November 2008 Archives

One lucky winner is going to receive a check for $10,000 this year, just for being a member of MrRebates.com.

Yesterday, MrRebates kicked off its $10,000 Cash-Back Christmas 2008 promotion. Each day through December 24th, members can visit the site and click the contest icon for one entry to win the prize. One winner will be drawn at random on or about January 15th and they'll receive a $10,000 check within 2 weeks. No purchase is necessary to win. You must be a member of MrRebates.com to enter online -- join here (aff) if you're not a member already. You can also enter by postcard (see official rules).

Last night I joined Ginger of AttentionTargetShoppers.com in co-hosting a chat to discuss the highlights (and low-lights!) of Black Friday 2008. I want to thank everybody who took some time out of the evening to share their experiences and insights with us!

Obviously our audience was somewhat biased (this was an ONLINE chat, after all!) but the consensus seemed to be that shopping online would have been far preferable to the in-store Black Friday experience. The complaints weren't about fellow shoppers, for the most part, but about how the retailers themselves were unprepared: pallets of items still shrink-wrapped and not priced, stores allowing people in before the stated opening time, some 24 hour Walmarts allowing people to load up their baskets in advance of the Black Friday pricing going live, coupons that were overly restrictive, and of course the perennial "not enough in-stock" complaint.

Some shoppers reported success in getting what they set out for, and chatters were most complimentary of the in-store experience at Target stores. But nearly everyone voiced that they could have gotten the same, or better, deals online and without getting up at 3am and fighting traffic and lines at checkout.

Knowing this myself as an avid online shopper, why was it that I dragged myself (and my two sisters-in-law) out of bed at 3am to brave the crowds? Listen up, merchants, because there's a lesson to be learned from this: it's all about the sensory experience, the tactile, the social interaction. People can shop online any day, any time, and get deals. If you "do" Black Friday online, it's just... well... Friday. What makes Black Friday special is that we're able to go out and interact with other real people. We can hear the Christmas music, see the holiday decorations, maybe run into an old friend. We WANT the sales clerk to smile at us and wish us a merry Christmas. There's a comforting familiarity in the sound of the Salvation Army bell-ringer.

If stores want us to go out in person at 3am to get things we could've gotten online at a comparable price while still in our jammies, they have GOT to focus on making the in-store experience as pleasant as possible. Sam's Club offered free (and from what I heard, delicious) breakfasts to its shoppers. Good start. How about sending employees out with free hot chocolate for the people waiting in line in the cold? Maybe they could also play games for small, token giveaways to keep people entertained and pumped up to shop?

EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE needs to smile. There should be greeters at the door, employees asking if you need help, and ALL MALLS SHOULD HAVE VALET PARKING if for no other day of the year, then on Black Friday.

The fellow shoppers aren't what makes Black Friday frustrating -- it's the retailers lack of preparation and their failure to treat shoppers like they're as invaluable as they really are.

/off soapbox

Ebates.com (aff) is doing its very popular Black Friday promotion again this year: double their usual great rebates for over 1,000 merchants all day long!

The promotion runs from midnight 'til midnight. If you're not a member of Ebates already, when you join and make your first purchase, they'll give you an additional $5 to your account, too!

I've been a member of Ebates for many, MANY years and love the site. They provide coupons for you, plus they have a product search engine that helps you locate the products you're searching for, calculating your cost after cash back, too!

Thanks to Bill from Ebates for the heads-up!

QuickRewards.net will be increasing its cashback rates on 33 of its most popular retailers from 11/28 through 12/1 -- for some they'll be giving back all of their commission to their members. Here is a post detailing the promo, which also matches up available coupon codes or other promotions at each store.

If you're not a member of QuickRewards.net yet, please join with my link. I've been a member for 5 years and love the program so much, I run their shopping blog! :) Unlike most of the other rewards programs out there, QR doesn't make you wait weeks or even months to get your cash back after you shop: you can shop and cash out to PayPal AND BE PAID within a week. Don't like PayPal? No worries; you can request an email or snail-mailed gift card to one of many popular stores instead.

As an aside, you may also be interested in the big list of Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday coupon codes that I posted on QRDeals (part one and part two). Some can only be combined with cash back at QR, though, so use elsewhere with caution.

If you've been considering buying a new desktop, laptop, or printer, you need to check out this offer from Microsoft Live cashback: they're giving 25% cash back on purchases made at HP Shopping! And yes, that's on top of the big discounts they're running for the holiday shopping weekend (and free shipping on $30 or more orders)!

Here's how it works: Go to http://www.Live.com and do a search for HP. In the light blue "sponsored sites" box at the top of the screen the top listing will be for HP Shopping and it will say something like, "Get 25% Cashback on PCs, Printers, and Home Office Accessories. Shop Now." Click through that link.

You'll be prompted for your email address so they can confirm your cashback and give you details on how to receive it after your purchase is made. Then it'll take you to the site, where you'll have an hour to complete your purchase in that window (otherwise you have to go back to Live.com, search for HP and click through again).

I've done this with their similar 25% cashback on Ebay BINs promotion with success (nothing to it). Enjoy!

While most of my emphasis on this site is on the online side of shopping, there are also great rewards programs that reward for in-store shopping, too. If you're going to be out and about this Black Friday (and beyond!), my very good friend Ginger put together an incredible list of safety tips for shoppers -- please read it and take it to heart.

If you're not familiar with Ginger's blogs, be sure and check them out: AttentionTargetShoppers.com -- Target deals and coupon matchups; and AdlibCorner.com -- Trivia answers for contests at rewards programs and other websites. You can also follow her on Twitter.

What an excellent idea! Borders is giving its Borders Rewards members a special coupon to print that they can use in stores on Wednesday to get advance access to its Black Friday deals! This is a really nice perk for a free rewards program. Here's the coupon if you missed it in your email.

There has been some shuffling about of responsibilities over at United Online as of late, and the news yesterday was that MyPoints.com's president (and long-time executive in various positions) John Fullmer has been replaced with Matt Wisk, who has been with United Online since '05 as Chief Marketing Officer (among other duties). Fullmer will stay on as an advisor through the end of the year.

Says Mark Goldston, United Online's CEO, "Matt Wisk’s promotion to President of MyPoints demonstrates my confidence in his leadership ability and will leverage his proven marketing talents to further broaden the MyPoints program’s appeal for consumers and advertisers."

Just an FYI to MyPoints members -- not sure how/if this will impact the program. You can join MyPoints if you're not already a member here (aff).

Hi, fellow Livingstonians! It's nice to see some local visitors coming by CompareRewards.com, thanks to the nice story Carol Stuart wrote about me in today's Livingston Parish News!

I've been talking about online shopping using rewards programs and coupon codes for years to anybody who'll listen and the typical response I get is glazed-over eyes and, "Uh-huh, yeaaaah, I'll look into that, Becky," but now that the economy is getting a little tough, I'm finally getting some people to take a closer look at it.

This is the basic way rewards programs work: a rewards program is a website that gets a commission when someone clicks through their special link to a popular online retailer, like Sears, Penney's, or Kohl's, and makes a purchase. They share this commission with their members in the form of cash back.

If you go straight to the retailer's website (like Sears, Penney's, or Kohl's), you pay the same price as if you go through a rewards program, but you forfeit the cash back. Why do that?

AND, the rewards program usually provides coupon codes to bring your out of pocket cost down. For example, you may get free shipping, or an extra 30% off with a coupon.

Need some help figuring out how all this stuff works? Have any questions? I'd be more than happy to help you by email or (if you trust me with your phone number!) by phone. Send a message to comparerewards@yahoo.com and I'll get right back with you.

I also run TipBlog.com, where I post about deals, freebies, and coupon codes. Take a look if you have time!

One last thing and then I'll let you browse the site: I also run QRDeals.com, the shopping blog for the QuickRewards.net rewards program, and it has a Help Me Find a Deal feature for its members. If you'd like to join QuickRewards.net, come on over to QRDeals and post your wish list here, I'd be happy to help you find a good deal on particular items you're looking for this Christmas season!

Hello, and welcome to my site visitors coming by after the super-nice CompareRewards mention by Geoff Williams on WalletPop.com!

Mr. Williams gave a great summary of my analysis, but the full annual shopping rate comparison is available here if you'd like to read more detail. The comparison post also includes a link to a big spreadsheet showing cashback rates by retailer and by rewards program, so you can see who generally pays how much for the specific stores where you like to shop. One note, though: many rewards programs are currently offering holiday promotional rates so the current cashback percentages may vary.

As you read on WalletPop, there are five rewards programs that lead the cashback field right now. I'll give you a quick rundown on them for you here (note: all of these programs are totally free to join):

Microsoft Live cashback: Launched earlier this year, open to US residents 18 or older with a Windows Live ID (for instance, a Hotmail email address). The program's FAQ is here. They have hundreds of retailers but many are lesser-known ones (they don't reward for JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, ToysRUs, or Disney, among others). But when they do reward for a store, they offer more than anybody else almost all of the time -- their 20% cash back for Foot Locker, 20% for Overstock (details here), and 25% on Ebay BINs (details here) are untouchable! Request your cash back by PayPal or check when your balance is $5 or more.

Citibank ThankYou Points: You have to have a participating Citibank card or checking account to enroll in this points-based program. Earn points per dollar that can be cashed in for gift cards or merchandise prizes. When I converted their points to a their value in percentage cashback to compare them to other rewards programs, ThankYou Points did great, IF you use your Citibank card to make the purchase because then they double your points. 1,000 points equals a $5 gift card. Just be sure you pay off any charged purchases in full each month or your interest will offset your shopping reward.

Extrabux (aff): Launched two years ago, Extrabux is open to US residents 18 or older and you can cash out by check or PayPal when your cashback earned is $10 or more. When I ran the numbers, Extrabux had the highest, or second highest, cashback rate for over half of the stores I analyzed! They also provide coupon codes for you to combine with your cashback (if you obtain your coupon codes from an outside source like a deal board or coupon site, there's a good chance the outside coupon will invalidate your cashback, but you're safe if the rewards program itself gives you the coupon).

MrRebates (aff): This program, in business since 2002, is open to international members, age 18 and older, with a minimum of $10 required in your account to request payment. All members can opt for PayPal payment but checks are also available to US and Canadian members. They reward for over 1,000 stores and offer the highest cashback about a fourth of the time. They also provide coupon codes for their members.

FatWallet: Open to residents of the US and Canada 18 or older, FatWallet has no minimum requirement to receive your cashback by PayPal (there's a $10 minimum for checks). They have the highest cashback rate for about a fourth of the merchants I analyzed. While they don't offer coupons, they do have an amazing deal forum to help tip you off to great deals.

I've been paid by all of the above programs except for Citibank's ThankYou Points. I'm not a fan of points-based shopping rewards in general because at any time, the program can increase the number of points it takes to cash out for the gift card or other redemption you were considering, devaluing your points. Cash can't be devalued. That's just my personal preference.

In addition to these programs, there are a couple of others that I simply could not live without:

Ebates (aff): Ten years is a long time in internet years, but that's how long Ebates has been around and I've been a member for most of that time. They're open internationally though they're based in CA, and your cashback will be sent by check or PayPal automatically once a quarter when you have over $5 in your account. They provide coupon codes for their merchants and a "daily double" doubled rebate merchant of the day. Though they missed the top 5 by a hair this year, their rates are great overall and I shop through them all the time.

QuickRewards.net (aff): This is the best-kept secret in the rewards program world, and I love the site so much I'm currently running their shopping blog! What makes QuickRewards.net different is that unlike all of the above rewards programs, QR does not hold your cashback earnings for 60 to 120 days before you can request payment. With QR, you can shop, and get your cashback into your PayPal account, in the same week (often within a couple of days). Other programs make you wait until the store's return period has lapsed, to be sure you don't get paid for shopping, then return the item to the store, because when that happens, the rewards program has to return its earned commission -- and obviously there's some potential for fraud there. QuickRewards assumes that its members are honest and just asks that you let them know if you had to return a purchase for some reason, and they'll adjust your account. The program's been around for 5 years and is open to residents of the US, Canada, and the U.K. 18 or older (limit one account per household). If, like me, you're willing to give up a percentage point or two in your cashback rates in return for getting your earnings within a week instead of within 3 months -- you should definitely join QuickRewards.net. And if PayPal's not your thing, you can request emailed or snail-mailed gift cards for a variety of popular merchants instead.

I know this is a lot of information to take in; I was new to cashback rewards programs once upon a time and would have loved to have someone help answer my questions -- I'd be happy to do that for you! Here's my email address. I've run this website for 7 years and have used these programs for 11 years, and if I don't know the answer to your question, I can find someone who does. :) You may also want to subscribe to my twice-monthly newsletter, the CompareRewards Insider, which you can do at the same address (just put "Subscribe" in the subject line). I hate it when I come across a useful website and I forget to go back and check for new content, so the newsletter gives little summaries of what I've posted recently as a reminder for you.

Thanks again for stopping by! Glad you came and I hope you found the information you needed!

11/11: More related links: "Could have saved founder millions -- had they listened," "More Boomertowne.com follies," and "Digital agency gets sued for no reason whatsoever"

11/10: A source forwarded me a copy of the lawsuit and I've uploaded it for your reading pleasure here. Concierge Web, LLC (BT's corporate name) says they paid Laughlin (their ad agency) $5.8 million+ over 2 years for a "basically worthless" website that brought in under $300,000 in revenue, when Laughlin estimated they'd have made $36 million. Concierge (BT) is suing Laughin for deceptive advertising, fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty. They want a jury trial and are asking for compensatory and punitive damages plus legal expenses. The suit was filed 3 days after BoomerTowne.com shut down.

"Web site's demise leaves people without payments" is the title of an article today on the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel's website. I spoke with their investigative reporter Ellen Gabler about BoomerTowne.com just over a week ago as she began researching the events that led to Herschel Peddicord's web venture going bust. She says that Peddicord, who initially blamed personal illness, "cheaters" and the economy in his email to me here, is now blaming Laughlin/Constable, the ad agency he hired to create the website. (Next to be blamed: delayed-onset angst over the cancellation of Gunsmoke in 1975, "I forgot where the office was," and the war in Iraq.)

An interesting read if you have an interest in the case -- unfortunately the actual case filings are not available online, according to Ms. Gabler.

If you're interested in reading my prior posts about BoomerTowne, a list of them is here.

If you weren't able to attend last Saturday night's annual Chat Bash for CompareRewards.com and AdlibCorner.com's site "birthdays," you missed one heckuva good time!

Craig Cassata of MrRebates.com (aff), one of our first guests to arrive, gave out a total of $200 in Amazon gift certificates to three lucky chatters! All they had to do to win was be the first person with the correct response to one of the following questions: How many MrRebates merchants are currently offering increased cashback for the holidays? (228) How many Dell Home coupons are currently in MrRebates' coupon section? (37) And what's the grand prize is in the MrRebates 2008 Christmas Promotion starting on Black Friday? ($10,000) As always, MrRebates -- the guy and the site -- never fails to impress! Big thanks to Craig of MrRebates.com for coming by to chat with us!

Renee and Amanda of Homeclickin.com (aff) were also on-hand to answer some questions about their new rewards program (which launched last week) and to present some great prizes. Homeclickin gave out over $50 worth of prizes to chatters who correctly answered several questions about their program or who made a post in their message forum. Homeclickin is run by some nice folks -- thanks go out to Amanda and Renee for coming to chat and best of luck with your program!

Nicki of Memolink.com also came to chat with us and gave out some nice prizes, including a $50 GC of the winner's choice and swag goody bags to all chatters. She fielded some questions about the program and asked a few herself, including the chatters' opinions of a rewards program running its own forum (response was mixed). I'm still light-years away from recommending Memolink again but I do see that they have at least one employee who is really working hard to reach out to people and try to restore confidence in the program. Thanks for coming to chat with us, Nicki!

Dmitry of QuickRewards.net may have been the last to arrive, but he was also the last to leave. He discussed a new feature of the site (the buddy system, available by request) and some plans for the future including improvements to the survey section, and he took requests for additional merchants and redemptions to be added to the site. He also donated several $5 QuickRewards.net credits as prizes. It's always a pleasure, Dmitry!

My friend and "Partner in Crime" Ginger of AdLibCorner and her most recent venture, AttentionTargetShoppers.com, helped keep the conversation lively and gave out several very nice prizes including a webcam! And I gave out a couple of gift cards and magazine subscriptions (still working on getting those out to the winners -- I haven't forgotten y'all, sorry!).

It was a fun and informative chat with friends new and old, including around 100 attendees over the course of the chatters over the course of the evening. Once again, thanks to all who stopped in, and I hope you'll join us again on Black Friday Night for a shorter (prize-free) chat about your BF experiences online and off. Brag about your best deals! Whine about the jerk who stole your parking space! More info on Black Friday Chat including the room link and password as we get closer to the date. You may want to subscribe to my twice-monthly newsletter (send an email to me here with "Subscribe" in the subject line) as I'll be sending out a reminder with all the details in advance. Hope to see you then!

About two weeks ago I posted how to get 25% cash back for Ebay Buy-It-Nows from Live Cashback and now I'm going to tell you how to get 20% cash back from Live on purchases from Overstock.com.

If you go to the Live Cashback merchant list you'll see that they offer 2 to 7% cash back on Overstock purchases. That's only if you go through the link there, though. Like with the Ebay BIN promo, if you instead go to Live.com and do a search for "ipod", Live will serve up an Overstock link on the right hand side of your screen that says, "Sale on Apple iPods" (with the Live Search cashback icon at the bottom of the ad). Click through there and it will give you 20% cash back. Not bad, huh?

It's not combinable with any other coupons or else you'll forfeit the cashback.

Enjoy!

In a conference call with stock analysts this week, United Online -- the parent company of MyPoints -- discussed the company's performance in the third quarter.

United Online's President and CEO Mark Goldston said that despite the difficult economic climate causing some companies to cut back on advertising (the source of MyPoints' revenue -- the paid sponsors of those 5-point BonusMails), MyPoints did continue to grow in the third quarter. He said that MyPoints' point offers for completing surveys, doing searches on the toolbar, and MyPoints Games helped to fill the member demand for points and also helped offset the revenue lost from cutbacks from advertisers (fewer sponsored BonusMails).

A new president was appointed to the Classmates Media segment of the company (which includes MyPoints, Classmates.com, and Stay Friends -- which honestly I had never heard of until today). The co-president of MyPoints will now report to him. They're continuing with their plans to somehow combine the user bases of the three sites (I think the idea is that they'll offer MyPoints' points to members of the two social networking sites in return for generating content...content that will help make Classmates.com a richer experience and more attractive to paying subscribers). Again this quarter, though, they don't offer any details or timeline on this.

If you want to read the transcript of the conference call, it's located on SeekingAlpha.com here. If you want to sign up for MyPoints, please use my link here (thanks!).

Nobody waits until Black Friday to start holiday promotions anymore -- the retailers have an early jump on things this year and so do the online shopping rewards programs! Here's a summary of the holiday promotions already underway:

Ebates has doubled its cashback rates on 19 popular retailers. Particularly impressive: 4% cash back for purchases at Dell; 6% cash back for purchases at HomeDepot, Nordstrom, and DisneyShopping; 8% at Borders, Macy's, and Sephora (twice the highest rate elsewhere for these three retailers, according to my 2008 Shopping Rebate Comparison Chart). Nice! Not sure how long these rates will be good but as it's being billed as their "Holiday Cash Back" I'd assume they'll last for a while. If you're not a member of Ebates and would like to join, please do so with my link -- thanks! (They'll give you a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase, too!)

FatWallet has a couple of holiday promotions going on right now: increased cashback at over 100 stores through Christmas Eve, plus 18 giveaways of over $12,000 in prizes. Most of the increases simply put them in line with what's being offered elsewhere, but a few particularly good rates include 5% cash back for purchases at Aeropostale, 7% at BassPro, 10% at Cooking.com (6% elsewhere), 6% at Sports Authority and Vera Bradley, 3% at Walmart (2% elsewhere), and 5% at Wolf Camera. You can sign up for FatWallet's cashback program here if you're not already a member.

MrRebates has also increased its cashback rates for 200 of its merchants through the holiday season, and they'll be starting a contest on Black Friday for a $10,000 cash prize. Some particularly good cashback rates: 25% at Restaurant.com; 14% at Yves Rocher; 12% at Colorful Images, Crucial, Current Catalog (5% elsewhere!), Ice.com, and Limoges; 9% at Mikasa; 8% at Chefs, Fashion Bug (4% elsewhere!), and North Face; 7% at HSN, JCWhitney, Limited Too, Roamans, and Timberland; 6% at Lakeside Collection, NASCAR, Sephora, and ULTA; 5% at Aeropostale, Brylane Home, Dell, Jessica London, Ritz Camera, and Wolf Camera; 3% at MacMall and Walmart. If you're not a member of MrRebates and would like to join, please use my link -- thanks! You'll get a $5 registration bonus, too.

MyPoints is giving away 85 $100 gift cards daily plus four $25,000 prizes in its Home for the Holidays promotion, running through December 24. Members can earn up to 5 free entries into the daily gift card giveaway by doing specific activities like clicking a daily offer, creating a "MyList," playing a free game, referring a friend, or downloading their toolbar and making a search (not recommended; toolbars can interfere with your ability to receive cashback from competing rewards programs). Members can earn up to 10 total entries into the $25,000 grand prize drawing by making a purchase from a featured retailer (or alternatively, by sending in a postcard -- see rules for details). If you'd like to join MyPoints, please sign up with my link -- thanks!

RewardZone (Best Buy's free rewards program) is kicking off its holiday shopping season with a members-only event this Saturday, November 9th from 8:30pm to 10:30pm. Nearly all purchases will qualify for double points, or spend over $1000 for triple points. Best Buy credit card holders get triple points on everything and quadruple on $1000+. Each store will give away 5 $50 Best Buy gift cards during the event, and the first 50 customers will receive a free charger for small appliances. Sony items will be on special discount, and they promise to have Wiis in stock. Not a RewardZone member yet? Join here.

ThankYou Points (Citibank) is reducing the number of points to cash out for a different selection of prizes each week. The discounts aren't huge -- around 6% for the items I checked, but if you were close to cashing out, the discount will help you get there a little faster. ThankYou Points is only available to select Citibank customers; sign up here if you have a qualifying account.

Upromise has launched something called Guest Shopping, "our gift to you this season." It's a personalized link you can give to your friends and family so their purchases will contribute cashback to your Upromise account -- without them having to go through the usual procedure of signing up for a Upromise account and naming your child as their beneficiary. They're also doing The Season of Giving Sweepstakes where 50 winners will be rebated 100% of their Upromise purchases within a specified time period (up to $1,000). They're doing an instant-win game you can play daily, with 1,000 instant winners total! Want to sign up at Upromise? Please click here to support CompareRewards -- thanks!