Election Day Freebies: Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, Krispie Kreme, and More

Posted on November 4, 2008 // 10 Comments

Along with performing your civic duty today, you can pick up some free food from these locations. Some require an “I Voted” sticker, while others just take your word for it.

Starbucks – Free coffee
On November 4, 2008, Starbucks will give voters a free tall brewed coffee at participating U.S. stores. After voting, voters must go to a Starbucks store, where they’ll be given a tall (12 oz) cup of brewed coffee at no charge (limit one per customer). [source]

Krispy Kreme – Free star-shaped doughnut
Krispy Kreme will celebrate National Election day by offering all retail customers with an “I Voted” sticker a free star shaped doughnut with patriotic sprinkles. [source]

Ben & Jerry’s – Free ice cream
Come to participating scoop shops on November 4th from 5-8pm, and you’ll get a free scoop of ice cream. [source]

Chick-fil-A – Free chicken sandwich
At participating stores, bring in your “I voted” sticker into your local Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday, November 4th and get a free chicken sandwich. Man, do I miss living near a Chick-fil-A and their sweet tea refills…

Books-A-Million Bookstores – Free coffee
Wear your “I voted Sticker” to Books A Million on election day and recieve a cup of Joe on us! [via e-mail].

Some of these offers may make you turn in your “I Voted” sticker, so if you want to go to more than one, try to grab a few extra stickers at the polls. Early and absentee voters… you might want to print out the image above on glossy paper. 🙂

Resources: Dealnews, SlickDeals

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Discover More: 0% APR Balance Transfer Fee Cap Ends October 31st

Posted on October 30, 2008 // 24 Comments

It looks like the credit crunch continues to trickle down to everything financial, including tightening up in the credit card industry. I have it on good authority that the $75 balance transfer fee cap on the Discover More card will end on October 31st. (Update: Yes, the cap is now gone.)

Why care? The Discover More Card – No Balance Transfer Fee* is just about the last credit card with a 0% APR balance transfer for 12 months, as well as a $75 balance transfer fee cap. This is important because you may have noticed that nearly all other 0% APR cards have an uncapped 3% fee. So if you transferred $10,000, the fee would be $300. On a $20,000 balance, that would be $600!. The cap saves you lots of money, and these offers have only gotten more scarce with time.

Even though I don’t carry a balance, I have used this card to make some extra money off credit card arbitrage.

Getting Your Money
You can usually request a balance transfer to be sent directly to a card with a balance on it. (Or you could send it to a Citibank card without a balance on it, and request a refund check.) However, a reader wrote in last week to say that you can also call them up afterward and request a balance transfer check to be sent to you directly from Discover.

If you’ve been thinking about applying but putting it off, now would be the time to do it! According a Discover CSR, if you apply now to lock in the offer, you have until February to request your balance transfer. (Update: There is now no cap.)

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

ShareBuilder Offers: 2 Free Real-Time Trades, $50 New Customer Bonus

Posted on October 28, 2008 // 33 Comments

Apparently ShareBuilder brokerage had some hiccups during the last few weeks, so like Zecco with their unlimited free trades in October, they threw out bonuses. A reader indicated that he was offered 20 automatic trades. Check your e-mails.

Existing Customers: 2 Free Real-Time Trades
I myself was offered 2 free “real-time” market trades. I don’t know for sure if this is transferable (update: looks like it is), but I did get a promo code so please try it:

1. Log in to Sharebuilder, and then click on the Promotions tab.

2. Enter (expired). If it works, you should see a confirmation, and get an e-mail that says “We have just credited your ShareBuilder Account with 2 free Real-time Trade credits. Your credit(s) will expire on 01/31/2009.”

Usually it costs $9.95 for a real-time trade, so this is useful if you need to sell a small position. As for me, I have been holding on to some old shares of EEM and BRKB for a while now from previous bonuses… but I think it’s time to let them go.

New Customers: Try ShareBuilder with a $50 Opening Bonus
You can get a $50 bonus for opening a new account and placing one trade.

1. Go to Sharebuilder, and click on “Get started today”.

2. When applying, be sure to check the box “I’m responding to a promotion”. Use (expired).

Details:

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.

3. You can try out Sharebuilder as you like, but if you don’t like it there are a couple ways to simply exit with your bonus.

  1. Instant Gratification: Open with $5. Buy $1 of stock and pay $4 for commission. Wait for your bonus and cash out if applicable. Let the $1 in stock just languish there.
  2. Delayed Gratification: Open with $50. Buy $46 of a stock or ETF you like and pay $4 for commission. Get the $50 (or more), and treat it like you just got free stock. Let the dividends reinvest automatically, and just sit back for a decade or two while it grows.

The reason for this is that you can only sell with a real-time trade that costs $9.95. However, if the first bonus above does work, then you can theoretically sell your stock for free and withdraw that as well…

You can still get $50 for trying out TradeKing brokerage as well. Extended until 11/30/08

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

1,000 Free Delta SkyMiles Offer + More

Posted on October 27, 2008 // 12 Comments

Delta LogoYou can get 1,000 Delta SkyMiles for enrolling in ThanksAgain for free by October 31st. Again, good for generating some recent account activity. ThanksAgain looks like a shopping “milesback” portal but for local merchants, tracked by linking up your existing credit card. You’ll need your SkyMiles number.

$300 off a flight with the Delta Gold AMEX card
If you haven’t already done so – The Delta Gold SkyMiles American Express Card is currently offering 30,000 bonus miles after making $500 in purchases in the first three months. The annual fee is waived for the first year as well, usually $95. Just cancel it before the first year is up if you don’t get the proper value.

In addition, a new update is that Gold card lets you participate in Delta’s Pay for Miles program, which allows you to directly use miles even if you don’t want to bother with booking an award ticket. For example, 10,000 miles is good for $100 off any Delta flight. Therefore, as long as you fly Delta, this 30,000 miles bonus is guaranteed to be worth at least $300 cash.

*You can add additional users with no Social Security number required, and you can just have them sent to your house and hide them away. I usually just add my parents.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Chase Freedom Rewards Card – 5% Back On Popular Spending Categories

Posted on October 24, 2008 // 40 Comments

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

New PineCone Research Signup Link (Paid Surveys)

Posted on October 23, 2008 // 19 Comments

PineCone Research remains one of the better paying and reliable survey companies, with a payout of $3 for each 15-20 minute survey. The hardest part is getting accepted, as they only accept applications intermittently.

Thanks to reader Tom, here is the most recent application link at Pinecone. (It probably won’t last long.) Looks open to all ages and sexes. Only one person per household can sign up.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on Pinecone and paid surveys in general here. I call them Bored Money – not terribly efficient but you sometimes get to try some neat things. Here’s a quick list of other paid survey sites:

The three that I have been most active with besides Pinecone are NFO MySurvey, e-Rewards, and SurveySavvy. I like it them because they continue to give me the most paid survey opportunities, even if I only pick and choose which ones I want to do. I’ve gotten multiple checks and/or rewards from all of them.

Joining e-Rewards is usually indirect, I get offers to join from my airline miles newsletters from time to time. Not sure if they still work, but you can try these two links for Continental and Northwest airlines (must have frequent flier account number).

There are several other sites with which others have reported varying levels of success: American Consumer Opinion, Greenfield Online, Harris Poll Online, Lightspeed Panel, or SurveySpot.

Filed Under: Bored Money, Deals & Offers //

Updates: Top Savings Account and CD Interest Rates

Posted on October 22, 2008 // 29 Comments

Given the recent drop in Fed interest rates, here is a quick update on the rates being paid on online savings accounts:

HSBC Advance lowered its rate to 3.00% APY.

Capital One 360 also recently lowered its rate to 0.75% APY. ($25 bonus) However, they do have a new 12-month CD at 0.40% APY.

FNBO Direct holds steady at 3.50% APY dropped today to 0.85% APY. (FNBO Direct review)

Emigrant Direct is still at 3.00% APY, but if you have more than $1,000 there, you should move your money to DollarSavingsDirect at 4.00% APY instead. They are both under the same parent Emigrant Bank, and so your deposits are insured together for FDIC purposes. The only real difference is that DollarSavings requires a $1,000 balance to earn the 4%.

I was really annoyed at this until I figured out that there is actually no minimum balance requirement at DollarSavingsDirect, your interest rate just drops to 1.0% APY if you go below. No fees or penalties. Thus, I can still open an account and move my money there while the rate is good, and still be able to move it out if the rate drops. Okay, so I’m still kind of annoyed. They are saying “we think you’re too lazy to move your money, but new customers get 4% APY”.

EverBank’s Yield Pledge savings account has an intro rate of 4.65% APY for the first 3 months, and then 3.51% APY afterwards. Not bad, considering even the non-special rate is very competitive, as it “pledges” to stay amongst the top 5% of competitive banks. There is a minimum balance requirement of $1,500 to avoid fees.

Corus Bank has what looks like the top 12-month CD rate at at 4.60% APY if you open with $10,000+.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

150 Bonus American Airlines Miles Offer

Posted on October 20, 2008 // 10 Comments

You can grab a quick 150 American Airlines AAdvantage miles by visiting this website and watching a quick video about $300 Bose headphones. Earn another 350 miles if you stop by a Bose store and do a live demo. Expires 10/31/08. Posts in 6-8 weeks. Should be useful for delaying expiration of miles.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Free Tall Cappuccino + 15% Off at Barnes & Noble

Posted on October 16, 2008 // 5 Comments

Here is an e-mail coupon for a free Tall Cappucino at a Barnes & Noble Starbucks. There is also a coupon for 15% off one item. Expires 10/31/08. Via FW.

Sadly, for me the main draw of this offer is that with a Starbucks drink I can actually find a place to sit and browse through books inside Barnes. (They kick you out of the cafe area if you’re not a customer and it’s crowded.) The last time I actually found an open couch was probably 2005. The 15% off may be useful for those times when you simply can’t wait to go home and order it from BN.com or Amazon.com for 30% off…

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Quicken Online Now Free: Joining Yodlee, Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe

Posted on October 14, 2008 // 46 Comments

Quicken Online is now free. It used to cost $3 per month ($36/year). This established brand name is now directly competing with other free online account aggregation services like Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe, and Yodlee MoneyCenter. I guess they decided it would be better to give this product away for free as well, in the hopes that they can sell you TurboTax or the desktop Quicken later on. 😉 I signed up; here is a screenshot:

Although I keep meaning to do a more in-depth review of all these services, I have not done so yet because after trying each of these services briefly I always end up going back to my trusted Yodlee MoneyCenter. I have been disappointed in how they all (including Yodlee) unsuccessfully attempt to categorize my purchases, and I am unwilling to keep manually correcting them.

I prefer the simple “snapshot” feel of Yodlee, where I can see all my balances and investments at a glance, along with recent transactions. I can even keep track of my frequent flier miles and other rewards points. Each day I log in, acknowledge any changes, and am done within 5 minutes. “Get in, get out, get on with your life”.

Other more personal (and lame) reasons include sheer habit, as I have been using Yodlee since 2004. Finally, I have a lot of accounts, and the idea of having to re-enter all those passwords again is not appealing at all.

All of these sites take your logins and passwords, and essentially pretend to be you and scrape the pertinent information off each webpage using a script. Yodlee actually sells its account aggregation services to Mint. Geezeo uses CashEdge. Quicken Online and Wesabe have their own systems. Be aware that in many cases you are giving them limited power of attorney to do this. It’s all in the terms and conditions! Many people wisely are very skeptical of handing over all their passwords to a third party. I have previously posted a modest defense of my use of Yodlee here.

Filed Under: Budgeting, Deals & Offers //

250 Free Business Cards From Quickbooks ($5 Shipping)

Posted on October 12, 2008 // 8 Comments

In my last Amazon.com order, there was a flyer for 250 free business cards from Intuit Quickbooks. I have been meaning to get new business cards with my new address, so I tried it out. Even in this digital age, business cards are a great way to publicize your home business or freelance work. Pass them out!

The ordering process was easy, and UPS Ground shipping was $5. I kept things pretty simple, and did not add a custom logo for extra money or any other options, and it was $5 total with no sneakiness. Very cheap advertising, not to mention it is a deductible business expense. 🙂 The order shipped in 3 days.

From looking at the 42 available free designs, it would appear that these are the same offered by Vistaprint. I have used Vistaprint before with no problems, but others have reported issues with them. Vistaprint does try to cross-sell you a lot of different trial offers with various companies before letting you check out with your free business cards. Quickbooks did not. Also, Vistaprint puts their logo on the back of the free cards, which some feel makes the cards look less professional. Quickbooks does not.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Entrepreneurial //

New $50 Signup Bonus For TradeKing Brokerage

Posted on October 2, 2008 // 21 Comments

Online stock brokerage firm TradeKing has a new $50 sign-up bonus for new accounts. To qualify, you must open with at least $2,500, make one trade, and not take it out for 6 months.

There is no referral required, just be sure you see the $50 offer from the link. Expires 10/31/08 Extended until 11/30/08. Selected fine print:

1) To qualify for this offer, new accounts must be opened and funded with $2,500 or more. Account opening and funding must occur within 30 days from the date this email was sent, and one trade must be executed within 180 days of account opening. […] A minimum balance of $2,500 is required in the account (minus any trading losses) for the first six months or the credit may be surrendered. Offer applies to new non retirement accounts funding for the first time.

Background – Why pay more?
TradeKing is a discount brokerage with $4.95 trades and $0.65 option contracts. They have good customer service, with both Live Chat and phone reps with short hold times available. Won SmartMoney Magazine’s Best Discount Broker award in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

They are one of my three favorite discount brokers. To sum things up very briefly, they are between Zecco (cheaper, less refined) and Scottrade (more expensive, but has local physical branches). I don’t see any reason to be paying $10+ for a trade, given these three options.

For more information and tips on TradeKing, please check out my TradeKing Review. I have an account with them, so you can also ask questions in the comments.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Investing //
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