In honor of Memorial Day, we’re giving away a $25 gift card to Chili’s, On the Border, Macaroni Grill, Maggiano’s. To enter, please comment and tell us, how you plan on saving money this Memorial Day weekend. For bonus entries–use the widget at the end of the post to share our giveaway on your social media sites! Good Luck! 
This is a review of the Direct Express Debit MasterCard. It is part of our Prepaid Card Review series where we provide insight and useful tips regarding prepaid debit cards we find interesting. The Direct Express card is unique – because it is specifically designed to be used by those receiving federal government benefits like Social Security and Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. The Treasury Department recently gave a directive that required all government benefits to be paid electronically. This was done to eliminate the expense of mailing out checks to millions of recipients each month. See the video below for the announcement:
As a result, recipients of government benefits now have two options in getting their benefits:
1. You can choose to get your Social Security or VA benefits deposited into your checking or savings account with a bank or credit union (to find a credit union, checkout the federal credit union online directory). To sign up for Direct Deposit, click here. You will need a few documents as outlined in the image below:
2. Your other option is to sign up for a Direct Express Debit MasterCard account, which acts like a bank account. Your federal benefit will be deposited into your Direct Express account on the due date and you will be able to access your money to make purchases anywhere debit MasterCard are accepted, get cash at ATMs or get cash back when you make debit purchases at grocery and pharmacies and other retail outlets. To sign up for Direct Express, click here. You will need the documents as outlined in the image below:
If you already have a Direct Express Debit Card, you can learn about how to register your card and Direct Express Login.
Regardless of the option you chose, you are required to receive your federal benefits electronically, so take action soon before the government makes the choice for you (by signing you up for the Direct Express Card).
As Sunday night rolls around, many of us begin to experience the Monday blues. As a new week embarks, we find ourselves sitting at our desk Monday morning, guzzling numerous cups of coffee just to get through the day. During some point or another we all start day dreaming about being anywhere but work. Imagining yourself relaxing on a tropical island, far way from the “real world.” With the warm sun beating down on your face and a cold drink in your hand. I mean, what sounds better?
Many people wish they were enjoying a vacation, but never actually take one due to the expenses that comes along with it. According to Kelton Research, the average working American was left with 9.2 unused vacation days this year. This number is up from 6.2 unused vacation days in 2011. Almost half of the respondents said that they don’t use their allotted time because of their lengthy to-do list, job insecurity and tight budget. Taking a vacation should no longer be considered a luxury, but a necessity.
According to Framingham Heart Study, women who take vacations once every six years were
almost eight times more likely to suffer from a heart attack or die of cardiac causes, compared to those who vacationed at least twice a year. Likewise, a study of 1,500 women published in the 
Wisconsin Medical Journal found that those who take vacation once every two years were more likely to become tense, depressed or tired than those who get away twice a year.
Taking a vacation is not only important for your mental health, but you’re physical. Vacations allow employees to relax and relive their everyday stress. This leisure time increases work efficiency and decreases employee burnout. Even if you’re living on a tight budget, it’s possible to take a relaxing vacation without breaking the bank.
As it turns out, there are amazing and affordable alternatives to the pricey, popular vacation 
destinations. If you’ve been seeking great surf and tropical seclusion, your best budget-friendly vacation destination would be Nicaragua. According to WaterWays Surf Adventures, Nicaragua is your best bet for surf travel from anywhere in the U.S. Plus, flights are cheap, there are tranquil Caribbean beaches, freshwater lakes, verdant hills and even volcanoes.
If you’re seeking a more European experience with Old World charm and gourmet food offerings, 
travel to the city’s oldest quarter, Vieux-Montréal. It’s full of cobble-stoned streets, museums, restaurants, and a revitalized canal district, which you can explore by boat, foot, or rented bicycles. Their open-air markets are a gourmet paradise; featuring a vast array of locally raised meats, farm-fresh produce, delicious chocolates, and home-made wines. You get the Paris feeling without the cost.
If your a wino, you’ve probably been dreaming of going to Napa for their exquisite winery’s. 
Well, you don’t need to travel to California to get the same experience. You can cut your cost in half by going to New York’s Finger Lakes region instead. They have enough winery’s with beautiful views, farm-fresh dining and superb sips to keep you busy for days. It turns out the Finger Lakes region is so wine-friendly because the lake favors the cultivation of grapes. You can find endless wine, impeccable views and fresh food all for half the cost of a trip to Napa.
These three budget-friendly destinations are great vacation alternatives that won’t put you in debt when you return to the “real world.” These smart swaps that will satisfy your wanderlust and allow you to have some much needed relaxation. Safe & happy travels!
If you’re like most people visiting the mall or heading out to eat dinner with the family, you’re usually at the mercy of your favorite retailers and restaurants when it comes to the prices you’ll pay. Sure, you might catch a sale or special, but, for the most part, you expect to shell out the number printed on the price tag. Saving money takes a lot of strategizing, organization, and planning, right? Scouring the paper for coupons (and actually remembering to bring them to the store with you before they expire) plus constantly researching store sales and promotions can be exhausting and, honestly, not worth the effort. But there are simple, easy, frugal shopping tactics you can take up, today, without wasting time or sanity.
Mobile couponing app, SnipSnap, lets you take pictures of your coupons and integrate them into your phone, so you’re never left without all that free money you receive in the mail again. The app also grants you access to thousands of coupons other users are uploading every second, so you can tap into more savings than ever before. Think you should save more at your favorite store? Frustrated when you receive a gift card for a store you’ve never shopped at in your life? At GiftCardRescue.com we pay users cold, hard cash for those gift cards they’ll never use, then sell those gift cards at steep discounts to savvy shoppers who can use them to buy more for less at their favorite stores.
Mobile coupons and discounted gift cards are both extremely easy ways to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars every year, but you can grow your savings exponentially when you use the two together! That’s why we’ve teamed up with SnipSnap to create a new series, dedicated to showing you how stacking mobile coupons and discounted gift cards can save you tons of money and transform your life. We’re calling it When Mobile Coupons and Discount Gift Cards Collide. Catchy, huh? Check out this week’s gift card/coupon match-ups!
Discounted JCPenney Gift Card→Purchased $156.00 gift card at 22% off→Paid $121.68
Savings of $34.32
Purchase Providence Kitchen Cart→Original $225.00→Sale $155.00
Savings of $70.00
SnipSnap 15% Off Coupon w/Code: UDESERVE→Original $155.00→With Coupon $132.60
Savings of $23.25
Total Savings with Gift Card Rescue & SnipSnap→$127.57
Discounted Starbucks Gift Card→Purchased $40.00 gift card at 17% off→Paid $33.20
Savings of $6.80
Purchase Grande Cool Lime Refresher→Original $4.65
SnipSnap $2.00 Off Coupon→Original $4.65→With Coupon $2.65
Savings of $2.00
Total Savings with Gift Card Rescue & SnipSnap→$9.45
Discounted PetCo Gift Card→Purchased $77.36 gift card at 15% off→Paid $65.75
Savings of $12.01
Purchase Petmate Navigator Pet Kennel→Original $89.99→Sale $80.99
Savings of $9.00
SnipSnap $7 off $30 Coupon w/Code: AFFREG→Original $80.99→With Coupon $73.99
Savings of $7.00
Total Savings with Gift Card Rescue & SnipSnap→$28.01
Discounted The Limited Gift Card→Purchased $86.63 gift card at 30% off→Paid $60.64
Savings of $25.99
Purchase 678 Zip-Ankle Skinny Jeans→Original $79.90→Sale $49.90
Savings of $30.00
SnipSnap 40% Off Coupon w/Code: MAY40→Original $49.90→With Coupon $29.90
Savings of $20.00
Total Savings with Gift Card Rescue & SnipSnap→$75.99
Discounted L.L. Bean Gift Card→Purchased $50.00 gift card at 12% off→Paid $44.00
Savings of $6.00
Purchase Large Adventure Duffle→Original $64.95→Sale $54.99
Savings of $9.96
SnipSnap Free Shipping Coupon→You Save $7.95 in Shipping Fees
Total Savings with Gift Card Rescue & SnipSnap→$23.91
Where are you planning on shopping/eating out this weekend? Let us know any great deals you get by combining GiftCardRescue.com and SnipSnap!
Have a great weekend & happy savings!
As the weather continues to heat up and we inch closer and closer to summer, before you know it you’ll be firing up the grill. In my opinion, summer is the best season for food. I can’t resist anything cooked on the grill. During the summer, I’m usually tempted to over-spend at the grocery store because I want to buy anything and everything I can cook on the grill! All the fresh vegetables, fruit, seafood, chicken and steaks are sometimes just too good to resist!
Well, I’ve decided that this summer my constant over-spending at the grocery store is going to change. I’ll still be eating all the fresh vegetables, fruit, seafood and meat that I want, but this year I’ll be shopping smarter. One of my major problems is that when I see all the beautiful, sweet smelling produce I have the urge to buy everything in sight.
Before I know it, my kitchen’s over-flowing with all the food that I purchased. I know you’re probably thinking, “What’s the problem?” Well, the problem is that now I have an unnecessary amount of fresh produce in my house. It will be nearly impossible to cook and eat it all before it perishes. Now I’m faced with having to throw out any food that went bad before it had the chance to be eaten. Talk about money down the drain!
I know I’m not alone here. More than likely, many of you have encountered this problem, but you just haven’t realized it was because of your over-zealous spending at the grocery store. To curb my urge to buy everything in sight, I’ve compiled a list of tips that will eliminate my summertime over-spending.
According to personal finance website, Mint.com, over-spending on food happens for a number of reasons. Those reasons range from poor planning to encountering deals that seem too good to pass up. For me, I think my major issue stems from poor planning. Apparently, I’m not the only one who finds them self throwing out food that has gone bad. Mint.com found that the average person ends up wasting over 200 pounds of food each year!
With that said, my first tip to eliminate over-spending
at the grocery store is to plan out your meals for the week. By doing this before you go shopping, you can avoid access waste and won’t end up spending money on food that will never get eaten. If you want to go the extra mile and save even more, plan your meals around what’s on sale at your local grocery store that week. Just look in your local newspaper for a sale circular. Don’t get the newspaper? No worries, you can also find these online in a PDF downloadable form.
To go along with planning your meals for the week, my second tip is to make a list. The most important part about making a list is sticking to it! Making a grocery list can help you spend
considerably less on food, but only if you stick to it. When you go grocery shopping, make sure you’re focused on the task at hand. If you’re not, you’re more likely to purchase items that aren’t on your list. To avoid all temptation, make sure you eat before you shop. Grocery shopping hungry can cause you to spend 15 percent more!
My third and final tip for not over-spending at the grocery store this summer is to avoid buy three, get one free sales! Yes, this may sound like a great deal at first but in reality this is just a way the grocery store entices you to buy more.
They want you to purchase more items so it will increase your bill, as well as, the average number of products per purchase. Sometimes the buy three, get one free and two for $5 deals don’t actually save you any money. Sometimes the merchants will do this because this combination of numbers and prices sound cheaper than just the listing price alone. Next time do the math, make sure you’re getting an actual deal, and don’t buy three boxes of crackers if you don’t need them!
If you want to avoid over-spending this summer, these tips should definitely help you cut down on costs. Remember you can have it all; you just don’t need it all at that exact moment! Wait for things to go on sale, plan your meals for the week, don’t waste food, avoid those sneaky “deals,” and stick to your list! If you do all of these things you will notice a decline in your total food cost this summer. These easy tips can really make a BIG difference! Happy smart shopping everyone!
Mother’s Day is the one day a year that’s set aside to show your appreciation for the special women or as I like to call them, “Super Women,” in your life. Whether they are your mother or an inspirational female figure, they all have one thing in common. They don’t get the credit they deserve on a daily basis. Since they’re deprived of this praise all year, Mother’s Day is the one day you have to make up for this deprivation and honor the “Super Women” in your life.
These women have the hardest (non-paying) job of them all, so it’s only fitting that you treat like the Queen of England, even if it’s only for one day. Since Mother’s Day is a time to show your appreciation, it’s extremely important that you give a gift that she’ll actually like. Sometimes this can be a tricky task, but we’re here to help make that a little easier for you!
Every year before the holiday season, we release our annual Top 20 Most Wanted Gift Card list to help give shoppers gift ideas for those hard-to-shop-for people in their life. This year, we’ve decided to release our Most Wanted list for popular gift-giving holidays, starting with Mother’s Day.
This year, Mother’s Day gift card sales are expected to reach $1.8 billion, increasing 2.2 percent from 2012 (IBISWorld). Gift Cards have been deemed the second popular gifts to give on Mother’s Day (flowers is first) because it allows moms to treat themselves to something special. Consumers have slowly returned to splurging on gifts for holidays such as Mother’s Day since the 2008 recession.
Our Top 10 Most Wanted Gift Cards for Mother’s Day list is based on a national survey completed by consumers who plan on giving or receiving a gift card this Mother’s Day. Topping the list and claiming the number one spot by a landslide is Amazon.com, followed by Visa, Target and Wal-Mart. It’s not surprising that Amazon.com grabbed our number one spot. Consumers love Amazon because they offer one of the largest product assortments anywhere, it’s convenient and reliable.
As Mother’s Day quickly approaches, make sure you get that special woman in your life something she’ll love! You can’t go wrong with a gift card to her favorite store, restaurant or spa. If you don’t know what her favorite is, then our list is here to help you out. She’s sure to love any of our Top 10 picks. Happy Mother’s Day to all those hard-working, selfless women out there!
You can find our official press release here, as well as, our full Top 10 Gift Card list for Mother’s Day below:
Next time you go to a restaurant, whether it’s fine or casual dining, look around the room. There’s an 80 percent chance that at least one person at every table is either on their phone or has it easily accessible. Recently, CNNMoney found that some restaurants dislike customers’ over zealous use of cell phones so much that they’re offering discounts to those who opt to go without their portable device during their dining experience.
Eva Restaurant in Los Angeles now offers a 5 percent discount when customers choose to leave their phones with the receptionist for the entirety of the meal. Since this policy has gone into effect, the restaurant estimates that 50 percent of customers have opted to ditch their phones. Restaurant owner and chef, Mark Gold, says that he wants people to connect again.
He came up with the idea after speaking with colleagues about how annoying he found it when people were on their smart phones during dinner. The restaurant notifies all of its customers about
the cell phone policy with a statement on their menu. Plenty of restaurants ask their customers to refrain from using their cell phone, but this high-scale LA restaurant is the first to offer a discount for surrendering your phone for the duration of the meal.
Gold says that his customers have become really enthusiastic about the new policy. He thinks that people genuinely like the idea of being able to turn off their phone and enjoy their meal, as well as, each other’s company.
Last year, Rogue 24, a Washington D.C. eatery gained rapid press for requiring their diners to submit a two-page contract before their reservations were accepted. The contract included the ban of camera and cell phone use in their restaurant. Owner RJ Cooper later relaxed his contract rules, due to the poor press his restaurant was receiving.
These restaurant owners’ motives for banning cell phone use aren’t completely out of the ordinary. The University of Essex conducted a study that links cell phones to decreased interpersonal connection. Study participants held conversations in pairs, half with a cell phone present and the other half without. Couples who conversed with a cell phone present reported lower relationship quality and less closeness.
The study concluded that interacting without a cell phone helps to foster connectedness, trust, and perceptions of empathy. Gold wants to bring those relationship building opportunities into the fabric of his business. Offering a discount for refraining from cell phone use may not be such a bad idea after all. It allows the diner to save a little money, as well as, enjoy their meal and connect with their company, distraction-free.
This is one of our most frequently asked questions. Consumers wonder if we are a legitimate business because our service sounds too good to be true. We buy your unwanted gift cards for cash and sell gift cards for a discount; so many people are thinking, “What’s the catch?” Well, no catch! With the amount of unspent gift cards exceeding $1.7 billion dollars last year (CEB TowerGroup), we understand that there’s a need for a gift card exchange service!
Our goal is to help YOU get the most for your money and make it easier for people to unlock the value in their unwanted gift cards. Have you ever heard the phrase, “Another person’s trash is another person’s treasure?” Well, we practice a similar concept except with gift cards! Why have gift cards sit in your wallet when you get cash that you’ll actually use for them? In return, we sell these gift cards at a discount to someone who’ll actually use them!
Now you may be thinking, “How do I know if the gift card I’m receiving is legitimate?” Do not fear, in the rare case that there’s an issue with your gift card, all of our transactions are guaranteed and backed with a 60-day return policy. If the gift card isn’t exactly what you ordered, we’ll email you a pre-paid label to send the card back to us and refund your money. We ask all our customers to verify the balance of their gift card once it’s received in the mail. We also encourage them to use the gift card within the 60-day period to ensure that your gift card is covered in the rare case of an issue.
GiftCardRescue.com is a limited liability company and has been in business for five years. The online gift card exchange service originally got its start on the ABC show, Shark Tank. We strive to provide the highest quality of customer satisfaction and support. If for any reason you’re unhappy about your experience with our company, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would like to get any issues/concerns resolved for you as soon as possible. Our customer service hotline (1-877-800-4413) is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST. You may also email customerservice@giftcardrescue.com or carrieb@giftcardrescue.com. Thank you for choosing GiftCardRescue.com for all your gift card exchange needs!
Who doesn’t want a FREE gift card? Simply comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win a $25 JCPenney gift card. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity! Good Luck
