25% Coinstar Bonus Promotion: (No Mail-in-Rebate Required)
Dec 10th
Coin-changing machine operator CoinStar is repeating a promotion where if you change $40 in coins into a gift card, you can receive an additional $10 gift card by mail at certain retailers. It’s actually better this year because it is no longer run as an annoying mail-in rebate. This time, after you exchange $40 in coins for a gift certificate, they provide a promotional code on the receipt that you redeem online. The $10 bonus certificate is still sent via snail mail, but this time “within 1-2 weeks” and without wasting time with mailing forms and postage.
The participating retailers include iTunes Store, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Borders Bookstores, and Regal-affiliated Movie Theaters. However, the page also says that Amazon.com will join the promotion on 12/9/2010. The page seems to hint that Gap and Starbucks will also join in eventually, but who knows. Personally, I like the idea of getting rid of my coins and getting a 20% 25% bonus since I shop regularly at Amazon anyway.
By the way, if you convert your $40 into a gift certificate instead of cash, you’ll avoid their normal exorbitant 9.8% processing fee. Here is their kiosk locator.
Sharebuilder Promo Codes = 5 Free Automatic Trades & 2 Real Time Trades
Dec 8th
I was pretty skeptical, so decided to try them out on my own account, and to my surprise they worked! I haven’t used my Sharebuilder account – mainly got it for the account opening bonus, since they have no minimum balance requirement, my account is still technically open. Voila, I now have 10 free real-time market trades and 38 automatic trades in my account.
How To Use
To enter the codes into your account, first log in to Sharebuilder, and then go to the Account > Overview > Promotions tab shown below.
In the marked box, enter a code. If it works, you should see a confirmation that says something like:
Thank you for referring ShareBuilder to your friends! Your 2 real-time trades have been credited to your account and are available to use immediately.
(I guess these codes have something to do with referring somebody. I’m not sure and I’m not the one referring you here. But it does seem to show up fine. They’ve been around for a while but I’d use them fast if I were you.)
How To Verify
To see how many free real-time trades you have, click on the top Trade tab > Real-time Trades and look for “Market Order Trade Credits”. To see how many free automatic trades you have, click on the top Trade tab > Automatic Trades and look for “Automatic Investment Trade Credits”. Note that these may have different expiration dates. Here’s what I see:
Codes
In case they get removed, here are the codes. Just cut and paste:
TAF2RA*2VvUQt
TAF2RD*c48Ugc
TAF5AR*2AsFg5
TAF5AW*1FkJgR
TAF2RG*2VvUQt
TAF2RX*2VvUQt
TAF5AC*2AsFg5
TAF2RM*2VvUQt
TAF5AZ*2AsFg5
TAF5AA*t9sUKs
3AIP*GEJZOH
Citi Platinum Select Card: 0% APR Balance Transfers for 24 months
Dec 3rd
Yes, you saw that right. Two years. Citibank is now offering 0% APR interest on balance transfers for 24 months on its Citi Platinum Select Mastercard. Not only is it longer, but notice they are not allowed to say “up to” anymore with the new credit card laws. If you get approved – this card requires good to excellent credit – then you’ll get the 24 months. No annual fee.
0% introductory APR for 24 months from date of first transfer when transfers are completed within 4 months from date of account opening. 0% introductory APR for 12 months from date of account opening.
The balance transfer fee is 3% ($5 minimum) so it’s not completely free money, but a one-time 3% fee spread out over two years is quite an improvement over what was available over the last couple of years. Interest rates in general are low, but credit card APRs have actually been rising. If you have higher interest debt elsewhere, this is a long and flexible offer.
The card also includes 0% APR for 12 months on purchases. Another recent law change is that all your payments will now go towards the balance with the highest interest rate, not the lowest as was the standard before. So if you make both purchases and balance transfers now, 13 months later your payment will go towards knocking out the purchases, keep the balance transfers at 0% interest for another year.
If you’ve already got this card, check out this list of 0% APR balance transfer offers for similar offers lasting 18 and 21 months. Another new offer is the Chase Freedom Visa card that offers 0% APR for 12 months + $100 cash back after you make $500 in purchases within 3 months. It’s a handy combo since the $100 would help offset any balance transfer fees.
