This promotion has ended.

I know that you all are fans of some free money so this little offer is right up your alley. RevolutionMoneyExchange is a PayPal-like clone, offering online money transfer services but with no fees. They have been around for about a year, running a payment network called Revolution Money that included a debit-like card, but only recently jumped into the person-to-person money transfer business.

The current promotion they’re running is a bonus of $25 if you open an account by May 15th, then you can start referring people (as I am doing so now) and you earn $10 for each person you refer. The only rub I have with RevolutionMoneyExchange is that they require a social security number and they may even deny you an account based on that (though it doesn’t appear they run any credit checks, so I’m not sure what they’re checking and why the need to social), but if you’re cool with that (I was) then the $25 is almost as good as yours.

Signup takes about five minutes. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

Credit card offers total value: $975.

Here is every credit card promotional offer I am aware of, listed in a handy table along with fulfillment requirements. The only rules about having a card appear on the list is that the promotional offer be worth at least $50 and it must be a mainstream brand like Citi, Discover, Capital One, American Express, etc. No offers available only to a small geographic region, these are all mainstream ones that are potentially available to everyone if you qualify.

They are listed in order of value and I will attempt to keep this list updated monthly. (this list does not include free airline miles promotions, i.e. those cards that give only miles as a promotions, but some of these cards allow you to convert points into miles) For the cards that have (pts) next to the dollar value, which currently is all of them, you will get your rewards in points (which can often be converted into gift cards) and the maximum value is displayed there. $100 in points is usually 10,000 points, but not always, so be sure to read the terms and conditions. Without further ado, here are nearly a thousand dollars in promotions!

Who is eligible for a business card? Anyone can be a sole proprietorship without filling out any additional paperwork. Put in your name as the business name, your social security number as the ID number, and you can apply as a business. You don’t pay extra taxes, you don’t have to fill out any extra paperwork, this is 100% legal and acceptable.

If you know of an offer that isn’t on the list, please leave it in the comments or email me, thanks!

(Fat stack photo taken by Refracted Moments™ on Flickr)

The contest has ended and the winners have been notified.

One of the PR firms representing H&R Block sent me three USB keys loaded with their TaxCut software and I’m going to give you all a chance to win them. I know April 15th is coming upon us soon, less than a month away, so this contest will only be running until this Friday. Some quick requirements if you want one:

• Please don’t enter if you already did your taxes or you can do them for free.
• Please live in the US (I know it’s obvious but sometimes people don’t realize it, this is for tax prep in the US!)
• Then, please leave a comment with your favorite Laffy Taffy joke ever, and/or,
• Sign up to receive these posts via email from Feedburner.

To sign up to receive the posts on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity via email, enter your email address below. All you will get are emails from Feedburner (and then one from me when I select a winner for this contest and potentially future contests), otherwise you will receive no other emails.

On Friday I will select the funniest joke, one email subscriber, and then one at random from both lists; email them, and hopefully mail out the keys on Saturday.

Good luck!

A little while ago Chase ran a sizzling hot promotion where if you signed up for their Chase Freedom card and made a purchase, they’d reward you with $250 (Chase $250 promotion) but lately they’ve been a little tighter on the promotions, until today. Now, if you apply for a Chase Freedom card, you can get $50 after your first purchase plus get 3% cash back at certain locations and 1% at others. It’s not as hot as the $250 promotion from a few months back but it’s certainly better than nothing if you were looking to snag the Chase Freedom card in the first place.

If $50 isn’t enough for you, check out these credit card promotional offers, many of which offer $100 gift cards.

I bet the first thing you thought after you screamed “Happy New Year!” was how it was now time to do your taxes. (no? me neither) Unfortunately, it’s now February and it’s time to start thinking about doing taxes! Wheee! To help you along, I wanted to outline all the free resources you have for tax preparation. By this I mean I’m listing every single way I think you can get absolutely free tax preparation based on your financial situation. Some tax prep companies offer free tax filing if your situation is simple (1040EZ, or plain 1040), the IRS offers free tax filing if your adjusted gross income was under $54,000 in 2007 (it’s through third party companies), and some other companies offer free tax preparation for their customers as a fringe benefit. I’ll try to list them all. If I miss one that you know of (one that expands on the group of eligible taxpayers, we don’t need another company that offers free tax prep for the same groups already covered below), please leave a comment or email me and I’ll add to this list.

Why do companies offer free tax filing?

Companies don’t do things out of the goodness of their hearts, so where’s the catch? It appears that many of these companies offer free federal tax filing in the hopes that you’ll sign up for their state tax filing services too. With many of the programs it’s easy for them (and thus easier for you) to transfer the data over and recalculate for your state taxes. They also hope to capture you as a recurring customer since your tax information will be stored in their databases and thus you’ll have a history with them. Finally, some will try to make money off services such as “refund anticipation loans” or “money back loans.” Those “loans” are horrible deals for the consumer, which means they make tax prep companies lots of money. (If you e-file, the IRS estimates that it takes around 8-15 days with direct deposit to get your tax rebate!)

How good could these freebies be?

I haven’t tried them all, but William Perez of About.com has tried a few and wrote about their advantages and disadvantages. I don’t know how accurate that article is because it’s not dated, but it’s a start. I think that most of the major companies are going to give you great free service. The field is simply too competitive for them to risk standing up a sub-par “free” version. Today’s free customer is tomorrow’s paying customer. If my free experience is bad, there will never be a paid experience!

Now, onto the offers!

IRS freefile

The IRS freefile program is designed for those with an AGI under $54,000 in 2007 and some of the companies that offer these services also put age restrictions as well. For example, Free1040TaxReturn.com states: “Free Federal online tax preparation and e-File if your adjusted gross income is $54,000 or less and you are age 49 or under.” (emphasis mine) I suspect that has to deal more with handling the added complexities of Social Security and Medicare and isn’t age discrimination. With any of those companies listed, you’ll definitely get free federal tax filing and e-filing; you may have to pay extra for state. The IRS also offers a wizard to help determine which company is best for you.

One caveat is that not every company listed follows the $54,000 AGI rule the same way. As you’ll see in the description below of TurboTax’s offering, the $54,000 AGI rule only applies to active duty military.

TurboTax

TurboTax offers free tax filing if you:

• earned $30,000 in adjusted gross income, or,
• qualify for earned income credit with an AGI up to $39,783, or,
• served as active duty military with an AGI of $54,000 or less.

As an added bonus, you get free state filing if you live in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Islane, South Carolina, Vermont, or West Virginia.

What does TurboTax cover in their free version? Your standard 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ forms along with a bunch of schedules. They provide a list of what’s covered in the free version. The first part of that list shows the included forms, the second part shows the forms not included. One notable form excluded from the free filing is Schedule D: Capital Gains and Losses.

TaxAct

TaxAct offers free federal tax filing of 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ along with free e-filing, with no income restrictions (state filing is, as expected, extra). I was wondering if they had any catches (I realize they say “no catches! no gimmicks!” but c’mon… who takes marketing at face value!?) and discovered this list of “Included IRS Forms.” From what I can tell, it contains everything I could possibly need including Schedule C: Profit/Loss from Business. In fact, I wrote up this review of TaxAct and give it a B+ back in March of 2005. It’s nearly three years later, I might have to try them again and update that review.

State Farm Customers

State Farm is offering free tax filing through TurboTax for its customers.

Just Need Some Assistance?

If you’re just looking for a little extra help but not full blown preparation (or you don’t qualify for any of the above programs), you can turn to the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program or the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Program if you qualify. To learn more about either program and their criteria, please visit this IRS page.

(Photo by gratiot)

This offer has ended but was replaced with a promotion for a $200 American Express gift card with activation.

Ever sign up for something only to find a hot coupon or promotion after you’ve completed the process? As you may remember, I had Verizon service installed yesterday and today I discovered that they have a Verizon Triple Play promotion where they will give you a free 19″ Sharp LCD HDTV if you sign up for digital cable television, high speed internet, and phone service. I recently only got the Double Play package, which is the Triple Play minus telephone service, but I did not score a free television.

The promotion is pretty good if you’re looking for all three services and it’s lukewarm if you’re looking for only two of those services (though the Double Play promotion includes a digital camcorder instead of the TV). Since I didn’t need phone service, it wasn’t cost effective for me to sign up for telephone just to get the free TV. Telephone service would’ve run approximately $15 a month extra for two years. That’s an additional total cost of $360, a mere $20 less than the retail price of the Sharp LCD on Amazon. Plus, I wasn’t in the market for a new TV anyway… so it’s a loss only in the sense that it would’ve been nice to get a free TV.

So the promo is hot for anyone looking to switch and needs all three, I hope someone can take advantage of this. Even if it wasn’t perfect for me, you always feel dumb for finding out a deal after you’ve bought something… luckily this time it wasn’t that bad.

Sorry Cingular/AT&T/AT&T Wireless/whatever your name is now, but I’ve finally cut the cord with you guys after several years of service as my phone was finally dying and you all refused to give me a new phone (or even a discount off a phone). In fact, when I called, I was told that any change to my account would require me to 1) pay more because I was on a cheap legacy rate, and, 2) sign up for a new contract (in return for nothing). So instead of doing something stupid and unreasonable like that, I signed up for a Sprint SERO (Sprint Employee Referral Offer) plan thanks to some advice from my good friend and yours, Nickel.

What did I get? The fancy Treo 755p PDA smartphone through the SERO website, which set me back $249.99. Now, you can get it through Amazon for $69.99 after rebate but there’s a reason why I didn’t go that route.

Through the SERO plan, I was able to get 500 anytime minutes with unlimited text messaging and data for $30/mo. I also stacked on a coupon code URANG for a $50 statement credit. The base plan of 450 minutes a month through Amazon costs $39.99 a month plus you are required to get Power Vision Access Pack (at a minimum) for $15/mo. Over the course of a two year contract, the difference in monthly costs far exceeds the equipment cost. Oh yeah, that doesn’t include the activation fee through Amazon of $36.

Oh, to make things sweeter, Sprint wanted me to give them a call about my order and they were going to compensate me $25 in statement credits just for my time. The call was for me to verify some credit information and took about ten minutes.

If you’re looking to get a new phone, seriously check out the Sprint SERO site because it’s is crazy cheap. You can use savings@sprintemi.com to get access. Now we just await the new phone.

I just opened up a letter from Bank of America explaining a promotion in which they will deposit $10 into my checking account if I make at least 3 purchases before January 31st. The only thing I need to do is call up 1-888-624-2323 to activate my check card (which I’ve already done in the past) and I’m set. I don’t know what it takes to qualify for this (I never use my card, so that’s probably why I received this promotion) but if you have a BoA card, call up 1-877-437-8196 to see if you qualify for it.

Terms and conditions are that only one is allowed per account, not valid on ATM transactions, POS purchase adjustments, purchasing cash-like items (money orders, traveler’s cheques, etc) or account funding transactions. You will get the bonus deposited within 6-8 weeks after Jan 31st (if you qualify for this promotion of course).

Seems like an easy $10, call them up if you have any questions.

Lesson of the Day: Don’t open a Bank of America checking account unless they’re offering you at least a hundred bucks to sign up. This time, Bank of America is saying “welcome to the neighborhood” with their latest re-packaging of this offer. The offer itself is pretty simple, just open a new personal checking account with BoA, deposit $100, and in 90 days BoA will deposit $100. This offer only applies if you are a new customer. If you don’t apply online via this link, then visit a branch and tell them you want offer AOU2611. This offer expires Jan 01, 2008.

Fees:
If you open a Regular Checking account, the most basic of the accounts, the monthly maintenance fee is $7 with a direct deposit and $8 without a direct deposit (that boggles my mind, one dollar off!?). If you maintain a minimum balance of over $750, then the fee is waived. There are other fee reducing conditions but $750 is the bare minimum.

Bob points out that “My Access Checking” is also eligible for this offer and it has no fees. (Thanks Bob!)

Terms & Conditions:

Offer expires 1/31/2008 and is available through our online application or in any Bank of America banking center. Offer does not apply to second or multiple checking accounts and/or existing checking customers. Student checking accounts are not eligible for this offer. Bank of America associates are not eligible for this offer. All accounts are subject to our normal approval process. This form must be presented at the time the account is opened if account is opened in a banking center. This minimum deposit required to open a new, personal checking account and receive the $100 offer is $100. We will make every attempt to directly deposit the $100 into your new Bank of America checking account. If for any reason we are unable to do so, a check will be issued as a replacement. We will deposit the money within 90 days of opening your new account. Limit one check per household. To the extent required by law, Bank of America will report the value of the offer to the IRS on Form 1099. Any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the account holder. For interest-bearing personal checking accounts, the Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is 0.05% as of 10/9/2007 for any account balance. The rate may change after the account is opened. Fees could reduce earnings on the account. Please consult a Banking Center, visit bankofamerica.com or see the Personal Schedule of Fees for other account fees, rates and information.

Coinstar is a coin counting vending machine that usually takes a nice fat cut of the count but from 01 October until 04 November, when you count over $30 in coins and convert it into an Amazon gift certificate they will send you an additional $10 Amazon gift certificate via email.

You will need to keep the receipt of the count and mail it by 08 November to:

Coinstar GC Offer
PO Box 91258
Bellevue, WA 98009

If you don’t provide an email, the certificate will be sent via postal mail but I recommend providing an email because electronic is better (less opportunity for it to be lost). Also, if you aren’t sure if you have $30 in coins, head over to a bank and ask for thirty bucks in quarters or something.

I’ll probably be doing this sometime later tonight or tomorrow as I’ve been itching to trade in some coins so I can report back on what the form asks for. Incidentally, if you want to avoid the Coinstar fee you can always take it to a Chevy Chase bank to convert them for free (other banks offer this as well).

• Promotion details
• Coinstar locator