MyCardBlog

This is not new but Chase is still giving away $200 bonus when you open a Chase Business Checking account. The process is very simple. Take the business related documents with you and open a Chase Business Checking account at any Chase branch. The only requirement is that you must deposit a minimum of $500 or more within 30 days of account opening with funds not currently on deposit with Chase (new money).

However, you have to be aware that like other business accounts, all the Chase Business Checking accounts have fees unless you have a high balance. More details on their Business Checking products can be found at Chase.Com.

I believe most of us may be not aware of the deal just reported at MSN Money. According to the article customers who establish certain money market and checking accounts and perform qualifying banking activities will receive enough ThankYou(R) Points to redeem for up to two round-trip airline tickets, valued at up to $400 each, to anywhere in the continental U.S., with no blackout dates.

Citing its latest consumer research which found that travel is one of the most compelling rewards for people, the banking leader today announces that customers who establish certain money market and checking accounts and perform qualifying banking activities will receive enough ThankYou(R) Points to redeem for up to two round-trip airline tickets, valued at up to $400 each, to anywhere in the continental U.S., with no blackout dates.

What should you do?

From February 25 through March 31, 2008, new and existing Citibank customers can receive ThankYou Points for up to two round-trip airline tickets, from a choice of major airlines, to anywhere in the continental U.S., valued at up to $400 each, with no blackout dates or Saturday night stay required, when they:

1) Deposit $25,000 in a new or existing money market account.
2) Open a new qualifying Citibank checking account with a minimum deposit of $1,000, enroll it in ThankYou Network and make one direct deposit to or two electronic bill payments from the checking account each month for three consecutive months.

I haven’t seen any promotion code or other specific requirement right now. If you want to open a new checking and money market account, please call Citi to make sure that you can get the bonus. Detailed report can be found here.

Several days ago I received a mail from Sony Rewards: Spend $500 between 02/15/2008 and 03/31/2008 and get 10,000 bonus Sony Rewards Points in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.

“Spend $500 on your Sony card between February 15 and March 31, 2008 and get 10,000 Sony Rewards bonus points, in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.” The second part of the offer is “Spend $300 from April 1 to June 30, 2008 and get a free companion airline ticket voucher with purchase of an adult round-trip ticket.” The bonus points will be posted in 4~12 weeks after 31 March.

I don’t know whether this is a targeted offer or not. I haven’t use this card for a long long time. There is no promotion code you can find in the mail. But I think the link may be helpful to any sony cardmember. If you have an account at SonyRewards, you can click login. If you haven’t registered your sony card yet, click register to finish the registration process. But what I would tell you is after login sony rewards, you still don’t know anything about this offer. My suggestion is make the purchases according to promotion and save the necessary proofs in case you might need them. Anyway, I will give it a try. if you can’t get the bonus points, your loss would be $500*2% cash back=$10. But you can kick Chase/Sony out forever.

I believe a lot of friends have jumped in the promotion from RevolutionMoneyExchange.Com. Now they are offering another service to us—the Revolution Card! RevolutionCard is from the same company that brought you the PayPal competitor RevolutionMoneyExchange.Com

Corporation with Buy.Com, Revolution card is offering $50 off $51 when you apply for this card and use it at Buy.Com. Revolution Card is a new way to make purchases online and aimed to compete with PayPal/Google Check Out. It’s a PIN based credit card which is said to offer great security and ease of use than other payment methods. Or more precisely, it’s a kind of debit/credit hybrid card. A good point is they offer you low interest rates.

What makes RevolutionCard different?

+ Greater security because it’s a PIN-based credit card.
+ Non-embossed card helps protect your identity.
+ No annual fee. No gimmicks.
+ Low APRs with no teaser rates.

You can see the list of merchants that accept RevolutionCard now.

The promotion expires on March 21, 2008. Click here to get more details. I can also expect they will promote rewards programs in the near future to compete with major credit card issuers. Otherwise, I only have one reason to use this card—get $50 from Buy.Com.

Recently HSBC has just releases some banking bonuses (including checking and savings accounts) which are good through 02/29/2008.

$75 bonus for opening an HSBC interest checking account with qualified deposit—Minimum $3,000 initial deposit is required to receive the bonus. This account requires minimum$3,000 daily balance to avoid monthly fees.

$50 bonus for opening an HSBC premium money market plus account—Minimum $3,000 initial deposit is required to receive the bonus. There is no minimum balance required on this account. There is no minimum balance required on this account.

$25 bonus for opening an HSBC regular savings account—Minimum $500 initial deposit is required to receive the bonus. You can choose to open either a regular savings account or a student savings account. In addition, you have to authorize automatic transfer of $10 or more from your HSBC checking account to your HSBC savings account. There is a $100 minimum balance to earn interest on this account.

The bonus will be credited to your account within 6~8 weeks.

How to open an account at HSBC?

You can apply online via the bonus links, visit any HSBC branch or call 866-257-3209 to apply by phone.

A summary of posts in this week:

$50 from Bank of America World MasterCard with World Points

WaMu Savings for Success

$5 from Sears and Ebates

$100 Bonus from TD Ameritrade

Want A Credit Card? — Get The Easiest Ones

The Four Credit Cards That Everyone Should Have

Not all credit card are the same. Many of decent cards come with special cash back and rewards programs that will give you rewards for part of your purchases. However, these cards are designed to give us special rewards in a certain (Obviously, they can’t cover all of them.) A smart way to maximum your rewards is to use your credit cards in a combination way—choose a credit card for a certain category. We can categorize our daily expenditure into 4 categories: Gas and Auto Related, Grocery/Drugstore, Dinning/Entertainment and General Purchases. One credit card in each category is necessary.

1. Gas and Auto Related: Discover Open Road (Student Version is available) : You can get 5% cash back on gas and auto maintenance expenses. You can start to redeem your rewards from $20. The most intriguing part is you can redeem $25 store gift card if you decide not to cash out the $20. If you really need gift cards, the actual rewards is higher than 5%!

American Express SimplyCash Business Card: You can get 5% (3% NOW) cash back at gas stations without any limit. The cash back will be credited into your account automatically every month. Plus you can get 5% cash back on office supplies and wireless services.

BP Visa Rewards Card: You can get 10% cash back at BP pumps in the first 60 days and 5% cash after that. Plus you can get 2% cash back on dinning and travel (4% for the first 60 days). If you use BP a lot, this might be your gas card.

Although there are other credit cards offering about 5% cash back (Chase Perfect Card) on gas for about 12 months, they are not counted in. Because you may want to stick to a credit card to accumulate your rewards as quickly as possible. (see this post)

2. Grocery and Drugstore: Chase Freedom Card: this card will give you 3% cash back in your 3 top spending categories. The 3 categories is chosen automatically from 15 categories.

You can also consider the Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card or Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card. They will give you 5% cash back at supermarkets, drugstores ans gas stations for 12 months.

3. Dinning and Entertainment: Citi Professional Card: 3% cash back on purchases made at restaurants, gas stations, certain office supply merchants, and for auto rentals.

Discover More Card: The 5% cash back categories will change quarterly. You have to register every 3 months in order to get the 5% cash back. If you choose gift cards in stead of cash, you actual earning is higher than 5%!

If you are a college student, the Citi mtvU card is highly recommended! (See this post)

4. General Purchases: An American Express card is highly recommended here! The excellent costumer service and additional warranty make the American Express cards top choice for large purchases like laptops. Suggested American Express Cards: Blue from American Express or Blue Cash from American Express, or you can also think of Starwood Preferred Guest Card which is offering 10,000 bonus points now. The Citi CashReturns Card is also a good choice if you prepare your spending carefully. You can get unlimited 5% cash back on everything for the first 90 days. A check will be mailed to you if you accumulate more than $50 on that card.

I think a list of credit cards that are relatively easy to get will be helpful to those who are with limited credit history or about to build their credit history.

Student cards are usually the easiest to get. The credit card issuers will not ask your annual income and they do not care your credit history—because you’re about to build your credit. However, you must have to be a student. The credit card issuers sometimes may require you to prove them that you are a student (You can fax your transcript.). Some brand credit cards/store cards like: Amazon.Com Visa Card, BP Visa Card, Starwood Preferred Guest Card etc are usually easy to get. The reason behind this is those merchants want to promote their brands. Those cards usually give you better rewards. In this way, they expect you can shop with them more. Another way to earn money, right? For other cards, you need to have limited and clear credit history. For example, if you have a credit card for 6 months and use it smartly (balance/limit ratio is less than 48%). You can probably try Chase Freedom Card. Or you can also consider Blue/Blue Cash from American Express. In order to reach more potential card members, credit card issuers will promote one or two credit cards to their consumers and those cards are usually easy to get.

Student Cards:

Citi mtvU Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students

Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card for College Students

Discover Student Card

Student Visa Platinum Plus from BOA

Consumer Cards:

Blue Cash from American Express

Blue from American Express

Chase Freedom Credit Card

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card

Rewards American Express Card

Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card

Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card

Citi Platinum Select/AAdvantage World MasterCard

Business Cards:

Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network (As far as I know, this is one of the easiest business card to get. If you got approved recently, please let’s know.)

Blue Cash for Business Credit Card (New)

Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card

Discover Business Card (If you have a business, this is easy to get.)

If you don’t know how to apply for business credit cards, you can search on my blog to find out the answers. Don’t worry, just give it a try!