Archives for April 2009

Zecco April Fools’ Day Error Aftermath

Posted on April 6, 2009 // 8 Comments

Apparently my post on the million dollar account balances at Zecco Trading got picked up by The Consumerist over the weekend, but the tone was changed with the inflammatory title “Worst April Fools’ Day Joke Ever: Zecco Pretends To Give Away Millions”. People got excited, the SEC got involved, and the entire post over there has since been revised (see URL for original title) to incorporate the official reply from Zecco:

On April 1, 2009, one of our vendors provided Zecco Trading with an incorrect data feed which caused some customers to see erroneously high buying power. This error was quickly corrected, but about 1% of our customers were impacted. All positions in excess of our customers’ true buying power have since been closed. Except in a very small number of egregious and fraudulent cases, customers will not be responsible for losses (or gains) incurred for trades in excess of their buying power.

Additionally, we want to make it clear that contrary to some reports, this was not in any way intentional and was not an April Fool’s joke. We take the integrity of our customers’ accounts very seriously and we have taken measures to ensure this does not happen again. We sincerely apologize to our customers if this caused any confusion.

To be fair to Zecco, I never said it was an April Fools’ joke, I only said it happened on April Fools’ Day and because of that there was (understandable) speculation as to whether it was a joke or a system glitch. It turns out it was the latter. Either way, it’s always a bad idea to spend money that you know isn’t yours.

Filed Under: Investing //

Free Experian PLUS Credit Score From American Express

Posted on April 6, 2009 // 14 Comments

American Express is temporarily offering a peek at your Experian PLUS credit score. This is Experian’s own proprietary credit score, but is the best you can get from Experian since you can no longer get your FICO Score based on your Experian credit report. (Only Equifax and Transunion.) PLUS has a range of 330-830 as opposed to the FICO range of 300-850.

You can either try this link or log in and look for “View your complimentary Credit Score & Report now.” under Card Options. It is free, and appears to be promoting their CreditSecure paid product. You do not need to enroll in CreditSecure to get your free score.

From their site:

How much does My Credit Score & Report cost?
My Credit Score & Report is a complimentary benefit offered exclusively to American Express Cardmembers. You pay absolutely nothing. Simply sign up to gain access to your Credit Score and Report.

How long will I be enrolled in My Credit Score & Report?
Your enrollment in My Credit Score & Report will last 30 days. After 30 days, you will no longer have access to your complimentary Credit Score and Report. If you wish to continue enjoying access to your Credit Score and Report, you may enroll in CreditSecure.

As always, you can get your free credit reports (not scores) at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Gift Code for Free Insurance Kit + Will & Trust Kit From SuzeOrman.com

Posted on April 6, 2009 // 5 Comments

Suze Orman is giving away her stuff again!

Insurance Kit
I’m not 100% sure of what all this kit provides you, but it appears to be some sort of questionnaire which helps determine your insurance needs. I’ll try it out myself shortly. From the site:

This one-of-a-kind program provides you and your family with an instant, on-line evaluation of your insurance needs. Suze’s Insurance Kit provides easy to understand, step-by-step advice to help you determine if you have the right coverage in place for all the important areas of your life.

It also includes a disaster simulator and a online home inventory tracker which can store photos and receipts in case of an insurance claim.

To get your free activation code, enter the following gift code: “people first“.

Will and Trust Kit
Based on a question-and-answer format, this software includes the ability to create a will, a revocable trust, Financial Power of Attorney, and an Advanced Directive / Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare. I’m not sure how this compares to a more established legal service like LegalZoom which I had considered using up until now (I used them to incorporate my home business), but they charge about $100 for a basic will.

I would think that it would at least be an acceptable stopgap solution for those with simple estates, but for those who have lots of assets or complex issues, hiring an attorney would be worth the extra cost. I think having an advanced healthcare directive is an even better idea. Remember, it’s your family that will have to deal with all this! Do them a favor.

To get your free activation code, enter the same gift code: “people first“.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Insurance //

RecycleBank: A Rewards Program For Recycling

Posted on April 3, 2009 // 12 Comments

We are surrounded by rewards programs. I have a club card to shop at the Safeway grocery store, where I can buy some soda with “Coke Rewards” points, and I can also earn United frequent flier miles based on my total purchase amount. Finally, I pay for everything with a credit card that gets me cash back.

Now, here’s a rewards program to help us recycle more. With RecycleBank, each participating household gets a recycle bin with a computer chip that helps you track how much you recycle. The more you recycle, the more points you earn, which can be redeemed for purchases at stores like CVS pharmacy and Home Depot. You can earn up to $540 annually.

The municipality wins as well, because now there is less waste being sent to landfills, which lowers their costs dramatically. Both RecycleBank’s income and the consumer rewards come from these savings. According to this Time article, recycling rates in one of the first Philadelphia neighborhoods that RecycleBank served rose from 7% to 90% in a matter of months.

Not a bad idea at all! I agree that most people like the idea of recycling, but many of us could use a push in our busy lives. The only catch, really, is that even though are expanding, there are still only a relatively limited number of participating cities. See if yours is on the list.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Frugal Recession Links: Food, Travel, and Healthcare

Posted on April 3, 2009 // 7 Comments

Here are some more potentially money-saving links:

Walgreens Offers Free Limited Healthcare For Unemployed
The Take Care Recovery Plan is an offer for free healthcare services at Walgreens Take Care Clinics throughout the remainder of 2009 for those families that suffered a job loss after March 31, 2009 and have no health insurance benefits. The offer includes most services for the treatment of illnesses and injuries currently provided at Take Care Clinics, including treatment and tests for common family illnesses such as colds, cough, flu, upper respiratory conditions and minor skin conditions.

Cici’s Pizza – Pick Up Pennies Promotion
Cici’s pizza is dropping a million pennies around their restaurants. The pennies are essentially coupons which might be good for a free meal, so keep your eyes open. I haven’t been to a Cici’s since high school.

Old Spaghetti Factory – 40% off on Tuesdays
To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Old Spaghetti Factory has a special menu on Tuesdays for lunch or dinner where you can receive 40% off their Pasta Classics. My favorite dish is their pasta with brown butter and mizithra cheese, which is only $5.99. Not bad considering you also get bread, salad, and ice cream. Good until 5/26/09.

One-Way Travel Discounts
Want to save on a car rental, RV rental, or cruise? When companies relocate fleets, you can get great one-way deals. It might be interesting to work one of these into a cheap getaway.

300 Free Continental OnePass Frequent Flier Miles
Each of three boxes offers you 100 miles for learning about a new feature and entering your OnePass number. Quick and painless. The free checked baggage feature if you have one of their credit cards doesn’t sound too bad if you fly with them a lot.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Zecco April Fools’ Day: Million Dollar Account Balances

Posted on April 2, 2009 // 43 Comments

I didn’t hear of any exceptional April Fools’ Day jokes this year, but this one caught my eye. Many customers of Zecco Trading logged into their brokerage account yesterday to be greeted with a slightly higher buying power than before… on the order of 6 to 13 million dollars! Thanks to reader Nick for the tip to check my balance. Here is a user-supplied screenshot:

Well, that’s one way to qualify for the Zecco free trades! People on the forums speculated whether this was a April Fools’ Day joke, or a system glitch. They joked about making a big ACH transfer and quitting their jobs.

However, one brave/foolish person posted that he actually put in an order to buy a million dollars worth of shares with their newly found money, and the order was executed! The bad news? The shares were quickly sold later by Zecco… at a market price loss. On top of that, they were charged the $19.99 commission for a broker-assisted trade. Doh! If it was indeed an April Fools’ joke, it definitely wasn’t implemented very well…

Filed Under: Funny, Investing //

New PineCone Research Sign-up Link (Paid Surveys)

Posted on April 2, 2009 // 9 Comments

PineCone Research remains one of the better paying and reliable survey companies, with a payout of $3 for each 15-20 minute survey. The hardest part is getting accepted, as they only accept applications intermittently.

Here is an updated application link at Pinecone. (It probably won’t last long.) Looks open to all ages and sexes. Only one person per household can sign up.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on Pinecone and paid surveys in general here. I call them Bored Money – not terribly efficient but you sometimes get to try some neat things.

The three survey sites that I have been most active with besides Pinecone are NFO MySurvey, e-Rewards, and SurveySavvy. I like it them because they consistently offer me paid survey opportunities, they pay upon request reliably (important!), and they don’t seem to mind if I don’t do every single survey offered.

Filed Under: Bored Money //

Places To Open A Foreign Bank Account To Store Gold

Posted on April 1, 2009 // 24 Comments

After my post about the Permanent Portfolio which included physical gold, a reader asked me where he could open up a foreign bank account to store gold. Well, in the Appendix of the book Fail-Safe Investing, the author did list specific banks that allow U.S. investors to open account and buy gold within them. Here they are:

Anglo-Irish Bank [Austria]
Phone: 011-431 406-6161
URL: http://www.angloirishbank.ie/

Anker Bank / BDGE Group [Switzerland]
Phone: 011-4121 321-0707
URL: http://www.bcge.ch

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce [Switzerland]
Phone: 011-4121 215-6087
URL: http://www.cibc.com/

UeberseeBank / AIG Private Bank
Phone: 011-411 267-5555
URL: http://www.ueberseebank.ch/

Browne makes it sound that opening an account at one of these places is as simple as opening an online account with no physical branch near you. He also states that these are either Swiss or Austrian banks, which are bound by the laws of those countries, not the countries of their parent companies. Now, I can’t attest to the accuracy of this list, as the book was last updated around 2001 and I have no personal experience with any of them. Please perform your own due diligence.

The reasons for buying gold in a foreign bank account are primarily to provide a safe store of assets in case of very unlikely (but still possible) situations like war, government collapse/confiscating of assets, or other crisis. I’m not going to participate myself as I see the risks outweigh the benefits – cost, complexity, chance of fraud or loss, etc. – but if you read some of the stories from Argentina’s economic collapse it can get scary.

As for legality, it would seem to be perfect legit. You are simply storing physical gold there. Gold does not produce dividends or interest, so you’d only be liable for taxes if you sold them at a profit.

Filed Under: Banking, Investing //
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