I currently use this account for my emergency fund. I recommend it to those of you that need a place to store some cash at a good interest rate. The account links to your checking accounts via ACH and it is very easy to move money back and forth.

You can still get a $25 bonus for openening the account with one dollar. See my bonus post for details.

According to this photo that was released, K-Mart already is starting to advertise the price drop. The photo, of a K-Mart newspaper circular, shows the Xbox 360 20GB console with a $299.99 price. That is a $50 drop of the current price of $349.99 for that console.

The thought is that they will be dropping the price of the Arcade and Elite consoles, but nothing has been seen in the wild yet.

Is $50 enought to get me to buy? Not sure yet, but after hearing about the new Deadliest Catch Xbox 360 Game, I may have to do it!

They are increasing the irs mileage rate from 50.5 cents per mile to 58.5 cents per mile. The increased irs mileage rates covers miles driven from July 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. That looks to be a 16% increase. And gas prices have increased over 50%, what a great deal! Yes that is sarcasm you are reading. This just looks to be one more way that we have to carry cost increases on our shoulder while the government provides little help.

Obviously the Mileage Reimbursement is only for people that drive for work or use their vehicle for things other than personal driving, but please make a note of it since you can be losing out on a couple of bucks if you are still expenseing at the 50.5 cents rate.

And due to the great idea to have a .005 on milage, make sure you always drive an even number of miles to get that extra .005 back! These days, you should take everything you can get!

T-Mobile’s new HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home will launch next week. You can read my earlier post for the details of the service, but in a nutshell, it is home telephone service. You install a wireless router which allows you to plug telehpones into it. You then have home service that uses your broadband connection. The router will allow you up to 2 phone lines. Each line will run $10 added onto your wireless plan that will get you unlimited calling in the US.

This is not bad if you currently have a wireless plan of $39.99 or greater through T-mobile which is a requirement to get the service. Right now Vonage costs $19.99, so this could replace Vonage or your current telephone service for only $10 a month. I am definetly going to sign up for this. Right now I currently use T-Mobile HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile service that gets me free calls through my cell phone when using my broadband connerction. So pretty soon ALL my calls from home will be free.

T-mobile has become a pioneer with offering free calls through your high speed internet connection. I sure hope these services take off since quality has been great and you can’t beat the price.

Keep checking this HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Home Site for details on the launch if you are interested in the service.

It looks as if Yahoo is working to make its sites and search engine more user friendly and as a result will attract more users. To do this they are looking for feedback from people like you.

According to the Sign Up Page they will be paying out $75 or more depending on the project that you participate in.

Yahoo will choose you for a project based on the criteria for the research project, so it is possible that you can apply but not be selected.

Here are a list of rates based on the project:

Not a bad way to make some extra cash for a few hours. Plus you get to help shape the new future of Yahoo! if you like that sort of thing.

The Discover Miles card gives your Double Miles on up to $3,000 in travel and restaurant purchases each year. You also get 1 mile for every $1 you spend on all your other purchases

Here are the details regarding the places that will get you double miles:

Eligible travel purchases include commercial airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, cruises, tour operators and vacation packages purchased through travel agents, and online travel sites. Eligible restaurant purchases include those made at full-service restaurants, cafes, cafeterias and fast food locations.

There is no annual fee for this card and Discover is currently offering % intro APR on Purchases & Balance transfers for 6 months as well.

(Warning! This is a third party advertiser. When giving your info for this offer, you may sign up to receive marketing emails from them)
Deal Details and Application Page

What is great about this offer is that there is no spending requirement to receive the GPS. According to the offer page this GPS unit retails for $169.99. So if you are looking for one this is a no brainer.

The Governor’s Highway Saftey Association has a comprehensive site that shows which acts with a cell phone are legal and which aren’t. This is very hand to know espcecially if you are traveling. You could be on a cell phone call then cross a state line and get pulled over since it could be illegal in that state.

If anything always have a headset with you as most places allow you to have a hands free headset instead of holding up the phone to your ear while on a call. I’m sure that the list will change over time as local and state governments are just beginning to address the issue as more and more people carry cell phones. Stay safe and avoid that ticket by not text messaging while driving

Many credit companies claim that you are not held liable for unauthorized charges to your account so many people don’t bother using Virtual Account Numbers. But if your card number was lost or stolen and you are issued a new number then you have to update that new number with every merchant that may have it stored. Using Virtual Account Numbers you can only give out your real credit card number to trusted merchants and give other not so trusted merchants a virtual account number. This way you have the security of knowing that even if someone did get that virtual account number they couldn’t do anything with it.

Some banks like Bank Of America have sophisticated virtual account number programs where you can get numbers that can be used multiple times for recurring purchases. Other banks like Citibank have a more basic program where you can get a number for a one time use.

I use a virtual account number for all my online purchases. With the way credit departments are getting hacked into, I think this provides me a little more security to not having my main credit card number exposed to possible fraud.

Here are the banks that I know of that have some type of Virtual Account Number feature:
Bank of America / FIA Card Services - ShopSafe Numbers
Citibank - Virtual Account Numbers
Discover - Secure Online Account Numbers

Banks I know that do not have some type of Virtual Account Number feature:
America Express (They used to have one but stopped it 2 years ago)
Chase
HSBC

Please leave a comment if you know of other banks that provide this valuable service.

A High Yield Checking Account is pretty much the same as a regular checking account, but it tends to offer a very high interest rate if you meet certain criteria each month.

For example, I currently have a High Yield Checking Account with my local bank. I am earning 5% interest on my balance (up to $100,000) if I do the following every month:

• Use my debit card for 10 purchases (not ATM withdrawals)
• Have at least 1 direct deposit
• Receive my statement electronically

If I don’t meet those requirements the APY becomes .05%. So you can see that it is important that each month I don’t miss out on the 5%.

Since I have direct deposit of my paycheck and get my statement via their online banking interface. The only real challenge for me to meet the requirements is the 10 debit card purchases a month. There are many ways to do this easily, such as pay your cell phone bill online 10 times for small amounts. By 10 $.99 MP3’s from Itunes or Amazon.com

The thought behind all of this is that it is cheaper for the banks if you use your debit card rather then checks. You can still use checks but I think they think they you will tend to use the debit card more once you get used to it. It also saves the banks quite a bit by not having to mail out statements to everyone as well.

Since I opened this account, I don’t even use my savings account anymore since 5% APY is higher than any savings account that I can find. Most large banks like Chase, Bank of America, etc do not offer these. They still trap you in with the $50 bonuses then just give you < 1% on your money. If you are interested, check with the small local banks in your area, these accounts are popping up all over and you are bound to find one.

Here is a good resource for a list of banks that offer High Yield Checking Accounts. It is a little out of date so you may need to call the bank to get the full details.