(Updated 11/17) Welcome to the self-service $25 ING Direct signup promotion center at Bargaineering. I’ve written on numerous occasions about how ING Direct will give you a $25 bonus for opening either a checking or savings account through a referral and depositing $250, so I’ve set up this page to allow readers to help themselves to the referrals (I get $10 for each referral). In the past I asked for you to contact me, then I emailed out the referrals… no more, this is far easier!

Below, you will see a series of links to ING Direct and each one is an account referral link good for one $25 bonus per new customer only. Each link will only work for one new account so if you click the link and it says “We’re sorry, but the referral link within the email you received has expired and is no longer valid. We recommend that you contact the sender and ask them to re-send the referral email. Or click ‘Continue’ to proceed with the application process without the account opening bonus.” then please move onto the next one. As links are used, I’ll clean up the page such that only the good links are left.

If you use an expired link, you will not get the bonus. Clear the cookies from your browser before you try any of the links or they may appear to have “expired” but still be valid.

If you do not deposit $250, you will not get the bonus. If you still want an account, please use this link.

ING Direct Savings Accounts

1. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
2. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
3. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
4. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
5. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus

If you want to get in the queue to have your link posted, you can peruse the Bargaineering Bucks Store.

If you’re a fan of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, fire up your ride because on Thursday, September 24th, you can get a free 3 oz. Make-A-Wish Creation between 5 PM and 8 PM with a donation. If you dare brave the inevitable lines for your 3 oz. treat, you will be richly rewarded for your trouble. (Image shown is not what you’ll get, that’s just a random photo)

Here’s what their microprint says:

FREE 3 oz. Make-A-Wish® Creation™ with a Donation

Donate and receive a 3 oz. sample of Jack’s Creation served out of a ready-to-love pan in a Like It™ Cup. Valid only during published date and time. While supplies last. No substitutions. Limit one per customer. An estimated 85 percent of all donations in September will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation®. For more information about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, visit wish.org. ©2009 Cold Stone Creamery, Inc. All rights reserved.

The flavor mix this year is Sweet Cream ice cream mixed with brownie, sprinkles and caramel.

Use their Store Locator to find the nearest location.

(Photo: yanec)

WTDirect is offering a cash bonus of up to $150 depending on how much you deposit initially.

• $150 bonus for $50,000 balance
• $100 bonus for $40,000 balance
• $75 bonus for $30,000 balance
• $50 bonus for $20,000 balance
• $25 bonus for $10,000 balance

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Are you a Priority Club member? If so, Priority Club and EverBank are running a promotion where you can get up to 10,000 points by opening accounts at EverBank. EverBank is probably one of the best banks out there because they have four stars from BankRate’s Safe & Sound ratings system, are FDIC insured, and offer a very good interest rate. The current interest rate offering is 3.51% 3-month Bonus Rate followed by a 2.73% 1st year APY up to balances of $50k – among the best of online banks. A great rate plus a 10,000 point bonus offer equals a solid promotion.

You can earn the maximum 10,000 points by opening all three accounts, here’s how it breaks down:

• Yield PledgeSM Money Market Account – 5,000 points
• FreeNet® Checking Account – 2,500 points
• Yield Pledge Certificate of Deposit – 2,500 points

Read the terms and conditions carefully because you need to meet some conditions before you get the points. With the Money Market Account, you need to open with a minimum of $1500 and then maintain an average monthly balance above $5,000 for at least one statement period during the first three statement periods after the account opening. The conditions are very straight forward and very easy to accomplish, just be sure to check them out.

Curious what 10,000 points can get you? It varies from locale but you can look it up on the Priority Club Redeem points page.

Thanks Matt, for clueing me onto this promotion in the first place!

Omaha Steaks sent me a junk mail promotional offer (I have no idea how they got my name) where you could get about a ton of meat for $50 plus shipping. No joke.

The package was called The Fantastic Feast Assortment (Item 4665LZF), cost a smooth $49.99 (normally $69.99) plus $16.99 shipping, and contained:

• 4 (5 oz.) Top Sirloins
• 4 (4 oz.) Boneless Pork Chops
• 4 (4 oz.) Omaha Steaks Burgers
• 4 (4 oz approx.) Chicken Breasts
• 2 (4.5 oz.) Stuffed Sole w/ Scallops & Crabmeat
• 8 (3 oz.) Gourmet Franks
• 4 (5.75 oz.) Stuffed Baked Potatoes
• Bonus: A free salt & pepper machine (hand-grinder)
• Bonus: 6 more Omaha Steaks Burgers

Several years ago, I used to see this offer all the time. I never purchased it because it was a ridiculous amount of food for a single person, I doubted the safety of shipping raw meat, and it was expensive. Since then, I’ve received one other shipment of meat (an entire leg of lamb from the American Lamb Board, because of grilling blog Grill Maestro) without incident, quieting my fears of shipping meat. As for the price, at $66.98 it seems fairly priced but how long would it take my wife and me to eat all that meat?

Another thing holding me back is that some of the things in that package I wouldn’t get à la carte. For example, stuffed sole w/ scallops & crabmeat sounds good, but it’s not something I would purchase in the store. Gourmet franks? I would probably go with low fat or reduced fat franks made by Ballpark or Eskay, which you can find for $1 an eight pack during the summer. Burgers? I like to make them myself with some ground beef and my own selection of add-ins. Once I start picking it apart, I think of how I can probably buy the individual items à la carte and save more money that way.

I’m tempted just to order it and see what happens, but I think I just convinced myself not to in writing that previous paragraph.

I asked Matt at Steadfast Finances if he ever had anything from Omaha Steaks. He said he had a steak a year or two ago.. “I remember saying I wanted it well done because I didn’t trust a steak shipped via Fedex.” Hmmm… I never want a steak well-done.

Has anyone ever ordered meat from Omaha Steaks? Care to share your thoughts on it?

WTDirect is running a winter bonus blast promotion where you can get a one time new account bonus based on how much you deposit into the account. It’s a decent offer attached to a decent savings account made to be a little more appealing when you combine the two together. Alone, neither are particularly appealing.

The bonus is based on the average balance you have between 1/1/09 and 2/28/09 and you’re cash bonus will be awarded in mid-March, based on this schedule:

• $50,000 balance: $250 bonus
• $40,000 balance: $200 bonus
• $30,000 balance: $150 bonus
• $20,000 balance: $100 bonus
• $10,000 balance: $50 bonus

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(Updated 10/5) If you’re looking for an exclusive Sharebuilder promotion code, you’ve come to the right place.

Sharebuilder is the buy-and-hold investor’s dream and we have some promotion codes that will help give you a head start. We have partnered with Sharebuilder to bring you an exclusive $25 promotion code that isn’t available anywhere else.

The exclusive code is: 25WCFA

To use the Sharebuilder promotion code:

• Click on the Apply Today! button,
• You’ll be taken to an ING Direct Sharebuilder page, click on the “Get started today” button.
• On the next page, it says Account Type at the top, you’ll see a white box with the words “I’m responding to a promotion,” – check that box,
• The page will reload and then a new box will appear – that’s where you enter in the code.

It sounds complicated but it’s pretty easy, it just takes a few words to explain it.


Do not open multiple accounts. You cannot get multiple bonuses for opening multiple accounts so don’t try to, readers have reported receiving this email:

“It has been noted that you recently opened multiple accounts with identical registration information.

We have restricted from activity all but the first of such identical accounts. ShareBuilder is closing these additional accounts under the provisions of Section 10 of the Account Agreement. Future identical accounts will be likewise restricted.

IMPORTANT: If you have already placed funds in your account, they will be returned to the bank of origin after the normal hold period. If you funded your account with a check, funds will be sent by check to the address of record on the account. If there were securities purchased, those trades will be cancelled.“

Terms & Conditions of the offer:

You must open a new account with ShareBuilder and deposit at least $25 to be eligible for this promotion. ShareBuilder will deposit a $25 bonus approximately 4-6 weeks after your first $25 deposit. The $25 bonus offer is available for Individual, Joint and Custodial accounts only. Offer not valid for IRAs or ESAs. The $25 bonus from ShareBuilder is not available for withdrawal for 90 days after it is awarded to your account. This offer is not valid with any other offers and is non-transferrable. Limit one ShareBuilder account bonus per unique customer or custodial beneficiary. ShareBuilder reserves the right to terminate this offer at any time and to refuse or recover any promotion award if ShareBuilder determines that it was obtained under wrongful or fraudulent circumstances, that inaccurate or incomplete information was provided in opening the account, or that any terms or ShareBuilder’s Account Agreement has been violated.

The other day, as I was leaving our house, I saw a rolled up Comcast flyer on my door. When I unrolled it, I saw that Comcast was offering high speed internet and cable television for $89.99. That’s about the same base price as Verizon FiOS, so it wasn’t terribly appealing. As I threw the paper behind my door, we were already on our way out, the guy who left it there was next door and he started talking to me. As he gave me his pitch, the most amazing part about their offer wasn’t the price, it was how Comcast was willing to pay any early termination fees, up to $200, I would be subject to by breaking my contract with Verizon. That’s certainly a first, I’ve never heard of that, but that’s nothing compared to the offers they currently have running online.

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I picked up a copy of Quicken last year to help with our family’s personal finances and perhaps assist in the accounting of my fledgling little business. This year, Quicken has released yet another version update, Quicken 2009 is slated for a September 10th release, and offered some handsome discounts for those looking to upgrade or use the software for the first time.

Quicken 2009 New Features

I’ve read people talk about how they hated all these yearly updates because they offered little in upgrades. Well, in scouring the web for more information, I stumbled on this job posting in which Intuit, makers of Quicken, is “planning a major redesign of the product, and we are looking for a senior user interaction designer for 6-9 month.” Who knows what that means though.

There are additional portfolio planning features added, a whole new help system (with screens for each page), as well as adding more banks to its system. Quicken 2009 will now interface with over 6,000 institutions from banks to brokerages to PayPal.

Quicken 2009 Coupons Codes

• Quicken Deluxe 2009 ($59.99 $39.99)
• Quicken Premier 2009 ($89.99 $69.99)
• Quicken Home & Business 2009 ($99.99 $79.99)
• Quicken Home and Inventory Manager ($29.99 $23.99)
• Quicken Mac ($49.99 $33.99)
• Quicken Medical Expense Manager ($69.99 $44.79)
• Quicken Rental Property Manager ($149.99 $129.99)
• Quicken Online (FREE 60 day free trial, then $2.99/month)

Last week, I went through my usual routine of making coffee in the morning. After filling the water reservoir and putting ground coffee in a filter in the basin, I ran upstairs to do some work. A few minutes later, I noticed that I couldn’t smell any coffee. Usually after a few minutes I could smell the rich flavor of glorious coffee wafting through the home, but today that smell was gone. I walked downstairs and, to my horror, saw that the coffeemaker hadn’t made any coffee. The green “On” light was lit but the pot was empty! Try as I might, and this included opening it to see if there was an obvious problem but I couldn’t see one, I couldn’t get it to brew (or even heat up the platter). Boo! I need coffee!

Sadly, I believe my coffeemaker is kaput.

The solution? I had two. I could either go to the local Wal-Mart/Target/Similar store and spend $20 on a coffeemaker (or buy this Mr. Coffee DRX5 4-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker and not leave my house)… or I could try Gevalia Kaffe again. I opted to go the route of the Gevalia Kaffe trial because for $15 you get a decent coffeemaker and two half-pound bags of coffee. The last time I tried two types of flavored coffee, because I’d never had flavored coffee before, but was less than pleased with it (nothing against Gevalia though, I think I just enjoy normal coffee).

The last time I did it, the offer was for a free coffeemaker and a travel mug for $5. The offer isn’t as sweet this time, this time I got a fancier looking 12 Cup Programmable Stainless Steel Coffeemaker (an estimated $100 value! Wow!), a Stainless Steel Coffee Scoop (a $10 value! Wow!), and two half pounds of coffee for $14.95 shipped. The two types I chose were French Roast and Le Procope, a choice from their European Coffeehouse Collection named after a fabled café in Rome (how could I not try it???).

Update: The offer for a free coffeemaker is part of a trial for their coffee-by-mail program. I’ll have to cancel my membership if I want to avoid getting coffee by mail and pay subscription fees.

I’m a fan of coffee, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not about to spend $20,000 on a coffeemaker.

(Photo: woo-hoo)