News, Tips and Resources for Online Bargain Hunters
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Amazon has just kick started the popular among gamers promotion - Countdown to Black Friday - where they feature a new video game deal every day until November 27. Today’s deal is PlayStation 3 120 GB with a free Electronic Arts game for $299.99. The titles to choose are FIFA Soccer 10, NHL 10, and Madden NFL 10. Come back tomorrow for another deal!
I logged into my American Express account to check the balance and upon logging off noticed an ad on the right hand side (see the screen shot below) which claimed I could register my credit card to earn 5 cent cash back from each dollar I spend at PB gas stations. Here are more details about the offer and the sign up link:
To be eligible for the offer, you must register your American Express Card at americanexpress.com/bpcashback and complete all qualifying transactions by December 31, 2009. You may register more than one Card for this offer, but only those Cards you register individually for the offer will be eligible to earn statement credits. Certain American Express Cards, including prepaid, OPEN(R), and Corporate Cards, as well as additional Cards with a different Card account number, are not eligible. Statement credits will generally be issued within 5 days after each qualifying purchase, but may take up to 2 billing cycles to post to your account. Additional terms apply. See registration website for details.
You will need to enter your name and CC number upon registration. There is no fee for signing up and the CC number is needed to verify eligibility (according to the message that pops up).
Sure enough my American Express from Costco qualified for the promotion which is terrific news since any additional discount is good in the touch financial times like these
Credit card sign up bonuses are rare these days and this deal looks unusually hot, almost like the old times. The card is called Premier Rewards Gold Card and when you sign up you will receive 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of membership. You can convert these to 15,000 frequent flier miles or buy $150 in gift cards to stores like Old Navy, Home Depot or Barnes & Noble.
This card overall is pretty good for frequent travelers since it offers 3X points on airfare in addition to 2X points on gas and groceries and 1X points on everything else.
If you spend $30,000 per calendar year you will earns additional 15,000 bonus points (yes, another $150 gift card!) however by the time you get these points you will be hit by the $175 annual fee (which is waved in the first year) so the value of this additional reward is questionable.
How would I personally use this card? I would apply for it if I knew I had some major vacation coming in the next several months. For example, we are planning a trip to Ukraine next summer to visit our family and friends. This by itself is over $5000 in airfare or over 15,000 in rewards points. If I signed up and bought the tickets now I would both satisfy the $1000 in purchases requirement to get the bonus points and also would get the 3X rewards points on the airfare to Ukraine, a total of over 30,000 points or $300 in gift cards!
I just logged in to my Netflix account and discovered that they have added Lost, Desperate Housewives, and a few other ABC shows to their streaming video collection. Here is the complete list taken from the today’s public release:
You obviously need a Netflix account to watch the shows on your computer or another Netflix enabled device but the streams are commercials free and you can watch as many as you want (no time limit) if you buy a plan for $8.99 / month. All of this is of course in addition to the DVD’s you rent from them.
By adding instant content to the website Netflix keeps pushing me closer towards shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a Netflix enabled DVD to our bedroom. We use a media PC to watch TV in our living room but every time I want to watch Netflix in the bedroom I have to use my laptop - not a very convenient setup especially if you fall asleep during the movie. ;-)
Caribou coffee offers free WiFi to everyone. Starbucks gives 2 hours of access daily to their Rewards Members. Barnes & Nobles is one of a few more places where I regularly go to work and finally they are opening up wireless access to the web as well. The lack of WiFi has been the biggest reason why I didn’t come to the place more often.
The announcement has more than anything to do with the eBook store B&N launched earlier this month, a store competing with the Amazon’s library of eBooks for the Kindle reader. B&N doesn’t offer a dedicated reader device yet but there is an application for iPhone and BlackBerry that you can use to view books on (as well as using your laptop). The prices on new releases are similar to Amazon’s $9.99 but you also get access to over 500,000 free (public domain) books via Google Books.
I don’t have the Kindle and I have always been reluctant to buy a device with proprietary/closed architecture which Kindle is. The latest scandal about Amazon pulling eBooks has reassured me about my choice. That said I would very much like to get myself an e-Ink device and if B&N comes out with one I will certainly take a look.
