Google Voice Now Open To All

Google’s voice product is now open to everyone after a long beta period where you could only join by a referral.

Google voice issues you a US phone number which is designed to be your primary phone number. You then have that number ring all your other phone numbers, such as your home/work/cell when someone calls it. This is called their “Ring All” feature. Google voice also comes packed with many call screening features where you can block certain numbers, block callers that don’t show their caller id and many more.

My favorite feature is the listen in on voicemail. When you get a call to your google voice number when you answer it you have the option to take the call or send it to voicemail. If you send it to voicemail you have the option of listening to that message and jumping back on to the call at any time. All your voice mail’s are also converted to text. This is a handy feature, but if your caller doesn’t speak clearly into their end of the phone the transcriptions are not always perfect. But in most cases you can get the idea of the call by reading it. They also have developed a Google Voice app for Android, Windows Mobile, IPhone and Blackberry where you can check your voice mail through your phone.

All these features are managed on line though Google’s web interface. I have had this service for over a year now and I love it. I have blocked so many telemarketers that I don’t think I can every get rid of it now.

This service is completely free and they do offer local numbers in may major metro areas. My advice to you is to sign up now while numbers are still available in your area. If you don’t end up using it for your main number, you may consider giving the number out to places that you buy things from, similar to a spam email address, that way you only give your main number out to those that you want to.

To lean more about all the features Google Voice has, check out their Feature Videos.

$100 OptionsXpress Bonus

One of the more popular brokerage bonuses available out there is the current OptionsXpress promotion where you can get $100 when opening a new account.

To qualify for the bonus, all you need to do is open a new OptionsXpress accountwith a minimum of $500 and make 3 trades within 12 months of opening the account. The $100 bonus will be deposited into your account one month after those requirements are satisfied.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with OptionsXpress, they are a full service discount broker based out of Chicago. They were founded in 2000, so they have 10 years under their belt in terms of experience. They offer a flat commission rate or $14.95 per trade, but it gets cheaper the more trades you do a month.

I have had an account with these guys for a bout 5 years now. I actually learned to trade options by using their Options Education Center. They have great customer service and an easy to use trading interface. I also wrote an OptionsXpress Review last year, so take a look if you want more details on their service. If you are looking for a new broker or just deciding to start trading stocks, you should definitely take a look at their services.

PNC $100 Bonus For New Checking Account

PNC Bank has a new checking account promo running where you can get a $100 bonus when you open a new checking account.

To qualify you need to open a new account using their online application by 7/9/2010. You then need to set up a direct deposit of at least $400 as well as make 10 debit card purchases.

The PNC Free checking account qualifies as a checking account that can be opened to get this bonus. The PNC Free Checking account has no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balance requirements. A unique feature of this account is that if you maintain a $2000 average monthly balance, they will reimburse you any foreign ATM fees. Most free checking accounts don’t offer a feature like this. You also receive fee online banking and bill pay

This bonus is only avaialbe to new customers, you cannot be a recently converted National City customer as well. The $100 bonus will be deposited to your account within 60 days of the above conditions being met. They do spell out what is considered as a direct deposit. Here is the text from the offer:

A “Qualifying Direct Deposit” is defined as a recurring direct deposit of a paycheck, pension, social security or other regular monthly payment electronically deposited into a Free, Performance, Performance Select Checking account, or the Spend account for Virtual Wallet (each an “Eligible Account”) on a recurring month-to-month basis. The amount of each recurring Direct Deposit must be at least $400. The recurring Direct Deposits must be made by an employer or an outside agency

See the PNC Promo Page for more details

Free T-Mobile Phones on June 19th

T-Mobile is gearing up for a pretty large sale on June 19th. In honor of Fathers Day it appears that all T-Mobile phones will be free when you switch to a family plan with a contract on Saturday the 19th. This could be a very sweet deal if it is true as some of their best phones like the HTC HD 2 and Blackberry Bold can be picked up for no cost.

This information was pulled out of a leaked TV commercial document from T-Mobile. It has not been officially announced, but I will be surprised if the 19th comes and goes without this happening. We shall see, I will keep you posted as more info comes out on this.

Here is a copy of the commercial script that has been circulation:

Updated 2010 OptionsHouse Promotions

There are a few new OptionsHouse promotions that were added to their arsenal this week. In addition to their Free 100 trades for 60 days they are now offering investment coaching or free subscriptions to Morningstar OptionsInvestor and StockInvestor Newsletters.

Unlike the Free100 promotion where you need to open an account with at least $3000, to qualify for the free investment coaching or free subscriptions to Morningstar OptionsInvestor and StockInvestor Newsletters you only need to open an account with a minimum of $1000. Both the investment coaching and Morningstar newsletters are separate promotions and are for only 90 days.

If you are a beginning investor, I highly recommend the investment coaching to get you started. Most people try to wing it themselves without any guidance, but free investment coaching is definitely helpful to get you the basics.

If you are a more seasoned investor then the Morningstar OptionsInvestor and StockInvestor Newsletters would probably be a great benefit.

Optionshouse has some of the lowest commisions around with stock trades at $2.95 per trade. Don’t forget that commissions can make up a large chunk of your tradking costs, so keeping them low will increase your returns!!!

Check out the OptionsHouse Promotion for the latest OptionsHouse Bonus details

Bing Cash Back is Ending!

For those of you that have been using Bing Cash back, a sad day is upon us. While I was logging into my account, I noticed a little message that said the following: “As of July 30th, 2010 9:00 p.m. PT, we will no longer be offering the cashback program”. According to their Community Site it says that “did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for”.

This is said in the fact that Bing Cashback had the highest percentages of cash back than any other cashback site. And at times they would do an unadvertised promo like when they did the 20% cashback at Walmart.com last Christmas, or the current 20% cashback at Drugstore.com.

Yes I will admit I was a late adopter of Bing Cash back and was starting to finally get into it. All in all, it wasn’t a total loss. I received just under $200 cash back since I started using the site last December, but I was hoping for a lot more.

I guess it is time to move on and back to the likes of Ebates, Mr Rebates and Big Crumbs. It will be hard to miss that 20% back, that is for sure.

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