Discount Cards & Loyalty Programs

Discount & loyalty cards can be great. However, due to application and renewal fees, some people don’t realize that their cards are barely even paying for themselves! To make matters worse, rather than giving a flat discount, many cards rely on point earning schemes that obscure users from how much they’re actually saving.

When I tried explaining this to a friend of mine – they argued that they’d rather get “something” over nothing. I told her that to break even on renewal fees, the best case scenario – shopping ONLY at the places that offered the best conversions, she’d have to spend at least P20,000 every two years. She was a student.

I’m not arguing against these cards but what I’m advocating is awareness. In my friend’s case, a student, P20,000 every two years is a lot to ask for. For someone living on their own, or a head of household, P20,000 sounds about right.

In my next series of posts, I’ll be taking a look at these cards and telling you under what conditions these cards make sense.

Here are the one’s I’m looking into at the moment:

  1. Laking National Card
  2. SM Advantage Card
  3. Rustan’s FSP
  4. Bow & Wow Loyalty Card
  5. Robinson’s Rewards Card
  6. Fully Booked Discount Card

If you have any suggestions or cards you’d want me to look into, please leave a comment down below 🙂

LBC Shipping Cart: Tutorial and Review

Shopping Cart, Shipping Cart

Disclaimer: I have no affiliations with LBC nor do I claim to provide any expert knowledge on tax and shipping prices. Please practice due diligence when using services such as these. Last thing I want is for you guys to get shocked by fees.

UPDATE 02/04/2015: LBC seems to have addressed many of the slow updates and missing packages. You can check Lucy’s updated post on the matter. According to their customer service, the issue was either due to a large influx of packages or a website update (readers were given different excuses). I’m glad to hear that things are being sorted out.

UPDATE 01/31/2015: Several readers have reported slow updates from LBC as well as missing packages. For the slow updates, LBC attributes it to a deluge of packages but with regards to the missing packages, the story is still unfolding. On the other hand, I’ve had another package shipped (by sea this time because of its weight) but aside from having to wait until March, went smoothly. However, I suggest readers take into account this new information when making the decision to use this service.

UPDATED 01/03/2015: Package finally arrived!

UPDATED 01/09/2015: Added some information about tax fees, Word of warning, and a jump list! 🙂

As a Christmas gift to myself, I recently made the decision to finally pull the trigger on my Amazon.com wishlist. So naturally, the question arose: “How do I get my package/s from the US to the Philippines?”

I had heard positive things about Johnny Air Cargo and was a hair away from using it when I stumbled upon an ad for LBC Shipping Cart. (Shopping Cart -> Shipping Cart… Get it?) It looked interesting. So, I figured that since the JAC process was already well documented, that I’d test this other service out.

Overview:

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