Best posts made by meed18

Hey gang. Thanks @jaytrader for inviting me. If this community can be half as successful as the FW community, this could be a great resource. He’re hoping for a bright future!

Most used car sales are as-is/no warranty. It is on you as the buyer to thoroughly inspect the car. If you don’t know enough about cars, get a mechanic to do an inspection. If you don’t do this BEFORE you buy a used car, you have no right to complain about something on the car that was broken before you bought it.

Ugh, just responded to this exact post over at fragile deal. This is what I was worried would happen.

@gwraigty said in Car Rear ended need help in claim with Allstate:

@meed18 said in Car Rear ended need help in claim with Allstate:

Ugh, just responded to this exact post over at fragile deal. This is what I was worried would happen.

I confess to posting some things at both sites, but it’s hard to know how much overlap exists.

I don’t blame anyone for cross posting. I’m just sad that in order to get the best responses, you pretty much have to cross post. I’m sad we fractured into two forums.

@ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

Woot! today is my lucky day ya’ll…I did 3 spins on BW spin game and won 10,000 pts three times in a row. Today is the last day to spin, I’m sending ya’ll my good luck and may one of you win the million points!

You have some great posts, but it would be really helpful to a bunch of people if you tried to cut down on the acronym usage. . Most people have no idea what the BW Spin Game is since this is a thread about Manufactured Spending. You are super heavy in your acronym usage elsewhere too I.E. GCM for Gift Card Mall.

For those that don’t know BW is Best Western and this is the link to the promo https://www.bwinstantrewards.com/

Just read this to my son last night

I don’t get the sip and scan stuff. How do they stop people from going into a 7-11 and scanning the bottle without paying for the drink?

Happy to see that my last useful post from FWF was reproduced here as one of the first finance posts. thanks @marcopolomle !

Just a heads up if you like this deal. Sign up for a CVS extra care card and go online and link your card to your email. I regularly get 25% and 30% off coupons from CVS in my email with no minimum spend. Those beat this 5 off 25 coupon which is essentially a 20% off coupon only if you spend exactly $25.

A base was stolen last night so that means a free taco on 11/1
http://link.mlblists.com/r/CVNAF9/HFB7TM/M9RKRXB/FK8AOR6/P1UFDI/TT/h?a=12040710&b=1027293293

I don’t remember how much a $10 Walmart gift card was with the old mycokerewards program, but it was a lot more than 60 points! This is a fantastic deal, and now I can say “I told you so” to my wife who has been giving me a hard time for keeping all my powerade bottlecaps.

Awesome deal! I knew these things were going to go cheaply as the introduced newer models, so I held off getting one back when they were $100 and then $50. I didn’t know that they would eventually drop this low. The no-name brand universal ones they sell at Walmart are more expensive than this. Great find!

I would wait to enter until you have 10 codes ready to go. If they end the promotion (it says while supplies last and there were lots of “sold out” rewards in their last platform) before you enter all 10, you will probably lose whatever you entered.

So far I received $30 in amazon credit. If I had known they were going to run a promo as good as this one, I wouldn’t have tried to liquidate so many caps right before the old rewards platform shut down. Oh well, I’m just happy I kept collecting caps.

@david-scubadiver said in Common sense rules of banking - tips & tricks !:

If you use an ATM card, make sure your bank reimburses you for ATM fees.
If you use a checkbook, make sure your bank provides free checks and does not require a minimum balance.

Those recommendations are too specific.

My main bank doesn’t reimburse ATM fees, but it’s the closest ATM to my house and they have ATMs almost everywhere. I also have two secondary accounts that do reimburse fees that I keeps some money in, so in a pinch, I can use any ATM for free. I would recommend that people try and pay as little in ATM fees as possible, not that they need to limit themselves to a bank that reimburses ATM fees, though it is a good thing to have in a pinch.

As for free checks, this is such an uncommon thing banks offer today, you would be severely limited if you only banked at places that offer free checks. A $10 order of checks has lasted me over 3 years and I write a check almost every other week. That’s such a small amount of money that getting free checks is a negligible benefit. A better recommendation would be to buy your checks from a discount company instead of directly from the bank. They’re often 50% cheaper.

@honkinggoose said in Common sense rules of banking - tips & tricks !:

I’ve opened 3 checking accounts in the past 6 years where I needed checks. Only one of the banks offered free checking. That didn’t stop me from asking, and getting them for free at all three. I haven’t yet had to re-order.

Good call. It never (well, almost never) hurts to ask!

@ritholtz said in Discover AAA Savings account $150/$200 Bonus with $15,000/$20,000 Deposit at Discover Card:

We got bonus for AA and discover saving accounts. Are we good to close these accounts? Can we close and reapply again?

Thanks

You can close whenever, but this is a one time only bonus, so you can’t reapply and get it again. Considering there is no minimum balance requirement and it pays one of the highest rates out there, I’m not bothering to close my account.

So I’ve been trying to do this and it’s not easy. But once we figure this out, it could be very lucrative.

Here’s my experience so far. When you scan your first Sip and Scan icon (SAS), the coke rewards page recognizes it and gives you credit. But look closely at the SAS on two different bottles of Coca-Cola. They are identical. Scan your second SAS and the website tells you, “You already scanned an icon from this brand. Please scan a different participating Coca-Cola Company brand’s icon.”

Easy peasy, or so I thought. I went and specifically bought a Coke Zero Sugar 20oz and tried to scan that logo and the same rejection came up. I looked closely and the SAS on Coke Zero Sugar is the same as the SAS on Coca-Cola! What the heck, I thought I was supposed to scan different brands. Fine, I’ll find 4 more. Except, NONE of the other bottles at several stores I’ve been to have SAS icons on them. Oddly enough, I found a green SAS by searching google images, scanned it, and it gave me credit for a second scan. Now I just have to figure out how to get 3 more. Is there anyone else out there that has found where to get these SAS icons? I can share the two that worked for me (and hopefully they’ll work for you) if you’re willing to share yours.

Found those last night on SD. Worked for me.

Moderator note: replaced full reference to a competing site with initials.

Is there a way for someone to create a skin that makes this place look like FatWallet Forums? (light grey, dark grey, and white)

@ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

@calwatch without a doubt, it is worthwhile for me because the DS and WMNM I have are uberly MS friendly. When the offer at one DS comes giving free GC when you buy 2 vanillas, my go-to DS does not blink if I buy 2 variables per register, total of $4K in one trip, get my free GCs on each transaction. That comes up to 50% off the fees per K so buying $30K++ in one week is doable. I don’t max out the Ink, the few times I use it are during sync promos or when there are in-store promos for buying VGCs. I use the CFU more for online GC purchase that has worked well for me, when my priority envie comes, I can easily drain them at my go-to WM soon as the CS opens; if I find the YVrep in a good mood and asks me if I want to buy more, I grab the chance to drain up to $10K, 4 strikes of plastics each. It’s really all YMMV and the place where I’m at is very encouraging. BTW, I don’t do delta.

Yes, it’s definitely a lot of work, we have to crunch our numbers (am focusing on CB now) and determine for ourselves if it’s worth our time. I don’t base my numbers on others’ computation. I focus on my goals and how to attain them.

There are so many abbreviations in this post that I have no idea what you are saying.

@David-Scubadiver Nice avatar!

@ruthie said in TopCashback: Extra $3 CB if you spend $10 by 10/15:

Does anyone know which stores at topcashback offer free shipping? I looked for a list at their site but don’t see one.

Probably easier to search which online stores in general offer free shipping or free in store pickup and then see if a store you are interested in is on topcashback. I don’t think topcashback itself keeps a list.

Just ordered without Kohl’s charge and didn’t get the extra $5 Kohl’s cash offer. Still, came out to only $67.12 with all my coupons and $5 in Yes2You rewards money. After $20 rebate, it’ll be $47.12 Clicked through topcashback, so hoping to get a few extra bucks there too.

My wife’s birthday is in two weeks. Hope she won’t mind some new cookware! Thanks for the heads up @MISTERCHEAP

I’ll be going for this probably around the beginning of November. I plan on reporting back to DoC about my data points. I’ll put them up here too.

google your state’s 529 program and start there. no need to go through edward jones and give them your money. they won’t do anything with it that you can’t do on your own.

Please put the price in the title next time.

@ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

I know most readers/followers of this thread are MSers ; in case you’re not one of them and are rookies on this, feel free to ask me if you’re not familiar with any of the acronyms and I can even give you some tips via PM like I’ve done for those who ask NICELY.

How do you “know most readers/followers of this thread are MSers”? For every MSers, there could be a confused rookie who doesn’t understand half of your posts. I’m not an MSer, I follow this thread, and I’ve definitely had to do a little research to figure out a few of the things you posted about. It’s nice that you are willing to offer tips via PM to those who ask nicely, but its not that hard to avoid using uncommon acronyms too.

How does one become an “insider?”

October 31 days + November 30 days + December 31 days = 92 days.
October 31 days + November 30 days + December 1-4 = 65 days.
$100,000 x 92 = $9,200,000
$80,000 x 65 = $5,200,000
9,200,000 - 5,200,000 = 4,000,000
92-65 = 27
$4,000,000 / 27 = $148,148.15

You would need a balance of one hundred forty eight thousand, one hundred forty eight dollars and fifteen cents for the next 27 days in order to have an average daily balance of $100,000 for October through December.

@ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

FYI, you can now pay a bill using the WM app and enter all your info, payment amount and required IDs. Click the Express Money and follow prompts. You have up to 24 hrs to pay at WM (you will be asked to choose a store but IME, I was able to pay at any WM) using the Money Express lane where there is usually no line. You can pay with meta VGCs up to 4 swipes, no paper receipt prints, it’ll be saved in your app account. Go try it and see!

Just want to make sure I’m following you here…

1. Buy a $300 metabank Visa Gift Card with your XYZ Credit Card from ABC merchant
2. Go into the Walmart app
3. Set up a payment for $299 to XYZ Credit Card company (Walmart adds a $1 fee)
4. Go to the Walmart Money center
5. Show them the QR code on your app
6. Pay $300 with the metabank Visa Gift card
7. Your credit card balance is now just $1
8. The whole thing cost only time + $1 and you get the points for the $300 spend

Yes?

@lowpricewanted said in Manufactured spending:

I was thinking there was a higher risk of the government looking over your activities when you’re moving six figures around every year. Most of what I do is real small stuff with a rewards card. The one that is a gray area though is using discounted Lowes gift cards to buy supplies for a client.

If you are using discounted gift cards in the course of doing business, that will decrease your expenses. So in that case, since your business income is higher, there are tax implications.

The government generally doesn’t monitor people’s financial activities (the IRS doesn’t, but if you’re being investigated by the FBI, that’s totally different). Banks are required to file certain paperwork for cash transactions of a certain size, but if you aren’t doing cash transactions, you likely aren’t going to get any extra scrutiny.

I’ve signed up for close to 20 bank accounts in the past year. I don’t know the exact number, but I think I got maybe 2 sets of free checks. And that was only from accounts where I was required to maintain a high balance. Those data points lead me to believe that free checks have gone the way of the dodo. If they haven’t yet, I believe they are headed that way.