Amazon is offering a Buy 3 Items, Save 30% promotion when you buy selected items from their on Household Essentials and Health & Wellness categories.
This includes common items like toilet paper, paper towels, flushable wipes, ziploc bags, soap, laundry detergent, and vitamins. Amazon really wants you think of them when you buy everyday items.
Moviepass recently slashed their prices for unlimited in-theater movies (one per day) to only $9.95 per month. Here how it works in practical terms:
My take? I don’t see how this is a sustainable business model. MoviePass is paying full price for the movies (not even some sort of wholesale discount). MoviePass must be hoping that a lot of casual people sign up and then forget to watch movies some months? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they wait until after the summer movie season to announce this. I am skeptical that they can monetize the group data enough to cover their costs.
AMC doesn’t like Moviepass but since the are just using a normal debit card to pay full price, I don’t see how they can stop the service.
Bottom line. The service seems legit in that they’ve been in business since 2011 and the CEO is one of the co-founders of Netflix and former Redbox executive. However, I still see a late “pivot” for a wobbly startup. Watch a bunch of movies in the next few months if you can, but don’t be surprised if your Moviepass card suddenly stops working.
The Citi Prestige Card is their premium ThankYou point rewards card. Here are the highlights of the cards perks and sign-up bonus:
Note the following fine print:
Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Rewards+?, Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier? or Citi Prestige®, or if you have closed any of these accounts, in the past 24 months.
Annual $250 Air Travel Credit details. Unlike other cards, airfare counts as well as baggage fees, lounge access, and other incidental purchases. This renews every calendar year, so it can be used to help offset the annual fee every year.
This statement credit is an annual benefit available for purchases appearing on your billing statements from December through the following December. Pending transactions that do not post in your December billing cycle will count towards the next year’s Air Travel Credit.
Hotel points and airline miles transfer options. Citi ThankYou points are also now available to transfer to certain airline mileage programs on a 1:1 basis including JetBlue, Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, Etihad, Flying Blue by Air France and KLM, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, EVA Air, Jet Airways, Turkish Airlines, and Thai Airways. For example, 50,000 TY points can get you 50,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. If you know how to redeem this points wisely, you can get a lot of value for international flights.
Virgin Mobile has extended their promotion offering a full year of unlimited service for $1 for new customers who buy an iPhone and transfer their number, as well as current Virgin Mobile customers who upgrade to an iPhone. Auto-pay required. It has officially been extended through 8/31/17.
Virgin Mobile USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint and is thus on the Sprint network. Unlimited talk, text, and data with de-prioritization after 23 GB each month. Although taxes are technically not included, people report being charged only 8 cents per month, so apparently it’s not a concern. After the first year, the unlimited plan costs $50 a month including all taxes as this is a prepaid service.
The cost of the newest iPhones from Virgin Mobile is comparable to buying direct from Apple. For example, iPhone 7 32GB version is $649. However, there are discounts for older models: iPhone 6 32GB is $320. iPhone SE 32GB is $280.
Compare this offer with the Sprint Free Year of Unlimited offer. For the Sprint offer, you must bring your own eligible device and qualify via a hard credit check. If you don’t want an iPhone, you could buy a New Unlocked Moto E4 for $99 from Amazon. For this Virgin Mobile offer, you must buy a new iPhone for at least $280 but there is no credit check. Sprint includes mobile hotspot tethering, while Virgin charges an extra $10 a month.
Per this press release, Virgin will also throw in the following perks:
If you wanted to buy an iPhone anyway (a new model is coming out soon) and are okay with the Sprint network, this can work out to a good deal. You could get a new iPhone 6 (which is still perfectly useable in my opinion) and a year of Unlimited talk/text/data service for $321. After the first year, you’ll still have the iPhone 6 which you can use on another network.
Alaska Airlines has a Dash for Miles promotion where you can earn up to 3,000 bonus miles: 1,000 bonus miles times three partner sites through September 30, 2017. You must register at the link above first, and then complete at least one transaction from any of the following:
All of these sites are relatively easy to participate in. Mileage Plan Dining has a relatively wide restaurant network and you could link a credit card and buy a $2 soda. Mileage Plan shopping can be triggered with a $5 purchase at Staples.com, Gap.com, or Groupon. The Opinion Terminal only takes the time commitment to fill out an initial survey. (I was able to get the 400 miles after about 15 minutes. Some people only get 5 miles, but that’s enough to trigger the 1,000 point bonus.)
This promo can also be used to reset the expiration of your Alaska Mileage Plan miles for another 24 months. If a Mileage Plan account is inactive for 2 years, Alaska Airlines may close the account, delete any mileage balance and reassign the Mileage Plan number. Deleted mileage can be reinstated for a fee for up to 1 year.
Dash for Miles Challenge Offer Terms & Conditions:
Limited time offer valid August 7, 2017 through September 30, 2017: Mileage Plan™ members who register for this offer and complete at least one transaction with each of Mileage Plan Dining, Mileage Plan Shopping, and Miles for Surveys during the promotional period will receive 1,000 bonus Miles for each partner they earn with. Registration is required prior to the first qualifying transaction. Bonus Miles do not count towards Mileage Plan Elite Status. Bonus Miles will be awarded within six weeks of the last qualifying transaction posting to a member’s account. All terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan program apply. Offer subject to change without notice.
Here’s another promotion for Visa Checkout (they are really pushing this thing). Create a new Visa Checkout account from Marriott.com and earn up to 1,000 free Marriott Rewards points: Earn 500 points when you sign up for Visa Checkout on Marriott.com and 500 points when you use Visa Checkout within 15 days of signing up.
Stack with the Starbucks / Visa Checkout promo. You can have multiple Visa Checkout accounts (each one needs a separate e-mail/phone number and credit card). For this promo, the e-mail address must match between Visa Checkout and Marriott Rewards, so you might need to change one or the other beforehand. Fine print:
Offer valid through 9/24/17 while supplies last. Only new Visa Checkout users eligible. Address on Visa Checkout account must match email address associated with Marriott Rewards member account. […] Allow 6 to 8 weeks from the end of the Promotion Period for delivery of the bonus points award. Marriott Rewards members who have elected in their account profile to earn miles are not eligible for the Promotion.
Fall promo is live. Starbucks is selling $20 Starbucks Gift Card for $10 if you buy it using Visa Checkout instead of credit card directly. Limited to the first 225,000 loads, but if you can still buy a gift card at the link, then the promotion is should still be alive. Otherwise valid 8/14/17 to 9/30/17.
Hey, Starbucks finally figured out that it would be nice to have all this reflected during checkout! A screenshot from my order:
Selected terms:
Promotional Offer Terms: Read the following terms to see how you can get a promotional $10 added to the value of your Starbucks eGift Card while supplies last (“Bonus Load”). Starbucks will give away 225,000 Bonus Loads between 8/14/17 and 9/30/17 (“Promotional Period”). To receive a Bonus Load, you must purchase a minimum $10 Starbucks eGift Card with your valid Visa Checkout® Account during the Promotional Period and meet other eligibility requirements below.
Back again, but different? I’m not sure if this works if you’ve already done it before, but there is a new Chirpify promotional page with a new #RewardsPoints hashtag (instead of #MRpoints) showing the following opportunities:
Here’s a link to the FAQ. I don’t know why all these things ask for the ability to post on your behalf, but then promise “we won’t post on your behalf”. So why ask for it? Just as with secondary e-mail accounts, some people choose to keep secondary social media accounts…
Free again. Asset manager Meb Faber is promoting the launch of his new book, The Best Investment Writing: Selected writing from leading investors and authors (Vol. 1), by making all four previous self-published books free in Kindle format for a limited time (ends Saturday 8/5). Below are direct links to each book. Check first that the Kindle price is $0 (“0.00 to Buy”), then buy it to own permanently. Do not click “Read for Free”.
Grab them now while they are free, and read later at your convenience. You can read Kindle eBooks on smartphones or on any computer via web browser.
I enjoy reading these books, but I’m always careful when reading about finely-diced backtested strategies that worked well in the past. Before you put your hard-earned money at risk, please realize that even if they continue to work (which is in no way guaranteed given how markets tend to weed out edges), they will still be hard to stick to in real life. At some time, you will underperform other strategies for an extended period of time. You must ride out those low periods in order to achieve any sort of market-beating returns. In my opinion, the fancier the strategy, the harder it is to keep faith.
Interest rates are slowly waking up from their multi-year slumber, so I’m paying closer attention to the various changes each month. Don’t let a megabank pay you 0.01% APY or less for your idle cash. Here is my monthly roundup of the best safe rates available, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. Rates checked as of 8/1/17.
High-yield savings accounts
While the huge brick-and-mortar banks rarely offer good yields, the online banks with a history of competitive rates offer online savings accounts clustered 1.0%-1.2% APY. Remember that with savings accounts, the interest rates can change at any time.
Money market mutual funds + Ultra-short bond ETFs
If you like to keep cash in a brokerage account, you should know that money market and short-term Treasury rates have been inching upwards. It may be worth the effort to move your money into a higher-yielding money market fund or ultrashort-term bond ETF.
Short-term guaranteed rates (under 1 year)
I am often asked what to do with a big wad of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). Honestly, I wouldn’t get fancy or take unnecessary risk. Just keep it safe in a short-term CD or online savings account that in insured under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.
US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. There are annual purchase limits. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest.
Prepaid Cards with Attached Savings Accounts
A small subset of prepaid debit cards have an “attached” FDIC-insured savings account with high interest rates. The risks are that balances are capped, and there are many fees that you must be careful to avoid (lest they eat up your interest). The other catch is that these good features may be killed off without much notice. My NetSpend card now only has an eligible balance up to $1,000.
Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with some risk. You have to jump through certain hoops, and if you make a mistake you won’t earn any interest for that month. Rates can also drop quickly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling. But the rates can be high while they last.
Certificates of deposit
If you have a large cushion, it’s quite likely to just sit there for years. One option is to keep your money in longer-term investments where you can still take it out in a true emergency and pay a reasonable early withdrawal penalty. Alternatively, you could create a CD ladder of different maturity lengths such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account.
Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution, but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.
All rates were checked as of 8/1/17.
LivingSocial has a Costco Gold Star Membership Package where for $60 you can get $215.63 value:
Valid for new members only, which here means the primary cardholder can’t have a current Costco membership or a membership that expired after April 1, 2017. Offer is valid at all U.S. Costco locations.
The last $100 is harder to redeem, but the $20 gift card and $25 in free paper towels/pizza still makes it a pretty good deal if you have a household member without a current membership.
Remember that you can save a bit more on your LivingSocial purchases with cashback shopping sites like eBates ($5 new customer bonus) and Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus).
My strategy for saving money on shaving is simple. I buy a bunch of razors once every 2 years, and use one razor per month. I try not to pay more than $1 per razor, so my total shaving bill is under $12 a year. To make sure they stay comfortable, I dry thoroughly after each use (some people use alcohol or mineral oil). I also hone occassionally with my forearm or jeans.
Here’s an example deal for under $1 per razor. Dorco USA (which also makes the blades for Dollar Shave Club) is currently offering 50% off their Frugal Dude Pack with promo code AFFDP717 good through 7/21/17. It’s a mix of 3-,4-, and 6-blade systems. The combo includes 2 handles, 16 cartridges, and 12 disposables. They call this a 1-year supply (at 13 days per razor), but this would last me 2 years (at 26 days per razor) as my facial hair is wimpy.
That’s a total of 28 razors for $23.85 with free shipping included, which works out to $0.85 per razor. Here’s a screenshot:
I’ve been quite satisfied with the quality of Dorco razors. If you want to try it out first, you can get Pace 6 For Men (1 handle, 2 cartridges) for $1.99 shipped with promo code AFPACE6718. Good through 7/21/17. That’s still $1 per cartridge. Note that you should pick budget shipping, go to the end where you enter the promo code, THEN update the shipping cost, THEN it will show budget shipping as $0.00. Screenshot.
I know that some folks prefer safety razors, for which you can buy a quality handle for $24 and then buy refills for 12 cents each after that, which also sounds perfectly reasonable if you enjoy that style of shaving.
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