Q & A on Free Electronics

In response to several e-mail requests, I’m going to offer up a brief summary of the free electronics offers that are out there.

Gratis Internet has six free offers that I’m aware of:

There are several other ‘free stuff’ offers out there on the internet. Several of them are scams. They promise you computers or cameras in exchange for ‘testing’ products. In the end they all require money and I don’t personally know of anyone that has received products.

Not so with the Gratis Internet offers. I’ve personally gotten an iPod, a television, and a computer and I haven’t spent any money.

The way it works is that you sign up. Then they make several offers to you — “yes/no” type questions — turn them all down, because they don’t get you your free product. They’re just an extra chance for Gratis Internet to make money.

Then you need to complete one of their marketing offers. There are plenty of free trial offers, like 30 days of AOL or a month of eFax. Gratis Internet makes money on each new customer they send over to these companies. The key for you is to choose an offer that is free and then cancel before the end of the promotion period.

Once you’ve completed an offer you need to refer other people to complete offers. You can send the email to all your friends and family and convince them to follow the same steps you’ve gone through. Remember that they can sign up with your link and it costs them nothing — they give up nothing by using your link (as opposed to finding the website directly) and it won’t cost anything for them to do a trial offer.

Each electronics offer requires a different number of completed referrals. The game system requires four, the iPod and handbag five, the TV eight, and the computer and photoiPod ten. Each completed referral earns money for Gratis Internet.

The essence of their offer is that there’s alot of money in referral marketing. By kicking back a large percentage of the money to users in the form of free electronics, they’re able to get tons of folks to participate.

So which offer to choose?

Ideally you want something that will not cost any money and will credit to your account right away.

Infone is the best and easiest when it’s available, because the offer credits instantly and since they only charge you after five uses you don’t even ever have to call to cancel service. I’ve used the offer several times — just with a different email address and credit card each time.

An AOL Free Trial and an eFax Free Trial are both good, easy choices. The offers credit in a few days and you have a month to cancel. They’re both reputable companies, so the process works well. Neither ships a product, so they don’t ask for shipping charges. You’re still out of pocket nothing, but you get credit towards your free electronics.

You can also apply for a credit card with no annual fee, such as the GM Mastercard. I haven’t done this because the last thing I need is another card. But it should work with no problem.

One item to stay away from is the Video Professor offer. I used that one and everything worked out fine in the end. But since they never shipped the product, I couldn’t return it for a shipping credit. They promised to reverse the $6.95 shipping charge but never did. And though they gave me a cancellation number, they tried to charge me anyway. I got both charges taken off my card by my Visa company. But Video Professor isn’t worth dealing with.

Any more questions? Ask away!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »