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1.00%Most credit card customers earn some type of rewards in the form of points or cash back on their purchases. Some companies, such as Discover Card, only allow their members to redeem points or cash when a certain threshold has been met. Discover, for example, will pay cash back in 20 dollar increments. This is somewhat inconvenient since the money must be requested when desired.
Amazon and AMEX have done something very special with their reward points system.
When checking out of Amazon, there now is an option to pay with available points if an AMEX credit card is used for the transaction. It’s so easy to use – just click away. Instead of having reward points sit around in the account, AMEX users shopping on Amazon can use their points to save CASH on their purchases.
I just spent 19 bucks instead of 46 for puppy pee pee pads and pumpkin because I had some AMEX points to use. Instant happiness!
It’s finally here! The iPhone 4 from Apple (AAPL) is available to a select group of customers.
Just go to this URL to preorder: http://www.verizonwireless.com/iphoneorder/
Existing Verizon smartphone users running the ANDROID operating system on their phone will have no problem viewing this page since Adobe Flash has no problems running on ANDROID. The truth is that Flash would have no problem running on the iPhone 3, 4, 5, or whatever, but that’s another story. Anyways, check out this screenshot:
Yep, your eyes do not deceive you. Unfortunately, those reading the Verizon page with a fancy iPad or iPhone won’t be able to see the cool countdown counter since it was built with Flash. So when you get your new iPhone 4, don’t expect to see the entire Internet anymore. Sorry folks, the iPhone 4 on Verizon will be a downgrade for current Android users.
Recently I was tasked with acquiring two 8gb high speed compact flash cards for a Canon 5D Mark II. This DSLR high capacity memory card ranges from a low of less than 30 dollars on amazon.com
to about 60 bucks at a retail brick and mortar store such as staples. Here’s a snapshot of the current prices for this 8 GB compactflash card from Sandisk with 30mb/s (200x) speed:
- office depot: 55
- staples: 60
- costco: 36
- walmart: 35
- bestbuy: n/a
Unfortunately we did not have any time to wait for an order from the internet although it would have been the cheapest route. Since these memory cards were needed immediately, we first went to Costco since the closest walmart is 15 miles away. No luck here since Costco was out of stock at the locations that were closest to us.
It would have cost over 12 dollars for gas and bridge fare to get to Walmart, but it would have saved almost 30 bucks net. Instead of scooting over to Walmart and wasting an hour of time, we instead chose to examine the price matching policies of the local stores that carried the same product. To our delight, OfficeDepot had this card in stock and they claim to offer price matching on their site. We went in to the store and asked them to price match with Costco or Walmart. They stated that they would not price match with Costco, but they would check with Walmart. They would not have been able to check costco’s website since they don’t list the Compact Flash card online. It is a good thing that the Sandisk SDCFH-008G 8GB memory card is a product that can easily be verified for price at the walmart.com website. After about 10 minutes with the manager on duty at Office Depot, we were able to save $40 bucks on the cost of the compact flash cards without ever stepping foot into a Wal Mart!
PRICE MATCH TO SAVE MONEY!
Not every store manager on duty will price match since it is really left to their discretion. They usually also must verify if the item is in stock, and some store managers may not price match simply because the nearest Walmart is 15 miles away. If one store doesn’t do it for you, it’s easy to go on to the next one to get the discount that you deserve for doing your homework and researching before making a purchase on a product that stores sell at wildly diverse prices.
This story comes to an end with the conclusion that 8gb compact flash cards are really not big enough to satisfy the high megapixel, memory hungry, Canon 5D. 16gb cards are next since the prices for 32gb cards remain exorbitant.
Side Story: Picking the right Digital Camera Memory card for You
Digital Cameras have become very powerful and affordable compared to the quality of pictures that can be attained with Digital SLRs. Newer, faster cameras that are capable of capturing many megapixels (some DSLR cameras can capture over 20 megapixels!) require higher capacity memory cards with speeds that the camera can utilize. We intend to use our camera mainly for stills as opposed to video so card speed is not really an issue. 30mb/s (200x) has been fine in the Canon 5D mark ii. Will there be a noticeable difference with faster cards? Maybe. But the cost of the higher speed cards just don’t justify the speed. 60mb/s sandisk extreme iii cards sell for about double the cost of the 30mb/s 200x cards. Take a step up to the next level at 90mb/s and the cost goes up to double of what the 60mb/s cards were! Totally insane. Photographers that are using their DSLR cameras for video may want these faster speed cards to ensure that they are getting the best quality video, but we are sticking with the 30mb/s (ish) speed cards for now and they seem to work fine.
Digital Camera Memory Brands
Does brand name really make a difference? Maybe. We tend to stay with Sandisk as the first choice although they do cost more. I’ve seen “off brand” cards such as ADATA fail and get corrupted. Not to say that Sandisk memory cards are not prone to corruption, but it seems like they are less likely to suffer from data corruption issues. Good memory card recovery software is an essential tool for many photographers, and the higher end Sandisk cards come with Recovery Pro photo recovery software which I have used to recover many photos from corrupt cards. Funny thing is that I’ve never had to use this software on any Sandisk cards yet, but I wouldn’t be that surprised if a Sandisk card does get corrupted in the future since it does seem to happen to other cards once in a while.
We will purchase some larger capacity Sandisk cards next. On the list of brands of CF memory cards that have “failed” are aData and Lexar. We have had a Lexar 8gb 133x CF card get corrupted, but we were able to recover about 98% of the pictures on the card with the Sandisk Rescue Pro software. The next CF card that we will purchase will be the same Sandisk 30mb/s card with 16gb capacity. Hopefully these cards will satisfy the hunger of the 5d for a while.
Use the coupon code SEPTDEALS to enjoy some additional savings when shopping on sears.com. This discount is only valid today and tomorrow (September 17-18, 2010) so act fast! Using this discount coupon will give you an extra 20 dollars off of any order of $200 or more. This discount even applies to Sears’ famous brand name home appliances and lifetime warranty Craftsman tools. If you ever happen to break a genuine Sears Craftsman tool, then they will gladly replace the tool at any Sears, even without the receipt.
Also this weekend Sears card holders will enjoy an additional 10% off appliances that are already on sale for 15% off!
There is also a mail in rebate for $60 dollars with the purchase of 4 BFGoodrich tires. Remember, tires do go bad with age, not just mileage. Cracks on your rubber is a sign that your tires might be old.
Adobe (ADBE) stock has jumped up significantly today (currently up by over 12%) since Apple (AAPL) has announced that they are allowing third party tools such as Adobe Flash Professional CS5 to be used for iPhone and iPad application development. These lower restrictions will definitely ease the lives of hard working app developers that have previously needed to write code specific for the iPhone and iPad. With this announcement, flash developers that have created apps in Flash Pro CS5 will be able to export their apps into Apple app store apps with the built in Flash Packager for iPhone and iPad feature.
This decision is important for Apple since it will greatly reduce the development time required for programmers to create and deploy programs and applications that were originally written in Flash and Actionscript. Apple’s app store will likely become more robust with a greater variety of applications available to iPad and iPhone users since there will be a larger network of developers creating apps. This is a step in the right direction for Apple since when Adobe released Flash Professional CS5, Apple announced that they would not allow the use of this built in tool that would allow the completed application to be exported into the proper code for use with Apple’s “closed” App Store.
Read More about ADBE and AAPL:
With the way the market has been for the past few weeks, one would wonder how useful financial advisors really are. It’s going to depend a lot on your expectations and needs.
There are two types of financial advisors out there; service fee or no service fee. Either way, the amount, or lack of amount, typically doesn’t give you a very good idea of what their abilities are. I like to relate this to my first experience of the bar scene in San Francisco. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Spending money on a cover was convenient to be in a bar with much less people, but the quality of drinks don’t change according to the cover, and neither did their price range.
Financial advisers can also only give you their best offer through the company that they work for. That means they are looking for the best they can do for their company, not the best they can do for you.
Brokerages, such as Charles Schwab, are a great alternative when they offer you the chance to take care of it yourself. These non-advisor firms allow you to play the market the way you want to for small fees in comparison to the service charges typically offered, which are usually a percentage of your earnings. Unless you feel the need to be constantly touching your money on a daily basis, you can put your money in the markets you know well and leave it to the market gods to see what happens.
Come the new fiscal year, it’s so easy to spend that federal return on that hot new item you wanted, particularly with companies marketing their products to you like you absolutely need them, like Apple’s “magical” iPad. 
So what, exactly, do you do with money that you never really planned to have in the first place?
One option many don’t consider is investing. Getting the chance to earn on your tax return reeks great benefits, and the risk involved isn’t as deterrable when it involves taxes and not your salary. But, with the amount of routes to go on investing, it might seem like too much trouble when you can easily spend the money and never worry about it again.
The risk in investing can be the same as the risk in buying a condo. Do you see yourself as the one buying the bottom floor with a safe evacuation in case of fire, or the top floor with a nice view but no means of safety? Investments build right into that concept with alternatives between risk and safety. With investments, however, you can have both risk and safety, and using your tax return is the perfect opportunity to practice that.
With your larger return, the federal, it’s only natural to want to be more cautious about how it is invested. Your best decision would be to put the majority of this return in a trustworthy tax-based growth mutual fund. Mutual funds, that secure first floor, should grow at a positive rate even in the bullish of markets. While some consider it a “retirement fund,” the truth is you can make a pretty nice return even over a year on your mutual fund. Pick one or two mutual funds that consistently grow, and your money is safe.
Now, that smaller state return will not grow the same way your federal return would. In order to zest up your portfolio, I recommend two different options for your state return: index funds, or specific stocks (or for an even larger risk, penny stocks).A small state return of $200 can buy about 20 shares of Citigroup, or less risky shares into the S&P500 index. The risk will be greater in comparison to the mutual funds, but the return will be greater too. Even if you lose that money, you may regain that from your mutual funds, so it’s still no real loss. Covering a wide variety of risk in your portfolio will help keep your money under control, and bring you much less stress.
Invest wisely, and you can easily have a 10 percent return on your taxes in a month. If you do well, patience will bring you that iPad without a single dent in your tax return.
Save 75 bucks of any HP computer! Here are the dirty details:
*Offer valid 4/21/10–4/24/10. Valid in Staples U.S. stores, by phone at 1-800-333-3330 or online at staples.com. Offer valid on all HP computers and laptops priced $359 and above. Offer excludes netbooks and item no. 848836, clearance products and Compaq brand items. Limit one per customer, nontransferable. May not be combined with any other coupon. Coupon must be surrendered. No copies/facsimiles. No cash/credit back. Not valid on prior purchases. Coupon value does not include tax.
Print it out and bring it in or use this staples coupon code:49422. You can also call in and provide this discount code to receive $75 off. Unfortunately this deal does not apply to netbooks. With this coupon the HP G60-630 15.6″ laptop will go for 425 bucks after rebate.
US Bank has a promotion going on that gives their FlexPerks Cash Rewards Visa check card holders 10 bucks for free.
Here’s how to get it:
- Register your card through their internet banking portal at US Bank or call 888-268-3153 to enroll your card
- Spend at least $250 with the US Bank check card between April 1, 2010 and May 31, 2010
That’s it. Register the card and spend $250 with it and USB will give you a 10 dollar refund. Not a bad deal in these tough times.
If you have been waiting to pull the trigger on an Adobe product then you are in luck. Adobe offers a bunch of professional media editing and authoring tools for photo, video, web, and print publishing.
With this Adobe coupon you can get 10% off CS4 suites and individual products such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, ColdFusion Server, Soundbooth, and more. The suites are a great value since you can get much more software for your money by buying a suite of products.
This promo is over on February 26, 2010.
ADOBE OFFER CODE: 10offAdobe102
Midwest America Federal Credit Union has great Roth IRA
with Checking money rates.
Their 23 month term account pays 2.13% dividend rate / 2.15% APY. There is a $500 minimum deposit to earn this rate and dividends are distributed on a quarterly basis. Here are all of MAFCU’s IRA Rates.
ING Direct currently has the highest 12 month CD rates of 2.00% Annual Percentage Yield. Merry Christmas!
PenFed Credit Union has sweet certificate of deposit rates with 2.50%
Annual Percentage Yield on 3 year certificates. There is a $1,000 minimum deposit for these CDs. Pentagon Federal Credit Union compounds earned interest daily for maximum returns.
There is a convenient location for travellers at Fort Shafter in Honolulu, Hawaii.
CB2 (the modern spinoff of Crate and Barrel) offers a nice selection of furniture that is suitable for modern homes. Some of their furniture is made from recycled and reclaimed materials. Crate & Barrel is their parent company – you can even use Crate and Barrel gift cards on merchandise from CB2.
From November 9 – 25 CB 2 is offering 15% off all of their furniture excluding flor tiles (neat modular carpet tile system). Just donate 5 cans of food to any of their locations to receive this discount. 15% off is a substantial discount on their already reasonably priced furniture. This discount code is also valid on sale items that carry a reduced price of up to 50% off. So if you were hesitating on making a big purchase on maybe a couch, bed, dining room set, rug, or anything else from CB2 then donate some food and save some bucks.
CB2 doesn’t have many locations right now however there are two in the San Francisco Bay Area: Union Square (SF) and Berkeley.