5 Ways the Internet Can Save You Money

The Internet isn’t just for online shopping. Going online can actually save you money! Five suggestions are listed below.

1. Print Manufacturer's Coupons Online. There are several excellent web sites that allow manufacturer's coupons to be printed from a personal computer, free of charge! These coupons are legitimate and they are accepted at most grocery stores. Coupons.com, redplum.com, and smartsource.com are all excellent choices for free online coupons. Macintosh users must use the Safari web browser for these web sites to work properly. Most of the coupons found on these web sites are also found in local Sunday newspapers. Printing coupons from home could save the cost of a Sunday paper, but they will cost computer paper and ink. Printing free coupons and clipping them from the newspaper yields a double savings. It's not a savings though if you're buying something just because you have a coupon!
   
   
2. Begin Saving in a High Yield Savings Account. Online high yield savings accounts offer higher interest rates than are typically offered at brick and mortar banks. Emigrantdirect.com, HSBCdirect.com, and INGdirect.com are currently offering online savings accounts at 2.75%, 3.05%, and 3.00% APY respectively as of April 20, 2008. These rates are subject to change at any time at the discretion of each individual bank. All of these banks are legitimate and they are FDIC insured. There are many other high yield savings account options available. Bankrate.com offers a list of money market accounts (MMAs) and high yield savings accounts to compare. A money market account is another type of savings account that usually requires a larger minimum deposit. Fees may be charged with an MMA if an account balance dips below the minimum acceptable balance or if a customer withdraws money from the account more often than the account terms allow (a general rule is six times per month).
   
   A high yield savings account is a painless way to watch your money grow. Most banks require a minimum deposit of one dollar to open an account and there are no account fees when using any of the banks listed above. High yield savings accounts offer similar or higher interest rates than certificates of deposit (CDs) at brick and mortar banks, without the inconvenience of being unable to access your money for months at a time.
   
   
3. Investigate your Prescriptions Online. Many pharmaceutical companies post coupons on their web site for popular prescription drugs. Lipitor, for example, offers a coupon for a free 30-day trial with a doctor's prescription. Lunesta offers a free 7-day trial. Ortho Tri-Cyclen LO offers a $5 off coupon. Nexium and Prevacid both offer a free prescription card good for savings on prescriptions for up to six months, even if you have insurance. It pays to investigate prescriptions online. Only the official web sites of the drugs should be consulted. At no time should cheap or suspicious drugs be bought off the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter!).
   
   
   
4. Get it for Free. Do you have things you'd like to get rid of? Are you hoping to be able to get something on the cheap? Check out freecycle.org. Freecycle is a global organization that currently boasts 4.8 million members. It promotes the exchange of free goods between people in a local area. Their mission statement claims they are dedicated to building "a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community".
   Here's how it works. Pretend someone lives in Tupelo, Mississippi and they buy a new washing machine. They offer their old washing machine as being "free to a good home" on Tupelo, Mississippi's Freecycle Yahoo! Group. Someone in need of a washing machine accepts their generous offer. Usually the person taking what's being offered arranges to pick up the item from the person who offered it. The donor doesn't have to worry about disposing of their old washing machine and it doesn't go into a landfill. The best part is - everything is free. These transactions are not trades. People simply offer items that they have, that they want to dispose of, that can be given away to benefit someone else rather than placed in a landfill. As always, please use caution and common sense when picking up items from a stranger. Do not ever go to an unfamiliar home alone.
   
   
   
5. Protect Yourself from Identity Theft. Identity theft is a tragedy in any economy. The best way to save money is to safeguard it from people who want to take it. Choose wisely when giving out personal information over the Internet. Do not download suspicious email attachments. Oversight Technology's System Sentinel program ($18.95) helps protect against identity theft by identifying and destroying spyware, adware, and malware on your computer. Destroying these programs prevents hackers from accessing your personal information. System Sentinel provides something no other spyware blocking software does: a networked solution. If any computer running System Sentinel identifies a spyware, malware or adware program that System Sentinel is unfamiliar with, that computer's System Sentinel program alerts Oversight Technology. A solution (or "fix") is created automatically by System Sentinel to destroy the malicious program. Once the fix is created it is sent to every System Sentinel customer within 24 hours. After the fix is received, each user's System Sentinel program updates itself and is able to identify and destroy the new threat. Each user chooses whether to be notified of the update or to have the program update itself automatically. Like its name implies, System Sentinel can be trusted to tirelessly guard your computer against any and all malicious programs. That peace of mind and no annual update fees makes purchasing Oversight Technology's System Sentinel money well spent indeed.