Freebies and deep discounts?

[daylatedollarshort]

Aren't there limitations on the credit card game? I was just approved for the Chase Freedom card and will receive the $150 sign up bonus after $500 purchases within the first 3 months (already have the purchase planned as soon as I get the card). I thought other cards wouldn't approve you if you were opening too many cards. If I'm mistaken, please correct me, because I was sure pleased to know I have $150 in free money coming.

We both opened 2 new cards last year for the points after having a few already, and my FICO score went up 40 points. Not sure what the limit is but I'm guessing I'm good for another round of sign up bonuses this year. On a per hour of work required, the $400 - $500 sign up bonus cards are hard to beat.

I'm going to try to do more bank bonuses this year, too.

 

[Options]

We both opened 2 new cards last year for the points after having a few already, and my FICO score went up 40 points. Not sure what the limit is but I'm guessing I'm good for another round of sign up bonuses this year. On a per hour of work required, the $400 - $500 sign up bonus cards are hard to beat.

I'm going to try to do more bank bonuses this year, too.

Thank you, that's great to hear. I plan to do the same because that $150 per few minutes of work to apply online felt great. Funny thing is, I already had a Chase CC which I haven't used in a few years, and which they had converted to a Freedom card without my knowledge. Yet they approved me for another Freedom card from which I'll earn the $150. I'm quite pleased.

 

[FUEGO]

I've read that Chase has a 5/24 rule. That is, you can only get 5 new cards within a rolling 24 month period. I'm not sure if business and personal cards are subject to the same 5/24 cap. To me that means 5x2 = 10 new cards every 2 years just from chase if we're maximizing the game (we come close). Next up is another Chase Sapphire Preferred (or 2) for another quick 40-55k points per card.

Just did 2 Barclay Arrival cards for $500 bonus per card redeemable for any travel expenses. Used it to snag a $400 (after 1 $500 discount) Airbnb apartment rental in Toronto for almost 2 weeks.

Last year we used a British Air sign up bonus of 50k pts to buy 5 1 way non-stop tickets from Charlotte to Mexico city. Then used 44,000 or so Southwest pts (from another 50k sign up bonus) to return home from Cancun to Raleigh (via ATL). 2 cards, $3000 in tickets.

On that same trip, we booked 6 nights in Four Pts by Sheraton and Aloft hotels in Mexico with regular rates of $100-250/nt but we used points instead at a rate of 3000-4000 pts per night. Probably $1300 worth of hotel nights for 20,000 points (less than the 25-30k pts you get with 1 Amex Starwood Preferred Guest sign up bonus).

I just figured out after writing my latest blog post that this year we're doing even better with Starwood Preferred Guest pts. Close to a month on the road and we booked 9 nights in Four Points by Sheraton and Alofts for 24,000 points. One hotel in particular, the Four points by sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview, was a screaming good deal with points. $400 Canadian per night and we booked for 3000 points per night. That's over 10 cents per point (in USD terms) implied value.

 

[Totoro]

I used to get free meals, but now I'm too old and slow to run out of the restaurant and ditch the check.

Invite an older and slower person to come with you.

 

[RunningBum]

I like the freebie $1 credit on movies when making a no-rush order from Amazon. I even think I can play the order by ordering something as no-rush with the $1 credit, then ordering something using regular Prime and the no-rush thing sometimes gets included in the Prime package.

I haven't quite gone as far as to intentionally order Prime stuff one at a time to get a $1 credit on each, but I no longer try to wait and group things together into one order if I'm not really in a hurry. In other words, if I want 3 things, I still order them together and will take the $1 credit if I'm in no hurry, rather than putting each in its own order to get $3 in credits as it looks like I could do. But if I have something small that I'm in no hurry for, I no longer hold it in my basket for a few days until I have more stuff to order. I guess Amazon doesn't care that much since they don't always put everything in the same shipment anyway.

 

[Chuckanut]

Citi is tightening up the rules:

Here is the language that was just added to the application page:
“Bonus miles and any other special offer not available if you have had a CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World MasterCard® opened or closed in the past 24 months”

Bad News: 24 Month Rule Now on Both Business & Personal AAdvantage Cards | Well Traveled Mile

 

[Chuckanut]

I just figured out after writing my latest blog post that this year we're doing even better with Starwood Preferred Guest pts. Close to a month on the road and we booked 9 nights in Four Points by Sheraton and Alofts for 24,000 points. One hotel in particular, the Four points by sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview, was a screaming good deal with points. $400 Canadian per night and we booked for 3000 points per night. That's over 10 cents per point (in USD terms) implied value.

Those are good rates of return on the points. If one looks for the 'deals' that are offered from time to time, one can get a lot of extra miles out of the points.

From my experience, I find the Starwood hotels are often not where I want to be. It's a good idea to make sure that the hotel group offers hotels in the areas one wants to travel to and through. Starwood seems great for big cities and popular vacation resorts, but if one is visiting Backwater National Park, I have found it hard to find Starwood properties in those areas.

OTOH, they will soon be part of Marriott so there will be more properties to visit, but the effect on the points plan is yet to be decided.

 

[Fedup]

I used these hotel points but I'm not efficient in milking them. Only card I opened was Hilton honors, then cancel immediately after I hot Gold status. I like the Gold status because I get free buffet breakfast and happy hours food. Especially for 4, it's like $100 a day. But so far no free nights from any hotel.


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[DrRoy]

I had Chase refuse to open a rewards Visa because I already had 3 visa cards with them. It was the first new card I tried to get for several years. Also, I once had a Delta Airlines card, got the bonus, and later closed it. Two years later I could get the card again, but not the bonus.

 

[FUEGO]

Those are good rates of return on the points. If one looks for the 'deals' that are offered from time to time, one can get a lot of extra miles out of the points.

From my experience, I find the Starwood hotels are often not where I want to be. It's a good idea to make sure that the hotel group offers hotels in the areas one wants to travel to and through. Starwood seems great for big cities and popular vacation resorts, but if one is visiting Backwater National Park, I have found it hard to find Starwood properties in those areas.

That's our experience, too. We couldn't find anything near Mammoth Caves National Park even though it's near a freeway. But the SPG points are nice if you're traveling long distance and have the flexibility to stop anywhere along the way. That's how we're able to find category 1 and 2 redemption options that only require 2000-4000 points per night.

 

[travelover]

When I buy stuff on Amazon, I look to see if there are any "used" for sale. These tend to be new in beat up boxes and often 30% off.

 

[Senator]

The DGF and I eat at Outback steakhouse about 2x a month. I buy gift cards from Sams club, $71.88 for $85 worth.

I use them at the restaurant, combined with my 15% off AARP discount. That's $100 worth of dinning for only ~$72. 28% off.

 

[rodi]

The DGF and I eat at Outback steakhouse about 2x a month. I buy gift cards from Sams club, $71.88 for $85 worth.

I use them at the restaurant, combined with my 15% off AARP discount. That's $100 worth of dinning for only ~$72. 28% off.

We do the same thing with a local restaurant chain - $100 gift cards to Cohn Restaurants (The Prado restaurant is our favorite of the group they own.) At costco the $100 gift cards are $80.

 

[cathy63]

We do the same thing with a local restaurant chain - $100 gift cards to Cohn Restaurants (The Prado restaurant is our favorite of the group they own.) At costco the $100 gift cards are $80.

I love those Cohn gift card deals from Costco. (I recommend trying their Sea180 if you ever get down to IB.) Burger Lounge also has a Cyber Monday deal after Thanksgiving with $150 worth of cards for $100. That lasts us most of the year.

I also watch out for locals discounts and "Date Night" deals for week nights. Eclipse Chocolate in San Diego has my current favorite, with a bottle of wine, 2 mains, 1 side, 1 dessert and 2 truffles for $40.

 

[Badger]

Most semesters I am enrolled in the local college or university for ceramics classes. All classes at the university are free for seniors and I have free classes at the college as professor emeritus. I pretty much have access to the studio every day from 8am to 10pm. It takes care of the cost of glazes and the chemicals to formulate glazes as well as kiln firing. I only have to pay a small studio fee.
My vegetable garden provides free food other than the cost of soil amendments and seed.
Library has free books, magazines, videos, and CDs.
Free magazines and Wall Street Journal for cashing in air miles that will never be enough for a flight.
Pretty much free medical care through Medicare and Tricare for Life. Came in real handy for 5 major surgeries, medications, and rehab in the past 6 years.
No cost for Executive Costco membership due to annual rebate.
We live within walking distance to the ocean and tennis courts for my wife so it's like a permanent vacation to the islands for free.
First show of the day at the movie theater is reduced.
Then there is always Groupon for 1/2 price dining, and other fun activities (we have gone skydiving, ultralight flying, and bi-wing airplane flying.

Cheers!

 

[Spudd]

Thank you very much for this!! I live an hour away from Toronto. (I registered.) How did you find this survey? (Just curious..)

I think a co-worker referred me originally. I also live an hour away from Toronto (east of TO). Which direction are you in?

 

[photoguy]

When I was in college, I did a coop term at DCIEM in toronto (they did human factors research). They had lots of paid studies at the time but they involved unpleasant stuff like motion sickness and hypoxia studies. It was popular with the students, because they paid well (on the order of several hundred dollars which was a lot of money 20 years ago). I signed up for the hypoxia study but was rejected after one test run (don't remember why).

Every once in a while I get emails from quicken to come into their mountain view location and do an in-person feedback panel. I think they offered something like $100 for an hour. I never did this because it was during work hours.

Now my wife has been getting a huge number of free movie passes (usually to generate word of mouth interest before release). Some of these movies turned out to be crap, but others were decent and were movies we might have seen anyway. Last week we saw the Keanu (the Key and Peale movie) which she loved. And there's one movie coming out this summer which we're both pretty excited to see and we went to a test screening for it.

We've also gotten a few things free on amazon. This is either because the item kept arriving damaged or the item was inexpensive and it wasn't cost effective to return ship it (we complained because the description was for a similar but different product than the one we received).

 

[tmm99]

I think a co-worker referred me originally. I also live an hour away from Toronto (east of TO). Which direction are you in?

I am on the other side of TO - South west (tri-city area).


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[walkinwood]

I use goldstar.com to look for discounts on theatre and music events. Groupon also has discounts on these.

I cut my almost non-existent hair at Great Clips. Their normal charge is $15, but they had a promotion last December to pre-pay for haircuts at $9.99, so I bought a bunch.

I never buy anything online before searching for coupons and doing a price comparison.

Bed Bath and Beyond coupons! Enough said.

Getting the Macy's store card has saved us a lot. Their bank is a PIA, but now that I've finally managed to set up autopay, it works well for us. I wonder how Macy's makes any money with the amount of discounts we get for just about everything.

 

[jkern]

I went on 2-hour survey for $200. I never use to do this until I read the book the Millionaire next door.


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I actually did this several years back. I test drove a BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus for a total of 1 hour. Then a week later all the testers had a focus group for 1 hour and just talked about what we liked and disliked. Best $200 I ever made.

 

[gromit]

You can get a free Chick-fil-a sandwich, like I did, if you follow these instructions in the next few days(exp 6/11 I think).

Download the new "Chick-fil-a One" app to your smart phone. You only need an email address and password to sign up. Once signed up, the app will show a box for a free sandwich(regular or spicy). When you you choose a sandwich your choices are to either "build a remote order" or "scan at restaurant".
Since I didn't want to bother with the credit card info for a remote payment, I just closed the app and reopened it at Chick-fil-a, chose the sandwich, chose "scan at restaurant" and it shows a qr code that the cashier scans and that's it.

free food

 

[UpAnchor]

I cut my almost non-existent hair at Great Clips. Their normal charge is $15, but they had a promotion last December to pre-pay for haircuts at $9.99, so I bought a bunch.

Ouch, missed this! GC prices have gone up quite a bit more than inflation (base price has gone from $12 to $15 in the last two or three years), punch card program eliminated recently, and there was some other change relative to the "return by xx date and get $xx off" thing which slips my mind just now. But I'll continue getting my cuts there as it's about 3 minutes from our house so I sure would have jumped on that prepay thing had I known.

You can get a free Chick-fil-a sandwich, like I did, if you follow these instructions in the next few days(exp 6/11 I think).

Download the new "Chick-fil-a One" app to your smart phone. You only need an email address and password to sign up. Once signed up, the app will show a box for a free sandwich(regular or spicy). When you you choose a sandwich your choices are to either "build a remote order" or "scan at restaurant".
Since I didn't want to bother with the credit card info for a remote payment, I just closed the app and reopened it at Chick-fil-a, chose the sandwich, chose "scan at restaurant" and it shows a qr code that the cashier scans and that's it.

free food

I'd have been on this a few years ago. But as the years go on, I'm feeling such enticements as a free sandwich are not worth handing out my email address to one more entity...

 

[Mill]

I stay in a lot of hotels and always take the leftover soap/mouthwash/shampoo that I don't use. If youre nice, the cleaning staff will even give you extra. I had so much, I gave a whole box worth to a homeless shelter.

 

[Sunset]

Ouch, missed this! GC prices have gone up quite a bit more than inflation (base price has gone from $12 to $15 in the last two or three years), punch card program eliminated recently, and there was some other change relative to the "return by xx date and get $xx off" thing which slips my mind just now. But I'll continue getting my cuts there as it's about 3 minutes from our house so I sure would have jumped on that prepay thing had I known. ...

I realized at the haircut place they always wanted to use the trimmer to do my hair.
So I bought one for about $20, and now DW does my haircut.
Saves on price of cut, hassle of driving there, waiting, and I don't even tip her

I'd have been on this a few years ago. But as the years go on, I'm feeling such enticements as a free sandwich are not worth handing out my email address to one more entity...

+1
I had this exact same thought as I drove past one today, wondered if I was just being too lazy, or do I realize lunch really only costs a couple of bucks at home anyhow ?

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Not much free. We try to buy wisely though.
We saved several thousand buying our flooring and cabinets at Home Depot and Ikea over the border in Vancouver. The exchange rate was on our side.
DW uses coupons extensively.
We buy our gas at Costco here in Bellingham--just like the Canadians do.
We buy large items in sales - tax-free Oregon when practical.
On ce a year we get a companion fare for $99 with Alaska Air.
More economies coming, but nothing free.
Oops, no true. At Starbucks, I get a short drip in a ceramic cup for cheap, then get several free refills. Thinking about abandoning Starbucks because they tightened up their rewards program, eliminating freebie food rewards for me.

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