Balance Transfer Credit Money to Savings - AKA - Arbitrage

I have spent the last 8 years of my life establishing good credit and i have finally come to the decision that would put that hard earned credit history and good score to use. I plan on implementing an age old practice of making money off of other peoples money. I plan on borrowing money at a 0% interest rate and at the same time earning interest off that money. This practice is commonly known as arbitrage. My goal is to balance transfer as much credit card money as i can into my high yield savings at WAMU. I will show you exactly how in my next few posts about performing an App-O-Rama.

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Free Money 2007 Update

Since first listing of free money from 2007 I have procured some new free money from the very generous Citibank and chase mastercards. Despite my history of cashing rebates for the credit monitoring services and cancelling before the introductory period is over, the CC companies continue to line my pockets with these offers. So naturally, i continue to cash in on them.


Free Money 2007 Vs. Time Spent

Dividends Card - $614/ 0 hours - All cash back from daily spending
Citi (Gas Rebate) - $100/ 0.5 hours - time spent filling out rebate
Mbna Rewards - $120/ 0 hours - Cash back from spending
chase identity - $20/ 0.5 hours - Filled out rebate, then cancelled
chase rewards (starbucks) - $5/ 0.1 hours - filled out short survey
sprint new service -$150/ 0.5 hours - filling out rebates
Microsoft survey Amazon GC -$200/ 1 hour - completing 2 surveys
Sprint Referral Program - $65/ 0.25 hours - talking to CSR
Chase Identity - $20/ 0.25 hours - Filled out rebate, then cancelled
Citi Identity Protector - $25 / 0.25 hours - filled out rebate

Grand Total YTD - $1319/ 3.85 hours - total time spent

The $65 comes from my sister and my fiancee signing up for sprint and using my number as the referral source. But as you can see this month i made $95 dollars in less than an hour. I have to admit that its not too bad for the month of August. This number should go up next month as i have plans to initiate my first ever AOR. For those who are not privy to the term it means "App-O-rama" and i will further elaborate on that topic this weekend.

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Second Time Chase Offers Me $20 to Sign up for Credit Protector

This would now be the second time this year that i have been offered $20 for signing up for Credit Protector through my Chase Mastercard. They apparently alert if your account is used for numerous types of transactions such as cash advances, international, and even big purchases. You are covered for up to $25,000 in expenses related to the fraud such as ID theft, lost wages and legal fees. They even assign you a personal fraud advisor should an issue arise. With a 30 day free trial and a $7.99 monthly fee afterward, this almost sounds like a great deal. Except, I will be cancelling approximately 3 weeks after depositing the check. Last time i called and cancelled with almost no hassle from the rep. Thanks for another $20 CHASE!

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Oh Sweet Credit Card Coctail! A Terrific Blended Rate

Here is what i found perusing the net, “Will it Blend?”, which is apparently the 20th most popular series of clips on YouTube (based on subscribers). Several months ago “Will It Blend?” destroyed 24 credit cards.




Thanks to get rich slowly for this great vid.

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Online Interest Checking Account From HSBC

An companion account for the HSBC Savings account has been released recently. HSBC Direct announced the Online Payment Account, which has the following major features:

$1 to open, no minimum balances
Yield of 2.50% APY
Three non-HSBC ATM fee rebates per calendar month
Link with unlimited external accounts
Online Billpay Service
Can send paper checks via BillPay, but no checkbooks
Instant transfers to/from HSBC Online Savings account available, but account not required

If you use the HSBC Online Savings already, this is a terrific deal. You get more features, and there are no minimums balances. One possible use would be when you needed cash, you could just go to an ATM, move money over from Savings -> OnlinePayment account, and then withdraw to take advantage of the ATM rebates. For people who rarely receive or write paper checks, this could fill a void and allow them to go completely electronic.

A hat tip to My money Blog for this info!

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Additional Tax Info for 2007

Just a follow up to the 2007 tax brackets I posted earlier, I wanted to give everyone the heads up for what the standard deduction will be for this year according to IRS.gov.

Everyone gets the standard deduction, which in 2007 is $5,350 for singles, and $10,700 for married folks. Only the amount that your itemized deductions (such as mortgage interest, student loan interest, donations, etc) exceed this amount actually saves you money on taxes.

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Make $800 Dollars From Credit Card Sign Ups Available to All

I stumbled across a summary of the most profitable business card bonus offers that are floating around right now. If you think you don’t qualify if you don’t have a business, think again! Anyone can apply for these cards. If the application asks for a federal tax ID, just use your SSN. As for the business name, you can use you name, or you can just make something up. With that being said, here are five offers that will net you a total of $800 in signup bonuses. Most of these cards have no annual fee the first year, for the ones that do, just cancel after the first year to maximize the bonus.

Ive been reading up on Fatwallet.com and you can get an extra 5,000 points ($50) by opening the application form and then closing your browser window. To do this, diable your popup blocker, click through from here to get to the offer, click on the “Apply Now” button, and then close the browser window (make sure the page loads completely). You should get a popup that offers you the additional points. I just tried it out and it worked perfectly for me.

So, with that said, here’s the list of cards with the details of the bonus:

UPDATED:

-AmEx Business Gold Rewards Card (Click to Apply)

Signup bonus: 25,000 pointsRedeem for: $250 in store gift cards, free domestic flight, or $125 statement credit PLUS $100 Dollar Gift Card From Tiger Direct
When: After first purchase
Annual fee: None for first year, $125 thereafter

-AmEx Starwood Preferred Guest Card (Click to Apply)

Signup bonus: 10,000 pointsRedeem for: $100 in store gift cards or use for travel rewards PLUS Earn a bonus 15,000 points if you spend $15,000 dollars in the first 6 months.
When: After first purchase
Annual fee: None for first year, $30 thereafter

-CitiBusiness PremierPass (Click to Apply)

Signup bonus: 15,000 pointsRedeem for: $150 in store gift cards
When: After first purchase
Annual fee: None for first year, $75 thereafter

-Citi Professional Card (Click to Apply)

Signup bonus: 10,000 (15,000 points) (see above for details) Redeem for: $100 ($150) in store gift cards
When: After first purchase
Annual fee: None

-CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network (Click to Apply)

Signup bonus: 10,000 (15,000 points) (see above for details)Redeem for: $100 ($150) in store gift cards
When: After first purchase
Annual fee: None

A hat tip toward fivecentnickel blog for shedding light on this deal.

*UPDATED

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Citibank Ultimate Savings 100 Dollar Sign Up Bonus

Once Again Citibank is offering 100 dollars for sign up bonuses for the ultimate savings account. With a 4.75% APY and no checking account required, it sounds like a good deal. This account has no minimum balance requirement and has no monthly fees. The offer is for new customers only and the bonus code is CSLN. Just link directly to Citibank and check it out for yourself. I believe this deal runs out at the end of this month 8-31-2007, so better act fast.

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Free Chick Fila Sandwich and Soda

Just found this deal for a free chick fila sandwich and soda on Fatwallet.com. Fill out your address and they mail you a coupon for both. No purchase necessary and they will be giving away 1,000,000 of these so act fast. I guess there IS such thing as free lunch? I couldn't resist sorry. I just signed my fiancee and I up for a sandwich each. Free stuff rocks!

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Tax Brackets for 2007

Just found the 2007 tax brackets to give you an idea of what you'll be looking at when you file in 4 months.

Taxable Income Only:

Marginal Tax Rate	Single	Married Filing Joint
10%	$0-$7,825	$0-$15,650
15%	$7,826-$31,850	$15,651-$63,700
25%	$31,851-$77,100	$63,701-$128,500
28%	$77,101-$160,850	$128,501-$195,850
33%	$160,851-$349,700	$195,851-$349,700
35%	> $349,700	> $349,700

Luckily for me, not much is going to change. Whether filing jointly (not till tax season 09!) or single it would put my fiancee and I in the same bracket. But as you can see, for some filing jointly would actually bump you up to the next bracket due to the low cutoffs for that category, where's the love?

Got the tax brackets from IRS.gov.

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Free Information Phone Numbers to Put in Your Cell Phone

Thanks to these really cool phone numbers, you should never have to pay for another call for information ever again. These are definately in my cell phone and should be in yours as well.

1-800-GOOG-411 - Free 411 Directory assistance from Google. Uses voice recognition, and connects you for free.

1-800-FREE-411 - Free 411 Directory assistance. Why pay 99 cents a call? They can even text message you the phone number of the business you’re looking for, so you don’t need to scramble for a pen

1-888-DO-FRUCALL - Wondering if the price you see in a store is fair? Just call FruCall and type in the UPC bar code number, and it will tell you the best price online. If you would like to take advantage of additional features, just register at http://www.frucall.com/

1-800-555-TELL - Looking for local movie showtimes? Sports news? Driving directions? Stock quotes? Try TellMe. Use this one when Im bored.

Google SMS - Text message your search query to 466453 ('GOOGLE' on most devices) and youll receive a text message back with your results, or intruct you to be more specific with your description.

Thanks to John from my money blog for this insider tip. All this information absolutely free, who would have thunk it?

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Walmart Free Sample Website!

The corporate monster that is Walmart has a website that offers a variety of new product samples everyday. Manufacturers are constantly giving away stuff that will soon be on the shelves at Walmart. You dont even have to shop there, just go here to get the free samples sent to your home.

Here is what they are giving away today:
Frizz-Ease Hair Care
Listerine Whitening Strips
Nivea - Goodbye Cellulite

Every so often I love it when they give away the free razors. So far ive received a fusion, a mach 3, and turbo razor. Last few times ive seen plenty of adult and female hygiene products. I could think of a few people who might find this to be a good gag gift!

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Credit Cards Cash Back and Rebates - Not Taxable

With all the rebates and cashback that I have recieved this year, I wanted to see whether or not i would have to report this on my taxes. So i found this article from the Wall Street Journal. What it boils down to is this. "the IRS did issue a private-letter ruling in 2002 that said certain card rebates aren't included in a taxpayer's gross income. Although a private-letter ruling applies only to the taxpayer that applied for it, such rulings are considered to be a gauge of the agency's thinking on a particular issue. Tax advisers say rebates are generally considered to be a reduction in purchase price, and not likely to be taxed. Rebates on purchases made for business or investment may have more complex treatment, so consult a tax adviser." So we are safe for now at least!

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Bye Bye Citi Dividend Cash!

I was a little down initially when i discovered that Citi was discontinuing their Citi dividend program. It's the card that gave you 5% cashback on every gas station and grocery store purchase. It was literally the only card i used for every single purchase that i made for the last 2 years. It also accounted for more than half of the free money that i made this year. Im gonna be honest, and say that i was a wee bit peaved after calling citi to inquire about being reinstated to the 5% program, and learning that they scrapped it all together. But have no fear, i found a few more cards that are comparable and possibly even better than the Dividends card in some respects.

So i decided to make the switch over to the Citi Drivers Edge Platinum card. They're offering 6% back on gas, groceries, and drugstores for a year, but it’s via car expenses or their ThankYou points. However this is still better thant the 2% that the dividends card is paying out (ill stop whining now). Ill probably just end up cashing points out for gift cards. Apparently with this one there is an equal amount of up /downside:

Upside:

6% back at groceries, gas, and drugstores with $1,000 annual cap. 1% back on all other purchases. You also get Drive Rebates of $100 for every 10,000 miles driven, increasing potential cashback to over 7%.

Downside:

Rewards redeemable in cash only towards car expenses (tires, repairs, parts, etc.) or student loans. Otherwise redeemable as gift cards or gas cards. 6% only for first 12 months, 3% after that.

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Trendspotting on the Daily Show about Credit Card Debt

Here's a little humor on the topic of credit card debt. Thanks to glumbert.com for the video.

glumbert.com - Daily Show: College Student's Guide to Credit Card 'Investing'

Great idea of 'investing' with credit cards!! Especially for t-shirt!

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Free Money From 2007

It has been brought to my attention that I may be "working too hard" for so called "free money". I just thought that I shed a little light on how much free money I have made this year versus how many hours Ive put in to get it.

Free Money 2007 Vs. Time Spent

Dividends Card - $614/ 0 hours - All cash back from daily spending

Citi (Gas Rebate) - $100/ 0.5 hours - time spent filling out rebate

Mbna Rewards - $120/ 0 hours - Cash back from spending

chase identity - $20/ 0.5 hours - Filled out rebate, then cancelled

chase rewards (starbucks) - $5/ 0.1 hours - filled out short survey

sprint new service -$150/ 0.5 hours - filling out rebates

Microsoft survey Amazon GC -$200/ 1 hour - completing 2 surveys

Grand Total YTD - $1209/ 3.1 hours - total time spent

Let it be known that this chart does not take into account the amount of time spent researching the said deals. That is hard to quantify since I put in about 1-2 hours of time online per day in general. I was curious to see how this stacked up against how much the average american spent online per day this year. According to census.gov, every American will tally 195 hours on the internet in 2007, which works out to a little more than 1/2 an hour per day. This is a measily figure, and I am proud to be one of those individuals working extra hard to bring that average up!

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$100 Dollars from Bank of America, $50 Dollars from Wachovia

Are you looking to sign up for a personal checking account in the near future? Well these banks are giving you a pretty good reason to sign up with them:

$100 Bonus from Bank of America for opening a MyAccess Checking account. The fine print suggests that you need a BofA credit card to qualify.

"You will receive your $100 credit to your new account within 50 days of opening your new personal checking account online. […] This is a special offer to Bank of America credit card customers and only valid only for new MyAccess Checking® accounts. You must use the Offer Code CH100CTA and fund your account with the $25 minimum opening deposit requirement within 30 days in order to qualify for this offer."

$50 Bonus from Wachovia Bank for opening up a Free Checking account.

"To be eligible for the offer, you must open a new Free Checking account online in good faith between 6/30/2007 and 10/31/2007 by clicking the “Get Offer” button on this promotional landing page. By doing so, you are eligible to receive a $25 bonus for depositing at least $100 in new funds into the account as well as an additional $25 bonus for posting $100 in direct deposits into the same account, within 90 days of the account opening date."

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The One Post a Day Promise

It is my goal with this blog to remain diligent and create a minimum of one post per day from here on out. For those of you reading, I plan on keeping you rewarded by regularly visiting the blog. This is why I have decided that the next topic Im going to focus on is ways to make a few easy bucks with minimal effort (Deals). The fact is I have been much searching and found there are tons of ways in which to do this, yay free money! I plan on testing out these deal methods first, and then reporting back from time to time on my experiences with them. So stay tuned!

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What Does "Hard Credit Pull" Mean?

I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen these terms used by FICO officials, so it may be kind of confusing. A credit check, also known as credit pull or credit inquiry, is (logically) when a third party wants to examine at your credit history.
A “soft” pull is one that does not affect your credit score. You can get 1,000 of these and it won’t matter as they are not visible to other people checking your credit. These are often done without your knowledge as long as they have a “permissible purpose by law”, and may include:

A new credit card issuer or mortgage company wanting to send you a “pre-approved” loan offer. An existing card issuer (like Citibank) checking up on you periodically to make sure you haven’t been going nuts and opening 37 other accounts.
An employer doing a background check before a job offer is extended.
You checking your own credit history and/or score.
A bank just verifying your identity when opening an account.

Conversely, a “hard” pull is one that does affect your credit. It is supposed to only happen when you give express permission to do so, usually when you are seeking some form of credit or insurance. It will lower your FICO score by about ~5 points temporarily for ~6 months (after which it will bounce back up), and will also be visible to future people checking your credit.
Whenever you apply for a credit card or a credit line, expect to have a hard credit inquiry. However, it has become more and more common for non-credit institutions, like banks and credit unions to perform a hard pull as well. Some will only do it if you ask for overdraft protection, which makes sense as it is basically a ~$500 line of credit combined with your checking account. Others will do it for any account opening at all. I was surprised and disappointed to see that Bank of America did a hard pull when I opened an new account with them.


Because each hard pull hurts your credit history temporarily a bit (with some exceptions), I am always very protective of my credit checks. I try to keep them down to about 4-5 within the last rolling six months. Probably due to this, credit card companies often feel they have to give people with above-average credit an incentive to apply for a new card. Notice how sub-prime credit cards never offer good deals?
The result? My new rule is to try to never settle for less than $100 for each hard pull, either through


Direct instant bonuses like $100 worth of gift cards, or
Cashback over time like with Citi’s 6% percent cash back on gas, groceries, and drugstores (up to $1,000 a year), or
Interest earned from reinvesting free money from 0% balance transfer offers (more work, but can make hundreds if not over a thousand dollars per card).


If a bank does a hard pull, then I also want $100 in a bonus, extra interest, or similar benefits or I won’t apply. An example is GMAC Bank, which sounds good but does a hard pull. If the interest was great enough to mean $100 increased interest, I’d open it. Since it doesn’t, I haven’t opened one. I really see no reason why they have to do a hard pull when they can just do soft pulls like ING Direct and others. Banks already have Chexsystems, which is their own consumer banking history system.


I used to apply for credit cards just to get a lame T-shirt. Not anymore!! Now i plan on Putting 0% interest money into a Bank account, a practice otherwise known as arbitrage!

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Sprint SERO Plan: Better Cell Phone Plan, Free Data, Open to Anyone

Here is a deal almost too good to not even consider. The Sprint Employee Referral Offer, or SERO, plan has been extensively discussed for a while on many cellular enthusiast forums. You see, actually getting on the plan used to require a referral from a Sprint Employee, some smooth-talking over the phone, or the “borrowing” of a random employee e-mail from the internet. However, right now they have opened it up to the public, and I have went ahead and cashed in on this deal before it was too late. This is my experience with it all:

How to order:
» Visit the Sprint SERO site.» Type in “savings@sprintemi.com” in the box for Sprint Employee E-mail Address, along with your zip code.» You should be greeted with the default offer shown to the right. However, you can choose from a variety of phones and plans to suit your needs and do all the ordering online. (If you don’t, the e-mail may have expired.)» When you order, please note that you will be subjected to a hard credit pull just like with other carriers.
The plans all include such perks as free long distance, unlimited Sprint mobile-to-mobile, Unlimited Weekends and Nights starting at 7pm, unlimited text messaging, and unlimited Power Vision (web, IM, e-mail). If you talk enough to make a prepaid plan too expensive, 500 anytime minutes for $30 plus taxes seems like a very good price. Two-year contract required, no activation fee.

Phones:
The prices on phones are sometimes a good deal, but not always cheaper than other places. Although I have seen them offer free phones, I think they start at $20 now. You can compare with other sites, taking into the account the monthly savings on this plan.
I splurged and bought the Motorola Q for $100 because, well, I’m a geek and wanted to take advantage of the free data! Unlimited data alone costs $20-$50 a month on other carriers. It’s not quite a Treo and there is no touchscreen, but I can check my e-mail and also internet in a pinch. It’s quite thin, and overall I’m very happy with my new toy.

Service:
Although they do send it out via 2-Day FedEx, it took me about a 3 days before they actually shipped my phone. However, there is a status website that keeps you relatively well-informed. It should be noted that InPhonic (WireFly.com) is the outsourced provider that you’ll actually be dealing with during the initial purchase, not Sprint. They aren’t the best from what I’ve read, so if you are going to port your existing number, it may be a good idea to do it yourself through Spring customer service once you’ve gotten the phone. It took me only minutes and I just needed my old account number. In the meantime, they’ll just assign you another number.
As for Sprint’s service, they’ve been very good so far. Hold times have been pretty short, the customer service reps have been nice. Coverage will vary for everyone, but I haven't had one dropped call yet. There is also a 30-day guarantee just in case it isn’t.

Other notes:
» You can still add any corporate or student discounts to your plan, bringing the overall price down even lower. If you are a student or employee of a sprint recognized employer , call 1-866-853-4931, hit 1, and ask about your specific university or employer. I ended up with 25% off through my work.» You can’t add a cheap 2nd line on these plans. This is important to note for non-single folks. Now I have 500 minutes for about $29 total per month. ($30 - 25% discount + $5 taxes per line.)» If you experience a dropped call, you can dial *2 on your phone, say “dropped call”, and they will credit 50 cents on your account.» After you get the phone, you can also call in for a free $25 debit card if you give them your new phone number and another referring person’s Nextel/Sprint PCS number. The other person will get $25 too. I referred my Fiancee. If would like my number for a referral, please contact me with your new cell phone number and ill give you the details. Also, if you mention the coupon code URANG you will receive a 50$ statement credit toward your 1st or 2nd bill.

For more information, you can join the (long and often tedious) ongoing discussions at SprintUsers, Slickdeals, Fatwallet, or Howard Forums. If you are currently in a Sprint contract, you may want to read this post for some tips.

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The New Rules on Tax Deductible Donations of Clothing and Household Items

Sometime this week i am planning on donating a ton of stuff such as books, knick knacks, and lots of clothes. This might actually be the first year that i can deduct charitable items from my taxes. Yay?! Well apparently, the government thinks too many people have been inflating the values of their old sweaters and other creative deductions.

So, now we have to deal with these tighter requirements from the IRS:
You cannot claim a deduction for clothing or household items you donate after August 17, 2006, unless the clothing or household items are in good used condition or better. However, a taxpayer may claim a deduction of more than $500 for any single item, regardless of its condition, if the taxpayer includes a qualified appraisal of the item with the return. Household items include furniture, furnishings, electronics, appliances, and linens.

To prove your items were in “good used condition or better” in the event of an audit, the best bet is to get receipts whenever possible and to take digital photographs of everything. Another good suggestion from this CBS Marketwatch article:

Take your donations in during the day on a weekday, when the organization is not so busy. Create your own little form that says “These clothing and household items are in good condition, in compliance with IRS rules.” And have the person receiving the items sign and date the form.
As you can still only deduct the “fair market value” of each item, I also found this valuation guide from the Salvation Army to be very handy. Finally, there are even more appraisal requirements if you donate any item valued at over $5,000 or “a group of similar items”. (Nothing in my entire house is worth five grand, so I’m not really concerned about that.)

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2007 Back-To-School Sales Tax Holidays

Summer is nearing its end and this means most states in America are having tax free holidays for those doing back to school shopping. So if you're in the market for clothes, school supplies, computers, electronics, then Taxadmin.org has a nice list of states that will be participating in 2007. It also has a little summary of all of the eligible items.

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$200 Dollars for opening up Chase Business Checking Account with Check Card

Apparently from now through 11/30/07 you can get 200 dollars free when opening a new Chase BusinessClassicSM, Chase BusinessCustomSM or Chase BusinessPlus® Checking Account with a Chase Visa® Business Check Card. Cash bonus will be automatically deposited into your new Chase business checking account within 10 business days after opening your new account with a Chase Visa Business Check Card. This seems like a pretty sweet deal, but there seems to be plenty of time to cash in on it.

The terms and conditions are:
You must sign up for the account in Branch. Initial deposit must be made with funds not currently held on deposit with Chase. Limit one business checking account related award/premium per customer, per calendar year. Offer not available on account conversions or in combination with any other offer. Offer not valid on previously opened accounts. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

I have read that a business license is not required, only your SSN.

Heres the link: Chase business account.

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Financial Freedom

So basically my plan for this blog is to attempt to keep track of the steps i am taking toward securing financial freedom. And just what do I consider financial freedom? Well, what I have in mind is a lump sum of money, such that I can live off of the earnings and not touch the principal. One of many of my inspirations for this site, 2millionblog, has chosen a goal of 2,000,000. Im not quite sure how that number matches up with my own personal goals. But After reading a few articles on choosing a good target amount for retirement, its still hard to say what a target amount should be.

Theoretically, lets say you wanted to retire living on a fixed income of 60,000 a year. Assuming a rate of return of about 5% for securities designed for fixed income, this would take 1.2 million dollars. Out right that sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? Plus I’m not really taking into account social security as im sure that program will be dissolved to simply become another topic in middle school history books. But that’s for another post.

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Hello WORLD!

Woo Hoo, finally got the site up and running. Well, after 5 years, i finally decided to start another website. Although, I hardly consider the yahoo geocities website I made for my intramural basketball team worthy of mention. Now that my first post is crossed off the list, lets go!

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