You can easily dispute a transaction after the purchase but you must do it quickly.  Don’t ever send cash, check, or money order.    Paying with a credit card allows the ability to retract payment if you do not receive the shipment and/or the vendor is hard to work with.  Online auctions poss a greater risk which will be cover in another article.