It’s a safe guess to say that most of us have an unwanted gadget or two lying around the house. This could be a present we never needed or used, an iPod that got replaced or any other instance which results in an electronic device no longer being used or wanted. For the most part, these simply take up space in the home, which is a vast waste of their potential. By selling these goods, you can help turn them into something much more useful. To this end, here’s some more information that may prove useful in tempting you to dig out your unwanted gadgets and passing them along.

What Can Be Sold?
If it’s an electronic device, the chances are it’s covered by what’s described here. You can sell ipods, iPhones, tablets, smartphones, cameras and all sorts of devices. In short, if you have something you no longer need or want, it doesn’t hurt to enquire about your options. When it’s something you don’t even use, any result is surely a bonus.

Where To Sell
In this day and age, it should come as a surprise to know that you can sell your unwanted gadgets and electronic goods online. The internet has made this easier than ever. When all you have to do is head online, scan or put in your devices information and get a quote, you have very little excuses not to. If you like the offer available, all you then have to do is send the goods away and wait for the money.

Furthermore, the best companies online are those with an interest in recycling. Unlike shops in town, they’re after the internal resources on any device, such as copper, gold and zinc. These always have demand; as such you can sell your goods for a reasonable price. Likewise, they don’t operate shops in town or deal with the actual value of your iPod or phone for selling to other customers, so the value doesn’t decrease or spiral down as it otherwise would. Gadgets decrease rather quickly in value. This is because newer versions come out at a very quick rate. If you have gadgets you’ve replaced, this is a prime example of how fast it happens. Since you no longer want it, it’s a safe bet to say it’s not in big demand. As such, recycling offers a constant way to get a price for your goods that doesn’t fluctuate or decrease based on consumer value.

The Money
To make the most out of these gadgets may also simply depend on what the money is used for. When you need a little extra cash, a quick rummage and tidy around the house may uncover long forgotten gadgets; more than one person has found an old MP3 player down the back of the couch by surprise. Yet, if you’re looking to get a new iPod, then selling the old want helps with the costs. This arguably makes selling a wiser financial move, reducing the costs of any new purchase before you’ve made it.

 Whether it’s an iPod, laptop, or computer, Gayle Roberts is always writing about gadgets. Such technology is everywhere, and she enjoys being able to share her passion and useful information in areas such as how to sell ipod, to those who seek it.

My coworker last week was telling me a story where he overdrafted in his checking account the day before. His bank had already charged him $30 for the initial overdraft and would charge him an additional $30 for each day the account is overdrafted. The reason he overdrafted from his checking account was he accidentally used the wrong account to pay for one of his credit card bills. This account so happens that it wasn’t his primary checking account and that a simple misclick of the mouse lead him to this very stressful situation. Fortunately, after a few phone calls and a week later, his bank was gracious enough to cancel all of  the fees.

But not all banks are this generous. My coworker could have been out more than $100 in overdraft fees that was only a couple hundred dollars over his balance. If it were any other situation and if he did not have any additional money to pay back the overdraft, the $30 fee would have accumulated everyday to an astounding number. There are a few solutions to this type of problem to minimize the fees.

1. Credit Card Cash Advance or Payday Loans – Cash advance and payday loan fees are no joke. But they’re quick and you can have money in your  hands in a matter of driving up to an ATM and taking cash out with your credit card. Most cash before payday loans guarantee money in your hands within 24 hours if not within the hour of loan approval. Although the interest rates on these methods are astronomical, it can minimize your bank fees if taken care of quickly.

2. Line of Credit – You can apply for a line of credit against your checking account. When you overdraft, instead of eating up overdraft fees, you would automatically take a line of credit loan for the amount overdrafted. The interest rates are much more manageable and even if it takes an entire week to take care of the balance, the total fees would be much less than a typical bank overdraft fees.

3. Online Savings Account – Every month, put aside a few dollars into an online savings account that is directly linked to your checking account. Consider this as an emergency fund where you use it for emergency purposes. When money is needed right away, this account will be available at all times.

I recently signed up for TopCashBack.com and so far I am very pleased. It’s basically an online shopping portal where they give you cash back for online purchases made through their shopping link. Each merchant has a different payout, some giving out as much as 15% cash back. I made two different purchases so far and my TopCashBack account posted my cashback amount only a couple days later. I figured out a way to save 8.5% or higher on all your gas purchases through TopCashBack.

Step 1: Sign up for TopCashBack. You can use my referral code by clicking here if you want to. I will receive $10.

Step 2: Search for Staples and click on the orange “Cashback” button next to the Staples logo. Then click on “Get Cash Back Now” button on the following page.

Step 3: The link will redirect you to the actual Staples.com webpage where you can do your online shopping at Staples.com as you normally would. But here, we are looking for a specific item: Staples Gift Card. On the left pane menu at Staples.com, scroll down and look for “Gifts / Gift Cards”. Hover your mouse on that and an extended menu pops up to the right. Move your mouse over to “Staples Gift Cards” and click on it. That’s what you want to buy.

Step 4: There are many Staples Gift Card designs you can choose from. It doesn’t matter. Pick the one that you like the best. I just chose the Easy Button Gift Card. Each card has a fee of $1.99 so I always choose the $100 value to get the most bang for my money. You can buy more than one if you feel comfortable enough to do so, but again each card will have a $1.99 fee attached to it.

Step 5: Use your rewards earning credit card to make the purchase. I used my Chase Ink Plus card which earns me 5x Ultimate Rewards (UR) points for purchases made at an office supply store. So for my purchase of $101.99, I received an additional 510 UR points. I value each UR points at around 1.5-2.5 cents. If you use Discover Card or Chase Freedom card, you will receive 1% cash back. Additionally, if you use your American Express SimplyCash card, you will receive 5% cash back on office supply store purchases.

Step 6: After about 7 days, you will receive your gift card in the mail. Take the gift card to the actual Staples store and buy gas cards such as Shell and Exxon and use them for your gas purchases. All this effort will add to about 8.5% or more cash back if you use Chase Ink Plus or American Express SimplyCash card. Additionally, if you use your Exxon gift card at Exxon stations, you will be given the discounted “Cash” price not “Credit Card” price. Depending on the gas station, that can be an additional 5-10 cents off per gallon!

Step 7: Wait a few days and check your TopCashBack account to see if your earnings are posted. Mine posted only a couple of days later.

Let’s do the math: TopCashBack + SimplyCash Credit Card – 2% Fee on Gift Card = 5.5+5.0-2.0=8.5%

You can sign up for any of these cards directly at Creditcards.com. If you use this link here, I will receive a small referral commission. Chase Ink Plus or American Express SimplyCash cards are business credit cards. One of my favorite travel blog, Million Mile Secrets has a nice post about how to apply for a business credit card. It’s worth a read.

Readers: If you have other ways of saving money on gas, please do share!

Some people are scared to death of credit cards. They cringe when those two words are spoken of as if the cards will come to haunt them in their sleep. Not me though. I love credit cards and I use them as often as possible. If the merchant takes credit cards, then I take out one of my 16 12 credit cards from one of my two wallets and will use it to make my purchase. I use credit cards for almost everything including gas, groceries, bills, shopping and food. Why do I love credit cards so much? I’ll sum it in three simple words: Points, Miles, and Cash.

Not all credit cards are created equal. In terms of usage, they all work the same. It’s a classic “buy now, pay later” scheme. However, the way you collect your benefits may differ drastically. There are basically three major types of credit cards available to everyone.

Airlines
Airline credit cards such as Gold Delta Skymiles credit card by American Express will earn you Delta Skymiles for each dollar you spend using your Gold Delta Skymiles credit card. Same goes for United MileagePlus Explorer credit card by Chase and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit cards. The more you spend, the more miles you will earn. If you earn enough miles, you can redeem your miles for free round trip on your next vacation. Currently, I have Delta, United, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, and US Airways credit cards with enough miles for a round trip anywhere in the continental US for each of these airline rewards programs. This is one of the reasons why I love credit cards – free flights!

Hotels
Hotel cards work pretty much exactly the same way as airline credit cards. You earn hotel points for each dollar you spend. Some programs will earn you more points per dollar than others. But that necessarily does not mean that they’re more valuable. For example, American Express Hilton HHonors credit card earns you 3 points for every dollar spent while American Express Starwood Preferred Guest card earns you only 1 point per dollar spent. I value Hilton HHonors points at around 0.50-0.75 cents per point. For instance, last year I used 30,000 Hilton Honors points to redeem for a $150 room in New Jersey, just outside of New York. However, I value Starpoints at around 2.5-3.0 cents per point. You can redeem a category 1 hotel room for as low as 4,000 points. Currently, I own American Express Hilton, Citibank Hilton, American Express Starwood Preferred Guest, and Barclay Club Carlson credit cards with enough hotel points for free multiple nights for my next vacation. This is another reason why I love credit cards – free hotel nights!

Cash Back and Points
One of my very first credit cards I applied for was the Discover card. I’m not exactly sure what they called it back then, but now it’s dubbed as the Discover More card. It gave me 1% cash back on all my purchases and additional 4% cash back on purchases that fell into a certain purchase category as part of the quarterly rotational 5% cash back promotion. I have earned more $1,000 in cash back over the years for simply using my credit card for my every day expenses. The More card is no longer available but Discover is currently promoting their new card dubbed as the Discover it Card. Another type of cash back program uses points instead of cash back. It’s essentially the same as cash back, but you use points to redeem for cash or statement credits. Citibank ThankYou and Chase Ultimate Rewards are such programs that use the point system instead of cash back system. Currently, I have over $400 worth of points in my ThankYou account and almost $2,000 worth of points in my Ultimate Rewards account. This is yet another reason why I love credit cards – free money!

How To Sign Up For Credit Cards
If these three reasons are convincing enough to love credit cards as much as I do, then here are a few cards I recommend for each of these categories:

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards – Receive 25,000-50,000 Rapid Rewards points. Use www.southwest.com/travel (not an affiliate link) to receive 50,000 (2 roundtrip flights). Any other links will only net you 25,000 points.

United MileagePlus Explorer – Receive 30,000 miles

Gold Delta SkyMiles -  Receive 30,000 miles

AAdvantage Visa Signature – Receive 30,000 miles

US Airways Premier World Mastercard – Receive 50,000 miles

Starwood Preferred Guest – Receive 25,000 points

Marriotts Rewards Premier – Receive 50,000 points

Citi Hilton HHonors Visa – Receive 40,000 points

Chase Freedom Visa – Earn $100 (or 10,000 points)

Chase Sapphire Preferred – Earn $400 (or 40,000 points)

Citi ThankYou Preferred – $150 Cash Back (or 15,000 points)

All these cards can be found at Creditcards.com (affiliate link) website. Just click on menu on the left pane to find the card you are interested in. For your information, I receive a small commission if you use the link above. Before you sign up, please read all of the fine print and understand all terms and conditions. Please do your own due diligence before signing up for anything.

Currently as part of this quarter’s 5% cashback rotation, Discover is giving you back 5% on all online purchases, through December 31, 2012. As an added bonus, for just one day only on November 23, Discover wants to give you an additional 2% cashback bonus on all purchases when using your Discover card. That’s 7% cashback total. To make it even sweeter, if you shop online through Discover’s online shopping portal, you can receive even greater cashback bonus! For instance, you will receive 10% cash back bonus when shopping at Home Depot through Discover’s online shopping portal, ShopDiscover. So if you buy something at homedepot.com through ShopDiscover link on November 23, 2012 and use your Discover card, you can receive 17% cash back!! Amazing deal! Here’s a list of some of the best merchants listed at ShopDiscover.

• 20% – Proflowers, Telefora, 1800Baskets, Magazines.com
• 15% – Drugstore.com, GNC, Nikestore, Sharper Image, Under Armour, Ulta
• 10% – Bloomingdales, Crate & Barrel, Dell, Express, Gap, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears, Home  Depot
• 5% -  Best Buy, Apple Store, Staples, Walmart

Remember, these do not include the 5% and 2% promotion. So if you’re shopping on Black Friday, November 23 this year online, make sure you use your Discover Card and ShopDiscover to maximize your cash back bonuses!

You must sign onto your Discover.com account and register for the 2% and 5% cashback bonuses in order to qualify.

Please read all of the fine prints before doing anything.

I just registered my American Express credit cards for the Small Business Saturday promotion offered by American Express. This year, American Express is promoting small businesses in your local area by giving you a $25 statement when you spend at least $25 in a single transaction at your local small business using your registered American Express credit card. My wife and I have 7 American Express credit cards and I just registered all of our cards for this promotion. That’s free $175! WOOT!

I registered the following cards:

• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
• Starwood Preferred Guest Business
• Starwood Preferred Guest Business – Authorized User
• Hilton Honors
• Hilton Honors – Authorized User
• Virgin Atlantic
• Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express

What To Do:

1. Gather all your American Express credit cards. This includes your cards issued by American Express, American Express cards offered by Bank of America, and American Express card offered by Citibank. Prepaid, Debit, and Gift Cards unfortunately do not qualify. Each authorized user cards qualify as well if they are offered by American Express bank.
2. Go to https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/Shop-Small/ and register all your American Express credit cards by November 24, 2012. The website indicate that there are limited number of cards they are allowing for the promotion so the sooner you register, the better.
3. Wait until Saturday, November 24 and use your registered American Express credit cards and shop at your local small businesses. Make sure you spend at least $25 for each transaction. This offer is good only for ONE day on Saturday November 24, 2012.
4. Wait 6-8 weeks before the statement credit is posted on your account. Last year, people have reported that they received the funds in as little as 3-5 days so hopefully it won’t take 8 weeks for the monies to post.

Confirmation:

After registering my cards, I received the following email confirmation:

You’ve successfully enrolled your Card ending in XXXXX for the
American Express $25 Statement Credit Cardmember Offer for Small Business Saturday®.

Remember to Shop Small® on Small Business Saturday, this November 24th,
to get your one-time $25 statement credit from American Express
when you use your enrolled Card to spend $25 or more in a single,
in-store transaction at a qualifying small business location.
Visit www.shopsmall.com for information about qualifying small business
locations.

Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities and supporting
them is a great way to help fuel the local economy.

For Offer Terms visit: www.shopsmall.com/offerterms

Yesterday, I purchased $1,000 worth of Visa gift cards at Staples with one of my numerous credit cards. Staples is currently running a rebate promotion where you will receive $15 in Staples gift card when you purchase $100 in Visa or MasterCard gift card. However, these Visa and MasterCard gift cards carry a hefty activation fee. For a $100 GC, you have to pay an additional $5.95 in activation fee. But if you carry out the math, you will still be $9.05 ahead with this deal ($15 – $5.95). That’s what makes this offer so powerful. Do this 10 times and you can receive $150 in Staples gift cards. Each customer is allowed up to 10 rebates maximum.

Maximize This Deal

I maximized this offer by purchasing five $200 Visa gift cards which only had $6.95 in fees. I paid a total of $34.75 in fees, but I will receive $150 in Staples gift card. That’s a gain of $115.25! I also used Chase Ink Plus credit card which gives me 5 Ultimate Rewards points per every $1 spent.

Take advantage of the deal now as it ends on November 17, 2012.

Staples Easy Rebates Form

When you make the purchase, you will receive a rebate form along with your receipt. You can either fill out the form and send it in the old fashioned way, or just visit Staples Easy Rebates website and fill out the form electronically. I did everything online and it was quite simple. Just enter your personal information (name, mailing address, etc), rebate offer number, and receipt order number. When you click submit, it’ll tell you how much gift card you qualify for. Although this message alerted me that I only qualified for only $15 in rebates (I bought 5 cards in a single transaction), I received a followup email indicating that a $150 in Staples gift card will be sent to my address. WOOT!

Last year, Hurricane Irene blasted through my region but fortunately for us, we did not experience any power outage. However, many of my friends and family were without power for a few days. I realized that if my house experienced the same length of outage, my basement would have flooded in no time. For some reasons, my sump pump sees a lot of action when it rains, cycling once every couple minutes. So for this reason alone, I went ahead and bought me a portable generator in case Hurricane Sandy knocks out my power. This can be added to the list of most overlooked costs of home ownership. But for now, I like to share a few things I learned while setting up my new portable generator.

1. Peak Power vs. Running Power – Many generators will have two maximum power ratings. The lower number indicates continuous running power while the higher number reflects peak or startup power. For instance, my sump pump has running power requirement of 8A. The startup power requirement is about 16A. This equates to 920W and 1840W respectively. The generator I purchased has a rating of 3,000W continuous power and 3,500 peak power, which is more than sufficient for my sump pump.
2. Extension Cables – I already had two extension cables so I didn’t initially purchase any additional ones for the generator. However, I didn’t consider looking at the wire gauge of my extension cables. I discovered I have one 25 ft 14-gauge cable and one 50 ft 16-gauge cable. The allowable current through these cables is 15A and 13A respectively. Although I could probably run higher current through these cables, the cables can heat up and cause fire if used for too long at these high currents. So, I stopped by the hardware store and purchased additional 14-gauge extension cables. I just have to make sure I don’t hook up too many electronic items on that one circuit.
3. Gas Capacity – My portable generator takes about 3.8 gallons of gas. That means, I should have at least that size gas container available so I can refill gas in one trip. Unfortunately for me, all of my local hardware stores were out of the 5-gallon gas containers. I currently do own a 1.25 gallon container that I normally use for my lawn mower. In the event of an outage, I will have to make multiple trips to the gas station to fill up (provided that the gas stations have power). 1.25 gallons will provide 3-4 hours of power. I have a feeling that won’t be enough if my power is to go out.
4. Security – My neighborhood is OK in terms of safety, but you never know. Two years ago during a blizzard, I had my shovel stolen from my front door. I had left it there overnight thinking it would be safe, but someone had snatched it while I was sleeping. After that, I secure everything that I leave outside. So I purchased a couple of heavy duty chains and lock to prevent theft of my new generator.
5. Grounding – My generator is equipped with a little nut on the front of the machine for grounding purposes. If the generator isn’t properly grounded, you can get electrocuted if you touch anything conductive on the machine. However, if you place the generator on the ground (not on a stand), it should be grounded enough and no additional grounding is necessary. But to be absolutely sure, you can always purchase a copper wire, tie one end to the grounding nut, and the other end to a metal rod that’s driven at least a few inches into the ground.
6. Carbon Monoxide – I feel that there are some people still out there that don’t give enough respect for carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is no joke and it can kill a person within minutes without any warning signs. There was a Korean family in my town last year that was killed due to carbon monoxide poisoning. They had their portable generator running over night in their garage. Although they had windows open for exhaust, it wasn’t enough to keep carbon monoxide from entering their home. I plan on placing my generator in the front my house, exhaust facing away from the house, and secured with chain and lock that ties to something secure inside the garage.

In case the power goes out while sleeping, I placed a water alarm on the ground next to my sump area. The alarm will go off if it senses any water on the ground. I just hope that my power doesn’t go out.

Businesses depend on their online reputations to attract new clients. A business’s online reputation is forged by different factors, including the security of the company’s website, what customers are saying about the company on third-party review websites and the quality of the content that is on the business’s website. However, given the many factors that determine a business’s online reputation, measuring the reputation can be challenging. Fortunately, there are some tools that businesses can use to assess their online reputation.

Visit Online Review Websites

Businesses should visit some of the major review websites, such as Yelp, Google Places and Foursquare. They should then assess the ratings provided by these review websites and even respond to them. For any business, there will likely be some disgruntled customers or ex-employees who will post negative reviews. However, if the bulk of the reviews are not positive and if other customers do not come to the business’s defense, this could be a bad sign.

Interact with Reviews Professionally

When a business interacts with negative reviews online, they should use their response as an opportunity to build a better reputation by responding in a highly professional manner. Also, businesses should use the reviews as metrics to assess their customer service and use negative reviews as a tool for building better customer service policies.

Check the PageRank

One metric for determining the online reputation info of a website is that website’s Google PageRank. The PageRank of a given website is determined primarily by the number of inbound links that are pointed at a particular website. When many of these links are from authority websites, this can serve as an indicator that the company has a high reputation.

Businesses Should Determine What They Want to be Known For

The key to a business building a good reputation online is to first determine what the business wants their reputation to be built on. For example, if the business wants to be known for having low prices, it should be sure to pay close attention to the prices of its competitors and always push for the lowest prices possible.

A positive online reputation can lead to many benefits, including:

• Greater customer retention
• Lower marketing costs
• More word-of-mouth advertising

While a positive reputation has positive benefits, a negative reputation can be the death of a company. Few customers will want to waste time with a business that seems unprofessional or even untrustworthy and no business or organization will want to be affiliated with the disreputable company.

If you’re an avid online shopper and a have an active Discover Card account, then you’re in for a treat. As part of their 5% cash back bonus program, you can receive 5% cash back on all online purchases through the end of the year. There are no links to click on or promotional codes to enter. Simply use your Discover card when shopping online. Make sure you log on to your account, click on “Cash Back Bonus” tab and register for this program. The other category includes department store purchases.

Earn 5% Cashback Bonus for Department store and online purchases from 10/1/12 (or the date on which you signed up, whichever is later) through 12/31/12, subject to a cap of $1500 in purchases. Department stores are defined as retailers selling a wide variety of merchandise, with separate checkout counters in each department. Amounts that are not charged to your card during your online purchase will not qualify. These purchases must post to your account by 12/31/12 and do not count towards determining your eligibility to earn 1%. Purchases made at warehouse clubs, wholesale distributors, or discount stores are not eligible. If a purchase is coded for a category other than those listed above, it will not qualify. Rewards are added to your Cashback Bonus account within 2 billing periods. See Cashback Bonus Program Terms and Conditions for further details.