Credit Monitoring Dilemma

After months of debate and looking at various products, I decided to move forward and purchase Equifax Credit Watch Gold 3-in-1 for my wife and I.

Yes there are ways to get your credit report free (see my post), but I haven’t been able to wait the 3 months to pull each report and want to know about inquiries to my credit report as they happen. With the recent increase in identity theft, I wanted more piece of mind that I know immediately when something hits my credit report.

With the Equifax Credit Watch Gold 3-in-1 we get unlimited access to our Equifax credit report for a year, a yearly 3 in one credit report which is a consolidated report from the 3 credit bureaus, but more importantly we now get real time email updates when a new account is opened. This was the main reason we went with Equifax. The email alerts are also configurable based on % change on an account or if a card is used that has been dormant for a while. Since I open quite a few credit cards to receive the bonuses, I want to make sure that no one has gotten the account info and has started going on a shopping spree.

Now this security isn’t free, I am going to end up paying $12.95 / month. This is why I was having the dilemma. I wanted to have these real time email alerts, but didn’t want to pay for them! But there was no way to do this for free, so I am just going to eat this cost for some piece of mind.  I feel that using this in addition to Yodlee (see my post) will virtually eliminate the risk of identity fraud for us, or at least give us an early warning so we can take care of it before it is too late.

If you don’t want to shell out $13 a month for something like this, at least regularly pull that credit report for free. I’ve seen too many horror stories happen to people that don’t keep an eye on their credit report.

New ING Direct Referral Bonuses

Previously ING Direct had a cap on the number of referrals it allowed for each account which I hit a while back. It looks like they have reset it back to zero, so I now have more referrals bonuses to offer for their Checking and Savings products.

• Free $25 when opening an ING Direct Orange Savings Account with at least $250. Current APY: 3.40%
• Free $25 when opening an ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account with at least $250. Current APY: Tiered (See Tier Details)

Remember, the $250 is only needed to open the account. Once the $25 bonus is paid out you can withdraw that money as there are no minimums for either account.

If you are interested in either referral or both, please complete the form below and I will send you a referral email. (These bonuses are only offered by INGDirect via email. Your email address will not be used for any other reason but to send you the referral email)

1. First and Last Name*(required)
2. Email*(valid email required)
3. I would like the following referral sent to me via email:
4. Electric Orange Checking Account Referral
5. Orange Savings Account Referral

 

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70 Free Digital Prints from CVS

Need to get some of those holiday pictures printed? CVS has a series of promotions that will net you 70 free prints if you are a new customer. You can get 60 free prints if you already have a CVS Photo Center Account. With the CVS Photo Account you can submit your digital pictures online to CVS and then pick them up in a store at your convenience.

Here is how to get the free prints:

1) Sign up for CVS Photo Center and get 10 free prints. If you already have a CVS Photo Center account, goto #2.

2) Take the CVS Photo Center Survey and get 20 free prints

3) Sign up for the CVS Extra Care Card and get 40 free prints. The CVS Extra Care Card is their rewards card where you get cash back from purchases. There is no fee assoiciated with signing up.

Happy Printing!

Free $50 from Bank of America Visa Signature Card

Again, more free money. The credit card companies just love giving it away!! This time, just sign up for the Bank of America Visa Signature Card and receive a $50 statement credit after you make your first purchase of at least $25.

This card also offers a 0% balance transfer rate for your first 12 billing cycles (subject to a 3% transaction fee, no less than $10) as well as a Rewards Program that gets you one point per dollar spent on the card.

What you need to do: Sign up for the Bank of America Visa Signature Card
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): $50 after first $25 in purchases
Money to get started: $0
Things to Note: There will be hard credit inquiry applied to your credit report when applying for the card

Search Amazon By The Discount You Want To Receive

Ok, it is no secret. I buy a lot of stuff off of Amazon.com. There is usually free shipping, the prices tend to be lower then brick and mortar stores such as Best Buy, OfficeMax, etc, and with their features like 1-click, ratings and recommendations it is easier to find what I want.

Well after buying so much from them I have started to find easier ways to search by changing their URL’s. I have created a way for you to look for what you want on by category and the percentage off you are looking for. This took some time to master but now I want to share it with my readers.

So for example if you want to see “Books that are 50% off” then just select the category “Books” and select the percentage as “50″, hit “GO” and it will take you to the search results for those items.

Amazon Discount Search:

(Bloggers: I am building this code into a widget. Contact me if you would like to place this widget on your site for your readers.)

Please leave a comment if you are experiencing any issues. 

Thanks and Happy Hunting!!

Amex Blue Cash Reward Payout

My cash rebate for my American Express Blue Cash Card was paid out in November, but I completely forgot about it until I got my December bill and   wondered why I didn’t owe anything. For a minute I thought someone was paying my bill for me since I know I used the card a lot in November but the balance due didn’t account for it. This required some investigation!

After going through my December statement I found this at the bottom:

I was very surprised to see that I received over $800 back since I really wasn’t keeping track. The total return is 1.73% back in my pocket. The percentage is on the lower end since I funded my wedding mainly using this card so those large purchases only rebate back .5% and 1.5% until I passed the $6500 purchase mark. Another reason is that the grocery store we go to does not accept credit cards, so we are missing out on the 5% return there. But the store’s prices are cheaper over all so the difference is negligible.

Here is the rebate break down for this card:

So the key is to get to the $6500 spending limit as soon as possible so for the rest of the year you are earning the higher percentages. Everyday purchases are considered supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations. I use this card for almost EVERYTHING where I can use a credit card. The only time I use another card is if the place I am at doesn’t take American Express. I rarely use checks or a debit card.

I realize that there are other rebate cards out there that offer 5% here, 2% there, 3% for 2 months, etc, but for me the Blue Cash card is easy in the fact that you know exactly what % you are receiving for the year.

One thing to note here is that ff you don’t spend more than $6500 per year then there are other cards out there that are probably better. You might try the Chase Freedom Visa. See here for a $50 credit when applying.

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