Hack the planet(’s bank account)

If you are an ING Direct customer and don’t know about their referral program, you are missing out on an easy way to earn $500. The ING Direct referral program lets your refer up to 50 of your friends to ING Direct.

Simply log into your account and look at the bottom of the screen. You should see a white button with an orange megaphone with the text “Earn up to $500, Refer A Friend.” Click that and you will be able to email some of your friends to join ING Direct. When they open an account and fund it with $250, they get $25 and you get $10. You can do this fifty times, so fifty of your friends can themselves earn $25 while you earn a cool ten bucks for very little work!

Not a bad deal huh? The bonus is taxed as bank interest income and will appear on your 1099-INT.

Did you know that your employer has teamed up with Bank of America and that you can get $50 for opening a MyAccess Checking account online? That’s right! Visit this Bank of America account sign up page, use the code GROUP50, and fund your account with $25 within 30 days. You then need to set up a monthly scheduled transfer or direct deposit of $25+ and you will get $50 in 90 days.

Be sure to review the terms & conditions for specific offer instructions and check for fees.

Found this gem on Fatwallet Finance forums.

This hack is one of the oldest in the book – if you want to get the best price on something, shop around. If you’re hiring a contractor to do some home improvement work on your house, request bids from at least three different companies. If you’re going to buy new furniture, shop around at a few different stores. Not only will you get a good sense of what the market price for something is, you also get an idea of who you would like to work with and what types of styles you like.

The same thing extends to insurance. With insurance, shopping around is easy because you can do a lot of the work at your computer. You don’t need to drive around to different furniture stores and you won’t need to set up quote meetings with contractors. One of the places I usually get quotes from, for insurance anyway, is a place called NetQuote.

With financial products, it’s very difficult to know what place is reputable and what is just a fly by night shop happy to sell your sensitive information to the highest bidder. With a company like NetQuote, you enter in a few pieces of information and you get several quotes right then and there. You can easily compare it to what you’re paying right now and make a decision. They will get quotes from some of the biggest insurance names like Allstate, Farmers, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, and Progressive. They have quotes for auto insurance, homeowners and renters insurance, health insurance, life insurance and even business insurance. They have the whole gamut.

Another nice “feature” I’ve learned is that I don’t get a lot of phone or email spam after I get a quote. When you go with a less reputable place, they will sell you as a lead to whomever will buy an insurance lead. That’s why you get a million phone calls after you request a mortgage quote and why your email is packed with emails from agents. I’ve only done it once or twice with NetQuote but I never got pounded with solicitations.

If you’ve used them before, I’d love to hear your experience.

Chase has a new travel credit card called the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and they’re offering 25,000 bonus points after your first purchase. The 25,000 points can be converted into $250 in gift cards.

Benefits

1:1 POINT TRANSFER TO LEADING AIRLINE AND HOTEL PROGRAMS.
With Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer your points at full value to some of the industry’s leading frequent flyer and hotel programs, making it easy to “top off” your account.

TRAVEL REWARDS TAKE YOU 25% FURTHER.
Your points are 25% more valuable when you book flights online with our Travel Booking Tool. That means a flight that normally costs $350 can be yours for only 28,000 points. So you can fly for fewer points now and keep some points for your next reward.

ANNUAL POINT BONUS.
You’ll automatically receive 10,000 bonus points when you make purchases of $50,000 or more per year on your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.*

FIRST YEAR FREE. $95 ANNUAL FEE THEREAFTER.
The card is free for your first year. After the first year, the annual fee is $95.00.

Worth a look see!

Despite the recent decline in interest rates across all bank deposit products, certificates of deposit still offer a pretty good value compared to other savings options. Whether you look for a no-penalty CD, like one you’d find at Ally Bank, or just a traditional CD with a higher rate, saving with a CD beats putting your money in a checking account earning 0.01% (if anything!).

Where can you find the best bank CD rates? I maintain an updated list of all competitively rated CDs for maturity yields of less than 24 months (2 years). I typically don’t put my savings into a CD for more than two years because interest rates are usually on the unpredictable side, at least when you go out that far.

One thing to consider is that with a CD your principal is FDIC insured and protected from loss, but they are not without risk. If you’re earning 2% on a CD and inflation is 3%, you’re actually losing 1% each year. Of course, in a 0% checking account, you’re losing 3%. CDs are simply the better of several evils.

If you don’t have a Bank of America checking account and have been waiting for a promotion or bonus to come along, wait no more. Bank of America has a $100 checking account bonus for new qualifying or business checking accounts. You can get $75 for opening a new account with a $250 deposit and make a purchase with your debit card. You get an additional $25 for making two bill payments within thirty days.

Sign up at this promotion page and use promotion code WIWGASINT for a personal checking account, SBECASH for a business checking account.

As always, check the fine print for any gotchas.

If you don’t have a Capital One Direct banking account yet, they’re running a $50 bonus promotion where you can get $50 if you deposit $10,000 or more. They also offer a 2.01% APY interest rate, which is pretty good compared to the competition.

Just go to the offer page and open an account using offer code OFFER50. Expires April 15th, 2009.

Terms & Conditions:

You will receive a $50 interest credit if you open a Capital One Direct Banking savings account, money market account or certificate of deposit by 04/15/2009, provide the offer code at the time of account opening, and have atleast $10,000 on deposit on 05/8/2009. This account must be your first account with Capital One Direct Banking. Interest credits will be deposited to your account 4-6 weeks after 05/29/2009. APY in effect as of 3/18/2009. 2.01% APY applies to account balances of $100,000 or more, $50,000–$99,999.99, $25,000–$49,999.99 and $10,000–$24,999.99. 1.01% APY applies to balances of $5,000–$9,999.99, $100–$4,999.99 and $0.01–$99.99. Minimum initial deposit amount is $1. Terms and conditions of this offer may change at any time. Rates are variable and may change at any time. Withdrawks by online transfer are limited to six per calendar month. This offer may not be combined with any other offers. Offer expires 04/15/2009.

LendingClub is one of the most popular peer to peer social lending networks and they’re running a promotion where you get $25 if you sign up for a lender account. They’re trying to grow their membership rosters and you get the benefit, to the tune of $25!

Here’s how you do it:

• Sign up to LendingClub through this signup link. You must use that link to be eligible for the $25 bonus.
• Register for a new account by entering the necessary information.
• You will be asked to verify your identity and add a bank account.
• LendingClub will withdraw less than $1 to confirm the account is yours.
• Once the bank account is confirmed, deposit at least $1 and the $25 will be credited to your account.

At this point you can do whatever you want with the bonus. If you are eligible to invest in your state, I recommend investing in a loan because you have nothing to lose and you might earn the average 12% return on money that isn’t even yours to begin with!

Metropolitan National Bank has a $200 bonus promotion if you’re willing to jump through a few hoops and sign up for their free personal checking. You can apply outside of New York but you’ll have to send a copy of your driver’s license and a copy of a utility bill to verify your name and address. You’ll also have to send a copy of your paycheck to verify a direct deposit. It’s a little more work but it is a $200 bonus.

Terms & Conditions:

Free checking $200 bonus offer is subject to change without notice, limited to one account per customer. Free checking $200 bonus requires activating full, direct deposit ($500 minimum) of recurring payroll, government benefits or pension disbursements. $200 bonus will be credited to the account (approximately 30 days) after first full, qualifying direct deposit posts to your account. The initial qualifying direct deposit must be made within 60 days of account opening. We also require that qualifying, full direct deposits be made continually for no less than six months from the date of the initial qualifying direct deposit. Should these deposits be terminated or the account closed prior to six months, any paid bonus will be charged from your account or shall be otherwise due to us. The bonus is considered interest and will be reported to the IRS with form 1099-int.

Provident Bank is giving away $123 for new Provident Checking Account holders if you open before March 31st, this is the easy three step process:

• Step 1: Choose and open your checking account, plus order your FREE MasterMoney™ debit card.
• Step 2: Sign up for Direct Deposit.
• Step 3: Start using your new account and get $123.

Terms & Conditions:

* Provident Bank will award $123 to personal checking customers that open a new Totally Free, Regular, Interest or Platinum checking account between February 2 and March 31, 2009 that have direct deposit and an active Provident MasterMoney™ debit card by April 30, 2009. Customers that enroll in Provident Bank’s Power Points debit card rewards program by April 30, 2009 will receive 500 bonus points by May 31, 2009. Limit one per household. Employees and their families of Provident Bank and its subsidiaries are not eligible for this offer. Minimum opening deposit of $25 is required for all personal checking accounts. Checking account Annual Percentage Yields as of January 21, 2009: Interest: .10%; Platinum .25%. Yields may vary after account is opened and may vary by branch location. Fees can reduce earnings. The cash award will be deposited into qualifying personal checking accounts in good standing on or about May 31, 2009. The maximum award for this promotion is $123. Customers will be responsible for applicable taxes. Offer valid for limited time and cannot be combined with other promotional offers.