August 19th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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I just got off the phone with Citi and got the annual fee on my Citi AAdvantage Mastercard waived again this year. However this year was a little more difficult in that the first customer service representative I spoke to was adamant about annual fees not being waived even though I mentioned I got it waived last year. However here’s how I managed to get it waived eventually.
- I asked to be transferred to “retentions” which is the department that has the power to cut deals to get people to stay. I heard about them offering other people miles and whatnot also. Note that you might not get transferred to retention if you simply aren’t a customer worth keeping. I do spend over $50,000 a year on this card alone so they make a little bit of money on the transaction fees even after giving me AAdvantage miles.
- It’s important to explain to the retention specialist what you want. If you leave them to guess what you want and they might offer a deal you aren’t happy with. I told him I thought the $85 annual fee was excessive and he said they can waive the annual fee after 5 transactions which I should be able to easily do.
- He also stated this is a one time waiver but that I should continue to call back next year and “continue to use my card for all purchases”.
- Don’t call and bluff to try to get annual fees waived. You might not even get transferred to a retention specialist and have your card closed right there on the spot. I was also prepared to close the account if I didn’t get the fee waiver.
Also at the end of the call he offered me a more personalized card with my photo on it since I do a lot of in person purchases. I told him to send the forms anyway but I’m not quite sure if I really want this. The security feature really protects them from fraudulent purchases but it might be cool to have a card with my photo on it.
August 12th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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In a previous post, I mentioned Amazon giving away a year free of Amazon Prime to students. The only screening requirement was essentially a .edu e-mail address. My brother who is years older and has been out of school for quite some time managed to get in on the deal and revealed to me the source of his .edu e-mail address. It turns out you can get a free .edu e-mail address from Australia.edu easily. I haven’t had a use for a .edu address since I joined Facebook in 2005 and they required all new users to have .edu addresses (it was better back then).
August 4th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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I’m a big fan of the Starwood Preferred Guest hotel program. Therefore I obtained the American Express SPG card last year to earn easy SPG points from spending. I just got a letter in the mail a couple days ago noting some changes to the card and most notably a annual an increase in the annual fee from $45 to $65.
However they try to throw in a few changes to ease the pain.
- Each year you’ll get 5 night credit towards elite status. This means cardholders will have less 5 nights needed to reach either Gold or Platinum. This perk is essentially useless to me because I get gold through the Amex Platinum.
- From Oct 14th 2010 to Dec 31st 2010 you’ll receive a third night free when you book two nights at a Sheraton hotel.
- They are getting rid of the 50%-off award that use to come in the mail annually since they claimed few card members used the benefit. That’s most likely true because the award was useless most of the time because it got you 50% off the hotel’s rack rate which was usually higher than the best available rate.
First American Express conducts a financial review and cuts my card limit from $7k to $1,700 and now this? I know this is a change that affects everyone but I seriously have to re-consider keeping the card. I love the card and think it’s worth keeping but with the stingy credit line which I end up having to pay off 2-3 times per month it may not be worth it to keep the card anymore. I have until April 2011 (my card renewal date) to decide though, hopefully I’ll get a credit line increase by then.
July 27th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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If you’ve never heard of GroupOn, chances are you heard of the social buying concept. The concept is simple, a local merchant will offer a deal and if enough people commit to it then it’s valid. If not enough people commit then there’s no deal. It’s essentially a form of advertising for merchants and discounts for buyers.
I’ve heard about GroupOn for awhile but never really bothered to try it out. I visited the site a couple weeks back and bought my first GroupOn and I’ll admit I’m addicted now. Generally I go for the discounted restaurant deals and this gives me a chance to try out new places with my girlfriend. Everything from spa treatments, maid services to kickboxing classes can be found as deals.
It’s called social buying in that you are suppose to convince your friends to get on the deal also to reach the tipping point (minimum number of commitments required) but GroupOn is so popular these days it is unnecessary. Most of the deals are around major cities but it can be useful even if you’re planning a visit to a certain city in the near future thanks to expiration dates of the deals which are usually generous.
July 24th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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Next month I’m heading down to Orlando, Florida with a group of friends. We’ll be spending a day at Walt Disney World so I figure I should try to get discounted tickets online. Disney is notorious for not offering many discounts on park tickets (especially on single day one park tickets). However I found a great deal where you can support the Florida Hospital for Children and get slightly discounted Walt Disney World tickets.
Usually the regular price for Walt Disney World for admission to one theme park for one day (including tax) is $84.14 for adults and $73.42. Depending on your gift to the Florida Hospital for Children you’ll receive varying amounts of Disney tickets.
- $85 gift – Receive 1 one day, one park ticket.
- $150 gift – Receive 2 one day, one park tickets and a $20 Planet Hollywood Orlando gift certificate.
- $300 gift – Receive 4 one day, one park tickets and a $40 Planet Hollywood Orlando gift certificate.
- $750 gift – Receive 10 one day, one park tickets and a $120 Planet Hollywood Orlando gift certificate.
Add on $8.50 for shipping and handling for each order.
At $85 you aren’t really receiving much of a discount but at the higher levels you’re essentially getting the tickets for $75 each and accompanying Planet Hollywood gift certificates. Also, the website states that these tickets don’t expire until 12/31/11 so you have quite some time to use them.
I gave a $300 gift and my envelope was switched with someone else’s and I only received two tickets and a $20 gift certificate in the mail. I gave the hospital foundation a call and someone named Jennifer was able to quickly sort out the mess and mail me out two more tickets.
Support the Florida Hospital for Children and receive discounted Walt Disney World tickets!
July 14th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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Amazon is offering free Amazon Prime for one year for those who join Amazon Student. Amazon Prime is a membership that allows you to get free unlimited 2-day shipping on all your Amazon.com orders. You basically just need to provide a .edu e-mail address, your school and major
This is a great move on Amazon part to attract young customers. I’m sure most college students would love to order food & snacks, textbooks, etc. and have it arrive within 2 days.
link
July 8th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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After Chase closed all my credit card accounts in April I decided I would close out whatever was left of my banking relationship with them. I only had a checking account left and decided that since there was no real benefit to me keeping the account open.
Chase is clearly a company that I have a personal grudge against and will try to avoid for the rest of my life. The retail banking division of the company has severe deficiencies (mostly lending operations). I know it’s not personal but if they can wrongly label me as a high risk customer and close out all my credit accounts abruptly then it can happen again in the future.
I’ll stick to Citibank’s credit offerings where I’ve hit $17,000 in charges in a month (and paid it off) with not so much a call from fraud prevention or lending operations.
July 5th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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If you’ve ever loaned on Kiva before you’ll notice that there isn’t too much criteria available to sort and filter the loans. Chances are it’s not a big deal to you if you don’t loan much or particularly have a need for more advanced filtering. However if you do there’s some good news, there’s third party filtering located at kivabank.org. It’s free but requires the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in.
Ever since Kiva added the sharing of currency exchange losses to lenders I’ve been really adverse towards loaning to field partners who don’t cover this risk. I feel that providing interest free funds and sharing in the risk of default or fraud (which is where the majority of my defaults have come from) is more than adequate. The KivaBank tool allows me to filter and select loans based on more advanced criteria. As a third party, the website only helps you filter loans, the funding and transactions are still done at Kiva.
July 1st, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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ING Direct will have promotions from time to time that coincide with holiday shopping days. Last year they had a Black Friday “sale”. This year they’re starting off with a Independence Day theme. Hurry though, since the offers are available only today and tomorrow.
Here’s a list of what’s on “sale”:
- $76 for opening a ING Electric Orange Account
- $17.76 for referring a friend
- $776 off mortgage closing costs
- $76 Sharebuilder bonus
ING Direct Financial Independence Days
June 29th, 2010 by hejustlaughs
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If you’re not familiar with BigCrumbs, it’s a cash back website where you get cash back on purchases at participating online retailers such Buy.com, Walmart.com, etc. The difference is that you get a small percentage of cash back for your referral’s purchases also. Build up a network of active referrals and you might build up a small stream of passive income to pay for a meal here and there. Also the cash back rates are pretty competitive when compared with sites like Fatwallet.
I buy and sell things on Half.com from time to time. I noticed that Half.com gives 4% cash back on purchases through the site. So I decided that each person that purchases an item is a potential referral to BigCrumbs. So in all my correspondence with each buyer I’ll usually list the tracking number, shipping update, etc. and also end with a short spiel about earning cash back on future Half.com purchases.
I’ll link my referral link using the url shortening service bit.ly.
