Earn Airline Miles with Google Checkout

Google Checkout is having a promotion through December 31, where they will give you 2 miles for every dollar spent using Google Checkout.

You can redeem the miles on the following airlines:
Alaska Air, Continental, Delta, Midwest Airlines, Northwest, US Airways and United

For anyone that doesn't know what Google Checkout is, it is an optional way to make a an online payment for goods and services, similiar to that of Paypal. Since this is a Google product, you can expect many stores to accept Google Checkout as a payment method. The list of stores can be found Here.

Sign up for Google Checkout Here!

If you tend to do a lot of online shopping then why not make some miles on the side? Also, if you already have a miles reward credit card, you can essentially double dip and earn miles from the card issueuer as well as getting miles from Google Checkout. Ah don't you love the holidays?

Full Promo Details

Free Digital Camcorder with TCF Bank Accounts

TCF is having a promotion where they are giving away a Free Digital Camcorder when you open a checking and savings account.

TCF has 449 banking offices in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana and Arizona. Check locations here. This offer requires a visit to a branch to open the accounts.

What you need to do: Open a TCF Checking Account and Savings account at a local branch. Then setup an automatic transfer of $25 from your checking to your savings account
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): Free Digital Camcorder
Money to get started: The checking account has no minimum balance requirement, but you will need to deposit at least $25 so you can set up the automatic transfer
Things to Note: The automatic transfer only needs to be setup for 30 days after that you can stop it. Accounts must be opened by 12/31 and remain open for 30 days.
Deal Small Print:

A new TCF Free Checking and Savings account must be opened between November 1 - December 31, 2007. Available to individuals and small businesses without a TCF Checking account in the past 90 days. New savings account must establish an automatic transfer from a new TCF Checking account of $25 or more to qualify. The savings account and automatic transfer must be opened and established the same day as the new checking account and must remain active for 30 days. Business customers have 30 days to establish online transfer. TCF reserves the right to cancel or modify this promotion at any time. Customer is responsible for all applicable taxes. See a TCF Representative for additional requirements. Please allow 5 - 8 weeks for processing and delivery of award.

Ebates Offering $10 Sign Up Bonus

Ebates is offering a $10 signup bonus through the end of the year. If you are unfamiliar with Ebates, it is a shopping portal that give you rebates everytime you buy an item using a site in their network, like Target.com, Drugstore.com, Sears.com, etc. So for example instead of just going to Target.com and buying an item that is $100. You log into your Ebatges account, click Target.com, buy the item for $100 and you will receive $4 (4% of $100) in your account. The % varies by store, and they have almost every major online retailer you can think of. By going through them before making the purchase the store you are buying from pays Ebates a referral fee and Ebates then shares a portion of that with you. It is free to join and use.

Instructions to get the bonus:
When you sign up, you will immediately get $5, to get the other $5, you need to make your first qualifying purchase prior to December 31st using the Ebates site. (Remember this is free, you just pay for the item that you are going to buy)

Sign up for the $10 promo HERE

I use mainly Ebates and Mr Rebates (See my post) for every online purchase I do, since I might as well make some money off of my purchases for very little effort.

Free $100 from Sony Visa Card

Chase is offering a $100 sign up bonus for their Sony Visa Card after your first purchase.

This card is good for long term use if you buy a lot of Sony items. If you don't, you may just consider signing up for the $100 bonus and keep the card for emergencies. For a long term rewards card, check out my Chase Freedom Rewards Visa post

Here is the earnings breakdown:

• Earn 5 points per dolar at Sony Style Stores, SonyStyle.com and ImageStation.com
  
• Earn 3 points per dollar spent on Sony Products at authorized Sony retailers
  
• Earn 1 point per dollar everywhere else

What you need to do: Sign up for the Sony Visa Card
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): $100 after first purchase
Money to get started: $0
Things to Note: There will be hard credit inquiry applied to your credit report when applying for the card

Free $100 from Chase Freedom Visa Card

Chase is offering a $100 sign up bonus for their Freedom Visa Card after your first purchase.

This card is flexible in the fact that you can switch between cash back and miles whenever you want. So if you are currently getting cash back, but then decided you want to use miles for a vacation, you can switch over to miles, use them for your trip, then switch back to cash back. Also, there is no annual fee with this card.

Here is the earnings breakdown:

• Earn 3% back at gas stations, grocery stores and quick service restaurants
  
• Earn 1% back everywhere else

Don't forget that most grocery stores offer gift cards. So you can earn 3% on more than just gas stations, grocery stores and quick service restaurants. For example, the Dominick's grocery store by me sells Home Depot gift cards, among may others. If I were to use the Chase Freedom Visa at Home Depot I would only receive the 1% back, but if I buy a $100 Home Depot Gift card from the grocery store, I would receive the 3% back. This is another little way to maximize your earnings with this card. Happy Shopping!!

What you need to do: Sign up for the Chase Freedom Visa Card
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): $100 after first purchase
Money to get started: $0
Things to Note: There will be hard credit inquiry applied to your credit report when applying for the card

Get $50 Free from Sharebuiler

Sharebuilder once again has a $50 promo going where you can get a $50 bonus paid out after one stock purchase. Just use the promo code SHARE50 when signing up.

Bonus Detail Page

Fine Print to get your bonus:
You must open a new ShareBuilder Account and purchase at least one security to receive this offer. Please note the $50 credit will post to your account approximately 4 weeks after the first transaction executes. Not valid with IRA or Education Savings Accounts. Not valid with any other offers. Valid only for first time account holders with ShareBuilder. ShareBuilder reserves the right to terminate this offer at any time. Offer expires 12/31/07.

If you haven't used sharebuilder, they are great in the fact that you can buy partial shares automatically over time. This is a great way to dollar cost average especially considering the volatility in the market recently. They will automatically take the money out of your account and invest in on a regular basis, it pretty much makes investing easy to do.

$100 Free @ Fidelity

Ok guys, this bonus is not for the faint at heart! It requires you to have 10k laying around. So why not sell that car you no longer need. Seriousy, if you have 10 grand sitting around in a bank account, Fidelity is willing to give you $100 if you open a Brokerage account with it.
Sure, you say that receiving $100 on $10,000 is only 1%? Well yes, but that is 1% earnings for only 7 days. Most savings account will pay 1% for the whole month if that.

Ok, if you are still with me, here is what you need to do:

This works if you are opening a new Brokerage account, or if you currently have one.

Complete the $100 Bonus Form

If you currently have an account, enter your account number on the form. Then go to your account and deposit the 10k.

If you do not have an account, complete the account opening form and deposit your 10k.

Once the deposit clears (in about 5-7 days) you should receive and email and see the $100 bonus in your account.

You can then decide if you want to keep the money at Fidelity in their 5% money market (FSLXX) or purchase stocks or mutual funds.

This is a great account since purchasing of all Fidelity Branded Mutual Funds commission free.

I know this takes a bit of time, but for $100 in 5 days, I would do just about anything, well almost anything!

Free Money Courtesy of the US Government

A lot of people tend to over look Health Care Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) that are offered as a benefit by their employers.

How this works, is pre-tax money is taken out of your paycheck and placed into an account. As you incur health care related costs, you can then remove the money from this account. The free money effect here is that you have now just avoided paying taxes on that money. You should note that the money in the HRA can only be used for healthcare related items. But that includes, aspirin, cold medicine, copays, band-aids, condoms, etc, so you can go on a Costco shopping spree at the and of the year to make sure you deplete the account by the Dec 31st.

I had never really looked into opening one of these until end of last year when my employer had an info session on how it worked. I was sold. I started out small since I never really tracked how much out of pocket money I spent on health care over 1 year. I started out with $1000. Meaning that $41.66 (thats pretax dollars, so the actual effect on your paycheck is much smaller) would be taken out of my bi-monthly paycheck. I have completely used the $1000 as of last week (11/3/07). But here's the thing, I am in the 23% tax bracket, so on that $1000, I saved $230 in taxes. Not bad huh? Try getting that return in the stock market.

Yes I know this money is spread out over the year, but its free! So put that $1000 into a savings account as you get reimbured and guess what, you just saved some money, which you probably would have spent anyway!!

HRA accounts are not for everyone, but if you tend to have a lot of healthcare expenses, copays, etc, you could end up saving some money. I definitely think you should ask your employer about it!

Another Free $73 from SurveySavvy

Lately, SurveySavvy has been sending me quite a few surveys. I just emptied out my account again, this time getting a check for $73.00.

With this check, that puts me at $669.00 since I joined last year.

For anyone that is not aware of SurveySavvy, it is a paid survey site, meaning they pay you, in cash, for completing surveys. In my experience, this is is the most legit paid survey site, and trust me, I have tried many. They all promise cash, but once you taks surveys, you never actually see the money.

SurveySavvy is defninetly apart from the rest. The cash is paid out to you when you ask for it. There is no minimum needed to withdrawl money. If you take a $1 survey, you can request a check for $1. I definetly recommend this to anyone who wants to make a little cash on the side.

Sign Up today!

Rebate Sites

Another site I reguraly use when shopping online is Mr Rebates. This site pays you a rebate back from shopping at a particular online store.

For example, I love Old Navy T-Shirts as they seem to last forever no matter how many times you wash them. When you click on the "Old Navy" link from Mr Rabates, it takes you to the Old Navy site where you will automatically get back a 4% rebate in your Mr Rebates account on any purchases made at Old Navy. So if I were to spend $100 I would get a $4 rebate in my account.

The rebate %'s vary by store, but they seem to have most of the popular online stores in their list.

It usually takes 90 days for the rebate to be available to withdraw and it comes in the form of a check mailed to your home after you ask for a check.

What is the catch? None. Many websites give rebates back to people that direct shoppers to them. They are usually called associate programs. Mr Rebates just shares part of that rebate with you. If you do a lot of online shopping, this is something you should really take a look at.

What you need to do: Open an account with Mr Rebates
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): $2.50 for opening an account
Money to get started: None - but you have to shop online to earn more rebates