Calculate the cost of (almost) anything; consumers can fight back with their own Big Data
HomeAdvisor.com
Corporations use Big Data to get the upper hand on consumers; it's time for consumers to strike back. A host of online calculators makes it easier for you to compare prices across a wide variety of industries, and learn quickly if you're about to be ripped off -- or at least tip the scales of bargaining back in your favor. Below is a list of tools you should try:
Repair costs
Most of us have no idea what installation of a home electric circuit panel should cost, so plugging your ZIP code and your preferences into a website that gives you estimates before getting bids is incredibly useful. Use it to throw out a bidder who's asking for the moon. I like both HomeAdvisor andHomewyse.com. (In Columbia, Mo., upgrading a panel costs $866-$1,224, Homewyse says.)
Read a more detailed story about cost calculators at CNBC.com
RedBeacon.com offers an even wider range of cost calculators for home services like landscaping or housecleaning.
The most useful repair cost estimator I found unmasks the mystery of the costs of auto repairs, offered by RepairPal.com. Not only does RepairPal offer ZIP-code level pricing—a water pump replacement should cost between $263 and $368 in north-suburban Seattle—it also offers additional necessary information, like this: Water pump repairs often require belt replacement, particularly if fluid leaked on the belts.
Getting a repair cost estimate takes only a moment, and it can save you hundreds at a repair shop.
Naturally, consumers with broken-down cars aren't always in a great bargaining position. Still, RepairPal can make sure you aren't being taken for a ride, and it can even suggest you might be better off paying to have a vehicle towed to another shop for a second opinion, if the first shop's quote price is wildly off the mark.
Health Costs
Sick consumers have little bargaining power; for that reason, health-care cost calculators like the helpful one you'll find at FairHealthConsumer.org aren't quite as useful. Still, it's worth knowing what medical procedures should cost before having those conversations with your insurance company and your doctor's office.
There are times when knowing you overpaid the dentist for your last crown gives you the power to pick a new dentist. And it's sometimes possible to negotiate price after the fact with providers; price comparison tools are useful in those discussions.
Taxi rides
By the same logic, the various taxi price calculators are also helpful in real time. No, you can't get a cab driver to negotiate a metered trip. But before visiting any new city, it's worth visiting a site like TaxiFareFinder.com and plugging in various trips you expect to take. You'll get a map of your route and an expected cost, so you'll know if your driver makes an unexpected wrong turn, and you can demand an adjustment.
Children
There's plenty of tools for calculating the cost of children, in the near and far future. Let's start small, like they do. Uncle Sam offers his own tool at USDA.gov, where the first-year cost of a kid in the Northeast is pegged at about $14,000.
Look further into the future, and you may think twice about having a baby. Or at least about training that baby to be a scholarship athlete. BabyCenter.com thinks a child born in the Northeast today will cost $400,000 if she or he attends a private college.
If you dial up cost of college calculators, you will conclude that the BabyCenter number is low. At CollegeSavings.org, you'll get an even starker splash of reality. Assume 5 percent tuition inflation—and why not, that's how much colleges raise tuition each year at the moment—at a four-year private school will cost $316,000 by the time today's babies graduate. (That's just tuition—with room and board, the cost is $430,000!)
Airline tickets
Longer trends offer some insights, and that's what I love about FlightAware's beta product, "Insight for Airlines." FlightAware is known for giving passengers and their loved ones up-to-the-moment geographic and speed data on planes in the air.
But click around, and you'll find the Insight product, which tells users the median price paid for tickets on that route, by airline, during a 12-month period. It also includes the maximum and minimum prices for that route. If you're on the plane, you'll either feel smart or stupid, based on what you paid.
But, if you fly a route frequently—say, Seattle to New York—you get a good idea if you are overpaying regularly. Insight also makes it easy to compare airlines, which is particularly useful. For example, on a Seattle to Newark run, United carries the most passengers, but Alaska charges about 10 percent less. Scheduling concerns aside, it sure looks like some of those United passengers should consider Alaska.
Weddings
One of the best I found is at CostOfWedding.com. It allows lovebirds to enter all kinds of specifics, such as what kind of table gifts they expect to buy, and how fancy the reception food will be.
Still, weddings involve so many details and decisions that wedding calculators are really only useful for after-the-fact comparisons. For example, CostOfWedding.com says a 75-person affair in suburban Washington should cost $21,700. That won't save you money if you are planning an event there, but it probably will make you feel good or bad if you've done so recently.
Commuting/Lifestyle
Another less-useful tool is the "Location Affordability Portal," released recently by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It's supposed to help homebuyers more accurately predict the real costs of moving by adding in transportation costs—in other words, that "drive until you qualify" home in the exurbs might not be as much of a bargain as it seems, once you add in the price of gas.
The tool is very hard to use, however, and requires a lot of specialized inputs from users. At the moment, it's more useful to inspire "what might have been" daydreaming.