The Frugal Bostonian

TD Bank recently had a promotion offering a free videocamera to folks who opened a checking account and made 8 debit card purchases and two online billpays.

I went to the bank and opened the account with $200. The bank immediately gave me a debt card, which I promptly used to make the 8 purchases.  I bought things I would usually buy but just used the card instead of cash.  There was no minimum purchase amount, so I made several small purchases.  I signed up for online billpay and paid my cable and electricity bill.  Bottom line - I didn’t spend anything that I wasn’t going to spend anyway, the only change was using the TDBank card instead of cash or my primary account.

Yesterday the free videocamera arrived in the mail. It is not a junky promo, it retails for $112-149 online, and it was something I had been looking at getting.  It’s smaller than a digital camera and easily its in a pocket or bag.  The box included the camera, batteries, carry pouch, and cords to connect it to a television.  There was no paperwork to fill out, it just showed up in the mail, its been about 6 weeks since I opened the account.

The account is no fee as long as there is a balance of $100.  I’ll be taking the debit card out of my wallet and leaving the money in the account as “emergency money.”

The promotion is over, but I am looking for more bank promos (I’ve seen some for a free itouch).  Some of these deals have onerous requirements to get the freebie; I won’t sign up unless it’s something I can easily do.  If you sign up for one of these. make sure you fulfill the requirements in the stated time period.