$150 bonus from U.S. Bank checking account before 5/31/09

U.S. Bank is offering $150 cash bonus when you open a U.S. Bank checking account with direct deposit before 5/31/2009. A $50 minimum deposit is required. Direct deposit must be at least $100 within 60 days of account opening. This is by far the best deal of its kind yet. Open your chcecking account at http://usbank.com/checking. You can also call 1-800-720-BANK or stop by your nearest branch.

emigrantdirect.com and dollarsavingsdirect.com websites not responding

I was just checking my accounts and I found that both emigrantdirect.com (Emigrant Direct) and dollarsavingsdirect.com (Dollar Savings Direct) websites were not responding. I also tried to ping the addresses and got no response (ping is just another way to check if a website is working besides typing the web address in browser):

C:\>ping www.emigrantdirect.com

Pinging www.emigrantdirect.com [68.163.112.94] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 68.163.112.94:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\>ping www.dollarsavingsdirect.com

Pinging www.dollarsavingsdirect.com [68.163.112.93] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 68.163.112.93:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

Of course their call centers are already closed. I just hope that they will come back up soon and you bet I will play defense and get my money out after this horrific experience. The more I think about it, it seems like they are running a ponzi scheme: create DollarSavingsDirect.com (high yield at the beginning) to pay customers over at EmigrantDirect.com. I think I am going to move my money somewhere else, if I get the chance that is.

$100 gift card from American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card

I recently applied for the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest credit card and got 10,000 Starpoints after my first purchase which was enough to redeem for a $100 gift card from one of their merchandise partners including Amazon.com, Banana Republic, Brookstone, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Starbucks and more. There is no membership fee for the first year, so you can cancel it after you get the gift card.

If you travel a lot, it's a good card since you can trasnfer your Starpoints to major airlines' frequent flyer programs.

It took me about 3 months to get the gift card. Enjoy!