CNBC is hosting another million dollar portfolio challenge. The contest involves taking $1 million dollars in fictional play money to invest in a mix of equities and currencies. The grand prize is $1 million dollar and the 2nd prize is a Maserati GranTurismo. There are also 10 weekly prizes.
You get 5 different portfolios to try out various strategies.
The contest starts tomorrow so register already if you haven’t.
I got an e-mail that effectively ends the deal where you could rack up free credit card spending by purchasing dollar coins at face value and free shipping.
Here’s the e-mail:
Dear United States Mint Direct Ship Customer:
The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective July 20, 2011. Customers who wish to purchase $1 coins through the Direct Ship Program can still do so by using a wire transfer, money order or check. Customers who wish to purchase the coins by wire transfer may fax their order to (202)756-6585. Customers interested in purchasing by money order or check may do so by submitting your request in writing to the following address:
.
United States Mint
PO Box 71192
Philadelphia, PA 19176-6192Please download the order form which includes wire transfer information and follow the instructions provided on the form. http://www.usmint.gov/
downloads/directShip/orderform
If you currently have an open $1 coin Direct Ship order placed with the United States Mint, that order will be cancelled. Please resubmit your order by wire transfer, check or money order using the order form. The Mint has determined that this policy change is prudent due to ongoing activity by individuals purchasing $1 coins with credit cards, accumulating frequent flyer miles, and then returning coins to local banks. Local banks, in turn, return coins to the Federal Reserve. While not illegal, this activity is a clear abuse and misuse of the program which was intended to facilitate the use of $1 coins in cash transactions.The Mint has undertaken several aggressive internal and external actions to mitigate this issue, including restricting chronic and repeated use of credit cards, contacting customers who frequently placed large numbers of orders to ensure they were using the coins for legitimate business purchases, and other measures. While these efforts eliminated a significant amount of misuse in the program, we believe some abuse still exists. Eliminating the credit and debit card purchase of the $1 coin is the next step in our efforts to root out abuse in this program and ensure it is better targeted toward fulfilling its intended purpose – which is to get the $1 coin into greater circulation.
Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of the $1 Coin Program.
The United States Mint
I only wish I took advantage of the program earlier. I had been ordering coins here and there but nothing in serious volume. I’ve heard of people churning in volumes of $10k+ per week.
Recently I opened a Capital One Money Market account because they’ve started offering pretty attractive yields. If you look on their savings & money market accounts page you’ll see 4 accounts available.
All the accounts have no monthly fees or minimum balances but you’ll need at least $1,000+ to earn 1.10% on the InterestPlus Online Savings.
The yields would seem pretty straightforward except the InterestPlus Online Savings offers a 10% bonus on interest earned every quarter and the Rewards Money market offers reward miles based on your average monthly balance. These bonuses juice up the yields a little bit.
The InterestPlus Online Savings yields about 1.21% – Since you’re getting 1.10% APY, a 10% bonus of the interest earned would give you an extra 0.11%. This is a pretty good yield but however you might want to consider the rewards money market.
The Rewards Money Market Account yields about 1.4015% – In addition to 0.75% APY you get 1 mile for every $20 of your average monthly balance.
For example with a $10,000 balance you’d end with 6,015 miles after a year. The extra 15 miles is from your growing balance from the 0.75% APY. Each mile is worth $0.01 therefore $60.15 / $10,000 is a 0.6015% return.
Add together 0.75% + 0.6015% and you have a yield of 1.4015%.
The miles are redeemable for travel, gift cards, etc. They’re the same type of “no hassle” miles earned in other Capital One reward programs. There’s also the added benefit that you won’t be taxed on the reward miles.
Check out CapitalOne’s savings and money market offerings.
Last month I joined a website called Offermatic that gives you targeted offers based on your credit card spending patterns. For example I got a $25 off $50 Drugstore.com offer for spending money at Rite-Aid. I also took advantage of a $10 Starbucks card for $5. Other offers I got were $5 for a $10 Subway card and $20 for $50 worth of stuff at VitaminEmporium.com.
The only caveat is that in order to track your credit card patterns you need to give Offermatic the online login credentials to your credit card account. They use your login to download your transactions on a regular basis. The site claims it is safe and uses bank level encryption.
Given that security of user information is critical to the survival and of the site I would hope they take it very seriously. I don’t have a problem supplying my credentials because there’s a limited amount of damage a person could do if they found out your online login and you’re responsible for $0 of fraud.
Offermatic is still very new so there’s issues they need to work out with their system and currently the offers seem to be rather rare. I haven’t received any new offers in the past 3-4 weeks. I feel that if the site doesn’t roll out more offers on a sustained basis they may have trouble retaining users.
Reward checking accounts are checking accounts that typically pay higher interest on your deposits but require certain conditions to be met to earn the higher rate. One of the most common conditions is using the check card attached to the account.
Look into Amazon gift cards if you need an easy way to meet the transaction requirements typically required of reward checking accounts. The gift cards can be applied to your Amazon balance which never expires. You can then use the accumulated balance to buy something off Amazon once or twice a year and enjoy the higher interest rates.
Bookmark this link to the gift card page since chances are you`ll be buying multiple orders often.
I recommend buying at least $1 in gift cards as not to raise any red flags with Amazon and/or the financial instition. However it has been reported that amounts as low as $0.15 will work. Personally I don`t want to compromise
Enjoy the higher interest rates!
Chase recently unveiled a promotion where you can get 5% cash back on everything you purchase for 6 months. To the unaware, this is a huge opportunity to rake in some serious savings and money. All you need is a membership from AARP.org (you don’t need to be over 50 and membership is well worth the $16) and apply for the card here. Here are some ideas on how to maximize the value of this promotion.
Put every purchase you can on this card. This one is pretty obvious. You’re technically getting 5% off everything you buy. So put everything from common everyday purchases at the supermarket, gas stations, etc. to eating out, bars, etc. Don’t spend more money just because you’re getting 5% cash back (that’d be silly) but just try to put every purchase you normally make can onto the card. In a given month I’ll have at least $1k-$2k in general spending so at 5% cash back that’s$50 to $100 right there.
Put other people’s purchases on the card. If you hang around people who like to pay cash for things, put the purchase on your card and take the cash! More people pay cash than you’d think for lots of things. Once at Sam’s club the lady in front of me paid for $800 worth of groceries and misc purchases with cash! When I’m out with my friends having dinner people usually pay cash at the end of the meal. I recommend collecting the cash (try to make sure everyone paid their fair share first though) and put the whole bill on your card.
Buy Dollar Coins from the US Mint. For purchases that you have to pay in cash you can use dollar coins purchased from the US Mint. The Mint takes credit cards and has free shipping for the direct ship $1 coins. This means you are getting a 5% discount on the face value of cash. You can order $1k every 10 days so in a given month you’d be able to get about 3 orders in. That’s a $150 cash back on $3k worth of coins.
Use Amazon Payments to send money to people. The internet retailer has been rolling out a new payment service called Amazon Payments. At the moment there are no fees to receive and send payments with a credit card. However there is a monthly limit of $1,000 for sending and receiving. This is a great way to send people money for debts, gifts, birthdays, etc. and get 5% cash back.
Buy American Express Gift Cards at a discount. You can effectively get 6.6% cash back on all your purchases by buying American Express Gift Cards through Big Crumbs. Big Crumbs nets you 1.6% cash back on Amex Gift Card purchases. Add the 5% cash back from Chase and that’s a net of 6.6% cash back. Since the Chase promotion runs 6 months you can load up on these gift cards for use after the promotional period. You’re limited to $5k in personal gift card purchases every 14-15 days so plan accordingly.
Take advantage of the card’s 0% APR on purchases and balance transfer for 12 months. The card comes with a promotional offer of 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers. Therefore the best way to take advantage of this is to pay off your card in full each month and get 5% cash back, then on the 6th month rack up charges you’d normally pay off but just carry the balance for the term of the 0% apr offer. It’s essentially a 6 month long free loan. Just remember to pay it off in full to avoid any interest charges.
I’m sure there are more ways to get value out of this promotion but hopefully these will get you started. If you have questions or have a private comment feel free to use the contact form to get in touch with me. Don’t worry I don’t ever publicize things that are discussed (unless you want me to).
So this past week I was doing a little bit of shopping at Target and saw a sign promoting the Target REDcard. Communist thoughts and jokes aside, the card gets you 5% off everything at Target and on the online website. The discount can be stacked on top of coupons and other discounts. The card is available as a credit card or a debit card.
I decided to get the card as I do a fair bit of shopping at Target. I got the credit card and was instantly approved on the spot. You’re given a paper receipt that you can use temporarily until your card comes in the mail.
This is actually my first store credit card. In the past I’ve never gotten one as no store credit card has had attractive enough rewards for me to consider them.
Upon checkout I realized the discount is taken off immediately. It’s not like the cash back rewards model where you get the money rebated at the end of the month or whatnot.
You can find out more and apply online or in-store.
Amazon is rolling out with a payment service similar to that of PayPal’s called Amazon Payments. You can pay merchants, friends, etc. with funds from your bank account or credit card. For the time being you can only send and receive up to $1,000 per month in credit card initiated transactions. Also at the moment you do earn credit card rewards on the transactions based on my experience thus far.
This is perfect because when I owe friends money I can send them funds and still earn credit card rewards. The only trouble is convincing your friends to sign up for amazon payments and add/verify a bank account. However if they already have an amazon account there’s no need to sign up but you still need to add/verify a bank account.
In this post I’m outlining how you can use Amex Gift Cards and the US Mint to score some free spending on your credit cards to earn miles/points and a little bit of cash.
I’ve mentioned this in the past and this is well publicized but if you haven’t heard the US Mint has been allowing people to buy dollar coins at face value with their credit cards for some time now. This meant that you could order $1k coins with free shipping on your credit card. You’d get the points/miles for the $1k purchase on your card and then take the coins to your bank for deposit or spend them at places that don’t take credit cards.
Note that the US Mint now limits people to $1k in orders every 10 days.
Another thing a lot of people overlook is that you can further gain by purchasing American Express gift cards at a slight discount. How do you do this?
There are cash back sites out there that will rebate you a % of your purchase made online. In short, they’re kicking back a percentage of the commission they get from referring you to the merchant. Big Crumbs is one of the cash back sites that currently gives one of the highest cash back percentages for purchasing American Express Gift Cards at 1.6%. You also get an extra 0.2% cash back of each of your referrals purchases at the Amex site. Note that you should never use a Citi credit card to purchase an Amex gift card because Citi codes all transactions from any financial institution as a cash advance (you won’t earn miles/points/etc. on that card and ma get charged interest).
You then use the gift cards you purchase to purchase dollar coins from the Mint. Let’s use an example:
Y purchase a 1k gift card with 1.6% cash back. You use that gift card to purchase dollar coins. In essence if I use my Amex SPG card I’m recieving 1000 SPG points and $16 (minus fees associated with receiving the card). Since you can purchase $1k worth of dollar coins every 10 days you can easily order 2k per month.
In summary:
Use promo codes to negate some of the Amex gift card fees. The code EMSVCA1 removes card purchase fees (expires 1/15/10).
If you haven’t heard, Citi is giving away 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for signing up for one of their co-branded AAdvantage Visa, American Express or Visa Business cards. Looking at the American Airlines award chart you’ll quickly realize this is a great deal. Even if you value miles at 1 cent each ( I value them at 2 cents ) it’s essentially a $750 sign-up bonus.
The requirement to get the bonus is to simply spend $1,500 within 6 months of becoming a cardholder. The $85 annual fee is waived the first year. I’ve also heard it’s possible to get more than one bonus by signing up for the 2 or all 3 of the card types (Visa, Amex).
I thought everybody knew about this and was jumping on the deal but I discovered a lot of people haven’t yet heard of it and the current 75k offer expires at the end of the month. While the promotional offer may or may not be renew I don’t suggest taking that chance. If you waited too long to hop onto past great deals such as the 100,000 British Airways offer then hop on this one before you regret it.
I plan on applying for the Visa branded card sometime within the next week. 75,000 miles would certainly be useful and help me out in my quest for a million miles (to achieve lifetime AA gold status). As of date I’ve accumulated 260,691 miles or 26% of the way there. An additional 75,000 miles would push me 7.5% further along.
Find more information on the offer at the BankAndFinanceDeals.com post.
Recent Comments