What Would You Do For $75.00?
Uber-model Linda Evangelista once said, “I don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.” Well, neither should you – if you’ll dial that back to 50-75 bucks.
Are you darn near flat-broke? If the needle on your fundometer is almost on “E”, why turn your nose up at free cash? That’s baby-sitter money, a nice dinner, or poker dough!
Capital One 360 simply wants to give you $50 and $25 to date them. Heck, if you wanted, you could close your accounts after you get your bonuses. Just say, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Then spend the $75 on tequila shots.
Remember, you don’t have to leave your current bank. You are just trying out these Capital One 360 bank accounts. They can co-exist. You didn’t get rid of your Pepsi products before you tried Coke. The scoop:
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Updated 5% Cash Back Categories (+$100 Bonus on TWO Cards)
If you’re going to purchase something you need, and someone is willing to pay you tax-free cash for doing so – I say let them!
Right now, Chase and Citi sweetened the deal with $100 bonuses! Here’s the scoop:
Chase, Citi and Discover have credit cards that never have an annual fee and always give 5% cash back in certain categories. The categories change every three months. We can use these cards to get up to $900 cash back every year – without changing our spending habits.
Instead of using cash, use these cards, get 5% cash back, and then pay off your bill with the cash you were going to spend in the first place. Here are the new categories:
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4 Ways Ink Don’t Stink
Chip’s Money Tips Subscriber-Extraordinaire Jacko has a question:
“Can you recommend a decent rewards card that will allow me to float some payables for a few months?”
Absolutely! Three of the four Chase Ink cards have a 0% introductory rate for the first six billing cycles that your account is open. Float, float on… until Summer!
Ink Classic, Ink Cash, Ink Plus and Ink Bold are similar but different. If they were unfamiliar food, we might say they all “Taste like chicken.”
Ink Classic, Ink Cash and Ink Plus all have a 0% introductory rate for six billing cycles. For that time period, there is 0% interest.
The Ink cards were created for business use, but that pretty much includes anyone who makes a buck doing something. As I have said before, if you are a handyman, nanny, dog walker, actor, or sell stuff online – congratulations the IRS says you are called a sole proprietor!
When you apply for one of these cards, put your name as Name of Business, your social security number as Tax ID Number, and sole proprietor as Type of Business. It’s all legal and legit.
Before I give you the breakdown of what each card offers, here’s a way to maximize these bonus babies!
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TODAY is Small Business Saturday
Happy Guilt-Free Fun Spending Day! Today’s the day to help yourself and small businesses. Take a minute to enroll all of your American Express cards at ShopSmall.com, then spend at least $25 per transaction on each card to receive a $25 statement credit. Not sure what to buy? Try gift cards for local shops, baby! Confirm participating businesses at ShopSmall.com‘s map. More details in my posts here and here.
ING’s 3-day “Sale” = Quick $125+
UPDATE for 2013 — ING DIRECT is now Capital One 360.
360 Checking (formerly Electric Orange)
360 Savings (formerly Orange Savings)
360 Kids Savings (formerly Kids Savings)
360 Money for Teens (formerly Money)
Shhh!!! ING DIRECT doesn’t know what “sale” means. They think it means to give away cash. Now through Sunday night ONLY, they will give you $125 if you open an Electric Orange account, $10 for a Kids Savings Account and more.
I have an Electric Orange account. No credit check. No Minimums. No fees. No tricks. No brainer. So, even if you have HORRIBLE credit you can open an Electric Orange and get $125. Where else can you make $125 in ten minutes this weekend?
Here’s the scoop on those “sales” and the others:
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Oh it’s on! ($mall Biz $aturday)
If you aren’t hip to this week’s Small Business Saturday awesome deal – read my post on it. Enrollment started in the wee small hours of the night. It ends on Small Business Saturday – November 24th. Go to ShopSmall.com and plug in all of your American Express cards. Go on now – GIT! I did and immediately got an email thanking me. If you don’t see an email, check your junk folder to make sure your card is enrolled.
Once enrolled at ShopSmall.com, check out their map of participating small businesses. Type the name of the business in the search box or search by zip code to plan your attack. I have so many cards to use that I am going to get multiple $25 gift certificates at a couple of my favorite restaurants – and a lube job.
Please do this for yourself and the Mom & Pop business trying to make a living. This is a generous promotion from American Express and it really helps small businesses.
It’ll be tight, but here’s a last minute idea for you. Remember that authorized users on your American Express card can register their cards as well. You can still add authorized users. You may have time. It’s worth a shot.
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Just in Time for Festivus – UPDATE
My bromance with my Ink Bold card has never been stronger. Its terms were tweaked on 11/13/12, but I’m still smitten.
Now it is twice as easy to get 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points worth $500 in cash or $625 in travel. The old promotion of getting 25,000 points for making one purchase has left the building.
Why should you get this one? Like I said in the original post, it’s only a few weeks until Christmas, Hannukah… Festivus. Which means you could probably use some extra cash. Here’s how you can actually get $500 tax free by Christmas.
8 Ways to Get Free Jingle-Jangle
These offers come and go. You can peruse the Free Money tab atop my website. These are NOT all credit card come-ons, but the first one is:
1. ($500-$625) Open a Ink Bold® Business Card. Spend $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. Here’s an easy way to help achieve that. You will earn points worth $500.00 cash or $625 in travel. When your statement drops, your points show up (like mine did) and you can have them send you a check. Here’s more on that card.
2. ($50-$75) Get $25.00 with a referral to open a 360 Savings. After your external bank link is confirmed (about 10 biz days), open a 360 Checking account and get $50.00. Both have no minimums or monthly fees. The $25 for 360 Savings is for new customers only, so you need to do that before 360 Checking – if you want both. You can only be new once.
3. ($1,000+) Use a free Bluebird account to maximize your rewards into the thousands. This is NOT a credit card. It’s basically a free checking account that does great stuff.
4. ($500) E-Trade will give you up to $500.00 cash if you open a new account. Move
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Is Bluebird the Answer?
When I get excited about a sweet deal, I can’t stop prattling about it. The combo of Bluebird and Ink Bold has me babbling something fierce. I’m like Daffy Duck at the end of cartoon, zig-zagging off into the sunset.
In short, now it is possible for you to get 5% back on EVERY bill you pay (including rent, mortgage, property taxes) while eliminating monthly banking fees. That’s $50 back for every thousand paid.
Bluebird gives you everything a checking account does – but without fees. It used to be only tax cheats, illegal aliens (and regular aliens) didn’t have bank accounts. Now that banks are making it more difficult to have free accounts, people are looking for less expensive alternatives.
Why do Bluebird? Maybe you are like me and already have free checking with all the bells and whistles, and never pay bank fees. Well, gather ’round the screen and I’ll tell ya why you should consider it. This is where it gets GOOD!
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Too Good To Be True? Nope. See for Yourself!
I don’t suggest things unless I think they are a good deal, and more often than not, are things I have done myself.
Last week, I got the Chase Ink Bold card and made a purchase. Today, I received my single purchase bonus of 25,000 points worth $250 cash or $312.50 in travel – tax free! It really is that easy. See my statement below.
UPDATE: That offer changed on 11/13/12. The single purchase bonus of 25,000 points went away. The new offer is 50,000 points for spending $5,000 in first three months your card is open. Check it out here.
You can earn FIVE points for every dollar spent on internet, cable, phone bills and at office supply stores. That’s the equivalent of 5% cash back or 6.25% back for travel booked through Chase online. To make it easy, I signed into my online accounts for DirecTV, Sprint, Vonage and Time Warner and switched my automatic bill payment credit card to the Chase Ink Bold card. I also bought a couple $500 Visa Gift cards at Office Depot – which also qualify for 5x points. Here’s my statement which details everything:
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