Shopping with Mobile Wallets

Everythings on My Phone

These days I rarely have to take my wallet out of my pocket. I no longer carry any store cards. They are all either in Apple Wallet or their store's app. Occasionally, I might have to give my phone number. For payments I can use Apple Pay at almost all locations I regularly shop. It is convenient to be able to quickly tap my phone. 

For restaurants, mobile ordering options are becoming extremely common and popular. I love being able to order on my phone so I can get exactly what I want and see all the customization options. It's also nice not having any surprises if something costs extra because you see it right in front of you. Plus sometimes they have extra coupons for mobile ordering. This is also a great way to use discount gift cards from sites like Swagbucks.

I almost don't need a wallet anymore. If my driver's license and health insurance cards were digital I wouldn't need to carry it. I still do keep a few cards with me in case there is a place that doesn't accept mobile payments. Currently, most of the gas stations around and Red Boxes still don't offer Apple Pay. Although, Exxon Mobile does accept Mobile Payments through my phone.

One of my favorite places to use mobile payments is vending machines. I am quite surprised by how common this is on vending machines. If I am at work I can simply tap to pay and grab a drink or snack. Even better when I am out for a jog I don't even need to bring my wallet and can grab a Gatorade at the local park vending machines. 

Swagbucks Member Recognition

A few months ago Swagbucks introduced a Member Appreciation Program. While this program is not earth-shattering it does add another level of benefits. The program starts by rewarding loyalty with small bonuses and rebates and builds to some sustained benefits like instant gift card redemptions. At my level of Topaz, I received a 125 Swagbucks (SB) rebate (worth about $1.25-$1.40 depending on how I redeem), double SB on my next two survey completions, 300 SB back on shopping through their portal, skip the wait for cashback shopping and real-time delivery of a gift card up to $25 a month. Keep in mind the bonuses do expire so you will need to use them in a timely manner.

I like to see Swagbucks rewarding their loyal members. The only thing I wish they would do is provide additional sustained benefits rather than just bonuses. The only sustained benefit I get at L6 is real-time delivery of the $25 gift cards. Even once you reach the top tier levels you only get two sustained benefits which are extended time to redeem Swag Codes and real-time delivery of up to four $25 gift cards a month. The bonuses do get quite large as you approach the top though.

Overall, this is a great step forward in more ways to reward their loyal users. I do wish they would side with their users more and hold their survey providers to higher standards, but there are no other reward sites that have this many bonuses and offer this many ways to earn.

Interested in making your Member Recognition Levels faster. Check out this post to learn how to make your Swagbucks Daily Goals!

How much money can you make just from walking?

I've noticed a number of apps that will pay you to take steps or let you bet on weekly goals. My aim here is to analyze how much you can really make on a weekly basis from these apps.

Here is the list of apps I'm using

1. StepBet
2. FitPotato
3. Achievement
4. Sweatcoin
5. Million Steps

StepBet is a great app. StepBet lets you wager a bet that you will complete weekly goals over a set period of time usually 6 weeks. If you purchase a membership you can play 3 games at once. I typically average just over $8.00 a StepBet and can earn that on average every two weeks. Subtracting $1.90 for the membership fees I get $6.10 every two weeks or about $3.05 a week. Pretty good, but this does require the upfront money for membership and bets.

FitPotato is another good app. Here you wager $5 a week to meet step goals of 6000 steps on three days in a week. Pretty easy goals and you can earn about $0.80 a week.

Achievement will pay you for all sorts of healthy activities. I really like this app and its pretty passive, but it only pays about $0.12 a week for steps if you take just over 6000 steps a day.

Sweatcoin is a fun app that converts steps taken outdoors into Sweatcoins. This app pays pretty well, but the rewards are very high. To get cash you need $1000 worth. For about 5250 outdoor steps a day you will get about $0.25 week, but to be practical you will need to do much more than that.

Finally, Million Steps gives you about $0.35 a week for taking 5000 steps a day. Pretty straightforward, but I believe it requires daily check in.

In total, you can earn about $4.57 a week using these paid step apps all with moderate goals. You may want to leave out Sweatcoin unless you take lots of outdoor steps. Overall, $4.57 is not bad and these goals can help improve your health.

New T-Mobile Magenta Plans

T-Mobile released new Magenta Plans and are offering a great deal for new subscribers. Right now you can get Magenta Plus 3 lines for pretty much the same price as Magenta if you are a new customer or a single line customer. If you are a current T-Mobile multiline subscriber, unfortunately, you can't take advantage of the 3rd line free deal so Magenta Plus is about $10 month more per a line.

T-Mobile Magenta is not all that different from T-Mobile One. Both include unlimited high-speed data on your phone but the main benefit I see is you now get 3 GB LTE mobile hotspot. They also dropped the included Netflix subscription to SD with 1 Screen. If you upgrade to Magenta Plus you will get 20 GB of Mobile Hotspot plus HD Netflix with 2 Screens as well as a few other great benefits such as Name ID and Unlimited gogo Inflight Wifi.