Spare Change
Money Tip
Until recently, using your ATM card to withdraw local currency when traveling overseas was often free. No longer; now you can expect to pay a few dollars at overseas ATMs. Despite the new fees, overseas ATMs are still your best bet for cheap local cash, experts say.
Net Nugget
Are you looking to lower your monthly phone bill? One good way to do it is by comparing telephone rate offers on the World Wide Web.
www.lowermy bills.com
Click “Long Distance” to compare rates.
www.phonerate finder.com
features various service rate comparison search engines.
www.ratekeeper. com/oneplus /index.asp
Search for best long-distance rates by state or region.
Survey Says
People who have high-deductible health coverage plans are less likely to use the emergency room and have fewer hospital admissions than people with traditional coverage. They also are more likely to regularly visit their primary care doctor for free preventive checkups. Those are among the findings of a three-year study by UnitedHealth Group Inc. of so-called consumer-driven health care plans.
Wise Planning
One way to manage the high cost of long-term-care insurance is to share the benefit period with a spouse so that if one of you gets sick and the other does not, you can pool the benefits for one person’s care. It’s an alternative to buying expensive lifetime-coverage policies for both spouses, although slightly more expensive than buying individual term-coverage policies.