Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Step by Step Instructions On How To Earn 50,000 airmiles with United or American Airlines & 50,000 with Delta & up to a $500 Apple Gift Card with Fidelity

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3/11 UPDATE: CLICK HERE

This is an amazing way to gain thousands of airline miles and some free valuable Apple products, all without a hard inquiry on your credit record. If you have at least $10,000 or even less, don't turn down this amazing opportunity to earn 50,000 United or American airline miles, 50,000 Delta Miles and a $100-$500 Apple Gift Card per spouse.

So many friends I talk to don't want to do this, because they think it's a complex process. They don't seem to believe me when I say "If I can do it, so can you!". This is the reason I have written out a complete step by step instruction guide to this promotion. Just follow these steps and you will be fine. If you have any questions I will be more than happy to answer them if I know the answer. If I don't, I will post the question on FlyerTalk.

Points to take note of before you start:
You do not need to keep the money in the brokerage account. When we talk about needing to transfer funds of $100,000 we mean that you need to TRANSFER (Fund) $100,000 all together . What Flyertalk members have been doing is funding and withdrawing $25,000 at a time (4 times all together), until they reach the $100,000 transfer. The first time you fund the account, you can't withdraw it back into your bank account until the bank account has been verified, which takes about 7-10 business days according to Fidelity. Otherwise it takes about 5-7 days for each fund/withdraw cycle. I didn't receive email notifications from any of the promotions I registered for. But once I funded them I did receive some notifications saying that I will receive miles from United and Delta. I also received an email saying that I am eligible to receive an Apple Gift Card from the Apple/Fidelity promotion. See below to see the letters I received.






These rules we will be disregarded due to FlyerTalk members and myself saying that these restrictions don't always matter:
You can't sign up for these promotions because your spouse already did.
Needing to transfer the full $100,000 amount and keeping the money in the account for the entire length of the promotion.
Keeping your money in the account.
You need to register for the promotion before you start transferring money into the account.






Follow these steps:
You will first follow these steps for yourself and then for your spouse.
STEP 1: Open a Fidelity individual account, fund it and earn up to 50,000 United miles; register here until  October 1st, 2014 OR register for up to 50,000 American Airlines miles until September 30, 2012. You must be a new Fidelity customer without a former brokerage account to qualify for the UA or AA promotion. If you are already a brokerage customer, I suggest trying anyways to see if you can still get it. Flyertalk members have been able to have this restriction waived by calling in to Fidelity. But they also say that this is no longer the case. Once you have signed up with UA or AA I suggest waiting until some miles from Fidelity post to your account before going on to the next promotion. You can read my instructions below of how to fund an account.


Delta Airlines Fidelity Offer




STEP 2: Once you see some miles from Fidelity you can then sign up for the Delta Fidelity Promotion which expires (February 14, 2012) now February 14, 2013 to earn up to another 50,000 miles. With Delta, you can be an existing account holder, you just must fund it. Here are detailed instructions as how to fund an account.

You are now ready to register for this promotion. Click on "Fund an existing account" 
and click on the "Start Now" button.



Fill in the form below with your First Name, Last Name, SS#, Email Address, 
Fidelity Account Number and lastly your Delta Sky Miles Account Number.


Click Submit to verify information is correct.
Click on "Fund my Account"



Log In to your Fidelity Account and click "Log In"



Click on "Fund my Account"



Click on "Accounts & Trade" and then "Transfer Money/Shares"



Now you are going to choose where you want to transfer the money from. Under the "From" field, choose "A Bank Account" and under the "To" field choose your Fidelity Account.


On the next screen make sure your bank or institution is selected and click on the "next" button,



Under From, you will  see that "Amount" is written, type in the amount you wish to transfer and then click on the "Submit" button.



Verify that all the information is correct then click on the "Submit" button.
You may want to keep a record of the transaction confirmation number.



STEP 3: Now, you are ready to  register for the Apple promotion by June 30, 2012 to receive an Apple Gift Card valued $100 (for deposits of $75,000), $300 (for deposits of $150,000) or $500 (for deposits of $300,000). You must complete the transferring within 30 days of signing up for the Apple promotion. If you only have $25,000 that you are cycling, you can choose to do the cycling before you actually sign up for the Apple promotion. Because $25,000 will need to be cycled 12 times in order to receive the full amount of $500. This was an idea put out on Flyertalk and they have said this had worked for them. I will let you know if it works for me. You must at least deposit something within the first 30 days of registering for this promotion, so I would do the last transfer AFTER I have registered for this Apple promotion. 

Note: I have completed this process for myself and am currently doing it for my husband. After registering for this promotion for my husband with United and Fidelity he received this email:


My husband has a 401K with Fidelity so I suspect that is the reason for this message? Or maybe it's because I took advantage for this promotion already? I don't know. So this email worried me alot, UNTIL....
He received his UA miles from Fidelity. So, my advice to you is, if you also get this email from Fidelity....just ignore it!

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Monday, March 5, 2012

MINT.COM - Websites You Can' t Live Without When You Are In the Miles & Points Game (Part 1)

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The first thing people usually say to me when I tell them about my adventures in chasing miles and points, is that they wouldn't be able to do the same thing. Why I ask? Because they wouldn't be able to keep track of all their credit cards and pay their bills on time. I have only one answer for them...


I have read about mint.com many times and it has always been highly recommended for the usage of financial tracking. There are many other online financial tracking tools, but mint.com was one of the first to come out on the market. I decided to finally go ahead and try it. I AM IN LOVE! This is such an awesome website and sooo easy to use and its free! It just takes a minute to sign up and then it walks you through all the financial information you need to input. I can imagine that doing my taxes this year will be MUCH easier. I highly recommend this to everyone that has various accounts in various financial institutions, whether or not you have many credit cards and are playing the miles and points game.

Information to Input:
credit cards
bank and savings accounts
investment accounts
loans
mortgage information 
line of credits 
properties
vehicles 

Mint.com takes all of this information and displays it in an easy to view fashion. 
There are 7 tabs on the top bar containing Overview, Transactions, Budgets, Goals, Trends, Investments & Ways to Save.

The Overview Tab 




































On the left sidebar from top to bottom you have listed all your Cash Accounts (ie. checking, savings, money market), Credit Cards (Line of Credits), Loans, Investments and then Property (Home/Vehicles). It then gives you your net worth by subtracting your debts from your assets. Below that, where it says "Trends", it will display your income and how much your spend is. You can click on "see all Trends" to see how much you spend in each category in a graph and then in list form. On the right of the page from the top, you will see listed your alerts, these are the bills that are due soon. Click on "Change Your Alerts" to set up reminders to receive bill reminders via email or text messages to your email or Mobile Phone. Next, you will see "Advice", these are recommendations for you from Mint.com. Then you will see your bills that are due in the next four weeks. Next you will see a graph of how much you have spent in each of your categories. You can add a category by clicking on the "+ Add Budget" button and view details of a category by clicking on the "See All Budgets" button. The next area is the taxes area. You can chose to estimate your tax refund by clicking on "Estimate My Refund". Mint uses Turbotax's Taxcaster to estimate your tax refund. To do this you must enter your wages, federal tax withholding's, state withholding's and unemployment income. The tab next is the "Open an IRA" tab, just click on "Get Started" and it will give you a simple quiz to help you chose which type of IRA is right for you. The third tab is "File With TurboTax". You can chose "I've filed my taxes" or "Get Started For Free". Next you can Add a Goal for yourself, which Mint will help you achieve. After that, you see an overview of your investment portfolio. Below that you can see the different ways you can save.

The Transactions Tab





There are three types of transactions:
1) Cash & Credit -  This is where you will find all the transactions on your credit cards. Mint chooses  the category they think the transaction fits into and they give you the option to change it by clicking on an arrow under the category. You can even add your own custom categories. When you click on "Edit Details" you can change the category, chose a "Tag" and enter notes. On the right side, you will see that it says "Show All X", X being the Description. When you click on that, all the transactions that fit that description come up and you can change the category for all of them at the same time. You can even edit multiple transactions at the same time. Lets say, you wish to select all the restaurants you've been to on the list. You select them all, by checking the box on the left of each transaction. When you are done selecting, click on "Edit Multiple". You will be able to chose the category "restaurant" for all of them at the same time.
2) Investment
3) Loan

The Budgets Tab










First, you can select which month you would like to view. Then you can see how much your income was for that month and how much you spent in each category. Here is where you can set yourself a budget of how much you would like to spend in each category. Place your curser over a spend category and then click on "Edit Details". Here is where you can chose the amount you wish to spend in a month, every few months or once. You can also chose to rollover any remaining monies from your budget to the next month or few months, depending on which one you selected.


The Goals Tab






Mint.com helps you reach your goals. Goals include, paying off credit card debt, paying off loans, saving for an emergency, saving for retirement, buying a home, buying a car, saving for college, taking a trip, improving my home or you create a custom goal. After you have chosen a goal you use Mint's calculator to come up with a monthly amount and/or end date. Then you choose which account to link your goal to. You will be able to keep track of your savings via Mint.com.


The Trends Tab 










You might think that the Budgets Tab is similar to the Trends Tab but the difference is, is that you can change the graph according to your specifications. You can chose to see a graph and list of your spending, net income, income, assets, debt and net worth by Category, Over time, by Merchant and by Tag. You can further filter by category or merchant and make various comparisons. This is a pretty flexible tool which can give you an abundance of financial data.

The Investments Tab















This is the place you can view your investments and how they are performing. You can choose not to compare it with anything by selecting "none" or you can compare your investments against the Dow Jones, S&P 500 or NASDAQ. You will be able to see if your investments have underperformed or overperformed them.

Click on "Want to trade stocks?" and Mint.com gives you options to trade stocks. See below.


Click on "Do you have an old 401k?" and it takes you to a page where you can learn how much you will save if you rollover your 401k to an IRA. Mint.com provides a list of companies to get an IRA with, along with their special offers, fees and amount of funds they have.

Click on "Get Growth & Tax Benefits" and find out which IRA is best for you, choose your investments and track its growth with Mint.com.

The Ways to Save Tab




In the Ways to Save Tab, Mint.com shows you many ways you can save and gives you recommendations depending on which tab you click on. The options are in the Banking, Investments, Insurance and Credit Categories. In Banking you have credit cards, checking, savings, CD's and Home Loans. In Investments you have Brokerage, Rollover and IRA's, In Insurance you have Auto and Life Insurance. In Credit you have places where you can get your Credit Score. They list freecreditscore.com by Experian and TransUnion. I was pretty impressed how they chose what credit card to recommend for you. They looked at your spend through the various accounts you have entered and figured out on which three categories you spend the most every month. According to that, they chose the right credit card for you and writes how much you will save with that credit card.


MoneyTalksNews.com lists the TOP TEN FREE ONLINE BUDGET TOOLS:


1   Mint.com
2   BudgetPulse
3   Gnu Cash
4   Buxfer
5   moneyStrands
6   Moneytrackin'
7   My Spending Plan
8   Personal Capital
9   Budget Simple
10 SavvyMoney

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day Specials

Today Only! American Express Business Gold Reward Card 75k bonus for $10,000 spend in 4 months.

Point Earnings:
3x points on airfare
2x points on advertising, gas & shipping
1x points on everything else

Don't forget that sometimes there are transfer bonuses when you transfer Membership Rewards Points to certain airlines, so these 75k are worth much more.

Leap Year Specials


TheChildrensPlace.com - Free Shipping on any order + use coupon code 4G2012 for 20% OFF
Restaurant.com - $2 for a $25 Gift Certificate with code LEAP
Ebates Daily Double - Magazines.com 52% Cashback + Magazines.com is having a special Buy for 1 yr. get another year free.
Aeropostale - $29 OFF a purchase of $129 or more with code LEAPYEAR
Martyshoes.com - 29% OFF with code LEAPYEAR
Shutterfly - 101 Free Pictures! with code 35A6-5YX1-4923-FJSGUP
Drugstore.com - $5 OFF any order of $40 or more
Sierra Trading Post - Free Shipping on $100 or more, 60-90% OFF
OfficeMax - 20% OFF + Free Shipping on orders over $29 with promo code BIGLEAP
Hanes - 29% discount with this link
Snapfish.com - 50% OFF everything use code 50PREZDAY  exp 3/1  HT: Dansdeals.com!
Gate 1 Travel - $1,499 8 Day Tour of Israel, include Flight & Hotel & Guided Tour with promo code DLAHL300 this deal is valid until March 5, 2011.
Ann Taylor Loft - 40% OFF full priced items with coupon code SPRING40, Free Shipping with $125 purchase or pay $8.95 HT: MyDallasMommy!
Disclosure: I do NOT make any money off of these links.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Earn 500 Miles For You and 500 Miles For Your Friend with US Airways Dividend Miles Daily Deal Referral Program

You can now earn 500 miles for referring your friend to the US Airways Dividend Miles Program.
The Catch - Your friend must make a Daily Deal purchase in order for both of you to receive these miles. You must have also made a first purchase to receive these miles.
Finepoints:
- No limit as to how many referrals you can make.
- No limit to earning Daily Deal Miles.
- You will receive an email when one of your referrals join.
- You will receive an email when your referral makes their first purchase.
- You will NOT receive any bonus miles for further purchase your referral/s make.

Click here for US Airways Dividend Miles Daily Deal link.

Daily Deals

Eversave Deals 2/27/2012



Today's Save: ShoeBuy.com

Today's Save:$10 for $20 worth of shoes, bags and more from Shoebuy.com + free shipping!



Bonus Save: Overstock.com

Spring Savings:$12 for $24 worth of bedding and bath, furniture, décor and more from Overstock.com



Bonus Save: My Hotel Gift Card and ExxonMobile

Holiday Road:$29 for a $50 Hotel Gift Card and $25 ExxonMobil Gift Card



Bonus Save: SmileBooks

Today's Save:$15 for $48 worth of custom photo books from SmileBooks



Bonus Save: Remedy™ memory foam insoles

Today's Save:$11 for two pairs of Remedy™ memory foam insoles + free shipping!



Bonus Save: O, The Oprah Magazine

Today's Save:$10 for a one-year subscription to O, The Oprah Magazine ($54 cover price)



Bonus Save: Country Inn and Suites

From $199:Three-night stay at Country Inn & Suites Calypso Cay + two Disney World passes



Bonus Save: Ocean Isle Inn

Spring Break '12:A one- or two-night weekday stay from $89 at Ocean Isle Inn



Bonus Save: Paradise Costa Rica

Today's Save:$1,280 for a five-night stay for up to six in a private villa near Dominical, Costa Rica



Bonus Save: Hotel Espresso

Today's Save:$89 for a one-night stay + breakfast for two at Hotel Espresso in Downtown Montreal



Bonus Save: Nativo Lodge

Today's Save:$99 for a two-night stay + dining credit and more at Nativo Lodge in New Mexico



Bonus Save: The Westender Inn

Today's Save:$269 for a three-night stay in Negril + lunch credit + reduced-rate additional nights - Use promo code JAMAICA for $25 off!



Bonus Save: La Copa Inn and Suites

Today's Save:$129 for a two-night weekday stay or $259 for a two-night weekend stay at La Copa Inn & Suites

Sunday, February 26, 2012

How do I Use Citi Price Rewind? Citi's Price Protection Made Easier

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I received an email from Citi inviting me to register with Citi Price Rewind. They included an invitation code as well, so if you have not received an email from them, then you cannot participate. Citi Price Rewind consists of a database of products. If you find a product you purchased with one of your Citi cards in their database and the price is lower than $25 of your purchase price, then you will receive a refund. You must register your Price Rewind to start searching for a lower price within 30 days of purchase. Beware, that you must search for exactly the same make and model of the item in order for it to qualify. You are limited to a refund of $250 per transaction and $1,000 per year per customer, regardless of how many credit cards you have with Citibank. I purchased a raincoat recently with my Citi Amex card that I registered for the special Amex NYC Mix-n-Match Promotion. The database couldn't find the UPC code and for the description, could only find a similar coat. So I must say, this database is very limited, but I hope it will improve with time. The Price Protection you get with Citicards is definitely a good reason to purchase items with a value of $500 - $1,000 with your Citicard even though you only get 1 mile per dollar.

What to do:
1 - Register at citipricerewind.com with your email link.
2 - Find a purchase on your Citi card/s that was made within 30 days.
3 - Enter into the search criteria either a) UPC code b) Product Name c) Model Number OR d) Product Description
4 - After you have selected the product from the list they give you, you must provide a) Price of item  b) Purchase Date c) Store Purchase was made.
5 - You will then be able to search.
6 - You will need to make a claim for the refund.
With this option, you will have to upload a copy of your receipt.

If you wish not to use the website OR you don't find your item listed and you have found an advertised lower price, within 90 days of purchase you may:
1 - Call 1-866-934-1140 to receive a claims form in the mail.
2 - Fill the form in.
3 - Fax or mail the following: Filled In Form, Original Receipt, Credit Card Statement with Item, Advertisement with lower price

To:

Citicorp Insurance Services, Inc.
P. O. Box 901024
Fort Worth, TX 76101
Call toll-free 1-866-934-1140
Fax to 1-817-820-5917


To see excluded items, refer to this list.

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Friday, February 24, 2012

100% Rebates at Office Depot & OfficeMax

I have been reading about these rebate here and there but didn't look into it until recently. What an amazing opportunity this is to keep using the same money over and over again for some great products.
You can also gain some invaluable Ultimate Rewards Points, using the UR Mall & if you have a Chase Ink Card.

Office Depot
My Dallas Mommy talks about the 100% Rebate on Folgers Coffee with this link.

Office Max
Dan's Deals logs about Office Max's great deal and what to do. Click here for his link.

Also before checking out, look for some Office Max and Office Depot Coupon codes for even more savings! Things disappear fast so hurry and get your rebates that you can use over and over again! I can't wait to get my items!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

20% OFF JetBlue Flights TODAY ONLY! + Deals..

Linky


From their website:

20% OFF JetBlue Flights TODAY ONLY




:

Your code to a different zip code - save 20% on flights

Get spring-ready with today’s promo code SPRING12. Enjoy 20% off US-originating flights valid for travel 5/1 to 6/13/2012. Restrictions apply.

Offer Details:

  • • Promo Code: SPRING12
  • • 20% off JetBlue flights (applies to base fare only)
  • • Book today only
  • • Travel 5/1/2012 to 6/13/2012
  • • Not valid on previous bookings
  • • Flight must originate in a US JetBlue city (including Puerto Rico)

How to book:

  1. 1. Promo codes can only be redeemed online at jetblue.com/promo
  2. 2. Search flights within travel dates listed above (US/PR departures only).
  3. 3. Promo code is good for both one-way or roundtrip flights. For roundtrip flights, both outbound and return dates must fall within offer period in order for the discount to apply.
  4. 4. Enter code in promo code field exactly as it appears (case sensitive).
  5. 5. You must select flights in order for discount to appear. Once selected you will see the discount amount displayed in the itinerary subtotal on the right side of the flights page.
Hat tip: www.DansDeals.com

Today's Deals:
Old Navy - 15% off until 2/23 with code ONEEXTRA15
Target - Sale & Free Shipping on Select Computers through 2/25
An example is the HP Pavillion Notebook for $299.99
Save 15% on select kid's rooms when you made a purchase of $75 or more
Fat Brain Toys - This is an educational toys seller, This week only take $5 off $49 purchase
SallyBeauty.com -  Save 15% through 2/24 on any online purchase of $25 or more with promo code 555993
Hanes.com is having a $8.99 bra sale
Mr. Rebates is celebrating it's 10th birthday by giving away $10,000, visit MrRebates.com each day to enter, click here.
Vitacost - Spend $22 and get Free Shipping Only today 2/22

Today's News:
ING Direct, the company that own Sharebuilder was bought out by Capital One. You can read more about it here.

Monday, February 20, 2012

12 Lounge Guest Passes + 12 Gym Day Pass + $200 GC's from Restaurant.com for $32.94

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SkyGuide's Executive Privelage Club is having a special promotion!

For a $2.99 fee, you can get SkyGuide's privelages for 2 months. Register here for this offer.
This includes the following:
1) 12 Reimbursements for Lounge Guest Passes for ANY worldwide airline lounges up until $50 each, that's $50 x 12 = $600 worth of free lounge passes. You must use an Amex card to pay for your purchase. Send in your receipt via Certified Mail within 30 days to receive reimbursement in 6-8 weeks.
2) 12 Reimbursements for Gym Day Passes while you are traveling up until $25 each.
3) 2 $100 Gift Certificates from Restaurant.com

Here is a link to this offer:
http://www.skyguideclub.com/shopping/partner.aspx?id=48
Here is a link to the rest on their privilages:
http://www.skyguideclub.com/shopping/limited_time.aspx

After the free 2 month membership your Amex will be billed $29.99 (you can cancel prior to this). If you haven't cancelled your membership, you will be billed $59.95 on your Amex Card once your year is up. You can cancel anytime and will be credited on your Amex card.

Hat tip to travelandcredit.com!

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

High Earnings At Chase's Ultimate Rewards Mall - February 2012

I absolutely love Chases Ultimate Rewards Mall. You can get into the Shopping Portal if you have either a Chase Sapphire Credit Card or a Chase Freedom Card. The interesting thing is, is that each card has its own offers. Thankfully, I have both cards so I have access to all Ultimate Rewards offers. I love this mall for various reasons. The UR Mall has one of the highest earnings next to the Discover More and American Airlines Shopping Portals. And one can use any credit card with this portal. So if you need to spend on a specific credit card for minimum spend for a credit card sign up, you can use the credit card of your choice while earning valuable Ultimate Rewards points. These points are very valuable because they can be transferred 1:1 to various airlines, hotel chains and Amtrak giving them a higher ratio than 1 cent per dollar.

Chase Sapphire's Ultimate Rewards Mall

10 Points/Dollar
1-800 Baskets
Barnes & Noble.com
Brookstone
Cherry Moon Farms
FTD.com
ICE
Kohls
Lancome
NikeStore.com
Saks.com
Snapfish
Shoebuy.com
Teleflora
Under Armour

12 Points/Dollar
123inkjets.com
Groupon
Restaurant.com

15 Points/Dollar
1-800-Flowers.com
H&R Block At Home
KaBloom
Proflowers
Shari's Berries
Shoes.com

20 Points/Dollar
Magazineline.com
The Wall Street Journal

25 Points/Dollar
Proactiv Solution

40 Points/Dollar 
Magazines.com
Valumags.com


Chase Freedom's Ultimate Rewards Mall

10 Points/Dollar
JCPenney (Only 10/$1 in this Mall)
1-800 Baskets
Barnes & Noble.com
Brookstone
Cherry Moon Farms
FTD.com
ICE
Kohls
Lancome
NikeStore.com
Saks.com
Snapfish
Shoebuy.com
Teleflora
Under Armour

12 Points/Dollar
123inkjets.com
Groupon
Restaurant.com

15 Points/Dollar
1-800-Flowers.com
H&R Block At Home
KaBloom
Proflowers
Shari's Berries
Shoes.com

20 Points/Dollar
The Wall Street Journal

25 Points/Dollar
Proactiv Solution
Valumags.com

Redeem Points with Discounted Gift Cards only at Chase Freedom's Ultimate Rewards Mall (until April 1, 2012)


Optimize Your Earnings for Airmiles, Cashback or Points! Don't make these often made mistakes!

Even those of us trying very hard to accumulate miles often make mistakes. I've outlined some of the mistakes I've made or I've seen others make. If you would like to optimize your earnings for airmiles, cashback or points don't make the following mistakes.

MISTAKE: Before purchasing airline tickets, not checking the booking class to see if your preferred airline will award airline miles with the allied airline partner in that booking class.
When I purchased a ticket for my husband one way with Continental and the return with Austrian Airlines I made the mistake of not checking first what the booking class was of his ticket to is if Continental would award him airline miles. Austrian Airlines is one of Star Alliances partner airlines, so I just assumed that he would be awarded at least some miles with Continental. Well, this assumption cost me 7,000 miles that could have gone towards our goal of him becoming Elite Gold with Continental. Before purchasing a ticket, ask what class it is in and find out if you will be able to earn miles with your preferred airline.

MISTAKE: Using online bill pay for CHARITY when you can use your credit card. 
We tithe every month and for years I've been using online bill pay. Up until recently, I didn't realize that most charities have a website that one can just plug in one's credit card information and donate money. Now I'm earning a ton on these donations, even helping me with my minimum spend.

MISTAKE: Using online bill pay for BILLS that you can use your credit card for. 
I suggest going through all your bills, calling up and finding out if you can pay via credit card. I recently found out that I can pay my community trust fees via credit card. This will be an extra 2760 if counting 1 point per dollar or 5520 if counting 2 points per dollar using my Capital One Venture Card and getting credit of $55 towards travel! We waste so much money each year and we don't even realize it!

MISTAKE: Not using your credit card to pay PRIVATE SCHOOL tuition or COLLEGE FEES.
Years ago I remember someone telling me that with the points they get for paying for private school for their kids, they get free airline tickets each year. So when my children started going to private school, I was able to make payments via my credit card. But once I switched them to another school, this option wasn't open to me anymore.

MISTAKE: Using Cash!
I recently went to visit my Mom with my first free awards ticket. The first time she used cash I gave her a good telling off, and explained to her how much money she was throwing away. She never used cash again in my presence, for the rest of the trip. I really hope this has helped her see the light! If you are someone that is able to pay off their balance every month and not overspend, there is no reason you should be using cash. Don't throw money away!

MISTAKE: When making purchases online, not going through an online portal.
There are so many online portals, where you can earn airmiles, points or cashback for free! You can go through your preferred airlines program's shopping portal, points.com, or the many cashback websites that exist, like Ebates, MrRebatesBigCrumbs or Pennful or check out EvReward.com. Click here for a detailed post I wrote about cashback websites.

MISTAKE: If you have bad credit, you give up on being able to earn airmiles, points or cashback!
Instead, work on building your credit. There are differen't things that you can do. Check your credit report and make sure that everything is accurate, and if it's not, write to the consumer reporting company about the inaccuracy. See this article for a sample dispute letter and tips of what to do to improve your credit. Pay your minimum monthly dues on time and slowly your credit will improve.

MISTAKE: Thinking that you have all the time in the world to build your credit.
Even if you are young and in college, if you are a sensible, responsible person, you should sign up for a credit card. They have many student credit cards out there that award you miles, points or cashback for paying your balances or minimum dues on time every month. When you are older, you will appreciate the fact that you were so wise when you were young. If you are a parent of a responsible college aged student, you might want to seriously consider recommending this to your child. The older ones credit history is, the higher the score you will have. According to myFico.com 15% of your credit score is comprised of the length of your credit history.
Below is what comprised the length of Credit History according to myFico.com.

Length of Credit History
* Time since accounts opened
* Time since accounts opened, by specific type of account
* Time since account activity

MISTAKE: Not knowing your preferred airline/s shopping portal.
Get to know your preferred airline/s by going and reading their website. Read through it and see if you can get bonus miles for things you would do anyways, like purchasing valentines flowers through their online shopping portal. Sign up for their promotional offers in order to never miss an opportunity. For instance, I was able to get 3,500 bonus miles for just trying out a service for 30 days. After the 30 days, I just cancelled the service. Airlines also offer specials on flight, award flights and more. I've been able to take advantage of quite alot of these opportunities. Don't forget about your spouse! You can sign him/her up also for all these offers!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Why Are Rewards Credit Cards Being So Generous With Their Sign Up Bonuses?

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I wrote this article a week ago while on my Paris stopover, on my way home from my first awards travel booking. Sorry it took me so long to post it!
This year has been an amazing year for credit card sign up bonuses! I hadn't gotten into the points and miles game in order to take advantage of all these amazing deals. Some of these deals included:
Capital One Venture Credit Card - sign up bonus up to 110,000 points
Chase British Airways Credit Card - 100,000 sign up bonus
Citi Aadvantage Visa, Amex & Business Credit Cards - 75,000 miles each (I took advantage of this one, for 150,000 AA miles each, for both my husband and I)
Million Miles Secrets goes more into depth about these promotions.

Now, to the answer to my question, as to why rewards credit cards are being so generous with their sign up bonuses. According to a 2011 survey by Mercator Advisory Group whom surveyed  the payment preferences of consumers, only 64% of households said that they held a credit card. This figure is down 10% from 2009. Also, 40% of credit card holders are using their cards less. More people are using cash for their purchases since this way they only spend what they have. In my opinion, this is the reason we are seeing higher bonuses for credit card sign ups. The credit cards are trying to entice people to get their cards and get used to using them with the minimum spends they require to receive the bonuses. According to this survey, people tend to spend more on rewards cards than they do on other types of credit cards. And the more buyers spend on their credit cards the more the credit cards can collect from merchants, which means higher profits for them. I don't see this changing for the next few years until there are some major changes in the economy. Americans have learned to start saving, spend less and use cash more. So, the good new is, IMHO, we will keep seeing these great sign up bonuses.

Current Great Credit Card Sign Up Promotions:
I will be doing reviews on the Amex Premier Gold Card and Delta Card soon and making a concise list of the cards I recommend now.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card - 50,000 points see review here for more details.
American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card - 75,000 Membership Rewards Points, check here to see if you are targeted for this offer (I tweeted about this in the past and Million Miles Secrets blogs about this today). I have been targeted for this offer and plan on getting this on my next churn. I plan on holding onto the points to see which airline offers 50% bonus miles to transfer miles to their airline.
Gold Delta Skymiles Credit Card - 72,500 skymiles (although I calculate 77,500 miles?), also a targeted offer by American Express, check here to see if you are targeted for this offer.

Both of these Amex cards carry a 2.7% transaction fee, so I'm not loving these cards and I definitely won't be keeping the Delta Credit Card because I don't fly Delta, so don't need the extra baggage.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Offer Extended: Open a Fidelity Brokerage Account for up to 50,000 Delta SkyMiles

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Great news!
The offer to transfer $100,000 into a Fidelity Brokerage Account by February 14, 2012 for up to 50,000 Delta Skymiles has been extended to February 14, 2013. Click on this link to see the original post about this offer. Thank you nlof from FlyerTalk for the heads up! Here is the new link for this Fidelity/Delta offer. And not only that, this offer is now open to individuals and no longer limited to one person per household! So, I plan on getting my husband some miles and joining them with mine for a free international economy ticket from the Middle East to the US and some miles left over. Unfortunately, the Apple offer is only one person per household. I didn't realize that in order to earn the Gift Certificate with Apple one needed to fund the account within 30 days, so I didn't receive the full $500 Gift Card. But $100 isn't bad!

New Fidelity Customer Offer:
1) Open a Fidelity individual or joint brokerage account, fund it within 90 days and earn up to 50,000 United/Continental miles; register here until  October 1st, 2014.
OR
Open a Fidelity individual or joint brokerage account,  fund it within 90 days and  earn up to 50,000 American Airlines miles until September 30, 2012.
2) Once you have signed up and either received confirmation via email, or called Fidelity yourself to confirm that you are signed up as a new customer for United or AA, you can then sign up for the Delta Fidelity Promotion which expires February 14, 2013 to earn up to another 50,000 miles. Most people on Flyertallk haven't made that confirmation and it has been fine. But what if it didn't go through and you sign up for Delta? Then you will no longer be able to take advantage of AA or UA miles. So that is why I suggest this. But that's up to you if you want to be extra careful.
3) Then, you can register for the Apple promotion by June 30, 2012 to receive an Apple Gift Card valued $100 (for deposits of $75,000), $300 (for deposits of $150,000) or $500 (for deposits of $300,000). But you must complete the transferring within 30 days of signing up for the Apple promotion.

If one person in your household has signed up for this offer and another one wishes to:
Then the other can sign up for the Delta Fidelity Promotion which expires February 14, 2013 to earn up to another 50,000 miles.

See my original post for more details on this offer.

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Earn Cashback from Online Shopping - Plus, Earn Money Referring Family & Friends


Do you shop alot? Then I hope you shop online to earn free money, points and/or miles!!!


Thanks to a tip from one of my readers, I found out about a website called www.cashreporter.com. This website lists a comparison of shopping portals and their cashback rewards for online stores. Another site that lists the stores by alphabetical order is http://www.cashbackholic.com. In the past, I have written about Evreward.com, which lists points/miles rewards and the most popular cashback sites (Bigcrumbs, Ebates, MrRebates etc..) with shopping portals, which I absolutely love and use all the time. In my opinion it is much more worthwhile earning points/miles than earning cashback. But for those times that your preferred shopping portal doesn't have your store listed, or when the cashback is 50% more, then I suggest using one of these cashback shopping portals. Or, if you are not interested in travel or hotels this is a good option for you. Beware though, that you don't always receive your cashback, so make sure to take lots of screenshots and read reviews before going through a portal. Don't rely on my research, I always recommend that you do your own. Below, you will find a list of lots of cashback shopping sites with list of stores and reviews. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that you can earn extra money by referring friends and family! Also, keep in mind that lot's of times you can double dip. This means that you might be able to purchase a gift card through the shopping portal and earn cashback, and then go through the shopping portal to use the gift card for further cashback.

Most Popular Cashback Shopping Sites
1) Ebates.com click here for your $10 Gift Card or $5 sign up bonus. Has Referral Program, up to $10/referral.
2) MrRebates.com click here for your $5 sign up bonus. You get 20% cashback from what your referral purchases.
3) BigCrumbs.com click here to check out this great site with great cashback rewards! They even have forums! You get cashback up to 5 generations of referrals.
4) FatWallet.com is not just a cashback website, but a place to find good deals through their forums. I recently found a great deal on the Fatawallet forum. TMobile was selling a $20 phone with a $12 cashback through BigCrumbs. The phone ended up costing $9.41 with tax. This is an extremely popular cashback website. You receive cashback through PayPal or a check. This is a great place to check out basic coupons and deals for the most popular stores.
5) PennyFul.com is a cashback website that also has a blog that lists deals. The nice thing about this website is that you can see your cashback listed in your account after only a few days after purchase. This is the only one on this list that I haven't tried.

Cashback Donation Shopping Sites
1) www.CashBackPlanet.com
During my research I came across a unique cashback website called www.CashBackPlanet.com. The reason why this site is unique is because you can donate your cashback to a charity of your choice and they will match it by 15%.  If you get your charity to place their link on their website, they will match your donated cashback to them by 20%. Until July, Amazon was awarding cashback through this Shopping Site. They hope to re-establish a relationship with Amazon. A shopper on the site pointed out that she would first purchase an Amazon Gift Certificate and receive 2% cashback and then go through the portal again to spend it for another 2% cashback for a total of 4%, not bad at all. It would be amazing if this option came back. You can either receive your cashback through Paypal, check (minimum $15) or with an Amazon.com E-Gift Card ($5 minimum).
2) www.CafeGive.com


College Savings/Payoff Student Loans Programs

1) Upromise.com 1037 stores College Savings Programs, mostly negative reviews (I agree)
2) Babymint.com I saw this one on the hustlermoneyblog.com and he/she gives her/his referral code; which is 4981677. This is a college savings program or payment of student loan program. After your referral receives $25 in their account; you receive $5 in yours; they use Babymint bucks instead of dollars, but it's the same thing. The three ways to earn Babymint bucks are A)  Retail In-Store & Catalogs- making purchases to certain retailers and purchasing from their catalogs with their credit cards. B) Gift Certificates- up to 5% Rebate C) Online Shopping- they have over 300 stores to choose from.

Cashback Shopping Sites
AcmeCashback.com  1470 stores
BankofAmerica.com 539 stores no review found
BargainMatch.com 1918 stores no review found
BigCrumbs.com 1180 stores Very good ratings, I've used them and have been satisfied.
CashBackStar.com ($5 sign up bonus)
CashBackZoom.com 535 stores Mixed reviews
CouponCactus.com 3293 stores ($3 sign up bonus) Excellent Reviews
CitiCards.com 612 stores Bad ratings, I've received my miles, but it takes a long time.
DealDigs.com 1807 stores Very good reviews
DiscoverCard.com 206 stores Be careful using codes, excellent reviews, often highest % from everyone.
Ebates.com 1471 stores (after spending $25 at any one of their stores you choose from a Barnes & Nobles $10 Gift Card, $10 Target Gift Card, $5 Ebates credit etc.)
Edeems.com 761 stores ($10 for posting on Facebook) can redeem $10 after you have another $15 in the account. I tried joining via Facebook and kept on getting an error.
ExtraBux.com 1447 stores Mixed Reviews; ($5 sign up bonus) Referral Program- You get $5 bonus when referring friends; plus earn 5% cashback of your friends purchases for 1 year. Refer with link, e-mail, Twitter & Facebook. Can easily sign up in a second with Facebook or Twitter. I have my $5 in my account!
ExtraDime.net 1470 stores Negative Review (based on 1 review)
ExtraRebates.com 1100 stores Excellent Reviews
FatWallet.com 1044 stores Excellent Reviews
GreenBackStreet.com 1749 stores; Negative Reviews
HooplaDoopla.com 1596 stores; Excellent Reviews
iGive.com 951 stores
KickItBack.com 366 stores
LiliDeals.com ($5 sign up bonus)
MallofStores.com 751 stores
MarketAmerica.com 2401 stores Good Review
MoreRebates.com Very Negative Feedback
MrRebates.com 2371 ($5 sign up bonus) Mostly great reviews, a few negative.
MyAllureRewards.com 760 stores
MyDealsAndCoupons.com 1933 stores
Nanoosa.com 1559 stores ($5 sign up bonus)
lootzi.com 951 stores
Pennyful.com 1875  stores ($5 sign up bonus) Mixed reviews, either LOVE or HATE them.
Price-Rank.com 549 stores; Very mixed reviews; must read terms & conditions for each cashback; either LOVE or HATE them
QuickRewards.net 953 stores; no review found; earn $5 on referrals, ($3 sign up bonus) after placing first order or taking first survey. Money can be used through deposit to Paypal or used at online stores. Earn money through shopping, referrals and taking surveys.
RewardLover.com 283 stores
RewardsRunner.com 351 stores; Mostly negative
SamsRebates.com 634 stores ($5 sign up bonus)
SavingsWatch.com 714 stores no review found
ShopAtHome.com 1847 stores; Mostly negative reviews, some positive. They have a top cash back guarantee and if they haven't met it they give you 110% cashback from their competitor.
Shopscotch.com 439 stores; no review found
Spree.com 389 stores; no review found
SunshineRewards.com 895 stores Excellent reviews
TopCashBack.com 1853 stores; Mostly negative reviews
Zestii.com ($5 sign up bonus) Very mixed reviews; either LOVE or HATE them

I will keep updating this list as I have more information.
Full Disclosure: I will receive a referral for using some of my links. You certainly don't have to use them, but it would be much appreciated. Referral links include Amazon, MrRebates, Ebates, QuickRewards & Fatwallet.

Earn 1,200 Bonus Frequent Flyer Miles with Delta Dining-New Members Only


If you have recently joined Delta's frequent flyer program, as I have for 50,000 free Delta frequent flyer miles, see my post here. If you sign up for Delta's Skymiles Dining as a new Delta member, not only will you receive 5 miles per dollar you spend at over 10,000 restaurants, you will also receive 1,200 bonus miles.

Steps to take:
1- Sign up for Skymiles Dining.
2- Spend $25 at one of the participating restaurants within 30 days.
3- Within 30 days, you will receive an email to review the restaurant. Complete this review.
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