Feb 16, 2011

Delta Skymiles Live Long

Delta Airlines (ticker: DAL) is coming out with some great changes to its Skymiles Frequent flier program:
  • MILES DON'T EXPIRE: Effective January 1, 2011, we eliminated our mileage expiration policy so you can earn and redeem miles without worrying if and when your miles will expire. 
  • NO AWARD TICKET FEE: We no longer charge a fee for Award Ticket redemptions, even last-minute bookings. 
Source: http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_skymiles/skymiles_program_updates/index.jsp

Feb 5, 2011

Stock Broker Reviews

DISCOUNT BROKERS FOR STOCK AND OPTION TRADING

|SOGOTRADE 25 FREE TRADE PROMOTION (online stock trading broker)|


Sogotrade is a deep discount broker offering trades as cheap as $3/trade up to 3000 shares (no addl. fees).

If you sign up via the link above you will get 25 additional trades (with a 3 month expiry) over and above the signing bonus of 100 trades offered by them to new customers (info valid as of Mar 18 09).

Sogotrade's trades are real time and quotes also appear to be real time.
To see a good review of Sogotrade click here

Positives: One of lowest per trade execution costs, Just $500 to start an account. Also give 100 free trades (expires in 1 month though) when you sign up.
Negatives: do not offer trailing stops or Pre-mkt/After-mkt trades. Do not offer IRA accounts either. So keep that in mind!
My Sogotrade referral link. Referral code: 452095
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|SCOTTRADE REFERRAL- FREE TRADES (online stock trading broker)|


Earn 3 free trades when you open a new brokerage account* with Scottrade using referral code MKKF3032
[3 free trades (a $21 value, you save more if trading stocks priced under $1]
*
when anyone opens a new individual account (a non custodial, ie not an IRA acct) with Scottrade using the .


Reviews of Scottrade can be found at epinions.com.
Scottrade charges $7 per trade for stocks (priced above $1). They have an excellent real time quote and trading platform which can be accessed on web browsers with javascript. They also provide free, real time Dow Jones Newswire updates.


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ZECCO is a discount broker where they offer 10 free trades a month if you maintain more than $25000 in equity OR if you do 25 trades in a month (the 10 free trades start couting towards your 25 trades after the first month). Stock or option are only $4.50/trade for real time trades. This compares very favorably with Sharebuilder, Tradeking etc. Also Zecco charges only $4.50 per sell order too.
Options are $4.50 plus 0.50/contract.

There are also other good ones like MB Trading and Interactive Brokers, but both of these are for frequent trades and people who are quite familiar with complex interfaces, order routing etc.
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|UNITED AIRLINES MILEAGE PLUS CREDIT CARD INFO|

Depending on the card you get signed up for you can get (info accurate as of Jan 5)


  • 30000 miles- Visa Signature (and 1 mile per $ spent), $60 annual fee, Bonus only after $250 purchased on card.
  • 20000 miles - Visa Gold (2 miles per $ on United purchases, 1 mile/$ on other), $85 annual fee, bonus after any small first purchase
  • 20000 miles - Visa Platinum (2 miles per $ on all purchases) and $140 annual fee, bonus after any small first purchase
Please call 1-877-858-5188 (offer code C7G4) and give the referral code MP no. ..0 .3. 0. 8. 8. 5 .1. 1. 4 9 1 without the dots].
Once you do this, please DO Email me at naridon AT yahoo dot com so that I can keep track of the number of users who sign up this card via this page. I do not need any personal information from you other than your name. This info will not be stored for any longer than 6 weeks after you sign up.

[Please note that this recommendation is only for people who have already more or less decided to sign up for the mileage plus card offered by Chase bank and united airlines. This is a good card if you travel out of United.com hub areas and have sound credit management behavior.]

In my opinion, the Visa Select seems like a good option, especially if while applying on phone you can persuade them to waive the fee for the first year. Chase does offer this option usually.

Otherwise also, the 30000 miles you get are listed as choices and you can easily convert them to a actual money statement credit on your CC if for united.com travel or hotel bookings. The conversion rate for 20,000 choices is 1 cent/choice as long as you spend 200 dollar worth on a plane ticket, etc. More details at www.united.com/choices


Terms (Retrieved from United Airlines Website on Nov 1, 2010)
Refer a friend and earn up to 15,000 bonus miles
Dates: Ongoing
Offer: Now when you refer a friend who applies for and receives the Mileage Plus Visa Card, you will receive 5,000 bonus miles, up to 15,000 bonus miles1. Your friend can earn up to 20,000 bonus miles after first purchases2 and pay no annual fee for the first year. All you need to do is provide your friend with the same Mileage Plus number that is currently associated with your credit card account. Your friend will provide this number when they call to request the card.

Please email me at naridon@yahoo.com and ask for my referral mileage plus number. thanks

Get started now:
To refer a friend, have them call 877-273-7138.
Terms and Conditions: 1In order for you to receive bonus miles when referring a friend, your friend (the applicant) must provide the operator with the same Mileage Plus number used by Chase to post miles to your Mileage Plus frequent flyer account (not your credit card account number). Referring Cardmember: please allow 6-8 weeks after your new Cardmember's first purchase for bonus miles to post to your Mileage Plus account. Referring Cardmember will receive 5,000 bonus miles per new Cardmember referred up to 15,000 bonus miles.
2New Cardmember: please allow 6-8 weeks after your first purchase for bonus miles to post to your Mileage Plus account.
Promotion code: MPF32

Feb 3, 2011

Dedicated Travel Site Launched

A dedicated website for getting the best travel deals for Penn State students and community has been launched.


The site links you out to some of the best student airfare portals and other PSU centric discounts and deals.