MaximizingMoney.com is giving away 10 Flip Video Cameras during the American Express Charge Card Holiday Giveaway promotion through December 31, 2009.
Update: The Flip Video Camera contest from American Express charge cards has ended and the winners have been selected. Thank you to everyone who participated.
To give our readers a taste of the types of rewards that are available through the Membership Rewards program, American Express is sponsoring this Flip Video Camera Giveaway Contest on MaximizingMoney.com, so that 10 of our readers can win 1 Flip Video Camera each.
How to Enter to Win a Free Flip Video Camera
To enter to win a Flip Video Camera, you simply need to answer the following question in our comments section below.
“What is the savviest way you have made your money work harder for you this holiday season?”
Just answer this question in our comments section for a chance to win 1 of 10 free Flip Video Cameras.
Comments may be entered through December 31, 2009, in order to qualify for a chance to win.
The 10 best comments will be selected to win a free Flip Video Camera.
You must leave a valid email address with you comment, which we will use to contact you if you are a winner.
Winners will be contacted for delivery information after December 31, 2009, and the free Flip Video Cameras will be delivered in January of 2010.
If we are unable to receive a response from a winner via email within 5 days, we may have to select a different winner, so please leave a valid email address.
American Express Charge Cards
American Express Charge Cards offer the Membership Rewards program, which allows you to earn points that you can redeem for some of this season’s hottest items, such as an HP mini, cool video games, or the Flip Video Camera as well as millions of other rewards.
Charge Cards from American Express also help you avoid getting yourself into debt, because you have to pay off your balance in full every month, which also means you have no interest charges.
You can build your credit history with American Express Charge Cards as well.
American Express Offers the Following Charge Cards
Platinum Card from American Express
Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card
American Express Preferred Rewards Green Card
American Express Charge Cards offer some great bonus promotions for new card members, so it’s a great time to Apply for an AMEX Charge Card.
Enter to Win a Flip Video Camera on MaximizingMoney.com
We are extremely excited to be hosting this American Express Flip Video Camera Holiday Giveaway, and we’re happy to give 10 of our readers a chance to win a free Flip Video Camera for the holidays.
Thank you in advance for entering the contest and good luck to you.
I developed a drag net of five or six websites that have the best bank/broker signup bonus deals including, reward checking, checking, US Mint direct ship, interest rates, credit cards and other deals. It seems like between all the web sites no deal slips by. Maximizing Money is included as one of the best. I have received GPS’s, toolboxes, free telephones and lots of cash. Christmas cost me nothing as everything was paid for by the bonus, stuff I got free and there was a lot left over. I even bought us a 40” inch flat panel TV with some of the left over money. The deals have made a very, very good return on my money. For example, open a checking account for $ 50.00 (comply with the requirement) and get a $ 150.00 + GPS. If the rate of return is a measure of hard work, then my money is working very hard even though this was very easy work. About as hard as turning the bucket up to catch more of the raining money.
The savviest way in which I made my money work for me was to constantly stay logged in and surf the internet for the best deals. Please enter me in the contest to win a free flip video camera. Thank you!
The savviest way I have made my money work harder for me this holiday season is by using my Chase Freedom card to purchase all the gifts I bought for family members. And I earned points for using my card, which I redeemed for cash. So I got some extra cash for buying gifts I was going to buy anyways.
How my money worked hard and i’m hardly workin! 1- I convinced both my families to draw names for christmas presents this year! 2- I took advantage of not 1, not 2, but 3 (count em!) 3 Chase cash bonus rewards that I found out about through Maximizing Money! 3- Bought my dad a gently used masaging chair at half the price off ebay! 4- Instead of buying new tires to replace my bald ones (I live in Michigan) I just drove slower and tried to enjoy the skidding and sliding! 5- I cancelled my Comcast cable and just like I had hoped…… they were to busy to shut it off!!!!! Thanks for everything Maximizing Money!
I love this site. I have saved so much and capitalized on so many bank and credit card offers so thank you. The best way I made my money work hard for me this year was to shop all year. I started in January and knowing that I had TONS of time, I could be really picky and get the very best deals on the items I thought my young kids would like. I also shopped for gently used books (and even toys) at yard sales this past summer. I really believe in not going spending crazy at Christmas for my children, but providing them something exciting. This week, I pulled everything out to see what I needed. I was so happy to find that I had everything I needed and I haven’t spend a dime this month, when usually things are tight! Thank you!
My money savings actually started by spending to get a Blackberry (on sale online of course). But then the savings started:
Step 1 – download RSS reader to get automatic updates from websites. Step 2 – sign up for RSS feeds from slickdeals.net, maximizingmoney.com, mybanktracker.com, etc – I think i am up to about 12 sites so far. Step 3 – check the RSS feed a few times a day, looking for daily, weekly, and longer specials. Step 4 – when a sale is happening, buy it! Or, when a bonus is offered, open it! So far this holiday season shopping has been almost exclusively online, haven’t paid for shipping yet either. Online sales…free shipping…and less gas used from not sitting in traffic to shop! Now that’s how to be a savvy shopper this holiday season.
I have done nothing different during the Holidays than I do anytime during the year. Coupon-bargain shopping is a way of life. One of my proudest accomplishments however during the Holiday season is the 1-2 punch approach! I am a frequent traveler and stay at Holiday Inn’s for the most part due to the fact that I can order store gift cards with my points. I then combine those gift cards with sales and coupons to really make out. I never leave the house without a list and pre-printed coupons from the internet. Strategic strikes are in order to make the Holiday $ go much farther than they normally would!
I used bing.com/cashback to check for cash rebates on big item purchases for christmas presents. Should be getting a nice check back in about 6 weeks.
Also purchasing 3*5 gallon gas containers and filling them up everytime I fill the car with free fuelperk points from the supermarket means $74 of free gas each time I do this – all for a one off payment of about $15
Just posting to leave my email addy. Thanks Max!
The savviest way I saved money was by using the internet to find deals. Turbotax is a great software that ensured the calculations for my taxes were done correctly. By using it, I was confident that I paid the correct amount instead of more than necessary. I joined retailers’ Facebook groups to keep updated with special deals, sales, and available coupons. I signed up for emails from retailers and restaurants to receive periodic coupons. I use websites such as eBay and Amazon to purchase items at a lower price than in actual stores. I use mint.com to help manage my money. Through it, I can set limits on how much I want to spend monthly and it will tell me my progress as well as how much I saved the past month. This allows me to be keep track of my finances and be aware of where my money is at all times. These simple steps that I take throughout the year to save money allow me to have extra money leftover at the end of the year to spend during the holiday season.
This holiday season is precious to me…..Because,I am going to celebrate this year in America..Being an Indian,I don’t know anything about shopping in US.
But on browsing through intrenet,I was able to save much more money.Below are the steps thru which I have made my money work harder.(i)Before going to buy groceriesand dresses I will browse for the retail coupons,store coupons and other coupons.(ii)For buying electronics,I used to surf the sites for online deals,I will prefer some products with free shipping.(iii)I have joined in many links and blogs,thru which i am able to know the money saving ideas and deals.
Maximizing Money is the predominant one ,which publishes deals in all categories…thankful to you…I hope ,I shall win this camera….
My favorite way to maximize my money this holiday season was the virtualbank.com referral program. This was such a mutually benefical program because myself and the person I referred would each get a $20 bonus added to our accounts. It was easy and mutually beneficial to invite friends, family or even strangers since both parties would benefit by receiving the $20 bonus.
The number one thing I did to maximize my money this year was shop around. I printed off retailer coupons for all food items. I eat organic foods so I frequently go to the actual home pages of the companies I buy from and printed off coupons. Fifteen minutes spent and I saved more than 70 dollars. I also use ebay to maximize my money. I use a safeway card at the store which increases my savings by giving me a fuel savings rate. We made all of our gifts this year by buying old fabrics and yarn from second hand stores. Our family has just one income and so extra money is hard to come by. We are taking the money we are saving and throwing it towards becoming debt free. So all grocery and gas savings are being thrown towards debts making it more crucial to save.
I love saving money if at all possible! My family knows that and I do what I can to save anywhere!! I clip lots of coupons and match their sales with the coupons. Of course checking all ads before I go anywhere FIRST.
I love using my gift cards in conjunction with sales and my coupons. I get my gift cards from usually MyPoints, Swagbucks, Reward Port, etc. For magazines, I get them free at E-Rewards for doing surveys and I make great use out of them passing them on to family Members so they don’t have to pay for them! I also use YouData and you can earn a little bit of cash just by clicking on a few ads.
If shopping online, you can get online codes for certain stores. You just do a simple search for like ‘coupon codes for Target’ or ‘free shipping codes’. You can use rebates places like Mr. Rebates for Cash back.
I use my credit cards to pay for purchases that I make and earn rewards and turn it in for cash.
Also, I send small donations off to a Ministry and I receive an item/items from them. I’ll put them up on E-bay and make a profit off of them!
Traveling for Christmas? If you can, try flying out on the Christmas Day to save money! Costs will be cheaper for sure.
I’ve found that homemade gifts work well. Use what you have at home already to make something nice for someone. They will appreciate the thought and love that came from something that you made for them.
Pretty nice ways to help save money and even in some cases, help me make a little bit of money!!
Thanks for this wonderful chance to win! I would LOVE a FLIP Camera and would totally do FLIPS for it!!!! Hoping….
purposedrivenlife4you at gmail dot com
Hello! I think the savviest way that I made my money work harder for me this holiday season is to find deals online that makes the most out of my money. I for some reason developed a habit of feeling bad whenever I spend money, even if the item is very cheap. The best way to get over this is to buy as much as possible while spending the least amount of money as possible. I like to use a calculator to calculate how much I spend and how much I save. Isn’t it funny? You spend to save money. I usually find the best deals on slickdeals. Free shipping, bing cashback, cashback rewards card, deals, and coupons are a must when shopping online. Like I said, I want the most out of my money. I skim through slickdeals or similar sites to make sure the item I want is the best deal possible! I wouldn’t buy it otherwise. It hurts my wallet too much.
The best thing we probably did to save money was to save money all year long for gifts. We had the money in an ING savings account (earning interest). We bought most of our gifts when they were on sale online via ebates or mypoints, thus getting points for the purchase. I then used my credit card to pay for the purchases, earning some reward points there in the process too – essentially double rewards. And then promptly paid off the credit cards with the money saved up. So we make our money work more on the gifts that we would have bought anyway:
1) Interest money from the money saved all year long
2) Points/cashback from mypoints.com and ebates
3) Credit card reward points.
The gas I save by not going to the malls and circling it a million times to find a parking spot, and spending more time with my husband in front of the fireplace is just a bonus
There are a lot of ways to save money during the holidays
* Use credit cards to pay for purchases and earn rewards for buying something you already would (but only if you have money to pay it off the same month)
* If shopping online, use rewards sites like mypoints to hit up some points. Also most sites have free shipping coupons floating around
* If you have to travel during Christmas, try flying out on the day of Christmas to save money. This way you can spend Christmas morning at your home and yet meet family and fares will definitely be cheaper
* Another tip would be not to get too caught up with Black Friday deals and such. Find out the cost of the item a week before and see if you are truly getting a discount. Sometimes even when the store tells you it’s 50% off, it might be at 40% off otherwise
* Use swagbucks, Coinstar, mypoints and redeem for gift cards that can be given out as gifts or can be used to purchase gifts
* Homemade cookies, fudge etc can be a great Christmas gift, especially for bachelors and other kitchen challenged people. Double points if you can give something that can be frozen and used for a long time
Hi,
I stay in Atlanta. This holiday season was the best for me because i enjoyed a wonderful trip with my friends for which i didn’t have to pay( in fact i made some money for myself even after all the expenses). I wanted to go to Gainesville since i had friends there. I found out that the cheapest way to reach there was by a car. I posted an ad in craigslist saying that i am ready to help anyone with travel during holiday season. To my astonishment, i got many mails asking for the same and i selected the ones which had destination Florida. I was approached by a group of four from which neither had a license and they wanted to go to both tampa and orlando. They wanted to go to Tampa followed by Orlando. This was perfect for me and they agreed to pay me a net amount of 1000$(for 3 days,gas separate) for which i readily agreed. I dropped them in Tampa first and then went to my friends place and spent a day in Gainesville(2 hr drive from tampa). i got a call the next day evening asking me to drop them in orlando. i did the same and spent another day in gainesville(1.5 hr drive from orlando). It did need a simple effort of driving which i actually love but i saved a total of 500$ even after partying and adding up all the expenses of my trip. This would personally remain as one of the craziest thing whici fetched money for me in my life.
Cheers!
Thanks for maximizingmoney.com for posting all the latest offers.
I made my money work harder for me through a combination of things. I am one of the nuts that enjoys shopping on black friday, so i headed out for a few of the early-morning in-store only deals, saving over 50% on some items. Then when I got home, I used websites to order other black friday specials to ship directly, saving on shipping for everything.
Other ways of being savvy about my money this holiday season is setting store alerts from various retail websites – getting emails every day with items on sale, coupons, internet specials, etc – its a lot of email to sift through, but is well worth it to save a good amount on most things!
Finally, using a combination of debit and credit cards to pay for everything – debit for smaller purchases (and getting the most rewards from my bank for debit purchases by processing them as signature transactions – usually banks reward more for signature versus PIN) and credit card for larger purchases at retailers that partnered with my card provider to give larger rewards/cash back. By knowing which cards to use when, it maximizes my rewards and cash back.
The most pleasant way that i made my money work harder is by introducing website like Fatpeas.com and let your surrounding friends understand that purchasing items online you shall be receiving rebates in return, also rewarding myself for a nice 1 dollar! Win-Win Situation.
To Maximize your money, sometimes you could help a “trusted” friend to purchase a item on ebay by using rebates website to earn additional 1%-8% cash back, also credit card reward points, and also Ebay Bucks!
You gotta turn yourself into a Sales! Do some calculation for them in 1 year and let them know that by using the right saving websites would save them the total amount of cash in exchange for something additional that they want in the upcoming year.
One of those right website is MaximizingMoney.com!
The best money tricks I have done this year are:
1) Really ask myself if I “need what I want” and I think it terms of every $1 saved and invested is a stream of income that will come to me the rest of my life
a. For example I live in a much smaller place than I could afford and though it has its issues the rent I am saving allows me to invest
b. Read the “Richest Man in Babylon” easy to read but so clear in its message about finances
2) I walk to run my errands – which not only allows me to save money (I have heard it costs 50 cents every time you start your car) but I also can get in a good workout and lose some weight
3) Salvation Army – bought an awesome leather jacket for $20
4) Negotiate heavily on floor samples – My parents wanted a TV and they had been waiting for over a year to get one. They ended up getting a 52 inch with a 4 year warranty for less than the same TV at another retailer without the warranty – you have to negotiate – you can on almost anything
5) Going to student schools to get haircuts, treatments – they offer services at much cheaper prices
6) I really learned this year that you need to buy good quality. Don’t buy things just because they are on sale – spend for quality and they need to fit
a. I was able to buy a small credit card holder from Coach this year at its BF sale for $20. The year before I debated getting it and instead got a cheap copy for $10 which died on me within the year. So instead of only spending $20 for the coach wallet I spent $30 including the wallet I went cheap on
b. I bought a pair of Alden’s for $300 about 15 years ago and they are still around and in good shape that is about $20 a year. I have also bought $100 shoes that did not last for more than a year
c. FIT matters! I almost bought these Polo jeans that originally retailed for $200 for like $35 but then I realized it didn’t quite fit and then I would have to pay to make alterations and it still might not look right – I realized if I had to do that much to make it look right, I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing it. I bought $20 GAP jeans that looked and fit better
7) Find extra money if you are going to splurge (but buy quality!). I really would like a nicer watch but my current watch tells time fine. So I decided to allow myself to create a fund where I could throw all “found” money so that I wasn’t penalizing myself in other ways for this extravagance. Things like bank bonuses and selling things I never used go into the fund. Despite constantly saving people need to have some fun and enjoyment – so I am allowing myself a nice watch
8) Entertainment – there is so much legal free entertainment it makes no sense to pay for it anymore
9) Inventoried my expenses and cut out expenses that were not essential – my car went off of factory warranty so I and considering getting the car serviced by a local mechanic vs the factory trained ones. My friend saved $200 by not taking his car to BMW to get an oil change and went to a local place instead (synthetic oil)
10) Had a heart to heart with myself on what was really important – living it up or having a future. There is an expression you can play now and pay later or pay now and play later – whatever you do last you do longest. I decided that I didn’t want to work forever
11) At Christmas instead of doing Secret Santas and having a high budget, we did White Elephant not only for the joke gifts but also one for the $50 gifts and we never had so many laughs and such a good time and we all spent less than what we did in previous years
12) I made more food at home this year, I ate healthier and lost weight while saving money
13) I also would leverage the all you can eat buffets (like souplantation) with a later lunch that would allow me to eat a smaller dinner.
14) I used Black Friday as an opportunity to buy things that I needed including socks and boxers
15) When I am headed home to visit my family or friends, I always joke about laundry and end up bringing it home or over and do it at their place while we are hanging out
16) Enjoy the outdoors for free. I live in LA and there are a lot of nice things you can do outside for free. I have lived in LA for over 10 years and I never have been down to the pier or walked along the Santa Monica Beach (I have walked the other beaches). So I went with my neighbor on the bus and saved money on gas and parking and had a nice time for nothing. Also there were some exhibits like the Berlin Wall that were free to go to this year.
17) Follow sites like dealcatcher.com woot.com for those special deals. Don’t buy just because it is cheap but maybe one of the items is something you have been looking for.
18) Read, Read, Read – I realized that my personal finances was like a business so I needed to get educated. Blogs like MaximizingMoney taught me a lot for free – thanks!
Using this site I’ve been able to receive the following from my local banks: (Some were direct responses from posted links and others were from advice from this site to check my local banks for special deals)
$125. from Key Bank.
$125. from Chase Bank.
iPod from 1st Bank Colorado
$225 from CO State Bank and Trust
$50 from Bank of America
Camera from WellsFargo.
$75 from TCF Bank
All in all I’ve made over $700 by using tp://www.maximizingmoney.com. It’s also got me to research other ways to receive free money; I found a program from my employer that pays me $500 a year for making good healthy living choices.
I found this site to be the little kick in the butt I needed to take that extra step, to put in the extra 5 minutes of work to make extra money that’s being offered by companies. I was able to pay for all my Christmas gifts as well as a trip from CO to MN with the bonus money I made this holiday season as a direct result of this website.
Hey Max, wondering who won this contest? Thanks!
Hello Becky,
Since some people used their full names with their comments or may otherwise be identifiable, I don’t know if they would feel comfortable with us revealing them as the winners, so I didn’t want to post any specifics.
Everybody left great comments and ideas, and lots of people deserved to win the camera, but unfortunately, we had to pick only 10 to receive the prize.
If any winners wish to leave their comments here, then I’ll leave that to them, but we otherwise appreciate everybody’s participation.
Thank you.