Mobile payments are hot, and start-up LevelUp let’s you pay by scanning a QR code from your smartphone that is linked to your existing credit or debit card. You know what that means… venture capital spent on customer acquisition! New users can get a free $5 credit by signing up through a referral link or with code JL8U06. The referrer also gets $5, but only if the user spends $5 on their own credit card. Nice detail: The app lets you use your camera to grab your credit card number instead of typing it in.

In addition to the referral bonus, you’ll also get a few bucks of free starter credit at each of thousands of participating merchants (mostly restaurants). For example, in San Francisco you can get $1 a Adam’s Grub Truck, $2 at Slider Shack and Quiznos, and $4 at Asa Sushi. In New York City you can get $2 for Big D’s Grub Truck. Neat feature to encourage trying out a new place. There are also loyalty promos, for example you may get $5 after spending $50 at a store over time. They seem to have many major metro areas covered, but there are holes.

Overall, another mobile payment app based on the idea that whipping out a credit card is just too much trouble. I do think there will be a big winner in this arena, but competitor Square is already moving towards the concept of leaving both your wallet and phone in your pocket entirely and essentially paying by saying your name once your phone is nearby. One interesting feature is that they offer zero merchant fees for businesses, which sounds great but I’m not quite sure how they pull that off. In the meantime, I like checking out new startups and will enjoy my free lunch.

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If you are an AT&T Wireless, U-verse, Home Phone, or Internet customer, here are some promotions that are currently available.

$25 for AutoPay
Sign up for automatic payment of your bill via credit card or bank account and get a $25 prepaid Visa gift card. You must maintain your AutoPay status for at least 90 days. FYI, here’s a different one offering $10 for AutoPay.

$10 for Paperless Statements
Enroll in paperless billing and get a $10 prepaid Visa gift card. Offer is valid for AT&T Wireless, U-verse, Home Phone, and Internet Accounts. One $10 Reward Card for Paperless Billing enrollment per 12-month period. Must retain qualifying enrollment in Paperless Billing for a minimum of 90 days and at time processing of reward is completed.

Current AT&T TV, Internet, and Phone promotions
Check out the current promotion for their U-Verse products and regular AT&T bundles with high-speed internet starting at $14.95 a month.

Here are some finance-related audiobooks from Audible.com (owned by Amazon.com) that are currently free with no trial required. Download them now, listen to them later. Via gymsock of SD.

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change – The Stephen Covey classic.
• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us – A book about leadership by Seth Godin.
• Bound to Rise (Or, Up the Ladder) by Horatio Alger – If you like rags to riches stories where hard work and grit pay off, he’s your man.
• FREE: The Future of a Radical Price – “Chris Anderson explores this radical idea for the new global economy and demonstrates how this revolutionary price can be harnessed for the benefit of consumers and businesses alike.”

Coupons.com is – surprise! – a site that offers digital and printable coupons online to many major brands. They also have a “Savings Club” where you pay $30 a year and get access to bigger coupons and a Coupon Finder tool. To celebrate their anniversary, they are offering a free 1-year Savings Club membership with the promotion code BIRTHDAY. The only catch is that you must provide a credit card and if you don’t cancel, the next year will be $30 charged on your card. You can cancel anytime during the free first year with no charges.

Despite a few tries, I am just not cut out to be a extreme couponer. Perhaps it’s our small family or the fact that I’m unwilling to drive out of my way to chase down sales when there is already a Costco, a supermarket, and a weekly farmer’s market just minutes away from my house. I’m not judging though – I’m happy that others can save a lot of money with coupons.

Here’s a link for a free 2-year subscription to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine from RewardsCountry. There is a short survey on the second page, mine was something about watches. There is no credit card required so they can’t auto-renew or charge you later, and I’ve had good luck with many of these free magazines, so it may be worth the 2-3 minutes of your time.

SmartMoney magazine is already gone (at least in print, will still have articles online), so perhaps you’ll have an antique to show your grandkids. I’m actually looking forward to my WSJ weekend subscription substitution.

Back again for limited time. LivingSocial is spreading into being a central site for ordering takeout and delivery from local restaurants. Right now they are offering $10 worth of food for only $1. Check out their restaurant list first before you buy. Entire value must be used in a single order and is only applicable to your sub-total. I ran a quick test order and they don’t appear to add a surcharge although delivery fees vary, also food prices may be higher than in the restaurant.

Since I last wrote about them, ThredUP.com has recently transitioned from a clothes swapping site to essentially an online consignment store. You send them your “like new” used clothes and they sell them to other people online for you and take a cut.

Right now, ThredUP is offering up a free $10 store credit if you sign up through a referral link, and the referrer gets $10 store credit as well. That’s mine, if you use it please feel free to leave yours in the comments if you’d like. The good news is that the credits count towards shipping costs, and you can also stack the coupon code AUGUST20 for another 20% off. The bad news is that shipping runs $6.95 (free shipping with $40 order), which means with the free $10 you could either get a $4 item shipped for free or you could get $40 worth of clothing for $22 including shipping… but ideally you’d refer enough friends and family to get more completely free clothes including shipping. Here’s a screenshot of my cart:

At first glance the clothing prices seem rather high to me… keep in mind I never go to Gap Anything and many of my clothes are 10+ years old. This seems like it might work for those that don’t want to rummage around at garage sales, which is what I plan to try. 🙂

Anyone use ThredUP to sell their old clothes on the new consignment site (not the swapping boxes)?

You can get 500 bonus US Airways miles when you download their web browser toolbar called the Dividend Miles StoreFront Assistant, install it, and make at least one search. Note that some people have reported getting the miles with just a download, no installation required. In any case, you can uninstall it later.

To qualify for the initial download 500 bonus miles offer, make at least one search or purchase using the Dividend Miles StoreFront Assistant. Bonus offer is valid only for the initial download and install of the Dividend Miles StoreFront Assistant. Not valid on subsequent downloads or installs.

Sprint is running a promotion offering a $100 Reward Card from American Express when you buy any smartphone and start a new line of service. $36 activation fee is also waived. This is on top of the current discounted prices for a 2-year agreement, meaning a new iPhone 4S now costing $149 would be only $49 after the $100 gift card. (The $99 refurbished one would essentially be free.) Sprint has to sell something like $15 billion worth of iPhones in the first 4 years, so it looks like they are clearing out the iPhone 4S inventory..

Valid during 8/14-8/26, online only. Requires 2-year Agreement and new line of service. Account must be in good standing for 30 days to receive card. Card will arrive in 8 to 10 weeks. You can get one $100 gift card per line with a family plan with multiple phones and multiple lines. Android phones like Galaxy Nexus and Samsung Galaxy III are also eligible.

Keep in mind the monthly data plan costs, and don’t forget to add any employee or student discounts available with can be substantial. Compare with other good iPhone options like the Virgin Mobile iPhone $30 plan and the Straight Talk BYO iPhone $45 Unlimited plan.