NEW YEARS ARE ALWAYS HAPPY: The new year is a time of hope, renewal… and new financial marketing initiatives as bank budgets are freed up! You can see if you’re eligible for any freebies from B of A (aka FIA Card Services) by going to their Easy Rewards site and trying out all your cards–even if you didn’t get anything in the mail from them. Click “Don’t have one” when it asks you for your promo code, and then fill in the requested information. There’s also a Bank of America site to check as well. (FIA is legacy MBNA and is part of B of A. Some cards are issued by FIA, others by B of A.)
The PFD household received an offer for a $15 giftcard for, in marketingspeak, “using your new FIA Card Services credit card for monthly bills”. When we read the fine print closely, we saw that all we have to do is to make one purchase from a cable, phone, internet, or insurance company. In other words, we can send one dollar via credit card to our cable company and we’re good to go. Done!
Citibank also sent out a bunch of emails today. Our offer from Citibank: “Earn 5 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on retail purchases at electronics and computer, clothing and accessory, toy and department stores. Earn up to 2,500 additional points, through 03/31/13.” Okay, Citi, if you insist!
Note that an electronics promotion is great to combine with a Best Buy promotion: the electronics retailer occasionally offers double points if you spend over $500. Their rewards program normally gives you 2%, so double would be 4%, plus you’d get 5% from Citi, so that’s 9% total. They sell Amazon gift cards and phone cards, so stacking those two promotions is a good way to stock up if you need those.
Various posters on Fatwallet reported getting 5% other categories, including gas, grocery, drugstore, and travel. There was even one report of a 10% offer. If you didn’t get an email from Citi, you can always log in to their website and go to “Benefits and Services –> Limited Time Offers” to check.
And remember: always sign up for emails and mail from your bank! You never know what they’re going to offer you.
TURBOTAX REMINDER: Since tax forms are starting to trickle in, we wanted to remind you that you can get TurboTax for free by opening an account with State Farm. We previously reported that the minimum balance required is $100, but apparently it’s actually $25. We opened our $25 account last night and are currently waiting, as the process apparently takes about a week. If you’re going to do this, open your account now so you’re ready for those W-2s! As an added bonus, you can fund your account opening with a credit card (up to $100).
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