Cats and Coupons

Money’s tight for everyone these days. With everyone tightening their belts, donations are down. With donations down the charities are hurting and need help more than ever. People like you and I can help lucky animal shelters win some money in the America’s Favorite Animal Shelter Contest. Care2 is sponsoring this contest and will be donating a total of $15,000 to the animal shelters and rescue groups that receive the most votes in this contest. First Prize is $10,000. Second prize is $3,000. Third prize is $1,000. Fourth and fifth prizes receive $500 each. This contest is being held to increase awareness and reward shelters and rescue group. Adopt-a-Pet.com is also also sponsoring the contest and will be donating $1,000 per week forfive weeks to a randomly selected participating shelter. Adopt-A-Pet will also be giving the 20 contest participants who recruit the most people a $50 gift certificate for pet products. Contest ends 11/01/08.

I learned of a prepaid credit card called a Facecard. It can be used by anyone over the age of thirteen but it’s main target market is teens. It’s a prepaid reloadable MasterCard. It can be used internationally at ATMs and anywhere MasterCard is accepted. The minimum amount that can be added to a card is $10. The maximum balance that a card can have is $2,500. Funds can be added to cards from a bank account, from a debit or credit card, and from another Facecard. Retailers can send customers Prewards, which are deposits onto the card to be used in the store. What Prewards are received is determined within the customizable member profile. One thing I don’t like about it is there is a $4.95 fee if the account isn’t used for 90 days. The other thing I don’t like about it is that it may preauthorize more than you’re actually going to spend if you’re using it at a restaurant or gas station. I can see where this card could be useful, particularly for high school or young college students. It isn’t a credit card, so the user can’t spend money that isn’t there.

There are lots of people interested in selling things online, including people that sell regularly and people that are just looking to get rid of some stuff or make a little money. Ebay fees for selling can really mount up. Sell.com is a website that offers online classifieds as an alternative to online auction sites.Users can search using keywords or browse categories, and specify the minimum and maximum amount they want to spend. Results can be narrowed down to a geographical area. Sell.com is free to join. Buyers never pay any fees on their purchases. Sellers do not pay transaction fees and it costs between $1-$6 to list an item for sale. I found all sorts of items on the site, from antiques to watches (no Sector watches that I could find though). Have you ever used Sell.com? Were you pleased?

Price Protectr is a price protection service that allows users to register, or list, online purchases made from any of 134 stores. It’s free to use. All you have to do is put in the url of where you bought the item and your email address. If the price drops you’ll receive an email notification so you can request a refund. There’s also a deals page that allows you to put in keywords and be notified of new price drops. It’s an interesting concept.

ASPCASpay.org is part of the ASPCA website. It contains a searchable database of low cost spay and neuter programs by geographical location. There’s a list of the top ten reasons to spay or neuter your pet. They made an awesome public service announcement featuring Tony La Russo of the Cardinals that really brings home the most important reason to spay or neuter your pet - the amount of animals it saves. If you haven’t had your pet spayed or neutered, please don’t wait another day. Check out ASPCASpay.org to find an affordable spay and neutering program near you.

Spay USA is a nationwide network and referral service that helps people find affordable spay and neuter services. Another service that they offer is helping individuals set up their own program in their area. Veterinarians are welcome to join the network. The site explains the different procedures available, the different type of clinics, links to other pet related websites, information on current laws and legislation and frequently asked questions.

You might or might not know that many insurance companies will not cover prescription medications that help with weight loss. That makes no sense to me. Lots of insurance companies contribute to things like nutrition counseling, gym memberships and home exercise equipment. Why wouldn’t they pay on a prescription written by a doctor for a medical reason? These medications can be expensive, and it isn’t like there’s half off coupons or anything available for them. You’d think they’d rather pay toward something to help people take weight off rather than pay for the doctors care for the problems that come with being overweight.

This week I got to try a relatively new service called eBillme. eBillme is a service that lets you pay for online shopping purchases using your bank account. This is the ideal type of service for people that don’t have a credit card. It’s free to use and easy to set up. I decided to give it a test drive on an order I was placing with TigerDirect so I could see what it was all about.

As we discovered on our weekend in Wildwood, it’d be quite useful to have a pair of earphones to use on the laptop when trying to watch a movie in a less than quiet room. I placed three items in my cart and chose the eBillme option at checkout. A screen appeared asking me to confirm that I used online banking, understood I had to pay for my order and that it would take 1-3 days for my bank to process the payment. I was then given an order confirmation screen and instructions on how to set up eBillme in my online banking. I then logged into my bank, as usual, and paid eBillme the amount due on my order. That’s it. It was very easy to use. If you don’t have a credit card this might be an option you want to consider next time you shop online. Right now it looks like it’s accepted at 15 different well known sites and I’d guess there’ll be more added as the service gains recognition.

I know that money’s pretty tight now for everyone. I heard on the radio recently that foreclosures are up almost 50 percent and that companies are being more careful with mortgage quotes and loan approvals in order to try and keep the amount of foreclosures down. People that have homes already are refinancing. (I do not understand why someone would include a vehicle in a refinance. I’m sure the temptation must be great to get rid of one more payment, but come on. Who pays for a car for 20,30 or 40 years? That’s just silly.) To me it seems the real estate market hasn’t been good for two years. The house on one side of me sat for about a year before selling. The house two doors down was on the market for about six months. It makes me glad I’m not moving.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the homeless pet situation is a big problem. I was having a discussion recently with TJ, my twelve year old, and mentioned to him that the nearby shelter had just expanded so it could hold all of the animals it was receiving. The number of shelter animals is on the rise. Before you go get yourself an expensive purebred, consider checking the nearby shelters. The animals there are in desperate need of a home and you’re one of the many mortgage lenders out there. Think of the upside too. Shelter animals are grateful, because they’re happy to have been chosen and they know what it’s like to be homeless or to live in a cage. You’ll spend less money adopting an animal from a shelter rather than buying from a breeder. You might not have to housetrain a shelter animal if they’re older. And guess what, Even purebreds end up in shelters and need homes too, so you might find exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for an animal, think shelter. And spread the word.

For anyone becoming eligible for Medicare, you’ll be faced with some decisions. One of the first things you’ll need to do is decide what coverage you want. Options include straight Medicare, hmos and medicare advantage plans. When evaluating options be sure to read the details, benefits, copayments and coinsurance information very carefully before choosing. Choose what fits your personal situation the best. If you’re not sure what to choose, ask someone for help. Choosing the wrong plan could end up costing you more money than you realize.

If you’re a regular reader you may have noticed that I’ve added a banner that will appear at the top of every page. The banner is for The Animal Rescue Site.

The Animal Rescue site provides people surfing the web with a free way to help provide food for shelter animals. One click of a button on the website helps provide food and care for the animals. Wondering how that happens? The funding comes from the site sponsors. And, all of the sponsor advertising fees from the website helps the animals as well.  The funding goes to partner programs including the The Fund for Animals, Petfinder Foundation, North Shore Animal League, and other worthy animal rescue programs supported by GreaterGood.org.

I’ve placed the banner up there in the hopes that anyone visiting this site will take a moment and click to help the animals. It’s unbelievable how many animals there are in shelters. You can help these animals in many ways and clicking a button is probably the easiest one of all. People are encouraged to click once a day, every day. If you love animals and want to help them, get clicking!

If you have medical insurance there’s a good chance you have to pay a coinsurance for  diagnostic imaging like xrays, cat scans and mri’s. Sometimes a copay and a coinsurance are required.
When it comes to keeping out of pocket expenses down, many people know the two big rules regarding diagnostic imaging.
1. Before you have your test, be sure to check if you need a precertification.
2. When scheduling be sure you’re going to an in network provider.
But here’s one people may not have thought about. Check with your insurance carrier if you can use a physician who performs and reads his own tests. Here’s an example. I have a 20% coinsurance on all diagnostic imaging and a $30 copay on all visits to a physician’s office. By going to an orthopedist who does his own xrays or cat scans I now only pay $30 and 20% coinsurance. Had I gone to an orthopedist who didn’t I’d pay a $30 copay to him, a 20% coinsurance to the facility where I had the test done and another 20% coinsurance to the radiologist who read the test. Depending on who’s on your insurance policy and the amount of tests you have done this could really save some money. To protect yourself from unpleasant surprises, be sure you know your benefits before having any procedure or test done no matter what insurance you have.

There’s a good time and a bad time to buy many items. Any item that can’t be used regularly year round should be bought in it’s off season. For example, buy snow skiing equipment at the end of winter. Buy patio furniture after the beginning of fall. This works for clothing too, if you’re willing to buy several seasons ahead. Shop clothing clearance racks for clothes for your children for next year. It’s all in the timing. I truly believe that you don’t have to pay full price for most things.