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Chase Southwest 50,000 point offer is back, and so is the no-fee Chase Fairmont card!

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SOUTHWEST 50,000 POINTS: After being rolled out early this year and then yanked in April, the Chase Southwest 50,000-point offer is back! Thanks to Fatwallet for bringing this to my attention. There are actually four different offers (annual fees are not waived, alas):

What do you do with those points? They are pretty valuable if you just redeem on Southwests’s “Wanna Get Away” fares, making those 50,000 points worth around $800. You can also get the Southwest Companion pass if you get 110,000 points (easily done if you get both the personal and business versions, and don’t forget that you can transfer points in from Ultimate Rewards as well) and take along a friend for free on Southwest for a year.

You can also redeem for a variety of gift certificates–in fact, my wife and I just redeemed some Southwest points for Bed, Bath, and Beyond giftcards. Incidentally, for those of you with babies and small kids: did you know BBB giftcards and coupons can be used at BuyBuy Baby, and vice versa?

 BUT WAIT, THAT’S NOT ALL: Thanks to One Mile At A Time for pointing me to this Roms Deals post heralding the arrival of a Chase Fairmont credit card app with the $95 application fee waived for the first year. The bonus with this card: 2 free nights plus breakfast for two at any Fairmont hotel.

Fairmont is a high-end hotel chain, the kind I won’t be staying in for a while until my kids get a bit older. But this is one of their hotels I would love to stay at some day:

That’s not a castle, it’s the Le Chateau Frontenac, a Fairmont hotel overlooking Quebec City. If you and your spouse both get this card, that’s a four-day luxury trip for you two. Fairmont has hotels all over the world, so have a look at their site and see if anything interests you.

A great HELOC, a great travel story, and more P2P options

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IN THE MARKET FOR A HOME EQUITY LINE?: Just in case you’re looking for a good HELOC, we’d like to point you to Hanscom Credit Union, as their product has received some good buzz on this Fatwallet Finance thread. There is no application fee, no closing costs, and the rate for LTV <= 75% is current prime minus half a percent, which currently works out to be 2.75%.

That is a very good deal, and if there’s a better one, I’d sure like to know.

A COUPLE MORE P2P PAYMENT OPTIONS: There’s a new service called TransferWise that apparently lets you send money overseas cheaply. One of the founders was employee #1 at Skype, so the company’s got some good pedigree. I’m not in the habit of transferring money overseas, but I’m sure some of you are, so here’s the “How It Works” section in case you’re interested.

And an FYI: Square is testing out a P2P payment system of its own. It’s currently invitation-only, and I am not invited, alas.

FREQUENT FLYERS GET THEIR DAY IN COURT: A man who was dropped from a frequent flyer program will argue his case before the supreme court:

The court announced Monday it would hear the case called Northwest Airlines vs. Ginsburg, which is basically about what justifies an airline dropping a traveler from its frequent-flier program.

The airline revoked Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg’s membership in the WorldPerks Platinum Elite program in June 2008. He had complained 24 times in eight months about Northwest’s service and sought “compensation over and above (Northwest’s) guidelines,” according to the airline’s written argument.

…Northwest, which is now part of Delta Air Lines, argued that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 prevents lawsuits governing “price, route or service of an air carrier.”

…Northwest is asking the Supreme Court to explain how much freedom airlines have to set their own policies under the Airline Deregulation Act. The trade group Airlines for America supported Northwest in the case.

We can’t wait to see Marathon Man v. Citibank.

A GOOD TRAVEL STORY: Courtesy of The Tarmac blog at Flyertalk:

Earlier this month I took a cab from Kuta to Ubud on the island of Bali. The driver had his son in the backseat. When I checked into my hotel my reading glasses, kept in a hard case, were missing from the bag I had placed at the boy’s feet. I really needed those glasses and they were useless to anyone else. I figured the boy blindly reached in my bag and took the first thing that seemed valuable.

The next afternoon I went back to the cabstand in Kuta, described the cabbie I rode with (“mustache, travels with his son”) and explained that my glasses must have fallen out of my bag. I accused no one.

“I’ll be sitting in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel tonight at 7 p.m. (not my hotel),” I told the cabbies. “I’m offering a US $100 reward to anyone who brings me my glasses.”

At 7 p.m., the cabdriver and his son walked in with my glasses in their case. I gave them 20,000 rupiah, about $2. The driver looked at it and shyly said, “I thought it was a $100 reward?”

“Well, you’re a thief and I’m a liar.”

$275 in bank bonuses, internet reselling, a travel hack and a tax haven

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$125 CHECKING ACCOUNT BONUS FROM REGIONS BANK: Here you go. Open only to residents of AL, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA. (Thanks FWF)

$150 BONUS FROM PNC: Have fun. This one’s open to residents of AL, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, OH, PA, SC, VA and WI.

BUYING AND SELLING STUFF FOR FUN AND PROFIT:  Being an internet reseller is a niche some people have figured out to the point where they can make a living at it. Other people do it as a side gig, sometimes for profit and sometimes for points, and Frequent Miler gives you some ideas on how the game is played. This is an area where being a credit card geek can serve you very well since you can work stack credit card bonuses and portal bonuses, not to mention coupons. FM’s sources for resale items: Kohl’s, Staples, OfficeMax, Lowe’s, and Drugstore.com.

HOW TO BOOK A ONE-WAY DELTA AWARD FLIGHT: It’s not possible to book a one-way award flight on Delta using Delta’s system, but it is possible using somebody else’s system. Points, Miles, and Martinis reports on a nice little travel hack. In a nutshell, you convert Amex Membership Reward points to Flying Blue points (that’s the Air France / KLM frequent flyer program), then check availability and book the reward from the Air France website. Very clever!

PUERTO RICO’S BID TO BE A TAX HAVEN: I stumbled across this while perusing FWF and thought it deserved an item of its own. Apparently, Puerto Rico is trying to position itself as a tax shelter for Americans:

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, but for tax purposes, it is treated differently. Most residents of Puerto Rico, with the exception of federal employees, already pay no federal income tax. A person needs to live 183 days a year on the island to become a legal resident.

…The new tax breaks are a radical shift in that they focus on financial, legal and other services, not manufacturing. Puerto Rico slashed taxes on interest and dividends to zero from 33 percent, and it lowered taxes on capital gains, a major source of income for hedge fund managers, to zero to 10 percent.

The incentives work with existing United States breaks. While residents still have to file a federal tax return, they do not have to pay capital gains taxes of 15 percent on assets held before moving and sold after 10 years of island residency.

You could certainly do worse than spending 183 days a year in the Caribbean.

Thanks NYT!

Then again, this isn’t a sure thing. Fortune would like the billionaire readers of my blog to know a few things:

The U.S. territory has a bevy of social and economic problems that appear to be getting worse by the day, making it an inhospitable place for a wealthy individual seeking safety and stability. Crime broke through record highs in the last few years and has started to spill into the wealthy neighborhoods of San Juan, the capital. The violence and economic malaise show little sign of abating. It’s a long way from the financial paradise the Puerto Rican government is trying so hard to portray it as.

…Politically, Puerto Rico is in a state of flux, which means its new investment law could be countered or revoked. There is a reason why Puerto Rico hasn’t tried this beggar-thy-neighbor kind of tax war with the U.S. in the past — it makes Washington angry. That’s a big deal given that Puerto Rico receives around $22 billion from the U.S. every year in the form of aid and subsidies. That makes up around a quarter of the island’s GDP. It could see some of that aid sliced off if it nails some big billionaire fish like Paulson.

Well, shoot. Where the heck is a guy supposed to flee to these days?

Free light bulbs, easy money in medical experiments, and a stock at 1X earnings

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FREE LIGHT BULBS FROM DUKE ENERGY: Duke Energy is giving away free CFL light bulbs for some reason. I signed up yesterday and the website informed me that a shipment of 15 light bulbs is headed my way. Duke Energy also has an online store where they sell CFLs and LEDs at a discount, and they actually have some good deals. The offer is only valid for Duke Energy customers, and yes, they verify this before they let you in on the deal.

TRUE TALES FROM A HUMAN GUINEA PIG: Budgets Are Sexy has a “side hustle” series wherein folks tell about their efforts earning money on the side. The most recent installment: volunteering for medical research. Emily from Evolving Personal Finance gives an account of her experience. In a nutshell:

Benefits

  1. You get paid well to do non-taxing activities.
  2. You may find out useful medical information, as a direct or indirect result of participating.
  3. It can be entertaining, interesting, fun, or educational.

Drawbacks

  1. You generally can’t complete studies on your own time or at home, so you need to be at the institution for your appointment during or near normal work hours.
  2. There is a fairly direct relationship between pay rate and invasive-ness/inconvenience of the study; therefore, if you are unwilling to be administered drugs or poked and prodded, your hourly rate may not make it worthwhile.
  3. Being a guinea pig doesn’t exactly build your resume!
  4. You won’t be eligible for every study so your pool may be quite small. Not all studies need healthy volunteers, and some specify age ranges, sex, or certain medical histories.

If you want to find studies near you, go here or here.

A STOCK AVAILABLE AT 1X EARNINGS?: Oddball stocks has turned up another interesting company:

First off Anacomp (ANCPA) is not a Chinese company, a reverse merger or anything shady as far as I can tell.  For curious readers the company’s RFP’s are available online, I was able to find some contracts in a government database as well.  The company is simply small and forgotten, trading far on the fringes of the market.

Anacomp is a document management company that’s been in existence for 40 years.  The company’s business is fairly simple, they scan in documents for customers and provide indexing and online document management services.  This is especially important for customers that are paper heavy, such as the government (who happens to be their largest customer.)  The company provides a valuable service in centralizing document digitalization, storage, and retrieval.  Clients can continue to be paper heavy but offer digital copies if necessary.  The company has two locations, one in Washington DC, the other in Southern California.

Find out why Nate’s long on Anacomp here.

INFLATION PREDICTIONS FROM 1982: One of the Smithsonian blogs has unearthed some 30-year-old inflation predictions from the Omni Future Almanac. As always, predictions from long ago are amusing, which is why you should never try to predict anything. Apparently, inflation back then was so high people thought that professional baseball players would be someday be paid several hundred thousand dollars per year. Have a look:

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Saverocity is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.