CREDIT CARD: Discover 5% cashback & $50 bonus

Although not accepted by as many places as Visa or Mastercard, Discover does offer some attractive cashback promotions which are just as good (if not better) as those other cards.

It is one of the many credit cards which I consistently use for its rewards.

Depending on what time of year, they offer straight 5% cashback on some pretty useful categories

• Oct-Dec 2008: Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Movies
  
• Jan-Mar 2009: Airlines, Hotels, Car Rentals, Cruises
  
• Apr-Jun 2009: Home, Fashion
  
• Jul-Sep 2009: Gas, Hotels, and more
  

For everything else, it's 1% cashback.

You also have the option to redeem your cashback for gift cards (i.e. Staples, Brooks Brothers, Lowes, TJMaxx etc) for which you will receive a premium (i.e. $40 becomes $45 or $50 gift card). This gives you effectively higher than 5% cashback which you won't get with other cards.

Sign up below to get a $50 cashback bonus after your first $500 in purchases.
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DEAL: Amazon Goldbox 5% discount

Amazon is one of my favorite stores.

No sales tax. Fast shipping (with Amazon Prime). Very cheap prices.

One of the negatives for Amazon shopping is that there is no cashback and no coupons for general use.

However, there is a trick to get 5% off any purchase.

This has been floating around the 'net for a while. Here's what you need to do

1. Sign up for an Amazon account if you don't already have one. 1 purchase needs to be on your account before this will work.
   
2. Sign in to your Amazon account
   
3. Find item page for what you want the discount on (item X)
4. Once on item page, scroll down to check "I Own it". This links the product to your recommendation list.
5. Scroll all the way back to the top of the page and click on the 'recommendations' link.
6. Click on 'see all recommendations'
7. Check 'Not interested' for everything except item X. Yes, everything!
   
8. Once done, click on "Today's Deals" link at the top of the page. If item X is not there, you may have to wait 1-2 days for it to show up.
9. Once it shows up in your gold box, add it to your cart to see the 5% discount

I bought a Macbook this way. Easy way to get a discount.
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Pro: 5% discount on any Amazon product (good for expensive items)
Con: Time-consuming. May need to wait 1-2 days for it to work. Read more!

BASICS: Ways to Buy a Mac

Want to buy that shiny new Macbook? It seems that everyone is buying a Mac today.

Macs are definitely more expensive than an equivalent PC. Altough prices are fairly uniform, there are ways to pay less than other people.

Here is a review of what your purchasing options are.

• Premium: For those with money to burn and want the full Apple experience, go to the Apple store. This is good if you're not sure what you want. You get your own personal (hopefully not annoying) Apple employee to help you out. You can spend as much time as you want. The best part is that you get to take your prize home right away.
  

• Bargain: If you know exactly what you want and can wait a short time for shipping, then this is the best option. Not only can you save on sales tax, but you can often get cash rebates or bundles that aren't usually available at Apple. The most popular places for this are Amazon, MacMall, NewEgg and MacConnection. Remember, these are Apple Resellers so all warranties apply. Any problems and you can take it to the Apple store just as if you bought it there.
  

• Refurbished: Excellent option. You will pay sales tax, but there is usually a significant discount. I've bought 4 Macs this way and they all look brand new. Warranty is exactly the same as if you bought brand new. Unfortunately, the Apple experience is degraded since it comes in a generic brown box rather than the fancy Apple packaging.
  

• Student: Students can qualify for small discounts at the Apple Store for Education. I don't find this a good option because sales tax often wipe out the discounts. You might as well buy it at Amazonor MacMall.
  

• Student Developer: If you are in college and have taken a CS course (which they may or may not verify), you qualify for a 1-time (per lifetime) 20% discount for any Mac and monitor. The catch is that you have to pay a $99 Student Developer Fee. Good if you are buying a more expensive Mac.

• Used: For the true bargain hunters, this is the way to go. Your options are Ebay or Craigslist. Great potential but high risk. Although you might get the best bargain this way, you are increasing your risk of fraud (and potential headaches). Be wary!

Random tip: If you can wait for new models to be released, old models will be discounted

Other tips to save on Amazon

• Use 5% discount trick
• Get the Amazon Visa Credit Card, currently giving 6% back as an Amazon rebate (i.e. $2000 purchase nets you $120 credit)
  

Check out online options below:

NewEggAmazon

Read more!

DEAL: Make $125 in AT&T referral credits

Now that you've qualified for the AT&T premiere discount plan, gotten your 200 free monthly minutes, and gotten your 200 free SMS messages, you must feel pretty smug. You've milked AT&T dry with all your slick deals, huh?

Oh no you haven't.

AT&T offers a $25 AT&T gift card for every person you refer to AT&T. Have a friend that wants to get an iPhone?? Great. If you serve as their referral, not only do you get a $25 AT&T gift card but your friend also gets a $25 gift card. You can do this up to 5 times per year, yielding $125 total in gift cards.

What the heck can you do with AT&T gift cards? You apply them to your monthly bill! They work for anything on the AT&T website including monthly phone bills. You can even buy an iPhone.

Ok well what about you poor souls with no friends?? Well you still have some options. You see, there are other places where people have no friends and want AT&T referrals.

• MacRumors forum
• HowardForums
  

Basically, you register for these forums and post a message requesting referrals. Then, it's up to luck whether someone actually messages you.

How to get started with earning AT&T referral money

1. Register on the AT&T referral site
   
2. Find a willing referral (this is the hard part)
3. Login to the referral site
4. Submit referral name and email address. This generates a referral link that will be emailed to your referral.
   
5. Referral must sign up for a new AT&T wireless account using the generated email.
6. Go back to step 2 (up to 4 more times).
   
7. Wait 90 days or so to receive your gift card. You can track the status of these credits on the website.
   

I've already received and spent my $125 already. 6 more months and I'll be able to do it again. Pretty nice, huh? Read more!

FREE MUSIC: iTunes

Music is my life.

Although there are some less upstanding ways to obtain free music, I prefer to keep things legal.

When stressed, bored or just looking for a little excitement, there's nothing like music to put you in a different state mind.

Every week, iTunes has a promotion in which they offer you free music. Although you'll have to deal with iTunes' restrictive and annoying DRM, how can you argue with free music?

EDIT: links below may be broken. Until I fix it go to iTunes to see "Single of the Week".








Read more!

DEAL: Amazon Gift Card Deals

I've received several inquiries as to how I was able to get my Amazon gift cards at 80% face value which I alluded to previously. It's not as easy to do as it used to be but there are definitely some options out there.

Interestingly, my experience with gift card deals reflects upon the general evolution of internet deals.

The landscape of internet deals has definitely changed over the past several years. Good deals are now hard to come by. With the surging popularity of various deal forums, loopholes are now closed very quickly.

Here is information regarding my gift card deals, past and present.

• DealPass: DealPass is a membership club that used to have great programs. They would allow you to puchase gift cards from popular places (Amazon, TJMaxx, Target, Sears, Staples, Barnes & Noble, etc) at 80% of value. I bought several thousand dollars of gift cards this way. Though still around, I no longer recommend this option. Due to its popularity, DealPass has placed prohibitive limitations on obtaining gift cards at reasonable value.
  


• Online marketplaces: There are many, many different marketplaces on the internet. Some of them are set up to promote gift card trading or purchases. You won't get anywhere, though, without having developed a reputation. There are sometimes people on these marketplaces who want to get rid of their gift cards and they will offer them at 80% (or less) value. These places are no longer as easy to find.
  


• Live.com and Ebay: Live.com recently started offering huge discounts on many purchases. Ebay purchase rebates were up to 35%. I obtained lots of Amazon gift cards which were bought at face value, but after rebate actuallyened up at 65-70% value. Ebay sellers have since inflated their prices as a result of this. And the live.com discount is no longer as good.
  


• Amazon credit card: No, it's not a 20% discount. But it is an easy way to get gift cards with what is currently a 6% discount (in form of Amazon GC). It's good if you want to make a quick purchase since these gift card codes can be emailed to you relatively quickly.
  

Good deals, by their own nature, don't last long. If you are saving money, then that means someone is losing money. And once they realize what's going on, it's all over.

So it's no longer easy as it used to be. But with some due diligence and research, it is still possible to get gift cards (not just Amazon) at a discount.

Read more!

CREDIT CARD: Amazon Chase Visa Card Deal

Attention Amazon shoppers only.
If you frequently shop at Amazon.com (as I do) or own the Chase Amazon Visa card, then please read on to save some money.

Current Chase Amazon Visa card are eligible for a great promotion: you get double rewards for the next 3 months. This effectively nets you 6% cashback on Amazon purchases.

Here is how to enroll

1. Call customer service at 1-888-247-4080
2. Say you want to upgrade your card to earn double points for the promotion
3. You are now enrolled!
   

If you don't have a Chase Amazon Visa card, then you really need to sign up. Normally, you get 3 points for every dollar spent at Amazon which effectively nets you 3% cashback. But sign up now and you will also get the double points promotion.

Plus if you sign up now, you will get a $30 credit after your first purchase.
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Pro: Get 6% cashback on Amazon for 3 months
Con: Credit score check. Another credit card to keep track of.

Comment if this was useful!
Read more!

DEAL: Free DVD rentals at Walmart

If you are itching to watch any movies and have a Walmart nearby, then you are in luck. You can get free DVD rentals there!

I don't know who still uses DVD anymore, but some of you must be out there. This is for you guys with those antiquated machines.

Here is what you need to do.

1. Find the machine (somewhere by the entrance wall where you check out)
2. Pick your DVD
3. When asked for the code, enter "BREAKROOM". You will see a total charge of $0.00.
4. Swipe a credit card
5. Take the DVD home
6. DVD must be returned by 9PM the next day.
   

Now let's say your girl made you watch When Harry Met Sally for the 4th time and you just need to make her watch The Matrix again even though she never understood it the first 3 times.

If you want another DVD, then there are 2 options for you

• Use a different credit card
• Keep the same credit card, but use a different code

The codes often change. Here are some for the near future (Sundays)

• 12/21/08 - 11MOMS4UN
• 12/28/08 - 11MOMS4UT
• 01/04/09 - 11MOMS4UA
  

Check out this site for newer codes you can use.

Enjoy the show!
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Pro: Free movie night
Con: Gas money driving to Walmart. Potential late charge fee if not back by 9 pm next day.
Read more!

GREEN LIVING: Don't buy water!

Water, the basic building block of life.

It's everywhere. 70% of our body is water. Oceans, lakes, rain. There are endless sources of water.

Lately, I've thinking about drinking water. Out at Sam's Club or Costco, I see many people buying these huge cases of bottled water. It just doesn't make sense to me for multiple reasons.

I think you should save your money on that bottled water!

• It's expensive to buy
  
• Water is free!
• It adds plastic to the environment

People say tap water is "dirty". Are there toxins or carcinogens in tap water that haven't been detected? Maybe, but I doubt it. In my spare time when I'm not researching deals, I'm a doctor. The healthy human body has an amazing capacity to deal with whatever the environment can throw at it. I don't know, before Evian and Poland Spring came along weren't we all just drinking tap water (or worse)?

People say that tap water "tastes funny". Well, your taste buds will get used to it. Sure, if there is some foul stench coming from your tap water then you might want to check your pipes or look into it. But otherwise after several days you won't notice it.

Another reason to drink tap water is that it has flouride, which is good for the teeth (especially young ones).

Don't get me wrong, I won't be drinking water straight out of the faucet. I like the idea of water filtration although I'm not convinced it really does anything. It's really for my peace-of-mind. I'm a big fan of Brita (and other similar products). Sure, you have to pay upfront for the filter (and replacement filters) but it'll be worth it in the end.

So do your part. Sit back and watch An Inconvenient Truthone last time for that extra motivation. Buy one of these filtration systems and you will end up saving money and helping the environment.

Read more!

DEAL: AT&T Deal Summary

Once you've gotten a great deal on that iPhone, you want to optimize the value of your monthly plan.

There are many promotions of AT&T that aren't really publicized. But I'd like to tell you all about them.

The following will work with any AT&T wireless plan (including iPhone 3G)

1. Reduce your monthly bill by up to 28%
   
2. Add 200 free minutes
   
3. Add 200 free SMS messages
4. Get $125 off your yearly bill
5. Pay with Amex SimplyCash credit card for 5% cashback
   

There you go. Cellular plans can be quite expensive over the years. But these tips should help with your bills. Read more!

BASICS: Reputation

It's all about trust.

The internet is full of random strangers. If you are looking to buy or sell anything, you need to develop a reputation before people will trust you with their money. So how do you do this over the internet?

In real life business, you can meet someone to get a sense of how trustworthy they are. If you want to buy something, you go to stores with a known reputation. For smaller stores you are not sure about, I recommend doing research at the Better Business Bureau.

Without a reputation, you are opening the door to fraud.

So how do you develop a reputation on the internet, which is a sea of anonymity. How can you get someone thousands of miles away to trust you with a transaction?

Well, it depends on what you are doing.

Most of the major online marketplaces (Ebay, Amazon sellers, Half.com, etc) have their own internal feedback systems which allow one to judge reputation. Lacking these internal systems, there are other options. Heatware is one such independent rating system which is popular with the tech heads. Otherwise, Paypal (which I discussed previously) is probably the best bet especially if you make the effort to become Paypal verified.

So then are you out of luck without a reputation? Not really. Like real life, it takes time to develop one.

• For forum marketplaces, be sure to post constructive messages in the forums so that people can see you are an upstanding citizen. Consider joining heatware to build a reputation.
  
• For major online marketplaces, start out with small value transactions. People don't care as much about reputation if there is less money involved.
• For Craigslist, meet in person or talk on phone. Since there is no intrinsic reputation-meter, you will be scammed if you do anything over the internet.
• At some point, you will need a Paypal account
  

Building a reputation is key. If you are a seller, someone will pay you a premium if they sense you are reputable. If you are a buyer, many people won't sell to you if they don't trust you.
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Please comment below on any trust tools have you found on the internet. Read more!

FREE MONEY: Credit Card balance credits

If you have certain credit cards (don't we all?), then you are in luck.

You can get your credit company to pay you up to $1.99 each month. If you have multiple credit cards, you can get even more.

Why in the world would they do this?

Well, there comes a point where your credit card balance is just so low that it's no longer worth the hassle/fees in charging you for it. So the bank will go ahead and erase the balance and reset your balance to $0.00.

Every bank sets their limit at a different threshold.

• American Express: $0.49
• Capital One: $0.99
  
• Chase: $0.99
• Discover: $1.99
• Bank of America: doesn't work
• Citi Cards: doesn't work
  

So how do you take advantage?

• Pay (on time) your monthly credit card balance such that a small amount remains (based on list above, i.e if Chase, leave $0.99)
  
• Wait for the next balance to see that the balance (i.e.$0.99) has been erased!
  

I've been doing this for years. With the current economic climate, though, stuff like this may go the way of the dodo.
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Pro: Free money each month
Con: Taking advantage of Chase. Requires some math and some planning. May end at any time.

Please post your experience with this in the comments. Read more!