I Consume Their Reports!

I have been subscribing to this magazine for about 10 years. My grandfather used to get it, and one day I just picked it up and found it to be very informative on a lot of topics. I've always been sort of a bookworm and I am always looking for good advice on products and services.

Consumer Reports to me, has always given objective advice and information on many things I would need and want. They list the average price you would expect to pay for an item, as well as comparing similar products in a group. Of course, I anticipate reading about things that interest me most, like money saving tips and taste tests, but they cover almost everything, and welcome reader's suggestions.

I have read articles covering health insurance(fee for service vs. HMO'S vs. PPO's), how to avoid paying too much for car insurance, how to figure out how much life, car,health,insurance to buy, etc. Some other topics include a comparison of electronics(television sets, computers, printers, calculators), home appliances large and small(washers, dryers, steam irons, blenders, razors), and food(cereal,ice cream,butter,restaurants). Consumer Reports will give you an analysis of price, performance, and the pros and cons of a particular item.

I am a faithful reader of this magazine. Ads do not bias their opinions, nor do they put ads in the magazine. Consumer Reports always corresponds timely to my questions or suggestions,and has even responded to my idea for an article on more organic gardening methods. They provide a variety of services outside of the magazine such as the new and used car pricing service. For a fee, they will send you an invoice price on the car you've got your eye on, and give you advice on bargaining with the dealer, and what cars to avoid. Need car insurance? They will also work to get you the lowest cost insurance in your area if you have a newer car(they don't do pricing for a '65 Falcon like mine). They publish an issue of each year's Buying Guide that is free if you subscribe, or you can purchase it at any book store or magazine stand.

Some sections in the magazine like the Recalls section are very useful. It's nice to know if something you or your family has purchased will cause you to die prematurely if you continue to have an item around the house. I also appreciate the Selling It (always the last page) section. It puts the advertising business in a different light and it always makes me laugh. One other thing that is dependable about CR is their Automobile ratings on new and used cars. They do their own studies on vehicles,as well as taking subscribers opinions on cars, then they publish an annual issue devoted to automobiles.

This magazine makes it easy to find an article that you might have missed or want to read again. They include an index that lists all articles published in the last year, listing the product/service, issue year,date and number, and what page on which you can find the information. Each year during November and December, I look forward to their holiday issues. It takes a peek at the new cars for the next year and giving sound advice for gift giving- the most popular and best toys, games, and electronics you might want to get for others, and yourself. Finally, they always list phone numbers and addresses pertaining to the items they discussed in each issue, so if you are interested in reaching a company, you can do so easily.

I have also read Consumer's Digest- they were very good as well, tending to focus more on monetary topics and travel, but I found their subscription and renewal department to be very aggressive and irritating. They would send me harassing renewal notices when I had another year to go on my subscription or they would send notices that I had not paid, when what they were doing was trying to get me to pay again! Consumer's Digest also likes to send a lot of contest junk mail. I much prefer Consumer Reports. I believe they are trustworthy and reliable, and they do their own research so I don't have to!