Anyone ever try one of the "get a free gift" offers for a game console?

[kn]

mrstickball said:
Hey kn, can you sum up what it actually cost you to do this?

I'm probably going to sign up soon for it, since it's legit.

 Sure thing, Mr. Stick...  basically you have to complete 5 "offers".  I chose two different credit cards because they have no real cost.  If you are financially secure, they are fine and the credit inquiries will only affect your credit score slightly (downward) and can always be cancelled later.  I got $50 worth of points on the citi diamond card with it so that was a bonus $50 gift card at many different retailers.  The others I signed up for were as follows (I looked them up again just to be sure):

Great Fun -- They are a Cendant company which is involved in travel and entertainment.  You have to sign up with a credit card and it is $12.95 per month.  They sent me a $20 exxon gas card with it which I got immediately.  I ended up having to let every offer "stand" for about 45 days to be sure I got credit for completing the offers.  This is where it gets tricky since you don't want to pay for two months.  I ended  up letting this one go two months so I was out $26 (minus the free gas) or net minus $6.

I signed up for FreeCreditReport.com.  It was a 30 free trial and then 12.95/month for their credit monitoring service.  I got away with ony having to let this one run for one month since it was the first to show up in my screen as "completed".   I did get a free credit report as part of the deal so I felt like it was worth it since I pull my credit report at least once a year to review it.

The last one I signed up for is your music now.  It is a service that you have to sign up for with a credit card that is run by BMG.  You can cancel any time but the way it works is they bill you $6.95 per month and will automatically send you a CD from your queue.  All CDs are 6.95 and shipping is free...  I picked out 3 or 4 CDs I wanted and so did my wife.  In the end, I had 3 CDs shipped before I cancelled it.  I could have ended it at two but I wanted that third CD.  I wouldn't exactly call this money "wasted" since I wanted the CDs and the price was great, but for sake of total cost, I spent $21....

So, That's 6+12.95+21 or  $39.95.  In terms of WASTED money -- that would really only be the Great Fun membership since I didn't use any of the coupons or discounts for restaurants or travel.  The other two services I got something for my money so I didn't feel like I was 'out' money...

In return, I got a check for exactly $600.00.  I don't know why they didn't send it out for 599.99 since that was technically the prize amount but I'm not going to argue with them.

I'll also sum up for everyone if they are going to do this what to do:

1)get a new email account just for this as it will destroy that email address with spam.

2)start with a bogus account on freegameconsoles and review all the offers very, very carefully.  You can look at each page (1 from page 1, 2 from 2, and 2 from page 3).  The reason I say start with a bogus account is that the system tracks every offer you click on and it will clutter up your tracking of what was actually completed.   Write down very carefully each offer and note what has to be done to complete/cancel the offer.

3)With everything in hand, create your legit account and sign up for all 5 offers on the same day.  This will keep you from being delayed as the clock starts once ALL are completed...

4)Write down the contact information, username, password, etc. for each offer and keep a note of it in case you need it.  Once you have completed all 5, you will have to sit back for a couple of weeks and wait for updates.  There is an 801 phone number you can call for updates and they are pretty nice.... They generally responded to my emails as well within 24 hours.

5)Once they are all complete, you will need to print out your certificates and send them to an address.  Send all 5 usps with a delivery confirmation so you know they got it.

6)Confirm within a couple of weeks that they got them.  This took a while... Stay on them... An eventually, you'll get your prize and/or get cash like I did.

Lastly, please make sure you read all the fine print on the site!  It says the PS3 game console offer is expiring Midnight tonight so it may be risky to sign up today.  You might call first or see if that is just set automatically as 1 day away to encourage people to sign up...

If you have any more questions, let me know...