City Highlight: Moving to New York

Lately we've been using the blog to highlight all kinds of savings opportunities available for shoppers trying to pinch pennies on their monthly bills. In addition to highlighting opportunities from certain providers, we also try to key in on cities where many of our shoppers live.

We've covered a variety of places ranging from Baltimore to Chicago. Up for this week's city highlight: New York City. Check out the list below to see some of the best deals available in the Big Apple, and find out more about how you can save money on your monthly bills.

Current Deals on WhiteFence: AT&T;

Our summer of savings is still going strong, which works out great for consumers looking to cut their bills on home services. We're constantly updating with prices and packages from top providers nationwide, and one of the newest deals on WhiteFence is too good to pass up: AT&T; high-speed Internet.

AT&T; is currently cutting prices in half for their high-speed offerings, which results in some great deals to take advantage of. For instance, their DSL Direct Pro package, with speeds of up to 3.0 Mbps, is going for a low price of only $14.95 a month. You don't even need a phone line to sign up. If you take advantage of this now, you could save as much as $300 this year on high-speed Internet alone.

If you want to get in on the savings, be sure to visit AT&T; on WhiteFence and sign up today.

City Highlight: Moving to Baltimore

A few months ago we started to do a feature on the blog that highlights different cities around the country, and the deals that people can find. The idea is that anyone moving to or currently living in these locations can get better deals that help them to save on their home services like home phone, TV and Internet.

For this week's feature, we're going to be taking a look at the great city of Baltimore, home of the Orioles, the Ravens and the Washington Monument. Check out the list below to see a list of the best deals in the area!

The Hottest Deals on WhiteFence Right Now

Summer is now officially in high gear, and people across the country are feeling the pinch with higher bills arriving in mailboxes everywhere. Don't worry though, WhiteFence is here to help with a slew of hot home service deals. Our providers have lots of great promotions running right now that can help keep your bills a little lower this summer.

Here are the most scorching deals on the site right now:

• Get three FREE months of Starz and Showtime with select DIRECTV plans.

• Get a a $150 welcome bonus with select TXU Energy electricity plans.

• Lock in your price for life with select Windstream bundles.

• Order home security service from ADT from Security Choice and get a $100 Visa gift card.

• Get $150 back and $5 off per month for two years with select Verizon bundles.

• Sign up for a Gas South plan and get a $50 bill credit.

• Save over $400 on certain AT&T bundles.

These promotions are running as of the date of this blog, but could be removed at any time. Not everyone will qualify for each of these deals. To check availability in your area, just visit WhiteFence.com and enter your address. More details are available once you have entered your address.

Get Smart, Go Green For a Chance to Win a Smart Car

Anybody that commutes to work knows the pain of long drives and high gas prices. Making the trek each day is not only taxing on your wallet, it also does a number on the environment.

If you're looking to go green with the kind of vehicle you drive, you could do just that by joining the Get Smart, Go Green sweepstakes with Green Mountain Energy Company, the Texas electricity provider dedicated to clean and renewable energy. They are teaming up with smart center Sugar Land and smart center Houston North to bring you a 2010 smart fortwo passion coupe, which is being hailed as the most fuel efficient gasoline-powered car on the road today.

Here are some more details about this great car:

• One of the most economical cars on the road today
• Fuel efficient with 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway
• Meets or exceeds all federal government crash test standards
• Extremely safe with advanced crash avoidance and crash protection systems

In order to enter to win this sweepstakes, you must head on over to the Get Smart, Go Green page on Green Mountain Energy Company's Web site, and fill out the form required to put in your entry. Before you know it, you could be the proud owner of a brand new environmentally friendly car!

View the Sweepstakes Official Rules at www.greenmountain.com/smartcar. No purchase is necessary. One entry per household permitted from all methods combined. All entrants must be a minimum of 18 years of age. All entrants must be a resident of the State of Teas. Certain restrictions apply.

Poll: Do You Have HD Service?

One of the great things about owning an HDTV is that it's great for watching all of the year's major sporting events. Right now, there's no better way to watch the World Cup than in high definition. This trend continues year-round, and extends to all of the other seasonal sports such as college football, the NFL, and more. As soon as next week, we'll be getting two of the bigger sporting events of the year with the MLB All-Star game as well as the British Open.

I'm sure sports fans all around will be excited to check these out in HD. However, according to a TV study released last year, as few as 60 percent of all HDTV owners actually subscribe to an HD service. This fact is still astonishing to me, all of these months later, but I see it reflected when I visit certain friends who either do not have HDTV service or have their settings configured in a way that doesn't take advantage of the resolution available. After spending all the money to upgrade the TV set, why not go the extra mile to get HD service as well?

So, I figured I'd ask you guys what you thought, and if you had HD service at your home. Feel free to vote and leave a comment! Also, if you're looking for HD service, visit WhiteFence to find out how to get it connected in your home.

Provider Highlight: Verizon

When it comes to home services, choosing the right provider isn't always the easiest decision to make. With a variety of specials, unique offers, prices and bundles, there are a number of places you could go to get the services you need for your home. That's why we've been trying to highlight specific providers on the blog for the last few months, to key consumers in to the special things that each provider is doing.

This week, we're highlighting Verizon! Here are some cool things to know about their service:

• FiOS TV. One of Verizon's greatest features is its fiber optic network packages, known as FiOS. The fiber optic network allows for greater picture quality and outstanding clarity when viewing programming on your HDTV. On top of how great everything looks, FiOS TV is one of the smartest TV services around, and allows you to browse Facebook and stream content straight from your PC.
• FiOS Internet. Another bonus to Verizon's advanced fiber optic network is the speed of their broadband Internet connection delivered to your home. With Verizon FiOS Internet, you'll experience speeds of up to 50 Mbps for downloads, and 20 Mbps for uploads. If you're unaware of how fast that is, it's almost certainly several times faster than what's in your home right now.
• Specials. Verizon is constantly offering great specials, bonuses and other incentives to sign up for their services. Right now, when you order select bundles, you get $150 cash back, plus $5 off for 24 months!

As of the writing of this blog, these are the features and promotions offered by Verizon. To take full advantage of these, hurry on over to Verizon on WhiteFence and see what's available at your address!

Best Deals on WhiteFence

If you haven't noticed the theme that we've been pushing on our blog the last few weeks, it's the idea of summer savings. There are always options for you to find great deals, whether it's out on the town, on the road or at your own home through the right shopping choices or your bills on home services.

In following with this theme, I've put together a list of some of the best deals you can find on WhiteFence right now.

• Georgians can get a $40 bill credit by choosing Georgia Natural Gas as their gas provider.
• Get $150 back when you order a Verizon bundle (DSL) plus $5 off for 24 months.
• Sign up for an AT&T; U-verse bundle and get up to a $200 AT&T; gift card.
• Right now, both Comcast and Qwest are offering great savings on special 12 month promotional prices on multiple services!

So, hopefully this list of deals gets you started on your way to saving on your bills for the summer. Remember, these prices and offers may change over time or by your address, so be sure to head over to WhiteFence to check their availability!

WhiteFence Summer Savings Twitter Party

Summer is making its presence known with high temperatures, theme park openings and big movie releases. It's the time of year that most people can't wait for, because it's associated with fun in the sun and lots of travel. However, at WhiteFence we feel that summer also has another element to it: savings! There are all kinds of deals that you can find for your home in order to save money on your monthly bills. That's why we're teaming up for a summer savings Twitter party with Bonggamom, a savings-savvy blogger who loves to find a good bargain.

So, how does this Twitter party work? This Thursday, June 24, Bonggamom is going to be asking questions on the topic of summer savings and WhiteFence on Twitter. If you answer the give-away questions correctly with the hashtag #WFParty, you could walk away with some great gift cards to retailers like Target, Best Buy or Amazon.

Here are the details for the event:

Date: Thursday, June 24

Time: 7:00-8:00pm EST (4:00-5:00pm PST)

Hosts: Bonggamom and WhiteFence

Hashtag: #WFParty

Prizes: 3 winners will receive $25 gift cards to Target. 1 winner will receive a $50 gift card to Best Buy. Grand prize winner gets a $250 Amazon gift card!

To read more details about the party and participate in yet another giveaway opportunity for an additional gift card, visit Bonggamom's site. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday!

How do You Shop for Deals?

Everyone loves a good deal, it's just part of human nature. Here at WhiteFence, we help you find the best deals on all of your home services, but that only covers a portion of your spending. That begs the question, how do you shop for deals on other things?

From milk to movies, it seems like these days there are ways to save on just about everything. Whether you're old school and cut coupons in the Sunday newspaper or if you prefer to do your shopping in bed and use coupon codes at online retailers, there are deals out there for however you shop.

As you might expect from a someone that works for an Internet company, I do a lot of my shopping online. When I'm looking to buy something, I usually hit it with a multi-stage attack.

I start with Google Product Search, which is an aggregator that checks prices from a variety of retailers, including brick-and-mortar stores and all the big online retailers. That gives me a pretty good idea of what the item is going for. I then head to SlickDeals, which is a site featuring a list of user-generated deals. The front page each day shows what the users chose as the best deals, though if you search for a specific product, you'll find there are many more deals out there.

Now that I've worked out who has the item for the lowest price, it's time to see if there are any coupon codes for that retailer. A coupon code is similar to a traditional coupon, but instead of presenting a piece of paper at the register, you just enter a code when checking out online. Many retailers send out coupon codes in e-mails, but that's not the only way you can get your hands on them.

Every time I buy something online, I check RetailMeNot to see if that company has any coupon codes running. The site features a collection of user-generated coupon codes that is updated frequently. Each code even has a score associated with it, showing how successful it has been with the site's users. Coupon codes can range from a percentage off the price of an item or order to free shipping. The site even features traditional printable coupons if you're going to be shopping in a actual store.

It may take a little time, but by checking these sites before I buy something, I usually end up saving about 15% off the retail cost. Add up what I save on all of those purchases up each year, and I probably save around a thousand dollars!

So, how do you shop for deals?