Optimize Your Cell Phone Plan: The Wireless Efficient Frontier

Posted on July 17, 2013 // 30 Comments

The other day while I was trying to help someone find a cheaper cell phone plan, I realized two things:

  1. There are way too many different options these days. Most are MVNOs that buy bulk minutes and data from the major providers, and many of those are simply clones of each other.
  2. Trying to find the best cell phone plan is similar to the efficient frontier concept in investing. There, you try to achieve the highest return for a given amount of risk, or you try to minimize the risk you have to take in order to get a given return. Anything else is sub-optimal; here’s a quick chart illustration.

In the case of cell phone plans, you’re either trying to maximize features (coverage, phone selection, minutes, texts, data allowance) for a given budget, or more often you’re trying to minimize the cost for the features that you “need”/want.

I’ve mentioned several good deals from various providers, covering everything from a $2.50 a month basic plan to simply saving $10 a month on your “name brand” major provider plan via corporate or student discounts. Below, I’ve placed them all on a single chart of cost vs. features. This is a work-in-progress, but hopefully this will help folks find better alternatives and save some serious money over time.

The Details

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Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living //

Apple App Store: 5 Top Paid Apps & Games For Free

Posted on July 8, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Apple is celebrating the 5th anniversary of Apple’s App Store by making 5 top apps and 5 top games free for a limited time. Some other developers have also made their apps free as well. here is the official iTunes page, and below are some direct download links as well. I’m not sure if they will rotate these out. I went ahead and downloaded a few now to try out later.

Apps

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Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Capital One 360 Financial Independence Day Promo 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 // 5 Comments

Update – This promotion is now EXPIRED

Capital One Consumer Bank has their annual Financial Independence Day promotion which boosts the usual bonus for their Consumer Bank Savings and 360 Checking accounts. (Artist formerly known as ING Direct.) Offers good until Wednesday, July 3rd 11:59PM ET.

Consumer Bank Savings $76 Bonus

  • Open a no-fee 360 Savings account between July 1st and 3rd ($500 minimum deposit) and snag $76.
  • This has to be your first Consumer Bank Savings account (includes Orange Savings Account).
  • The bonus starts earning interest on day 1, but you can’t take it out for at least 30 days.
  • 0.75% variable Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective 6/30/2013.
  • For more, check out my Capital One 360 Savings Account Review.

Consumer Bank Checking $100 Bonus

  • Open a fee-free 360 Checking account between July 1st and 3rd (with a deposit of $500 or more) and grab $100.
  • This has to be your first Consumer Bank Checking account.
  • Make a total of 5 purchases (either signature of PIN-based) using your 360 Checking Debit Card, make 5 CheckMate deposits or any combination of the two within 45 days. Your $100 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50.
  • Variable APYs effective 6/30/2013: 0.20% Balances under $50,000 / 0.80% Balances between $50,000 and $99,999 / 0.85% $100,000+.
Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

1,000 Bonus Citi ThankYou Points for Linking to Amazon.com

Posted on June 27, 2013 // 11 Comments

If you have a Citi credit card that earns ThankYou points, you can get a 1,000 free ThankYou points for linking your Citi card with Amazon.com for future redemptions. Simply log into your account at ThankYou.com and go to Overview > My Account > Enter a Promotional Code and type in TYAMCAZON2 into the *bottom* Bonus Registration Code form field. You should see the following text:

Thank you. Your code has been submitted. You are ALMOST DONE! Now just click on “Continue” below (or go to amazon.com/citi) to link your ThankYou® and Amazon.com accounts. Offer expires at 11:59 PM ET on 6/30/2013 or until the first 20,000 members have linked-whichever comes first. Once you link, bonus points will be posted to your ThankYou account by July 10th 2013.

I’ll take the bonus points, but I won’t be using this rewards option as it only yields 0.8 cents per point. See previous post on the Best Value for Citi ThankYou Points Redemptions.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Fandango $6 Movie Tickets, $5 for $10 at Target

Posted on June 27, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Quickly, here are some limited-time Groupon deals:

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Home Depot Coupon Code: $10 off $100+ Purchase

Posted on June 17, 2013 // 7 Comments

HomeDepot.com has a coupon code JUNEHD that will take $10 off any purchase of $100 or more. Expires 6/23/13. You can have the item shipped or pick up in-store.

Get another 3% or so rebate via a cashback shopping portal like eBates ($5 new customer bonus), Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus), and BigCrumbs.

Stack the discounts even more with the 5% rotating cash back available currently on home improvement stores from the Citi Dividend and new Discover It card. Or, buy a Home Depot gift card at a grocery store using the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express which offers 6% cash back at US supermarkets, or buy a Home Depot gift card for 7% off at a secondary market like Raise.com.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Chase Ink Bold Review: Business Card Bonus Worth $500 Cash, $625 in Airfare

Posted on June 16, 2013 // 37 Comments

Chase Ink BoldThe Ink Bold® Business Charge Card is a premium small business being offered by Chase, directly competing with the biz cards from American Express. If you have a small business including freelance or online eBay/Etsy sales, using a business card allows you to separate your personal and business expenses as well as get some nice rewards in the process. Just to get you to try it out, Chase is offering 500 bucks in the form of 50,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months your account is open.

50,000 Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for $500 cash (real money, via statement credit or check) or 25% extra = $625 when used towards airfare, split up however you like into multiple tickets. If your total is more than $625, you simply pay the difference. I’ve used this feature and it’s very easy and flexible to book airfare using their points (system and prices are like Expedia, Travelocity, etc). Here’s an example of combining cash and points:

If you prefer, you can also transfer points to British Airways Avios miles, United Airlines miles, Hyatt hotel points, and Marriott hotel points. 1 Chase point = 1 mile/hotel point for these transfers, so that’s 50,000 miles.

You’ll also earn up to 5 points per $1 spent on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases:

  • Earn a total of 2 points for each $1 of net purchases made at merchants that classify themselves the following categories: gas stations and hotels stays booked directly with the hotel. (on the first $50,000 spent annually)
  • Earn a total of 5 points for each $1 of net purchases made at merchants that classify themselves the following categories: wireless/telecommunications services (excluding equipment such as phones and fax machines), cable and satellite television services, office supply stores and wholesale distributors of office supplies. (on the first $50,000 spent annually)
  • All other purchases will earn 1 point for each $1 of net purchases.

Getting 5X points back at Office Depot, Staples, and Office Max also means that you get 5X points back on the gift cards sold at these office supply stores. This includes places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kmart, Starbucks, TJ Maxx, and more.

There is no annual fee for the first year, $95 after that if you decide to keep it. You also get a free annual membership in Lounge Club, which gets you 2 complimentary visits to participating “first class” airport lounges each year and discounted rates on future visits. After you get the Ink card, register at loungeclub.com/inkcard. The Ink Bold Business Charge Card is a business charge card where you must pay in full each month after a 30-day grace period with no interest.

Jot business receipt management. Chase has now partnered with Jot, so now I can snap a picture of my business receipts with my smartphone and link it to my card purchases. No more shoeboxes or scanning, and it exports into Quickbooks. I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds like a good backup in case the IRS comes knocking.

Business Credit Card Eligibility

Many people aren’t aware of the fact that they can apply for business credit cards, even if they are not a corporation or LLC. Why? Because any individual can be a business as well. The business type is called a sole proprietorship. Perhaps you sell items on eBay, Craiglist, or Etsy. Maybe you do some freelancing and/or consulting. You might have gotten a 1099 tax form and filled out a Schedule C. Boom! You’re a sole proprietorship. This is the simplest business entity, but it is fully legit and recognized by the IRS. On a business credit card application, you should use your own legal name as the business name, and your Social Security Number as the Tax ID.

In addition, Chase business cards won’t show up on your personal credit report. Now, this card will require you to personally guarantee that you’ll pay them back what you charge on the card, which means they’ll check your personal credit score like any other consumer card. However, it won’t affect your credit score otherwise, since it doesn’t change things like your credit limits, average account age, or credit utilization ratio.

  • Ink Bold® Business Charge Card Application Link

This card is essentially the small business version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred®Card, a consumer card which offers 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points = $625 in travel) Compare with the other $500+ Bonus credit card promotions currently available.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.” 

“The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

Free VIN Check Trick, Free Vehicle History Report

Posted on June 12, 2013 // 30 Comments

AutoCheck and CarFax are popular ways to check on a used vehicle’s history before buying or selling. They aren’t always 100% accurate, but can still be a useful tool and possibly worth the $30+ retail price. But AutoCheck also lets car dealers check show free basic VIN checks to show their customers, and people (not me) figured out you can piggyback on this feature rather easily.

(Update 7/22: You can still try using the instructions below, but it appears that Autocheck has closed this loophole. You can still get a basic free VIN check at AutoCheck.com that will show you the year, make, model, style and country of assembly for any VIN. It’ll also show you how many vehicle history records there are for this vehicle, but in order to see the details you’ll have to pay for the full report.)

To perform a another basic check of whether a specific car VIN has been reported stolen or has a salvage title, use this free NCIB.gov VINcheck tool. Together, these would provide a good initial check to any potential Craiglist used car purchases. If you wish to proceed, it may be worth it to go ahead and purchase a report.

Finally, there is also a more affordable option called VinAudit.com that sells their vehicle history report for only $12.99. They also include title registration records, junk/salvage records, insurance records, and odometer history. Data is from the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS). States, insurance carriers, and salvage yards are required by federal law to report data to NMVTIS. Their sample report looks pretty much the same as the other guys, but Compare with $39.99 for CarFax and $29.99 for AutoCheck.

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Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Costco New Member Discount Certificates

Posted on June 3, 2013 // 11 Comments

costexecHere is a promotional Costco membership certificate for prospective new members. You buy a certificate for full price on the promotional page and then bring it in to Costco to activate your membership. I have done this promotion in the past. You’ll then get a gift card in the mail:

  • Gold Star Members receive a $10 Costco Shop Card
  • Gold Star Executive Members receive a $20 Costco Shop Card

Costco has two membership tiers for consumers: Gold Star membership at $60/year and Executive membership at $120/year. Executive membership comes with a 2% cash rebate on purchases (now up to $1,000 in total rebates) as well as some other side benefits. That makes the breakeven point now $3,000 annually (averages out to $250 a month).

Here are some useful details from the fine print:

To qualify as a new member, an existing Costco membership must be expired for 18 months or more. Not valid for renewal of an existing Costco membership or an upgrade of an existing membership to an Executive Membership.

The Costco Shop Card will be mailed to the address provided at the time of new membership sign up at the Costco location. The Costco Shop Card will be mailed within 4 – 6 weeks.

After joining, you may consider applying for the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

New Safeway Gas Rewards Partners: Chevron, Texaco, Exxon, Mobil

Posted on April 1, 2013 // 12 Comments

Depending on your area, Chevron, Texaco, Exxon, and Mobil gas stations are new partners with Safeway’s gas rewards program (Exxon/Mobil link). This may be good news to those who shop at Safeway supermarkets but don’t have any nearby Safeway gas stations.

The gas rewards program works using their free Safeway Club card. For every $1 in purchases, you get a point. Every 100 points gets you 10¢ off per gallon on a single fill-up (25 gal max) at a participating Chevron, Texaco, or Safeway gas station. You can stack rewards for up to 20 cents off per gallon at a Chevron/Texaco, or up to $1.00 off per gallon at a Safeway/Exxon/Mobil gas station.

So if you spent $200 at Safeway/Von’s over time, you’d get 20 cents off a gallon. With a 15 gallon tank, that’s a $3.00 savings = a 1.5% rebate. Not bad, considering it doesn’t cost anything and you can still use your cashback credit cards to get additional rewards. Chevron’s regular gas prices may be higher than other places, of course.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Share Amazon Prime With Coworkers In Your Office

Posted on March 25, 2013 // 4 Comments

Many people enjoy the convenience of Amazon Prime, which for $79 a year gives you free 2-day shipping with no minimum purchase requirement, a decent streaming-video library, and a so-so Kindle book lending library. You may also know that you can share your shipping benefits with other people in your same household (with the ability to use multiple shipping addresses). At the same time, many people choose to get their stuff shipped to their workplace as one of those addresses. Amazon now explicitly allows you to share your shipping benefits with four other coworkers, which mean 5 coworkers can get free 2nd-day shipping by splitting $79 a year. See Share Your Amazon Prime Benefits:

Free or paid Amazon Prime members can share their shipping benefits with up to four additional family members living in the same household, or up to four coworkers. Other Amazon Prime membership benefits such as Prime Instant Video and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library can’t be shared.

[…] Amazon Mom and Amazon Student members with Amazon Prime shipping benefits and customers receiving a free 30 days of Amazon Prime benefits with Kindle Fire won’t be able to share their benefits.

Only the primary owner gets the video streaming, but I think the shipping benefits are worth the most as Netflix only runs $7.99 a month with a bigger library. The only slightly hard part would perhaps be to collect payment, but really a free lunch per year should do it. Go make some friends! 🙂

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living //

Best Value for Citi ThankYou Points Redemptions

Posted on March 21, 2013 // 21 Comments

If you have a Citi credit card or a Citibank account from our partner Citi, with the ThankYou points rewards system, you have a wide array of options to redeem your points at ThankYou.com. But while that fancy coffeemaker may look nice, chances are the cash equivalent value for your points is quite poor. I’ve covered this in bits and pieces before, but here’s a complete guide to getting the most value out of your points.

Eligible ThankYou accounts (* are the ones I have linked to my account):

Option #1: Limited Time Offers

If you have either patience or luck, Citi does offer “sales” on gift card redemptions which can reduce the cost of a reward by up to 25%. For example, last month you could have gotten a $50 Home Depot gift card for 4,500 points. Normally, you’d need 5,000-6,000 points. That equates 1.11 cents in gift card value per point. Previous ThankYou point sales have involved gift card to other popular retailers like Wal-mart, Lowe’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Gap, and Macy’s. The regular price is usually 1 cent in gift card value per point.

Option #2: Student Loan & Mortgage Rebate Checks

You can redeem your points towards a “rebate” check towards either a student loan or mortgage. You can redeem in increments of $25 for 2,500 points, which equates to a full 1 cent cash per point. You must call them and provide them the name of your lending institution, and they will mail you a physical check written out directly to that lending institution (i.e. Chase Student Loans). You are then supposed to add in your account number or whatever else is necessary, and then send it on to your lender. Reader Chris shared that he has a workaround if your lender doesn’t take third-party checks:

I just have the check written out to my bank, Chase, and then write my checking account number in the memo space. I drop it in an ATM and they have always deposited it into my checking account just fine. I’ve been doing this for years with no problem. I would just apply the money myself to my auto-payments and keep my 0.25% rate reduction.

I didn’t want to send in a $100 check towards my mortgage, so I tried this method with my local bank as well and the ATM deposit worked for me without any issues. I did indeed use the money from that check to pay extra towards my mortgage. (Note: You can also make a donation to the Red Cross at the same ratio.)

Option #3: Book Travel and Pay with Points

You can also use your ThankYou points to book any flight and car rental through their Book Travel portal. It’s basically the same flights that are available at Expedia.com, but sometimes at a slight markup. For example, the exact same flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas cost $101.42 at ThankYou.com and $97.80 at Expedia.
However, another flight on American Airlines from LAX-JFK was exactly the same price on both down to the penny. So while the official redemption rate is a full 1 cent per point, a potential slight markup may ding the conversion rate a bit. However, this is also a good way to use up all your points as you can split the payment exactly between cash and points. For example, a $100 ticket could be paid with 5,000 points + $50 or 1,234 points + $87.66.

Note: If you have the Citi PremierSM Card which does have an annual fee, you have the added option of redeeming your points directly towards travel with the special rate of 1 ThankYou point = 1.25 cents towards travel redeemed on the Citi Travel Center. For example, 10,000 ThankYou points could be redeemed for $125 towards travel. That tilts things in favor of the travel option.

Why Everything Else Is Worse. Here’s a quick rundown of the other redemptions that you might think is a good deal but doesn’t work out when you do the math.

  • Pay with points at Amazon.com: 0.80 cents per point
  • Citi Prepaid Visa card: 0.63-0.67 cents per point
  • Cash reward: 0.5 cents per point
  • Statement credit: 0.5 cents per point

Note: Citi ThankYou Point Tiered System. I should point out that Citi does a confusing thing where they don’t offer the same redemption options to everyone. It is my understanding that they separate credit cards into “standard” and “premium” cards. As long as you have one premium card as a “Sponsor account” linked to your pooled ThankYou point account, then you will get the preferred set of available options even if the rest of your cards are standard and all your points come from them. I don’t have enough data points to figure out the exact breakdown of which card is premium and which is not. For example, I believe the Citi ThankYou Preferred card is premium, but the Citi ThankYou card and Citi Forward cards are standard. But all three have no annual fee?! I’ve never had a problem with this, but if you only have the Citi Forward card you may have come across it.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.”

Filed Under: Banking, Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //
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