The scoop on Wendy’s $2.99 value meals.

 food  No Responses »
Apr 282010
 

If you’ve been watching television lately chances are you’ve seen the fast food chain Wendy’s advertise a $2.99 value meal. This initially caught my attention as $2.99 is a really cheap price point. I finally got a chance to check it out at a local Wendy’s which is located along my commute.

The value meal wasn’t advertised on the drive-through menu and I didn’t notice any banners or signs indicating this location was participating in the $2.99 meals. I asked the attendant at the speaker window and he confirmed that this location “indeed does”. So if you don’t see any signs indicating the location is a participating one don’t be afraid to just ask.

You have the choice between the double jr. cheeseburger deluxe or the chicken sandwich value meal. I chose the chicken sandwich.Both meals come with french fries and a drink of your choice. The chicken sandwich that comes with the meal is the same chicken sandwich that’s usually available for $0.99 on the value menu. The major difference is that with the value meal you also get cheese and bacon on it.

At first I thought that this value meal was essentially three $0.99 items packaged together with cheese and bacon added onto the sandwich but it turns out the fries and drink size are “small”. The small size is bigger than the value size that you get off the 99 value menu.

All in all this is a pretty great deal for a cheap and quick meal. I generally don’t eat fast food much but if I’m in a hurry or it’s late at night I’d definitely consider grabbing a value meal again if the promotion is still around. Note that in the picture the meal comes with a lot more french fries but there were a lot of red lights on the way back home and you know how that goes.

 Posted by dan at 11:30 am

Things you can get other people to do for $5.

 interesting  No Responses »
Apr 242010
 

I came across an interesting website concept where people list things they are willing to do for $5.  The website is called fiverr.com and is open for anybody to sign up. Payments are made to fiverr through PayPal and sellers of services can cash out once they’ve reached a $40 balance.

You can pay $5 for some pretty standard gigs such as wake up calls, help with your resume and translations. It doesn’t seem to be that bad of a deal if you need a basic task for which you don’t have the time nor expertise. The seller also makes a little bit of extra cash in his or her spare time also.

There are also some interseting, fun and weird gigs offered. You can pay people $5 to talk in various accents, keep secrets, etc.

 Posted by dan at 1:41 pm

Denied credit? Get your credit report online free.

 useful tools  No Responses »
Apr 222010
 

If you’re ever denied credit you’re entitled to get access to a copy of your credit report. Usually the letter from the institution denying you credit will only list a phone number or address as a means of contacting the credit reporting agency for a copy of your credit report. Here are a couple of useful links to the sections of  the three major credit bureaus websites to get access to your credit report online:

Note that if you haven’t been denied credit you’re still entitled to see your credit report yearly free at annualcreditreport.com.

 Posted by dan at 7:46 pm

JP Morgan Chase closes all my credit cards!

 irritations  4 Responses »
Apr 192010
 

In a astounding show of incompetence Chase closes all of my credit cards due to new hard inquiries on my credit report and the addition of another credit card account at American Express. The additional American Express account also now classified me as “having too many accounts and available credit”.

What’s truly annoying is Chase closed all my accounts without warning. I even had a credit balance on one of my cards. I know that Chase is trying to reduce consumer lending risk but if they can seriously profile me as one than something is wrong with their evaluation methods.

I’ve never paid late, had a payment bounce and pay my cards in full each and every month. Although I’m not an extremely profitable customer that pays interest out the ass I am definitely an extremely low risk customer.

What makes the experience worse is the conversation with the “account managers” at Chase who I truly hope are low level employees. They would make statements like “well, your credit history is kinda short”. Well, that makes sense since I’m 22 years old and I’ve only been legally able to obtain credit 4 years ago! Yes I’m young but it’s experiences like that make individuals bitter enough to never do business with Chase again.

I will update if there is any more news.

 Posted by dan at 6:22 pm

US Treasury takes online donations to pay down national debt.

 interesting  2 Responses »
Apr 152010
 

The United States Treasury now has a convenient online form through Pay.gov to accept donations or “gifts to reduce the public debt”. You can give any amount you choose and two payment methods are offered: checking account or credit card (this would most likely include debit cards too). On a side note it seems the National Bank of Greece has also setup a “solidarity fund” to help pay down their national debt although they only

All politics aside on government deficit spending I wonder how much money will be given each year and the reasoning for giving. I actually did give just to test out the whole process and gave $1 using my check card. I have to use my check card 5 times a month anyway so I figure I’ll spend $1 for the sake of research.

The form is pretty basic. You fill out the donor information on the first page and then fill out payment information on the second page. You can choose to get an e-mail confirmation also.

According to the real time US National Debt Clock, as of this post , the national debt is at 12.8 trillion dollars and each citizen’s share is $41,465 or $116,660 per taxpayer. The population is roughly 309 million while 109 million of those are taxpayers.

Don’t worry you can spread the amount across multiple cards.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/
 Posted by dan at 10:30 am

Ryanair to consider charging for airplane lavatory

 funny, interesting, personal insights  No Responses »
Apr 142010
 

ABC.com is reporting that Irish discount carrier Ryanair plans to charge  to use the lavatory on the plane. The airline plans to charge 1 euro or 1 pound and remove 2 out of the 3 bathrooms on the plane to add seats. This isn’t a joke as other news outlets such as USA Today (Ryanair pushes ahead with plan for toilet fee) and CNN (Airline considers fee for lavatory use) have reported on the matter.

Ryanair is known for being a no frills discount carrier with cheap flights between many European cities. They’re also known for charging fees for everything from checking baggage to checking in online.

Supposedly the good news is Boeing won’t comply with Ryanair’s request because they believe it would compromise passenger safety. Why supposedly? I believe the whole thing is a publicity stunt. I highly doubt Ryanair would go this far to maximize revenue. However the whole publicity stunt worked because Ryanair is so known for no frills that announcing these “plans” had every media outlet reporting on the matter.

Ryanair pushes ahead with plan for toilet fee

 Posted by dan at 9:34 am

Easy 52,500 Hilton HHonors points for my Europe trip.

 credit cards, deals, finance deals  No Responses »
Apr 092010
 

In a previous post I discussed how I planned to go to Europe later in the year and wanted to cut costs in every area possible. I figure for every free night I attain that’s one less night I have to pay for.

I recently signed up for the American Express Hilton HHonors card to get up to 62,500 Hilton HHonors points in sign-up bonuses (link to BankAndFinanceDeals.com). Although you can earn up to 62,500 points, I figure I’ll only be earning 52,500 as earning 10,000 of the points requires 4 stays at Hilton properties which I don’t foresee myself doing.

  • I get 20,000 points after your first purchase. This will be the easiest.
  • I get another 30,000 points after you spend $1,500 within three months. This is doable since $1,500 over 3 months is only $500 or so a month.
  • Add an additional card member I net another 2,500 points.

This brings my total to 52,500 points plus the 4,500 points accrued from $1,500 in spending for a total of 57,000 points. 57,000 points sounds like a lot but it will only net me a free night in London’s famous Trafalgar Square at 50,000 points a night. It’s one less night I have to pay for and I get a room worth a couple hundred dollars.

I signed up for this card on Tuesday, got instantly approved and it was sent overnight via UPS and arrived yesterday (Thursday). There are no annual fees for this card so I don’t mind holding onto it.

 Posted by dan at 9:16 am

American Express Fee-Free Gift Card Code

 deals, finance deals  No Responses »
Apr 062010
 

American Express released another code to get the fees waived off their gift cards. Use code EMADMVMC to get gift card fees removed when you order gift cards from the American Express Gift Card website.

Remember, you can use Big Crumbs to get 1.2% cash back on American Express gift card purchases.

 Posted by dan at 9:13 pm

Free entry to National Parks April 17th-25th

 deals  No Responses »
Apr 062010
 

During National Park Week from April 17th to the 25th all national parks will be waiving their entrance fees. Although many national parks are already free this is a chance to check out the ones that charge an entrance fee.

Saturday, April 24th is also National Junior Ranger day. Children can take part in kid-friendly activities and receive a junior ranger patch.

Personally I can’t remember the last time I’ve visited a national park. Might be nice chance to get a breather and enjoy some scenery for once.

 Posted by dan at 8:41 am

No more free pens at TD Bank?

 personal insights  5 Responses »
Apr 052010
 

On a recent visit to my local TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank) I discovered that there are no longer free pens being offered! I really don’t mind as long as they don’t cut their days and hours of operation as they’re still the most convenient bank around. I wonder if this is only my local branch or pens are being phased at all locations.

It’s weird that they would cut pens first before cutting those 5 second commercials on television that would tell you the time and temperature.

 Posted by dan at 11:29 am
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