Part 2:  Tips on how to win tickets to wicked, win concert tickets and other events.

I know it seems tedious to make those radio station lists but once you have that initial setup you don’t have to do it again.  So you don’t drive yourself crazy, use the same login and passwords for your radio station memberships.  The reason why I suggest this is that a handful of companies control all the stations on the radio so essentially your membership is to one parent company and it just makes entering the contests easier if you have to remember only one login and password.

I like to enter contests that are simple to sign up for.  I am not a fan of radio contests where you have to be the lucky number call, or where you have to answer trivia, or the phrase that pays.  For me, that is too complicated and I don’t have the time for stuff like that.  I am also not a fan of the new trend of radio station contests in which you have to accumulate points in order to enter the contest.  Two of my local radio stations have switched over to this method and I hate it.  I had previously won concert tickets, won tickets to Disney shows, and other sponsor prizes very regularly, but since this change I haven’t had any luck. Don’t think that it is the same people winning all the time because most radio contests have a clause that if you have won a prize from them, you can’t enter or win anything for at least 30 days.

Whenever you enter a contest, read the rules to see how often you can enter.  Most radio and TV contests are one-time entries.  The contests run for the week, so make it a point to login every Monday to see if there are any contests you want to enter.  In the case of radio stations, since the contest runs for the week, they pick a winner by Thursday.  Local TV stations vary in terms of how long the contests run, so read those contest rules.  As I have mentioned before you will have to fill out tax forms for your prize, which will require a social security number.  Wait to provide this information when you are at the radio or TV station to pick up your prize.  If your prize is around $900 or over, it will affect your tax returns because that is the time Uncle Sam will ask for his portion.  I found this out after winning a hair laser removal package valued over $900.  So our tax return for that year took a little hit.  But I was ok with that, laser hair removal is super expensive so it balanced out in my eyes if all I paid was the taxes.

In part 3 of this series I’ll share some more tips on keeping track of your contests.