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It's a common belief that MasterCard and VISA are cheaper for merchants than American Express. This is the case because MC/VISA promote their "discount rate" (that being the percentage they take of each transaction) as somewhere between 1.5% and 3%, whereas American Express's published discount rate is usually well over 3%. Seems like easy math, right? Well, it's not. You see, with American Express you as the merchant onlyÂpay the discount rate, but with MasterCard and VISA you will typically pay the discount rate plusÂwhatever else it costs them to process that transaction. And the "whatever else" (also called "interchange fees") includes the costs of all those airline miles, hotel points, cashback bonuses, etc., that benefit the cardholder. Yep, you read that right: you as the merchant are directly charged for this on top ofÂwhatever percentage ofÂthe transaction you're already paying. Don't believe us? Well, check your statments for those extra fees. We'll wait.
Yep.

We love the Think Geek team. They consistantly make us laugh and wonder where they get their ideas for cool stuff. Right now they are having their winter clearance event with up to 75% off and free ground shipping on orders over $99. Check it out, there's always something that you may not need, but you will really want. Oh, Star Wars gear is 40% off as well - what's not to love?

Apple is offering Free overnight shipping on all orders placed through 12/23. Get your last minute Mac and iDevice fix, delivered in time to put it under the tree on Christmas morning.

You love them, you hate them: gift cards. If you just can't think of that perfect gift, or you just want to save some cash, read on about how you can buy gift cards for 10-50% off.
Even if you don't need a gift for that someone "special" who has it all, buying discounted gift cards via eBay auctions can be a great way to save some cash. We typically find cards from 20-50% below the face value and we use a set-it-and-forget-it mentality - meaning, we post our max price we would pay, using eBay's proxy bid feature or we use a bid sniping service if we want even more dramatic savings.
You won't win every gift card auction you bid on, but if you spend a little time, you can come up with some pretty good savings. During one home improvement phase, we bought a few thousand dollars worth of Home Depot cards with an average savings of about 18% with just a little time invested.