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RIP Free TurboTax from State Farm. What’s the best alternative for TurboTax savings?

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It has recently come to my attention that State Farm is no longer offering free TurboTax to its banking customers:

For many years, State Farm has offered TurboTax for free, or at a greatly reduced price, as a special benefit to their bank and mutual fund customers. State Farm insurance customers have also received special discounts. State Farm has made the decision to discontinue this program for Tax Year 2016. 

That’s a bummer. For years I have had $25 parked in a State Farm savings account explicitly for the purpose of getting free (or almost-free, since I have business filings) TurboTax. This one never got as much publicity as, say, the CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED, but it was still a great deal. I’m surprised that it lasted this long, so while it’s disappointing to see it end I can’t say I’m shocked. 

I know that some financial institutions (for example Fidelity) offer discounts on TurboTax. For the benefit of the readership and of yours truly, are all the discounts pretty similar or do any stand out?

40,000 LifeMiles bonus and $400 from Chase!

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LIFEMILES 40K BONUS: Thanks to Gary at View From The Wing for letting us know about this 40,000 mile signup bonus currently being offered for the Avianca LifeMiles card from US Bank. Before you decide you’re not interested in this card, take a look at this. I don’t know any more than what’s in that post, so you’re on you’re own in trying it out. [Read more…]

Et tu, Wyndham? Plus $200 from PNC, and the dollar home program

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WYNDHAM KNOWS HOW TO HANDLE PESKY CUSTOMERS: I’ve posted before on the virtues of the Wyndham credit card, which was the best way to earn miles without paying an annual fee, albeit at the low rate of 0.8 miles per dollar spent.

The key phrase in that last sentence is was the best way. Poster lotuspad broke the news on Flyertalk that Wyndham was halving the value of its points when redeemed for miles. So instead of earning 0.8 miles per dollar, you’re now earning 0.4. And if you were sitting on a pile of points that you were about to redeem, you’re out of luck because this change is effective immediately. Advance notice is for losers!

Courtesy of Mommy Points

$200 FROM PNC: PNC is willing to give $200 to anybody willing to open up a checking account. Requirements: $2,000 in direct deposits, plus one use of PNC’s online billpay. The offer’s good in AL, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA and WI–sorry, west coast. (Thanks FWF!)

HOW TO USE THOSE AMERICAN AIRLINE MILES: There is criticism of The Points Guy for at times being a thinly veiled credit card marketing machine. Say what you will about the guy, but he does know his stuff: here are 10 good uses for American Airlines miles. If you’re not too experienced with AA redemptions, this is a good read.

Haven’t heard about that AA card 100,000-mile offer? Here you go. If you don’t want to deal with the $10K minimum spend and the considerable annual fee, keep in mind there are some 50K-mile offers as well.

INCREASE YOUR TAX REFUND BY 10%: This is not my cup of tea, as I’m still working through some Amazon credit from another deal, but Amazon and TurboTax are teaming up to give you an extra 10% on your refund when you get it in the form of an Amazon gift card. Why? Because Amazon likes to help, that’s why.

REAL ESTATE: Along the same lines as my free land post, Zero Hedge has a list of cities where you can buy a house for a dollar–or less! The usual suspects are there of course–what would we do without you, Detroit?–but what’s news to me is that the federal government now has a dollar home program:

Dollar Homes are single-family homes that are acquired by the Federal Housing Administration (which is part of HUD) as a result of foreclosure actions. Single-family properties are made available through the program whenever FHA is unable to sell the homes for six months.

You can look for a dollar HUD home of your own here. Happy hunting!

T-Mobile has a debit card for some reason! Plus more Republic Wireless, and how to make money in an IRS audit

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AND NOW T-MOBILE ENTERS THE PREPAID ARENA: Via this Flyertalk thread, T-Mobile now has its own prepaid card for some reason. It is free to use but only for T-Mobile customers. As far as I can tell, it’s essentially a T-Mobile co-branded Paypower card. I would imagine this one will be of limited interest, so it’s probably safe to blab about it in the interwebs. Still, it’s interesting to see T-Mobile getting involved in this stuff. And Walgreens.

And what the heck, as long as I’m ripping off Flyertalk discussions of marginally interesting cards, here’s a thread about the Evolve Money card. Knock yourself out!

On a sort of related note, Frequent Miler thinks the Barnes & Noble card might be worth a look since it’s 5% off lots of stuff you can get at Barnes & Noble.

THE FUNNIEST THING I’VE READ IN A WHILE: It’s the top 5 U.S. paper currency denominations for January. Just go read the whole thing.

I get serious affiliate ca$h if you’re approved.

REPUBLIC WIRELESS FOLLOW-UP: Following up on last week’s Republic Wireless post, two quick things. First of all, one feature which I neglected to mention because I hadn’t tested it out is that you can switch plans twice a month. I had the opportunity to try this during my amazing trip to Asheville over the weekend and I’m very pleased with how it went. I switched to the $40 unlimited 4G plan on Saturday so that my kids could stream Netflix cartoons over the phone on the long car ride, and then I switched back to the $10 plan the next day. Being able to pay an extra dollar or two for hours of child pacification is a nice privilege.

The second thing: thanks to reader George for pointing out that Republic Wireless has an affiliate program. I also found that they have a referral program, which is even better, because instead of just me making money, both you and I can get $19 off our Republic bill by using this link. And that’s all I have to say about Republic for now, unless they start screwing up now that I’ve praised them.

(By the way, it’s nice to have readers who encourage me to make money! All bloggers should be so fortunate!)

LEMONS, LEMONADE: Nice job here:

A Long Island man tripped over a telephone cord during an audit, sued the IRS and came away $862,000 richer — and he doesn’t have to pay any taxes on the windfall, The Post has learned.

William Berroyer, 66, the father of a Suffolk County cop, claimed he could no longer enjoy activities from golf to sex because of injuries suffered when the cord wrapped around his leg in a Haup­pauge IRS office in 2008.

The IRS argued that Berroyer, of Nesconset, was exaggerating his injuries, but Judge Arthur Spatt found the agency liable for pain and suffering, court papers show.

The former businessman was hammering out a repayment deal with the IRS for his $60,000 bill when he was injured.

Suing the IRS–the American dream! Always be on the lookout for opportunities, my friends.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER AND WE’LL DO TWITTERY THINGS: @PFDIGEST

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