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 TurboTax for State Farm Customers

Last year State Farm offered free TurboTax for customers that have business with them. They offered free TurboTax basic and TurboTax deluxe which included both State and Federal filing.

It looks like they are planning on doing this again for the 2007 tax season. According to their terms, you only need to have an account that gives you access to the "My Account" page. If you have insurance or a State Farm Bank account you are all set.

But even better, if you are not a State Farm customer, all you need to do is sign up for their Visa card and you can have access to the Free TurboTax deals.

For current customers, there is a link off of the "My Account Page" that says "FREE Tax Filing"

When I logged into my account today and clicked on the "FREE Tax Filing" I noticed the following message.


I will post again with the details once the 2007 information is available. If you file your taxes using TurboTax, this is definetly worth a look since this could save you around $50 for something that you were going to do anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I will be back on Friday with more money saving tips and free money ideas, so until then have a great holiday and DON'T BURN THAT TURKEY!!!!!!!

American Express My WishList Deals Start on Nov. 27

American Express is bring back it's My WishList Deals on November 27th. If you don't know what these are, basically American Express offers a limited quantities of items and ridiculously cheap prices. The catch is that you are competing with thousands of other people for a very limited quantity, so it is all up to one mouse click to see of you have won. I have had success here before when last year I won a Slingbox for $70 that retailed for $120. So I am definitely going to try to get in on a WishList deal again this year.

Here is what is in store for this Christmas:

Panasonic 42" 1080p HD Plasma TV
WishList Price: $700
Retail Price: $1,999

BMW K 1200 R Sport Motorcycle
WishList Price: $5,000
Retail Price: $17,000

Xbox Elite Game System
WishList Price: $300
Retail Price: $649.99

2008 Volvo C70
WishList Price: $0
Retail Price $43,205

JetBlue Airways Private Flight
WishList Price: 0$
Retail Price: $171,367

I imagine that these are the highly coveted items and they will be offering others in between as well as the promotion runs from November 27th to December 13th.

Check out the details at the American Express WishList Site for dates and times and sign up for an email reminder when it kicks off on the 27th of this month. Good Luck!

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

ShareBuilder is now part of ING DIRECT

I woke up to this in my email box:

ShareBuilder has some exciting news. As of November 15, ShareBuilder has been acquired by ING DIRECT, the nation's largest direct bank with over 5.5 million customers and $75 billion in U.S. assets (part of Netherlands-based ING, NYSE: ING). ING DIRECT shares our vision of helping Americans increase their savings.

ING DIRECT is widely recognized for offering some of the most popular and easy-to-use financial products. Joining the ING DIRECT family will benefit you by providing simple and innovative products and services that can help you meet your saving and investing goals.

Rest assured there have been no changes made to your Orchard Bank ShareBuilder account. All of the easy account maintenance, trading tools and customer service functions you are accustomed to will remain the same. The only change you will find is an eventual logo and color change as ShareBuilder begins to adopt ING DIRECT's signature Orange color. You can also continue to use the same account number, login and password, and can access your account anytime through the co-branded ShareBuilder website.

We look forward to sharing more information with you over the coming months. If you have any questions, we invite you to contact us at 1-866-SHRBLDR (1-866-747-2537).

The ShareBuilder team is really excited by what this news means for you!

Best regards,

Dan Greenshields
President
ShareBuilder Securities Corporation

Here is a link to the full Press Release

This is interesting news, I wonder how this will effect anything if at all. This acquisition in addition to ING's buying, now defucnt NetBank's assets, must be dramitically increasing ING's customer base.

I currently have an account at both institutions. I don't use my ING account much due to the low interest rate, but I use my Sharebuilder account all the time. I have $200 auto invested each month into 5 different ETF funds. They were doing well until last week, but this is a long term investment so I really just try to not watch it fall.

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

Have you checked your Credit Report?

If you haven't been told by now, It is good practice to keep an eye on your credit report with the increase in identity theft.

Don't be fooled by the many sites out there that offer "Free Credit Reports". Most of them, when you read the small print, are esentially signing you up for a paid credit check service and giving you the first credit report free.

The only site I recommend is AnnualCreditReport.com
This is the only service authorized by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for obtaining free credit reports. I really wish the Government would get involved and give it a ".gov" domain so it is clearer to people that this is not a gimmick or spam site.

You can pull one report free from each of the three bureau's each year through the site. There is no subscription service, no spam email later or anyone trying to call you.

My recommendation is to pull one every for months. Here is the schedule I follow:

• Experian - April 30
  
• Equifax - August 31
  
• TransUnion - December 31

That should cover you for the year and should allow you to track any unauthorized activity that could be taking place.

The government passed the law of allowing you free credit reports to help you protect yourself, so why not use it? Just don't pay anyone for it!

Remember:
FreeCreditReport.com BAD
AnnualCreditReport.com GOOD

Another Woot Off!

Woot.com is having another of its Woot Offs right now. If you are unfamiliar with Woot.com, they are a site that offers items at a discount. Usually only one item is listed per day starting at 12am Central Time and is listed until it is sold out or 11:59PM Central Time. A Woot Off, which happens rarely, is a number of products that are for sale on a particular day or successive days. One product follows another as soon as it has been sold out. The number of Woot-Off items, sequence, and quantity will not be announced so an item could take a while to sell out or sell out immediately. Don't miss a chance to score some items at a steal if you haven't started that Christmas Shopping yet!

Black Friday Deals

Oh, that day after Thanksgiving, dreadful for some, where people line up at 5 am outside stores trying to get their hands on a Furby.

Yes, it is Black Friday which is named for the fact that this is the day where most retailers actually start to make a profit. I stumbled across BlackFriday.info that aggregates Black Friday deals for a bunch of retailers. So if you want to plan your November 23rd shopping day you are all set. They also have an email notification feature where they will email you as Black Friday deals are added.

I hate crowds and traffic, so I will be doing my Black Friday shopping from the comfort of my own home thanks to this site. Shower and clothing optional!

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.

Cut Down on Email Spam

I have recently been using Yahoo's Mail Plus email account. Basically it is an uprade from Yahoo's Free Email account.

There are some neat features like larger attachment size, more filters, etc, but the best feature is the Disposable Email Addresses. Disposable Email Addresses are just what they sound like, email addresses that you can throw away when you want.

Say for example my email address is: [username]@yahoo.com. I don't want this to get on any spam lists otherwise I will be receiving spam forever! Yahoo Mail Plus lets you select a keyword, and then create multiple address off of it that forward mail sent to them to your main account.

For example if I choose the keyword [keyword], then I all the address I would create would have that key word as a prefix, you just choose the word after the prefix:

[keyword]-mail@yahoo.com
[keyword]-shopping@yahoo.com
[keyword]-amazon@yahoo.com
[keyword]-[....]@yahoo.com
All of the above would forward to my main account [username]@yahoo.com.

The neat thing about this is once you start seeing spam coming to one of these address, you can just delete it and no more spam. I use a disposable address for each specific account I have do I can easly filter emails and put them in their corresponding folders. You can also send outbound email with a disposable addess as your return address so that you don't have to disclose your real email address.

Currently Yahoo only charges $19,95 per year for Mail Plus, I would be willing to pay up to $100 / year for this feature since it keeps my mailbox clean. (I hope Yahoo doesn't read this!).

I can't tell you how much I love this feature and how it helps me stay organized. I don't think I will be leaving my Yahoo Mail Plus email account anytime soon!

UFBDirect - High Interest Savings Account

As the Fed keeps cutting interest rates, High Yield Savings Accounts such as ING Direct and Citibank are falling fast. One bank that hasn't lowered their rate in a long time is UFB Direct. Their Absolute Savings Account is still sitting at 5.31%. I beleive that is the highest no fee high interest savings account out there.

UFBDirect is the online arm of Huntington National Bank. It is a pure online bank with no branches that keep the overhead low.

The minimum balance to open the account is $1. This account also comes with an ATM card. They resimburse you up to $4.50 per month for foreign ATM fees. That makes for an easy way to access your money fee free.

They send prepaid desposit slips and envelopes so sending in deposits is free as well. There is no ACH feature, but if you have an account like Fidelity or GMAC bank that offeres ACH features, you can deposit money into the Ansolute Savings acoount. There is no fees for inbound or outbound ACH's from the Absolute Savings Account.

I currently have this account and am very happy with it. It currently holds my "Emergency Fund." I had to call their customer service once with a question and was very happy with the service.

While all the rates are falling, why not make some money with an account that doesn't drop its rates everytime the Fed sneezes!!!

20% Off at Kmart

So, with Christmas around the corner, I thought I would share something to help you with your holiday shopping. I found this Kmart coupon while browsing around this morning.

This coupon, which is good only in the store, is good for 20% off 1 item. Notice there are some restrictions on this. Some of the main ones are that it can't be used for appliances, auto service and Sears Home electronics. Even though it says "Sears Home Electronics" is excluded there have been posts that people have used the coupon for an XBox and PS3 as well as dvds and cds.

(Click image for larger version to print)

I will be the first to admit that I don't shop at Kmart, but for 20% of one item, it is definetly worth a walk through the store.

Ridiculously Cheap Sprint Wireless Service

Sprints Employee Referral Plan (SERO) is now open to everyone. Not sure how long this is going to last, but these prices beat anything out there right now.

I recently started telling my friends about this. I signed up a month ago and am loving service, especailly since I am saving around $40 / month from my previous service with Verizon.

Here are the plans:

• 500 minutes for $30.00 / month
  
• 1250 minutes for $49.99 / month
  
• 2500 minutes for $99.99 / month

Plans include:
Unlimited Nights & Weekends starting at 7pm!
Domestic long distance
Unlimited Mobile to Mobile (Sprint to Sprint calls only)
Unlimited Web/Data Access
Unlimited Picture Mail (with compatible devices)

Don't forget that data plans alone ususally cost around $20 - $30 per month, so if you currently have service with a data plan, this is a no brainer.

They also offer the Unlimited EVDO broadband plan at $49.99 / month. This service is great if you can't get Cable or DSL service at your home, or you always want to be connected.

All plans require a 2 year contract. You can also port your number over to Sprint if you would like to keep it. The phones are shipped out via FedEx 2 Day service.

All Sprints' current phone lineup is available with these plans with most at a discount.

How to sign up:

• Go to the Sprint SERO Website
  
• Enter the following email address: savings@sprintemi.com

Like I said earlier, there is no telling how long these deals will last. If you get Sprint coverage in your area, this is definetly worth a look.

$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!

Tradeking Promo

I have been getting numerous emails asking about any new Tradeking promos. Unfortunetly since the $100 bonus promo has expired there hasn't been anything to write about. However, in the spirit of giving and the holidays being right around the corner, they are now offering a promo where if I refer you, they will donate $100 to Toys for Tots. (Here are the details).

I do not receive anything for referring you, so this is purely out of the kindness of my heart, and yours if you choose to do this. Send me an email and I will get a referral email out to you.

Maybe together we can make Christmas a special day for someone and make some money short selling stocks as we watch the market fall! :)

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