A Reader Tip, And Free Google Play Credits
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
A Reader Tip
A helpful reader replied to last week’s post with a great online safety tip. When creating an account with a website or subscribing to a newsletter, you can add a plus sign and any words you want to your email address (before the “@” symbol). Emails sent to that address will still go to your inbox.
How is this useful? Whenever you create an account with a new website (whether shopping, banking, or something else), you can add the “+” and what site it is to your email address, for example “yourname+bank@gmail.com”. By doing so, you’ll be able to check if an email sent to you that claims to be from the site is legitimate, and also to know when your address has been shared with other websites. See this Gmail blog post for more info.
Free Google Play Store Credits
Also, I just came across a neat app for Android users via the Android Intelligence newsletter. The Google Opinion Rewards app (available on Android and iOS) will occasionally send you notifications with brief surveys, usually taking less than a minute to complete. In exchange, you receive Google Play Store credits usable for movies, eBooks, and apps (on Android). Pretty neat.
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
Sketches from Ukraine (via The Browser) is a great Dave Eggers piece on daily life in Kyiv today. A bit hard to read toward the end but an overall inspiring look at people working to maintain normal lives during wartime.
The Unexpected Reason Apple Is Dominating the U.S. Smartphone Market discusses some underrated reasons that iPhones are so dominant here. I use an Android phone, but well over 90% of my family, friends, and coworkers are iPhone users.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.