MyCardBlog

You may have already known that cancel a credit card may influence your credit score. However, there are sometimes you just have to do it. For example, the annual fee ($125) is going to be charged on American Express Business Rewards Card, and you don’t want to pay that money. Sometimes you find that that card is no longer profitable for you and you want to get another wonderful credit card. You may say this will affect my credit score and I don’t want to try. Ok. The most important things for your credit score is the credit utilization and credit history. If you are not cancelling your first credit card, it won’t hurt you. If you have huge credit limit, it will also be Ok for you credit score. Of course, you have to make a choice by yourself. Here are some tips on how to make your cancelling process profitable.

1). Combine with other existing credit cards.
You can choose to combine the credit card with another credit card from the sane issuer. You can call them up and ask for “moving” the credit limit from this card to another credit card. This approach is very useful for most credit card companies. However, sometimes some ristrcitions may be applied. Sometimes the CSR might give you wrong answers. So if one CSR tells you that he/she can’t do that, just hang up and go for another call. I think it works for most issuers.

2). Switch to another credit card.
If you want to avoid the annual fee of a certain credit card, you can choose to switch this card to another no annual fee card or a card with lower annual fee. It’s especially useful for Citi PP-Elite and Citi PP card. You can get more sign-up bonus from the Elite level card, and waive the annual fee for switching to non-Elite card. You can earn simliar miles for both cards. This approach is also useful for Citi AA series cards.

3). Get bonus for staying.
I have the experience. When I called Chase to close Chase Freedom card, they gave me $10 to stay with that card and transfer credit limit from another card. Usually, when you called to cancel your credit card, you will be transferred to a person who is specially trained to handle this problem. They may give you some incentives to stay with that card. But remeber, don’t get angery. Stay calm and talk to the person kindly. The goal of that person is trying to get you stay with them. You can make profits for them! I hope you can get bonus for staying with them.

When you are ready to cancel a credit card, make sure you have a plan to deal with the credit card company. If you have any experience with this , please feel free to make a comment.

Many friends have got emails from Chase which indicate that they will recieve $5 statement credit when you enroll a credit card account in the paperless statement service between 10/01 and 10/31. To receive the credit, you must stay enrollment until 11/30/2007. You can go through the following link to get enrolled or call the number at the back of your chase credit card and mention “Chase Library Code: OCT2007PPLS“.
Others claim that their emails state that they can get $10 for enrolling paperless statement service. Please check your emails.

We all have known the chase banking bonus—$100 with direct deposit. Here I want to provide another offer from Chase–earn miles from Chase checking account. You can earn 10,000 Continetal bonus miles for opening a chase checking account with direct deposit. If you choose to accept the Chase Continental Airlines Preferred Banking Card for a $65 annual fee, you can get 7,500 bonus miles more. Of course you can choose to get the Chase Continental Airlines Banking Card for only $25 annual fee and get 2,500 bonus miles. If you need Continetal miles, I think it’s really a good deal. you can combine the miles from credit card. With your first purchase, you can get 20,000 bonus miles from Continental Airlines World MasterCard. So how many miles can you get from Chase? If you want to earn 4,000 miles more,please check about KeyBank. The keymiles debit card will give you 4,000 bonues miles.

Here is a tip: when you open the checking account, choose the Preferred Banking Card and don’t use it. Cancel that card in 3 months and you can get the refund of the annual fee. Hmm… you can get 37,500 miles or 32,500 miles from Chase. It’s a good deal. The deal will expire on Dec 31, 2007. It’s useful for those who don’t have time to open a checking account to get $100. For checking account, click here and choose “learn more”, then you can print the coupon. Each time when you click “learn more”, you will getdifferent coupon code. For credit card, see here or see my previous post on mileagerewards card.

According to the report of CNN.COM, Shell Oil Products US (SOPUS) will launch a new credit card incentive and marketing campaign October 1, 2007 to raise awareness among consumers about the benefits of using the Shell Platinum MasterCard, with the objectives of boosting the number of active cardholders and increasing the loyalty of customers to Shell. Benefits of the promotion can be summerized as follows: (good for customers open an account during Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2007)
1). 5% rebate on all Shell gasoline purchases;
2). 5% rebate for 60 days on the first $2,000 in purchases everywhere else—up to $100 rebate;
3). 0% APR on balance transfer for 6 months without any transaction fees;
After 60 days, you will get
1). 5% rebate on all Shell gasoline purchases;
2). 1% rebate on other purchases;
3). Rebates are credited to your statement automatically against future Shell gasoline purchases with this card;
4). No annual fee for the first year, and annual fee will be waived if you make 9 purchases at Shell gasoline pumps.
There are three easy ways to apply for the Shell Platinum MasterCard anytime during the year: Visit your nearest Shell station to pick up an application, log onto http://www.877MYSHELL.com or call 1-877-My-Shell.
As I said in the previous posts, the credit card market is extremely competitive. If you can take the chance, you can get a credit card which maybe hard for you during normal situations.
I think this is especially useful information for those just bought a new card and want to save money on the pumps.
Please also refer to my post about gas card.