Post by Deep Chocolate in Deep South on Sept 7, 2008 14:29:17 GMT -5
13 things you can get for free
From prescription drugs and stock trades to movies, cruises and legal advice, it's possible to get plenty for nothing -- or at least at a deep discount.
By Forbes.com
With Wall Street smarting, the dollar withering and food and fuel prices soaring, we could all stand a little something for nothing. If only there were indeed a free lunch.
Good news: After a bit of searching, we uncovered a bunch of 100% discounts hiding in plain sight. In many cases, the only effort that's needed to claim them involves the 15 seconds it takes to type in a name and an e-mail address.
We divided our findings into five categories: financial services, entertainment, travel, advice and health care. Look hard enough, and you'll no doubt find plenty more where these came from:
Financial services
Credit monitoring: Get up to nine months of free credit monitoring from TransUnion. Thanks to a recent legal settlement, the company is required to offer free access to credit scores, as well as free notifications of changing scores, to anyone who has obtained a credit card within the past 20 years.
Through Sept. 24, you can claim your free service without providing a credit card number or even your Social Security number.
Stock trading: Think it's time to go bargain hunting? Zecco, an online brokerage, wants to grease your re-entry by giving away 10 stock trades per month. There's no minimum-balance requirement in the first month. After that, continuing customers still get their first 10 trades per month for free, though they must maintain minimum account balances of $2,500.
Tax preparation: If you're age 60 or older, serve in the U.S. military or earn less than $40,000 a year, you can qualify for free tax-return preparation services, care of the Internal Revenue Service and throngs of trained volunteers at thousands of sites all over the U.S. Check out the details on the IRS Web site.
Entertainment
Free flicks and shows: Instead of spending $2 at the iTunes store for an episode of "Family Guy" or $10 for the movie "The Big Lebowski," go online to Hulu and get them free, for viewing on your computer. Hulu's inventory of 100 movies and 400 TV shows includes titles from Fox, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Brothers.
Sports gambling: Online gambling has always been illegal, even though people got away with it for years. CentSports.com skirts this pesky problem by bankrolling its customers. Users start off with 10 cents in their accounts, provided by CentSports, and use it to bet on any event for which Las Vegas bookmakers set a line.
Accumulate $20 in winnings, and you can cash out a minimum of $10 (sent by check in the mail). Losers risk nothing and get immediately re-staked with fresh dimes.
Free tunes: Napster is no longer free, but there are legal alternatives to downloading free music. One of them, Spiral Frog, offers 1.2 million songs and 4,000 music videos. To sign up, you need only provide e-mail and mailing addresses; no credit card number is required.
For a better, more customized radio experience on the cheap, check out Pandora.com. Just enter an artist, and the site will generate playlists from that band and others within its genre. Better yet: There are no commercials.
Travel
Road trip: Feel like a vacation but can't afford to fly? If you don't mind hitting the road, Auto Driveaway will let you drive someone else's vehicle from one point to another. The company has 45 U.S. locations and lists about 150 opportunities per month. Requirements: You must be at least 23, possess a valid driver's license and put up a refundable deposit of $350. You have to cover your own gas, food and lodging.
For more information, check out Auto Driveaway's Web site or call 1-800-346-2277.
Free digs: Hotel rooms cost a bundle, especially when you're overseas spending anemic U.S. dollars. Duck that expense by joining the Home Exchange Network and shack up in someone else's home for free. You can either swap digs with someone you meet on the network or host each other as guests.
The network membership fee is $99.95 per year for an unlimited number of exchanges.
Wave rider: Imperial Majesty Cruise Line offers last-minute deals to fill empty cabins in hopes of winning repeat business. Lucky couples can enjoy three-day, two-night cruises gratis. It may be a bit hard to plan a vacation on such short notice, but if you're the spontaneous sort, this deal is for you.
Advice
Wisdom of the ages: These folks have seen it all. Better yet, they are looking to share. At the Elder Wisdom Circle, find a "cyber grandparent" willing to lend insights gleaned from decades past. (Surely the irony of transmitting their thoughts via e-mail has crossed their minds.)
The program is geared toward people in their teens, 20s and 30s, but it's open to anyone looking for enlightenment.
Legal counsel: Hard-core do-it-yourselfers (or those who would just like to keep closer tabs on what their own lawyers are up to) can find free legal advice at freeadvice.com. Founded by Gerry Goldsholle, a lawyer and former Metropolitan Life Insurance executive, the site features advice from hundreds of lawyers on more than 130 legal topics, including insurance, real estate and estate planning.
Though the service is free to visitors, lawyers pay between $1,000 and $10,000 to be listed in the online directory.
Health care
Deep rubs: Recession got your back in knots? A good 45-minute massage could run between $50 and $90, but aspiring therapists will knead you for free at local massage schools. Students, like pilots or machinists, must practice a certain number of hours before getting their licenses. Sure, they're not pros, but how bad could an amateur rubdown be?
Prescription drugs: Perhaps nowhere does inflation sting more than in the health care industry. Luckily, big pharmaceutical companies shower doctors with more drugs than they can store. The next time you need a pricey prescription, just ask for a sample at your appointment. You could save hundreds of dollars.
Indeed, snagging deep discounts often doesn't require as much rooting around as you'd imagine, says Linda Bowman, the author of the "Free Stuff" book series.
Her abiding rule of thumb: "Whether shopping in a department store or booking a vacation, if you're looking for a discount, it never hurts to ask."
This story was reported and written by Melanie Lindner for Forbes.com.
Published Sept. 5, 2008
articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/FindDealsOnline/13-things-you-can-get-for-free.aspx?page=all
From prescription drugs and stock trades to movies, cruises and legal advice, it's possible to get plenty for nothing -- or at least at a deep discount.
By Forbes.com
With Wall Street smarting, the dollar withering and food and fuel prices soaring, we could all stand a little something for nothing. If only there were indeed a free lunch.
Good news: After a bit of searching, we uncovered a bunch of 100% discounts hiding in plain sight. In many cases, the only effort that's needed to claim them involves the 15 seconds it takes to type in a name and an e-mail address.
We divided our findings into five categories: financial services, entertainment, travel, advice and health care. Look hard enough, and you'll no doubt find plenty more where these came from:
Financial services
Credit monitoring: Get up to nine months of free credit monitoring from TransUnion. Thanks to a recent legal settlement, the company is required to offer free access to credit scores, as well as free notifications of changing scores, to anyone who has obtained a credit card within the past 20 years.
Through Sept. 24, you can claim your free service without providing a credit card number or even your Social Security number.
Stock trading: Think it's time to go bargain hunting? Zecco, an online brokerage, wants to grease your re-entry by giving away 10 stock trades per month. There's no minimum-balance requirement in the first month. After that, continuing customers still get their first 10 trades per month for free, though they must maintain minimum account balances of $2,500.
Tax preparation: If you're age 60 or older, serve in the U.S. military or earn less than $40,000 a year, you can qualify for free tax-return preparation services, care of the Internal Revenue Service and throngs of trained volunteers at thousands of sites all over the U.S. Check out the details on the IRS Web site.
Entertainment
Free flicks and shows: Instead of spending $2 at the iTunes store for an episode of "Family Guy" or $10 for the movie "The Big Lebowski," go online to Hulu and get them free, for viewing on your computer. Hulu's inventory of 100 movies and 400 TV shows includes titles from Fox, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Brothers.
Sports gambling: Online gambling has always been illegal, even though people got away with it for years. CentSports.com skirts this pesky problem by bankrolling its customers. Users start off with 10 cents in their accounts, provided by CentSports, and use it to bet on any event for which Las Vegas bookmakers set a line.
Accumulate $20 in winnings, and you can cash out a minimum of $10 (sent by check in the mail). Losers risk nothing and get immediately re-staked with fresh dimes.
Free tunes: Napster is no longer free, but there are legal alternatives to downloading free music. One of them, Spiral Frog, offers 1.2 million songs and 4,000 music videos. To sign up, you need only provide e-mail and mailing addresses; no credit card number is required.
For a better, more customized radio experience on the cheap, check out Pandora.com. Just enter an artist, and the site will generate playlists from that band and others within its genre. Better yet: There are no commercials.
Travel
Road trip: Feel like a vacation but can't afford to fly? If you don't mind hitting the road, Auto Driveaway will let you drive someone else's vehicle from one point to another. The company has 45 U.S. locations and lists about 150 opportunities per month. Requirements: You must be at least 23, possess a valid driver's license and put up a refundable deposit of $350. You have to cover your own gas, food and lodging.
For more information, check out Auto Driveaway's Web site or call 1-800-346-2277.
Free digs: Hotel rooms cost a bundle, especially when you're overseas spending anemic U.S. dollars. Duck that expense by joining the Home Exchange Network and shack up in someone else's home for free. You can either swap digs with someone you meet on the network or host each other as guests.
The network membership fee is $99.95 per year for an unlimited number of exchanges.
Wave rider: Imperial Majesty Cruise Line offers last-minute deals to fill empty cabins in hopes of winning repeat business. Lucky couples can enjoy three-day, two-night cruises gratis. It may be a bit hard to plan a vacation on such short notice, but if you're the spontaneous sort, this deal is for you.
Advice
Wisdom of the ages: These folks have seen it all. Better yet, they are looking to share. At the Elder Wisdom Circle, find a "cyber grandparent" willing to lend insights gleaned from decades past. (Surely the irony of transmitting their thoughts via e-mail has crossed their minds.)
The program is geared toward people in their teens, 20s and 30s, but it's open to anyone looking for enlightenment.
Legal counsel: Hard-core do-it-yourselfers (or those who would just like to keep closer tabs on what their own lawyers are up to) can find free legal advice at freeadvice.com. Founded by Gerry Goldsholle, a lawyer and former Metropolitan Life Insurance executive, the site features advice from hundreds of lawyers on more than 130 legal topics, including insurance, real estate and estate planning.
Though the service is free to visitors, lawyers pay between $1,000 and $10,000 to be listed in the online directory.
Health care
Deep rubs: Recession got your back in knots? A good 45-minute massage could run between $50 and $90, but aspiring therapists will knead you for free at local massage schools. Students, like pilots or machinists, must practice a certain number of hours before getting their licenses. Sure, they're not pros, but how bad could an amateur rubdown be?
Prescription drugs: Perhaps nowhere does inflation sting more than in the health care industry. Luckily, big pharmaceutical companies shower doctors with more drugs than they can store. The next time you need a pricey prescription, just ask for a sample at your appointment. You could save hundreds of dollars.
Indeed, snagging deep discounts often doesn't require as much rooting around as you'd imagine, says Linda Bowman, the author of the "Free Stuff" book series.
Her abiding rule of thumb: "Whether shopping in a department store or booking a vacation, if you're looking for a discount, it never hurts to ask."
This story was reported and written by Melanie Lindner for Forbes.com.
Published Sept. 5, 2008
articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/FindDealsOnline/13-things-you-can-get-for-free.aspx?page=all