Car Servicing Rip Off? + 🛍 Shein and Temu Addiction + Travel Insurance

The money stuff that you wish they taught in school

Before we start this week I have to write an apology. Last week in my answers, I called someone who asked a question by the wrong name. Not just once. Twice 🤦🏽‍♂️.

I know how it happened. I use a template to help make sure the formatting of every newsletter is consistent. It also saves a bit of time. And in that template there’s ‘placeholder’ text that I delete and write over, including names.

Last week, I didn’t edit properly and delete those placeholders. So I called Will ‘Chris’ in my answer to him. And I called Tahlia ‘Sara’. Ugh. Not good. Will, Tahlia, I’m very sorry about that. Just send me an email (you can just hit ‘reply’ to this newsletter) and let me know the email address that you signed up with so that I can gift you a few months of the full paid subscriber version of Money Chats for free as an apology.

You know when you’re in class and someone asks a question and you go:

• “Oh, I was going to ask that” or,

• “Oh, I didn’t have that question before, but now I want to know the answer to it”

That’s what this is supposed to be like (but with money stuff, not English or Biology).

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• 3 questions from teenagers and young adults like you and my answers.

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Your Questions & Answers

• Car Servicing Rip Off?

• Travel Insurance

• 🛍 Shein and Temu Addiction

Car Servicing Rip Off?

Q. “I’ve got my first car and went and got it serviced for the first time. But when it came to the bill it was literally hundreds of dollars more than my brothers one from a few months ago. He’s a couple of years older than me. Am I getting ripped off because I’m a girl?“

-Simone, 19, Qld

Answer

Hey Simone - that’s a really tricky one. There could be two explanations for what is going on. One is fairly innocent. The other is that you are getting ripped off. Let me explain.

The Innocent Explanation

Car servicing is one of those things that has something called ‘opaque’ pricing. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s hard to figure out exactly what things should cost because the prices for different servicing jobs aren’t clear, or able to be easily found.

• Quotes and prices vary from mechanic to mechanic based on their experience, track record and whether they are independent or part of a larger corporate group.

• They also vary because different mechanics might just have different prices for the exact same job (which is totally ok, businesses are allowed to set their own prices).

• They even vary depending on the suburb the mechanic is based in. It’s fairly well known that businesses of all types charge more in wealthy suburbs than comparable businesses in less wealthy suburbs.

Compare that to trying to figure out the price of two litres of milk or some other consumer good. You can Google it right now and the websites of all the major supermarkets will display the price. No opaque pricing there.

The other thing that might contribute to the innocent explanation for the different bills is the difference in makes, models and history of your cars.

• Generally, older cars will have more expensive servicing costs because they’ll be more likely to need more repairs and new parts.

• The make and model also matters. Less common brands and models can cost more to service because parts are harder to come by.

• And it also might just be that your brother’s car didn’t need as much done this particular service, while yours did. The situation (and costs) might be reversed next time around.

The ‘Getting Ripped Off’ Explanation

Before I say this next part, let me stress that most mechanics are honest, hardworking and trustworthy. But unfortunately, women, especially young women, getting ripped off for car services is a known problem. I’ve spoken to my wife and female friends about this and they’ve got some interesting stories.

A couple have taken their cars in for a service and gotten the quote. Then, before saying ‘yes’ to getting the work done they’ve spoken to their partners or Dad’s about it. Those with more experience with cars have thought the quote has been a bit high. So to test it, the male partners or Dad’s have called the same mechanic to get a quote for the same job. In a couple of cases the quote was lower. In one case it was lower by a couple of hundred dollars.

A piece of research from the UK showed that men received quotes that were 30% cheaper than women for the same car service. I’m not aware of a comparable study in Australia, but the UK is broadly similar to Australia in many ways so that data is worth considering.

So what can you do?

• First of all, never feel like you have to say ‘yes’ to a quote on the spot. Just have the phrase ‘ok thanks for that, let me think about it’ ready to go.

• You can then ring around a few other places and ask for a rough quote for exactly what the first mechanic has said your car needs done. Just make sure you note down what they said so you can relay it accurately.

• If you’re suspicious that you’re getting ripped off you can ask a male family member or partner to test it out in the way described above.

• And possibly the best option is to ask around for a trusted local mechanic who has been working in the area for a long time, and who has a great reputation for looking after his or her customers.

• If you have good evidence that there’s gender-based pricing going on, you can make a complaint with the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. They can investigate and see if that business is breaking the law. This is a serious step, so if you do this, have evidence to back your claim.

I hope that explains what might be going on with your different quotes this time around and that it helps you to figure out what to do next time.

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Travel Insurance

Q. “Is travel insurance worth it?“

-Kai, 17

Answer

Hey Kai - great question. Look, travel insurance (and any insurance really) is one of the weirdest things that we buy. Most of the time we buy it, but don’t use it. So that makes it feel like a waste of money.

But that’s not the whole story.

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