August 2005 Archives

Update 9/20: BigBig returned "good as new" on 9/13, but it's down again today due to a database error. This happened from time to time BEFORE the site hack, and it would only last a day or so. Hope that's all that's going on right now; will just have to wait and see.

My favorite deal site and its message forum have been down since Friday and I'm in major withdrawal. And since most forums have rules against discussing OTHER forums, getting info about what happened is proving to be pretty tricky. However, thanks to a note in my daily trivia answers email, I got in touch with a lady who was able to get in to BigBig late on Thursday and found something rather strange.

Martha says that the site had some strange music and some text in a strange font and that at first glance she saw the word "devil" and thought maybe she had downloaded a virus, so she quickly shut her computer down. The next morning when she went back to BigBig, the site was not found.

Tonight Martha wrote that she decided to go back into her browser history for Thursday, and when she did, she saw a strange URL that just looked like this: >>>_|_nEt^DeVIL_|_|Rlz!!|<<< When she clicked on it, it tried to take her to BigBig.

In doing some digging on the 'net, it appears that "Net Devil" is a hacker that takes advantage of a back door in several of the popular forum software programs to hijack the forum. BigBig isn't the first victim of this person/persons; Martha was able to find a German site that had been hacked and looked very similar to how she remembered BigBig looking on Thursday night. In Googling around this evening, I've found many, many more. Some appear to be done by a German group, others by some kinda Muslim group. Eh, they're all in the Crazy Guys With Nothing Else Better to Do Group, IMHO.

I'm SURE that Alex of BigBig has backups made of the forum and the site, and I know that they'll be back up soon. IN THE MEANTIME, however, here are a few alternative forums I can suggest:

- FatWallet's Forum: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/
- SlickDeals.net's Forum: http://forums.slickdeals.net/
- TechBargains.com's Forum (AKA DealCatcher.com): http://forums.techbargains.com/
- DealofDay.com's Forum: http://forums.dealofday.com/
- GottaDeal.com's Forum: http://forums.gottadeal.com/
- DealHunting.com's Forum: http://forums.dealhunting.com/
- BargainShare.com's Forum: http://www.bargainshare.com/
- MyCoupons' Forum: http://www.mycoupons.com/boards/

Last night Sploofus added a couple of new features to the site. First is the Sploofus Chat BETA, a message forum you can access by clicking "Chat" at the top right of every page on the site. The usual rules apply (no bad language, no posting answers, etc.).

The second is something called Factions (get it... FACT-ions? hehe), which are sort of like teams. There are currently three Factions to choose from, and you can declare your allegiance to their charter and have your jackpot points added to the total points of the Faction. (They won't be deducted from your account, just ALSO added to the Faction's.) Members of the Faction with the highest total jackpot points at the end of the month will get bonus points awarded to their account. You can join a Faction by going into your Command Center and choosing Faction Allegiance from the dropdown menu.

Enjoy these features, but y'all: PLEASE remember that Sploofus is JUST A GAME! When they tried the whole team thing earlier this year it polarized the users and caused a lot of hostilities and resentment that only just now appear to have died down. People got their feelings hurt, there was a lot of backstabbing, undercover spies, harassment that was carried over to other websites -- it was just ridiculous! Sploofus pulled the teams and message forums when it got out of hand. If we let this get out of hand, we'll lose it, too. So enjoy, but PLEASE don't take it too seriously!

FusionCash.net Program Review - Updated 5/06

Please click here to join. NOTE: Free $5 to your account when you join!

Date Launched: June 1, 2005
Reward Per Dollar Spent: Varies
Minimum to Redeem: $25, with at least $15 in personal (not referral) earnings
Prizes Offered: Cash rebate
Cashout Options: PayPal, NeTeller, ePassporte Virtual Visa, Check. See site for details.
Earn Cash For: Initial registration, signups, referrals ($1 each and an additional $2 when they cash out -- spamming with your link strictly prohibited)
List of All Offers: http://www.fusioncash.net/alloffers.php

Limit One Account Per: U.S. household, age 18+ (under 13 with parental permission).

Comments:
1. Be SURE to remember the .NET in the address. The .com domain, owned by someone else, is an adult site.
2. The site currently has over 250 offers, some which require a credit card and some that do not.
3. FusionCash's rates are very competitive compared to similar sites, offers credit quickly, and if you do need to contact customer service they're fast and helpful.
4. Payout is once monthly, by the 20th of the month following your request. They routinely pay early, though, as you can see from my account history below, in fact, it seems they pay earlier every month:

Requested $67.00 PayPal on 12/18/05 and paid on 12/20/05
Requested $116.00 PayPal on 12/30/05 and paid on 1/19/06
Requested $84.60 PayPal on 1/31/06 and paid on 2/19/06
Requested $68.20 PayPal on 2/28/06 and paid on 3/15/06
Requested $107.10 PayPal on 3/31/06 and paid on 4/11/06
Requested $39.00 PayPal on 4/30/06 and paid on 5/5/06.

Related Articles: Another Good Report on FusionCash.net, 2005 Year in Review, Spend $10 and Earn $100 at FusionCash.net, Spend $2.49 and get $24 at FusionCash.net

Posted yesterday at Sploofus -- "Our network team is configuring a new DNS and DB server, and we are aware that the site is occasionally unavailable in certain regions. We apologize for the issue and hope to have full connectivity restored soon.

Thank you for your understanding,
Sploofus Support"

Okay, no, I have no proof of this, and just between us, I think trained chimps would have had the sense to BETA-TEST the new software before it went live...but I'm running out of explanations for all the constant snafus over at Memolink.

The latest: yesterday Memolink warned users to "not freak out" if they noticed recently credited points were missing. "Some offers were accidentally credited to member's account [sic] twice last week and in order to fix this, we are have [sic again] to remove all the points first and then fix the report and add the proper amount of points back into the accounts. There will be a time in between [sic yet again] when the points will basically be 'gone' but they will come back sometime tomorrow or by Wednesday afternoon at the latest."

Ya know, I can't decide if I should be happy that at least they're being honest now when they screw things up, or if I should be irritated at their recent decision to be more folksy and conversational in their communications with users...which to me seems forced and phony, and frankly, for a supposedly large organization like Memolink, pretty unprofessional.

Eh, whatever. Just reporting it, for those of you who insist on continuing to give them your time.

MSN Money has posted an interesting article about department store rewards cards, written by a lady from Bankrate.com. It goes through in detail how much in purchases would be required to earn a free gift certificate from one of several department stores by using their credit cards, and it also talks about their interest rates.

Discussed are Gap, Linens 'n Things, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, and Banana Republic customer rewards programs. It also talks about some of the co-branded cards like the TJX Capital One card, the BJ's First USA Mastercard, and the Nordstrom Platinum Visa.

Words of wisdom: keep the interest rate in mind, don't buy things you really don't need just to rack up points, and take advantage of special sales including double-points events.

I just found out about this program and I don't have any experience with it, but it sounds like something nifty -- and you can't beat the price (free)! A service provided by USA Today, MileTracker is a free download that helps you to track your progress in miles or points in 95 frequent flyer or rewards programs. The data stays on your own computer and is as safe as your computer is. It says it contains no adware or spyware.

Here's the link if you want to try it out, and I'd love it if you'd come back and respond here with your comments after you've tried it out!: http://usatoday.deskport.biz/

Got a Visa debit card? You may be eligible to participate in VisaExtras, a rewards program that pays points for your purchases both online AND off!

Who Qualifies:
U.S. residents whose bank issues Visa debit cards AND participates in the program. Not all banks do. (Enter your Visa debit card number at VisaExtras.com, or call them at 1-800-960-8472, and they can tell you right away if your bank participates.) Also, you have to sign for your debit purchases instead of just entering the PIN -- that means choosing "Credit" instead of "Debit" on the swipe-card terminals at checkout.

How You Earn Points:
Get 1,000 points for signing up. For each 12 months of membership, you earn 1 point per dollar up to your first $4,000 of purchases, then it bumps up to 2 points per dollar. On your membership anniversary, you start over at 1. You can earn bonus points by shopping at certain online merchants through the links on the VisaExtras website -- these points range from 3 points per dollar at BestBuy, Staples, Expedia, and Linens'n'Things, up to 20 points per dollar at a wide selection of merchants (including, for instance, SmartBargains and 1-800-Flowers). There are a few large flat-rate points offers, like BMGMusic (3,500 points) and T-Mobile (4,500 points). They're also giving away 1,000,000 points to one lucky member each quarter of 2005.

How You Can Spend The Points:
Ah, the fun part! Cash out your points at VisaExtras.com or by calling 1-800-960-8472. Shipping's free and they estimate 4 weeks for you to receive your reward. The cheapest redemptions are 2,000 points -- for a $5 GC to Blockbuster, BP gas stations, CVS, Red Lobster/Olive Garden, or Starbucks. There are a total of 185 redemptions to choose from. The options include GCs, merchandise, magazine subscriptions, even a cash credit to the checking account associated with your debit card. Some of the merchandise options are pretty cool -- like for 20,000 points you can get a football autographed by your choice (from a list) of NFL players.

Some Fine Print:
If you have a joint checking account and you have different debit card numbers, you and your spouse must enroll separately you can't combine your points. Not all purchases qualify for points -- you can't get points for balance transfers or buying things that can be readily converted to cash (like prepaid Visa cards, travellers' checks, etc.). Make sure you read the terms for the exclusions. Some merchants may have bonus point promotions, and while those points count toward your reward, they won't count toward reaching the $4,000 threshold. Also, if you return a purchase, the points you earned for that purchase will be deducted. AND unused points expire in 36 months.

My Take On It:
Anything you can earn for free and without any additional spending on your part is good. If they want to pay me to use my debit card like a credit card, no problemo. I usually use my debit card for buying groceries and for entertainment (restaurants, the movies, etc). I easily use my debit card for $500+ a month in purchases and this makes me want to use it even more. Of course at 1 point per dollar, it'd take 4 months of that $500 debiting to get me a $5 GC. But again, it's free and doesn't require any real additional effort.

Their online shopping portal's "bonus" points, though, leaves something to be desired. First of all, there aren't many merchants offered at all. Second, considering that a $5 GC costs 2,000 points, a point is worth 1/4 of a cent. That makes 20 points per dollar, their best shopping rate, equivalent to 5%. Why accept 5% for 1-800-Flowers purchases when you can earn 8% at Ebates or Giving2Gether.org?

My advice: use the offline portion of the program to earn points on purchases you'd pay for with a check or your debit card anyway, but avoid their shopping portal. There are other alternatives that pay better.

Related Articles: Visa Extras Rewards Fights Glitch

Earn rewards for sharing recipes and baking tips? Oh heck yeah! For the details on Duncan Hines' rewards program, read on!

Last week my daily trivia newsletter celebrated its second birthday, and several program owners were incredibly generous in donating "birthday gifts" to my subscribers. We finished up the week with a large chat last night -- a marathon session that ran nearly 5 hours and so jammed up the chat room that it became almost inoperable and we had to split into TWO chat rooms for a good portion of the evening, with me and the program owners doing double-duty in both!

First -- I want to note those program owners kind enough to attend the chat and to donate prizes during it and earlier in the week: Dmitry and Eugene of QuickRewards.net, Chris of CreationsRewards.net, James of QuizPoints.com, the Sploofus.com management team, Vince of Giving2Gether.org, and Bonnie of ClickToTheMagic.com. These folks listen to your input and making a sincere effort to tailor their programs to the needs and desires of their members. They really LISTEN to us. The fact that they took time out of their busy weekend (not to mention money out of their pockets) for last night's chat and giveaways really says a lot about how much they care. If you're looking for a site to join, PLEASE give these folks your consideration. They're putting 110% into their respective sites...plus they're just darned nice folks. :)

Next -- I want to apologize for the technical problems that we experienced last night due to the overwhelming attendance in chat! I know there were a lot of folks who wanted to make it but got errors in trying to get into the chat room or had problems with lockups or lag time in chat. I just was not expecting the incredible response to this, and before next year's big birthday bash I'll have a more reliable chat provider in place, I promise! At one point we had over 60 people online between the two chat rooms, and I know we would've had more if we hadn't had all the glitches.

This brings me to my last comment -- your support of my daily newsletter and my website here just leaves me (almost! hehe) speechless. I am very honored that you choose this site as a source for information regarding rewards programs, and that so many of you (700 and counting) trust me to provide your daily trivia answers and rewards programs news by email each day. While I don't always get a chance to respond to everyone's emails individually, your kind comments and helpful tips are very much appreciated. Thank you for all of your support!