Tag Archives: free

How I Saved $5.40 Off the $99 Sale Price for Office 2016 And Got a Roll of Designer Duct Tape Plus $1 Back

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My 2008 laptop is still working fine. I use it for email, with MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel; I edit photos with Photoshop Elements; my kids do homework and play dubious computer games. Still, my husband would never be able to run *his* games on such an antique which resulted in him eventually upgrading his boat anchor. We decided to load it with MS Office 2016 because so much of the homework our children get encumbered with requires them to use it. I shopped around for a reasonable price and found it at Staples on sale for $99. Of course, I immediately tried to get an even better price: this is how I saved $10 more and got $2 back in amazon.ca gift cards although I decided to blow some of that $10 on a roll of designer duct tape adorned with comical cartoon owls.

Always Check Great Canadian Rebates Before You Make an Online Purchase

I wasn’t sure if Staples was one of the stores available through Great Canadian Rebates so I visited the website and checked. Yes. And even better, it offered rebate of up to 4% on purchases. Admittedly the rebate on computer-related stuff like this software is only 1% but still, not bad.

What really caught my eye, though, was the click through coupon to save $10 on an order of $100 or more. That’s significant considering it applies to items that are already on sale!

Of course, the software I wanted was $99.00. I thought about buying something that cost very close to $1, like paperclips at $1.68 a box. But then I thought what we need more of is duct tape. There were many colours and styles to choose from: I went with the sophisticated neon cartoon owls that should add a certain j’n sais quois to patching that hole in the yard waste tub.

(This image leads to my amazon.ca kickback page to buy the tape. It’s cheaper at Staples right now so shop around.)

Buying from Staples Through Great Canadian Rebates Also Gets Free Shipping on Lower Orders

Another perk that is available when buying from Staples through Great Canadian Rebates is the minimum order for free shipping is lower. Shipping is free on most orders of $45 or more. (This offer will change from time to time, so check before making a decision.)

How Did I Get $2 In Amazon.ca Certificates If I Bought from Staples?

The kickback Canadians get from buying stuff through Great Canadian Rebates is paid in amazon.ca gift certificates. They nicely round up to the next $ if your monthly total rebate is even $0.01 above a dollar. Since I didn’t buy anything else last month, and since my eligible rebate is $1.04, I’ll be getting a $2 certificate for Amazon.

UPDATE: As of June or July 2016 it appears they no longer “round up” the Amazon certificates. They seem to be issuing them now right down to the penny you’ve earned.

What Did I Save In Total For Clicking Through from Great Canadian Rebates?

So by
signing in to my GCR account (e.g. typing my email and password), and then
typing Staples in the Merchant text box, then
clicking on the Save Now button beside “Save $10 on Your Next Purchase of $100 or more” and then
shopping at staples.ca as usual, I saved or was rebated

  • $10 – $5.60 the cost of the duct tape that I would have bought elsewhere possibly for less
  • $2 – $1 rebate from GCR in Amazon certificates (It would have been $1 if I had not bought the tape.)
  • Plus the cost of gas driving to staples

On software that was already on at a reasonable sale price of $99.

For a total saving of
$5.40 (or
$12
if you don’t adjust for the duct tape)

Cool.

Blatant Sales Pitch for Great Canadian Rebates

If you don’t belong and you join GCR by clicking on my link, you will get the same rewards as if you just join GCR by searching for it on the internet. I, however, will be very happy you used my link because I will get a small percentage rebate if you ever buy anything using GCR, even though it will not reduce or affect your reward. (I don’t get any info about who joined, what they spent, or what they spent it on, though, so I won’t know how to thank you personally.)

To join Great Canadian Rebates and help me earn a few more dollars in amazon.ca certificates, please join using my

http://www.GreatCanadianRebates.ca/register/171462/

Code, which is automatically entered if you click on this above link.

Either way, consider joining as it could save you a few bucks and get you a free roll of duct tape, too!

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Do you use an online rebate program like GCR or RedFlagDeals to save a few $$ on your online purchases? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How I Got $200 and 50 Free Trades from CIBC Investor’s Edge for a Self-Directed Brokerage Account

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As I mentioned previously, for the first time ever we’ve actually got more money than we need. Ok, yes, we’ll need it eventually: we have children; they are not in high school yet, much less married, introducing our grandchildren, buying their homes and all the other joys of life. And I guess we’ll need to get rid of the avocado green toilet and sink one of these days as the corrosion, though hidden, is getting worse on both. Still, in theory, we’re (temporarily) awash with cash. I decided we should take some of it and put it into something, either GICs or bonds or the stock market, in a non-registered investment account. So I went shopping for the best bonus I could get and ended up with $200, 50 trades and a CIBC Investor’s Edge brokerage account.

Why Was Getting This Bonus Significant?

Well because CIBC Investor’s Edge is not offering a bonus right now!

All I could find in the way of “deals” at this time was a bonus at BMO InvestorLine. It was reasonable: $50, 50 trades that have to be executed practically before the cash is deposited in your account, and a year’s subscription to the Globe and Mail online. But $50 didn’t sound like much and I’m not actually partial to the Globe. (I know: Blasphemy from a financial writer, right?)

And our combined assets with CIBC would get us $6.95 trades. I don’t “trade” much, if at all, but I do occasionally buy shares and ETFs with new money and with dividends. A $3 savings isn’t huge but it’s pleasant.

I do dislike the fact that CIBC Investor’s Edge doesn’t offer, currently, access to buy GICs from Home Trust unlike BMO InvestorLine and RBC Direct Investing. I intend to lobby them to add that choice, though!

I also prefer some of the ways InvestorLine displays our holdings and transactions. But given we rarely actually DO anything with our investments (since we are in it for the long term) it’s not a big concern.

How Did We Get the Investor’s Edge Bonus?

After procrastinating for a few days, we decided we would open the non-registered brokerage account at CIBC Investor’s Edge if we could get them to at least match the BMO InvestorLine bonus.

So I phoned Investor’s Edge and asked what they could offer.

The first representative said she thought they might be able to make me an offer, so she transferred us to a person “qualified to make us an offer.”

This person could offer:

  • $100 and 25 free trades if we transferred $25 000 into a new non-registered brokerage account; or
  • $200 and 50 free trades if we transferred in $50 000

Since $200 is more valuable to me than $50 and the Globe and Mail, we decided to accept.

Now if you’ve been reading along hoping to get the code for the Bonus from me, I’m sorry to say you’re out of luck. Instead of providing a code to apply online, the representative applied on our behalf. They will mail us out the paperwork to review and sign. They’re even including a postage-paid envelope (because they know cheap @($*$ like us would probably renege on the deal without one.) We also have a direct phone number if we need to discuss the process with this person.

On the other hand, I can’t see any reason why you can’t get the same deal just by phoning. We didn’t provide any other new business to CIBC or Investor’s Edge.

Anyway, I think it was worth spending 10 minutes on the phone to get the offer and provide all the identifying info needed to open the account.

What Information Did We Need to Provide to Open the Brokerage Account by Telephone with Investor’s Edge

Speaking of which, the info we needed to provide for the joint brokerage account included

  • our names
  • telephone numbers
  • mailing address
  • employers’ names and addresses
  • job titles
  • average annual income
  • approximate liquid assets
  • approximate fixed assets value (e.g. house value)
  • approximate debt (none!)
  • social insurance numbers
  • driver’s license numbers

They also requested permission to check our information with a credit bureau. (I think he said Equifax but I’m not sure.)

This is all the same information we get asked for whenever we open a brokerage account so none of it was a surprise.

And Now We Wait

So we’ve done all we can for now. I guess if Canada Post continues its habit of only delivering mail when the weather is good we may not get the papers till early next week.

We’ll see.

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Have you talked your way into a bigger bonus from your brokerage? Were they happy to offer you a good deal? Please share your experiences with a comment.