Cut down on credit card junkmail

I HATE junk snail mail.

I hate getting junk mail in my physical mailbox (email too, but that's for another posting). It seems like the bulk of this junk is coupon circulars, advertisements, and the dreaded credit card pre-approval letter. Its a nuisance to have to sort, process, and dispose of what you get in the mail, but they are obviously seeing results otherwise these companies would just stop sending it.

Now credit bureaus can't just sell your PERSONAL information to anyone it pleases, and anyone that checks your credit score must have a valid reason to do so. There is however nothing stopping them from selling lists to potential marketers that want the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of those people that are in good (or sometimes bad) standing in terms of credit.

The credit card companies did come together to create a toll-free number that allows you to make one call and opt out of those lists for all four major credit bureaus. One call allows you to submit information that verifies you, and remove your name from being sold to any person requesting a marketing list, and hey - the less junk mail the better.

That number is : 1-888-5OPTOUT.

Buying a new car

A friend of mine recently purchased a new car and got a pretty good deal. However today when I was reading the newspaper and came across a plethora of advertisments for new cars I thought of a piece that I read awhile ago on when to buy a new car.

Car buying season
Dealers are always trying to lure you in year round with special deals, rebates, and offers. However the best time to get a great deal is when the dealer really needs to get rid of their inventory. The best time is typically late summer early fall since this is when the dealers are usually recieving their models for the new year, which means they are anxious to clear out the old models.

End of the month
The other great time to buy is at the end of the month. If the dealer exceeds quotas set by the manufacture they get the newest and hottest cars next month, the closer it gets to the end of the month, the more eager they will be to sell you that new car.

It's also a good idea to go car buying during non-peak times like weekdays and early mornings. You get much better service when there aren't as many customers to chose from.

Easy way to try new restaurants and save some money!

We recently added a new partner at eDeals.com : Restaurant.com. We have a lot of merchant partners so when I actually get to personally try out one of their products it's really neat and allows me to get a true understanding for the process.

Always in the spirit of saving money, my girlfriend and I decided go to dinner with some friends and we picked a restaurant that was on the list at restaurant In this case it was a sushi place up the street from our house in Tampa. It was a pretty simple process, we purchased a $25 "dining certificate" for $10, printed it out and basically saved a very easy $15. They have a ton of different places so we will definitely be using them again.

Click here to check out Restauraunt.com, and if you visit before 2/28 I have a coupon that will save you 60% off of your purchase. Just enter code : 46202 at checkout.

Now if someone will just do the same thing for the movies :)

Sick of the cramped airline seat?

This one won't save you money, but it will save you serious aggravation. Next time you are getting ready to fly head over to Seatguru.com and pull up the plane that you are going to fly on. It shows you where exactly the best seats are on the plane, which ones have power, and which ones are right near the bathroom if that's what you are looking for.

Check them out.

Experience is one thing but if you are on a budget - price should always win.

As a consumer you have many choices where you spend your money and everyone is fighting for your dollar. Businesses spend millions of dollars making sure their store is the best designed, well stocked, cleanest environment that they can provide to you, their customers. But if you are on a budget it should come down to one thing - price.

You see this happening with many product offerings. My local grocer is Publix, and I like shopping there because its always clean, their product is fresh, and I can find pretty much everything I'm looking for. But to conserve money recently I have been buying everything except meat, fish, and produce at Walmart and visiting Publix for those items because I know it will be fresh. The cost difference between Walmart and Publix on items like paper towels, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and canned products is huge. The downside to that is that Walmart has 60 register lanes and only opens 5 at any given weeknight at 5:30pm.

Although I live within walking distance to Starbucks I have cut down on coffee lately, but I can sympathize with those folks that consume 3 Venti's a day - I was one of you guys. People like Starbucks because of their premium drinks and because of the ambiance that it provides. God bless Dunkin Donoughts but its not the place you want to hang out mid afternoon and read a book. They get the "experience" factor and because of that they are very successful at providing a great product, and a great environment at a premium price. If you are just drinking regular coffee in the morning and are on your way out the door Dunkin Donoughts or your office coffee pot should perk you up just fine.

Another great example is Amazon.com, they provide a great user experience for people passionate about the books they read. I use their service all the time to get tons of feedback on books that I'm looking to read. People are quick to give full reviews of books that they hate or love and you reap the rewards. However, when I'm ready to buy that book, the good folks at Buy.com offer to beat Amazon's book prices by 10% and will ship the order free if its over $25.

Some people might argue well if a company is willing to go the extra mile and offer me a great service, I'm willing to pay a premium for it even though its offered for free. I can appreciate that but this blog is about saving you money, not putting a few extra bucks in their pockets.

Save on Savers..Save on.

Oustanding deal on sheets at Smartbargains!

600TC sheets - $59.99
regularly priced $79.99

These sheets are regularly priced at $79.99 but you can pick them up now 20 bucks off. There are many different colors and sizes available so visit Smartbargains today to pick up your set. This deal expires on Feb 27th.

Click here for the deal.

America's big fat spending problem.

If you aren't watching Oprah's America's Debt Diet segments you are missing some great free information on what is quickly becoming a huge problem in America. The big O (and no I'm not talking about Overstock.com) prys into the lives of 3 American families financial woes and document the process of bringing them out of debt and getting them on the path to savings rightousness.

While I was walking by the television set on my way to doing manly things my girlfriend asked me to stop and watch a brief moment of the TV queen. I did manage to hear a strikingly scary fact that 70% Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. After I heard this fact the show had my attention and once I realized no one would catch me watching I gently fluffed a pillow and began to watch the remaining gospel. I suddently realized though Oprah's coaches failed to mention one way the families could have easily saved money : shopping at eDeals.com. One guy had a television set that he paid almost $3,000 for, but if he would have been a frequent visitor of our site he would have known that electronics is one catagory you can save a ton of money on when you shop online - especially televisions! All three families had problems spending too much money on eating out to dinner. Why didn't they say something?!? We have coupons for Restaraunt.com that will can save them money when dining out. If you are going to spend, spend wisely!

There were some people on the show that were making 106k a year, and had debt of $120,000! The process of trimming down their lifestyle into something managable makes for great television and provides some valuable lessons. The debt coaches will spend a great deal of time coaching the familes on how to save money and watch their spending and Oprah will be airing details of their progress - the next show will air on Friday March 10th. Dont miss it!

Get more information from Oprah's site.

Credit scores can make or break you when it comes time to make a big purchase like buying home or automobile. But it also determines things like how high your interest rate is on your credit card. Some employers are even performing credit checks before they will hire you! Using a credit monitoring service you can easily keep track of your credit report to ensure that there isnt incorrect information on it and that you aren't falling victim to identity theft.

The way it works is simple. Truecredit.com (a service of Transunion) will monitor your credit for a fee and notify you if there are any changes to it. You can then view those changes and ensure that they are correct. Things like inquiries on your credit (Is someone trying to obtain credit using your identity?) or reports of late payments to an obligation.

It's good to know what your credit score is while you are looking to make a big purchase. The better your score is the better chance you have of getting a better interest rate which will ultamitely save you money in the long run. If you are already in debt, and need help getting out - check out the excellent resources at lowermybills.com.

Truecredit.com is an intuitive, friendly service - check it out!

A brief history of online savings

My business partner and I started eDeals.com to save people money while they are shopping online. We started talking to our friends and family and were amazed by the number of our friends that didn't know just how much money they could save online. The truth is that there is a huge gap between the amount of money that can be saved when you shop online versus offline, and yet another gap when you shop around online. Our vision in starting the site was to give people a place to go that would allow them to quickly find what they were looking for at the best possible price.

We do that in a number of different ways whether it be our editorial team that searches through deals on a daily basis delivering the best ones to the site, or providing our users with the best in state-of-the-art price comparison technology that allows them to quickly find the exact product they are searching for. We are making constant improvements to our site to make sure that we exceed your expectations and always give you the best deals and present them in the best way possible.

There are other coupons and deals sites out there, but we believe that by keeping the deals fresh, and adding a 'personal' voice to the site, you will see that we are a little different than the competition.