Fusioncash is a portal that offers you cash incentives for signing up for various offers. I joined a couple weeks ago and today I finally got around to signing up for a couple of offers today.

To start off, I let someone else refer me and started with a $3 bonus.

I signed up for the free trial of Stamps.com for $20. Stamps.com also offered $5 in free postage. I have some stuff on eBay I sold so the postage is a plus.

I also signed up for these offers:

30-day trial of Entertainment Rewards, $12 from FusionCash. You can also earn an extra $10 from them by printing out 3 coupons.

14-day Real Superpass, $14.40 from FusionCash. There’s also a free $10 credit for use in the music store. $9.99 will net you most albums. Each song is $0.99.

When you request cashouts they will be paid on or before the 20th of the next month. So i’ll update then on if they really pay out or not (by June 20th)

If you’re interested on checking it out, use my referral link and I’ll earn a whole dollar.

http://www.fusioncash.net/?ref=hejustlaughs Thanks.

Last week I was pleasantly surprised when someone e-mailed me asking for an Unwired Buyer referral. He didn’t have to, and he was the first person to ever do so. He wasn’t required to be referred to earn the bonus. He just wanted to help me out with the $5 referral bonus I would get. Which I still haven’t recieved from Unwired Buyer as of date o_O.

It’s nice to know that there are decent unselfish people out there. I mean it didn’t hurt to use the referral in any way and the only loser was Unwired Buyer in that they had to shell out an extra $5. It’s also not like I’m exploiting people here either. If I miraculously referred 20 people, that would amount to $100 which might cover one textbook.

So this blog’s profit as of date? $5 (If Unwired Buyer pays me). I think I actually might be unprofitable as all these hours wasted could be spent panhandling at the train station or something.

UPS Interview! I got an interview for UPS on wednesday. The job is only for 3 hours/day, 5days/week, pays $9/hour. The more attractive aspect of this is that UPS is offering a $3000 scholarship with no vesting period, meaning I won’t have to work for them out of college. I’m not sure on the fine print at this point but I’ll take anything. Wish me luck.

In case you’re ever confused, listed in alphabetical order:

AR = Afer Rebate
BBY = Best Buy (also their stock ticker symbol)
BoA = Bank of America
CSR = Customer Service Representative
FAR = Free After Rebate
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
GC = Gift Card
MM = Money Market
YMMV = Your mileage may vary (meaning you may not get the same experience).

I was talking to the online CSR at Bank of America and asked about any bonuses for opening up accounts. The CSR told me there is a $60 bonus for opening up a student savings and student checking account and a $125 bonus for non-student accounts. The student accounts have a lot less fees and minimum initial opening balances so I went with the student accounts although it is a smaller bonus. Initial funding minimum was $125, which you can charge to your credit card. The charges count as purchases, not cash advances. So I was thinking about funding the maximum, whatever that might be to get the 1% cashback reward but my credit limit is only $800 for the Citi Dividend Card and I might need it for gas and supermarket purchases (5% cashback). I funded $125 from my credit card and 4 days later they e-mailed telling I was approved. According to the CSR it takes up to 45 business days for my account to be credited.

I also signed up for the Keep the Change program from BoA. Check it out here: http://www.bankofamerica.com/promos/jump/ktc/

Oh yeah, the promo code is B60, not sure when the expiration is so verify with the CSR.

In response to the comment: The student checking is free for 5 years and the savings account is free for 6 months and then an average balance of $300 is required or monthly transfer of $25 from checking to savings. So the fees are virtually nonexistent for this offer.

I just finished getting $20 for trying out Unwired Buyer located at https://www.unwiredbuyer.com
They are basically a service that calls you and lets you bid on eBay auctions through your phone during the last couple of minutes of an auction.

They require you to give them your ebay username and password so I changed my password before giving it to them and after the whole process was done I changed my password back.

They seem to be legit in that 1-2 hours after I tried the service they credited my PayPal account with $20.

Here’s what the whole process involved for me. I signed up with Unwired Buyer. I put an item on my auction watchlist that was ending in 15 minutes on eBay. With 3 minutes left in the auction I got a phone call on my cell phone. The automated voice system told me how to bid and whatnot. The current high bid on the item was $0.06 so I placed a bid for $0.11 and then during the last 15 seconds I got outbid by someone with a bid of $0.16. 1-2 hours later I got $20 credited to my PayPal for trying out their service. Nice.
Note: You do not have to win the auction, you simply have to bid and “try” out their service. I bidded on ebooks because they usually go for $0.01-$0.10. with free shipping.

You can get $5 for referring someone. If anyone wants to help me out by letting me refer them, send an e-mail to hejustlaughs@gmail.com with your first name. Thanks.

Update 9/6/06: I recieved an e-mail from Unwired Buyer that said the $20 bonus is dead. However I noticed they still have the offer on their homepage, so I don’t know what’s up.

I got a new button that’ll let anyone that wishes add my RSS feed to their google personalize homepage or their google reader. Try it out (easily removable).

The address for my RSS Feed is located at http://www.endlessgibberish.com/pf/rsspf.xml

Here are some personal finance rules I try to abide by:

1. Charge everything that can be charged to a rewards credit card. I mean, if there’s a slight advantage to paying with a credit card, then why not? 5% off on gas, pharmacies, supermarkets, etc. adds up to a lot over time. The minimum reward which I can get is 1% cashback which is still decent. If you pay with cash, you’re often subsidizing everyone else who pays with a credit card. Just watch your spending and you’ll be okay.

2. Always keep extra cash in a high yield savings account. It’s basically free money especially if I don’t have immediate plans for the cash. I will keep money I intend to use for paying off a credit card bill or any other bill in a high yield savings account also.

3. Do well in school. More importantly, FINISH school. If I don’t finish my years in college, I’ll only have a high school diploma to fall back on… and I can’t be frugal if I’m not making money to be frugal with.

4. Screw full priced trendy retail clothes. Most people my age will not even think about this. You don’t have to dress like a bum, but you don’t have to wear $200+ designer jeans either. Go shopping when you NEED clothes, impulse buying is for suckers, unless they’re getting crazy good deals.

5. Be frugal, but don’t be cheap. Cheap people are the kind of people that when having a meal with someone else will pay $8 for a bill of $7.75, full well knowing that tip and tax will not be covered and whomever they are dinner is going to have to pick up the rest. Frugal people have water instead of soda to save $1.75 on their bill and still put down $8 on their $6 bill to cover tax and tip.

I was found a sweet deal today on the Jets site. Sign up for a New York Jets Extra Points Mastercard and receive a free iPod Nano 1GB with Jets engraving.

Link to deal: http://www.newyorkjets.com/fan_zone/jetsextrapoints
Discussion on Fatwallet: http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/610503/

Here are the terms of the offer:
* You have to make combinations of purchases and cash transactions totaling at least $100 within 90 days of the date the account is opened.
* Allow 8-12 weeks for delivery after qualifying.

Here’s to quote the page:
To qualify for this offer, your new account must be used to make any combination of purchase or cash advance transactions (including balance transfers) totaling at least $100 within 90 days of the date the account is opened by MBNA (exclusive of transaction fees, if any). Limit one (1) item per new account. Supplies are limited. Allow 8-12 weeks for delivery after qualifying. Offer sponsored by MBNA: we may substitute an item of equal or greater value and we are not responsible for lost, stolen or undelivered merchandise. “

I figure this is a great deal for me because:

1. I am a Jets fan(yes I know they suck right now), an iPod nano couldn’t hurt either, especially one with Jets engraving on it.
2. I am going to spend $100 in general credit card purchases anyway. Normally I would get 1% cashback totalling $1. The iPod nano is definitely worth it.
3. I will still use my Citi Dividend card for gas, supermarket, pharmacy purchases to get 5% cashback in those areas. I’ll just use this card outside of those locations to qualify for the $100 within 90 days.
4. My old 3rd generation 20 gb iPod is outdated and malfunctioning. The thing freezes constantly and battery life is short. I could use a new iPod, especially one that is practically free.

I’ll edit later on how the deal goes.

I didn’t get instant approval! I have a feeling a rejection letter will be sent in the mail.

edit: As of August 1st, 2006, this deal is dead. I already recieved my free iPod and congrats to everyone else who also did.

Transactions posted way earlier than I thought. Sigh. Three overdrawn transactions. NSF fee per transaction is $35. 3 x $35 = $105. OUCH. This is definitely not the way to build wealth. OUCH. $105 is a lot of money for me at this point in my life. OUCH.

I just got off the phone. I called up Wachovia and just simply asked for the fees to be waived, can’t hurt right? The CSR offered to refund 2 of the 3 NSF fees so I would be paying for only one fee of $35. Maybe I’ll try calling again later. $35 isn’t as bad as $105.

Moral of the story, don’t play with checks. You’re probably better off playing with fire.

The reasons I chose to compare ING Direct, Emigrant Direct, and HSBC Direct is that they are usually regarded as the major players in this area. The accounts they offer are not money market accounts and generally transfers are not restricted in and out of the account. Citi does offer an online savings account but it requires you have a Citi checking account, so they will be excluded from this comparison.

Interest Rates
As of 8/31/06, the interest rates for the three banks are as follows:

• ING Direct: 4.35% apy
• Emigrant Direct: 5.15% apy
• HSBC Direct: 5.05% apy

Emigrant Direct leads the pack in interest rates. ING is no longer competitive. HSBC lags slighty behind Emigrant but 0.1% on $100 is only 10 cents. Historically, Emigrant Direct has been competitive with their rates so if you’re a rate chaser, stashing your money at Emigrant Direct is probably a good idea.

ING International Rates

ING Direct caters to many different countries and rates vary from country to country. You can check out the rates that are offered in other countries other than the United States.

Australia – http://www.ingdirect.com.au/
Austria – http://www.ing-diba.at/
Canada – http://www.ingdirect.ca/
France – http://www.ingdirect.fr/
Germany – http://www.ing-diba.de/
Italy – http://www.ingdirect.it/
Spain – http://www.ingdirect.es/
United Kingdom – http://www.ingdirect.co.uk/

User Interface

All three have simple and easy to use interfaces. Although the ING Direct one seems the most user friendly. HSBC and Emigrant Direct’s interfaces don’t match up to ING Direct. However, it is essentially a bank afterall and user interfaces shouldn’t be at the top of your list for reasons to bank somewhere. All three have user interfaces that are easily usable and navigate.

Transferring Money

To access your funds, you generally have to link your online account to a checking or savings account and transfer money in/out as you please.

I am using the experiment done on MyMoneyBlog as basis for comparing transfer times between banks. The article can be found here.

Basically HSBC has the slowest transfer time while Emigrant Direct surprisingly had the fastest. This should be a factor in considering you want these accounts to be as liquid as possible.

HSBC, however, does offer an ATM or Debit card to go with your account so you can withdraw money instantly. I don’t have any HSBC branches around me so this feature isn’t too useful.

Bonuses

ING Direct offers a sign-up bonus of $25 if you deposit $250. E-Mail me at hejustlaughs@gmail.com if you need a referral.

HSBC Direct no longer offers any bonuses as of date.

Emigrant Direct does not offer any bonuses.

Overall
HSBC offers you the fastest access to your money with their ATM card. This is highly convenient if you live by a HSBC branch or atm.

Emigrant Direct offers the fastest transfer times out of all the three listed above. Emigrant also offers the highest rate for my money. I would have to go with Emigrant Direct because of their fast transfer times and high yielding rates.

However, if you do not have an ING Direct account, you should simple open one up for the $25 bonus. That’s an easy 10% on your money.

Emigrant Direct
HSBC Direct
ING Direct