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SmartyPig®: January 2010 Archive

The following posts were made in January 2010. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.

http://blog.smartypig.com/archive/01-2010.rss

January 28, 2010 • Posted by Michael Ferrari
January 2010 Twitter Contest Winners

Everyone was in a great mood this morning during our January Twitter contest! We really liked all of the creative ways people replied the answer. That said - the answer to the quesiton 'Which Today Show host gave SmartyPig props in a recent interview with Heather Cabot' was Al Roker.

We had over 170 players, randomized our list to 20 and picked the 3 $100 SmartyPig gift card winners:

The top 20 were: leslieberg, ChrisSnider, Shawk63, TeenOnDaRise, lisa4321, 44ounce, j_hollender, Samwar, twigglesMG, tcita, PsycDragon, joshbyers, janedane7, amandamorrow, dyanysus1116, jkeeney and jonconley.

Congrats to our winners: BriefThis (love the name), richharms, q2mobile - enjoy your $100!

Tags: twitter   •  smartypig gift cards   •  $100 gift cards   •  smartypig twitter contest   •  twitter contest
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January 26, 2010 • Posted by Michael Ferrari
January 2010 Twitter Contest

Let the savings begin! SmartyPig will be giving away three $100 gift cards through our monthly Twitter contest - Thursday, January 28 at 11 CST. We will tweet a question and give our followers 15 minutes to reply for a chance to win.

SmartyPig gift card

The format:

  1. After 15 minutes, we will be picking 20 random people with a number generator from the pool of correct answers.
  2. We'll use an old favorite to help in selecting three gift card winners.
  3. We'll post the process here on our blog, so everyone can follow along!

Make sure:

  1. You're following us on Twitter.
  2. We'll ask the $100 question on Thursday, January 28 at 11am CST.
  3. Answer the question correctly for your chance to win!

Remember: if you don't already have a SmartyPig account, it's free to set one up! Winner must be in the US.

Good Luck!

Tags: smartypig   •  saving money   •  twitter   •  contest   •  smartypig gift cards
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January 15, 2010 • Posted by Michael Ferrari
A One-Sided Relationship

SmartyPig Cut Credit Card

Envision opening your monthly statement from your credit card company and seeing they just charged you $50 because you didn't use the card to spend $2,400 over the course of the year, or, even worse, being charged for paying off your balance every month? Credit card companies are preying on people at the worst possible time. And even with the Credit Card Act going into effect next month, credit card companies continue to slap you with additional fees and charges. "Since fees represent such a cash cow for issuers, expect aggressive increases in existing fees, as well as some brand new fees on your credit cards in 2010," says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of lowcards.com (Wall Street Journal, Banks Roll Out New Check, Card Fees).

Credit card issuers collected $22.9 billion in penalty fees in 2009. You got nickeled. You got dimed. You got the screws put to you in a variety of new and painful ways. We all did. And sadly enough, Beltway "bulldogs" seem to be little match to bailed-out bankers hungry for a cash infusion now that the game has changed. "Issuers are trying to find ways to change the dynamic of the credit card market. They want to 'mainstream' annual fees," says Hardekopf. Put another way: they want to give you the shaft in a more acceptable manner to you, the shaftee. Make sense? Didn't think so. And the only way to combat it is to break up with your credit cards, save up for the things you want and buy only what you can afford (LowCards.com, Credir Card Predictions for 2010).

As credit card companies continue to exploit this so-called relationship with you by increasing fees and watering down perks, we here at SmartyPig offer real cash boosts of up to 12% from best-in-class retailers like Amazon.com, Macy's and Travelocity, and one of the highest interest rates in the country at 2.01% for the dollars you are saving for your goals. We pay you to save your money then we pay you even more when it's time to spend it. Your credit card company, on the other hand, enables you to buy more than you need, charges you an arm and leg for doing so, and then hammers you with outlandish fees when times get hardest.

Would you take this abuse from anyone else?

The SmartyPig Team
@smartypig
facebook/SmartyPig

 

Tags: smartypig   •  credit card   •  wall street journal   •  bill hardekopf   •  amazon.com   •  macy's   •  travelocity
6 Comments | |