MyCardBlog

I have a post about how to make money from by taking the advantage of sing-up bonuses (click here). However, you will always see “Free checking with direct deposit” or “$100 bonus when you open a new account with direct deposit”. Most of banks require direct deposit if you want to get sign-up bonus. The reason is very simple: banks exactly know the influence of bank account with the rest of your financial life. They hope you can use their other services like mortgages, personal loans, auto loans, student loans and other financial products. They assume that you are too lazy to go to contact your payroll office to have your direct deposit redirected to another bank account. It’s true we don’t want to change our bank account frequently. However, we are not satisfied with merely one bank account. There are so many sing-up bonuses from so many banks. Then an “unofficial payroll office” is a must in order to jump in so many deals. ING and PayPal are most discussed and used direct deposit tools.

According to the definition from electronicpaymnet.org, a direct deposit is simply an electronic transfer of funds to your account. This is usually done by a method known as ACH transfer. Unless a real person is looking at the detail of the ACH transfer, there is no real way to automatically tell if the ACH is a payroll deposit or not. Most of the time a bank will count these non-payroll transfers as a direct deposit, which allows you to avoid service fees and/or collect promotional bonuses based on the use of direct deposit. (For more detailed information please refer to electronicpayment.org.)

After searching on the internet via Google, I summarized some most common banks that count ING or PayPal ACH transfers as direct deposits.

Bank of America (ING, PayPal)

Bank One (ING, PayPal)

Chase (ING)

Citibank (ING, Paypal)

Citizens Bank (ING)

Commerce Bank (ING, Paypal)

Compass Bank (ING)

E-Trade Bank (ING)

HSBC (ING)

PNC Bank (Paypal)

Principal Bank (ING)

SunTrust (ING, PayPal)

USAA (ING)

Wachovia (ING, no PayPal)

Washington Mutual (ING, Paypal)

Wells Fargo (no ING)

You can set direct deposit alert on Chase checking account. If the ACH transfer is counted as direct deposit, they automatically send you an email to confirm that. Of course, the prerequisite is you should set the alert by yourself. Please note that you should never call your bank to verify whether or not ING & PayPal are counted as Direct Deposit.

The words “hard pull” and “soft pull” often pop up when people discuss about credit report, credit history, or credit inquiries. Actually, they are not official terms used by credit experts. Both “Hard pull” and “soft pull” are referred to credit check performed by a third party who wants to check your credit history.

“Hard pull” usually refers to a credit inquiry that is initiated by you, and it does affect your credit score in a short time period. This usually happens when you want to apply for a credit. For example, when you apply for a credit card or a loan or a wireless service, the credit lenders might want to check your credit history based on which they will determine whether or not to approve your requests. Hard pulls are on your credit report and visible to other creditors.

“Soft pull” usually happens when creditors want to send you pre-approved credit applications, or when they want to verify the accuracy of the information you provide. Of course, when you check your own credit history, the inquiries are “soft”. Soft pulls are actually on your credit report but they are only visible by you. So they won’t affect your credit score.

Too many hard pulls on one’s credit report can be harmful, and can result in higher loan or insurance rates. It will be a reason for your creditors to refuse your credit request.

My rule is “I must have at least $100 incentive for each hard pull.”

The following is a list of banks or other kind of credit lenders that DO pull hard credit inquiries.

Ameriprise Insurance (division of American Express) – for car insurance quote

AmTrust for a CD account and Money Market Account

AT&T Wireless

Bank of America for a checking account

Bank of America for a CD account opened online

Bank of America for savings account

Bank of New York for a checking account and a savings account

Brookline Bank for a checking account

Brown & Co. for every account

Charles Schwab Bank for opening new checking and investor account

Charter One Bank for a checking account

Chase Manhattan Bank for a checking account

Cingular Wireless

Citibank for opening a 6-month CD

Citibank for a checking and savings account

Citibank pulls hard inquiry for opening e-Savings account

Comcast cable TV and HIS

Countrywide (stopped pulling sometime in 2007)

Direct TV

Dish Network

Dollar RENT A CAR

Everbank for a Money Market Account, as well as for a checking one

Ebank for a checking account

GMAC Bank for their MM savings account

ING Direct – When you open Electric Orange checking account. No hard pull for opening Orange Savings account.

Johnson & Johnson by Yale & Associates on Experian- for employment purpose

Marquette National Bank — checking, savings, CD and safe deposit box

NASA Federal Credit Union – when applying for membership

National1St Credit Union – When opening an account/CD

Pentagon Federal Credit Union for membership and a new account

Presidential Bank for a checking account

Principal Bank for a checking account, also pulls for money market account

Scottrade for a new account

Sprint for a new line

State Farm Auto Insurance for getting an auto insurance quote

Suntrust for opening of a checking account

T-Mobile for cell phone service

Time Warner Cable for new service

TD Waterhouse/Ameritrade hard pull on an existing customer to open IRA

UFBDirect.com for a High Yield Money Market Saving account

US Bank (online / phone only. soft pull when opening in branch) for a checking/saving account

Verizon for landline, DSL, or VoIP. Also for new cellphone account

Wachovia for opening a checking account

Wells Fargo—whatever you do with them—a hard pull

Banks that DO NOT pull hard credit inquiries.

Chase Bank

Countrywide Bank FSB

FNBO Direct

LaSalle Bank

PNC Bank for opening a free checking account

Washington Mutual

U.S. Bank (in-branch visits only)

CapitalOne high yield Market Money account

There are a lot of articles telling you how to invest with only $100. There is an article at MSN.com says $1 in 1972 will turn into $30 or more around 2000. Yes, it’s true. However, we can’t wait so long. Considering the inflation rate, it’s quite possible that the purchase ability of $30 in 2000 will be less than $1 in 1972. So here I summarize a way to get huge rewards for just only $100. This idea has been in my mind for a long time since I just started writing blog. Of course, it will take you a lot of time to finish this “investing project”.

Note: Only nationwide offers are considered. The financial institutes listed below are always offering sing-up bonuses. So you don’t have to worry about the expiration date. When you are ready for the next step, you’d better google the current bonus before opening a new account.

Open a MyAccess Checking Account at Bank of America and you will get $100 in about 45 days. (If you are lucky enough, you will get $200. I got $200 but I don’t know why.) No direct deposit required, and no monthly fees associated with this account.

Then you will have $200 in hand. You can open a checking account at Wells Fargo and Wachovia. Either of them will give you $50 bonus. The required minimum initial deposit is $100 each. So after 2 month, you will get $300.

The nest step is to open an account at ING? You can get $25 bonus which is available in 30 days.

Ok, right now, you have the “direct deposit machine” to play direct deposit at Chase. Open a Chase Free Checking account with direct deposit with $100 initial deposit. (Use the account at ING to send a small amount to the account monthly.) You will have $100 bonus 30 days later. (If you can find a $125 coupon, you will get $125.)

So you will have $425 at this time. You might want to choose LaSalle to get another $100. This time they require $250 at checking and $100 at saving to qualify for this offer. Present customers are also eligible for this offer as long as you open the account with new money.

Then you will get $525 after you get $100 from LaSalle. You can open a Citi Ultimate Saving Account to get $50 bonus. You can also get $25 from E*Trade Complete Saving Account and Capital One Money Market Account. They both require $1 to get the bonus. So you will have $625 after you get all the bonuses.

Of course, you can get $50 from ShareBuilder with lots of promotion codes available. Considering the commission fees should be deducted, you will get $30 from it. So you can get $655 at this time. You can also participate in the Keep the Change program at BOA which will bring $250 to you in a year.

At last, you can also get $250 potential money by referring your friends to open accounts at ING. Anyway, after the “Investing Project”, you can get as high as $1155! It’s an unbelievable amount!

When I was shopping at Staples.Com this evening, I found a great software for us. Staples is offering Microsoft Money Deluxe 2008 free after rebate. You can see “Special Buy—free after rebate savings.” (click here) It’s a great deal! I strongly recommend Microsoft Money to everyone who cares about their finances. It’s a nice software for you to track all your bank/credit card accounts. It also provides tools to improve your credit. Features are including:

• Designed to manage your personal accounts – banking, credit and investment finances
• Allows you to manage your bills using multiple online accounts
• Includes the tools you need to help improve your financial outlook
• 3 years free technical support

Although we can find a lot of personal finance websites like Mint.com, Yodlee.com, Geezeo.com, Banzai.com and Wesabe.com to manage the account online, we may not trust them a lot. A personal finance tool is a must for us. Microsoft Money is a well known personal finance software developed by Microsoft. Even if you only use it for keeping track of your bank/credit card accounts, it’s worth the money!

A kind reminder: American Express “My Wishlist” will be launched today at 11 am. American Express cards issued by Citi and Bank of America can also participate in “My Wishlist”. For more information please go to www.amexnetwork.com/mywishlist.

American Express is offering gift card promotion at Walgreens! I have two posts about the gift card promotion from American Express (post 1 & post 2). In the December Walgreens Rebate Book, you can find the offer #64 about American Express Gift Card promotion. Buy 2 AMEX gift cards, you can get $10 mail rebate; buy 3 AMEX gift cards, you can get $20 mail rebate. You can click here to see the file.

It seems like this: buy 3*$25 AMEX GC=$75+$11.85 (activation fee for $3.95 each)-$75 AMEX card value-$20 rebate check=-$8.15. If you are willing to take your rebate on a Walgreens gift card, they will give you 10% bonus ($22 value).

Again, where can we use those $25 AMEX GCs? My top choice is gas station. In this way, you don’t have to remember the balance on each card. Of course, AMEX gift cards are accepted wherever American Express is accepted.

Update: Official American Express Gift Card information can be found at www.americanexpress.com/gift.

I have a post about credit cards with $100 bonus (see here). This afternoon I dug out another credit card—Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network. This card will give you 10,000 ThankYou Points after $250 in purchase. The 10,000 bonus points is clearly stated at Citicards.Com. To see this card, please click here. At this page you have two choices—Visa version or MasterCard Version. You can choose whichever you’d like. After click the card type you want, you will enter the application page.

This card also offers 0% APR on purchases. So it’s also a great opportunity to take advantage of the 0% APR on purchases. This might help you to save a certain amount of money.

There are some reasons why you might have to think of getting a business card.

1). Business cards are hidden from your personal credit report. Business cards will not appear on your credit report. Therefore, your credit utilization is lower (The balance on the business cards will not appear on you credit report.) You can maintain a high credit score. In this way, you can still be able to get some great deals.

2). Business cards are generally giving out high credit limit. They are supposed to be used for business purposes.

3). Business cards have great 0% APR offers.

4). Business credit often is not included in the maximum exposure level a credit card issuer will give you. If you can’t get more credits from you personal cards, you may want to try business cards.

5). Business card issuers care less about card utilization but more about the timeliness of payment. It seems that the business credit is viewed in a different manner than is personal credit. It’s often assumed that the usage of your credit card is for you business.

How can you apply for a business card without a real business?

If you don’t have a business and want to apply for a business card for personal use, you can put Solo Proprietorship as the business type and your name as the business title. You can use your personal SSN as ITIN. You can put $0 revenue and 0 years in business. It won’t affect your chance to get a business card (as a start up company). The credit card issuers will pull your personal credit report.

I am thankful that Amazon paid me to get Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse and Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe. (The price is -$24.02 after $80 mail-in rebate from Logitech.)

I am thankful that National City Identity Protect let me b**p all of hard inquiries at TransUnion and Equifax in 3 months.

I am thankful that Bank of America gave me $200 cash bonus for opening MyAccess Checking account there.

I am thankful that Chase approved 2 credit cards in one month for me and the dynamic rewards program from Chase Freedom which allows me to earn more cash back than before. I am also thankful that they send me 2 checks ($20 each) to enroll the Chase Payment Protector Plan. The balance on each card is $0 all the time.

I am thankful that Chase Bank gave me $100 for opening Chase Free Checking account there. (But I’m still waiting for the $50+$50 to be credited soon.)

I am thankful that American Express approved the Starwood Preferred Guest Card which allows me to get up to 5 free nights at SPG hotels in Chicago. I am also thankful that they approved the Blue from American Express for me which offers 0% APR on purchases for up to 15 months.

I am thankful that American Express OPEN for Business offered a free $20 Amazon gift certificate for taking a short survey.

I am thankful that Discover and American Express are still offering super nice services for their cardholders.

I am thankful that AAA saves me a lot of money by switching my auto insurance from State Farm to them. (more than $300!)

I am thankful that Google Adsense and Kontera provides so many advertisers on this blog and allows me to earn some small money.

I am thankful that BestBargainsDaily.Com offers me timely deal information.

I am thankful that CardBenefit.Com offers great benefits for us.

I am especially tankful for all of the support I have received regarding this blog. In the next coming year, I hope I can provide better posts for you all.

I have a post here about the gift card promotion from American Express. After using the promotion code HOLIDAY07 to deduct the activation fees, it’s really nice deal. However, most of you would ask where I can use those gift cards. Of course, a gift card is supposed to be a gift for someone you know. If you want to use the gift cards for yourself, I think the best place to use them is gas station. You can use a $25 gift card every time. It’s very simple. In this way, you don’t have to remember the actual amount left on each card. This is what I’m planning to do. If you have better suggestions, please leave a comment here. (Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.)

OK. I’m going to tell you another promotion from American Express.

As a special promotion to American Express Cardmembers, when you buy or reload a subway card online using your American Express card, you will receive a prepaid movie card from American Express!

If you spend between $25 and $74.99, you will receive an American Express $10 prepaid movie card.

If you spend $75 or more, you will receive an American Express $20 prepaid movie card.

Limited 3 American Express prepaid card per cardmember. This offer expires 01/31/2008. If you frequently go to Subway, you can find more here.