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Ibotta Review Cash Back for Buying Stuff

August 23, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

A friend of mine keeps going on about Ibotta. For those of you who don’t know, Ibotta is a shopping app that gives you cash back rebates for various items you buy. It’s kind of like coupons, only instead of saving on your grocery bill, you build up a cash back account. What makes it such a huge deal for my friend is that those offers often include beer and wine, and often for a few bucks at a time, so that can add up. But does that make Ibotta a legit deal for others, or is Ibotta a scam that takes more than it gives? Let’s dig into is Ibotta legit. What Is Ibotta? Ibotta is an app for either Android or Apple. You can also use it online via the webpage. It works a lot like many grocery store apps where you go through a list of coupons and select which ones you want to use. However, unlike my King Soopers app, or Safeway app, the offers on Ibotta are rebates, not coupons. In other words, while the coupons take 50 cents off of my grocery bill, the Ibotta rebates have no effect on the cost of my …

Is Credit Karma A Scam or Legit Free Credit Scores?

July 1, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

The old maxim, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is,” holds up especially well in the world of personal finance. The concept of getting free credit scores has been mined by con-artists and scammers repeatedly. Unfortunately, many of these scams are perpetrated by well-known companies and by the credit reporting bureaus themselves. So, is there a Credit Karma scam? Who Owns Credit Karma? These days, Credit Karma is owned by Intuit. Intuit is the maker of popular tax software TurboTax, as well as QuickBooks, and some other finance software. Until recently, Intuit owned popular online personal finance software Mint, but like Microsoft and Microsoft Money before it, Intuit couldn’t figure out how to stop losing money giving people what they want. Instead, they closed down Mint and sent (or attempted to send) its users over to Credit Karma, which isn’t really the same thing at all. If you got here to creditkarma.com via mint.com, you’ll need to take some time to get to know the new setup. In the meantime, we are talking about credit score scam types if you want to stick around. How Free Credit Score Scams Work The free credit score scam usually …

Rakuten Review Scam or Legit Money Saver

January 7, 2024November 11, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

What is Rakuten? Is Rakuten legit, or is Rakuten a scam? Can you really earn hundreds of dollars using Rakuten to shop online? How does Rakuten work? Ebates is now Rakuten. Rakuten bought out eBates and renamed it, just like it did with buy.com. Rakuten is legit and Rakuten is not a scam. I’m updating my Ebates review and turning it into one of the rakuten.com reviews. Let’s check out my Rakuten review below for answers. Holiday shopping bonuses make Rakuten a better deal than it usually is throughout the year. On Veteran’s Day, for example, there is 11% cash back at several retailers. Combine that with already available Black Friday sales or hit those bigger purchases you are waiting for. Rakuten Reviews The Ebates Rakuten commercials promise cashback for shopping. Does this online website deliver, or is this just a Rakuten scam? I took my own look after a cousin of mine (an extreme couponer) asked, “Is Rakuten safe?” So, without further ado, here is my review of Rakuten. Update: This Rakuten review is still completely accurate, however, it turns out that Rakuten is an especially good deal around holiday time. The reason is that many retailers have a …

Great Costco Deal

October 9, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

The best deal at Costco right now saves big money for chocolate and sweets lovers I don’t usually do this because while there may be some real benefits (and some real pitfalls) of shopping at Costco, I like to keep writing “the new” rather than updating pages about things like the best Costco deal ever. Enstrom Toffee and Candies Enstrom is a Colorado based company that makes all kinds of chocolates, toffees, and other confections. It is so good. It is so expensive. The main operation is in Grand Junction, Colorado out on the Western Slope (the area past the ski areas and on to the Utah border). However, Enstrom’s has a store in Cherry Creek North near downtown Denver. It is here where I built my addiction. Enstrom Is Worth Every Penny, but… My absolute favorite treat from Enstrom is their toffee. In particular they Almond Toffee Petites. They come in a little box that taunts you every time you open it because there are only a few left. When they are gone you can’t really get more, because you are financially responsible, dammit! The smallest box is the 15 oz box which has two tantalizing layers of toffee. …

SquareTrade Review Save Money on Warranties

September 14, 2023April 26, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Is SquareTrade legit or is SquareTrade a scam? It gets complicated so SquareTrade reviews are a good place to start to see if it fits your needs. Our Square Trade review is based on experience and reading the fine print. Warranty Scam History The economy is a little shaky, but you still have needs and wants. Everyone else is in the same boat, including businesses who still have to sell products if they want to make a profit. If you have a good cash reserve and the opportunity arises, now could be a good time to get a great deal on things like electronics, washers and dryers, televisions, kitchen appliances and so on. Last century, big box electronics shops like Circuit City began competing against the lower prices and better deals found online by offering prices that were just as good. However, that meant they didn’t make very much profit because of the overhead of running a store. They countered by aggressively selling extended warranties to their customers. Soon, virtually all of the profit from some electronics chains was from warranties. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for everyone else, customers soon caught on and came prepared for the warranty hard …

How To Maximize Gift Cards Value

December 28, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

You got a bunch of gift cards for Christmas, or a lot of gift cards for your birthday, and you are wondering, “How do I maximize the money from gift cards?” As always, I’m here for you. Maximize Money from Gift Cards Using smart, insider techniques to maximize your gift card value typically involves timing and patience. Selling gift cards for money is almost never the way to maximize how much money you get from gift cards. Selling Gift Cards for Cash If you want to convert gift cards to cash, you can always sell them. When selling gift cards, you should expect to get less than face value. How much less than face value depends on how valuable the gift cards you have are. You might think that gift cards to expensive stores are more valuable, but that isn’t usually the case. The most valuable gift cards to sell are those that can be used anywhere, by anyone. That makes a gift card to a local jewelry store much less valuable because there might not be that many of that brand jeweler around the country, and the only thing you can buy with it is jewelry. So, Walmart gift …

Is Google Fi Worth It?

August 21, 2023December 12, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

I’ve had Google’s new cell phone service, called Fi, for just over a year now, and I’ve had a chance to get a good feel for it, as well as what I used to pay, and what various people pay now. So, is Google’s Project Fi a good deal, or is it not worth it? Google Fi Service The service you get from Google’s Fi cellphone service is a blend. First, in order to use the service, you have to use specific devices like a Nexus 5x, a Nexus 6P, or the new Google Pixel phones. If you buy them direct from Google and the Google Fi store, then your customer service comes from Google. This is a good thing. If not, your service comes from wherever you bought your phone. I’ve had a couple of chances to use Google’s customer service on the Google Fi platform. First, I dropped my phone and cracked the screen. (I firmly believe that the first phone company to produce a high-end phone with a user replaceable screen will own the market until everyone else catches up.) I have the device protection plan through Google Fi (more on that later), so I called up …

Credit Karma Review – Complaints Accuracy Legit?

November 10, 2022March 2, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Earlier we discussed how I first found out about Credit Karma and how, as a seasoned financial professional, I was inclined to think that Credit Karma is a scam offer for free credit scores. I decided to do a review after seeing some Credit Karma reviews that don’t really answer my questions (or the questions others seem to be asking.) Most importantly, I want to know is Credit Karma safe. Is Credit Karma legit? Update: Read here about an opt-in service Credit Karma review credit monitoring as a free additional service. Update #2: There is a free Credit Karma tax offering now available. Here is our Credit Karma tax review. Before we get started, there is one very important thing to be aware of. There are scam websites out there that take advantage of people thinking they are going to CreditKarma.com. Remember, Credit is with a ‘c’ and Karma is with a ‘k’. If you somehow end up on either KreditKarma or CreditCarma chances are you are in for a scam. If you get asked to enter a credit card number, be sure you are on the right website first. Second, this review is only about CreditKarma’s free credit score service. …

Is SquareTrade a Good Deal

August 22, 2022August 10, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

SquareTrade has been bought by Allstate. Allstate is an insurance company that does auto, home, and life insurance. They now do item protection plans like SquareTrade used to do. I first wrote about SquareTrade back in 2009. At the time, I was overjoyed at the concept of warranties from Square Trade. If you don’t remember, 2009 was the era of incredibly overpriced extended warranties from electronics stores. It turns out that companies like Circuit City were selling merchandise at a tiny profit, and making all of their money by having their salespeople push high cost extended warranties on anything. Even worse, when you tried to collect on that coverage, it turned out that your warranty wasn’t actually from the company you bought it from, but some business you never heard of, and that didn’t really care what you thought about them, their service, or their coverage. Is SquareTrade a Scam? First off, SquareTrade is a legitimate company. It is now part of Allstate and they seem to be doing away with the name in favor of Allstate Protection plans. They’ve been in business for a long time now and have plenty of satisfied customers. However, there are some complaints about …

Find Great Deals With Deal List Websites

November 15, 2019 by Finance Gourmet

If you are like me, the Christmas shopping season comes with a new challenge. Buying gifts for people in areas you aren’t familiar with can make it hard to know if you are getting the best deal on your Christmas gifts. But there is a way to find great deals on just about anything with a little searching. Find The Best Deals On Anything Once upon a time, you could type something like best kitchen knives into Google and hope to get some sort of list of really great kitchen knives. These days, those lists are all bought and paid for. And those lists that show up in Google’s search lists are not the result of the best list, but rather of search engine optimization wars where various professional SEOs work to manipulate the mechanics of links and web page code to impress the Google ranking engine. In this world, that list of the best kitchen knives from the world-class chef trying to be helpful from his kitchen is likely to be buried deep in the results, behind the list promoted by a major affiliate marketer trying to get the highest commission from each sale generated by the most possible …