The iPhone credits and iPhone trade in program at AT&T is a great option for individuals who have just signed a new AT&T contract since they can now have the latest and greatest iPhone without any extra costs. Consumers will have 30 days from their purchase date to take advantage of what AT&T is calling a “one-time Customer Price protection.”

Here’s what you can get from AT&T for your almost new iPhone.

• $50 bill credit for the 16GB iPhone 3GS
• $100 bill credit for the 32GB iPhone 3GS
• Return your iPhone 3GS and apply the full purchase price towards a new iPhone 4

A new 16GB iPhone 4 costs $199 and the 32GB iPhone 4 is $299 with a 2-year contract.

You only have 30-days from your original purchase date to take advantage of this offer from AT&T which includes iPhone 3GS models purchased during the week of May 7th-14th. If you qualify for the one time price protection make sure you return to the store you purchased the iPhone 3GS and ask for your credit or to exchange for a new iPhone 4.

If you are one of the individuals who needs to trade in your iPhone 3GS towards a new iPhone 4 by Monday, you will need to make sure that you have another phone on hand to use until the iPhone 4 is released on June 24th.

My advice would be to get the new iPhone 4. It offers newer technology and a better overall package for the same price. For more answers to questions about the iPhone 4, including “Should I buy One?” — check out our Easy Guide to the New iPhone.

If you don’t qualify for the iPhone buyback through AT&T check out how to sell your old iPhone to a gadget recycler.

AT&T Offers Cash to Recent iPhone 3GS Buyers is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Consumers will be able to take advantage of Bing Cashback rewards up until July 30, 2010 at 9:00 PM PST. Also, all current Cashback savings may be redeemed through July 30, 2011, giving everyone a full year to claim their savings. During this one year grace period, the Bing Cashback customer support system will remain active. In an effort to encourage early savings redemption, Bing will be waiving the $5 minimum payout, effective July 31,2010. Customers are encouraged to visit http://cashbackaccount.bing.com to verify that their account information is current.

Despite the program being terminated, there is hope. The Bing Cashback team hints at a new program emerging with this statement from their email: “Thank you very much for being a loyal cashback user.  We remain committed to delivering great value to our customers, and we are currently working on an exciting new program which you will hear more about from us later this summer.” It’s anyone’s guess as to what this new program will consist of, but for now, take advantage of the time remaining to get some good deals.

Bing Cashback Program Discontinued July 30 – Rewards Good for 1 Year is a post by Carter Sprunger from Notebooks.com.

Ebates.com is an online site which offers cashback on practically any purchase you make. Sites ranging from popular online retailers such as Macys.com to the auction sites such as eBay all offer an incentive for you to shop through the Ebates program. Though the cashback amounts aren’t always the highest, usually ranging from 2% to 15%, every little bit helps. Ebates also runs a daily promotion called the Ebates Daily Double through which a retailer is selected and the cashback amount for that retailer is doubled for 24 hours! For example, today’s Daily Double merchant is Dell.com, this increases the cashback amount to 4% from 2%! Additionally, Ebates has an up-to-date listing for each retailer, profiling coupon codes and special offers you can use to maximize your savings.

Ebates.com is extremely easy to use- once logged in, go the retailer’s page on the site, and click “Shop Now.” Your purchase will automatically be tracked and your cashback can be posted in as little 24 hours. Payments are made every few months via PayPal or check. Ebates is currently providing an extra incentive to join now. You’ll be given a free $5 starting bonus which can be redeemed as soon as you make a purchase through one of their links!

Ebates: The Inclusive Cashback Program is a post by Bogdan Semida from Notebooks.com.

College students with a .edu e-mail address can enjoy some extra savings on their holiday shopping this season! Edhance, a student discount platform, lets students who register for an account get cashback on purchases from select retailers.

Though the cashback program has a focus on local stores, there’s a large number of online shopping websites which have partnered with Edhance. There are even some sellers which have avoided other cashback program’s like Microsoft’s Bing Cashback! Some discounts that stick out are savings of up to 25% off purchases at ToshibaDirect and cashback from the Apple Store! You can check out the full list of deals here.

The program is relatively new but has a lot of promise. You can sign up for a free account using your .edu e-mail address. Apparently, students without a .edu account can still sign up but there’s some extra verification involved. When you make an account, you’ll be required to provide a credit card to help track your purchases. Cashback you earn will be issued to the credit card you added once you have earned $25.

If you’re a student looking to upgrade to the new Windows 7 operating system, check out our write-up on Microsoft’s $29.99 student pricing. Don’t all these savings make you want to go back to college?

Exclusive Cashback Program for Students is a post by Bogdan Semida from Notebooks.com.

Now that it’s actually time for customers who were able to participate in the 40% CashBack promo, some are finding out that their purchases are ineligble and and there’s not much they can do.

The Live.com Black Friday meltdown cost partners, such as HP, millions and caused many shoppers to miss out on other Black Friday deals. If you want to read more about the promo and reader’s frustrations check out our original post about the Live.com CashBack offer here.

In the fine print of Live.com’s CashBack terms of service, users are warned they will not receive CashBack if other discounts or coupons are applied. In almost all cases, the 40% offer trumped whatever other promos HP was offering on Black Friday.

When HP customers who were participating in Live.com’s CashBack promo redeemed coupons their CashBack accounts were credited and marked with as “Pending.” But now that these credits are eligible for redemption, users are getting emails notifying them that their purchases are ineligible for CashBack because they used HP coupons.

HP’s return period for holiday purchases has long since expired. This means their stuck with hardware and a total cost that’s 40% more than what they were expecting. Surely Microsoft could have notified HP customers within 30 days whether or not their purchases were eligible.

In many cases the coupons redeemed by customers were worth a small fraction of the 40% in savings they expected. As you can read in several posts on Notebooks.com, Microsoft completely botched the handling of its Black Friday promos in just about every imaginable way.

Black Friday Disaster: Microsoft’s Live.com Cash Back Fails Big Time,

Live.com Will NOT offer Make Good for HP 40% Cash Back Disaster,

Live.com Answers Questions About HP/Live.com 40% Black Friday Rebates.

The least Microsoft could do is be a little lenient and credit HP customers who suffered through what’s got to be the worst-run Black Friday promo in history.

I was finally eligible to request my CashBack payment via PayPal and if everything goes smoothly my account should be fully credited by next week. Other HP customers are not so lucky and are receiving mixed messages from Microsoft.

Tara wrote in with her correspondence to Microsoft regarding her experience:

Dear sir or madam,

2 months ago I bought an HP laptop through live.com and was told I was eligible per an email from Live.com:

You received $429.20 from your HP Home & Home Office Store purchase on 11/29/2008:

Details cashback

HP Home & Home Office Store

Unit price: $1072.99

Quantity: 1 $429.20

On 1-22, I received an email stating that my $429 cashback has been canceled due to the fact that another $30 coupon was applied to the order:

Thank you for using Live Search for your online search and shopping needs. After further review of your recent HP purchase for order H105130664, we are unable to apply cashback savings for this purchase. Working with HP, we have determined that this purchase is not eligible for Live Search cashback savings because a coupon (coupon code SV2132 ) was used for the purchase.

Per the program terms, you will not earn cashback rewards on purchases where you also use a separate discount or coupon.

We have taken extra steps to confirm with HP that the program terms have not been met prior to cancelling the cashback savings. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused you.

I received another on 1-26:

Hello, Tara!

We want to let you know that your Live Search cashback transaction(s) listed below were updated because the store notified us that the item(s) were returned, exchanged, or canceled.

Here are the updates we received:

Purchase date cashback Updated cashback Details

11/29/2008 $429.20 $0.00 HP Home & Home Office Store

Unit price: $0.00

Quantity: 0

But it’s not been returned, exchanged or canceled. Regardless, I feel the denial of my rebate is a bit unfair. I understand that the rebate should be paid after a waiting period to ensure I didn’t return the product, but I was notified the purchase was eligible, that status remained for nearly 2 months while I assumed HP was ensuring I wouldn’t return the product, and then only after the return period had passed was I notified that I’m not eligible after all. I purchased the HP rather than another brand that I liked more based upon the 40% savings, and now it would seem I’ve not only not gotten my preferred brand, but I’ve paid more for my 2nd choice than I would have paid for my preferred brand.

Please, would you be so kind as to review and reconsider? The fact that I cannot return the computer after learning I’ll end up spending $400 more than I planned is most distressing.

Regards,

Tara

Live.com CashBack: Black Friday Disaster Still Affecting HP Customers is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

To sign up, visit Live.com/cashback. Starting at 7am Pacific on Black Friday you can search for “HP” at Live.com and you’ll see the text-ads that offer 40% off the HP Store. The ridiculously good thing about this promo is that you still get all of HP’s current discounts offered within the store such as free memory upgrades and instant discounts. These incentives mean you can save up to $569 on select notebooks PLUS get the 40% cash back. Now that’s a Black Friday deal!

The Black Friday special offer is only good for 12 hours starting at 7am Pacific Time.

The reason I’m so excited by this deal is that it’s good on the entire HP catalog, not just on entry-level and mainstream notebooks like a lot of other Black Friday retailers. This HP and Live.com promotion can save you tons of cash on printers, monitors, desktops and even those over-priced ink cartridges.

There are only two limitations to the HP/Live.com Black Friday discounts. Live.com has a cap of $2,500 in rebates per person per calendar year. This shouldn’t be a problem for most buyers since you’d have to spend $6,250 to reach that limit with this promo. The other limitation is that you can’t stack a coupon on top of this deal that you’ve found on Notebooks.com or elsewhere.

I suggest you check out the HP outlet section if you want to save some even more money by going with a previous-generation product or something that’s refurbished.

I’ve already signed up for Live.com cashback and am going to buy a HP w2558hc 25-inch display that’s normally $599.99. A $50 instant discount plus the 40% rebate will drop my cost down to $329.99.

Another item I’ve been waiting to buy is the HP Windows Home Server, which will help me centralize my backups and media libraries. I’m going to buy the HP MediaSmart Server EX475, which includes two 500GB drives and normally costs $649.99. HP is offering a $100 instant rebate right now and the Live.com 40% cash back will drop my cost down to $329.40.

This deal will have the most impact for those of you who want to buy high-end notebooks such as the new HP HDX series notebooks or a Touchsmart.

Be sure to thoroughly read Live.com’s terms and conditions to make sure you qualify for the discounts and so that you understand how you’ll be paid. I’m not a big fan of rebates (and this technically is one), but I’m willing to deal with this hassle for 40% off.

Visit Live.com to take advantage of this offer.

Black Friday: Live.com’s Cashback offers 40% off the Entire HP Store is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.