Expired as of midnight Eastern. I thought 100k would last longer than a day. Starbucks has a new $10 holiday bonus promotion:

Be one of the first 100,000 to buy a Starbucks Card eGift (min $10) with your Visa® card and we will add an additional $10, courtesy of Visa. Send $10—they get $20, send $25—they get $35, send $50—they get $60, just for using your Visa card. Offer valid from 12/8–12/12/14. One per person. Cannot send to yourself.

Starbucks is verifying people follow the terms. Your eGift card must be sent to a different e-mail address than your own and purchased with a Visa credit card that hasn’t been used with the promo. How do you know if you’re still in the first 100,000? Look for the sentence “This offer is still available” after the quoted text above.

I wish this was physical cards, those are better for gifts to friends. Alternatively, a couple could gift each other $20 gift cards for $10 each. The recipient only sees the $20 gift card, no mention the sender got a discount. Here’s one of our receipts:

Updated. This may be a limited-time offer, but here’s how a new Gyft.com customer can get $40 in Amazon Gift Cards for $30. Plus, you can even get a $5 gift card to Toys R Us. (There are other ways to spin this deal, but Amazon gift cards are the most flexible.)

1. Go to Gyft.com and open a new account. Validate your e-mail address by checking your e-mail and clicking on the link inside.
2. Check your Gyft Wallet and you should see a $5 Gytf promo code ($15 minimum purchase required). Copy the $5 Gyft code.
3. (Optional) You can try to stack the 3% cash back from shopping portal TopCashBack, or if you don’t have an account you could try to earn the sign-up bonuses from eBates ($10 new customer bonus) or Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus).
4. On Gyft, add a $15 Amazon gift card to your cart. When checking out, if possible pick Google Wallet as your payment method (for $5 Toys R Us promo card). Link whatever rewards credit card you like to Google Wallet, and make the $10 purchase.
5. Now start a new purchase. Add another $25 Amazon gift card to your cart, and apply the promo code FDFAMILY (for $5 off $25 purchase). You must pay with a method other than Google Wallet, so just pick PayPal or credit card. Make the $20 purchase.

Now you’ll have charged $30 on your credit card, and you’ll have $40 in Amazon gift cards that you can use immediately. Plus a $5 Toys R Us gift code. I did my purchases little differently back when you could stack the two promos, but the result was the same.





Only took about 5 minutes, and I have already applied the codes to my Amazon account. Credit to FW and SD.

Perhaps someone else has a way, but I was only able to see my $5 Toys R Us gift card (also works at Babies R Us) via the Google Wallet mobile app on Android or iOS. The code works in-store as well as online.

Get a $10 statement credit via this link when you enroll in Visa Checkout with a PNC Bank Visa debit or credit card by 12/31/2014. You don’t actually have to buy anything for this promotion.

Visa Checkout allows you to pay at participating online merchants without having to type in your card numbers every time, although you’ll need to remember your username and password (like Paypal).

Offer valid 10/20/14-12/31/14. Within 3 statement cycles after enrollment in Visa Checkout, customer will receive a $10 statement credit to either the enrolled PNC Visa credit card account or the primary checking account associated with the enrolled PNC Visa debit card, whichever card is listed as the preferred card in Visa Checkout. Business cards excluded. Limit of one $10 statement credit per customer.

This offer is EXPIRED.  Get a $10 Prepaid Reward Visa® Card via this link when you enroll in Visa Checkout with a Bank of America Visa debit or credit card by 12/4/2014. You’ll need to be a new Visa Checkout account customer and add a BofA consumer card, but the promo doesn’t require you to actually buy anything.

Visa Checkout allows you to pay at participating online merchants without having to type in your card numbers every time, although you’ll need to remember your username and password (like Paypal).

To qualify for this offer, you must (1) create a new Visa Checkout account for the first time by [12/4/2014] via the “Enroll now” link above, via http://promo.bankofamerica.com/visa-checkout/ or the Visa Checkout link in Bank of America’s Online Banking, AND (2) add at least one consumer Bank of America issued Visa credit or debit card to the new Visa Checkout account during the initial account set-up (other cards do not qualify for this offer). Allow 60 days from Visa Checkout account opening for delivery of the Reward card to the billing address of the Bank of America issued Visa credit or debit card first added to the Visa Checkout account. Limit one (1) Reward card per customer.

Quickly since this won’t apply to everyone – If you have a American Express Business card with OPEN, check to see if you were offered $150 back at AT&T Wireless. Simply log into your AmEx account online and scroll down until you see the “Amex Offers For You” tab. Not everyone will have this, but for those that do, simply make a $150 payment to your AT&T Wireless bill by phone at 800-331-0500 with that business card, and get that $150 back in statement credit!

Fine print:

[Read more…]

I usually don’t write much about Black Friday “deals” as it usually involves a lot of stuff most people don’t need anyway, but this year it caught my attention that Target is selling their gift cards at 10% off face value. Here are details according to their Black Friday ad [pdf] hosted by Fatwallet.

• 10% Off all Target GiftCards valid in stores on Friday, 11/28/14 from 6am until 12pm Noon local time and at Target.com from 6am until 12pm Noon Central time.
• Target Gift cards purchased during this offer can only be used beginning Saturday, November 29th (no double-dipping on Black Friday).
• Offer valid for up to $300 in Target Giftcard purchases per household. (Not sure how they’d enforce the per-household rule in-store, perhaps by billing address online.)
• Quantities limited, no rainchecks.

The good news is that you can buy online, but the max discount is $30 on $300 of gift cards (less if you’d otherwise use Target RedCard with 5% off). Also, what is up with “quantities limited”? Why limit access to their own gift cards when they already restrict the time to purchase and place a cap on purchases? Hopefully they make this promo run smoothly.

As reader Helena points out, you can also use your Discover It card and get an additional 5% off if you buy the gift cards online at Target.com.

Amazon has announced another feature for Prime subscribers: unlimited free online photo storage. As part of their Cloud Drive, Prime Photos will allow you to back up all your photos in full resolution via either web browser, smartphone app, or desktop PC software. The iOS and Android apps can be set to automatically upload your “camera roll” photos.

Prime Photos requires an Amazon Prime, Amazon Mom, Amazon Student or Amazon Fresh membership (trials count).

Back in May 2014, Flickr announced 1,000 GB of free online photo storage also at full resolution. Their smartphone app can also auto-upload pictures from your phone. For Google+ Photos, any photos over 2048×2048 pixels will count toward your storage limit (15 GB free; 1 TB is $9.99 per month).

On the one hand, Prime Photos provides even more value to Prime subscribers and it is good to have a service you pay some money towards. Flickr is free, but that also means they might shut down in the future if they lack revenue for ongoing support. On the other hand, if you stop your $99 a year Prime membership you’ll either lose your photos or have to pay for Cloud Drive storage. It’s not very cheap: 1 TB of storage costs $500 year.

Use your iPhone 6 to make an Apple Pay purchase with your Wells Fargo credit card by November 30, 2014, and you’ll earn a $20 statement credit.

Use your iPhone 6 to make an Apple Pay purchase with your Wells Fargo debit or prepaid Card by November 30, 2014, and you’ll earn a $10 statement credit.

Updated. Airbnb rents out everything from private rooms to entire houses to ancient castles. We stayed at Airbnb’s in Europe and it was great for a family with little kids. We could cook simple meals in the kitchen and eat around a real dining table. You felt more like a local family.

$40 in free Airbnb credit for new users. If you’ve never stayed at an Airbnb, you can get $40 in travel credit towards your first rental with my referral link. I believe I will get $20 of credit after your first booking. Thanks if you use it.

Before booking, I would definitely read review and look for a “Superhost” if possible. Here is a NY Times article with Airbnb tips from a former Superhost.

Have an extra room or taking a long vacation? Airbnb can estimate your income as a host if renting out a private room, in-law unit, or entire house. You can share a spare room in your apartment or do a pseudo-“home swap” by renting out your whole home the next time you’re out of town. You can open your space for one day or all year.

Looking to help others? Airbnb helps connect people displaced by natural disaster and those with open rooms. Right now, they are helping to shelter people affected by the volcanic eruptions in Hawaii.

Share you own Airbnb experiences in the comments.