Provident Checking Account - $123 Bonus

I'm looking for new ways to earn extra money. I thought about opening a CD at the bank but there weren't any good rates (that I liked).

Provident Bank has new promotion for new customers that open a new Totally Free, Regular, Interest OR Platinum checking account between Feb 2nd and March 31st, 2009.
It requires Direct Deposit and an active Provident MasterMoney debit card by April 30th 2009. Minimums and Interest depends on the type of checking account you open, so check the website. Some of the checking accounts have fees.

The Bonus is $123. Of course bonus will be reported to the IRS as interest. PB says this will be awarded on about May 31, 2009.

Promotion page: https://www.provbank.com/personal/checking/promotions/123-checking-promotion.php

Having opened bank accounts for bank bonuses, here are my suggestions:
1) Only open money in a bank if they are in your state or close enough. In case you need to go there to resolve something.
Provident Bank is located in DC, MD, PA, VA and WV.

2) Plan on keeping your money in the bank for at least 6 months.

3) Be sure the Bank is FDIC Insured, which Provident Bank is.

4) Keep a copy of the promotion page. Save as PDF and store in your email.
This will help you, if you don't get the bonus and need to have proof when speaking to Customer Service.

Claim your money

Sometimes we forget that we have stocks, bonds, savings accounts, security deposits, contents of safe deposit boxes, insurance proceeds and other valuables out there -- that we have forgotten about. Sometimes it's paychecks we never claimed or something. These are reported to the govermentt as unclaimed by banks and other financial institutions after three years.

Here's a website to find missing money"
http://missingmoney.com/

For the State of Maryland:
https://interactive.marylandtaxes.com/Individuals/Unclaim/default.aspx

New PayPal Promotion

I guess this is PayPal's answer to the Google Checkout promotion. If you use PayPal to pay for $30 or more purchase they will credit your PayPal account with $15.

$15 off $30 purchase using PayPal

Registration. You must first register for this offer on http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping/signup/index.html using your PayPal account's primary email address.

Single Purchase. Once registered for this offer, you must use your PayPal account to spend at least $30.00 USD or $34.50 CAD on a single purchase on an eligible website.

Eligible Website. You must make a purchase on www.eBay.com, www.eBay.ca or any United States or Canadian website that accepts PayPal. Purchases on www.eBay.com and www.eBay.ca must be made through the eBay checkout flow via the eBay website and must not be made through the PayPal Send Money tab.

Promotion Period. Purchases must be made between February 8, 2007 12:01 AM PST and March 31, 2007 11:59 PM PST.

Excluded Transactions. The following transactions are excluded from this offer: Send Money transactions, payments to Personal Accounts, eBay payments made to Personal Accounts, donations, PayPal Mobile transactions, payments for services, Virtual Debit Card payments, PayPal ATM/ Debit Card payments, payments made when you are not logged into your PayPal account, and PayPal Plus Credit Card payments not made through your PayPal account.

Rebate Payment. The $15.00 USD rebate will be deposited into your PayPal account by May 28, 2007. If you made your purchase in Canadian Dollars you will receive the Canadian Dollar equivalent of $15.00 USD at the day of the rebate payment.

Limitations. Limit one registration and one $15.00 USD rebate per PayPal Account. Offer available for a limited time. Offer is limited to PayPal users in the United States and Canada. PayPal account must be in good standing prior to and throughout the offer period to qualify.

$25+ Bank of America Bonus

You can get $25 and the person you refer can get $25 when they:
Open a Bank of America personal checking account with a Bank of America Visa® Check Card. $25 minimum balancee

Add any Bank of America savings account and they can get an EXTRA $10. Open that account with at least $1,000, and we’ll increase that bonus to $25.
Offer expires on 1/24/07 and is available in any Bank of America banking center or online when this referral form is presented at the time of account opening

email id you would like to use with your BOA Account
to sheel1@gmail.com

I will enter your name into Bank of America's referral page, and it will send you an email with the information necessary to sign up for the account.

$25 ING Direct Bonus

ING Direct's $25 referral sign-up bonus plan is still valid. The person joining gets $25 and the referrer gets $10. Currently to receive the $25 referral bonus requires you to open the account with a deposit of $250.

To get a referral send an email to me with your

first and last name

email id you would like to use with your Orange Savings account
to sheel1@gmail.com

I will enter your name into ING Direct's referral page, and it will send you an email with the information necessary to sign up for the account.

The bonus is given pretty much right away, within the next day of signing up.

Phone-Tax Refund

In August, the Treasury Department stopped collecting a 3 percent surcharge on long distance calls and bundled service that dated back to 1898 - a tariff often referred to as the Spanish American War tax because Congress passed it to help fund that conflict. The tax is still being assessed on local phone service.

In announcing the exclusion of long distance in May, Treasury also said it will refund any money collected under the tax since March 2003, a total of 41 months overall. The Internal Revenue Service is adding a line to its various 1040 forms to claim the refund on 2006 tax returns filed next year. Businesses and tax-exempt organizations need to fill out Form 8913, "Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid," to claim the refund with their returns. Those who wouldn't otherwise need to file tax returns can file a form called "1040EZ-T" to request the refund.

Individuals can claim a standard refund of between $30 and $60, as follows: $30 for one person plus $10 for each additional exemption claimed on the return. So a solo filer would claim a refund of $30, while a married couple with two children would claim $60. The IRS said it devised these standard amounts based on phone usage data for households of different sizes.

This is how I plan to calculate my Excess Federal Taxes:
1) Get a copy of the new bill post August 2006, when they stopped collecting the Federal Tax (i.e. Oct. 2006)
2) Get a copy of an old bill of yours prior to August 2006, when they were collecting the Federal Tax (i.e. June 2005)
3) See which tax appears in the old bill that doesn’t appear in the newer one…and that is your excess amount.
4) You can take that amount and multiply it by 41 and that is your refund amount or you can total the amount in the previous 41 bills, which also is my option…just gotta find the old bills.

Directly from the IRS website:
IRS announcement of Telephone Tax Refund: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161504,00.html

IRS Q&A on telephone tax refund for individuals: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id161506,00.html

IRS Q&A on telephone tax refund for businesses:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id164310,00.html