Published August 28th, 2009
in Money Saving Tools.
With all the publicity about Apple rejecting Google Voice iPhone app I just had to install it on my HTC G1 to check what the noise is all about. First of all to use the app you need to have a Google Voice account. It is offered by invitation only and to get it you need to fill out this form and wait for an invite code to show up in your email box in a few days. You are more lucky if you have a GrandCentral account. Since the company is now owned by Google you can convert your account to Google Voice and this way get access to the app. The upgrade took me just a few moments and it kept my old contacts and call settings.
The new service has all the cool features that GrandCentral had plus more: voice mail transcripts, conference calling and SMS support. No one sends me SMS messages and I am yet to try conference calling but I find voice mail transcripts a great time saver. Here is how a typical voice mail transcript looks. The only bits that have errors are the last name and the phone number (it somehow got an extra digit which should not be there).
The release of Google Voice Android app has made the service even more useful since now I can not only receive calls to my Google Voice number but also make them and the receiving part will see my GV number despite the fact that I call from my cell phone which has a different native number.
The app nicely integrates with the Android contact book and you can configure it to intercept all calls, only international calls, or prompt on each call you make. So far I have configured it for international calls since the rates are much lower than what t-Mobile offers but I will be glad to go all the way with the first option if/when Google offers to port my cell number to Google Voice. Too many people have it and it will be too much of a hassle to migrate.
Meantime I can still use the GV number as a temporary number I want to give to the businesses and people whose calls I want to screen. E.g. I am going to give it to the car dealers when I go shopping for a new car to replace my Accord which later this year will have 160K miles on the odometer.
By the way, I find GV international calling rates very competitive. Canada is free, Ukraine is 10 cents and Russia is 5 cents (these are the 3 countries I call the most). JustVOIP is still cheaper but it is hard to compete with the Google Voice convenience so most likely I will use it when I have to call on the go (which previously was a big hassle since I had to dial all those access codes).
Do you use Google Voice? Is it running on your phone? Please share what you like/dislike about it in the comments
Published August 20th, 2009
in Money Saving Tools.
This is a hat tip to my friend Mike who just wrote a great blog post about different alternatives for sending money online. Here are the online services he mentions, some I use while others I have not even heard of:
|
Conve-
nience |
Costs |
Notes |
| Paypal |
5/5 |
3/5 |
Average fees, Almost everyone has an account |
| Amazon |
4/5 |
3/5 |
Free till end of September, same fees as Paypal after that |
| Obopay |
3/5 |
5/5 |
Lowest fees of all, not many have an account |
| MoneyGram |
3/5 |
1/5 |
Highest fees of all, worldwide reach to many countries |
| Xoom |
3/5 |
4/5 |
Fees lower than MoneyGram, limited countries |
Paypal is the winner for occasional payments. If you send money to mostly the same people then you should consider Obopay because of the low fees. International transfers - give Xoom a try and only use MoneyGram if Xoom doesn’t send money to the country you need.
Source: What is the best way to send money online? (at Buxr Blog)
Published August 16th, 2009
in Popular Sites Series.
This is July 2009 revision of the Popular Coupon sites list. You can find the previous revision of the list here.
The change in rating shows the difference compared to June results. This list currently has 34 sites - one more than in June. On average the coupon sites have gained (0.82%) in July.
The best performer is tjoos.com (21.9%), whose relative rank also moves up by one, and the worst result comes from coupons.com (42.9%) which also slides down by two positions. Enjoy the complete list below!
Published August 12th, 2009
in Interesting / Other.
The second most popular coupon site in my monthly list has just released July stats data on consumer coupon usage. This time they add online coupons information and also throw in some interesting details like top 10 most searched stores. By the way, the number one is Victoria’s Secret followed by Amazon and Macy’s.
Here are some highlights that caught my eye. Go to Tips at RetailMeNot for the complete update.
Traffic in July
Traffic in July: 9.7 million
Year over year change: 95% (5 million July 2008)
Available Coupons
Online: 236,701 coupons for 36,127 retailers
Printable: 180,000 coupons for 72,000 stores
Online Coupon Sales in July
Sales generated: Approximately $18 million
Year over year change: 80% ($10m in July 08)
Published August 10th, 2009
in Popular Sites Series.
This is July 2009 revision of the Popular Price Comparison web sites list. You can find the last month revision of the list here.
The change in rating shows the difference compared to June results. The list has a total of 33 web sites which is the same number as the last month. There are 18 more sites in my database that don’t meet Alexa Rank < 100,000 requirement.
The best performer this month is streetprices.com (16.04%) followed by bottomdollar.com with a gain of (12.28%). The worst performer this month is calibex.com with a loss of (-20.64%) followed by dealio.com (-17.62%). Please enjoy the complete list below.
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