Owner: Credit Card & Bank URL:www.mycardblog.com Join Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:01:37 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This is a blog about credit cards and banking deals. At the same time, this blog tells its readers about the credit information. Site statistics:Click here
$20 Discover Gift Card for every $200 2007-10-28 19:08:22 I just got the information about the Discover
Card promotion with shopping malls in US. It seems Discover does this promotion every
year. The promotion is quite simple.
Get a $20 discover gift card for every $200 in purchases made with your discover card at participating shopping center between 11/1/2007 and 12/31/2007. You have to present your original receipt to the shopping center customer service or discover card booth. They will give you a $20 discover gift card and put a stamp on your receipt. Remember you don’t have to put the receipt there. You can still keep it. So maybe you can return the stuffs to the stores and make $20. However, you can only get maximum 5 gift cards. It seems Discover is going to warm up the shopping season now. For details about this promotion, please see here.
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Which Store Card Give You Best Resale Value? 2007-10-28 02:07:51 This afternoon an idea suddenly came into my mind. Which gift card would give you best resale value? Since we have a lot of Membership rewards points from AMEX, Thankyou points from Citi and world points from BOA, we might use those points to redeem some store cards. Then here comes a problem. Which card will give you best value? Believe me, different gift cards will have different real values. (I suppose you want to sell the gift cards at ebay for cash.)
Then I did a little search at ebay. I took 5 recently completed auctions for each popular gift card, like Home Depot, Target, Best Buy, Staples, Amazon, GAP etc. I then counted in about 5% eBay auction fees and then calculated the net resale percentage (shipping was not counted) according to the following equation:
(Ending Bid x 95%) / Face Value
= Estimated Resale
%
Even with only 5 data points per store, it will give us a hint.
We all might have known that Amazon.com gift card has the highest resale value. Because you can easily red Read more:Store
Which Rewards do You Prefer? 2007-10-26 22:32:52 These days we all have some rewards card on hand. SO which kind of rewards do you prefer? Cashback? Air miles? Hotel points? Automatic Rebates or Discount? According to the survey conducted by cardtrak based on an online poll of 1,000 people, about 56% of consumers prefer cash back on their credit cars, while 23% said they favored air miles. About 12% preferred points and only 9% selected automatic rebates or discounts as their favorite rewards. Nearly all general purpose credit cards offer some type of rewards nowadays. According to a credit card website, the number of reward credit cards in the US has grown from 290 million in 2002 to 500 million in 2006. For card issuers, the rewards programs will pay an important role on how their consumers use their credit cards. For example, HSBC is a newbie in credit card market. However, we can see the number of their card holders are increasing in the past few months. Their 2% reward cards issued by Household Bank and Orchard Bank are really Read more:Prefer
, Rewards
Credit Card Success—Choose the Right Card for You 2007-10-25 23:10:15 Today I came across an article from USA Today that tells you how to manage the useage of your credit cards. The best suggestion is “Still, choosing the card that best suits your borrowing habits can improve your credit card experience.”
Choosing a credit card that best suits your borrowing habits can help you maximize the rewards you can earn from credit card. At the same time, a good performance from the revolving accounts would help us boost our credit score. The potential benefits of this is we can get low rate car loan and mortgage. Of course, the by product is—App-O-Rama—free tickets, free stuffs and cash.
Choose the right credit cards and maximize your earning/rewards from credit cards. I was surprised to see that my cashback from my Chase Freedom card this month is $4.8. Considering my spending on that card is only $178, I’m prerry happy to have this card for my daily use. I got the HH 2% card this at the end of this June. And I have got $25 from Read more:Credit Card
, Right
, Success
Trick on AMEX Credit Limit Increase 2007-10-24 22:06:44 I’m writing this post for AMEX card holders. In fact, American Express is very generous on credit limit compared to other credit card issuers. There are a great number of reports saying they can get huge credit limit from American Express through online credit limit increase. Note that the credit limit increase process is a soft pull (also see here). It’s OK to get a try the online credit limit increase.
I personally have two American Express Cards—Blue from American Express and Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express. I did the credit limit increase after I had this card for only one week. The credit limit on my Blue card was $2,000, and now it’s $8,100. Considering my limited credit history, I am pretty satisfied with the number. The process is very simple. The only information asked is the credit limit you’d like to have and household income. This process applied both to personal cards and business cards. As I said, this process also applie Read more:Limit
, Trick
$50 for Chase Check Card 2007-10-24 02:53:12 I noticed the promotion several days ago. And I have a post about this promotion here. However, at that time, I was unable to get the promotion code to register my check card. According to the talk with Chase CSR, the promotion is targeted at those who didn’t use their check card for 3 months. However, this night I randomly put 2356325 as the promotion code, and my card was registered! Amazing! Then I also tried with 1234567 to see whether this will work or not. Guess what? You Chase Visa Check
Card is registered to earn $50! SO my guess is you cna put in every 7 digit numbers to register your check card. Go ahead and try you luck!
To qualify for this offer, you have to make 15 signature based purchases from Oct 1st to Dec 15, 2007. Remember you can’t enter PIN when you check out, that won’t be considered as signature based purchase. To register your check card, please click here.
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First Credit Card 2007-10-23 21:22:12 When I was search on web to find out some interesting articles about credit card, I came across the the story about the first credit card. I think this would be a very interesting topic for my friends. Although we are using credit cards daily, we might not be aware how the first credit card came from. In the early 1900, people were using cash to pay for everything. Although we could see the increase in individual store credit accounts, a credit card could be used at more than one store was not invented until 1950. It all started when Frank X. McNamara went out to have supper with his two friends.
In 1949, Frank (head of the Hamilton Credit Corporation) were eating with his two friends at Major’s Cabin Grill, a famous New York restaurant located next to the Empire State Building, to discuss a problem customer of the Hamilton Credit Corporation. The problem was that the customer borrowed money from the corporation couldn’t be able to pay the money back. The problem came wh Read more:First
5% Cashback Card 2007-10-22 23:21:08 Below you will find a comprehensive list of credit cards with 5% rewards in specific purchase categories. If you want to find a great card, this post will be helpful for you. Please refer to the credit card issuers for more detailed information.
Bonus: bonus for new applicants—sign-up bonus
Rewards Limit: reward cap each year
Redeem For: rewards options which can be redeemed for GCs
AMEX Blue Cash
Bonus: none! Redeem For: cash.
You can earn 5% after your first $6,500 in total spending each year. If you use credit card a lot, e.g. use it to pay your rent, or mortgage, this would be your best card. After your initial $6,500 in spending per year, you can get 5% cash back on everyday purchase. Besides, you can also earn 1.5% on every other purchase.
Hilton HHonors Platinum AMEX
Bonus: 10,000 points. Redeem for: Hilton stays.
The rewards of this card are only valuable toward Hilton hotel stays. However, you can get 5 points for $1 spending at gas, supermarket, drug stores, US post of Read more:Cashback
A Real Case about App-O-Rama 2007-10-21 18:13:20 I would like to thank Shawn, Fei & Decrain for your opinions. Today I searched on the web, and some credit experts indicate that “If you use credit cards instead of cash you will spend 12-18% more. This is money you could have saved.” However, credit cards are very crucial to establish a good credit history which will be very important for us to get a card loan or mortgage in the future. Also here I will show what a good credit history will help us. I have mentioned “App-O-Rama” in my previous post. Here I’m giving out a real case on App-O-Rama from bydalian. This post shows how we can earn free money from banks. As far ad I know, some guys do App-O-Rama with limited 2-year’s credit history. You can also do this if you have a really good credit history. Of course, credit card issuers check your credit report all most every month, so you should be prepared for the adverse consequence—lower your credit limit, increase APR and so on.
Goals: My wife has never been to
Can You Save Money by Using Credit Card? 2007-10-20 22:55:39 These days I was always thinking one problem—”Can we save money by using credi card?” I hate to say that I found at last I paid more than I can save–that’s I can see the money in the checking account is increasing day by day ot month by month! We are always talking about deals from credit card companies—get higher cash back and get sign-up bonus. Yes. It’s great if we can get better cash back and sign-up bonus. However, here comes the problem—are we spending more when we using credit card? We pay whatever we want by credit cards and pay off the balance every month. With credit cards we can afford what we actually coudn’t “afford”. When you check out with “real” money, you can feel the money is “slipping away”. Ans then you would say ” Emmm……I should save some money.” Last Sunday, when I went to Walmart, I noticed that a 26 inch Sharp LCD HDTV is on sale—from $699 t Read more:Money
Extra Money-Promotion with CardBenefit.com 2007-10-29 20:33:39 At first, I’d like to thank CardBenefit.com for offering such a good opportunity to my readers. Usually, they give bonus ($25) for the guy who refers applicants to apply for credit cards through them. The applicant can’t get the $25 cash bonus. However, right now, my friends could get money for applying for credit cards through CardBenefit.com All you have to do is to put my email address as your referral code. (You’re getting the money right now!) You can get $25 for each credit card approval! Here is what to do to get the extra money.
Register with CardBenefit.com (Click “View Earnings” and then click “Register an account “. you just need an email address and password at this step), and then update your profile with your name, address, and phone number (in this way, they can send you money by check). Although the social security number is listed, it’s not required. You don’t have to put in your SSN there. After registration, you can click “View Ear Read more:Extra
, Money
Deals from Drugstore.com 2007-11-07 00:58:34 Drugstore.com is offering $10 off $25 and free shipping when you pay with paypal. (click here) This is a really nice deal from it. I think you can buy some vitamins or other products. Plus if you apply Blue from American Express from Drugstore.com, you can get a $50 off coupon from Drugstore. This card gives you 0% APR on purchase for 15 months and a low 4.99% APR for balance transfer for life! More importantly, there’s no transaction fee! It’s a great card if you need cash. (Click here) CVS has a similar promotion; however, they give out $25. Anyway, I think Drugstore.com is offering really nice deals right now.
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American Express My Wishlist Will Come Back Soon 2007-11-05 23:15:43 American Express
will start the “My Wishlist
” promotion on November 28, 2007. My WishList is a program from American Express that offers limited quantities of some of the most sought-after items at incredible Cardmember-only prices, as well as featured products with great savings, and limited-time, limited-supply Wish Certificates. The program runs twice a year: in the spring and during the winter holiday season. It’s our way of saying “thanks” to our Cardmembers. American Express will be giving out HOT PRODUCTS, FEATURED PRODUCTS, WISH CERTIFICATE and EXCLUSIVE MERCHANT OFFERS.
Here are ultimate wish giveaways:
Promotion Period #1:
One “JetBlue Airways Private Flight” (“JetBlue Prize”). Total ARV of JetBlue Prize is $171,367.00. This prize includes a roundtrip coach class flight for up to 150 passengers on JetBlue Airways.
Promotion Period #2:
One model year 2008 Volvo C30 Version 2.0 automobile. ARV of Prize Vehicle C30: $29,820.00.
Promotion Period #3:
Read more:American
, American Express
American Express Launched a New Card—Plum Card 2007-11-05 01:35:38 AmericanExpress
OPEN introduced the Plum Card and it’s now open to accept application today! (Today is the first date to accept application!) This card will bring great benefits for business owners. General features are:
pay in full within 10 days of the end of the billing period to receive the early pay discount, or
defer payment up to two months by paying 10% of the balance by the date indicated in the billing statement.
The Plum Card offers cardholders an early pay discount of up to 2% on virtually everything they buy with this card and the ability to defer the payment for up to 60 days. Detlailed card benefits:
Trade Terms
- Early Pay Discount with no caps: Pay the bill in full within 10 days of the billing cycle and receive a 2% discount on new spending when it exceeds $5,000. Any month the charges total $5,000 or less receive a 1% discount for early payment. A credit appears on the following month’s statement; OR
- Defer Pay Option: Take up to two months f Read more:American Express
, Launched
$50 from Wells Fargo Checking 2007-11-04 17:33:32 Wells Fargo
is offering $50 for opening a checking account. TO qualify for this offer, you have to make $100 initial deposit. You will receive the $50 bonus within 30 to 45 days opening. This offer also doen’t require direct deposit. It’s totally free! And you have to open and fund this ccount before Nov. 30, 2007.
Free Checking That’s Really Free — Enjoy no monthly service fees, no minimum balance requirements, and a Wells Fargo® Check Card with no annual card fee.
Free Access To Wells Fargo Online® — Our top-ranked online service lets you view statements, monitor account balances, transfer funds, automatically track your spending, and more — anytime, anywhere you have internet access.
However, a hard pull will be likely to hit your credit report. When you want to apply for this account, please make sure to keep a copy of the offer page. (This reminder applied to all of the offers.) You may want to make more money by using credit card. To apply for this acc Read more:Wells
LaSalle Bank $100 Bonus 2007-11-03 22:32:02 LaSalle Bank is offering $100 for its new customers for opening both checking account and statement saving account. At the same time, you should use the Money Card debit card from Lasalle.
Important disclosure:
The minimum balance to open a checking account to earn the $100 cash bonus is $250. To be eligible for the Bonus
you are required to sign up for a LaSalle Money Card debit card and open a new Statement Savings Account with a $100 minimum opening deposit. You are also required to make a purchase with your Money Card within 60 days of account opening. Bonus will not be considered part of the new checking or savings minimum opening deposit. Bonus will be credited to the savings account within 120 days from the date of account opening provided the stated requirements have been met. Bonus is limited to one per household, may not be combined with any other offer, is not transferable, and may be considered income to you for tax purposes. Offer available for a limited time and is for ne
Easiest $50 to Get 2007-11-03 00:11:29 Wachovia is offering $50 for opening a new checking account with them. It’s really free. No minimum balacnce, no mothly service fee, and no direct deposit required. To qulify for this offer, you must be a new customer and open the account before 01/31/2008 with new $100 funds to wachovia. The offer code is “ATM2″. TO see details please see here. Wachovia is the fourth largest bank in US and ranked 47 in Fortune 500 in 2007. However, there are only 16 states have Wachovia banking center. TO find the locations of Wachovia banking center please see here.
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Update on Citi Credit Protector Promotion 2007-11-10 12:39:04 I have a post about the promotion from Citi Credit Protector. They will send out a free digital picture frame for enrolling the program. According to Amazon.com, the price for that digital picture frame is about $60. Today, I received the welcome package from Citi. I use my Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard to enroll in the program. If you are not using the card very much, I think it’s a really nice deal. The cost is $85 cents for every $100 new balance every month.
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Read more:Update
Freezing Your Credit 2007-11-10 00:58:56 By the end of this year, consumers in all 50 states can have the right to freeze their own credit files in all 3 credit bureaus. A security freeze gives consumers the choice to “freeze” or lock access to their credit file against anyone who may be trying to open up a new account or to get new credit under their name. In this way, an identity thief cannot open a new account. However, if you want to apply for a credit, you have to unlock your credit accounts by using a special PIN number.
Each year, there are millions of Americans suffer from the identity theft. Obviously, consumers’ personal and financial data has become the gold of 21st century. That’s why we witness so many ID thefts in the modern information society. (In set shows the major ID leaks this year.) Freezing
your credit files is the first step which you can do to against the identity theft. The cost is $10 for each credit bureau for a year. Then, if you want to apply for a mortgage, car loan, or credit car
8 Secret Scores That Lenders Keep 2007-11-08 23:24:47 I am always hearing some of my friends complain that they are rejected by credit card issuers even they have 730 FAKO credit score. Actually, credit lenders are not simply tracking your credit score. They have other credit systems to decide whether or not you are a valued customer. Here is what I get from MSN.com. I hope this will be helpful for you guys to get the answers.
From MSN.com
Recently my husband and I received nearly identical balance-transfer offers from our respective Bank of America cards. The offers were identical, that is, except for the rates we’d be given. He was enticed with a 0% rate. Mine was 2.99%.
We live at the same address and share the same income. We both have high credit scores (although his are, annoyingly, a few points higher than mine).
So are these different offers evidence of rampant sexism on BofA’s part? Hardly. The pitches were the result of complex and largely secret scoring systems that most financial institutions use to boost profits w Read more:Lenders
CapitalOne Card Lab 2007-11-07 23:22:46 CapitalOne launched a new website——www.capitalonecardlab.com. According to CapitalOne, this site allows you to choose the credit card offers by fitting the application criteria of CapitalOne. They claim that this is the first America’s “Do-It-Yourself” credit card offer. (Actually we know that HSBC is the first.) However, I think I should write a post about this new website. You might find a great offer from them.
Once you click “Get Started”, you will be beginning the choosing process. According to your credit score, you can choose “Excellent”, “Above Average”, “Needs Improvement”, and “Limited History”. And then, you can choose the from the following card features: “Basic Rewards”, “Additional Rewards”, “Introductory APR on Purchases”, “APR on Balance Transfer”, “Annual Percentage Rate”, and “Annual Fee”. After that, you can choose your card design through 9 beautiful designs. The last step is to review your card features
10 Reasons to Have a Credit Card 2007-11-07 12:13:01 Most of Americans have at least a credit card on hand. Although they are enjoying the benefits that are brought from using credit cards, it seems there are a lot of complains about credit card issuers. Are they really doing very badly? Or just because they can’t reach our consumers’ expectations? Anyway, a credit card is a must for all of us. There are top 10 reasons to have a credit card as I adapted from http://www.0-apr-creditcards.com.
1). Boost Your Credit History and Score
Getting a credit card will help you to establish and improve your credit history, as well as increase your credit score. Your credit score can affect a wide range of payments, and the better your score, the less you will have to pay. A high credit score may mean you pay an interest rate several points lower on a mortgage loan than the rate someone with a poor credit history would pay; this can mean thousands of dollars in savings over the life of the loan.
The same is true with an auto loan. A good credit s Read more:Credit Card
, Reasons
Deals from Drugstore.com 2007-11-07 00:58:34 Drugstore.com is offering $10 off $25 and free shipping when you pay with paypal. (click here) This is a really nice deal from it. I think you can buy some vitamins or other products. Plus if you apply Blue from American Express from Drugstore.com, you can get a $50 off coupon from Drugstore. This card gives you 0% APR on purchase for 15 months and a low 4.99% APR for balance transfer for life! More importantly, there’s no transaction fee! It’s a great card if you need cash. (Click here) CVS has a similar promotion; however, they give out $25. Anyway, I think Drugstore.com is offering really nice deals right now.
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American Express My Wishlist Will Come Back Soon 2007-11-05 23:15:43 American Express
will start the “My Wishlist
” promotion on November 28, 2007. My WishList is a program from American Express that offers limited quantities of some of the most sought-after items at incredible Cardmember-only prices, as well as featured products with great savings, and limited-time, limited-supply Wish Certificates. The program runs twice a year: in the spring and during the winter holiday season. It’s our way of saying “thanks” to our Cardmembers. American Express will be giving out HOT PRODUCTS, FEATURED PRODUCTS, WISH CERTIFICATE and EXCLUSIVE MERCHANT OFFERS.
Here are ultimate wish giveaways:
Promotion Period #1:
One “JetBlue Airways Private Flight” (“JetBlue Prize”). Total ARV of JetBlue Prize is $171,367.00. This prize includes a roundtrip coach class flight for up to 150 passengers on JetBlue Airways.
Promotion Period #2:
One model year 2008 Volvo C30 Version 2.0 automobile. ARV of Prize Vehicle C30: $29,820.00.
Promotion Period #3:
Read more:American
, American Express
American Express Launched a New Card—Plum Card 2007-11-05 01:35:38 AmericanExpress
OPEN introduced the Plum Card and it’s now open to accept application today! (Today is the first date to accept application!) This card will bring great benefits for business owners. General features are:
pay in full within 10 days of the end of the billing period to receive the early pay discount, or
defer payment up to two months by paying 10% of the balance by the date indicated in the billing statement.
The Plum Card offers cardholders an early pay discount of up to 2% on virtually everything they buy with this card and the ability to defer the payment for up to 60 days. Detlailed card benefits:
Trade Terms
- Early Pay Discount with no caps: Pay the bill in full within 10 days of the billing cycle and receive a 2% discount on new spending when it exceeds $5,000. Any month the charges total $5,000 or less receive a 1% discount for early payment. A credit appears on the following month’s statement; OR
- Defer Pay Option: Take up to two months fro Read more:American Express
, Launched
$50 from Wells Fargo Checking 2007-11-04 17:33:32 Wells Fargo
is offering $50 for opening a checking account. TO qualify for this offer, you have to make $100 initial deposit. You will receive the $50 bonus within 30 to 45 days opening. This offer also doen’t require direct deposit. It’s totally free! And you have to open and fund this ccount before Nov. 30, 2007.
Free Checking That’s Really Free — Enjoy no monthly service fees, no minimum balance requirements, and a Wells Fargo® Check Card with no annual card fee.
Free Access To Wells Fargo Online® — Our top-ranked online service lets you view statements, monitor account balances, transfer funds, automatically track your spending, and more — anytime, anywhere you have internet access.
However, a hard pull will be likely to hit your credit report. When you want to apply for this account, please make sure to keep a copy of the offer page. (This reminder applied to all of the offers.) You may want to make more money by using credit card. To apply for this acc Read more:Wells
LaSalle Bank $100 Bonus 2007-11-03 22:32:02 LaSalle Bank is offering $100 for its new customers for opening both checking account and statement saving account. At the same time, you should use the Money Card debit card from Lasalle.
Important disclosure:
The minimum balance to open a checking account to earn the $100 cash bonus is $250. To be eligible for the Bonus
you are required to sign up for a LaSalle Money Card debit card and open a new Statement Savings Account with a $100 minimum opening deposit. You are also required to make a purchase with your Money Card within 60 days of account opening. Bonus will not be considered part of the new checking or savings minimum opening deposit. Bonus will be credited to the savings account within 120 days from the date of account opening provided the stated requirements have been met. Bonus is limited to one per household, may not be combined with any other offer, is not transferable, and may be considered income to you for tax purposes. Offer available for a limited time and is for ne
A Must See Video 2007-11-16 15:00:03
I have complained that even at day time I have to talk to Indian Customer Representatives from Citi. I am not saying that the service from Indinan Customer Representatives is very bad. But it’s true that the quality is not so good. How can the biggest bank in US sell the customer service to India? Will this really lower the cost? Compared to Citi, AMEX and Discover are really good. You can always talk to an American representative who will save a lot of time for you. Chase is also improving their customer service all the time.
The most terrible thing is the Identity Theft is very popular in India. Below is a “must see” video.
YouTube Direktvideo link
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Earning Report from Linglin 2007-11-15 20:20:07 I believe a lot of friends have got money from credit card issuers or major US banks in the form of sign-up bonus. I have disclosed my earning report two days ago. Linglin left a comment at this post. Here she is giving out some more details together with some missed bonuses. As you will find out later, the total earning for her is about $900. (Much more than mine!)
BOA Iowa Card (University of Iowa Worldpoints Platinum Plus Master Credit Card): $250 (have to spend $250 to qualify for this offer, expired now);
Fidelity: $200 (they have found the trick?);
Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card: $100 (You can find a link here in this post to get $100 other than $50 as advertised in the chase.com.);
Citi Ultimate Savings Account: $100;
American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express: 10,000 bonus points can be redeemed as $100 gift card;
ING: $25 sign-up bonus referred by a friend;
HSBC: $75 sign-up bonus for opening a checking account there;
Amboy Premium Saving Account: Read more:Earning
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