MyCardBlog

When I put a post about getting a free $20 gift card by taking a survey from American Express OPEN B2B Supplier Directory, most of us may doubt whether or not American Express will keep the promise. (No invitation code needed!) Actually, when we finished the survey, we all got the message that we will receive the gift certificate in 45 days. I believe most of us got the email titled “Here’s your Amazon Gift Code from OPEN” from American Express yesterday. It’s really a big surprise! It’s a pity that they are not offering gift cards any more although the survey is still available.

The American Express OPEN B2B Supplier Directory is a tool for finding suppliers that accept American Express Card. It’s still in beta version right now. Will they offer gift cards to take another survey about the B2B Supplier Directory? I hope so.

Just received an email from Chase about the promotion will be launched on November 22, 2007. From November 22, 2007 to December 31, 2007, you can get up to $75 cash back by using Chase Visa Check Card. When you make $250 in qualifying purchases, you can get $10 cash back. When you make $500 in qualifying purchases, you can get $25 cash back. When you make $1,000 in qualifying purchases, you can get $75 cash back. Qualifying purchases made with your Chase Check Card that earn cash back include signature-authorized and contactless check card payment authorized through Visa processing system. If you use your PIN to make purchases, the amount charged on your check card is not qualified. (You should use it as a credit card. You can ask the cashier to charge it as credit card at checkout.) ATM transactions are also not qualified. Of course, purchases made online are qualified. Because you have no way to put your PIN online.

The following holiday-related merchant categories that are valid for this promotion include: Department Stores, Miscellaneous Specialty Retail Stores, Discount Stores, Other Direct Marketers, Sporting Goods Stores, Gifts, Cards, Novelty Stores, Women’s Ready-to-Wear Stores, Family Clothing Stores, Catalog Merchant Stores, Shoe Stores, Jewelry Stores, Men’s/Women’s Clothing Stores, Miscellaneous Apparel/Access Stores, Women’s Access/Specialty Stores, Miscellaneous General Merchandise Stores, Hobby, Toy and Game Stores, Sports/Riding Apparel Stores, Children’s/Infants’ Wear Stores, Men’s/Boys’ Clothing/Access Stores, Record Stores, Combination Catalog and Retail Stores, Miscellaneous Specialty Retail, Book Stores, Electronics Stores, Stationery Stores, Variety Stores and other categories as deemed holiday-related at the discretion of Chase.

You can register your Chase Check Card at www.chaseholidaycash.com and use it from November 22, 2007. (By the way, I’m still waiting for the $50 bonus for spending $500.)

The big shopping season is coming. Most of credit card issuers have launched their promotions. For example, discover is offering $20 cash back for every $200 in purchases made with discover card (this post). Citi Dividend MasterCard is offering 5% cash back for purchases made at department, electronics and apparel stores for 3 months (this post). American Express offers to double your rewards points (post 1 and post 2). Furthermore, they are offering buy 5 gift cards get 1 $25 Gadget Lover’s card free (this post).

This morning I received an email (got the mail in the evening) from Chase for my Chase Freedom Card. The Chase Rewards Plus+ is following the other credit card issuers to join the promotion campaign. The offers are very attractive. They offer cash back and most offers will expire on 12/31/2007.

Some featured merchants:

Circuit City 4% Target 7% Sears 5% JCPenney 5% OverStocks.Com 5% Walmart.Com 3% OfficeDepot 4% Staples 3% Dell Home 3% Newegg.Com 2% Toshiba 2% Buy.Com 2% OfficeMax 3% Apple 2% GNC.Com 6%

In order to see whether the price will change or not, I made a simple comparison. I found that the price of Apple iPod Touch is same as the one we can see directly from Target.com ($299.99)

If you have a Chase Freedom Card, you are eligible to register your Freedom Card through www.chase.com/rewardsplus. If you don’t have one, you might take the chance to get one. They are offering $100 cash bonus now. For more details, please login your account and find out more deals. Good luck!

Great news from Citi Dividend Card!!! When you enter your Citi Dividend Card account, click “more offers”, then you will see the banner “Earn 5% Cash Back”.

As a valued Citi Dividend cardmember, you can earn 5% Cash Back on purchases made at Department, Electronics and Apparel Stores with your Citi Dividend Card for 3 months once you activate this offer.

Offer is valid for 3 months from the time you activate this offer on eligible purchases. Please note that it may take up to 2 business days from when you activate your offer to start earning bonus cash back. It may take one to three billing statements for your bonus cash back to post to your card account after the promotion ends.

If you have a Citi Dividend Card, you should login your account and activate this promotion.

American Express is offering a great promotion right now. If you buy 5 gift cards in one order at www.americanexpress.com/gift, you can get a complimentary American Express branded gadget lover’s card worth $25 by mail-in rebate!

Gift Card (total): 5*$25=$125.00;

Activation Fees: 5*$3.95=$19.50;

Shipping: $5.95;

Promotion Discount: $19.50;

Total: $130.95

In order to get the activation fees waived, you should use promotion code: HOLIDAY07 and use your american express card to place the order.

So you pay $130.95 for $125+$25=$150.00. It seems you can get 12.70% off on everything by using the gift cards purchased from American Express. We might all remember that they offered buy two get one promotion (see this post) last time. However, considering they have deducted the activation fees, this is still a good deal.

The Gadget Lover’s card can be used at some selected electronic merchant locations lick circuit city, bestbuy, staples and so on. You can locate the retailers here at www.electronicpoints.com. This card is valid for only 3 months. Offer is limited to 1 redemption per household or address (you may find out a way to get more.) Promotion duration is from 11/07/2007 to 12/31/2007. Remember: purchases of personalized or customizable gift cards are not eligible for redemption. You must have to choose from the current gift cards from americanexpress.com. You can find the rebate form here. Good luck!

According to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter, one in three Americans use Visa or MasterCard debit cards last year, up from 17% in 2000. Meanwhile, regarding to credit cards, the numbers have gone down to 73% in 2006 from 82% in 2000. Debit cards are still very popular with those who have not good credit. Capital One is testing a new kind of debit card which is supposed to change how banks and consumers approach debit cards.

The innovative idea of this card is: It can be linked to any bank account and used for purchases and ATM withdrawals. Most importantly, this kind of new card will give you rewards for using it to make purchases. The new Capital One MasterCard debit card will offer rewards nearly as generous as those consumers can get from their credit cards. There are two types of rewards: points, miles or cash back. Of course, there will be no fees associated with this card from CapitalOne unless the bank imposes its own fees.

According to the industry experts, this new debit card will be two to five times superior to the rewards you get with any other debit cards.

Only 20% of debit-card spending was on rewards debit cards in 2006, according to Aite Group. However, 84% of credit-card purchases will be placed on rewards credit cards as estimated by Aite Group (an industry research company). We might expect that this new debit card will bring more new debit card users. Especially for those can’t get a credit card.

Basics of Capital One MasterCard Debit Card

This card can be linked to any existing checking account and used for purchase and ATM withdrawals. You can select which bank account the card should pull money from, and you can change your selection as your needs evolve. This is great!

No fees associated with this card from Capital One unless the bank that manages the checking account imposes its own fees.

If the card is stolen or fraudulently used, cardholders should contact Capital One. Capital One will reimburse the fraudulent charges to the linked checking account within a day.

Capital One will offer a variety of co-branded cards issued in partnerships with retailers and card users will earn bonus points for shopping at these retailers; rewards will be redeemable for gift certificates at those retailers. You can also earn rewards as what you can get from credit cards issued by Capital One.

Here are some credit cards with $100 (cash or gift card) as sign-up bonus. Miles cards are excluded since we can’t redeem them as gift cards or cash. As you might have seen from the previous earning reports from David and Linglin, these sign-up bonuses are really great offers.They have brought XXX free buffets for me. Some of them also have great benefits. Next time, you might have to refer this post before you apply for a new credit card.

Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express: 10,000 bonus points can be redeemed as free stays at Starwood hotels (2,000 minimum points for a night stay.); or you can redeem them as $100 store gift cards. Although they increase the annual fee from $30 to $45, I am still using this card a lot. (No annual fee for the first year.) Furthermore, you can transfer the Starpoints to AA mileages or UA mileages. When you want to transfer the Starpoints to mileages, you will get extra mileage bonus. It’s a great card! I hope this card will bring some free stays in the future. You might also be interested in business version.

Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network: 10,000 ThankYou Points after $250 in purchases, redeemable for a$100 gift card. Like Chase Freedom, this card gives you 3% back at restaurants, gas stations, card rentals and certain office suppliers. This is really good. However, you might need good credit history to get this card. There is a trick to get $150! When you enter the application page, you can click the backward button to quit the application page. Then there is a small window pop up to let you get extra 5,000 ThankYou Points. In this way, you can get 15,000 ThankYou points! You must enter the application page through citicards.com. Otherwise, the window will not appear. This is the best sign-up offer we can get right now.

Citi Platinum American Express Card: You will get 15,000 ThankYou Points after $300 spending with this card. First year annual fee is waived! Most importantly, you can get 5 ThankYou Points at supermarkets, drug stores, and gas stations. You can keep this card for one year. During this time, this is a great card.

Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level: You can get 20,000 ThankYou points which can be redeemed as $200 gift cards. However, you have to pay $75 annual fee. This card comes with no pre-set spending limit.

Citi PremierPass Card: This is not an Elite Level card. There is no annual fee associated with this card. You will get 10,000 ThankYou Points after $100 purchase. You can also get 0% APR on balance transfer up to 15 months. The great benefit you can get from this card is you can match the miles you flied to redeem they for ThankYou Points. This is great!

There are other American Express version PremierPass cards. You can find out at the citicards.com. Also CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Point is also providing 10,000 ThankYou Points as sign-up bonus. (No annual fee!)

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card: You will get 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after first purchase. After the $250 Business Gold Rewards Card has gone, this is the only gold card offers great sign-up offer.

Chase Freedom: Although they offer $50 sign-up bonus at chase.com, there is a $100 sign-up offer if you follow this link. Chase Freedom is my favorite card right now.

Maybe I will miss some great cards. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. At the same time, before you apply for a credit card, please read this great post.

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 Indian 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.