Group buying schemes in Cape Town all in one place

If you aren’t taking advantage of the discount coupon sites around then maybe now’s a good time to start.

I have created a list of all the ones that I could find for Cape Town… just hold down the ‘Ctrl’ button and click to open each of the following links in separate browser windows and then wait for them to download:

http://www.cityslicker.co.za 
http://citymob.co.za/cape-town 
https://www.daddysdeals.co.za 
http://www.dealify.com/cape-town-central 
http://www.dealify.com/cape-town-north 
http://www.dealify.com/cape-town-south 
http://www.dealio.co.za 
http://hot-deals.co.za 
Twangoo/Groupon/MyCityDeal: http://www.mycitydeal.co.za/deals/cape-town 
http://onedayonly.co.za 
http://www.skoop.co.za/deals 
http://ubuntudeal.co.za 
http://ucit.co.za/cape-town 
http://wicount.co.za 
http://www.youdeal.co.za/deals/cape-town 
http://www.zappon.co.za/cape-town  
http://www.justhenga.com/capetown
http://www.mobstir.co.za/Cape+Town

There’s also this aggregator site that will list all the deals on one page: http://www.dealchecker.co.za
(See below for more aggregator sites)

If you use a browser like Opera or FireFox that allows you to save your browser sessions then keep the above sites open and then save the session for reopening later… or just bookmark this page and click on each link every day.



Updated on 25 July 2011:
More after a more extensive Bing search:
http://salewine.co.za
http://www.collectivecow.com (Pretoria and Johannesburg only)
http://www.vuvuplaza.com/capetown 
http://www.bangoo.co.za/cape-town
http://www.dealson.co.za/ZA/cape-town   
http://www.garethcliffdeals.com 
http://www.sacoupons.co.za
http://247deals.co.za/index.php?city=Cape Town

http://www.todaysdeals.co.za (aggregator)

http://www.24hoursonly.co.za


http://alldeals.co.za/category/cape-town-deals (aggregator)
http://www.dealspade.com/cities/cape-town (aggregator)
http://safindit.co.za/specials (aggregator)

http://www.dealzela.com/Daily-Deals/Cape-Town (aggregator)

http://www.buywithus.co.za/deals/western-cape (aggregator)
http://yadda.co.za/search?region=cape-town (aggregator)

http://www.dealafrica.co.za (aggregator) new, in beta still, very nice layout 



http://www.fooddeals.co.za (no deals yet)
http://www.dealison.co.za (no deals yet)

Discovery Credit Card calculator updated to include Max Allowable Spend at partner stores

Ok, so I’m using my Discovery Credit Card quite a lot now and getting up to 20% cashback on partner stores but I’ve recently hit my limits – what with all those purchases of iPad 2’s and MacBook Pro laptops!
I knew about the 30% rule which meant that I needed to make the Discovery Credit Card my primary card that I use (“Your maximum discountable spend at partner stores is limited to 30% of your total DiscoveryCard spend in that statement period”).
But, I got a surprise when reading the details about the total limit per month:  “the total cash back is limited to R10 000 spend at all DiscoveryCard partner stores”.
Now that wasn’t at all clear to me!  What did that mean?  I figured that if I totalled up the spend at Pick ‘n Pay, Nando’s, Apple iStore, (you get the idea), then this was limited to a total of R10,000 per month. 
But I had to be sure… so I sent off an email to the Discovery Card email address. 
A few days later a detailed response arrived with an example #BrandPlus.

 

Example (actual calculations can be found in HTT’s updated calculator):
Total spend on Discovery card is R30,000 in the month
Discount depends on Vitality level and number of years on that level
 
That makes the maximum discountable spend at a partner stores: R9,000 [=30% of R30,000]

If you spend:

	% off	Discount:
R5,000 at the iStore	20%	1,000
R300 at Nando's	20%	60
R11,000 at Pick 'n Pay	10%	1,100
		2,160	which is R160 over the maximum allowed R2,000

Max discount per statement:
Depending on Vitality level and number of years on that level

Say you have been on Diamond for more than 5 years, then maximum is R2,000 per month

If the sum of the discount at all partner stores is greater than the maximum discount calculated in the table, then the scaling down factor is applied to bring the total discount in line with the maximum discount.

Scaling Down Factor = 2,000/2,160 = 0.925925926

Then multiply each of the cash back amounts by this ratio which results in proportion value. The proportion value is what is reflected on your statement:

If you spend:	% off	Discount:	Scaled down discount
R5,000 at the iStore	20%	1,000	925.93
R300 at Nando's	20%	60	55.56
R11,000 at Pick 'n Pay	10%	1,100	1,018.52
		2,160	R 2,000.00	which is now equal to the maximum allowed R2,000

These calculations are available in HTT’s updated “Discovery Credit Card Calculator 2011” and can be downloaded here:  http://www.mediafire.com/file/2nc22i2jb4wd1qg/DiscoveryCardCalculator2011.xls

I look forward to your comments to help me make it more understandable and usable. 

Paying for petrol using your Discovery Credit Card: questions answered

I have seen numerous signs at petrol stations saying that credit cards can now be used to pay for fuel in South Africa – but I’ve often said to myself: “Yeah, right – they just want to charge you for the transaction and hit you with heavy interest charges – I’m not going to fall for that one!” 
But then I got thinking – maybe I can earn cashback on my Discovery Credit Card and points to use at the Vitality Mall…. Yes, now that’s appealing.

What if the fees and interest charges were much less than the cashbacks – well, it’s worth an email or two to the discovery card people to get some answers. 




I first investigated by going to the web site and there I discovered some other vague-to-me rules that needed clarification.

Here are the questions that I asked and the answers from Discovery Card:

Q: Can you tell me if there are any fees or interest charged if I were to use my Discovery Credit Card for fuel purchases?
A: Interest and fuel transaction fees on Discovery Platinum Card: We confirm that there are no transactions fees when using the Discovery Platinum card for fuel purchases. Furthermore fuel transactions done using the Discovery Platinum card will not be subject to interest if you settle the account in full monthly. 

Q: Would the spend on fuel be eligible for Discovery Miles and be counted as part of the total monthly Discovery Card spend?
A: Fuel transactions done with the Discovery Platinum card will also earn you Discovery Miles as well as count towards your monthly card spend.
Note from HTT: Don’t confuse this with the DiscoveryMotor card: using this for fuel purchases will not earn you Discovery Miles. The spend on your DiscoveryMotor card for fuel purchases will not add up to the total Discovery card spend.

Q: Why don't I get cash back for payment at Pick ‘n Pay clothing stores?  [as stated here: http://www.discovery.co.za/portal/loggedout-individual/shop-save-card]
A: A purchase at a Pick ‘n Pay clothing store using your DiscoveryPlatinum card is considered an in-store account payment similar to paying your municipal bill at a Pick ‘n Pay money market desk and is therefore ineligible for cash backs.  It is important to note that such a transaction will still contribute towards total card spend as well as earning you Discovery Miles.

So, to summarise: I will from now on pay for fuel using my credit card to earn Discovery miles and cashback :)

To re-iterate/highlight to HTT’s readers (from the web page):
You cannot get cash back for payment of in-store accounts or when you make third party payments (for example a telephone account) at partner stores and at Pick ‘n Pay express stores, Pick ‘n Pay pharmacies, Pick ‘n Pay liquor and Pick ‘n Pay clothing stores with your DiscoveryCard. However, these transactions do count towards your total monthly DiscoveryCard spend.

The following DiscoveryCard transactions do not count towards your total monthly spend:
* Cash withdrawals
* Traveller’s cheque purchases
* Electronic funds transfers
* Budget facility transfers
* Fuel or fuel-related transactions on the DiscoveryMotor card
* Foreign transactions
* Transfers between straight and the Medical Savings Booster

Also note that DiscoveryCard cash back does not apply at duty free partner stores.

Telmap 5 maps were not showing [Solved]

I was extremely happy with the beta version of Telmap 5 on my Blackberry Bold (9700) until the maps disappeared at the end of June 2011 and I was wondering what was going on.  A colleague even emailed Telmap support and got a response to call Vodacom support as they were contractually not allowed to deal with clients directly (#Fail).

I kept on opening the maps to see if they were back.  I read on the Internet somewhere that the Telmap servers were undergoing an upgrade so I was hoping…

Until last week the maps were blank.  Funnily enough the maps of Europe were displaying fine – so I then suspected that perhaps Vodacom were blocking the maps for some reason – perhaps to force users to use the Vodafone Sat Nav software :( 
Luckily (for Vodacom) that wasn’t the case :) 

I was quite a happy user and excited when I eventually found an app that provided turn by turn navigation! – and I certainly didn’t want to be forced to use the SatNav software.  It shows weather at my locations and other widgets too.

Last week, I opened the Telmap software and it wouldn’t open saying that the software had expired!  I pressed the BB button and there was a link to “upgrade”…
I took a deep breath and thought that if I upgraded then I would lose “My places” – and wondered how I could extract these from the BB backups that I had made. 
Another deep breath accompanied by a click on the “Upgrade” link and I started downloading the new software…

A short while and a reboot later the software started up; the maps were visible again, and I didn’t even lose “My Places”! :) :)
Navigation working again too :)

I am now upgraded to version 5.41 build 49

Now if only this software would show traffic info and tell me where the speed traps are…

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Update your Blackberry Bold 9700 Vodafone Sat Nav GPS Navigator