Here are some updates on my list of Deals & Offers that I chose to participate in:

25,000 Points (25,000 Miles/Free Ticket or $250 Gift Cards) From AmEx (Update: Now expired)
The New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express is offering 3X points on airfare, 2X points on advertising, gas, and shipping and 1X points on everything else. Although there was the usual inconsistent information from some customer service reps, I was very happy to notice that my points have shown up in my account:

$10 From OboPay and $5 From TextPayMe
The two start-ups in the pay-by-cellphone arena are still offering sign-up bonuses to try them out.

$10 Sign-up Bonus from OboPay as prepaid debit card (or cash). Originally $15, then $10, then $5, and now a commenter noticed that OboPay is now back at offering $10, while another one mentioned that you may be able to get another $5 from sending money to another user?

$5 Sign-up Bonus from TextPayMe. You must also send money to someone to get your $5. People with access to two phone numbers can get $15 total by referring each other ($5 signup +$5 signup +$5 referral)

For both of these sites, I have already withdrawn the free bonuses safely into my bank account with no problems besides the fact that the transfers were slow (5-7 days). I know some people were also concerned about spam, but I haven’t received any unsolicited text messages at all before or after signing up for both of these programs two months ago.

$50 Referral From TradeKing
TradeKing brokerage was offering $50 for both people if you were referred by a friend and completed one trade. Although this deal is now over, I wanted to update because I noticed that referrals were only starting to be processed in early September. I have gotten a few payouts, but many of the people who asked for a referral didn’t complete it according to TradeKing, and I just wanted to make sure that everyone who did satisfy all the requirements got their $50.

I’ve actually never been to a Cold Stone Creamery before, but they seem to be everywhere now. Are they really that good? I personally prefer the $2.50 pints of Ben & Jerry’s when they go on sale once a month at the grocery store.

Anyways, if you sign up for their Birthday Club and the accompanying mailing list, you’ll get an e-mail for a free Ice Cream Creation on your birthday. I imagine proper ID is required… what a sneaky way to get your real birth date! Found via an e-mail forward from my parents, of all places.

While flipping through my Costco coupon book tonight, I noticed that ShareBuilder is running another promotion with Costco:

You can get a $70 or $90 Costco Cash card (depending on your membership level) after opening a new account and making one trade. They seem to be buckling down against people opening multiple accounts for bonuses, as it is now “one per unique account holder”. If you don’t have a Costco membership, there is also a similar bonus offering a $50 account credit.

Note: I just noticed in the fine print that you shouldn’t open the Costco-related account until 9/4, as that is when the promotion starts. How annoying, just like these post-dated Costco coupons…

Now, unless you really want to use Sharebuilder as your broker (and I don’t especially recommend it with free stock trades available now), there are two options to get your bonus, as selling stock there costs $15.

1. Instant Gratification:Open with $5. Buy $1 of stock and pay $4* for commission. Wait for your bonus and cash out if applicable. Let the $1 in stock just languish there.
2. Delayed Gratification: Open with $50. Buy $46 of a stock or ETF you like and pay $4 for commission. Get the $50 (or more), and treat it like you just got free stock. Let the dividends reinvest automatically, and just sit back for a decade or two while it grows.

I took the latter route. I bought partial shares of EEM for $42, and they are now worth $69. I also bought $46 of BRK.B, now worth $61. I love owning my 0.0153 shares of Berkshire Hathaway B. Ah, to be amused by simple things… 😉

*There may also be a free trial available, where you can sign up for the flat monthly plan, make a free trade, and then switch back to the Basic $4-per-trade plan before being charged the monthly fee. This way you don’t have to pay any trade commissions at all.

$25 bonus for opening E-Trade savings account with just $1, no minimums and no fees. I still dislike E-Trade from my own bad customer service experiences, but I don’t mind people grabbing some bonuses from them. 😉 Thanks S.E. for the tip. There is also a $75 bonus for opening a checking account, but there are more hoops to jump through like high minimum balances. No hard credit pull when I did this.

$200 sign-up bonus for a Chase Business Checking account. They may require business license for business accounts, depending on state. There are high minimum balance requirements to waive monthly fees, but you could just pay them for a month or two and still make some money. You need to print it a coupon and physically go to a branch, though, and Chase has a somewhat limited coverage area. Thanks to J.D. for the tip.

The new service TextPayMe allows you to send money via your cell phone. Right now, if you sign up and confirm your cell phone takes text messages, you get $5. They seem to be legit, with a mention at CNN/Business 2.0. I just signed up, and got the $5 successfully without having to give out my Social Security or credit card number:

You will, however, need to make and send 3 text messages, which may cost something. You can withdraw your funds via online bank transfers, or you can request a check. They also have a referral program where the referrer also gets $5. You can allow me to refer you by clicking on the banner below, at no cost to you.

Once you sign-up, refer your significant other, friends, or anyone with a cell phone. To make things easy, you can have them send the money back to you for one single withdrawal. With two cell phones, you’d get $15 total.

If you haven’t joined already, you can also grab another $5 for signing up with a similar service from OboPay. Try them out, and grab that venture capital money while you’re at it!

Added: You will also need to complete one send money transaction before being able to withdraw the bonus $5. See the comments for more information.