Hack the planet(’s bank account)

From May 1st until June 30th, American Express is running a promotion where they will send you a $25 American Express Spring Fling card for every pair of $25 American Express gift cards you purchase. The American Express Spring Fling promotion, as it’s called, allows for two offers per households, for a total of 2 Spring Fling cards available (4 of the $25 cards = 2 of the $25 Spring Fling cards). The only downside is that there is a $3.95 activation fee per gift card so you have to pay that four times for a total of $15.80 - thus reducing your $50 Spring Fling card down to $34.20. You can use the Spring Fling card as a bunch of retailers including Best Buy, Fandango, Borders, and SpaFinder.

Whether or not this deal is worth it to you is up to you, but it’s available. Here is the Spring Fling Rebate and the Spring Fling promotional page.

The allure of cashback on all of your purchases is very tempting, unless you can’t keep track of all of your purchase and find yourself strapped for cash on paydays. One of the easiest and most old fashioned ways to get your spending in check is to always pay in cash. Credit cards, like casino chips, abstract away money and so it makes spending so much easier. A $5 cup of coffee isn’t that expensive if it’s just a swipe of the plastic. The cost hits a little closer to home if you have to pull out Mr. Lincoln and see his smirking little face leave your hands.

Another benefit, beside the immediate pain, is that you probably only carry so much cash on you. You won’t be able to spend $200 in one shot unless you actively plan to spend the $200 beforehand and get the cash. This separates the decision to spend and the decision to withdraw money and that extra step may curb your spending just a little bit.

Lastly, this won’t be some magic anti-spending bullet. You can always withdraw hundreds of dollars and leave it in your wallet, but at least you’ll have to actively make that decision.

If you have been thinking about laddering CDs, whether it’s just for your savings or if it’s for an emergency fund, here’s a pretty straightforward CD laddering tutorial detailing all the specifics of doing so.

Don’t get hung up on the rates of return or the use of ING Direct as the example, you can buy CDs from any bank or from multiple banks. ING Direct was simply used because it’s easy to get to their rates of return and they have great CD laddering online features.

If you don’t have an account with your local credit union, consider opening an account so you can start a relationship with them. Credit unions differ from banks and can offer better rates on many products because they have the credit union member’s in mind. They are a not-for-profit cooperative, where the members “help each” and so the rates are often better than at a commercial bank with commercial interests in mind.

Credit unions also have several other benefits:

• Taxation Benefits: Credit unions don’t have to pay federal income taxes, which was established in 1937 and reaffirmed in 1998 in HR 1151. Not having to pay taxes is a huge benefit.
• Volunteer Boards: Did you know that the board of directors on a credit union is filled with volunteers elected by the credit union’s membership? Yep!

So, consider learning the eligibility requirements for your local credit union and joining!

Stamps.com has a promotional offer where you can get $25 in free postage, a free scale worth $50 (it’s a good scale, I still use it every day), $5 in supplies like labels and stickers, and a four week trial period. I’ve used Stamps.com in the past and they’ve always done a great job for me, never had an issue. In fact, one thing I learned was that if you print Priority Mail postage through Stamps.com or the online USPS interface, you had delivery confirmation absolutely free! I found the Stamps.com interface to be much easier to use than the USPS website for printing out postage.

Ultimately though, I found that I didn’t print enough postage for it to warrant the monthly fee of $15.99 so I canceled it; keeping the postage and scale. Now you must stay at least one month paid to keep the scale, but the postage is yours regardless. It’s an easy way to save $25 quickly.

Stamps.com is an approved licensed vendor of PC Postage for the USPS and has been around for many many years.

If the $25 offer isn’t what you’re looking for, or you don’t want the hassle of the scale, you can always take advantage of their free $5 in postage offer. It lets you try out everything about the service but without any of the headache.

This month, a few of the leader banks from last month fell a little farther than the rest of the pack, but most of the banks fell to be within 25 basis points of 3.00%. WT Direct leads the way with a 3.31% APY if you have $10,000+ to deposit but otherwise the Washington Mutual Checking offer is a pretty good return as well at 3.30%.

Also, ING Direct has a referral program where you can get $25 for signing up and depositing $250. If visit this page if you’d like one of these referrals for ING Direct’s $25 promotional program.

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

The Preferred Rewards Gold Card from American Express has a promotion where you earn 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after your first purchase, which you can redeem for a $100 gift card.

• No annual fee for the first year - $125 Thereafter
• Earn 10,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points after your first purchase with the card - redeemable for a $100 gift card!
• No Pre-Set Spending Limit
• The Membership Rewards® program - Earn 1 Membership Rewards® point for virtually every dollar you spend. You can redeem points for your choice of truly exceptional travel, shopping, and entertainment rewards.
• Gold Card Events - exclusive access to tickets for select concerts, shows, major sporting events, and more in cities nationwide.
• Global Assist® Plus Hotline and many more benefits included.
• Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds.

Chase has a new $100 promotional offer for their Chase Free Checking account with Direct Deposit. Usually an ACH transfer from another bank will count, so link it up with one of your other high yield savings accounts such as ING (need a ING Direct referral?) and that should count. The hundred bucks will be deposited 4-6 weeks after your direct deposit.

Quick points to note:

• New money is required,
• Valid through May 31st, 2008
• Account must be open for six months
• No fee if you have a direct deposit or 5+ debit purchases each statement period

T&C’s:

Offer valid through May 31, 2008. A $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates) is required to qualify for the reward. To qualify for the premium, the account must be opened online and initiate a repeating direct deposit such as payroll, pension or Social Security. The first direct deposit must be initiated within 60 calendar days of account opening. The cash bonus will be automatically deposited into your new account within 4 to 6 weeks of the initial direct deposit, but not considered part of the minimum opening deposit. Limit one personal checking account-related award/premium per customer, per calendar year. Offer not available on account conversions or in combination with any other offer. Checking account must remain open for six months or the bonus will be debited from the account at closing. Account is subject to approval. Cash bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

Offer Details

Wachovia is running a “Save Like A Champion” promotion tied to their 2008 Wachovia Championship PGA Tour event being played this week in Charlotte between April 28th through May 4th. The promotion will give all Wachovia customers with a Way2Save savings account a monthly interest rate for June, July and August that equals the under par score of the winner. If they hit a 7 under par, you get 7% APY for the three months.

The Way2Save program is similar to the Bank of America Keep the Change program. It encourages account holders to use their check card or e-payment by depositing $1 from their checking to a Way2Save savings account with each transaction. The current promotion is that the Way2Save savings account earns 5% APY plus a 5% annual bonus in year one, then 2% APY and a 2% bonus in the 2nd and 3rd years; up to $300 a year. After three years, it gets a regular savings rate. Customers can also transfer up to $100 a month to the Way2Save savings account.

Did you know that if you buy a treasury bill, such as a Series I or Series EE savings bond, at the end of the month, you get the interest for the entire month? Yep, it’s true and it’s a well known hack used by many a treasury investor. I’m not exactly sure why the government calculates it that way but that means you can actually hold a bond for 11 months and get “credit” for the full year.

For example, if you were to buy a savings bond today, you could redeem it April 1, 2009 (you can’t redeem a savings bond within a year). That’s 11 months, rather than the full twelve, because April 2008 counted as a full month even though you bought it on the last day.

If you ever intend to buy savings bonds, do so at the end of the month and double dip on the interest!