How to get free US magazine subscriptions - in Canada!

Ive been checking out the main site for over a year, but just discovered the forums today. Some great info here! Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I couldnt find it while doing a search and I think many will appreciate the info...

As Ive seen from many posts here, most are aware of the free subscriptions to many popular magazines you can get if you live in the States. Checking sites like fatwallet.com is one of the places I keep my eyes open for these free subscriptions. **Please note Im telling you the method of how to take advantage of these offers you may find if you live in Canada.

All I do is sign up with an American address. I use a hotel I stayed at in Dallas a few years ago. I use my real name with their address. Better to use an address of a real company or location, as if the address doesnt exist the order may not go through.

Depending on the magazine, you sign in to the site 6-8 weeks later and change your sign-up address to your Canadian one. I have recieved, for free, Maxim, FHM, Stuff, Mens Health, Sporting News and some outdoor magazine (I think its called outdoor life) for a couple of years now delivered right to my door in Ontario.

You have to keep your eyes open for the free offers, but dont be discouraged if they say USA only. Here is a site with most magazine's "change of address page": http://www.sjev.net/magazineaddress.html **Note - this is not a page with free subscription offers, but is a site you can use to change your address when you sign up elsewhere for a free subscription. In my experience it takes 6-10 weeks before you can sign in and change your address.

Make sure you record the exact name and address you sign up with, as you will need this info to change the address. This hasnt worked for me with all magazines, but I can vouch that it works for the 6 I mentioned above.

Hope this helps some out.

*****

One more tip - I use an email address I created just for this purpose. It gets a lot of spam, so dont sign up for these offers with your regular address.

*****
Mags used to be available on EBay, but not so much these days...

If you cant find free magazines several posters have had success buying cheap subscriptions from ebay and using the method outlined above to ultimately switch the address to your Canadian one.

Here are some ebay sellers that sell cheap magazine subscriptions as of Sept 2006. If you have found others let me know and Ill add the names to the list. If anyone can verify that you purchsed a subscription from one of these sellers, and successfully received it to Canada, let me know.

lowpricedmags - verified by wild
clayman3532 - verified by rhainman
lacheapmagz - verified but may now be a scammer
klwh (Gold Coast Magazines) - verified by thiteeninchmags

nice post. hope this works!

Originally Posted by djayboi

nice post. hope this works!

I can guarantee it has worked for me. In fact, it even has the added benefit of not giving these companies your mailing address. Im afraid to think how much junk mail that hotel in Texas gets in my name.

I figure the hotel employees wouldnt mind too much though, as they get an issue or two of my mag before I change the address.

OK - just checked fatwallet and there is an offer up right now for Stuff and Computer Shopper. I tried the Stuff one and it worked for me (I dont care to get Computer Shopper). It only works for the 1 year subscription though. It will ask you if you want to pay with credit card or paypal. I choose credit card, but the site never asks for a credit card number because your balance will be $0 when you check out.

I cant guarantee this one works. Ill let you know in 6-10 weeks.

Oh - I should add in my experience these offers are generally added on to each other. For example right now I have Stuff delivered for free till 2008. If this works it will be till 2009.

For free Computer Shopper use
Coupon code: freecs
http://MagsforLess.com/pd_computer_shopper.cfm

For free Stuff use
Coupon code: freestuff
http://MagsforLess.com/pd_stuff.cfm

Apply coupon after adding 1 year subscription to cart.

I get to "shipping/payment method" and it's blank, doesn't give me a choice to select credit card, paypal, etc. Then I can't proceed to next step of checkout either.

Originally Posted by scoop

OK - just checked fatwallet and there is an offer up right now for Stuff and Computer Shopper. I tried the Stuff one and it worked for me (I dont care to get Computer Shopper). It only works for the 1 year subscription though. It will ask you if you want to pay with credit card or paypal. I choose credit card, but the site never asks for a credit card number because your balance will be $0 when you check out.

I cant guarantee this one works. Ill let you know in 6-10 weeks.

Oh - I should add in my experience these offers are generally added on to each other. For example right now I have Stuff delivered for free till 2008. If this works it will be till 2009.

For free Computer Shopper use
Coupon code: freecs
http://MagsforLess.com/pd_computer_shopper.cfm

For free Stuff use
Coupon code: freestuff
http://MagsforLess.com/pd_stuff.cfm

Apply coupon after adding 1 year subscription to cart.

sounds great..


but how do I know which magazine subscriptions are free in the first place?

welcome to RFD scoop!


if this actually works out, this would be pretty sweet!

I just tried Time Magazine, and it requires my credit card info b4 they ship out the first issue...

Originally Posted by hawk99

I get to "shipping/payment method" and it's blank, doesn't give me a choice to select credit card, paypal, etc. Then I can't proceed to next step of checkout either.

I dont know - it worked for me. Maybe try a different browser? I just checked this morning and it still appears to be live. I had to create an account with the site, fill in shipping info, then select payment type.

Originally Posted by zwanzig

I just tried Time Magazine, and it requires my credit card info b4 they ship out the first issue...

You need to find a free offer to make this work. This thread was about the method, not a bunch of free offers. Ill keep my eyes open for free offers and post them here. Sometimes alot appear in a couple months, some times 6 months with no offers.

The Stuff offer I posted above appears to still be active. Usually these offers only last for a day or so before they are taken off the shelf.

Interesting if it works, even if the magazine is not free. On ebay you can get 2-3 year subscriptions for a buck or 2 to USA versus say $40 to get WIRED for 1 year in Canada for example.

I can vouch for this working for me many times in the past couple of years. I recently used this technique to get 1 year of BusinessWeek using unused Northwest flyer miles (earned from taking an occasional survey), and a free year subscription to Men's Health from a Crown Royal U.S.A. promotion (dead now).

BusinessWeek took 6 weeks to process but the Men's Health took only a week to be shown in their records. Men's Health processed so fast that I missed 2 issues, and I emailed them to resend these to my Canadian address.

In both of these cases, because they were new subscriptions, I was worried about how to change the address to Canada online without knowing my subscription number. When changing addresses online, the magazine website's software is smart enough to find you without knowing your subscription number, so no worries. Be very careful to note exactly the email and name and address that you used to sign up for the magazine offer.

tried it again. Same problem:


Please select the payment method you prefer below:

Payment method:

It gives me no payment method and the only selection is to "modify order".

Originally Posted by scoop

You need to find a free offer to make this work. This thread was about the method, not a bunch of free offers. Ill keep my eyes open for free offers and post them here. Sometimes alot appear in a couple months, some times 6 months with no offers.

The Stuff offer I posted above appears to still be active. Usually these offers only last for a day or so before they are taken off the shelf.

Originally Posted by rag

Interesting if it works, even if the magazine is not free. On ebay you can get 2-3 year subscriptions for a buck or 2 to USA versus say $40 to get WIRED for 1 year in Canada for example.

Id probably stick with the free ones only as there have been a few that this hasnt worked for me. Sports Illustrated was one that I can think of that didnt work to change the address. Although I guess if all you are paying is a couple of bucks it's not a bad risk.

Originally Posted by hawk99

tried it again. Same problem:


Please select the payment method you prefer below:

Payment method:

It gives me no payment method and the only selection is to "modify order".

Dont know. I used firefox and it worked fine for me. That site is very slow though.