The Art of Freebies
The word freebies itself has such a positive connotation. If you are an avid money saver such as myself, it almost makes you want to jump for joy. As with all things good, however, someone, somewhere has found a way to turn it into something bad — the freebie scam. Are freebies really free??? For those not familiar with freebies you may wonder what they are and why a company would give something away for free. Basically a freebie is something free a company is willing to give to you in order to hopefully obtain your business in the future. There are tons and tons of legitimate freebies to be found so don’t be too skeptical. On the other hand, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. For instance, receiving a free container of baby formula is a legitimate freebie to entice you to try their formula and therefore make money from you in the future. A free laptop offer on the other hand usually has a catch. Maybe it includes signing up for other offers first or something along those lines but just be careful. Most of the legitimate freebies will only ask you to simply fill out a form and that is it. To avoid being the subject of one of these scams when searching for freebies, follow these simple rules below:
1. Be careful of freebies that require you to sign up for several other offers before receiving your freebie. Usually these offers require a credit card number and may be free for the first 30 days. It may be tempting depending on the freebie and this is up to you but most of these trials will automatically start billing you after the trial period. If you do decide to sign up for these make sure you keep record of what you signed up for and when so you can be sure to call and cancel the service before they start billing you. I usually advise against signing up for anything that requires a credit card number.
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