Published deals

Free 8gb iPod Touch Offer From BBVA Compass Bank

BBVA Compass Bank is offering a free 8gb iPod Touch when you open a checking account with $100 and set up direct deposit for 6 months. Unfortunately, there are a lot of restrictions. For one, you must reside in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, or Texas. Secondly, the iPod is offered through a third-party fulfillment company (think mail-in rebates…) to which you actually have to pay the shipping and handling. Thanks to reader Susan for the tip. Selected fine print:

Cash for Gold

http://www.goldpawnshop.com –

When we receive your jewelry, we immediately appraise it, and within 24 hours you'll get cash for gold! When you choose to sell jewelry to us, we guarantee the highest payouts with a 10 day money back guarantee or your money back - no questions asked.

Homeowners save on fixed-rate deals

http://www.google.com –

Around 100,000 homeowners a month are seeing their mortgage repayments drop as they come to the end of fixed-rate deals, research papers has showed. The Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates that around 100,000 people each month are reverting to their lenders' standard variable rate.

$200 Gift Card from Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard

Right now when you sign up for a Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard and make $600 in purchases in the first 3 months, you can get 20,000 Thank You rewards points. You can convert those 20,000 points into a $200 gift card for various merchants on the Citi Thank You Network.
The Citi PremierPass card is a rewards card that has the following rewards payout schedule:

Frugal Resources for Affordable Meals

Note: The following is a guest post from my good friend and frugal guest blogger Susan.

The Banking Industry Responds

Here is a letter from the American Banking Association (ABA). I will attempt to translate, my comments will be in bold italics
Dear Senator Reid and Senator McConnell:
These are the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate, respectively.

WorldPoints Reward Program Review

The WorldPoints reward program was originally MBNA’s, until they got taken over by Bank of America. Like most other credit card reward programs, the WorldPoints program allows credit card holders to earn points and then exchange them for rewards like travel rewards, merchandise and gift cards. We will now look at each of these component rewards.
Travel Rewards

ShareBuilder Promotional Code for $25 Investment Account Bonus

ShareBuilder is offering a $25 promotional code bonus when you open a new ShareBuilder online investment account and make 1 trade before June 17, 2009.
ShareBuilder from ING Bank is an online stock trading and investment account with no account minimum and no inactivity fees for a basic ShareBuilder account.
Just open a new ShareBuilder account using the promotional code 25MAY and make 1 trade before June 17, 2009, to receive a $25 ShareBuilder bonus.
Your $25 bonus will be credited to your ShareBuilder account within 45 days of making your first trade.

Credit Cards and Guns in National Parks

While the Senate is working hard to put together their version of the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights some Senators are taking the opportunity of a sure-to-pass bill to tag on unrelated amendments.

Insurance Companies Now Qualify for TARP Bailout Money

Even though they are not bank holding companies as originally required for the original qualifications for receiving bailout money from the public, six insurance companies will now have the option of receiving this money.
Among others, Allstate, Ameriprise Financial, Hartford Financial Services, Lincoln National Group, Principal Financial, and Prudential applied earlier for inclusin in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. These six companies have now been approved for a chance to shore up their balance sheets with a piece of the $135 billion remaining for bailout.

Altra Federal Credit Union’s High Interest Checking Account

Altra Federal Credit Union has done an excellent job keeping the interest on their “A + Checking Account” fairly high while most other banks and credit unions have been continually lowering their interest rates. Currently, if you meet all of Altra Federal Credit Union’s requirements you are eligible to receive an APY of 4.0%.
Altra Federal Credit Union “A + Checking” Account Features:
(as seen on their website)

Pay Off Mortgage Early? Or Invest?

Should you pay off your mortgage early? Or should you focus on investing with your spare cash? This is one of the most hotly debated topics in personal finance, with vocal proponents on both sides. Today, I thought I’d take a look at this issue from both angles and then share our approach with you.

Your Take: What Are You Worried About Now?

I think it’s safe to say that we’re knee deep into a Recession. In February, I had the great fortune of being on American Public Media’s Marketplace Money with Tess Vigeland, Lynnae of BeingFrugal.net and Steve at BripBlap.com. Back then, we didn’t know if we were going to be in a recession but everyone pretty much believed we were well on our way. Here’s what I said:

Free Chocolate Bar Fridays From Mars

Every Friday until 9/25/09 starting at 9am ET, Mars is giving out 250,000 coupons for a free candy bar at RealChocolate.com. Also, an additional 250,000 coupons will be made available tomorrow, May 15th. Includes M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Dove Bar, 3 Musketeers, and Milky Way. Limit one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.

Costco Membership Discount Certificates - Free Chicken, Coffee, Photo Prints, & More

Attention Costco shoppers! Costco and promotional company Kardmerchant are offering special Costco discount membership certificates to MyMoneyBlog readers. They are $50 each with free shipping, and are good towards new Gold memberships, renewals, and also upgrades to Executive Membership. This is exactly how much it would cost normally from Costco, but they include a special Costco coupon booklet ($35 value), including:

How to Trick Your Spouse into Sticking with a Budget

I don’t know why it is, but it seems like almost every marriage comes with a spender and a saver. I have seen rare exceptions where both are unleashed spenders - which often turns out to be quite disastrous, and even rarer still I have seen marriages with two savers. But for the most part, it seems like most have an eternal struggle between the spender and the saver.

401k Rollovers

So you have worked hard and saved for retirment, but now you have decided to leave your company for a better job. So what do you do with that old 401k?
First things first, don’t cash it out. Many people think “well it’s only a small amount, that money isn’t going to do wonders for me in retirement.” Well you are wrong that balance invested in the long term will grow more than you can imagine. Plus with the tax penalties you are hit with when you withdrawl that money makes cashing out of your 401k not a smart idea.

Free Mars Candy Bars Each Friday

Mars Candy company is sponsoring the The Chocolate Relief Act by giving away free candy bars each Friday from now until September 25th, 2009.
Each Friday, Mars will give away 250,000 coupons for candy bars, including M&M’s, Milky Way, Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Twix, and Dove Bars. *Note: On Friday May 15, 2009 ONLY, an additional 250,000 coupons will be made available.
Get your free candy bar: Visit this site and fill out your info.

Healthy Breakfasts for $1

Saw this article on WebMD about 10 healthy breakfasts that you can make $1. 5 were for fast food restaurants, but that's not my cup of tea.

Here's a list of some easy ones to make at home. The article included detailed price tally, nutritional info and recipes:

Mixed Berry Satisfying Instant Oatmeal Total $0.93: 1 package Quaker Take Heart Blueberry Flavor, cook as directed with 2/3 cup low fat milk instead of water. Sprinkle 1/3 cup chopped strawberries or frozen raspberries over the top.

Tax Extension Service Integrates Facebook and the IRS

FileLater is an online service for people and businesses looking to file for a tax extension. This tax season, it is pioneering the social media universe by using Facebook Connect to both simplify the process and attract new customers.

BankFiesta is a social deal finding site that specializes in all things finance.
You can submit the latest deals and articles in Banking, Credit Cards, Mortgages and Personal Finance.

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