Verizon Wireless is ridiculously expensive. There, I said it, now let’s move on with life and find some ways to lower your monthly Verizon bill. Ways that won’t require much work on your end, which if you’re like me, are some of the best ways to save some cash. Let’s do this…

Go With a Verizon Pre-Paid Plan

Are you even aware that Verizon offers a pre-paid smartphone plan?

I wasn’t until recently and I’m here to tell ya that it can save you a bunch of money.

Plus, there’s no activation fee and NO contract required.

You can either buy one of their phones, or bring your own.

Here’s how their 3 pre-paid plans (Auto pay required) currently breakdown:

• $35/month – Unlimited U.S. talk and text, 6 GB high speed data, mobile hotspot. Cheapest plan you’ll find with Verizon.
• $45/month – Unlimited U.S. talk and text, mobile hotspot, 16 GB of data. Most popular. $5/month less than their similar unlimited plan.
• $65/month – Unlimited Data, talk and text to U.S., Mexico, and Canada, mobile hotspot.

All three of these plans are solid options.

See Also: Lower Your Bill with DishNetwork, DIRECTV, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast

Deal Only With an Authorized Verizon Retailer

I recently read something that really surprised me about Verizon.

Apparently their customer service reps and corporate store employees get paid a commission when they talk you into raising your data plan.

To fight this, you’ll want to ONLY deal with authorized Verizon retailers, also known as Verizon premium retailers, as they don’t make a cent from upgrading your GBs.

Instead, they only recommend a data plan upgrade if it makes sense for you and your situation.

A couple of the more visited authorized Verizon retailers in my town include Costco and Best Buy.

On a personal note, my wife has always had a very good experience dealing with the Verizon reps at our Costco and it’s the only place she’ll visit when she needs to talk to someone about her account.

She absolutely hates going to the Verizon store as the employees have always blown her off and been quite rude because she has a lot of questions BUT was not a big spender.

A combination they apparently have very little time or patience for. Visit here to find all the local authorized retailers in your area.

So the takeaway here is to visit an authorized retailer and ask for their help to get your bill lowered.

Since they aren’t getting paid to raise your bill, they’re much more likely to tell you about ways to save some money each month.

The truth of the matter is that Verizon always has new promotions and specials and it’s often hard to understand them and keep them straight.

So let them help you and have them explain your options.

See Also: Are You a Teacher? Go Get the Verizon Teacher Discount and Save

Find a Cheaper Alternative That Uses Verizon Towers

Did you know that there are some cell providers who “buy space”, at a big discount, on Verizon’s network of cell towers?

These no-contract providers make for fantastic alternatives to Verizon as they’ll save you a bunch of money every month.

They use the same exact cell towers that Verizon customers use.

So if you’re concerned about switching to a new provider, and then not getting the same coverage you’re currently getting with Verizon, worry no more.

Here are the up-and-coming discount providers that access Verizon cell towers.

• Page Plus Cellular: By far their best value is the $39.95/mo plan that scores you unlimited talk and text along with 3GB of data at 4G LTE (2G thereafter).
• Straight Talk Wireless: Their most popular plan costs $45/month and gets you unlimited talk, text, and 5GB monthly data at 4G speed (2G after you use 5GB).
• Tracfone: Check out their $35 a month plan which gets you 750 talk minutes, 100 texts, and 1 GB of data.
• TotalWireless: Available through their website and at Walmart, they have a killer $35/month plan which offers unlimited talk and text and 5GB of data.

The biggest complaint that usually surfaces with these companies is a lack of customer service.

But if you can put up with that, and have even the slightest knack for tech, you should be just fine and save big in the process.

Have you had any success with any of these discount providers? Let me know in the comments section.

Check for Employer Discounts

Many workers across the country are eligible for a monthly discount from Verizon. This is especially true with teachers, military/vets, corporate workers, and many state worker.

My wife is a teacher at a public school and she gets a flat 15% taken off her Verizon bill each and every month.

All you have to do to get your discount is verify your employment with Verizon. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to take proof of your employment, pay stub, job contract, or something similar, to an actual Verizon store location.

I’ve tried to do it online but it’s a total pain in the butt and ended up not working.

So I ended up just visiting our local Verizon and they hooked us up with a 15% monthly discount.

Here’s the online form if you want to give it a try and get more info.

Move Your Plan Down a Notch

Let’s face it, the most expensive item on your Verizon bill is always gonna be your data package.

Be sure you analyze just how much data you use every month and see if you can cut-back and survive.

Verizon has a pretty decent deal that gives you 2GB of data, with unlimited talk/text, for just $35 a month.

If you’re worried about those summer or vacation months when you tend to suck up more data, just pay the incremental fee for more data and you’ll still come out way ahead at the end of the year.

Ask the Reader: Are you sick and tired of paying a ridiculous amount of money each month to Verizon? I think it’s officially time to lower your Verizon bill or move on to a company that can.

Happy savings.

By Kyle James

Do you have a child that rock’s their report card a couple times a year with fantastic grades? If you do, you should start rewarding them with some awesome good student discounts and freebies that many companies offer these days. Hats off to these companies for acknowledging the importance of working hard in school and getting a good education. (See also: Calling All Students: 50+ Places Where Students Get a Sweet Student Discount)

“Good Student” Freebies at Restaurants:

Applebee’s

They have a program called “A is for Applebee’s” that’s designed for grade school students.

It’s a reward card specifically for teachers to hand out to students that exemplify good behavior and hard work.

If you’re a teacher it’s a program definitely worth checking out.

See All: Apple Student Discount: What Is It and How Do You Get the Savings?

Baskin Robbins

The good student freebie at Baskin Robbins varies from location to location.

I’ve heard of anything from a free scoop of ice cream to a free hot fudge sundae. Call your local store and ask.

Chick-Fil-A

Have your child bring in their report card with A’s and B’s on it and Chick-Fil-A will give them a free 6-pack of chicken nuggets or the equivalent.

This one could vary from location to location as Chick-Fil-A locations are independently owned and good grade discount are at the discretion of the owner.

Cheryl’s Cookies

A very popular program at Cheryl’s retail stores is the “Cookies for A’s” program.

Simply present your child’s report card at retail locations and receive a free cookie for every A.

There is a 3 cookie maximum, but their cookies are quite large so it’s all good.

Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese has a cool program called the Super Student Award which allows a student to bring in a completed calendar and get 10 free tokens.

See Also: 7 Things to Know About the Best Buy Student Discount

Cold Stone Creamery

Many Cold Stone locations offer a good student freebie if you bring in your report card.

Our local Cold Stone franchise gives a free kid’s size of any flavor, no toppings.

Krispy Kreme

My kids hit up Krispy Kreme doughnuts twice a year as they’ll generously give a free doughnut for every A on their report card, up to 6 glazed donuts.

No purchase of any kind is required. Bring in your report card for verification and they’ll stamp it.

McDonald’s

Score a free Happy Meal at many McDonald’s location if your child shows them their all A’s and B’s report card.

Varies from spot to spot, so call ahead and ask if your local Mickey D’s participates. Restaurant locator.

Pizza Hut

The folks at Pizza Hut have a very cool program called the Three A’s Program.

If your child’s report called has at least 3 A’s on it, or the equivalent, they’ll get a free Personal Pan Pizza and a small soft drink.

This offer is good for dine-in only and it’s for Elementary and Middle School students only. They gotta present their report card to the manager too.

Insurance Companies That Offer Discounts

Allstate

From the Allstate website, “All those A’s can add up. Single, full-time students under the age of 25 can save up to 20% for getting good grades.”

ESurance

Esurance also offers a good student discount for full-time high school or college students under 25.

You must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA and you’ll be eligible for a discount up to 10%.

See Also: Does Netflix Offer a Student Discount? (Plus Free Netflix Alternatives)

Farmers

From the Farmers website, “To qualify for the good student discount, the driver must be 16 to 24 years of age and either a full-time high school student or enrolled as a full-time college or university student.”

They consider a good student to have at least a GPA of 3.0 and ranked in the top 20% of their class.

The actual discount is not detailed on their website.

Geico

Maintain a grade average of 3.0 or higher and you’ll qualify for a good student discount up to 10% off with Geico auto insurance.

Nationwide

While they don’t specify the actual discount amount, Nationwide offers a good student discount on auto insurance for drivers 16 to 24.

They must be full-time high school or college students and maintain a minimum B average.

State Farm

State Farm will give students a discount up to 25% off when you get good grades.

They consider “good grades” to be a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The savings last even after you graduate from college, until you turn 25.

Travelers

To be eligible for their good student discount you must be at least 16 (no older than 25), be enrolled as a full-time student in high school, college or university, and maintain a “B” average or better.

The discount is up to 8% off your total insurance costs.

Ask the Reader: Do you know of any other restaurants, retailers, or service companies that offer a good student discount or free offer? Let me know in the comments and I’ll investigate. Thanks.

By Kyle James

Photo Credit: hattiesburgmemory

As most of you already know, I’m a big fan of cashback websites. In particular, I’m a total nerd when it comes to figuring out how to use them to score free money and gift cards to places like Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks. When it comes to earning gift cards without spending a dime, SwagBucks is clearly my new favorite site. Here’s my Swagbucks review which details how I use the site to score free money every month.

(Note: I was actually quite skeptical when I read about others having success with it and wondered “is Swagbucks legit?”. I figured it was simply too good to be true and must take hour upon hour to earn anything substantial. I was mostly wrong.)

How to Score a Monthly $50 Amazon Gift Card

So, I figured it was time for an experiment. I decided to see how hard it would be to score a free $50 Amazon gift card in a month’s time. My goal was to spend no more that 10 minutes a day (on average) using SwagBucks for the entire month. That comes out to about 300 minutes or 5 hours. That’s like earning $10 an hour, not to shabby, especially when you consider a majority of the time I spent was in waiting rooms, standing in-line at the store, or zoning-out in front of the TV.

Well, I’m here to say that it absolutely can be done and I have the $50 Amazon card to prove it. How handy would it be to have a few $50 gift cards come Christmas? Here’s what you need to know to earn a $50 Amazon gift card every single month using SwagBucks.

SwagBucks Review:

• What the heck is Swagbucks? – Swagbucks is a free online service that hands out reward points, known as SwagBucks, for doing things that you’ll probably be doing anyways.
• How do you use SwagBucks? – You use the service by earning SwagBucks (SBs). SBs are earned by doing various tasks like using their search engine (powered by Yahoo!), shopping at your favorite online retailers, redeeming coupons, watching sponsored videos, doing surveys, and even by playing online games.
• What are their Payout Methods? Redeem your points for gift cards from popular retailers like Amazon, Target, Lowe’s, Starbucks, and Walmart, or request a PayPal gift card.
• Do They Offer a Sign-Up Bonus? Yes. They gave Rather-Be-Shopping readers an exclusive $5 bonus (equivalent to 500 SwagBucks) if you sign-up and accrue 2,500 SwagBucks within 60 days.
• How Do I Sign-Up?  Sign-Up Here and score your free $5 bonus.

 

How Many SwagBucks Are Needed for a $50 Amazon Gift Card?

5,000. Exactly 5,000 SwagBucks are needed to score a $50 Amazon gift card. Totally do-able on a monthly basis, and before you gawk, it doesn’t take much time either. To prove it to you, and turn you into a believer, here’s exactly how I scored a free $50 Amazon gift card last month. With Christmas expenses on my mind, I plan on doing it again every month until the end of the year.

• Search the Internet (520 SwagBucks). In August, I earned 520 points just by using the SwagBucks search engine (it’s Yahoo!) to search the web like I normally would. Search enough times and you’ll score a bunch of random SB bonuses like I did in the screenshot below. I’d guess every 8-12 searches yields a SwagBucks bonus. Time spent? Not much as I would have been searching the web anyways. Key: Be sure to set SwagBucks as your default search engine and you’ll never miss a bonus. Also, install the SwagButton browser extension so you can use it to search the web as well.

• Online Shopping (1005 SwagBucks). For the entire month, I made just 2 online shopping purchases via SwagBucks. I made a $75 back-to-school purchase from JCPenney and got 9 SB per $1, which came out to 675 SBs. We also bought some new shoes for our three kids via Famous Footwear, spent $110 and got 330 SBs for our efforts. Both stores also had coupon codes available that I used to essentially stack my savings.
• Redeem Printable Coupons (120 SwagBucks). Print out a few grocery store coupons via SwagBucks and get 10 SBs for every one you redeem. Talk about a no-brainer as you’ll earn SBs for saving money on stuff you’ll be purchasing anyways. I ended up printing and redeeming 12 coupons in August for 120 SBs.
• Watch Videos (954 SwagBucks). Try the “Videos” section and just let them run in a separate browser window, with the volume down, while you’re working. Or do what I do and just fire up videos on your iPad and let them play with your tablet plugged in. It’s a painless way to build up some easy SBs. I did this for 18 days in August for about 8 hours a day. My math came out to 1 SB for every 9 minutes of video which equated to approximately 53 SB per day. 18 x 53 = 954 SBs.
• Take a Survey (40 SwagBucks). I don’t spend much time on surveys. I was disappointed with the time they took and how you weren’t guaranteed anything other than a measly 1 SB if you didn’t qualify for the full survey. I ended up doing a couple short surveys that paid 20 SBs each.
• Free Trials (1650 SwagBucks). Free trials, found in the “Discover” section, are a great way to earn a bunch of SwagBucks. For the month I ended up joining 3 offers/trials and earned 1650 SBs. After I signed-up for the free monthly trials, I made an alert on my smartphone to remind me to cancel in 29 days. Here’s how I did it:
  • Dollar Shave Club.com – Earned 800 SBs for signing up for a 1-month trial. I did have to buy a $8 tube of shave butter, but it’s cool as I’ve been curious about it. I actually might keep this one.
  • Took an Uber Drive – Tried Uber, got the 1st ride for free and got 500 SBs added to my account. I always wanted to try the service and it actually worked out great.
  • Gwynnie Bee – My wife gave their clothing subscription service a try for free for 30 days and earned 350 SBs. It’s actually pretty cool. You pick the fashion styles that you like, then they’ll select the apparel to mail to your front-step. Free shipping both ways. You wear it for as long as you like and return it for free.
• Find Swag Codes (90 SwagBucks) – Every single day SwagBucks releases what they call a “Swag Code” worth 3 SBs. Often they’ll pop-up on their site or Facebook page, but if you miss one, stop buy a site called Swag Codes Spoiler and grab today’s code. You enter the code in the Swag Code field at the top of the SwagBucks website and collect 3 SBs.
• Meet Your Daily Goal (325 SwagBucks) – Because I’m doing all of these things to earn free SBs, I’m constantly meeting my 30 SB daily goal, and thus my monthly goals, and getting some killer SB bonuses in the process.
• Play a Game or Two (260 SwagBucks) – If you have kids, this is a fun, and profitable, one to get them hooked on. Our favorite free games are Swag Jump and Swag Memory. We got to be Swag Jump ninjas by the end of the month. The most you can earn per day playing games is 10 SBs.
• Get Referral Earnings (125 SwagBucks) – Just by referring family and friends to SwagBucks, you’ll earn 10% of however many SBs they earn for the life of their membership.
• Don’t Forget your Sign-Up Bonus (500 SwagBucks) – Remember, if you’re new to SwagBucks, and you sign-up through this link, you’ll get 500 free SBs added to your account once you accrue 2,500…which won’t take long.

Boom! Mission accomplished. Even without my 500 bonus SBs, I easily hit my 5,000 SwagBucks monthly goal and got my $50 Amazon gift card. Interestingly, I made my goal with only making two online purchases. Some months I make a lot more than that, so my plan during those months is to just back off a free trial or two. Also, you don’t have to shoot for 5,000 SBs, you can earn 2,500 and score a $25 gift card, 1,000 for a $10 card, or even 500 SBs for a $5 gift card.

Bonus SwagBucks Tips and Hacks:

Here are even more ways to enhance your SwagBucks experience.

1. Use the SwagButton. The SwagButton is a free browser extension, also known as an add-on, that makes it much easier to collect SBs whenever you’re online. Not only will it notify you when you’re on an online retailer’s website with SBs available, but it’ll actually tell you what coupon code you should add to your purchase for additional savings. Heck, the thing will even let you watch videos from the corner of your browser window as well as let you search the Internet and find SB bonuses. It’s currently available for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Hopefully a Safari version will be available soon.
2. Learn to Double Dip and Earn Mega SwagBucks. I actually had a SwagBucks employee tell me about this cool tip. Were you aware the SwagBucks owns a site called MyGiftCardsPlus.com that does nothing but sell gift cards to a zillion different stores? The really cool part is you’ll earn SwagBucks when you buy gift cards via this website. Then you can turn around and use the gift card when you shop through SwagBucks and earn even more SBs. For example, right now you can buy a $50 JCPenney gift card and earn 150 SBs, then turn around and use the gift card via SwagBucks and earn another 450 SBs. Pretty cool.

Ask The Reader: So…what do you think of my Swagbucks review? Do you still wonder if it’s legit or not? If you did what I did every month you’d end up with $600 in gift cards to use on your Christmas shopping. Seems worth it to me. What say you? Let me know your thoughts and experiences with SwagBucks.

Happy savings.

By Kyle James

P.S. – While I get a small cut if you sign-up for SwagBucks, all opinions in this review are my own. I’ve got a $50 Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket to prove it. Go get yours too!