PayPal just released the great deals and cash back offers for the coming 2008 holiday shopping season. Customers can get up to 20% cash back for shopping through PayPal and pay with PayPal. The 20% discount will be applied to top online retailers such as OverStock, eToys and BlockBuster. Meanwhile, PayPal will also offer free shipping from some PayPal merchants. Of course, the most attractive part is PayPal will team up with Live Search and eBay to offer huge discount for shopping “Buy it Now” items on eBay.com.

According to Cliff Hopkins, senior director for PayPal, “Under current economic situation, many consumers will shop early and using every tool at their disposal to find the best deals on holiday gifts.” On order to boot sales, online merchants are also working to provide free shipping, cash rebate, and other great deals to their customers.

In details, retailers will offer a number of holiday promotions to help PayPal users find great gift ideas.

NO Shipping Cost

This is a very standard promotion for some online merchants to offer PayPal members. Some merchants also participated in the PayPal holiday promotion last year.

Cash Cash Offers

From December 1, 2008, PayPal will offer a great discount offers for members using PayPal to shop online. The cash back is up to 30%! Participating retailers are Blue Niles, eToys, OverStock etc. The cash back is offered instantly.

Deals from eBay through Live Search

Maybe you are still excited with the 35% cash back from Live Search with eBay and PayPal. I believe eBay and Microsoft will continue to offer huge promotion deals during shopping season. The latest message is: Shoppers who arrive at eBay through Microsoft Live Search (www.live.com) can receive up to 30% cash back on the purchase of any eligible “But it Now” item when using PayPal through the Microsoft Live Search cash back program.

PayPal was offering 10% off coupon together with 25% cash back from Live Search several days ago. Anyone who received the 10% coupon can use it together with live search cash back offer to get up to 35% discount! The coupon code as shown above is CFALLSAVINGS10P.

PayPal just announced that PayPal will cover the original shopping and shipping cost for users using PayPal to pay full price at eBay if the items are not received or significantly not as described. Shopping with PayPal is now even safer.

For more information, you can go to the official PayPal promotion website: www.paypal.com/holiday.

Normally, the back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. Microsoft launched the “Back to School Deal Days” promotion and doubled the cash back rate for most of its merchants. If you want to find something for this fall semester, it’s time to do a little research at www.live.com/cashback to save money for the coming school year. However, Microsoft is not the only one to promote back-to-school deals. PayPal just launched the back-to-school promotion from which you can save up to 50% when you shop and pay via PayPal.

Although PayPal is an eBay company, there are many “off-eBay” merchants participating in the back-to-school promotion. You can find whatever you need in the school: electronics, clothing, supplies, textbooks and other general needs. For example, FootLocker offers 15% off $75 with coupon code AF218G2H, 20% cash back at OfficeMax, and $100 off Lifebook notebook at Fujitsu.

A complete list of deals are listed below (you can find out the deals at www.paypal-promo.com/backtoschool):

• AllPosters.com: up to 50% cash back (BTSPAL)
• American Eagle: 20% cash back
• eBags.com: 20% off
• eCOST.com: save over $100 on 1TB WesternDigital Hard Drive
• FootLocker.com: 15% off $75 or more (go to Microsoft live cash back)
• Fujitsu: $100 off Lifebook notebook (BTS100OFF)
• GUESS.com: 10% off entire order (PPBTS10)
• Proactive.com: 15% cash back
• HotTopic.com: $25 off $100 or more (PPBTS25)
• NewEgg.com $10 HP webcam with coupon code PYPLBTS20 and many other great electronic deals
• OfficeMax: 20% cash back
• OverStock.com: 10% off entire order
• ShoeBuy.com: $10 off $40
• TigerDirect.com: free 512MB USB flash drive with your order

This is an annually promotion from PayPal with many merchants as a  result of a survey conducted by ACNielsen Customized Research last year. According to the survey, most parents and students continue to disagree over what constitutes a “must-buy” purchase for the school. The back-to-school survey as revealed by PayPal also includes:

• More than two-thirds of high school teens get their parents to buy items that their parents don’t approve.
• High school students expect that their parents will spend $350 on average for their back-to-school shopping.
• Parents with kids ages 5-17 estimate spending $252 dollars per child on back-to-school shopping.
• More than four in ten high school students will contribute at least a small portion of their own money for back-to-school purchases.
• 43 percent of high school students will buy some of their back-to-school items online and they will mostly shop for clothes, electronics and shoes.

Start save money for the coming school year and enjoy the promotion offered by PayPal and Microsoft live cash back.

I believe the 35% cash back from eBay via Microsoft live search cashback is the most popular topic on the internet yesterday. I think it’s necessary to write up a post about Microsoft live search cashback program and introduce how to get 35% cash back from eBay via live search cash back.

What’s Live Search Cashback?

Live Search cashback is a new cashback program that combines the power of Live Search with a comparison-shopping engine to bring consumers some of the best deals on the Web (to maximum the cashback rewards for online shopping consumers). The program rewards consumers with a cash back rebate for a purchase, and gives merchants/advertisers the opportunity to sell on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis. The motivation behind Microsoft to launch this program is to beat Google in the search engine business.

If you just use Google’s product search feature, you can get a list of stores that sell the product you want but without any information about tax, fees, and cashback for that transaction. However, Microsoft’s Live Search offers: 1). It tells you which stores carry the product and each store’s price, plus any additional charges (shipping cost and taxes). 2). It will offer certain amount of cashback for if you use the link provided by Live Search. (Of course, you have to register an account there.) It even will automatically determine which store offers the best price after cashback. It saves you a lot of time. Another feature Live Search can develop in the near future is to get store ratings together. Sometimes, lowest prices doesn’t mean best service.

In a word, Microsoft Live Search offer search engine and cashback together which make it very competitive for better online shopping experience. The cashback you can get even higher than some other cashback programs like Chase Rewards Plus, ShopDiscover Program or other famous rewards websites. Live Search Cashback is certainly worth checking out first every time you’re looking for something to buy online.

How to get 35% cashback from eBay?

1. Register an account at http://search.live.com/cashback.

2. Use live search to search the items you want to shop. (Usually you can try the items are known to generate 35% off links and redo the search process on ebay. You don’t have to search on the live.com again! That’s why this deal is damn hot!)

3. See whether you can get “You may get 35% off with PayPal if eligible.” from www.ebay.com. (examples will be shown below) If you can’t get it at the first attempt, you can try other words or you can try some accessories of that item. This is the most time consuming process. For example, I want to buy a pentax camera lens. If I use “pentax 50″, I can’t get any links for 35% cash back. However, if I try “pentax 100″, I will get a cashback link to www.ebay.com.

4. If you can get that link from your search results, click that link and try to find out the lowest price available at eBay and finish that transaction ASAP.

5. Wait for the cashback shows up in your account.

Some terms and conditions you should know:

1. You must successfully complete an eligible purchase on www.ebay.com using “Buy-It-Now” within 60 minutes of clicking an eBay link with Lice Search cashback logo. (this is a “Online Session”)

2. Cashback only applied to the first eligible item you commit to buy during an Online Session. No good for additional items.

3. PayPal payment is required!

4. Purchases of vehicles, gift cards, real estate or purchases made at www.express.ebay.com and www.half.ebay.com are not eligible to receive the cashback.

5. Maximum cashback for each Online Session is $250 and you can only get up to $750 totally. (Limit of 3 Online Sessions/transactions per account)

6. you can combine other coupons or other eBay promotions with Live Search cashback rewards.

Note: If you search for wii, you can only get 10% now. But if you use “wii cheap” you can still get 35% off link. If you search “PS3″ you can only get 10% off now, but if you use “PS3 cheap” you can still get 35% off link.

Update: Only 10% off right now. 35% off seems dead.You can only get 25% cashback right now.Simple search “25%” at live.com and you will get the link to get 25% cashback on ebay.com.

PayPal is the lowest-cost, broad-featured system I’ve found for receiving and sending money online. (PayPal has an opponent now—Revolution Money Exchange which basically has the same features.) Simply with a valid email address, you can request money, send money and manage your money online. Most online merchants accept PayPal as their main payment tool. PayPal is so popular that many merchants often work with PayPal to offer discount for using PayPal as payment method at checkout. You can always find great deals from www.paypal-promo.com. Right now, PayPal is running father’s day promotion which offers up to 20% off at some popular online merchants. Another good news is PayPal just launched PayPal Plug-In—a small module that runs in the toolbar of your Internet browser.

What’s PayPal Plug-In?

The PayPal Plug-In is a free tool developed by PayPal and runs from your Internet browser toolbar to securely pay for purchases online with a virtual credit card number. When you are ready to checkout and at the payment method step, if you are asked for a credit card information, you can simply click “Generate a Secure Card” from the frop down menu and you will be instantly provided a one-time use MasterCard number. The billing information is same as that in your PayPal account. In this way, online merchants treat your transaction as any credit card transaction and the money is debited from your PayPal account balance, or from your bank account or credit card account, or even your debit card account, depending on how you set up you PayPal funding sources. In this way, your chance to be a credit card fraud victim is minimized. PayPal Plug-In also features “address autofill”. Every time at checkout, this plugin will automatically enter your shipping address and billing address unless you turn off this feature.

Another feature is PayPal Plug-In provides a simple method to save and print your receipts. After you completing an online purchase, you can click the PayPal Plug-In and save a receipt for that purchase. This receipt will be saved in your online paypal account, listed by the receipt name, purchase date and the merchant.

How to get $10 off $50 from PayPal Plug-In?

The promotion page of this promotion can be found here. This offer began on June 3, 2008 and lasts until no later than June 30, 2008. To get this $10, you must have meet the following requirements:

• Have a valid U.S. PayPal account in good standing (address confirmed).
• Receive an email directly from PayPal inviting you to participate in this promotion (Did you receive it?).
• Make an online purchase (>$50) using the Secure Cards feature of PayPal Plug-In before June 30, 2008.
• Offer is limited to those who are using PayPal Plug-In for this first time.
• $10 bonus will be deposited to your PayPal account before July 31, 2008. (Note: This is not an instant discount offer!)

This PayPal Plug-In is really a nice tool for secure and convenient online shopping experience. However, this plugin will slow down your browser operations. I hope PayPal will develop this plugin and make online shopping much easier and safer.

The download page of PayPal Plug-In can be found here.

Thousands of victims buried or missing after China’s worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone (12,000 is the latest figure released by Chinese government on May 13, 2008.). According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday’s massive, 7.9-magnitude quake. However, we would expect the numbers of casualties to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

The Red Cross Society of China is calling for donations for victims of the Sichuan earthquake. As the transportation in the disaster hitting area is not smooth, Red Cross Society of China is mainly collecting monetary donations right now. For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province. The Red Cross Society of China has published a public hotline and bank account information to receive worldwide donations.

Account Name: Red Cross Society of China

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610)6513999

You can also donate online at the Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn.

More pictures about this earthquake can be found at usatoday.com.

I believe a lot of friends have jumped in the promotion from RevolutionMoneyExchange.Com. Now they are offering another service to us—the Revolution Card! RevolutionCard is from the same company that brought you the PayPal competitor RevolutionMoneyExchange.Com

Corporation with Buy.Com, Revolution card is offering $50 off $51 when you apply for this card and use it at Buy.Com. Revolution Card is a new way to make purchases online and aimed to compete with PayPal/Google Check Out. It’s a PIN based credit card which is said to offer great security and ease of use than other payment methods. Or more precisely, it’s a kind of debit/credit hybrid card. A good point is they offer you low interest rates.

What makes RevolutionCard different?

+ Greater security because it’s a PIN-based credit card.
+ Non-embossed card helps protect your identity.
+ No annual fee. No gimmicks.
+ Low APRs with no teaser rates.

You can see the list of merchants that accept RevolutionCard now.

The promotion expires on March 21, 2008. Click here to get more details. I can also expect they will promote rewards programs in the near future to compete with major credit card issuers. Otherwise, I only have one reason to use this card—get $50 from Buy.Com.

This seems a similar offer like Obopay which is offering $10. However, this company offers more than Obopay. If you sign up now at Revolution Money Exchange, you can get $25 for just signing up! Revolution Money Exchange is a new online money transfer business.

# FREE to register for an account ($25 bonus)
# FREE to add money to your bank account
# FREE to send money
# FREE to receive money
# FREE to request money
# FREE to transfer money to your bank account

It’s the same thing paypal did when they first started their business. However, their money transfer and payment may bot be so popular as paypal right now. (But who knows what will happen in the next following years.) Here are couple of things to know before you decide to open an account there or not.

Need SSN to verify your identity, but no hard credit inquiry. Funding source can only be bank account, and you can only transfer your money to bank account online for free. If you request a check issued to you, you have to pay money. There is a $10 referral bonus for you, if you refer a friend to open an account there. The account is FDIC secured (account issued by First Bank & Trust, Brookings, SD.)

To register please, click here.

To learn more about Revolution Money Exchange, click here. They are still under development, but I believe they will succeed.

I have a post about how to make money from by taking the advantage of sing-up bonuses (click here). However, you will always see “Free checking with direct deposit” or “$100 bonus when you open a new account with direct deposit”. Most of banks require direct deposit if you want to get sign-up bonus. The reason is very simple: banks exactly know the influence of bank account with the rest of your financial life. They hope you can use their other services like mortgages, personal loans, auto loans, student loans and other financial products. They assume that you are too lazy to go to contact your payroll office to have your direct deposit redirected to another bank account. It’s true we don’t want to change our bank account frequently. However, we are not satisfied with merely one bank account. There are so many sing-up bonuses from so many banks. Then an “unofficial payroll office” is a must in order to jump in so many deals. ING and PayPal are most discussed and used direct deposit tools.

According to the definition from electronicpaymnet.org, a direct deposit is simply an electronic transfer of funds to your account. This is usually done by a method known as ACH transfer. Unless a real person is looking at the detail of the ACH transfer, there is no real way to automatically tell if the ACH is a payroll deposit or not. Most of the time a bank will count these non-payroll transfers as a direct deposit, which allows you to avoid service fees and/or collect promotional bonuses based on the use of direct deposit. (For more detailed information please refer to electronicpayment.org.)

After searching on the internet via Google, I summarized some most common banks that count ING or PayPal ACH transfers as direct deposits.

Bank of America (ING, PayPal)

Bank One (ING, PayPal)

Chase (ING)

Citibank (ING, Paypal)

Citizens Bank (ING)

Commerce Bank (ING, Paypal)

Compass Bank (ING)

E-Trade Bank (ING)

HSBC (ING)

PNC Bank (Paypal)

Principal Bank (ING)

SunTrust (ING, PayPal)

USAA (ING)

Wachovia (ING, no PayPal)

Washington Mutual (ING, Paypal)

Wells Fargo (no ING)

You can set direct deposit alert on Chase checking account. If the ACH transfer is counted as direct deposit, they automatically send you an email to confirm that. Of course, the prerequisite is you should set the alert by yourself. Please note that you should never call your bank to verify whether or not ING & PayPal are counted as Direct Deposit.