BBVA Compass Bank is offering a free 8gb iPod Touch when you open a checking account with $100 and set up direct deposit for 6 months. Unfortunately, there are a lot of restrictions. For one, you must reside in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, or Texas. Secondly, the iPod is offered through a third-party fulfillment company (think mail-in rebates…) to which you actually have to pay the shipping and handling. Thanks to reader Susan for the tip. Selected fine print:

*To qualify for this offer, you must (1) by December 15, 2009, open a new BBVA Compass Build-to-Order consumer checking account with a minimum deposit of at least $100, (2) within 6 weeks of account opening, your paychecks must begin to be directly deposited into your new checking account at least once each statement cycle. At 6 months your account will be verified again to confirm you are still meeting the payroll direct deposit requirement. If not, BBVA Compass will debit $180 (the approximate cost of the iPod touch) from your checking account.

Hawaiian Airlines is celebrating their 80th anniversary by giving out 80 free miles to anyone who registers, or every 80th person will get an $80 eCertificate. As usual, this is a free way to reset miles expiration. Ends today (11/11)! Register here.

All of us here at Hawaiian Airlines are grateful to you — our HawaiianMiles members — whose loyalty has made our 80th anniversary possible.

To celebrate, as we near the big day, we’re giving every HawaiianMiles member 80 free miles or an $80 eCertificate towards a flight between Hawaii and the Mainland U.S. Everyone will receive 80 miles just for registering and every 80th person to register will receive an $80 eCertificate in place of the miles.

In case you missed this on the front page of Google today, they are offering free WiFi at 47 participating airports and on every Virgin America flight from now until January 15, 2010. Many other airports already offer free internet, so give it a try when traveling. From their FAQ:

Q. What are you announcing?
In addition to working with Virgin America, Google has partnered with over 45 airports across the country to offer complimentary WiFi to travelers passing through these cities this holiday season (November 10, 2009 through January 15, 2010).

Q. Why is Google doing this?
We’d like to make the holiday travel crunch a little easier and more pleasant – and what better way to do it than with what we know best: the Internet?

Q. Who is powering this service?
We are working with Boingo, Advanced Wireless Group, Time Warner Cable, Electronic Media Systems, Lilypad as well as numerous airports that provide wireless services themselves.

You can now add the voicemail features of Google Voice to your existing cell phone service for free. Check out the Google Blog post and Engadget.

More specifically, if you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you’ll get:

* Online, searchable voicemail
* Free automated voicemail transcription
* Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
* Email and SMS notifications
* Low-priced international calling

If you already have a Google Voice account, go to Settings and look for a link by your cell phone number. If you want one, people have been getting their invite requests filled within a few days. Don’t forget all the ways you can save money with Google Voice.

It would be convenient to have voicemail-to-text sent automatically via SMS. However, currently it appears that Sprint does not support free call forwarding and charges 20 cents per minute, so I’m left out for now. A short explanatory video from Google is below:

[Read more…]

American Express has a new card called the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers these primary perks:

• Earn 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 15,000 frequent flier miles in a number of programs (or 10 Southwest credits), or you can simply get $150 in gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, or Macy’s. I think you can also get cash equivalents at a reduced ratio.
• Offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
• Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $30,000 per calendar year.
• No annual fee for your first year. After that it is $175.

There are two ways to maximize this offer. The easy way is to simply sign-up, grab the 15,000 MR points bonus, and then cancel anytime within the first year, that’s a quick $150+ bonus which is rare these days.  The only other scenario is that you are a big spender and purchase a lot of airfare, because triple MR points is pretty rare and you’ll have to reach that $30,000 spending target to offset the $175 annual fee after the first year.

American Express Mandated Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

I almost forgot, I’m wanted to give away my Google Voice invite to a randomly chosen reader. So if you liked the features and money-saving opportunities, you can enter for a free GV invite by leaving a comment under this post with your First name (or nickname) only and valid e-mail address (will not be shown or shared). You can leave the actual comment box blank. For the first drawing, I’ll run it for 24 hours until 10/21 at 6pm Pacific. I’ll give out more if they put some more in my account.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Winners chosen randomly. One entry per person. Good luck!

Update: 6 winners were picked and sent an e-mail. Thanks to readers MattG, Gopi, Greg, and Pete who offered 5 additional invites. For those that didn’t win, I’ve gotten several comments that asking Google directly works and only take about 2 days to get your invite.

Get a free 6-piece box from Edible Arrangements via their Facebook page. I was a little skeptical, but I got my coupon in less than 24 hours. Valid for first 100,000. Delivery is not included. Get one for your significant other and be romantic for a day on the cheap! 😉

Bring this coupon to any participating Edible Arrangements® locations and redeem it for one (1) box of 6 FREE PIECES OF CHOCOLATE DIPPED FRUIT. Valid at participating Edible Arrangements® locations throughout the (50) United States and District of Columbia as well as Canada. Six pieces of Chocolate Dipped Fruit may vary and include one or more of any of the following types of fruit: Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Pears, Strawberries, and Pineapple. Fruit selection is not specified and options are at the store’s discretion. Delivery costs are not included. Offer may be picked up from any participating Edible Arrangements location to avoid delivery charges.