Universal Savings Bank F.A. - Free Dell laptop with a Visa card and $5K balance

Note that I am NOT recommending this offer; I simply thought it was an interesting reality check instance -- a Dell laptop (they assert it's an $850 value elsewhere on the site, but Dell is offering the model -- Inspiron B130 -- for $485 and up at the moment) as an incentive to sign up for a Visa Platinum credit card.  Of course, maintaining a $5K balance ($5K upon opening the account, then $3,500 for the first 18 months, to avoid a $600 one-time fee) on a credit card represents a significant payment stream, but it's one example of how hardware pricing dynamics are opening up new opportunities.

I ran across an ad for this offer in PC World magazine (the dead-tree version), incidentally, not one of my many email spam/junk folders.  The web page asserts they've already "given away" more than 70,000 computers...

Link to Universal Savings Bank F.A. - Free Dell laptop with a Visa card and $5K balance