December 2008 Archives

If you have some time today before heading out to celebrate New Year's Eve: today's the last day of the quarter, which means it's the earnings deadline for a couple of rewards programs that pay quarterly -- Ebates (join here if you're not a member) and Wellness360 (join here) (aff). It's also the last day to use up the balance in your FSA account if you have one, and it's the last day of the Pepsi Stuff points promotion.

Ebates requires you to earn at least $5.00 in cashback savings per quarter in order to receive your cashback the following quarter, otherwise it rolls over (that's $5 in personal shopping cashback in addition to the $5 signup bonus or $10 gift card bonus you get when you join). If you're not sure if you've earned $5.00 this quarter, it's easy to check: When you log in, next to your name at the top of the screen it says Total Cash and a dollar amount. Click the dollar amount, then click Cash Pending. Cash Back on Purchases will be displayed at the top of the screen. If it's under $5, you may want to take advantage of Ebates' Double Cashback Sale still going on, offering higher shopping rates at stores like Home Depot (6%), Disney (6%), Macy's (8%), and Dell (4%), among others! Today's the deadline for your next Big Fat Check so don't delay!

Wellness360 also pays quarterly when your personal earnings exceed $25, otherwise your earnings roll over. You can check to see how close you are to meeting the threshold by clicking View Report under My Points on the right hand side of the screen. If you're close to $25 but not quite there, you may want to spend some time on the site: you get one point for every page you visit for at least 20 seconds. Please only use the site to get information you're truly interested in -- they have software that will detect if you're just refreshing pages to get points, which violates their Terms of Service. Keep in mind, you will have to come back to Wellness360's website some time between 1/1 and 1/15 to manually request your payment.

If you have a FSA (Flexible Spending Account, aka pre-tax medical withholding account), obviously as today's the last day of 2008, today's your deadline to empty out any remaining balance. If you can't schedule a last-minute eye exam, and don't have any prescriptions that need refilling, you may want to stock up on other qualified OTC medical staples like band-aids, pain relievers, antihistimines, decongestants, vitamins, etc. If you have a debit-type plastic card you use in conjunction with your FSA, you can use it online at Drugstore.com (just add items to your cart marked with a blue FSA). Live Cashback (see my post below) just dropped their cashback rate on Drugstore.com purchases to 5%, but you can get 8% from Extrabux, or 7% from Ebates or MrRebates (aff).

Last but certainly not least: If you've been participating in the Pepsi Stuff points program, today is the last day to enter and redeem Pepsi points if you have them. The new Pepsi packaging has been in stores for the last month or more where I live, so if you want to head out to pick up those last couple of points you need for redeeming, you may want to scope out smaller stores that may still have the old packaging in inventory. (Or look for less popular products like Pepsi Jazz. Yuck.)

That's it for me for 2008! I wish you all a safe and happy New Year's and a healthy and prosperous 2009!

Update, 12/31: They've pulled this offer, at least for the time being, sorry!
This has been around for a few weeks but I want to mention it here because, in combination with Drugstore.com's after-Christmas sale, 25% cashback is pretty sweet.

Go to http://www.Live.com and search for Advil. It'll bring up a sponsored link for Live cashback (look for the gold coin). Click through and provide your email address and the CAPTCHA image, and you'll be on your way to receiving 25% cash back on your Drugstore.com purchase. (Nope, you don't have to even purchase Advil at all -- anything you buy in the 60 minute time-frame after clicking through the sponsored link will be eligible for 25% cash back.)

Be sure to check the End of Season Up to 70% Off Clearance banner to see some of the more highly discounted products.

Lesser-known tip: If you have a flexible spending account (aka a medical savings account -- pre-tax dollars set aside for non-insurance-covered medical expenses) and you access it via a debit type card, you can shop through a rewards program like Live cashback and earn 25% cash back on those pre-tax dollars! Look for items on Drugstore.com's website marked with a blue check and the letters "FSA," and use your FSA debit card for your payment type!

Can I tell you how much I love Ebates? :)

Today, Ebates is bringing back Cyber Monday with increased (up to TRIPLED!) rebates on many of their popular online retailers. The deals to be had there are pretty darned amazing, like, 20% off plus free shipping and 12% cash back on all orders at Ice.com! (LOVE that store!) Borders and Barnes and Noble are up to 12% today and both stores ship free on $25+ orders. Sears is 6%. Don't waste time reading this; go to Ebates and shop because Cyber Monday II will be over soon!

Join here if you're not a member of Ebates already -- they'll kick me back a couple of bucks and will give YOU a $10 gift card when you make your first purchase!

Missed it the first time? Procrastinated? Just want more? No problem -- Ebates.com (aff) is bringing back Cyber Monday this coming Monday, December 15th. They'll be doubling their already great cashback rates all day long. Get your credit card warmed up...this is going to be fun!

I always love to hear about rewards programs in the news, because it helps bring consumers' attention to the money they could be saving by simply making a few extra clicks.

Yesterday, KABC in Los Angeles did a story on cashback sites (read about it and watch the segment here). I thought it was very well-presented, showing a real consumer who uses rewards programs explaining how much she's earned in cash back and how easy it was to do it, just a matter of a few extra clicks.

The consumer said that Ebates was her favorite program. I love it, too! Just checked my account and I've earned $1,573.24 since I joined, many years ago -- and when you sign up for Ebates (aff) they'll give you a $10 gift card when you make your first purchase through their program. It's like getting a gift for yourself when you buy something for someone else! :)

The reporter went on to mention that there were other rewards programs out there, and among them is Extrabux. Noah Auerhahn, one of the site's co-founders and a student at USC, talks about Extrabux and their plans to incorporate cashback, coupons, and product price searches. This is going to be wonderful when it happens -- it'll bring together the best of all 3 money-saving online shopping methods.

I also want to mention to my new site visitors that I do an annual comparison of how much cashback rewards programs offer for specific merchants (because different rewards programs offer different cashback rates) -- here's the 2008 cashback rewards analysis if you want to read it in-depth, but Extrabux did extraordinarily well. They were third overall out of 19 programs I compared, only behind Microsoft's Live cashback (which doesn't reward for a lot of big-name merchants) and Citibank's ThankYou Points (which requires you to be a Citicard holder). You can join Extrabux here (aff) and start earning up to 30% cashback right away...it's totally free to join.

There's an interview on MediaPost.com today with MyPoints.com's Senior VP Stefan DeCota. In it, he talks about the value that loyalty programs like MyPoints can bring to businesses who choose to advertise with them, taking advantage of their targeted demographics. He also talks about SMS (text messaging) being the wave of the future. Interesting reading.

Easy to get to it: Go to http://www.live.com and do a search for ipod -- then click the Target ad on the right! You don't have to buy an ipod; that's just what brings up the 20% off offer.

Gotta love 20% cashback at Target, especially with so many toys shipping for free. Enjoy!

I did most of my Black Friday shopping at the mall, but apparently those who stayed home and tried to use Microsoft Live cashback had to deal with some frustration. There are a couple of articles about it here and here.

Microsoft announced on Monday that they would be offering *some* shoppers taking advantage of the 25% cashback on Ebay Buy It Nows instant cashback (versus having to wait up to 60 days), but talk on the deal boards is that it appears to be random who gets it and who doesn't. Maybe it's a function of the item bought, or of the seller's (or buyer's) feedback.

I'm still happy to wait for the cashback because on a big ticket item, 25% is a nice chunk o'change.

Ebates.com (aff) is doing another huge extra-cashback promotion today in honor of Cyber Monday: Through midnight, earn double cash back at many of their participating merchants! Their rates are already quite good, so this is a great perk for online shoppers looking to make the most of their money this year.

If you're not already a member, they'll give you $5 when you join and make your first purchase! So sign up now and start shopping!