Less Suck, More Awesome

When Facebook served me an ad for teeth whitening , I was a tad insulted but mostly curious. Let's be honest, most of us can use some whitening, and I was no exception. The product was Lanthome Teeth Whitening Essence which came in a convenient container for only $20. The video was chock full of good looking and very satisfied customers showing off their newly whitened choppers. Was I momentarily tempted? Sure. Who doesn't want their teeth whitened for $20? Did I believe it? I was skeptical, as I am of most things. I did what I always do - research. There was a seemingly lively discussion attached to the ad, with quite a few comments, and even some back and forth chatter. At first blush, the people looked real and their comments read fairly natural. There were a few before-and-after pics adorned with enthusiastic likes and feedback. For a moment there, it certainly felt like there was a loyal community of customers who absolutely loved this product, and quite a few

Does free food taste better? Apparently, it's up for debate - there are conflicting opinions, from a Cornell study  to passionate online discussions . But let's be honest, free stuff is great, as long as no animals or humans were harmed in the process. So, when Target offered $40 off a $40 purchase (when getting a new Target card ) - practically giving away money - I figured why not, let's give it a go. The Target RedCard Reloadable is exactly what it sounds like - it's a prepaid debit card that let's you spend up to the amount explicitly added to the card, and you can add money to it at any time. Hence reloadable. The funds, we were told in a Target email, can be added a number of different ways - using cash at a Target store, via direct deposit (wow, really? clever, but a direct deposit to a Target card? seems a bit out there), and a bank account: Bingo. Adding from a bank account was what I was after. Let's open the RedCard website, or the app, and

Once in a while we have to link our bank account to an online service - say, to set up direct deposit, or pay utility bills.  it's a straightforward but annoying exercise. Every time I go through it, just like most sane people, I can never remember the bank's routing and account numbers and have to look them up.  To make sure we can't just link to some random account and take money from it, these services, thankfully, require us to prove that we have access to it.  The method to do that is as simple as it is clever: the service makes a couple of tiny deposits into the account, and asks us to tell it what those exact amounts were.  If our answer matches the deposits that were made, our access is confirmed, and we are good to go.  Otherwise, no transfers to or from that account are allowed. It's a road well traveled.  Every service does it more or less the same way, including Paypal - where I recently had to link a bank account. After completing the initial setup, I wai

I really hate Amazon order confirmation & notification emails.  There, I said it.  If it sounds like I feel  strongly about them, it is because I do. Less suck How much do we order from Amazon?  Let's just say, more often than not, our family has a few orders in flight at any given time.  No big surprise here, and I know we are not alone.  Compulsive shoppers we are not, but when we do need or want something, we immediately reach for Amazon.  It's just too easy: the prices are usually competitive, and the shipping is free and reasonably quick - if you have Prime (although Prime delivery which used to be 2 days, now takes quite a bit longer - and the people are quite upset , with some even suing ... but this is a separate story altogether). The shopping experience is great, but the Amazon order email notifications are practically useless.  Did we order a 6 months supply of toilet paper?  Did my 12 year old just purchase an entire season of The Sex Lives of College Girls?  Do

As promised, the most fun AT&T rewards adventure deserves its own story.  For other fun experiences leading up to this, see the earlier post. The mystery of the expiration date One of the cards had the expiration date of 12/2022.  Fast-forward to the end of the year - Christmas, New Years, the whole thing.  Admittedly, I was somewhat negligent in letting a balance linger on the card up to the very end.  But then on Dec 31st I remembered that I had some money burning my pocket.  Still time left, right?  This is where things got interesting.  I tried multiple different sites - Paypal, Amazon, Walmart - and in each case I was summarily rejected, informed that the expiration date was no good.  For a moment there, my semi-intoxicated New Year's Eve mind briefly wondered whether I was a victim of computer servers which were 3 hours ahead, and therefore thought we'd entered 2023.  But then I remembered: I was on the East Coast, and most servers were on the West Coast, meaning 3 ho

Who doesn't like a discount?   All things being equal, nobody in their right mind will say "no" to paying less.  True, some discounts require more work than others - like the ATT fiber broadband (FIOS) cashback that comes in the form of a debit VISA card.  Fiber is the most expensive residential broadband choice, but is worth it if you want any chance of being able to watch Netflix while both of your kids are streaming Youtube and Twitch. So, when the time came to sign up for fiber, between Xfinity and ATT I picked ATT because I fell for its tempting cashback offer.  I figured the process would be quick and straightforward, and the math checked out.  Done and done. Less suck, Chapter 1 The fun started soon after.  The first hiccup was when one of the three cashback rewards didn't automatically register - I received email notifications only for two.  That's when I learned that there exists a whole AT&T Reward Center created solely to support cheap assholes lik