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10 Jun 2011

The Author

Jennifer Spencer
Jennifer manages social media communications and the PerkStreet community. She tried once to live a fabulous life with a lot of debt, and that didn't really work out. She's found great success with making smart money choices that match her family's priorities. Since coming to work at PerkStreet she's paid off her debt, cut up her credit cards, gotten married, and had a baby. See what PerkStreet can do for you at perkstreet.com, and join the PerkStreet community at facebook.com/perkstreet.
Pick Your Own July PowerPerks
14 Comments
PickYourOwnPerks

We want you to have a voice in your rewards. So for the month of July, we’re putting the PowerPerks in your hands by way of popular vote. All you have to do is click. You vote for your favorite potential PowerPerks category below, and we’ll make sure July’s 5% PowerPerks categories are the two most popular. You’ll be able to see which options are leading after you vote.

Choose from:

Public Golf Courses

FORE! Actually, what I know of golf has been cobbled together between watching Happy Gilmore and playing field hockey, but learning to play is on my bucket list. If you’ve always wanted to learn, or if already love to play, this could be a pretty powerful PowerPerk.

Cold Stone Creamery®, Dairy Queen®, and Ben & Jerry’s® stores

Ice cream. That’s really all that needs to be said about that.

GameStop® and Gamefly®

Keep cool inside on super hot days, or redefine family game night! If you’re planning to pre-order Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, or if you’d just like to start renting games Netflix-style, this will be your pick for sure.

Old Navy®

Because no way those shorts you bought your son last month are going to get through the entire summer without an irreparable tear. Plus, you can never have enough flip flops.

Barnes & Noble®

Pick up selections for your kids’ summer reading list and get a few beach reads for your Nook, while you’re at it. Tip: I’m a fan of audiobooks at the beach.

Cast your vote between now and midnight (Eastern Time) on Friday, June 17th for your favorite PowerPerk! Plus, leave a comment and let us know what you think of this new strategy for selecting PowerPerks. It’s all about giving you, our customers, a louder voice in selecting these special rewards!

14 Comments
  • Saver

    How about a category that we use all the time, such as restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, or gas stations?

  • Julia

    I really like it.  I want July’s PowerPerk to be Old Navy because I just got a Groupon for $10 for $20 at Old Navy.  That would be great to also get 5% cash back on the other stuff I buy that day. 

  • Peggy

    July is vacation month, and we’re road tripping around the US, how about hotels??

  • Dmatthews35

    Leave it to my favorite bank to let me choose!! Isn’t the republic great? !!!

  • http://www.amazon.com/shops/eyez4dizney Jeremiah K Garrett

    @79b11873f5f26785f85478fb55952b05:disqus ,

    Family restaurants is June’s category.  Go eat up!

  • http://www.amazon.com/shops/eyez4dizney Jeremiah K Garrett

    Before you vote, think.  Pick a category that you’re already going to be spending money in.  If you’re already going to buy stuff at Old Navy, vote for Old Navy.  But don’t go to Old Navy just because they’re offering 5% cashback, and don’t vote for Old Navy if you’re not going to buy there if they don’t offer the 5% cashback.  Here are the pros and cons:

    Ice Creameries: Entirely entertainment.  You don’t need ice cream, but if you’re one who is already going to splurge at these stores (or similar), vote for these.

    Golf: Most people that are going to play golf already have a seasonal pass.  Unless you haven’t bought your pass and are going to wait until July to buy it, don’t vote for golf.  Alternately, if you are only going to play a few times, but you’ll save more by only buying a couple day passes in contrast to the other categories, go golfing!

    Gamefly and GameStop: Keep in mind that summer is downtime for new games.  Unless you’re paying in full for November preorders in July, consider if you’re really going to save money by getting 5% cashback in the game category.  Also keep in mind that for most of us, gaming is 100% entertainment.  If you’re trying to save money, don’t vote for games, because you don’t need them.

    Old Navy: Old Navy is a cheap clothing store–and that’s not an insult.  Although it’s cheap name brand, it’s still name brand.  They have a lot of off-season sales that would be great to stock up on clothes.  Alternately, consider Goodwill or other used clothing stores or consignment shops.  Don’t go out and spend $100 at Old Navy just to get $5 back if you could go buy the same or similar quality clothing for $90 elsewhere.

    Barnes & Noble: For some, reading is purely entertainment.  For others, it’s a requirement for intellectual viability.  If you’re one who buys a lot of books, BN would be great for you.  Keep in mind that BN also has video games, and generally they are cheaper than Gamestop.  For students, you’re probably going to be looking a spending a lot on textbooks, so if you can spend $10 more at BN than you would have spent at Amazon, but you can get 5% cashback on $400 in purchases, BN would be great for you.  BN Marketplace uses the same codes, so they may or may not count.  Ask Perkstreet about that.  If they do, there’s a lineup of used games and that are cheaper than Gamestop and Gamefly, and buying and reselling for the same price is generally about the same total cost as renting.  This is the only category that falls under “needs” for some of us rather than treats; but that only applies to students.
    So take your tips and tricks and go out and vote for what’s best for you.  Vote what you’re already going to spend money in, and vote based on the total amount of savings you’re going to get.  If you’re going to frequent Gamefly but only spend $25, that’s not as good as a deal as a one-time purchase on a Golf Course that costs $30.

  • Dkswifty

    I like the idea of voting, but being on a very tight budget right now, all of these categories are extras that I probably won’t use. They don’t fit in a budget to get out of debt. I would like to see categories where I could get necessities, like groceries, or gasoline.

  • Bodholdt

    Great idea!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bonnie-Alley-Jackson/1168216054 Bonnie Alley Jackson

    great idea to vote but I do agree, there should be some necessities to choose from.

  • peter

    Love: voting for perk categories
    Hate: lack of golfers so far :)  

  • http://Twitter.com/KylePs80 Kyle Psaty

    Thanks so much for all your feedback! We truly appreciate all your thoughts on how we can improve this program to better serve our customers. This is the first time since we started offering PowerPerks a year ago that we’ve had customers vote directly, and we’re all pretty excited about it.

    We get asked a lot about giving PowerPerks on things like groceries and gas. One of the biggest factors to consider when we pick PowerPerks is the cost to us to provide rewards. Yep, we pay to provide PowerPerks (say that five times fast.) We think you’re worth rewarding, and we don’t think you should have to pay a premium to get cash back – that seems counterintuitive. So we keep our overhead costs low and try to find PowerPerks categories that are more affordable for us than others at places you still love to shop. That way we can always offer you unlimited 1-2% cash back on your daily spending and still give you 5% cash back in unexpected ways through this PowerPerks program.

    We change PowerPerks every month to give everyone a chance to earn someplace that’s useful to them. Maybe Old Navy would be an out-of-budget spend for one person, but is another’s go-to place for affordable family clothes. Our June PowerPerks may not be for you if you’re taking my no-eating-out restaurant challenge I’ve blogged about, but if it lets you budget an extra night out with your family, that sounds pretty great to us.

    I’m sorry some of the things you’re requesting aren’t in the cards right now, but in the meantime, let’s keep this important dialogue going so we know how to serve you best moving forward.-KyleKyle PsatyPerkStreet Financial

  • Newkipp

    Hurray for the chance to vote! Love it!

  • lookingtosave

    Kyle –

    I agree that both PerkStreets and its customers must win on the rewards side of things. Let’s see vendors such as Target, Walmart, Amazon. These are vendors where folks can get necessity-based items also.

    thanks,

  • Bryan87

    lookingtosave
    Target and amazon are apart of the perks already from the 1%-2% u already get, now walmart would be cool too. I personally think a travel option would be good as alot of ppl travel during the summer, whether it be gas, hotels, flights, maybe that could be a permanent reward perhaps ?

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