Have you discovered social buying yet?

 deals  1 Response »
Jul 272010
 

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.

 Posted by dan at 2:46 pm

Get discounted Disney World tickets and support the Florida Hospital for Children.

 deals  No Responses »
Jul 242010
 

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!

 Posted by dan at 9:45 am

A year free of Amazon Prime for students

 deals  1 Response »
Jul 142010
 

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

 Posted by dan at 1:29 pm

Finally got around to cutting all ties to JP Morgan Chase.

 my personal finance  2 Responses »
Jul 082010
 

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.

 Posted by dan at 4:07 pm

Filter Kiva loans more effectively with KivaBank.

 Kiva  No Responses »
Jul 052010
 

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.

 Posted by dan at 8:59 am

ING Direct Financial Independence Days July 1st and 2nd ONLY!

 deals, finance deals  No Responses »
Jul 012010
 

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

 Posted by dan at 8:57 am
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