Updated, possible $20 free credit for existing Uber customers, new codes for both new and existing Silvercar customers.

Summon everything from your phone! Most of these startups offer bonus credit for first-time users. If you live in a major metro area, this can add up several free rides. I’ve used Uber several times now, and it is amazing how the entrenched taxi industry missed a huge tech opportunity. I see the same thing with Target’s online buying experience being so much worse than Amazon.

Uber. $20 off your first ride via this special link or promo code uberMYMONEYBLOG. Existing users can get another $20 in Uber credit using the Facebook Messenger app, with details here (see bottom of post) and here. I couldn’t get it to work myself, but others report success and supposedly they are adding more cities. Cities.

Lyft. $20 ride credit via promo code THOMAS82499 or my referral link. Cities.

Flywheel. $5 off your first ride until with this special link or promo code 27A8AP.

Gett. You can usually find the best available new user promo code here, up to $50 in the past but right now I don’t see anything. Alternatively, you can try my referral code GTJONAT17 for $20 in free credit. Black car service in NYC only.

Sidecar. $10 ride credit with promo code jdhmd. If that doesn’t work, get a $5 ride credit with my referral code JONATHAN931.

Curb (formerly Taxi Magic). $15 ride credit with promo code CURBFIRST. If that doesn’t work, get a $10 ride credit with referral promo code 00b72a or via this special link. Cities.

Summon (formerly Instacab). $5 ride credit with referral code JPING or use this special link. Flat fares from anywhere in San Francisco to SFO ($35), OAK ($50) and SJC ($120).

Bonus Stuff

Silvercar. Rent a sleek Audi A4 with your phone. First-time renters can get $75 off their first rental of 2+ days with promo code JOLLY75 now through 1/10/16. Returning customers can get 15% off any rental with promo code JOLLY15 now through 1/10/16. I’m not sure if you can stack with the referral offer of $25 in Paypal when you sign up with referral code JPING (referral link, program details). I would sign up for an account first ($25 in PayPal), and then make a rental second ($75 off).

LoungeBuddy. This app helps you locate airport lounges, read reviews, and even book access directly. Get a free $10 in credit using my referral code SMMiI89dbv. In addition, until December 31, 2015, LoungeBuddy is offering a Holiday promo 100% rebate on lounge access at select locations in the form of app credit. So spend $10 cash on an airport lounge, and get $10 in LoungeBuddy credit to use again later.

Where the best deal is a referral code, I have included my own and will usually get a bounty of whatever you get (you get free ride, I get free ride). If my code isn’t the best deal, I have posted the better deal first. Thanks in advance if you use any of them. Let me know if you find a better confirmed deal.

Promotion has expired.

Accor Hotels is a huge hotel network, especially in Europe. Their new Rewards Quest game promotion will net you over 1,000 free points in their Le Club AccorHotel loyalty program, all in under 5-10 minutes. You don’t even need to answer the questions correctly. It was actually educational for me 😉

If you are a regular Accor Hotel traveler, you’ll probably know what you want to do with your points. You’ll also have the required one hotel stay ever 12 months in order to keep your points from expiring.

If you are NOT a regular Accor Hotel customer, then you should know that these points will convert to various airline programs. The minimum is usually 2,000 points = 1,000 Delta Skymiles, for example. However, it is not well known that if you set your points to automatically convert to a preset miles program, there is no minimum! In that case, your 1,100 Free Le Club AccorHotels Points = 550 Delta SkyMiles. After you create an account and are logged in, try this link to set things up.

I would like to convert my Le Club Accorhotels points into points for other loyalty programs systematically
– Points will be transferred automatically to the selected partner as soon as my account has the required number of points.
– My points will be credited to my partner account within 6 weeks following the transfer
– I cannot receive other Le Club Accorhotels Rewards

Here’s a screenshot from my account which shows an automatic transfer of less than 2,000 points:

There may be other airlines more to your liking, such as Iberia or British Airways, although Delta is the only domestic airline option that I see. At the minimum, it can help delay the expiration of some frequent flier miles.

Curbside is a new app that adds a “drive thru window” to local stores like Target, Best Buy, or Home Depot. You order stuff with your smartphone (iOS or Android), and pick it up without parking your car. No handling fees, no markups. An interesting compromise between dealing with in-store crowds and waiting around for the UPS truck. Right now they are only in very limited areas.

New customers can get $20 off their first Target order. Curbside is currently ONLY available in the Greater Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York/New Jersey Area. Limit one per household. First time customers only. While supplies last.

You’ll get an e-mail with the title “Your $20 Offer is waiting.” You may need to install the app, sign up for the account, and then go use the link in that e-mail again to activate your $20 promotion balance. Here is a screenshot.

Note that the above promo is better than the standard refer-a-friend offer of $10 off $20 minimum order. You’ll see these codes readily available everywhere… including here! But don’t use my $10 off promo code NCDLO unless the above linked offer is expired.

Here’s a quick roundup of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals that I felt either had broad appeal, were finance-related, or might ideally save you money on stuff you would have bought anyway.

• Amazon 10% Off. A reminder to save on their Cyber Week deals and everything else on Amazon with Chase Freedom 10% back, Discover Card (5% or 10% back with Double It Promotion), and AmEx Offers $15 off $60. I shop there a lot and have already loaded up on gift cards to lock in the savings.
• Kindle eBook Deals. One day sale on popular Kindle books, plus up to 40% off their Kindle Unlimited eBook subscription service.
• Target 15% Off. Target.com is offering 15% site-wide on 11/30 with promo code CYBER15. Useful for things that are usually not discounted. Stack with 5% off with their REDcard.
• Travelocity 17% Off. Get an additional 17% off any hotel booking of $300+ on Cyber Monday, on top of the normal discount. Also get $150 off $1,500+ airfare and hotel combo booking.
• Expedia $75 off $300. $75 off your first hotel booked on the Expedia App ($300 minimum purchase). Stack with their already-discounted rates for Cyber Monday. Hotel stay must be by March 31, 2016.
• SimpliSafe 20% Off. DIY Home Security system. See my Simplisafe Review. 20% off during Black Friday weekend, which probably the biggest flat discount I’ve seen.
• Quicken 2016 40% Off. Get 40% off the list price of 2016 Quicken Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager, or Quicken for Mac 2016. Valid either at Amazon or Quicken.com. This is one of the biggest discounts you’ll see. Thanks to reader Brad for the tip.
• iBank for Mac 20% Off. Alternative money management software for Mac. 20% off through 11/30.
• Ting Black Friday Deals. Possibly cheaper cell phone service for some folks. Buy a device or bring your own. See my Ting post for details. Good until 11/30 at 11:59 ET.
• Obi200 Free Home Phone Service $29.99. Helps you use Google Voice to get free home phone service using your existing internet connection. See this Obihai and Google Voice installation post for details. Valid at both Newegg and Amazon.

Here’s some free stuff for existing Verizon Wireless customers. Visit vzw.com/thanksgetting and Verizon will give you 1 GB of free data this billing cycle, and another 1 GB your next billing cycle. Starting on Wednesday 11/25, they’ll start giving out other stuff like $5 iTunes gift cards, free Amazon media credits, and free in-flight WiFi. The bonus data should show up in your online account almost immediately after enrollment.

*Limit one data promotional per account. The 1GB Data offer (“Promotional Data”) can only be redeemed one time per account by VZW customers on a qualifying plan. Must have a valid VZW Mobile Telephone Number. Promotional Data will be added to your existing monthly data allowance, and applies to data usage after Promotional Data redemption date. Promotional Data will be shared by all lines on an account. Data usage applies for app downloads/use.

Added separate free data offer: I’m still waiting to verify for myself, but Verizon is giving away 2 GB of data per month for 3 months to those people who download their Go90 app according to this link (log in and scroll down to see offer).

Promo offer only applicable to The More Everything Plan and The Verizon Plan customers with accounts in good standing. Extra data applied to account and is for any data usage. One promotional offer per account. This promotional data can be combined with other Verizon promotional offers. Limited time offer.

Straight Talk is a prepaid MVNO that offers the ability to buy SIM cards that you can pop into any AT&T-compatible, T-Mobile-compatible, or unlocked GSM phone. This includes many Samsung Galaxys and iPhones that you can buy refurbished or on the used market. For $45 a month you get unlimited minutes, unlimited text, and 5 GB of high-speed data with no contracts and no credit checks. You also avoid the usual cell phone taxes that can add $5 to $10 per line. Unlimited data means 3G/4G data speeds for 5 GB per month (recently improved from 2.5 GB) and then 2G data speeds after that.

$45 a month is the everyday price. Last year, there was a nice promo that let you buy 4 months of the Straight Talk unlimited plan for $26 a month, a significant 42% savings off the regular price. I’m actually just updating that old post here and pruning stale comments.

Right now, you can buy 8 months of the Straight Talk unlimited plan for $22.50 a month. To access this promo, either try clicking on this promo deep link or entering your info at this promo intro page. You should see the following offer text in red:

For Limited Time only get a FREE SIM + FREE Service Plan Card with the Purchase of a 30 Day Service Plan Card

• Each package includes 2 monthly plan cards, and you can buy 4 packages for a total of 8 months for $180 + taxes and shipping where applicable.
• While the link only let you buy a T-Mobile SIM card as part of the package, the actual monthly plan cards can be activated with any provider SIM. They also sell AT&T SIM cards on the same website, if you prefer that.
• You can also try to stack with cashback shopping portal. For example, BeFrugal.com normally offers $30 cashback for airtime + SIM purchase. BeFrugal also has $10 bonus for new customers that earn $25 in cashback. See reader Shoe’s comment.
• If your desired SIM size is sold out, know that you can buy a simple $4 SIM cutter which can cut any SIM card into a micro SIM or nano SIM. (Or a $4 SIM adapter will make a nano into micro or regular SIM.) You may have to use a bit of sandpaper as well for the nano SIM as they are a little thinner than regular SIMs. Read the reviews, they work.
• You can also check back later to see if they restock, but I’d rather just lock in the savings with whatever SIM is in stock.
• Finally, the $60 international cards are also buy 1 get 1 free, making them $30 and still cheaper than the $45 plan. The $60 plan has the features of the $45 plan plus unlimited calling to Mobile in Mexico, China, India and Canada and some other features. So it’s still a pretty good discount (33% off) if the rest are out of stock.

It’s back! Wow, haven’t posted a Groupon deal in a while. I really should have shorted the stock when even I unsubscribed from their daily newsletter, but I didn’t have the guts. Now I’m just mad because they deleted my account after not using it for a while, even though I still had unused credit (and I’ll have to open a new one for this deal).

Anyway! Groupon is selling a $15 Starbucks Gift Card for $10. Limited quantities, ends in a week or so otherwise . Why is free coffee so appealing? Over 100,000 sold already. Limit 1 per person.

Remember that you can save even more on your Groupon with cashback shopping sites:

• TopCashBack ($10 bonus after $10 earned in cashback rewards, expires 11/16).
• eBates ($10 new user bonus after any $25+ purchase, $5 mininum cash-out)
• Mr. Rebates ($5 new user bonus, $10 minimum cash-out)
• BeFrugal.com ($5 new user bonus)

There was previous promo with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, but now there is a another separate promo with the Chase Freedom. Earn a $15 statement credit after you spend $15 or more with your Chase Freedom® card using Visa Checkout. Valid for new or existing Visa Checkout accountholders. Read on, it’s an easy $15 if you have this card.

More people out there probably have the Chase Freedom card. No annual fee and 5% cash back in rotating categories every quarter.

Visa Checkout is a way to pay for things online without have to give a merchant your credit card number. You use a login and password instead. Think Paypal, but Visa-branded. Participating merchants include Pizzahut.com, Shutterfly, Newegg, Staples, Fandango, Orbitz, Gap, and more.

Since these are all online websites, you can also use a cashback shopping portal for many merchants and get a little bit extra back. Some suggestions for a small online purchase:

• Order a pizza from PizzaHut.com. You must get it delivered, not carry out. I can usually get 2 pizzas for around $20, so a $15 credit would cover most of dinner that day.
• Buy some movie tickets from Fandango.
• Go to NewEgg.com and buy a $15 to $20 gift card to a place you like.
• Buy a gift card from Staples.com

Selected fine print:

This offer is valid from 11/2/2015 through 12/31/2015. To qualify for this offer, you must make a single purchase of $15 or more using your Chase Freedom Visa credit card with your Visa Checkout account during checkout. Limit (1) $15 statement credit per customer or card account. Allow 1 to 2 billing cycles from Visa Checkout purchase for delivery of the statement credit to the Chase Freedom account added to the Visa Checkout account; your card account must remain open and not be in default to receive the statement credit.

Promo extended. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, stock brokerage TradeKing is offering a $200 cash bonus for new accounts opened by 12/31/2015, funded with $3,000 or more within 30 days of account opening, and with at least 3 executed trades within 90 days of account opening. You must keep the $3,000 in account equity (minus any trading losses) for at least 6 months.

This is probably the biggest bonus I’ve seen for this account, the standard offer is $50. TradeKing charges a flat $4.95 for online stock trades; so $200 would cover 40 trades. Option trades are also $4.95 + 65 cents per option contract.