Beating Broke » free money

North Dakota STEM Loan Forgiveness

B.B. — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:45:53 +0000

For the past three years, I have participated in the ND Technology Occupations Student Loan Forgiveness program. The rules were pretty simple. You had to have a College Degree in a technology related field, and have a job in North Dakota in a technology related field. If you met the rules and got your application in before they ran out of money for the year, you got a $1000 student loan forgiveness payment on your student loans. Yippee! In those three years, I got the payment every time. They pay it directly to my loan and I now have $3000 less in student loans to pay for. Considering that I got away from college with a degree and only about $30,000 in loans, I’ll take a 10% reduction in principle. I’ve also got my interest locked in at a nice low 3.75%, so I can’t complain about my student loan situation.

The one dim spot was that you could only claim the forgiveness payment for three years and then you were done. Today, however, I got a letter in the mail from the North Dakota University System (the administrators of the program) telling me that the ND Legislature extended the program in the 2009 session. Yippee! But wait! There’s More! Not only did they extend it so you could claim it for four years, but they upped it from $1000 to $1500! WoooHooo! Oh, and they changed the name of it as well. Now it’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Loan forgiveness program (S.T.E.M). All I’ve got to do is fill out some paperwork and send it in on time (May to June) and, if approved, they’ll pay $1500 of my student loan off for me. That’s another 5% of my original principle. For a total of 15% of the principle overall.

I knew there was a reason I stayed in North Dakota!

P.S. if you live here too (tell me) and you think you might meet the requirements, you can get information on the program at www.ndus.edu ; (Or you can click the STEM link in the next sentence.) click on Student & Parent Information and then Financial Aid. There’s a link there for the STEM program.

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Get QuickBooks Pro for Free

B.B. — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:22:12 +0000

If you’re looking to pickup a copy of QuickBooks Pro 2009 for your home business or your small business, today (December 22, 2008) is the day to do it. Intuit has announced that for one day only, you can get a free copy of the program at your local Staples.

The way it works is that the regular price is $199.99, then they take a $40 instant rebate off the top and have a mail in rebate for $159.99. I don’t like mail in rebates much, but for a free copy of QuickBooks, it might be worth the effort. The deal is only available today (December 22,2008) at Staples stores and at Staples.com. Even if you don’t need a copy, you could probably pick one up and sell it on eBay for a tidy profit. Make an extra credit card payment with it.

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Win $5000 with ING Direct Electric Orange

B.B. — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:33:02 +0000

ING Direct is still pushing their Electric Orange checking with check card in December. Last month, they pushed it but everyone who used their check card before the end of November 5 times for over $10 got a free $20 deposited in their account. (There’s still time to take advantage of that!)

For December, they’ve got another deal for you. If you use your Electric Orange Mastercard check card 5 times or more on purchases of over $10, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $5000 prize.

1. Use your Electric Orange Card to make 5 purchases of at least $10 each and you’re entered.
2. Each purchase must appear on your December statement.
3. We’ll choose 5 winners and drop $5,000 into their Electric Orange by 1/15/09.

It’s not a guaranteed $20 like they did this month, but if you already use your check card, it might be worth the effort to make sure you make all 5 transactions for over $10. Who couldn’t use an extra $5000 at the beginning of the year. Think of the debt that could pay off! It would also make a great head start on a great emergency fund! Or a college fund! Or retirement account! Oh! The possibilities!

Read the rules at the ING Direct site.

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Get an Extra $20 from ING Direct

B.B. — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:48:11 +0000

ING Direct is pushing their Electric Orange Checking Accounts this month and you could be the recipient of a nice $20 bonus. And it’s pretty simple to do too!

If you have an Electric Orange checking account, you’re already enrolled. You then only need to use your EO debit card to make at least 5 purchases of more than $10. When they all show up on your November statement, you’ll get a bonus of $20 sometime before December 15th. (Details at the ING page)

I just heard about this today and normally I don’t use the debit card for my EO account all that much. It’s set up to automatically pay a few subscriptions, but nothing that would meet the qualifications for this bonus. However, my family and I just returned from a vacation where we had saved for the expenses of the vacation in an ING Direct savings account that is tied to the EO account. When we went on vacation, we transfered the money to the EO account so that we could easily access it with the debit card.

Unknown to me, we met all the qualifications for the bonus and are looking forward to the bonus! Yippee! There’s still a few days left to qualify for the bonus if you haven’t already. If you don’t have a EO account, you might be pushing it to get one and get the card in time to qualify, but even if you don’t get the bonus, the 1% interest rate is still better than what most banks pay.

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