June 2007 Archives

Yesterday, Jellyfish.com announced that on all purchases made through its Smack Shopping reverse auction, savings would be immediate -- in other words, the final price is what you pay.

Before this change, Smack purchasers would pay full price for the item and wait up to 60 days for their cashback to be available for withdrawal from their Jellyfish account by check. (This old system will remain in place for items purchased from the regular Jellyfish shopping area of the site. The changes only impact Smack Shopping purchases.)

Because the best deals to be had on Jellyfish are on the Smack Shopping side of the site, this is a tremendous benefit for shoppers. They will no longer have to float the difference between the product's starting price and its final price for two months.

In addition, all prices on Smack Shopping now have shipping and tax rolled in. That makes it possible for an item's price to truly fall to 0 (before, shipping was separate and even if an item went to 100% off, shipping would be added in by many merchants).

Last of all, during hosted shows -- when prices drop faster than during the non-hosted shows -- quantities of each product auctioned are being slightly increased, so that more people can take advantage of the deals. Shows are hosted at noon central time on weekdays, 8pm on Wednesdays, and other special dates and times.

Jellyfish celebrated its first birthday (or anniversary, if you prefer) on Tuesday, and as someone who's been there since day 2, I can tell you that this program started off great and has somehow managed to get even better. With fun games between each item (Outwit, where a random player has a chance to win a progressive cash jackpot; and Guru Guessing, where the person who guesses closest to the best cash-off % can spin the Smack Wheel for cash and prizes), "Smack Talk" chat among game players, member wish lists, AND everyday great rebate rates, I'm more enthusiastic about Jellyfish than any other rewards program I've reviewed in my six years of operation here at CompareRewards.com.

Join and see what the buzz is all about!

In honor of Jellyfish.com's one-year anniversary on June 26th, the site will be having a 24-hour live Smack Shopping Smack-a-Thon hosted by chat admin Smack Daddy and co-hosted by various members of the Jellyfish community.

I will be co-hosting "Remember the 80s," from 3pm central time until 4:30, along with my friend rlsrox (a fan and former employee of Rick Springfield). I hand-picked the items that will be sold during this segment of the reverse auction, and let's just say that if you grew up during the 1980s, you will really enjoy the types of things we'll be selling!

Mark your calendar and plan to be with me...again, at 3pm central on Tuesday! If you're not a member of Jellyfish already -- geez, get with it, you have been missing out! Click here to join and I'll see y'all in chat on Tuesday!

The PointPool rewards program, which has been around since at least 2002 (when I originally reviewed it), is not up and apparently hasn't been for a while.

I have an email in to the owner and will pass along any response I receive.

If you're a Disney fan, you are missing out if you're not using online rewards / rebate programs. It's as simple as that.

Not only could you be earning rebates on your purchases at DisneyShopping.com, you could also be earning Disney gift cards or Disney Dollars that you can use on your next visit to the park.

I posted this yesterday on Disboards.com (a great resource for info on all things Disney) and felt it might get a larger audience if I re-posted it here. Hope it helps someone!

QuickRewards.net pays 4.3% for Disney purchases. You can cash out for PayPal any time, as often as you like, with no minimum required in your account. If you decide to cash out for Disney Dollars, you can cash out for as little as $1 DD at a time...but for any non-emailable GC you'll have to pay a little extra (50c) for shipping. If you go to the mall pretty often, you might just want to take the PayPal and buy the DD yourself -- no fees or tax at The Disney Store (which you probably already knew, hehe).

SunshineRewards offers 4% cashback on Disney. Redemptions start at $10, or $20 for Disney Dollars and $25 for Disney GCs. 25c is added for shipping on non-emailable GCs.

Sometimes both QR and SR offer special cashout rates for Disney giving you slightly bigger bang for your buck (usually around $1 on a $20 or $25 cashout).

Ebates offers 4% cashback on Disney ($5 min. to cash out, paid by check quarterly, plus $5 bonus to join).

MrRebates offers 4% cashback, but there's a $25 minimum to cash out. (They pay monthly by check.)

BondRewards offers 4.25% but the only reward they offer is that of $50 savings bonds. All of the rates on their site have to be halved because a $50 savings bond only costs $25, so while the site says they pay 8.5, it's just half that in current value.

CreationsRewards.net pays 7.6 points per dollar, worth about 3.8%, on Disney purchases. 1100 points will buy you $5 in Disney Dollars or 2100 for $10. (Basically it's 1000 per $5, but with 100 extra points to ship it.) You may just prefer to cash out for PayPal to avoid paying shipping ($5 in PayPal = 1,000 points).

uPromise offers 3% cashback (no min. to cash out but you must request it in writing and can only do so once a quarter...or you can direct your earnings toward a 529 college savings plan or toward your student loan balance).

LittleGrad offers 3% cashback. This also goes toward a 529 plan, but I think there's an option to withdraw it to your checking or savings account. Beware of the Savings Manager program they try to install on your computer; it may interfere if you try to shop through a different rewards program.

ClubMom offers 5 points per dollar, worth 2.5%. Rewards start at 1,000 points (for a $5 GC) but no GCs are available for Disney. They do have something you might find useful, though -- you can earn by buying GCs to 50 or so different retailers, including some in the Orlando area, like Bahama Breeze. The amount varies -- it's up to 15 points per dollar (or 7.5%). Usually you can't earn rewards on the purchase of gift cards, so this is pretty cool.

At Greenpoints you can earn 20 points per dollar, worth around 2.4%. Merchandise prizes start at 1900 points; GCs start at 3,500 (for a Blockbuster movie rental GC). They don't offer Disney GCs as a reward but there are other options that might be useful (gas cards, frequent flier miles, Avis, Marriott, and SuperCertificates).

Freeride pays 25 miles per dollar for Disney purchases, which works out to around 2.3%. No Disney redemptions available but there are some restaurants like Bahama Breeze (13,000 miles for $10) and they also offer Virtual Visas, which you can use to buy anything online where Visa is accepted (12,500 miles for $10). Sometimes Freeride has a LOT of free (non-spending) points available.

Milesource pays 7 miles per dollar, equal to about 2%. No Disney redemptions are available but you can cash out for SuperCertificates (starting at 2,500 miles for $5). You can earn somewhere around 30 miles a day for free by visiting websites and answering trivia.

MyPoints pays 2 points per dollar for Disney purchases, pretty low at about 1.7%. They don't offer Disney redemptions but 750 points will get you a $5 GC to some other places. There are a lot of GCs you may be able to use on your trip to Disney like Marriott cheques, Shell GCs, etc. They have a fair number of free, non-spending points available, too (5 points to read each email they send, sometimes 10 a week, plus occasional surveys and signups).

In 78 Albertsons supermarkets in the southwest, the stores will be eliminating their rewards card program. Yesterday's Arizona Republic and today's Salt Lake Tribune give more information. They say that this will impact all Albertsons stores in Arizona and New Mexico, and that 46 stores in Colorado and Wyoming have already done away with the program. Albertsons stores that operate under the SuperValu name will keep the cards (at least for now). Albertsons' new strategy is to offer lower everyday prices to everyone (well, duh, there's an idea).

The idea behind the loyalty cards is that grocery stores track your purchases and tailor offers specifically to your buying patterns. Obviously that strategy hasn't been working out for them. Update, 9:20pm: eWeek quotes an anonymous Albertsons official as saying, "The data was being collected but it wasn't being used." The problem I find with Albertsons is that while their cardholder sales can be quite good, the rest of their prices are outrageous...as a result, I go in and ONLY buy the sale items. No doubt I'm not the only person doing this.

Hope the chain decides to eliminate cards in the South as well. (You reading this, Albertsons?)

MrRebates.com Review - Updated, March 2010

Please click here to join; you'll get a $7.50 signup bonus!

Date Launched: 2002
Reward Per Dollar Spent: Varies
Minimum to Redeem: $10 (sent around the first of the calendar month following cashout request)
Cash Out For: Check, PayPal
Earn For: Shopping, referrals

Limit One Account Per: Individual 18 years+ with valid email address

Notes:
1. Special $7.50 bonus for signing up with CompareRewards' referral link here -- it's $5 elsewhere.
2. Over 2000 participating merchants.
3. Rebates are pending for 90 days after purchase.
4. Be sure to only use coupon codes obtained from MrRebates' website: "Mr. Rebates reserves the right to cancel any cash-back rebate because of coupon codes that are used from external sources other than Mr. Rebates."
5. Nice store ratings area -- after making a purchase you can rate various aspects of your interaction with the merchant.
6. MrRebates' rates in my annual shopping comparisons are always great -- this one's definitely one of the best rewards programs for shopping.

Related Articles: Special $7.50 Signup Bonus + Payment Proof From MrRebates, 2009 Annual Chat Recap, Welcome, Tribune Readers, Recap of Saturday's Annual Chat, 2008 Shopping Rebates Comparison Chart and Analysis, MrRebates Lowers Minimum Payout, Kudos to MrRebates.com, MrRebates Responds to "Top Five Highest Rebates" Award, 2007 Shopping Rebates Comparison Chart

In an update on yesterday's story regarding GradGold: In another press release on Tuesday, this one by AES (the loan servicer themselves), AES mentioned not only partnering with Upromise and Grad Gold, but also with Jellyfish, through an AES website called StudentLoanRebates.com. Not surprisingly, Grad Gold's press release (see yesterday's post) didn't mention that. :)

To see how the three programs (Upromise, GradGold, and Jellyfish) stack up -- and this comparison just applies to their student loan repayment option -- click here.

The Little Grad rewards program announced today that it has launched a new website, Grad Gold. This rewards program, in partnership with American Education Services (a leading provider of student financial aid services), will allow members to apply their rebate earnings toward their student loan debt.

GradGold offers 1,700 merchants. The press release says that, "College students with normal online shopping habits will earn about $150 per quarter via Grad Gold (although many will earn more)." I have serious doubts about this claim -- being in a much higher income bracket than most college students, and being a heavier online shopper than most people, I seldom earn that much in a quarter. But with that claim aside, sure, online shoppers can earn money by shopping through any rebate site...the difference here is that GradGold members' earnings will go directly toward their student loans. The original LittleGrad site will continue to allow members to direct their earnings either to a Section 529 college savings plan or to a checking or savings account via direct-deposit.

Through GradGold, LittleGrad will be going head-to-head with Upromise, who has offered a similar service (confusingly, to me anyway, also in partnership with AES) since 2003.

Of course, since Upromise has over 7.5 million members, GradGold is looking at quite an uphill climb.

As you know, I don't really cover frequent flier programs here on CompareRewards (something I may address sometime in the not-so-distant future, however).

If you are into those points programs, you may find this tool from Expedia helpful -- it's called MileageManager and is free for the first 30 days, and $4.95 annually afterward.

Not only does it track your program balances, it keeps you updated on current bonus opportunities, mile expiration, and more.

You may also want to consider USA Today's MileTracker program, which is free.

Update, 6/30: The Upromise site update promised two weeks ago (see below) was postponed to this weekend. The site is down but they promise it will be back "in a couple of days."
From Upromise's website:
"The Upromise website will soon have a bright new look and great new features to help you make the most of your membership. Now you'll find it easier than ever to Earn, Save & Pay for college. Stay tuned for updates."

Upromise affiliates (like me -- webmasters that earn a few bucks when someone they refer to Upromise actually joins and adds a credit card or grocery card like CVS, Albertsons, or Winn Dixie, to their account) were told via Commission Junction that "the Upromise site will be temporarily down for maintenance from this Friday (evening), June 15 – Monday (morning), June 18. The Upromise web site will be undergoing a series of upgrades...the benefit that will come from this weekend’s construction will be easier navigation for end users..."

Just a heads-up to Upromise members to expect the site to be down over the weekend.

If you're not a member of Upromise and you'd like to give it a try, please join here.

NOTE: If you received a receipt from CVS saying that your ExtraCare account is incomplete: Update your information here , call 1-800-SHOPCVS, or email extracare@cvs.com.

Yesterday, CVS Pharmacy announced that they will be testing out a new program in the Indianapolis area later this summer which will link customers' credit cards with their existing CVS Extra Care accounts. The new cards will allow customers to swipe just one card (a new Extra Care card) at checkout.

It's not clear whether customers will receive any additional benefits for using the new card, or what the proposed timeline is for rolling out the new card to other areas of the US.

The press release is available here.

Microsoft Live Search Club Review

Date Launched: May 2007
Who is Eligible: U.S. residents only, ages 13 and up.

How It Works: Earn points by playing games; points can then be redeemed for prizes. Games are worth between 10 and 25 points. The minimum to redeem (for a free ring tone) is 105 points. Games can be completed in between 3 minutes and up, depending on the game and your ability.

Prizes Include: Headphones, T-shirts, movie tickets, PC and Xbox games, webcams, keyboards, Zunes, Xboxes (the most expensive redemption, at 35,000 points), and more.

How to Join: Simply log in to http://club.live.com with your Hotmail, MSN Messenger, or Microsoft Passport account. Creating a Hotmail account is very quick and easy if you don't already have one; just go here: http://www.hotmail.com

Notes: Just joined this program yesterday and earned 350 points in about an hour and a half. A t-shirt is 1100 points and a pair of movie tickets is 2250 points (easily attainable in about a week). The program is new and I'd suspect that the number of points required for prizes will increase pretty drastically when the admins see how easy it is to reach cashout -- so get in while ya can! Last note: Though it's the lowest paying of the games (at 10 points), I find Clink the easiest to complete (very similar to Wheel of Fortune's "before and after" puzzles). Also, if you choose to play Chicktionary (making as many words as possible out of a given set of letters), you'll want to open a window to an anagram-solving site like MoreWords.com.

Like Microsoft Live Search Club? You may also like these similar programs: BigDevil, Blingo, and Winzy.

Updated today with latest info
From Ebates' website today: "What better way to celebrate our eighth birthday than by offering our customers even more savings? For today only, earn extra cash back at hundreds of our top stores."

Some examples of today-only higher rebates include: 12% at Drugstore.com, 6% at JCPenney, 20% at BuyBeauty, 22% at DaleandThomasPopcorn, 12% at eBags, 10% at Footlocker, 16% at Fossil, 16% at Hallmark, 12% at LizClaiborne, 8% at Macy's, 40% at Magazines.com, 75% at Match.com, 12% at PETCO, 4% at Priceline (air, car, and hotel; 3% for vacations), 22% at ShoeMall, 8% at SunglassHut, 11% at TimeLife, 7% at Tupperware, 45% at ValueMags, 6% at Walmart, 18% at Yves Rocher.

These rebates are in addition to any available coupons or sales at each merchant, AND the $5 first-time Ebates purchase bonus! MANY more merchants with increased rebate rates today -- let's go shopping!

I joined Ebates on 5/21/2000, so I've been with them for 7 of their 8 years. I've earned $486 from them in that time. They have very competitive rates and always pay on time, as promised, once a quarter when your balance exceeds $5. If you haven't joined yet and you want to get in on this special birthday celebration, please join here. And remember, Ebates gives you a $5 bonus to your account when you make your first purchase!

I seldom touch on the subject of frequent flyer mile programs on the site, because the subject is so vast it could warrant its own website (and many are out there, like FlyerTalk.com).

There was an article yesterday on SmarterTravel.com about the ever-changing frequent-flier programs that I thought was pretty informative and concise and wanted to pass along the link for anyone interested: "The Extra Mile - Frequent Flyer Changes Rarely Benefit Travelers."

The Denver Post reports that the Brinker chain of restaurants is testing a new loyalty program that will allow diners to earn points at any of their restaurant properties, including Chili's, Maggiano's Little Italy, Macaroni Grill, and On the Border. The points will then be redeemable for such items as a free dessert (for 1000 points, or $100 spent), bypassing the waiting list to get the first available table (for 3500 points, equal to $350 spent) or a free wedding reception (for $10,000 spent).

The program is currently being tested only in the Denver area.

If you're a regular CompareRewards visitor, you know that I'm very stoked about Jellyfish.com and particularly their Smack Shopping reverse auction.

Today there was an article about Jellyfish (and two other recent internet startups) on Investors.com and in it were some other interesting stats and quotes about JF from Brian and the site's other founder, Mark McGuire:

- The average JF member visits the site 18 times a month and spends 50 minutes there

A Forrester Research analyst was impressed with these numbers, saying they were "high."

- Smack Shopping has sold more than 1,000 goods at a 44% average discount

Here's my personal experience with Smack Shopping:
iPod 30GB (Originally $244) Paid $166.70 after 31.68% Smack Discount
Canon DC40 Camcorder (Originally $599.99) Paid $416.39 after 30.6% Smack Discount
New Super Mario Bros. DS (Originally $33.88) Paid $14.39 after 57.54% Smack Discount
Waring Pro Specialty Blender (Originally $129) Paid $42.74 after 66.87% Smack Discount
Giraffe Jubilee Single Speed Baby Swing (Originally $82) Paid $30.60 after 62.68% Smack Discount
Panasonic KX-TG6072B Dual Cordless Phone w/Answering Machine (Originally $102) Paid $54.83 after 46.42% Smack Discount
Seiko Antique Wooden Wall Clock (Originally $47.25) Paid $16.28 after 65.6% Smack Discount
Billy Blanks Tae Bo: The Power Within DVD (Originally $18.74) Paid $8.96 after 52.26% Smack Discount

Mark is quoted as saying, "Smack Shopping is really using advertising to create fun, to create entertainment...Over the next couple years more and more creative kinds of advertising are going to be invented and brought to the mainstream that sort of invites consumers in.'

Jellyfish Smack Shopping definitely invites consumers in, and it's addictive as all get-out. Since it went 24/7 last week, I haven't done much else. :) C'mon, join the fun... and with my link, if you wouldn't mind!