Finding Magazine Subscription Deals

I just got my last issue of SmartMoney magazine from the free 3 year subscription that I scored a while back. On the attached renewal card they offered me the bargain price of 12 issues for $15.

Obviously, the first thing I did was start to look around for a better deal. Buried on the SmartMoney.com web site, I found that I could get a one year gift subscription (12 issues) for $12: link. I liked that because of the lower price and because gift subscriptions are not automatically renewed by the publisher at their inflated rates.

My next stop was MagazinePriceSearch.com. The best deal that they list is 12 issues for $10 at DeltaMagazines.com, which is an even better deal.

Finally, I checked out possible magazine discounts at Upromise. Upromise is a rewards program that gives you money for college savings when you make a purchase from a Upromise contributing company. I found that Upromise offers a 25% rebate on magazine subscriptions when you click on their link for Magazines.com. Magazines.com sells a 12 issue SmartMoney subscription for $12, which would be $9 after the Upromise rebate.

I decided to buy from Magazines.com and saw the option to pay with Google Checkout. I remembered that Google Checkout offered a $5 bonus if you made your first purchase with a Citibank credit card by September 15th, 2006. I also found a Google Checkout coupon code for $10 off a $30 purchase at Magazines.com (google806). I decided to add a $26 subscription to Consumer Reports to my order take advantage of all of the available discounts:

Item	Cost
12 issue SmartMoney subscription	$12.00
13 issue Consumer Reports subscription	$26.00
$10 of $30 Google Checkout coupon	-$10.00
$5 Google Checkout Citibank bonus	-$5.00
25% Upromise discount	-$9.50
Final Cost	$13.50

My final cost for the 2 magazine subscriptions was $13.50, which is lower than the $15 I would have paid just to renew SmartMoney with the attached renewal card. Hopefully I'll do as well when these subscriptions expire next year.