Free 500 American Airlines Miles

You can get 500 free American Airlines miles if you register for the AAdvantage eShopping Mall as a new member by May 31st, 2010. The mall is like other cashback shopping portals, except that they give you American miles back instead.

You’ll need to provide any valid credit card number, which allows you get miles back for purchases at physical retail stores. Fine print below… though the 500 miles showed up much earlier than 8-10 weeks for me. Quick and easy.

You must register on this page to earn the 500 mile enrollment bonus. Bonus miles will post to AAdvantage eShopping member’s account within 8 to 10 weeks from enrollment. This offer is not valid for existing AAdvantage eShopping members.

Energy Star Appliance Rebates Available Nationwide

“You may be eligible to receive rebates from your state or territory for the purchase of new ENERGY STAR qualified appliances. These rebates are being funded with $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Under this program, eligible consumers can receive rebates to purchase new energy-efficient appliances when they replace used appliances.”

Each state is running their own program. California just started their Cash for Appliances program yesterday, and it’s much better than I thought it was. Some states have already ended their programs (sorry!).

For example, on a $500 front-loading washer that we were looking at, certain CA residents (by zip code) could get $300 back in rebates! That’s $200 from the state of California, $50 from WaterEnergySavings.com (PG&E + local water utility), and another $50 from PG&E. This is on top of the potential water and electricity savings that you’d would get from switching away from an old top-loading washer.

Click on your state on this map for more information. Here are some frequently asked questions.

Lonely Planet Offers Free iPhone Apps To Travelers

In response to the disruption caused by a certain Icelandic volcano, Lonely Planet has made their iPhone apps for 13 European cities free until April 22nd. These usually cost $15.99 each, and seemed to work fine on my iPod Touch. From their blog:

‘Travellers stuck in unfamiliar places need access to practical information as well as suggestions on what to do whilst stranded’, said Tom Hall, Lonely Planet Travel Editor. ‘That’s why we’re giving away iPhone city guides to major affected destinations.’

I think it’s a nice gesture on their part and also good PR. Heck, I didn’t even know Lonely Planet offered apps until today. Should make for some neat reading. Here are direct iTunes links to the included cities:

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Berlin
  • Budapest
  • Copenhagen
  • Istanbul
  • London
  • Moscow
  • Munich
  • Paris
  • Rome
  • Stockholm
  • Vienna

Chase Sapphire Card: $100 Signup Bonus

Chase Sapphire Card BannerThe Chase Sapphire Card is a new rewards credit card that is offering 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase on the credit card, which can be redeemed for $100 cash. No annual fee.

As a rewards card, it offers 1 point for every dollar in purchases (100 points = $1, or the usual 1% back). The nice part is that redemptions are easy – you can even redeem in $1 increments as long as above $20, so you could cash out $27 or $113 without anything left over. There are no earning caps, or points expiration dates.

In addition, you can get double points on airfare booked through their Ultimate Rewards website. It also promotes a “premium, dedicated service line that gives you access to a live person anytime, 24/7.” I tested this out a couple of times and it really works! A real person picks up after a couple rings… it’s actually a bit disconcerting. Makes redeeming rewards much easier as well.

Fine print:

10,000 bonus points
You will qualify for and receive your bonus after your first purchase/first use of the card. First purchase/first use includes purchases, balance transfers, or any checks that are used to access your account, and excludes cash advances. After qualifying, please allow 6 to 8 weeks for bonus points to post to your account. This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts.

Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Plan: Free $25 To Start

The Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Savings Plan is again offering a $25 refer-a-friend bonus if you open an account and deposit at least $25 by June 30, 2010. You can be a resident of any state, and there are no application or annual fees.

Rated a Top 529 Plan by Morningstar
In a recent article The Best and Worst 529 College-Savings Plans by Morningstar, the Ohio CollegeAdvantage plan was rated in the top 5 plans:

Features they liked included having a wide variety of investment options (including active/passive, multiple age-based options, and even ultra-safe CDs), as well as low total expenses. In-state resident can also deduct up to $2,000 of contributions per year, with excess carryover allowed.

My Personal Experience
So far, I am quite impressed with the Ohio plan. The website itself is functional and fast, there are a variety of investment choices (cash, index funds, active funds), they are upfront with the fees, and the expenses are very competitive – either the lowest or near the lowest in the nation. There are no inactivity fees, minimum balance fees, or other bogus fees.

I have gotten the $25 bonuses plus several referrals, with no complaints from the people I referred. I have also started an auto-debit from my checking account for $50 a month. Right now, half of my 529 is in the Vanguard inflation-protected bond fund. This is an investment option that is unavailable in most state plans. I did an analysis of conservative inflation-linked 529 investment options here.

I feel that since college is only at most 18 years away with a big lump-sum payment, I would prefer less volatility while marching towards that goal. This is in contrast to saving for retirement, where I currently have 35 years until I turn 65, and hopefully another 20 years after that as well.

Referral Bonus Instructions
Currently the newly referred person gets $25, and the referring person gets $50, and I’d love for you to help fund my kid’s college dreams. 😀 Here’s how:

  1. You can enroll online or via mail. The online process was quick and easy, and I didn’t have to mail in anything.
  2. The first step is to input your personal info and choose a login/password. Next, you’ll verify your e-mail and complete the application.
  3. After that, you’ll choose your funding amount and select an investment fund. Your initial deposit must be a least $25, and is funded using the account/routing numbers of your bank account. At the bottom, you will need to enter a referral code to get the bonus. Enter 2439350.
  4. In 1-3 days, your initial deposit will be taken from your bank account, and in 5-7 business days you will get your $25 bonus. The $25 will be deposited directly into the 529 account, and will be invested in the same thing as your initial deposit.

If a child has two parents, one parent may sign-up and then refer the 2nd parent to get another bonus, while both can list the same child as the beneficiary. If your child is not born yet or does not have a Social Security number yet, you can choose yourself or another family member as the beneficiary, and then later on fill out a Change of Beneficiary form.

Here is a screenshot of me getting my $25 bonus successfully and as promised:

Cell Phone Carriers: Money Back Guarantee Comparison

Sprint recently announced an improved 30 day ‘money back guarantee’ on new activations. You basically get virtually all fees associated with your phone returned to you, if you return your new phone within 30 days. You don’t pay activation fees, taxes, restocking fees, etc. Via Engadget.

If a customer isn’t completely satisfied, they can get reimbursed for the device purchase and activation fee, get the early termination fee waived, get a full refund for service plan monthly recurring charges incurred and get all associated taxes and Sprint surcharges associated with these charges waived. In addition, Sprint will waive the restocking fee for new customer exchanges as part of this policy.

They also provided a chart comparison the money back guarantees of the major cell carriers, which is informational even if it is obviously skewed in Sprint’s favor.

If you are thinking of adding a new line, don’t forget to see if you qualify for a corporate or student discount, often just using an e-mail address. Read the comments for more reader-submitted tips as well.

National Park Week: Free Admission April 17-25, 2010

Entrance fees to all 392 national parks will be waived during National Park Week, April 17th to 25th. Parks will also offer additional family friendly activities and special offers on tours, lodging, food, and souvenirs. A listing of parks and promotions is available at www.nps.gov/npweek.

Normally, 146 of 392 national parks charge entrance fees ranging from $3 to $25. The other 246 do not charge for admission. [Press Release]

*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.

Free Knife Sharpening at Sur la Table

Through April 30, you can bring up to 2 knives per person to Sur la Table and have them sharpened for free. A good way to keep quality knives for a long time, as I hear those sharpening steels often aren’t enough. You may need to leave them there for a couple days. Locations mainly in larger cities, lots in CA.

Sharebuilder – 5 Free Real-Time Market Trades

Here’s a another Sharebuilder promotion, which will give existing customers 5 free real-time market trades. (New customers should grab their free $50 sign-up bonus with code 50WCFA first and then come back).

Log into your account, click on the “Accounts” tab and then the “Promotions” tab below it. Enter the promotion code HVC09NY and you should see the following confirmation:

Thank you your promo code has been accepted. Happy New Year!

You should also receive e-mail confirmation. To double-check, visit this page when logged in and you should see 5 free trades good until 8/1/10. Credit to flaredup from FW.

These real-time market trades are handy if you want to sell any of your shares, especially any small positions you have, without paying $9.95 a pop.

Free Book Download: Elements of Investing

Vanguard is offering a free PDF download of the recently published book Elements of Investing by Malkiel and Ellis. It looks like it might have been meant for Flagship members, but is currently open to everyone. From the Amazon reviews and table of contents, Elements of Investing is targeted at investing beginners, intended to provide a brief overview of basic investment principles like diversification and focusing on the long-term. Thanks to 2million for the tip.

Burton Malkiel is also the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, the classic book that was the very first investing book I read when I started this blog in 2004. Perhaps his new book will be the start of a great financial revolution for you as well?

Sprint Cellular Discounts for Credit Union Members

I was browsing my local credit union’s website when I saw a banner for discounts on Sprint discount service at CUsaver.com. It advertises:

  • 10-15% off wireless plans
  • Waived activation and upgrade fees

You can view the discounted plans and phones on the site, which appear to be available to members of any credit union. It would be worth a try so see if the discount may be stackable with other discounts. To get the discounts, you must either call them or enter your phone number and they’ll call you back.

This seems like a great alternative if you can’t get in on a student or employee discount from a major cell carrier.

Best Banks With Consistently High Interest Rates

It’s one thing to find a bank with a high interest rate, and another thing to have that rate stay high. Many banks post teaser-like rates to attract deposits, and then hope you’ll be lazy and stay while they gradually become uncompetitive. A post yesterday on the NY Times Bucks blog explored ways to counter this.

Bankrate does a quarterly ranking of top banks with consistently high yields, which is “based on the number of times within the quarter that an institution’s yield was among the top 20 for the product category and the relative position of the yield in relation to the others in the product category.” But that’s only one quarter. So the Times asked them which banks have been on top for every single of the last eight consecutive quarters (Q1 2008 to Q4 2009). Good idea!

The next natural question: Which of these banks has the highest rates now? So I visited each site and found the current rates (as of 11/12/13) for their highest yielding savings account (or money market) and their 12-month CD. Since some of the rates were tiered, I picked the rate for a $10,000 deposit and also included the minimum balance needed to avoid fees. Here are the results, sorted by top overall yield:

Banks
Online Savings / Money Market
12-month CD
0.86% APY / 0.86% Intro ($5k+)
0.60% APY
Discover Bank
0.85% APY / 0.70% ($10k+)
0.95% APY
Ally Bank
0.85% APY (No min)
0.98% APY
Stonebridge Bank
1.25% APY ($1k+)
1.50% APY
Intervest National Bank
1.13% APY ($500+)
1.50% APY
American Bank
0.90% APY ($10k+)
1.30% APY
MetLife Bank
0.85% APY ($10k+)
1.15% APY
First National Bank of Baldwin County
0.50% APY ($5k+)
1.35% APY
M&T Bank, NA
0.50% APY (No min)
1.10% APY
UmbrellaBank (now Beal Bank)
0.50% APY ($1k+)
1.06% APY
0.15% APY ($10k+)
1.11% APY