My Ideal Wallet Q1 2014

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Best Credit Cards

Credit Card Sign Up Offers

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Credit Sesame
Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

These are the Credit and Debit cards that will either be in my wallet (assuming my wallet was the size of George's) from now until the end of March 2014


Make sure to sign up for Credit Sesame and/or Credit Karma to monitor any changes in your credit history for free (I have both).

• American Express Blue Preferred – 6% cash-back at groceries (up to 6k a year), 3% at gas and 1% everywhere else.  There is a $75 annual fee so it is only for those who spend a lot of money on groceries.
• $150 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
• You get 6% on a gift cards you buy at the grocery store as well.
• You also get one year free membership to Amazon prime if you have signed up for the card in the last 3 months

• Citi Dividend - 5% cashback at Drug Stores, Macy's and Fitness Clubs.
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).  
• $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days.
• Lots of Free Money potential here

• Chase Freedom – 5% cash-back at Gas, Starbucks and Movie Theaters.  
• $75 maximum cash back per quarter.  You need to activate the 5%.
• Chase Freedom 2014 5% categories
• $200 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days
• Most 7-11 Stores are considered Gas Stations and sell $500 Vanilla One Visa Gift Cards.  They sell Vanilla Reloads too, but the register is hard coded to only allow cash purchases for that.

• Discover it™ - 5% cash-back on Restaurants and Movies.  Meh, unimpressed by this quarter (ie - no way I can figure out to buy Vanilla reloads or Visa gift cards at 5% cashback). $75 maximum cash back per quarter.
• 5% cashback for Discover is actually more than 5%
• Activation and 2014 Calender is here
• $150 Sign up Bonus for spending $750 in three months.

• Chase Ink Classic (Business Card) - 5% cashback at Office Supply Stores, Cable, Phone (Landline or cell) and Internet bills.
• 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual Fee

• Bank of America Better Balance Rewards - $25 back for every quarter that you pay your full bill or more than the minimum balance in every month.  Another $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account.
• Best Usage - Set up a monthly bill on this card and auto pay the full balance. You never have to think about it and then every three months you will get $30.

• Bank of America Cash Rewards - 3.3% on Gas into a Bank of America Checking account - 4.5% if you have a Bank of America Privileges Card.
• Normally in my wallet for gas, but I will use Chase Freedom for 3 months.

• Fidelity American Express Investment Rewards – 2% cash-back everywhere else.
•  This card is always in my wallet

• Charles Schwab Check Card – Unlimited Free ATMs Withdrawals at every ATM in the world
• This card is always in my wallet

Betterment.com - $25 Sign Up Bonus

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Betterment

Update 1/1/2014 - This offer is still valid.  Keep in mind that they charge an ongoing maintenance fee.  For 90 days the fee won't be much, but make sure to cancel once the 90 days are up.

Betterment.com is an investment site that is offering a $25 bonus if you deposit $250 with them for 90 days.


New account sign ups only.

Hold The Phone - Old American Express Blue is Still Available? - Run and Apply!

Update: New applicants are limited to 5% on up to $50,000 of purchases per year.

There are very few credit cards that I get super excited about (that's not actually true, I get super excited about most credit cards).  The old American Express Blue is one of the best out there, but I thought it was long gone.  It is now the mythical Phoenix of credit cards and I'm not complaining

Right now, you can get one too!  I don't know how long it will last, but I wouldn't wait on it if you are interested.

Go to 

https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/blue-cash/25330 

when you are browsing incognito and the card will come up.

Why Do I Care So Much?

That's easy: the reward structure is from a time well before Bluebird and Vanilla Reloads, when American Express could safely give out unlimited rewards at Drug Stores because who spent real money at drug stores anyway.

The reward structure is as follows:

1% cashback for your first $6,500 of spending, after that you will earn 5% cash back at Supermarkets, Gas Stations and select Drugstores (CVS is on the list).

No annual fee and no limits to the 5%!

Let's assume for argument's sake that you spend $5,000 every month on Vanilla Reloads, or $60,000 a year (the limits of one Bluebird account).  Your will basically break even for your first $6,500 because you will only get 1% and you have to pay the fees still.  For your final $53,500 you would get 4.2% of that (5% minus the 0.8% Vanilla reload fee) or $2,247 for free! Considering CVS will allow you to buy $5,000 worth of Vanilla Reloads at one time this wouldn't take very long.

I think that $2,000 a month is reasonable which would get you $735 a year by the same math.

Words of Caution:  You will probably get a Financial Review from American Express if you spend that much every month so make sure to have income to back up what you put down on your application.  Also, be aware that American Express may decide that you are not a good customer to have and not give you any more credit cards in the future.

Slow and steady wins the race, but you should also be aware of what's available to you.

This card is clearly only for those who are willing to put in some effort for some major rewards (ie not for JF), but I think you will find it well worth it if you do.

Check out this point to see why Vanilla Reloads are important and how to load them onto a Bluebird card

American Express Gift Cards - No Purchase Fees!

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Top Cashback and American Express Gift Cards (only if you don't use Top Cashback first - Why would you do that?)

Update: This deal ends tomorrow.  All my orders have gotten credited by Top Cashback within a day even though some of my actual orders were canceled by American Express. 



American Express Gift Cards can now be bought without any purchase fees.  This saves you $3.95 for every $500 card.  You need to use promo code SYNCGIFT and pay with an American Express credit card.

You still need to pay $8.95 shipping fee for the order, but that is $8.95 even if you order $5,000 of gift cards.

In addition, for the next 4 days Top Cashback will give you 3% back for buying the gift cards.  Top Cashback says that promo codes will nullify your cashback, but I tried it and it worked anyways.

Here is the math for what this deal can do for you:

Scenario 1: Fidelity American Express (2% back on every purchase).

Let's say you max it out at $5000 in gift cards.  Your total charges will come to $5008.95.

- $150 will come to you from Top Cashback

- $100 will come to you from Fidelity American Express

- $8.95 fee for buying the cards

Bottom Line - $241.05 net after fees or 4.8% on your purchases with the gift cards.  Not too shabby!

Scenario 2: American Express Starwoods (Let's say you're a miles man)

Same thing: Max out at $5000.  Total charge is $5008.95

- $150 will come to you from Top Cashback

- 5,009 starpoints from American Express Starwoods

- $8.95 fee for buying the cards

Bottom Line - $141.05 net after fees + 5009 starpoints  If you do this 4 times you will have $560 and 20,000 starpoints which can be redeemed for 25,000 miles on many airlines.

More advanced tools so that you don't have to actually spend the money (manufactured spending):
Amazon Payments - You can send up to $1,000 a month to a friend with a credit card, including American Express gift cards.
Buy Vanilla Reloads/Visa Gift Cards - You should be able to use these cards to buy Vanilla Reload cards or Visa gift cards which can be loaded onto Bluebird online for Vanilla Reloads and at Walmart for Visa Gift Cards.  Add 1% in fees for this option.
Google Wallet - if you have a Google Wallet account, you can send money via email with a credit card to anyone and that person can withdraw to a checking account.  The problem is that the fee is a whopping 2.9%, which negates most of your cashback.
That being said, you will still net over $100 with the Fidelity American Express without having to spend any money.  With a points card, you end up getting 5,000 points for just about nothing.

Warning! Don't use a Citibank Credit card as they may code it as a Cash Advance so you will get a fee and no points.  American Express and Chase cards are safe.  

34 Oz Travel Mug - $4.04 from Sears

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Sears has a 34 Ounce Travel Mug for $4.04 with free site to store shipping.  Fits in a standard cup holder.

You will also earn Shop Your Way points to use on a future purchase.

Free In store Pick Up

Start your purchase at from Ebates and get 6% cashback as well.  You will still get your normal cashback from your credit card as well. 

Don’t have ebates?  Sign up here for free. 

Pay with your Discover card and you will get 5% off any online transactions.

Free 2 Day Shipping by Mastercard

Mastercard is offering free 2 day shipping to select retailers from now to the End of May.

Free 2 day shipping is from BestBuy.com, QVC.com, Macys.com, Kohl.com and Walmart.com.

You will get a statement credit of up to $20 per purchase on 2 day shipping for a maximum of $500 for the 6 months

You can pay $69 for the year and extend the free shipping to Nordstrom, Target, Gap, Sephora and Shutterfly.


Offer not valid Iowa.  Sorry guys.


It is a little annoying to get your money.  Here is how to do it:

1) Sign in to www.FreeShippingbyMasterCard.com/SignIn
2) Click on the Store you want to shop at and choose 2 day shipping.  You have to pay for the entire purchase with your Mastercard, no gift cards.
3) Email your confirmation to Rebates@FreeShippingbyMasterCard.com and you will get your credits.

Thank you AS for the tip!


Please note:  I couldn't find anything about having to pay after 6 months.  Either you just lose your subscription or you will automatically be enrolled in paying for it.  Be aware of that so be on top of canceling right before the 6 months are up.

You can also get a 1 year subscription to ShopRunner from American Express for Free.

American Express Serve - Up to $250 Free

Update: A reader reports that he tried to add funds with a Citibank credit card and it went through as a regular credit card purchase, not a cash advance.  I don't have a serve account so I can't verify, but Citi cards should be safe with Serve.  Either way, send a secure message through your Citibank account and ask for the cash advance limit to be lowered to $0 so that if it does process as a cash advance the transaction won't go through and you won't be stuck with a bill.


Serve® is one of the prepaid products available through American Express.  Similar to Bluebird, its best feature is that you can use it for online bill pay.  This means that any money that has been loaded onto your card can be used to pay a credit card bill as well.

An additional advantage is that you can load funds from a credit card onto Serve with no associated fees (unless your credit card issuer counts it as a Cash Advance). You can then pay your credit card bill with the bill pay.  Not too shabby.

Advantages:

• Online Bill Pay
• Loading with a credit card for free ($1,000 a month)
• Load "cash" at 7-11 and CVS
• There are some reports that CVS allows you to load with a credit card and it is considered a "cash" reload - unconfirmed.
• $50 bonus for two direct deposits of $250 or more.
• There are some reports that Amazon Payments will work for this - unconfirmed
• 20% cashback for any "tap purchases" using Isis Mobile Wallet until January 31st.   Up to $200 in credits ($1,000 of spending).  This works on anything, including Visa Gift Cards or Vanilla reloads!

There are a couple of problems with Serve:

• $1 monthly fee
• You can avoid the monthly fee by loading $500 a month or having direct deposit or having it in your Isis Mobile wallet.
• You can't have Bluebird and Serve at the same time, it's either one or the other.

I don't have Serve because I have Bluebird and I don't want to give it up, if you are interested you can sign up for American Express Serve® here

Thank you YP for the tip!

Citi Dividend and Bluebird - $240 Free - It's Just Too Easy!

Last year, the most lucrative 5% category of the year by far was the first quarter with the Citi Dividend.  Their 5% rotating cashback categories included drug stores (ie Vanilla Reloads at CVS).

Most credit cards (Discover, Chase Freedom etc.) have a cap for each quarter on how much spending you can get 5% on, which is usually capped at $1,500 for a maximum of $75 per quarter.  Not the Citi Dividend.  They give you a max of spending of $6,000 a year which can be maxed out at any point.   Spend $6,000 at CVS right away and you can get $300 in 5% cashback in one quarter!  Of course, I made sure to do that.  After the first couple of months I didn't use the card the rest of the year.

Considering that there is a 1% fee for buying the Vanilla Reload cards, you are making $240 free.

Check out this point to see why Vanilla Reloads are important and how to load them onto a Bluebird card

It's Back Again This Year, Really!?

I assumed they would never bring that back.  It was too easy to get free money.  I am happy I am wrong! This year, again, drug stores is part of the 5% categories for January- March 2014. Same rules as last year.  I will make sure to get one for my wife as well, $480 free!

Can't find Vanilla Reloads at CVS?  It can vary store to store, but my local stores restock prepaid cards on Friday.  I go on Saturday night or Sunday morning and there are usually still some left.  Ask the people who work at your local CVS when they restock.

Don't have a CVS?  You can buy $500 visa gift cards at Walgreens (at least you could a few months ago) and either spend them or load them onto Bluebird at Walmart.  You can't buy Vanilla Reloads at Walgreens, the cash register is hard coded to not let that happen


Sign up for a Citi Dividend here.  You will get a $100 bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months or $340 for each new card. Easy Peasy and there is no annual fee either.  If you get a new card for you and your spouse you can get $680 very quickly!


A few words of caution:

• Don't spend $6,000 the first month at CVS even if your credit limit allows it.  Do $2,000 a month.  It will look less suspicious.
• Don't buy Vanilla Reloads in 2 $500 increments.  A purchase of $1,007.90 from CVS is very suspicious.  Buy denominations that are slightly less.  I tend to put $495 on each card so that the total purchase is below $1,000

Sodastream $55 from Sears

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Sears, Ebates
Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Update: See below that you might be able to get the Sodastream from Home Depot for $38.99, but it is a gamble.

Sears is selling the Sodastream kit for $80 but the price drops $25 to $55 with this mail in rebate from Sodastream.  I bought mine with a mail in rebate and they fulfilled it without any problems.  The rebate says it must be from a retail location so it probably will not work if you buy it from Amazon.

The rebate says that if you use any promo codes it nullifies the rebate so use promo codes at your own discretion.

You will also earn $2.40 in Shop Your Way points to use on a future purchase.

Free In store Pick Up

Start your purchase at from Ebates and get 6% cashback as well.  You will still get your normal cashback from your credit card as well. 

Don’t have ebates?  Sign up here for free. 

Pay with your Discover card and you will get 5% off any online transactions.





Alternatively, you can buy it from Home Depot and use coupon code HDKITCHEN20 to get 20% off.  The problem is that if you use the coupon code, the rebate may be nullified.  Buyer Beware.

If everything works, it will 63.99 after the coupon code.  Then the rebate will take it down to $38.99.  

Use Shop Discover for 5% off.  If you pay with your Discover card you will get another 5% off any online purchases for 10% off or $6.39 off.   Your final price will be $32.60.  This all assume you will get the $25 off from the rebate which is anyone's guess.

From Home Depot you can get free shipping to your home.

$75 Free From Capital One Per Person - Checking and Savings Accounts

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Capital One Checking and Savings Accounts


Sign up for Capital One Checking and Savings account and you can get $75 free.  $50 for checking and $25 for savings.  $150 total if you do it for yourself and your spouse.  All with no fees!



Here is the breakdown:


Capital One 360 Checking - $50

• Make 3 purchases within 45 days.  No minimum balance
• It's easy to make lots of small purchases without having to carry your card around
• Your bonus automatically posts on day 50

Capital One 360 Savings - $25

• You need an initial deposit of $250 to qualify
• Your bonus will be there right away, but you can't withdraw the bonus for 30 days.

You can also get $25 for adding a children's savings account and another $25 for adding a debit card and account for your teen.

There are no monthly fees associated with these accounts.



I did them for both myself and my wife and it took about 20 minutes total.  It is a pretty simple process.



Thank you MK for the tip!

20+% off Starbucks Gift Cards from Raise

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Top Cashback, Raise
Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Raise.com is offering Starbucks Gift Cards at steep discounts!.


They come in $100 denominations and are over 14% off.


Use promo code JOY for another 3% off for close to 17% off.  There is no maximum on how large a gift card will qualify.  You can add starbucks egift cards right to your existing Starbucks account




Start your shopping from Top Cashback and you'll get an additional 2% cashback into your account for a total of 19% off.  I have been use Top cashback since November of 2012 and I already have close to $300 in my account for shopping I would be doing anyway.


Pay with your Discover Card and you will get 5% cashback on any online purchases until the end of December (limit of $75 cashback for the quarter).  This would be a total of 24% off!  If you use a regular 1% cashback card you will still be getting 20% off!


If you are a new customer you can use coupon code RAISE60AF and save $5 off $60.  I don't know if they can be combined because I am not a new customer but give it a shot.

10% off Target Saturday and Sunday

Update: This is in store only, not online.

In reaction to the massive security breach at Target in which information for 40 million credit cards was stolen, Target is offering 10% off today and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday) off every item.  If you have a Target Red Card you will get an additional 5% off.

If you still trust Target, you can get some nice prices tomorrow!

Need to Make Many Small Transactions? Amazon eGift Cards to the Rescue!

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Amazon

Here is a small tip that can be pretty helpful.


There are some bonuses that require you to either make a certain number of purchases before you get the bonus or to make a certain number of purchases a month in order for it to stay free.

One example is the Capital One 360 Checking account which required you to make 5 purchases in the first 45 days on their debit card to the bonus.  If you signed up for your spouse as well, that means you have to make 10 purchases, which can be annoying.

Whatever shall you do?

Amazon eGift Cards are the perfect solution!

Amazon eGift cards can be bought at denominations as low as $0.15.  You can buy 5 of them for $0.75 or 10 for $1.50.  You add the gift cards to your Amazon account so there is almost no money outlay and there is also very little time commitment.

TD Cash Rewards - 5% Cashback for 6 months Eligible Purchases

TD Bank has come out with a new credit card with an interesting new rewards structure.  It's called the TD Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card.

For six months you will get 5% cashback on any dining, groceries, gas and cable, phone and utility bill payments.  After the 6 month introductory rate, the cashback goes back down to 1% on everything.

There is no annual fee,

Is it worth getting?

I think the card is a nice card, but you won't see me running out to get one, and that's saying something.  Here's why:

Let's take the categories one at a time:

Dining - I will already get 5% cashback at Dining from Discover It during the first quarter of 2014, then in Quarter 2 I will get 5% cashback from Chase Freedom so I am covered for the next 6 months on dining.  I also don't eat at restaurants much.

Groceries - I have the American Express Blue Preferred which gets me 6% back at groceries, up to $6,000 in purchases a year.

Gas - Bank of America Privileges card gets me 4.5% back at groceries.  It's not 5%, but I'm not going to sign up for a new card for 0.5% more for 6 months.

Cable and Phone - I have a Chase Ink Business card which gets me 5% back on any Cable and phone purchases.

Utility Bill Payments - This one is actually interesting.  I don't have any cards that have special categories for Utility Bills.  That being said, my provider, PSE&G, charges a $4 convenience fee for using a credit card.  Much of the savings is now negated.  If this wasn't just for 6 months I would probably sign up just because of this category.

I think it's well established that I have a couple more credit cards than average.  If you don't have the same cards as me you should sign up for more cards.  If you are unwilling to do so, this card can be a nice option for 6 months.  The only downside is the hit on your credit score for a card that will be in your drawer after 6 months.

Thank you SW for the tip on the card!

Orensmoneysaver.com will be coming back very soon

Update: It's back!  orensmoneysaver.net will forward to www.orensmoneysaver.com, but I'm still trying to figure out how to forward www.orensmoneysaver.net to www.orensmoneysaver.com  Thanks for your patience as always.

orensmoneysaver.com will be coming back very soon.  I hope to work on it tonight.  When I finish, orensmoneysaver.net will automatically redirect you to orensmoneysaver.com.  Please pardon any technical glitches today or tomorrow.  Thanks as always for following!

American Express Gift Cards and Top Cashback- Free Money or Cheap Miles

Update: I bought $5,000 worth of gift cards a few hours ago and there is already $150 pending in my Top Cashback account!

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Top Cashback and American Express Gift Cards (only if you don't use Top Cashback first - Why would you do that?)

American Express Gift Cards

Top Cashback just upped their payments for buying American Express Gift Cards to 3%.  There is now an opportunity to make some "free" money, some cheap miles from this deal or get good cashback percentages everywhere.

Here is how the math works:


Fees: - Some basics:
1) There is a $3.95 fee associated with each $500 gift card you buy.
2) There is a $8.95 flat fee for shipping so this fee is distributed over more cards when you make larger purchases.
3) Limit of 10 transactions per day for Top Cashback and there is a limit of $5,000 of gift cards in one transaction.


Bottom line: This means your total fees for $5,000 of gift cards would come out to $48.45 or a little less than 1% in fees.

Rewards:
1) No matter which credit card you use you will get 3% back into your Top Cashback account or $150. 2) If you use a Fidelity American Express card you will get an additional 2% back.
3) If you use a miles/points credit card, you will be getting paid to buy points.
 -You get the same $150 - $48.45 in fees or $101 net.  You will then get 5,000 points in addition to        that.  However, when you use the gift cards you won't be getting any points so you get the same          number of points total, you just get $100 in addition, which is pretty sweet.

Sounds confusing?  Well, sorry, it kind of is confusing.

I personally prefer cold, hard cash, but everyone is different.


Bottom Line: If you use Top Cashback and Fidelity American Express you will get 4% cashback on this deal on $5,000 of future purchases.

If you use a miles/points credit card you will get $100 and your regular 5,000 points once the $5,000 is spent.





More advanced tools so that you don't have to actually spend the money (manufactured spending):
Amazon Payments - You can send up to $1,000 a month to a friend with a credit card, including American Express gift cards.
Buy Vanilla Reloads/Visa Gift Cards - You should be able to use these cards to buy Vanilla Reload cards or Visa gift cards which can be loaded onto Bluebird online for Vanilla Reloads and at Walmart for Visa Gift Cards.  Add 1% in fees to this option.
Google Wallet - if you have a Google Wallet account, you can send money via email with a credit card to anyone and that person can withdraw to a checking account.  The problem is that the fee is a whopping 2.9%, which negates most of your cashback.
That being said, you will still net over $57 with the Fidelity American Express without having to spend any money.  With a points card, you end up paying $43.45 for 5,000 points or 87 cents per point, which is cheap, but you are still spending money.





Warning! Don't use a Citibank Credit card as they will code it as a Cash Advance so you will get a fee and no points.  American Express and Chase cards are safe.

Sesame Street Dolls On Sale from Amazon

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Amazon


My son loves these plush Sesame Street Dolls.  Elmo has been his security doll for quite some time and he makes sure to have Elmo and Ernie in his bed at all times.  We just bought Cookie Monster for our second son so that he will have one too.


Even though we already have some, at this price we bought some backups because they eventually get lost (we're on our 3rd Elmo).

These dolls normally go for about $13-$15 on Amazon and they are all available now for under $10.

Here are the individual dolls:

Ernie Plush Toy 13.5" - $7.32

Big Bird 14" - $7.99

Elmo Plush 13" - $8.99

Cookie Monster 12" - $9.99

Oscar the Grouch Plush 10" - $7.99

Grover Plush 14.5" - $9.73

Snuffleupagus 17" Plush Doll - $9.83

$15 off American Express Gift cards of $150 at Office Max

Buy $150 of gift cards this week (starts on Sunday - tomorrow) at Office Max and you will get $15 off.

You can find the deal on page 12/15 in the circular

- Limit of 2 offers per customer

- $200 gift cards are excluded so you need to get a $100 and a $50 gift card or 2 $100 gift cards

Buy with one of the Chase Ink Business Credit Cards and you will get 5 points per purchase.  You won't make much money on the actual deal, but if you use one of the Chase Ink cards you will make a little money and then the gift cards can you be used elsewhere, effectively giving you 5 points per purchase when you use them.

American Express Gift Cards Fee Free at the Post Office

Update: A commenter reports that he was able to buy the gift cards with a credit card.  Tomorrow is the last day to buy them

From now until 12/12/2013, American Express gift cards have no fees when you buy them at the Post Office.

I don't know if they accept credit card, but if they do accept credit cards this is a really cheap way of meeting a spending threshold for a new credit card or for manufactured spending as these can be liquidated via Amazon Payments.  You can use these gift cards over time as well.

If anyone tries it, please leave a comment whether credit cards are accepted.

OrensMoneySaver.com is coming back!

As many of you have noticed, the site has recently changed from orensmoneysaver.com to orensmoneysaver.net

It's been pretty frustrating because readership went down from over 500 page views a day to closer to 50 even after a week.

This all happened because I was unable to renew the domain name through Google (a long story) so I bought the domain orensmoneysaver.net

Meanwhile, orensmoneysaver.com was being sold on auction for the last week.  Today was the final day and I had the winning bid (there were two other bidders - I assume people looking to make a quick buck on flipping the domain or the owner of Oren's Daily Roast, not sure).

It will take until 12/18 before the domain is fully transferred to me.  After that, it will take some time to implement the domain switch, but stay tuned.  I will own both orensmoneysaver.com and orensmoneysaver.net so orensmoneysaver.net will automatically redirect you back to orensmoneysaver.com once everything is implemented.

Thanks for all of your patience.

My 3 Year Old's First Credit Card!

I signed my 3 year old son up for his first credit card about a month ago.


You and my wife are both wondering, why in the world does a 3 year old need a credit card? What's the point?  How did a credit card company give a 3 year old a credit card? These are all fair questions.  Allow me to explain:


I don't really think a 3rd old needs a credit card, but I'm happy to get him one if it will save me some money.  Really, I'm worried about his inheritance more than anything :)  

On, the first Saturday and Sunday of the month, Bank of America runs a program called Museums on Us which allows free access to certain museums for Bank of America cardholder's.  My family can go to Liberty Science Center for very cheap because both my wife and I are cardholder's.  The problem was that we still had to pay for our 3 year old, which costs $14.50.  While that isn't a lot for 3 people to go to the Liberty Science Center, it isn't nothing. 


Well, what if you don't have to pay for your 3 year old?  It would be completely free.


So, I signed my son up as an Authorized User on my account.  The credit card has his name on it, but it's my account.  For some reason, Bank of America does not require a SSN or birth date when you sign up an authorized user so the process was painless (American Express will not give you one without a SSN).

I went to Liberty Science Center today to test out my son's new card.  I gave the cashier 3 credit cards along with my driver's license, my wife's driver's license and my son's passport. The clerk checked that all the names matched the IDs.  He looked at my son and said, "OK, enjoy your day."  We paid $0 and had a great time at the museum for 3 hours.  


Who will be there next month with us?  I hope you will have a credit card for your child too. We can laugh together at all the other people at the museum who paid full price.




Here's how to sign your child up as an Authorized User:

1)  Log in as your normally would at bankofamerica.com   
2) Click on your Credit Card Account
3) Click on Information and Services

4) Under "Manage Your Account" will be an option that says "Add an Authorized User"

5) As you can see in the picture, it will ask for a name, SSN and Birthdate, but the SSN and birthdate are not starred so the card will still come even if you leave it blank.

Bank of America Museums on Us - This Saturday and Sunday

Bank of America Museums on Us program gives Bank of America credit card holders free access to select museums on the first Saturday and Sunday of the month.  December 7th and 8thare the dates for this month so that means this Saturday and Sunday are the free days this month.


You need to have a credit card in the name of each person so you still have to pay for kids.

Sign up for email or text alerts to remind yourself of the dates here.


Here is a list of the museums in the New York/New Jersey area:

• NJ
• Liberty Science Center (Jersey City)
• Montclair Art Museum (Montclair)
• Morris Museum (Morristown)
• Newark Museum (Newark)
• NY
• Suffolk county Vanderbilt Museum (Centerport)
• Long Island Children's Museum (Garden City)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (Manhattan)
• Staten Island Children's Museum (Staten Island)
• New York Historical Society (NYC)
• Whitney Museum of American Art (Manhattan)
• Brooklyn's Children Museum (Brooklyn)
• Queen's Museum of Art (Queens)
• Guggenheim Museum (Manhattan)
• Old Westbury Gardens (Old Westbury)
• Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carraiges

New Web Address - orensmoneysaver.net

Sorry for all the confusion and hopefully I can figure out a redirect, but my new domain name is orensmoneysaver.net I was having a lot of trouble renewing my original domain so I ended up buying a new one.

Once again, I'm sorry to all those who were searching for the site and couldn't find it.

$20 from Pathmark for Buying Gift Cards

Update: The weekly circular (pages 6-7) reports that this deal will last until 12/12.  If you spend $50 on gift cards, you get $5 off, if you spend $100, you get $10 off.  $200 gets a $20 coupon.  $500 gets $60 off.  This works on any type of gift card from the rack (I assume Pathmark gift cards are excluded but I'm not sure).


I was doing my usual monthly shopping at Pathmark for $500 Visa gift cards on the AMEX Blue Preferred for 6% cashback when a coupon printed out from the machine.  I don't usually pay much attention to the automatic coupons because they aren't very relevant, but I always stuff them in my bag until I get home.


When my wife looked at the coupon she asked me if I looked at it.  I said no.  She said, "Here, look!"


I was shocked to see that the coupon was for $20 off your next shopping trip of $20 or more! It says thank you for participating in our holiday gift card program.  No, thank you!  3 of them printed out for me!

$60 towards shopping.  Who can't spend $60 at a grocery store?  Since I just went shopping, I guess we will be having about $20 worth of meat this shabbos, and next shabbos and the shabbos after that! Anyone coming for a meal?


I will clearly be going back again this week to get some more Visa gift cards.  I don't know when the sale ends, but worst case scenario I'll just get some more $500 Visa Gift cards for some extra cash.  I usually go at about 11pm, see you there?




You can get the AMEX Blue Preferred - 6% cashback groceries up to $6,000 a year with a $75 annual fee - at this link ($100 bonus) or you can email me and I'll send you a link so that I can get a bonus as well and you will get a $150 bonus.