Verizon had been our landline carrier for years. Even though both of us carry a cell phone with us all the time and, increasingly, we are using more minutes on cell phones than on the landline phone, we still want to have a landline phone because, with multiple handsets, it’s convenient to receive calls at home, especially it’s noisy inside the house. So we kept the phone and paid about $15 a month for the minimum service with no caller ID and no long distance.

Then came July 2011 when we suddenly had a problem with our home phone that we could still make receive calls but were not able to make any because there was no dial tone. We contacted Verizon for the issue and, after a quick online diagnostic, we were told that the line to our house was good and the problem was inside our house. However, since we didn’t have any insurance, which has to be purchased with a fee of more than $6 a month, sending a technician to our house to check and fix the problem would cost us some $95 for the first hour then about $50 for every 30 minutes afterward. That’s a lot of money and we had no idea how long the repair could take. Maybe one hour is more than enough, but it’s also possible that it could take much longer. I tried to fix the problem myself by switching some wires from the switch board, but it wasn’t successful. Not willing to pay for the repair, we started to look for other options and was recommended Ooma by a friend. We were amazed by how much little the service costs and immediately purchased a base unit simply based on feedback from the friend.

Yes, there is a one-time fee for the base unit (we bought ours at Costco for about $80 at that time with no handset) and it cost us $40 to port our phone number to Ooma, but that’s only a few months of service fees that we paid to Verizon, so it is manageable. With the basic service, we got

• FREE unlimited calling in the U.S. (up to 5,000 minutes per month)
• FREE standard features like voicemail, caller-ID and 911
• Unmatched voice clarity and reliability of Ooma PureVoice™ technology
• The option to keep your existing phone number
• Access to low international rates and money-saving calling plans

Since we have the basic service, all it costs us is $3.95 for tax every month after the costs of purchasing the unit and transferring our old home phone number. Ooma also offers Premier service with $9.99 monthly fee (other benefits of the Premier service include call forwarding, send to voice mail, three-way conferencing, and multi-ring, etc.), but for us, the basic service meets all our needs. Even though we didn’t buy the Ooma handset, we are able to connect our own cordless phone to the unit and keep using multiple handsets we already have. So it works very well for us so far. Setting us the system is also very easy in three steps:

1. Connect the Ooma unit to home internet device (cable modem or router);
2. Connect existing home phone base unit to Ooma;
3. Open an account online at Ooma.com and register and active the unit.

In only a few minutes, we were able to make calls using Ooma (before our home number was ported which took a few days, we got a temporary number that we could use to receive call). Of course, being an IP based phone service, the availability of our Ooma phone depends on electricity and internet connection. But we haven’t experienced any prolonged outage so far. Overall, it works like a charm for us and saved us a lot of money

If you are interested in Ooma, you can use Ooma promotion code TAS5250 to save $40 on Ooma before January 31, 2013. If you are a Costco member, Costco occasionally has discount for the Ooma Telo unit, so you don’t have to buy the device from Ooma directly.

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

Special Promotional Offers

• Free 401(K) Fee Analyzer
• Scottrade 3 Commission Free Trades
• Citi Dividend Select Platinum Card $100 Bonus
• Citibank Checking Account $300 Gift Card Promotion

E*Trade Financial is offering free trades and up to $600 cash credit when opening an IRA Account, whether it’s a new account or a Rollover account from other brokers.

Even though it’s already 2011, but the deadline for making 2010 IRA contribution won’t come until the 2011 tax deadline, which is April 18th this year. Therefore, there are still plenty of time to contribute to all or part of the $5,000 limit allowed, if you haven’t maxed your 2010 IRA contribution yet. This promotion from E*Trade, among other IRA account promotions currently offered by brokers, provides a nice incentive if you are considering opening a new IRA account and starting to save for your retirement before the contribution deadline.

This E*Trade promotional offer will allow you to receive up to $500 credit with new or existing IRAs (limited to Rollover IRAs, Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs). The amount of credit depends on the amount of deposit made into the E*Trade IRA Account.

• Deposits over $250,000 receive $600;
• Deposits between $100,000 and $249,999 receive $250;
• Deposits between $50,000 and $99,999 receive $100;
• Deposits between $25,000 and $49,999 receive $50.

Since the annual contribution limit is $5,000, the best way to receive the credit is to open a Rollover IRA account and move your assets at other brokers to E*Trade so that you can meet the deposit requirements for the credit.

An E*Trade IRA Account has no annual account fee and there’s no minimum to open an account (of course, if you want to get the credit, the deposit amount is much higher). Once you have an account, you can have access to other services and products from E*Trade, including stocks and options, ETFs, over 7,600 mutual funds from top mutual fund companies, such as Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, etc, and more than 30,000 fixed-income securities.

To get the cash credit, new funds or securities must be deposited or transferred within 45 days of new account opening.

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

Special Promotional Offers

• Free 401(K) Fee Analyzer
• Scottrade 3 Commission Free Trades
• Citi Dividend Select Platinum Card $100 Bonus
• Citibank Checking Account $300 Gift Card Promotion

Allstate Auto Insurance is the nation’s largest publicly held personal insurer and a trustworthy provider of affordable automobile insurance to millions of drivers across the country.

Allstate offers free auto insurance quotes through a quick online process that takes just minutes to complete and allows you to receive either a personal quote that is customized to your needs or a ballpark estimate without having to provide your name or contact information.

Drivers who switch to Allstate have an average annual savings of $348 on car insurance, plus Allstate offers $100 off your auto deductible on the day you sign up for even more savings.

Allstate also provides many additional insurance products and resources including a teen driver program, motorcycle insurance, and other affordable insurance options with personal service and full customer satisfaction guaranteed.

Get a free online quote in just minutes from Allstate Auto Insurance and receive $100 off your automobile insurance deductible when you sign up for auto insurance from Allstate today.

Here’s a quick summary of what Allstate Auto Insurance offers:

• Get $100 Off Your Auto Deductible When You Sign Up for Allstate Auto Insurance
• Drivers Who Switched to Allstate Saved an Average of $348 Per Year
• See How Much You Could Save with a Free Auto Quote Now
• Allstate – Auto Insurance Made Simple!

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

Special Promotional Offers

• Free 401(K) Fee Analyzer
• Scottrade 3 Commission Free Trades
• Citi Dividend Select Platinum Card $100 Bonus
• Citibank Checking Account $300 Gift Card Promotion

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card, issued by Citibank, is a rewards card that allows you to earn unlimited ThankYou Points for your everyday purchases and, for a limited time, it is offers 20,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of becoming a cardholder.

If you apply for the ThankYou Premier Card today and get approved for it, you will receive 50,000 sign up bonus ThankYou Points after spending $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. The bonus points can be redeemed for a $200 gift card through Citibank’s ThankYou Network or other rewards from Citibank.

In addition to the bonus points incentive for new account, cardholders also also earn 1.2 ThankYou Points for purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores as well as 1 ThankYou Point for every $1 spent on all other purchases. The rewards program will let you earn ThankYou points faster and there is no limit to the amount of points that can be earned. Best of all, rewards points earned never expire.

This card has a reasonably low variable interest rate for purchases and balance transfers as well. Even though there is a $125 annual fee, the membership fee is waived for the first 12 months after becoming a cardholder. The card does provide several cardholder benefits that include $0 liability on unauthorized charges and online services. There are also no foreign transaction fees on purchases.

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

Special Promotional Offers

• Free 401(K) Fee Analyzer
• Scottrade 3 Commission Free Trades
• Citi Dividend Select Platinum Card $100 Bonus
• Citibank Checking Account $300 Gift Card Promotion

Scottrade and TradeKing are another two very popular online discount brokers. Both of them have been around for quite a long time and won multiple awards for their services over the years. From my personal experience, I like Scottrade’s convenience because of their local presence. Also, with Scottrade, I can use money just deposited into my account to buy stocks immediately (as long as the price is $4 or above). As for TradeKing, they have a very neat interface and an array of research tools to help me research on stocks and ETFs. Their latest Blackberry Mobile Trading App really makes trading stocks on the go much easier.

Anyway, here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two brokers.

*NTF: No transaction fee;
**You have to wait for 3 business days before using the fund to buy stocks that are less than $4.00/share at Scottrade;

If you don’t have an account with either one of them, which one do you like better from just the comparison, Scottrade or TradeKing?

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

Special Promotional Offers

• Free 401(K) Fee Analyzer
• Scottrade 3 Commission Free Trades
• Citi Dividend Select Platinum Card $100 Bonus
• Citibank Checking Account $300 Gift Card Promotion