Learn To Save Your Money

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is 6A43JK.

Over the weekend my dad received his Verizon FIOS service bill and he called me to take a look at it before he sent the payment. My parents recently subscribed to Verizon FIOS service and the last bill had some errors, which were to be credited on this current statement. Good news is that the credits which we were to receive were in fact credited, but the bad news is I saw two random charges for a total of $10.87.

One charge was for “Games on Demand” and another was for “Starz Play”, neither of which my parents subscribe to. I immediately contacted the Verizon Customer Service number, which is on the bill and spoke to a rep. Luckily this rep was able to help me and she credited the account for these two charges. The rep didn’t know why these charges were on the account either.

This is just a prime example of why one should check their bills before paying their bills. Verizon “accidentally” made a mistake which could have profited them $10.87 if i did not catch this error. Think about how many other subscribers are out there who do not even check their bills and rather just pay the amount shown in the total amount due box.

Image Credit: joesixpacktech

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is 4CW33N.

Over this past weekend I took a weekend trip to NYC to visit my aunt. Instead of driving, I decided to take the Megabus bus to NYC for several reasons. I have used Megabus before and have been very pleased in the past. Since I was traveling by myself it did not make sense to spend money to drive as I would have to pay for tolls, gas, and maybe even some crazy rates for parking.  

Megabus charged $18 each way for taking an early Saturday morning bus and leaving NYC on Sunday evening. As always these buses are clean as well as their drivers usually make it up to NYC and back from NYC faster than it would be if I drove the speed limit. In order to make reservations, one has to visit Megabus’ web site (http://www.megabus.com) and reservations can only be made with a credit or debit card. The web site itself is fairly easy to use. 

My Sunday evening bus was to leave NYC at 6:10 pm, but due to some reason the bus was running late. The representative at the bus stop mentioned that the bus would be there within an hour, but when it came near 7:10 pm the representative mentioned that bus won’t get there for another hour. At this point many passengers waiting in line to board the bus were annoyed. irrated, and losing their pateince. In the mean time there was a 7:45 pm bus which was to leave NYC, but this was supposedly full, as the passengers for this bus were already waiting in their designated line. Out of frustration many passengers in my line asked if we could get first priority to this bus, rather than waiting longer for our original bus. EVentually the reperesentatives and the bus driver agreed to let us board the bus and they were accepting others from the following bus’ line to board this bus if there were extra seats. We did not leave the bus stop till 8:00 pm. 

I was somewhat displeased with this experience since in my past experiences with Megabus, I have not encountered such a long delay. Also the representatives on site can’t help to give a discount or a credit even when the bus was late due to the company’s fault rather than traffic or such other issue. Each repersentative told me to call a toll free number, where I would speak to another representative who told me to call back during the weekdays to speak to a supervisor. I tried to speak with a supervisor this morning, but as usual I was just sent to a generic voicemail system, where I did leave a message. The customer service for the reservations department is useless as they are not helpful at all. I got fed up and then called the credit card company for the card I used to purchase my tickets. Luckilly American Express has great customer service and within a quick 5 min call, a representative was able to issue a credit for my return trip fare. WorldPay, the company who processes Megabus’ credit card transactions has some agreement where AmEx directly resolves disputes with them and AmEx will credit a customer’s account right away rather than having the customer to wait for a charge dispute case to take place. In the end I recieved a credit for my return trip and did not have to deal with trying to contact Megabus’ lousy customer service center. The time to call my credit card company was incredibly less than having to deal with Megabus’ customer service. 

Image Credit: Joshua Feinberg

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is “M6FR97″.

Just wanted to put up a quick post and let everyone know that McDonald’s is offering “free McCafés or medium iced McCafé Coffee” today in honor of Tax Day. More info can be found here.

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is J89LA2. 

If you don’t already know, I love taking advantage of free offers, especially when hardly any work is needed. Monday afternoon I was at a local grocery store and as I was leaving I decided to glance over at the RedBox DVD rental machine and see what movies it had. Someone was in the process of checking out a rental DVD while I was looking at the signs by the machine. This nice random guy happened to say “I have a free rental code that you can use for a one night free rental”. I obviously said “yes” and this person showed me how to apply the code. He also mentioned that if you sign up for the text message notifications from Redbox at their web site, they will text message you promo codes for free rentals.

RedBox is DVD movie rental service which has their machines at popular locations, such as grocery stores, large retail chains, or fast food restaurants. These machines are often noticed by their large red colored machines which have a touch screen LCD. Through this machine one can  easilly rent an available dvd title of their choice. The service charges $1 a night per dvd rental. Pretty much you hit the rent a DVD button on the touch screen, browse the available dvd movie titles, select a dvd you wish to rent, checkout the dvd you want to rent, swipe your credit card (you may be prompted to enter the zip code associated with the billing address of the credit card), enter your email address, the machine dispenses the dvds you selected, and within a few minutes the provided email address will recieve a receipt confirmation in regard to the dvds rented. The process to return a DVD is extremely easy as well. First you hit “Return DVD” button on the touch screen, when prompted insert the DVD into the machine, and you are all set. With returns you will also recieve a confirmation email.

Pretty much RedBox has been offering promo codes to their customers during various days in order to promote their service. During April RedBox is offering coupon codes every Monday for a one night free DVD rental. You can sign up on their web site to recieve the promo code which is sent via a text message to your cell phone or you can obtain the code by simply dong a Google search. During the checkout process you enter this promo code and you are all set. Don’t forget to return the DVD at the same RedBox machine the next day or your credit card will be charged $1 for each day the DVD has not been returned.

This promotion has been a great compliment to my Netflix service, since it seems that Netflix is rather slow to send me newly released movies. Not sure if Netflix is throttling my account or not.

Image Credit: Look In The Tunk

So my sister is heading back to school and has a huge list of text books that she needs for her classes. The bad part is that majority of the books can’t be purchased used since the editions have been updated. My sister is one who opposes buying a used book that has writing or any highlighter marking in it. For me personally, this did not matter in my undergrad days, but with certain classes, especially in grad school I wanted a clean text book. I am all for purchasing text books online. Normally this is a fast and easy process. Once you have the ISBN’s of the book you need, you can easily hit up any of your favorite online book seller sites, such as Half.com, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. I personally would compare prices at all three sites and even consider factors such as shipping time as well as shipping costs. In my sister’s situation the best option for her was to purchase her new text books from Barnes & Noble’s web site. The site had all the books she needed, shipping was guaranteed within a specified time frame, and lastly they have a membership club which entitles members to a additional 10% - 40% discount on purchases online as well as in store. In order to join the club there is an annual $25 fee. In my sister’s case paying the $25 membership fee outweighed the savings she incurred. Most people overlook such programs, but if you are constantly purchasing new books, this may be a program to consider.

Image Credit: Lunawhimsy

First off Happy Thanksgiving! Please be thankful for what you have and make the most of such a holiday by spending time with those close to you.

On Wednesday I went to my local MVA’s emission center to get my car’s emission test completed, which was due within the next 2 weeks. The car that was to be tested is my daily driver/beater car which is an early 90’s Honda. In the past 7 years the car’s power windows seem to be going up and down a lot slower than normal. Due to this I hardly use the windows and have flipped the switch which disables all the windows exept the driver’s window. The employee at the emission center went to put the driver’s window down during the test. My vehicle passed the emissions test, but when I got in the car to put the window up, it would not go up. I tried to put the window up a few minutes later, but it still would not go up. Next I thought I could pull and then push the window up with some force, yet this did not work. Unfortunately I had to return to work, but luckily my car is parked in a secure lot. Only problem was that it rained a lil that afternoon. I tried to cover the driver’s seat and part of the door panel with some spare towels I had. Before leaving to go home I “Googled” to see if anyone has fixed such window issues. I was ready to drop my car off that evening at my local mechanic’s shop and pay them to fix this. They have done this before for one of my rear passenger windows. Upon checking out some forums and we sites, I decided that I could try to fix my window poblem. Heck, it was already broken, so I can’t do much more damage. When I got home, I opened the driver’s door panel and saw that the window was off the power window motor’s rail. I put the window back on the rail and then connected the door panel wiring to make sure the power window worked. After testing the switch, I put the window up. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, I disconnected the cable which goes to the power controls of the windows. Soon I put the door panel back together. All of this took about an hour and I guess it saved me about $100 which I was ready to spend at the mechanic’s.

The advise I wish to give is don’t have any fear at trying to fix something yourself. Ofcourse, this may vary from situation, but if something is broken, research how to fix the problem, and try to fix the problem. Through this you learn a new skill and save some money.