Costco Membership Deal via LivingSocial and the Benefits of Online Rebates

Living Social is offering a Costco Wholesale Membership and a bunch of bonuses for normal price of just the membership ($55). In addition to those bonuses there's a couple other ways to save on this deal.

The Deal 
The Living Social Deal includes:

• 1-year Gold Star membership ($55 normally) 
• $20 Costco Cash card 
• $29.47 in food voucher and coupons (free Kirkland Signature™ 48-pack of AA batteries, a free rotisserie chicken, a free Kirkland Signature™ case of water, $4 off Kirkland Signature™ coffee, and $4 off Kirkland Signature albacore tuna.)

It's only valid for new members and not to renew an existing membership. 

How Can you Save More on this Deal? 

You can save an additional $5.50 by using code USA10 when checking out at Living Social. That's a pretty good deal if you were going to get a Costco Membership anyway. If you'd like to save a bit more and learn how to save a percentage off many of your future online purchases read further.

You can save an additional 6% on this and any other Living Social deal by using Ebates (sign-up here). With Ebates, you simply sign up and then search for the site(Living Social in this case) you're about to purchase something on, click that store's Ebates link, and you'll receive a percentage back on that deal. This amount can be disbursed via check or Paypal after 90 days. 

So for the above deal, assuming you use the promo code and Ebates, you'll get your Costco membership, a $20 Costco Card, the voucher and coupons for $49.50 up front and you'll earn ~$3 in cash from Ebates that you can redeem in a few months, or effectively $46.50.

Tools for Saving on Future Online Shopping: Evreward and Retailmenot 

A good tool for anybody shopping online and willing to use an online rebate program like Ebates is the site evreward.com. Simply visit it before purchasing something online, search evreward for the shopping site you're using (e.g. Target.com) and it'll let you know the best online rebate offerings for that site. You then click the program you'd like to use (it was Ebates for Living Social but the highest % back often varies among Ebates, Mr. Rebates, Big Crumbs, FatWallet, or another program), click a rebate program's link for your store, and make your purchase. While signing up may take you 5 minutes, clicking the link before you make a purchase should take 10 seconds every time you make a purchase and likely save you a few bucks each time.

Another helpful site when shopping online is RetailMeNot.com. I found the Living Social promo code on Ebates's Living Social store page, but I usually check RetailMeNot for coupons when shopping online. I've also found coupons for in store purchases and even for amusement park tickets via RetailMeNot. (As an aside RetailMeNot is a big business and worth nearly $2 billion as a company).

Finally, you can also save a bit more by maximizing your credit card cash back. See my past posts on credit cards to see how when used responsibly, credit cards can earn you up to 2% off all your purchases and potentially more on certain categories.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment below or contact me!

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 3: Most Rewards for Different Shopping Categories

Some cards earn different amounts depending on what type of item or service you purchase with it. Note that your ability to earn these bonus rewards relies on the card company coding the transaction under the appropriate category, so be sure to read fine print (for example some cards say only some Department stores apply for the bonus reward amount) and check your rewards statement to see that the purchases are going under the category you expect them to. Check the below table for a collection of some of the best of these cards.

Today's Best Gas, Groceries, Drug Stores, Department Stores Reward Cards (Last Edited 8/7/2013)

Card	Card Type	Grocery	Gas	Drugstore	Department Store	Books	Other Purchases	Rewards Type	Annual Fee	Other Info
AMEX Blue Cash Preferred	American Express	6%	3%	1%	3%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$75	6% on groceries only on $6,000 of groceries/year. List of eligible stores. $150 Sign up Bonus. Can redeem reward dollars for statement credit, merchandise and gift cards anytime over $25 in rewards.
Sallie Mae Rewards	MasterCard	5%	5%	1%	1%	5%	1%	Points	$0	5% on Groceries and Gas up to $250/month, 5% on books up to $750/month. 1% on everything over the limit and all other purchases. Can redeem 2,500 points for $25 statement credit and so on. Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com don’t consistently code as book purchases.. Look at Citi Forward Card for 5 points/dollar on those purchases. $25 Cash Back with first use.
PenFed Platinum Rewards	Visa	3%	5%	1%	1%	1%	1%	Points	$0	Redeemable for Visa Prepaid Cards starting at $50 rewards and above.
Bank of America Cash Rewards	Visa	2%	3%	1%	1%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$0	2% and 3% only earned on up to $1,500/quarter. Redeemable above $25. 10% Cash Back bonus if deposited to Bank of America account ($25 cash back=$27.50). $100 Bonus if you spend $500 in first 90 days.
AMEX Blue Cash Everyday	American Express	3%	2%	1%	2%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$0	3% on groceries only on $6,000 of groceries/year. List of eligible stores. $100 Bonus if you spend $1000 in first 90 days. Rewards redeemed with cash back of $25 or more.

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 2: Best All-Around Spending Card

How much work do you want to do? Some people will spend an entire afternoon cutting coupons in newspapers and researching websites to maximize their discounts, while some don't think it's worth the time. Similarly with credit card rewards, there are many cards that specialize in offering higher rewards in certain categories if you're willing to dig, while a few just offer a higher rewards rate on everything. Below are the currently available cards that earn more than the 1% you'd earn with your average credit card.

Today's Best All-Around Spending Cards (Last Edited 2/8/2014)

Card	Card Type	Rewards	Rewards Type	Annual Fee	Other Info	Link
Fidelity Investment Rewards	American Express	2%	Cash Back	$0	Cash back must be redeemed to Fidelity Account (Checking, Brokerage, 529 or Retirement) and only after earning $50 in rewards. Checking and Brokerage Accounts are free to open and have no maintenance fees.	Click
Discover Escape	Discover	2%	Points (Redeemable for Travel or Amazon.com Credit)	$60.	Earn additional 100 points($10)/month in rewards for the first 25 months as long as you make a purchase -similar to $250 sign up bonus.	Click
BankAmericard Travel Rewards	Visa	1.6%	Points (Redeemable for Statement Credit)	$0	Only 1.5% if you don’t have a BOA checking, savings, investment, or retirement account.	Click
Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards	Visa	1.5%	Cash Back	$0	One-time $100 bonus if you spend $500 in first 3 months. No foreign transaction fees. Requires great credit.	Click
Northrop Grumman CU Cash Rebates	Mastercard	1.5%	Cash Back	$0	Cash back deposited annually(March) not monthly. Check Eligibility. If not Join  Southern California Historical Aviation Foundation via $50 donation. No foreign transaction fees.	Click
Dollar Bank Valued Customer	Visa	1.25%	Cash Back	$0	Max cash back of $500/year as opposed to no limit on above cards. Cash back deposited 2 times per year (Jan and July) and not monthly. Business version of the card has no rebates and is redeemable anytime.	Click

I'll do my best to keep this list current as good rewards credit cards sometimes come and go. In my next post I  review other cards that offer up to 6% on certain categories of spending for those looking to tote multiple cards.

(H/T to Fatwallet)

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 1: Introduction

The standard credit card usually offers 1% cash back or 1 point per dollar spent. Some credit cards can earn even more. Given that the average family spends over $48,000 each year and let's estimate that 2/3 of those expenditures are paid with credit cards, then earning 1% more on purchases can add up to an additional $320 each year. Below I'll discuss what cards are out there for those that want to maximize the card rewards you earn.

Beware! Hunting for additional credit card rewards only makes sense if you're paying your credit card bill on time and in full as the average APR for credit card debt is about 15% and frequently can be more than double that, while credit card rewards don't get much higher than 2%.

What cards do I use? I use to keep 4 credit cards on me to fully maximize my rewards as much as possible. I've since decided to go with 2 as the hassle of carrying more items in my wallet, paying more credit card bills each month, and managing additional card rewards redemptions wasn't worth the slight increase in payout.

I use the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express card and Chase Freedom Visa card.

The Fidelity AMEX is my daily spending card as I earn 2% cash back rewards on all purchases with it. As long as the merchant accepts American Express I don't have to think about how many rewards I'll earn on my purchase. Each month in which my rewards total is over $50, the rewards simply deposit into my Fidelity Checking Account. That's potentially the only extra step for this card, is that to earn the rewards you need a Fidelity Account to deposit it in, but you can choose between a Checking Account (Fidelity calls it a Cash Management Account), Brokerage Account, 529 account, or a Retirement account - the first 2 of which I know are free to open up and maintain. There's no annual fee either for this card.

The Chase Freedom Visa is my backup card for all merchants that don't accept American Express or if I make a purchase in a spending category that's part of Chase's 5% rewards for that season. Each season Chase will rotate what categories earn 5%. Currently, those categories are Gas Stations, Theme Parks, and Kohl's. You can see what future categories are here. Note that before each new category period you do have to activate these 5% rewards by clicking an activate button online, though you can sign up for an email or text reminder so you don't miss out. Additionally this is a Visa Signature Card which offers other benefits such as additional warranties on purchases, travel benefits or even buy one get one movie tickets in the summer. This card also has no annual fee.

In my next post I'll delve deeper into high rewards cards that are currently available.