Get rid of junk mail and protect your identity! Part 2 - Catalogs & The Rest

Yesterday we took care of those annoying pre-approved credit card and insurance offers. Today, we'll get rid of the rest (well, almost all) of your junk mail.

The site to end the junk mail at is dmachoice.org. From the main page select the "Consumer Information" and it will take you to an selection of options to get off different contact lists. The one that you want to focus on is the first: mailing.

Selecting the first option will bring you to a page with a three step process to end junk mail. Since we ended the credit offer junk mailings yesterday, we can ignore step 2 and since step 3 is a pay service that really isn't needed we can avoid that as well. Step 1, however, is the important one. After it is selected you will have to register for the site with a traditional user information form to fill out. Once completed, you're given the option of opting out of catalog mailings (either by catalog name or as a whole), opting in or out of all other mailings, and opting out of all junk mailings. The third option takes care of it all at once, so choose that option. It is much quicker to request this to be taken care of online, but it requires a credit card for authentication that you are who you say you are. It is not charged for this service so you can feel safe in doing so. If you don't have a credit card, however, you can also make the request by printing out a registration form and mailing it to DMA.

After completing this and Step 1 from yesterdays post you should soon be receiving no more, or very little, junk mail for the next 5 years.

Tomorrow we'll focus on less of an identity theft concern, but even more of a nuisance....telemarketer calls. Check back tommorow for Part III!

Get rid of junk mail and protect your identity! Part 1 - Credit Card Offers

Not only is receiving 1-3 pre-approved credit card and insurance offers a day quite a nuisance, but it's also a big risk for identity theft. I can attest to this, as I had a credit card that was maxed out in my name for over six months before I knew about it...then it took about 2 months worth of phone
calls to clear up the situation. Trust me, it's not a fun way to spend your time.

The way to go about stopping the influx of these offers by going to OptOutPrescreen.com and choosing to opt-out of these type of mailings. The opt-out lasts for 5 years, then you'll have to renew, but with the way technology has been changing, a permanent option may be available by then. It really is as easy as just filling out the form and opting out. I did it two years ago and I was amazed that I was no longer receiving offers from vendors such as Capital One (who seemed to really like me), just a few occasional ones from American Express, but since I'm a cardholder through them it's to be expected.

Sign up today, you'll see quite a difference in the amount of junk mail you receive within a few weeks.

**NOTE: Make sure you choose the "Electronic Opt-Out for Five Years:" option...DO NOT choose to Opt-In!!**

Tomorrow, Part II.

Get free money for a 529 college savings plan or cash through Upromise

Upromise.com came about years ago as a way to link your credit cards and grocery/drug store savings cards to a college 529 savings account. This account was funded by purchasing certain everyday items that were affiliated with the Upromise program. Well, the program hasn't changed much over the years, but there are certain things that make this a very worthwhile program to get involved in.

The first is the addition of the Upromise toolbar plugin. For the most part I disdain internet browser plugins, let alone toolbars, but this has proven to be one of the better ones that I've tried out. The best feature of it is that it will auto notify you with a small dropdown whenever you go to a site that is affiliated with Upromise and show the percent you will get back in your Upromise account when making a purchase. Also, It has a "Specials" tab which will show all special offers on the site as well as competitor sites also affiliated with Upromise. Last, and it's more of a vanity thing, it will show your current amount in your Upromise account (The current balance is not working for my account for some reason, but I may be an odd case).

**Note: Most of the affiliates are located on the web. If they do have brick & mortar stores, you usually can get more back by purchasing online**

The next thing, which I feel makes it all worthwhile, is that you can actually request a cash payout in the form of a check instead of funding a 529 account. Since I don't have kids, at first I didn't see a reason to participate, but then I found this on their site:

Can I withdraw company contributions from my Upromise account without transferring them to a savings plan, and if so, how?

You can withdraw your Upromise contributions at any time during your membership. To withdraw company contributions from your Upromise account, submit a letter in writing to Upromise requesting a withdrawal from your Upromise account. The letter must state your full name and exact amount that you would like to withdraw, up to total amount available in your account, pending contributions are not eligible for withdrawal.

For the protection of our members, we require that your letter either be notarized or contain a Signature Guarantee if the withdrawal request is in excess of $200. A Signature Guarantee is a guarantee you can obtain from a financial institution, such as your bank, that your signature is yours and that it is genuine.

Withdrawal letters should be sent to:

Upromise
ATTN: Customer Care
P.O. Box 55555
Boston, MA 02205-5555

Download Withdrawal Request Form

Checks are sent once per calendar quarter, so you should typically receive your check within 12 weeks of your request being received

To sum it up, you can send their request form (if the balance is over $200 you will need to have it notarized, your bank should do this free of charge) to the above address and your check will be on it's way shortly.

The way I see it, it's additional free money to be earned for my normal spending habits, so what's not to like? Check out Upromise today and start earning some extra cash. Paired with a cashback credit card you can make some serious extra money on your normal purchases.

***Ethical Grifter tip: In case it doesn't show on the Upromise main page, enter code shop-10 to receive an extra $10 added to your account when you make your first online purchase through a linked credit card by 4/30/08***

Earn cash from receiving calls from your friends?!? It's true!!

Wow, this was something really interesting to stumble upon. There's a new startup called brring.com that actually pays you for recieving calls from anyone you give your Brring number to.

Basically, the way it works is you enter an area code that you would like your new phone number to be in and you can choose from a random selections of phone numbers within that area code that it comes up with. From there you enter your personal info (the basic deal) as well as your personal or cellphone number. Here's where the magic starts.....

Brring pays you from $1 to $0.05 for each call that you receive through the number given by brring. The caller is subjected to a 10 second advertisement which you can configure (on a 1 to 5 scale by type) and then the call is transferred over to your regular phone number as a normal call. On your end, the call acts just like normal, the phone rings and when you pick up, the person calling is on the other end.

Now, I'm not the type to just set up my friends to being subjected to listening to an ad every time they call (unless they agree to it, which is much appreciated). So I've mainly been using it for things I've been signing up for that require a phone number. Might as well make some money from receiving telemarketer calls right? However you choose to go about this, it's some easy money to be made as a passive income that is truly one-of-a-kind.

Focus Groups: A high payout alternate source of income

While I'm a strong advocate of survey sites and other methods of earning income on the side, I've got to give it up to the focus groups as one of the best hourly rates available for just giving your opinion. Many of these panels pay from $50-$100/hour just for sitting around a table with others, listening to a presentation, and then giving your feedback. They typically last from 30 minutes to 2 hours and you are paid upon completion. Not a bad gig huh?

The only big downside to these panels is that they aren't offered anywhere near as often as many other money-making opportunities (I've noticed an average of 1-3 per month in the metro DC area), but other than that it's something not to overlook. Many people don't know about these panels, so your odds of being accepted are pretty good.

So how do you find out about these panels?

Well, I'm only hip to what my friend told me about so far, and that's by checking on Craigslist.org for your local area. If you click on the "Gigs" section on the bottom right of the page, you can then search for open focus groups that are listed. Some phrases I use to find them are "focus group" and "panel", they seem to catch everyone that is currently available.

As an example, you can see what "focus group" brings up in the search results for the DC metropolitan area here.

They're usually held over the weekend, but you won't know until you get in contact with the group hosting them. So give it a shot, nothing beats walking out of a room on a lazy Saturday after an hour with $100 in hand.

Free Philips Senseo coffee maker w/ coffee and storage tin

Alot of free offers I've signed up for in the past have never come through (especially alot of those free t-shirt deals) so I've held off on mentioning this one until I actually recieved the set. It turns out Philips was true to their word, on Monday I recieved an email that I had been accepted to recieve one, and today it arrived.

Accepted?!?! But aren't most free offers set up that you just sign up and it's yours? Well, usually, but this one is set up so that you answer a short series of questions (I promise, it's quick) concerning your social groups/activities and they will let you know if your level of social involvement qualifies for this promotion. **Ethical Grifter note: They're looking for users that have frequent social interaction to help promote their product.**

I put in for this in late October, hoping that it would arrive quickly, but as you can see, the approval process takes some time. Also, there is a $15 shipping charge for everything (which arrives in 1 Senseo box, I don't know if the normal units come with everything though). Not bad, considering the basic Senseo unit you recieve retails for $75 alone. It also comes with 5 $20 off a Senseo coffee maker coupons to share and a $1 off any Sara Lee frozen desert coupon (I hear cheesecake calling).

Here's the link to the questionaire for the free Senseo pack: https://www.sharesenseo.com

Also, here's another quick questionaire to get a coupon for another free bag of Senseo coffee pods: http://www.onlineregister.com/senseo/survey/

As for proof of reciept, here's 2 pics I took right after getting home today on my cameraphone:

More Free Stuff! Get over 114,000 MP3's legally

While browsing a few of my sites today, I came across quite a find. It was a post by MythSpell on the fatwallet.com forums linking to the "Free MP3 of the Day" and 2 weeks of prior MP3 archives on cnet.com.

It has a good mix of artists, but I had to do something better for you. After checking out all of the artists on the 2 week archive I started snooping around the site and came across this link....the one that has the full 114,000 (and still growing) free MP3 archive.

It's not quite as easily searchable as I would have liked, but hey, it's all free. I love coming across stuff like this, it gives me a chance to not only find music from artists I like, but also to discover new ones without spending a dime. Enjoy!