Rob Deals

Amazon book coupon for Prime Day

2017-07-10T13:11:00.001-07:00

Amazon offers $5 off $15 worth of books using the promo code PRIMEBOOKS17. Make sure that the page shows that your books qualify, as not all of them do. Books must be sold by Amazon. Expires 7/12 at 11:59pm PT.

Coupon for Amazon books!

2016-11-24T11:37:00.001-08:00

Get $10 off your $25 book order at Amazon using code

HOLIDAYBOOK

! Expires midnight of the 27th and applies to print books only.

Getting half off your airfare for the next couple years thanks to Amex

2016-11-05T05:24:00.001-07:00

So Amex lured me into getting an American Express Platinum card a few years ago with a stellar bonus. I was lucky another 150,000 points for signing up for the Business version of the Platinum card. This Business Platinum card currently has a publicly available bonus offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points--not shabby at all although the spending requirements are quite hefty. But here's why it might be worth it:

Make $1,950 immediately with minimal outlay

Why might you sign up? Well, you'll make $2,000 off the bat. Amex recently enhanced the Business Platinum card so that you can use Membership Rewards points towards airfare at 2 cents per point. So that sign up bonus of 100,000 points is worth $2,000 in airfare. Nice. The annual fee of $450 is more than offset. And it's pretty easy to get the effective first year annual fee down to $50 per the post in the first link. Except it's even easier now that you don't even have to buy airline gift cards but instead can buy Amazon gift cards through the MileagePlusX app. You might balk because to get the full 100,000 point bonus, you need to spend $15,000. Here's where the next step comes in.

Get half off your next $12,500 in airfare purchases

Why is this even more lucrative? First, along with making Membership Rewards points more valuable for Business Platinum cardholders, it also made them easier to earn by awarding 1.5X points on purchases over $5,000. Second, through the end of the year, Amex is offering 2X points on small businesses, including a neat website called Plastiq. Plastiq lets you earn credit card points by paying bills using your credit card, for a fee. That includes mortgages, rent, and (better yet) home equity lines of credit.

So draw you could draw down a home equity line, and pay it back using Plastiq. On a $4,878 payment (i.e. $5,000 including the 2.5% fee to Plastiq), you will earn 12,500 Membership Rewards points (5,000 base points, 5,000 small business bonus points, and 2,500 large purchase bonus points). Your out of pocket cost for the 12,500 points is $122 (that 2.5% fee). Remember, those points are worth 2 cents each toward airfare, so essentially you are buying the points for a little less than 1 cent each and redeeming them for 2 cents.

The only limitation? The 2X Small Business Saturday promotion is limited to 250,000 bonus points and runs until the end of the year. You can shoot for 625,000 total points using this 2.5X opportunity, which is worth $12,500 in future airfare, not counting the sign-up bonus which adds another $2,000 worth of bonus points. These $14,500 worth of points would cost $6,097. If you are good at redeeming miles, you could use the points as miles and get even more value.

Whole Foods gift cards 16.7% off via Gyft

2015-12-23T01:43:00.001-08:00

Gyft is a website/app that sells and stores gift cards. Very useful for not carrying around the 20 different gift cards that belong in your drawer, not your wallet. Currently Gyft is giving away a $20 Whole Foods gift card with a $100 Whole Foods gift card purchase (16.7% off $120) using code WFMWISH valid for 3 uses per account ($360 worth of gift cards). Promotion ends on 12/28 or while supplies last.

Amazon coupons - 25% off any book, 10% off select toys

2015-12-13T09:35:00.001-08:00

The first coupon expires today and is good for 25% off any book at Amazon using code 25OFFBOOK.

The second coupon for toys doesn't have an expiration date but is good for Amazon Prime members only for 10% off a selection of 83 toys using code FAMILYTOYS.

Macy's Friends and Family sale is on!

2015-12-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

(expires December 10)

Get 25% off most things at Macy's in-store and online during their friends and family sale, which is perfectly timed for holiday shopping. Especially great for discounts on brands such as All Clad and Henckels. For some extra savings up to an additional 25% off, consider the following programs:

For 10-23% back (in-store only), use your Discover card with Apple Pay in stores (10% back immediately plus an additional 10% back if you signed up for their double cashback promo, plus 3% back if you got a Discover Miles card this year)
For 10-23% back (online only), use Discover Deals for 10% cashback (plus an additional 10% back if you signed up for the double cashback promo, plus 3% back if you got a Discover Miles card this year)
For 2% back, Signing up for Plenti, a points program run by American Express and affiliated with Macy's (2x points during Macy's Friends and Family sale)

Amazon 30% off any book

2015-11-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

Amazon offers code HOLIDAY30 for 30% off any book sold by Amazon (expires tomorrow, 11/29).

Fun with Citi Price Rewind

2015-10-17T16:27:00.001-07:00

A policy that isn't worth the paper it's printed on

Today's lesson is exploiting Citi's Price Rewind policy, which is a gold mine that you never knew you had. Most credit cards advertise a price protection policy, which promises that if you purchase an item on your card and find it at a lower price later on, they'll reimburse you for the difference. Sound good? Yes, too good. Most cards never pay out on this policy, because you need to jump through a couple of hoops, including mailing in a copy of the advertisement where you found the lower price. What? Yes, finding a newspaper with the advertisement, cutting it out, and mailing it in. What if the lower price is on Amazon? Tough luck, no Internet price matching. What if the price is lower but there is no printed advertisement? Tough luck, you need the printed ad.

As advertised, Citi Price Rewind is virtually useless. There is a Price Rewind website where you can enter details of your purchase, and the system is supposed to automagically alert you when their hard-at-work, omniscient machines scour the Internet to find a better price for you. I tried this, and lo and behold, it didn't work--I made a purchase from Amazon.com, and even when Amazon (and other retailers) lowered their price, no benefit was triggered even though all conditions were met.

Light bulb! Sticking it to the man

I discovered that you don't need to rely on the Price Rewind website. Instead, what you can do is fill out a blank form and fax it in to them. THEY WILL MATCH INTERNET PRICES! FROM ANY RETAILER!

Allow that to sink in...

Has your mind recovered from the racing through the possibilities?

Yes, you can buy from anywhere and get it price matched. I am batting 100% so far in my price match requests. The only restrictions being 1) a maximum of $300 per item and 2) $1200 per year per card. Found a great price from a retailer you've never heard of? Perfect -- order from your trusted store.

Even more possibilities

The truly wily among you will realize that there are even more possibilities:

Category bonuses: What if I have a certain credit card from Citi that earns 5X ThankYou points at an online retailer that sells virtually everything? Not only will I get the lowest price, I will also earn 5X points if I buy from my favorite retailer and then get it price matched! Another example is the Citi Dividend card, which is paying 5% back at Best Buy this quarter.
Double price match (DON'T DO THIS!): This is not something I have done nor is it ethical. In theory, if you find a retailer like Best Buy or Staples that has a post-purchase price match policy, you can get it matched twice. If the price difference is 50%, you would get it for free!

Amazon Prime membership just $67 for new members - Friday only!

2015-09-24T23:28:00.003-07:00

Amazon is offering Amazon Prime for just $67 to celebrate some TV show winning the Emmy. It's as good as a reason as any to subscribe to Prime for a full year at 33% off its regular price. The best value for me is the 2-day shipping, but there are others such as Prime Video (Netflix-like service), Prime Music (Spotify-like service), Prime Photos (SmugMug-like service), and Kindle lending library (lend your books to others).

Buying Whole Foods Gift cards at a discount

2015-07-26T21:19:00.002-07:00

(update - Cartera has wised up and has stopped paying out miles for e-gift cards at Staples)

It's easy to make fun of Whole Foods Market, which really doesn't do anything to shed its nickname of Whole Paycheck. What makes it worse is that they often say and do things that make it clear that they themselves think they're overpriced, whether it's launching a new store with lower prices (um, how about just lowering prices in your current stores?) or just admitting to Wall Street that its prices are too high (oops).

So how to justify shopping there? How about getting a discount on gift cards?

Easy: You might have a special credit card that rebates you 5% or even 6% on groceries. Best bet? Perhaps the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card, which pays you back 6% on the first $6,000 at any grocer.
Harder: Maybe combine that credit card with the "auto-reload" feature on its gift cards, which promise 10% back on your first reload with diminishing returns on subsequent loads.
Hardest: The best discount is to acquire frequent flier miles by buying e-gift cards at Staples. Each mile should be worth 1.5 to 2 cents (providing you can find a seat).

How does that work? Well, Staples advertises through several shopping portals, including many of the airline shopping portals that are run by Cartera such as Alaska's, United's, American's, and Southwest's. Physical gift cards don't earn miles, but e-gift cards usually do from Cartera portals despite terms that say they aren't supposed to. So, combine the following 3 discounts:

Credit card: Chase's Ink card gives you 5 Ultimate rewards points per dollar spent at Staples.
Airline shopping portal: Earn 2-5 miles back (look for frequent earning bonuses by checking out Cashback Monitor). Hint: United is offering 4 miles back right now.
Airline shopping portal bonus: During certain times of the year, the above portals pay out bonuses for hitting a certain amount of spending through their portal. That is an additional 2-4 miles per dollar. Right now, for the back-to-school shopping season, many Cartera portals are offering bonuses including: United, American, Southwest!

The haul? 5 + 4-ish + 4-ish = ~13 miles per dollar you spend at Whole Foods. That should be worth at least 1.5 cents per mile, or ~20% back in airline travel for every dollar you spend at Whole Foods!

And it doesn't end there...how about other e-gift cards? Why not EARN 13 MILES PER DOLLAR ON EVERYTHING YOU BUY! Staples carries e-gift cards from:

Target
eBay
Home Depot
Lowes
Gamestop (if you find a store that does it, you can buy Amazon gift cards with these!)
...

The Bank of America trifecta - earn 2.63% cashback plus $1075 in account bonuses to start

2015-03-26T08:08:00.002-07:00

Update: I was wrong about two things related to the BofA Travel Rewards card: 1) unlike the BofA Cash Rewards card, the Travel Rewards can only be redeemed toward travel charges made on the BofA Travel Rewards card, unless you have a BofA Fidelity card, in which case you can transfer the points earned to the Fidelity card and then redeem for cash into your Fidelity brokerage account, and 2) unlike the Cash rewards card, the 10% bonus on deposits to your checking account do not apply, because you can't transfer the points to cash in your checking account. 2.63% toward travel isn't bad, though. And what's more, is that like Citi's credit cards, you can pay your BofA credit card balance with a debit card by calling 888-998-2829 (collections department). So if you have a rewards debit card that pays you 1% back (hard but not impossible to find these days), you can theoretically earn 3.63% back!

Road to riches via manufactured spending

Do you have $100,000 in cash under your mattress? No? I am a little disappointed, because you could have earned this sum by following some of my past advice in buying Visa gift cards and liquidating them. With the right credit card, each of the following cards earned me ~$20.

Credit card glory

Okay then, do you have $100,000 in your IRA? If yes, you can take advantage of Bank of America's relatively new Preferred Rewards program. In the program, you can earn bonuses for keeping money at Bank of America, including its subsidiary Merrill Lynch. These bonuses include (in order of importance to me):

75% bonus on credit card rewards
free investment trades every month
waived monthly bank account fees

The first of those is the most important. You see, Bank of America has some credit cards that pay you 3% back in certain categories. That translates into 5.25% back. If you don't care to hustle around and buy gift cards at 7-Eleven, then you won't get as fat a bonus, but you can get 2.63%~~2.89%~~ back on everything you buy. So consider paying those pesky convenience fees for your income or property taxes, paying 1.88% or 2.35% and earning 2.63%~~2.89%~~! I like those numbers!

How to earn 2.89%? Bank of America has a Travel Rewards credit card that earns 1.5 Worldpoints (i.e. 1.5% cash back) for all amounts spent on it. Multiply that by 1.75x, and you get 2.625% cash back. Wait a minute, you say. That's not 2.89% back. You're right, because there is another bonus which is if you redeem your points for cashback that is directly deposited into your Bank of America checking account, you get an additional 10% back, so you really earn 2.8875% cash back on everything!

Alternatively, you can get the Cash Rewards credit card, which earns

3% (5.775% with multipliers!) back at the gas station
2% (3.85% with multipliers) back at grocery stores, and
1% (1.925% with multipliers) back on everything else.

The only downside is that the bonus categories (gas & groceries) is limited to a bonus on $1,500 per quarter, which puts a serious crimp in my get rich quick schemes.

$1,075 to start!

There are nearly always account opening bonuses on all three accounts: brokerage, checking, and credit card. These will add up to $1,075 if you apply in the right sequence and take advantage of a current checking account promotion:

$300 for opening a checking account (expires April 10, and note the direct deposit requirement and service fees, which will get waived if you keep a certain balance and waived permanently once you qualify for a Preferred Rewards tier)
$600 for depositing/transferring $200,000 of securities ($300 for $100,000)
$100 for opening a Bank of America credit card, which will get bonused up into $175 only after your 3-month average BofA balance has reached $100,000 and you redeem into a checking account. You will need to wait about 1.5 months for this to happen if you deposit $200,000.

Get 25% off your physical book purchase at Amazon

2014-12-12T11:44:00.001-08:00

(expires December 14 at midnight PST)

Amazon has a pretty amazing deal for your next book purchase. By using promo code BOOKDEAL25, you can get 25% off your purchase of a physical book (up to $10 off)!

$100 off 2-night hotel stay with Orbitz

2014-12-10T10:26:00.001-08:00

If you missed the $100 off any stay from last week, here's your chance to book a hotel stay (this time with a 2-night minimum) using Visa Checkout and get $100 off.

Macy's Friends and Family Sale on through Monday

2014-12-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

Macy's has its twice yearly friends and family sale through December 8. Get 25% off a wide variety of items using promo code FRIEND online or use a printable coupon.

An even better deal could be this $10 off $25 coupon good for just Saturday.

Get $100 off your next hotel booking

2014-12-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

(SOLD OUT! originally it was supposed to expire December 8)

Orbitz is offering $100 off $100 or more on your next hotel booking using promo code VISACHECKOUT and selecting Visa Checkout as your method of payment. Visa Checkout verifies your payment directly through your credit card login instead of using the merchant's payment system. Valid for hotel stays through June 30, 2015.

$100 iTunes gift card for $75

2014-12-01T10:00:00.001-08:00

Paypal is selling $100 iTunes gift cards for email delivery for just $75, which is virtually the biggest percentage discount you can get aside from the $10 for $5 deals on Groupon every once in a while.

10% off eBay gift cards

2014-11-29T04:09:00.002-08:00

eBay is selling $50 e-mail gift cards for just $45, just in time for some holiday shopping. You can purchase up to 3 cards at a time for a total of $15 off $150 worth of cards.

Amazon offering a free $25 credit with $100 gift card purchase

2014-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Amazon is giving you $25 off your next digital camera order if you buy a $100 e-gift card featuring a camera design. This is only good if you are going to buy a digital camera. Purchase the gift card by November 26 (tomorrow!), receive your promo credit within 24 hours (mine posted instantly), then spend your $25 promo credit on your next camera before January 31.

Lexar memory half off at Amazon

2014-10-06T12:46:00.001-07:00

Amazon is selling Lexar memory cards at steep discounts today. I have lately got in the habit of keeping my pictures on the card for backup, just like in the good ol' film days.

$15 iTunes credit for $10

2014-08-28T11:13:00.001-07:00

Groupon is offering a $15 iTunes code for just $10. iTunes discounts usually max out at 20% off before credit card/portal rewards, so this is a great deal!

Amazon offers $10 off your next purchase with a Citi card

2014-08-26T15:42:00.001-07:00

Amazon is offering $10 off your next purchase if you change your 1-click settings to use a Citi credit card. My account already had a Citi card as a default card, so I didn't have to change any settings. The item you are purchasing must be sold by Amazon.com (as opposed to a marketplace seller). Once on your account, the $10 credit expires October 19, 2014.

Amazon fashion sale

2014-08-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

Amazon offers 20% a wide selection of clothing, shoes, and watches with code STYL2014, which is a great discount.

iPads 15% and another $20 off

2014-07-19T07:02:00.001-07:00

(expires tomorrow July 20)

Staples has a rare 15% coupon that works on Apple products including the iPad using in-store coupon code 41908. Use your Chase Ink card to get 5 points back per dollar plus another 1% back (if it's signed up with Visa SavingsEdge!).

Expedia $50 off $200 coupon via mobile app

2014-06-27T09:01:00.001-07:00

Expedia will text you a $50 off $200 coupon via this link to be redeemed on their mobile app.

Great week to pick up a MacBook Air

2014-06-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

BestBuy has cut prices on the current generation of MacBook Airs by $100 across the board. For those of you with .EDU email addresses, you can register for an additional $150 off MacBooks or iMacs. This doesn't include the 5% off you can earn through shopping via a cashback portal and additional savings from the BestBuy Rewards program. So at the end of it all, you can buy the basic 11.6" MacBook Air for $650 and get back $32.50 from a cashback portal and up to another $32.50 in rewards, dropping the net price (before taxes!) to $585! This is the lowest price I've ever seen for a current generation MacBook Air.