MyCardBlog

Today I received an email from one of my readers asking about the free credit report stuff. He seems to order a “free” credit report from FreeCreditReport.Com after he watched the ad in the TV. Then he realized that he was billed $14.95 per month. Yes, it’s not free! If you google with “freecreditreport.com”, you can see a lot of ripoff reports about freecreditreport.com. Be careful then!

I have seen a lot of commercials from FreeCreditReport.Com including the popular commercial Dream Girl. However, the truth is FreeCreditReport.Com is not free! Don’t be fooled! The only website you can get your free credit report is AnnualCreditReport.Com which is supported by the federal government.

Here I put some of the famous commercials by FreeCreditReport.Com together. I don’t want them to fool people again.

This one is not!!!

Sovereign Bank is running sign-up bonus for opening a personal checking account or business checking account there.

$75 bonus for opening a Free Interest Checking Account:

• No monthly maintenance fee
• No minimum balance requirement
• Free Online Banking with BillPay
• ¼% rate discount on secured consumer loans and lines of credit^*
• No fee to use other banks’ ATMs in the U.S.
• No-annual-fee Gold Visa^® CheckCard
• Free Graystone-style checks
• Access to 2,300 Sovereign ATMs and 750 Community Banking Offices

How to get the $75 bonus?

• Open your account with a $100 minimum deposit
• Request a Gold Visa CheckCard
• Set up and receive direct deposit within the first 60 days

$300 bonus for opening a Business Owner Banking Account:

• No monthly maintenance fees
• No minimum balance requirements
• 300 basic transactions^**
• Free cash deposit processing
• 1½% discount on regular business loan rates
• More personal attention

How to get the bonus?

• Open a Free Business Checking account
  with a $500 minimum deposit
• Request a Sovereign Business Visa^® CheckCard
• Open a Business Owner Premier account
• Reach your relationship balance

Sometimes the bankers will need you to present your business license in order to open a business account for you. Sometimes you can tell them that you’re a solo proprietor and want to use your SSN as ITN. It seems it’s easier to get a business card than to open a business checking account. (check out how to apply for a business card)

Actually, Sovereign Bank is also offering $150 bonus for opening a Premier Checking Account. However, this account requires you to maintain at least $15,000 balance at Sovereign Bank. Details can be found here.

All of the promotions end on May 30, 2008.

Robber leaves resume……..Are you kidding me?

My post—”my favorite rewards credit cards” has already told you guys how I use my credit cards in a combination manner. Yes, in this way, I can get myself rewarded for using my credit cards to a maximum degree. These days I notice another useful information for National City Everyday Rewards Cardholders. If you use your National City Everyday Rewards Card at Wal-Mart or other supermarkets, the spending will be counted as “Groceries”. Yes, it’s true! The expense category is “Groceries” and it will give you 2% cash back for using this card at Wal-Mart or other supermarkets. If you don’t have a Household Bank or Orchard Bank 2% cash back card, this maybe a good choice for you. National City is accepting online application now.

OK, let’s go to today’s topic—how to manage your credit cards?

My rule for credit card usage is:

• Use a credit card for every expense whenever or wherever you can.
• Only charge as much as you can pay off every month—never carry a balance on your credit cards.
• Try your best to get a rewards credit card—I know sometimes it’s hard to get a perfect one but keep trying.
• Take the every opportunities as you can to get some free money—get yourself rewarded for having a good credit history!

Many people indicate that you can easily go crazy spending money by using credit cards. Because when you are using that piece of plastic, you are not feeling that you’re using your money. Yes, it won’t touch your money at your checking or savings account right away. But, finally, you have to write a check to credit card company otherwise you will be charged for a high interest rate. So, when you use it, you can tell yourself that you have to pay the money back to the credit card company. If you can’t pay off the balance every month, you have to pay the interest which is typically around 18% APR. Actually, credit card companies try to intrigue you to charge everything on your credit cards and hope you will not be able to pay off all the balance. In this way, they can get more profits other than some transaction fees. Don’t carry balance on your credit cards is always the top 1 tip for every debit management expert.

Get rewarded for using your credit cards is a sweet thing. If you pay your bills using check or money orders, you get nothing back. But, if you use you Chase Freedom Card to pay your cell phone bills or cable bills, you can get 3% cash back. Or if you use the SimplyCash Card from American Express, you can get 5% cash back. So why not get a plastic to pay for the bills online? You can also save the money for stamps.

When you’re using a credit card, you have to remember that use your plastics wisely can bring some profits for you. If you have a very high FICO credit score, you chance to get a new credit card is very high. When there’s a sign-up bonus opportunity, you can’t let it go. Because it’s the reward for maintaining a good credit score. You can always check “MyCardBlog” for updated sign-up opportunities. Warn: If you’re gonna purchase a mortgage in two years, please forget about this. A hard pull on your credit report might give you a 0.5% difference on your mortgage rate which will cost your hundreds of dollars. If you don’t have such a plan, then just go ahead. Hard pulls mean nothing to you! (Of course, there’s a trick to bump all of your hard pulls from your TransUnion and Equifax credit report.)

I have a special page for credit card sign-up bonus where you can find a complete list of credit cards which will offer you a certain amount of sign-up bonus. I hope this list will be helpful for those App-O-Rama planners. Today I think it’s necessary to keep a tidy list of credit cards with some fulfillment requirements. The aim is to keep you updated with sign-up bonus offers. There are two main requirements for a specific credit card entering in this list: minimum $50 sign-up bonus and must be a mainstream brand like American Express, Discover, Citi, Chase, BOA, etc. Thus all the credit cards on this list are available to everyone.

All the credit cards are listed in order of value and I will try my best to keep this list updated in a monthly manner. Basically, I assume 100 points/miles=$1. Because you can always redeem your points or miles for certain gift cards.

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Considering the oil prices are still rocketing high, it’s necessary to get a nice gas card to save more on gasoline. (The national gas temperature map can be found here.) A high-rewarding gas card can save you at least average $100 per year on gas purchases for an American Family. Here are some recommendations for your reference. All of them are annual fee-free.

American Express SimplyCash^SM Business Card (★★★★★) You can absolutely get 5% (3% NOW) cash back at all of the gas pumps without any limit. The cash back will be credited to your account every month. You don’t have to wait until you get enough rewards amount like other cards. Plus you can get 5% cash back at office supplies and wireless services. This is a business card. (Want to know how to apply for a business card? Check it out here.) The usage of this card will not report on your personal credit report.

Discover® Open Road^SM Card (★★★★★) You can get 5% cash back at all of the gas stations with your first $100 every month. If you spend $150 every month on gasoline, you can get 5% cash back on the first $100 and 0.5% from the remaining $50. If your monthly gasoline consumption is less than $100, this would be a nice card for you. You can also get 5% cash back for changing engine oils, car washing services and other auto maintenance. That’s why this card is high recommended.

Chase BP Visa® Rewards Card (★★★★☆) You can get 10% cash back for any gasoline purchases made at BP gas stations in the first 2 months. And after that, you can continue to get 5% cash back at any BP gas station. If there are many BP gas stations in your area, this is a nice card for you. Another reason why I recommend this card is you can easily get this card from Chase. The drawback is you can only get 5% cash back at BP gas stations.

TrueEarnings® Business card from Costco and American Express (★★★★☆) You can get 5% for purchases of automobile gas (effective December 01, 2007, any individual Purchase transaction in excess of 75 gallons or equivalent dollar value will not be deemed to be a Purchase of automobile gasoline) at Costco Gasoline and domestic stand-alone gas stations, excluding gas purchased at warehouse clubs other than Costco, superstores or supermarkets. For example, if you fill your tank at Wal-Mart gas stations, you can’t get 5% cash back. But you can get 5% cash back at BP or Shell gas stations. You can get 3% cash back at restaurants and 2% cash back for traveling.

Chase PerfectCard™ MasterCard® (★★★★☆) You can get 6% cash back on gasoline purchases for the first 90 days. After that you can only get 3% cash back.

Of course, there are many other store branded gas cards like CITGO, ExxonMobil and Phillips66 card from many credit card issuers. You can find out more at their websites.

Chase Sony Card is really a hot card right now. This card just finished the promotion which will give 10,000 bonus points to their card members for spending $500 in a month. Today I just received another email from Chase Sony Card about the new promotion.

From April 1 through June 30, 2008, simply use your Sony Card to make at least three payments on any of the following bills:
• Telephone
• Insurance
• Internet Service Provider
• Utilities
• Cable/Satellite TV
• Wireless

So how to get the bonus?

1. Visit www.chasebillmanager.com to locate and contact the companies that bill you

2. Pay your bill with your Chase Sony Card

3. Get $75 when you make at least three qualifying payments from April 1 through June 30, 2008

There are two ways to pay your bills. You can make a single payment by using Chase Sony Card or set up automatic payment in your merchant account. I believe most of us will not use the Chase Sony Card to pay bills all the time. I suggest you guys use the “single payment” method. For example, I’m using Chase Freedom Card which will give me 3% cash back to pay my cable and wireless bills. In order to get the $75 bonus, I will use the “single payment” method to pay my wireless and cable bills for a while and then switch to use my Chase Freedom Card again.

Fine print:

This $75 statement credit will be awarded for 3 bill pay transactions from April 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008 at any of the eligible merchants assigned to one of the following merchant category codes: Telecom (4812, 4814), Pay TV/ISP (4899, 4816), Insurance (5960, 6300), Utilities/Fuel (4900, 5983). Transactions processed by a merchant that does not process transactions under the codes will not qualify for this offer. When you qualify for this statement credit, it will be reflected on your monthly credit card statement 8-10 weeks following the last calendar day of the promotional period. Only one $75 statement credit will be awarded for this offer.

In order to confirm this offer, I called Sony card customer service. I was assured that it’s a valid offer and all you have to do is make 3 eligible payments. When I asked him whether this is only for targeted customers or for everyone, he gave a vague reply. (It’s really bad!) If you haven’t received the promotion offer, please just wait. Based on my experience, I believe this is kind of “for everyone” offer.

I think the Chase “Picks Up The Tab” is another promotion that Chase Check Card holders can take advantage of. Chase first launched this promotion in the November and December of 2007. At that time, Chase expected that this promotion will make an estimated 50,000 purchase free for Chase check card customers. What’s “Picks Up The Tab”? Briefly, “Picks Up The Tab” means Chase will pick up the cost for every 500th check card purchase made without using a PIN up to $500. Obviously, our 10 million Chase check card members have to enroll in the program and make purchases without using a PIN.

This time Chase lowered the maximum amount that they will cover from $500 to $200. The odd is still 1 in every 500. The promotion will last from 04/01/08 to 06/30/08. During this time, if you are lucky to be the 500th purchase made using Chase Check Card without putting the PIN, Chase will pay the bill for you! At the same time, if you have already enrolled in the other Chase Check Card Promotion, you can take advantage of the “500th free” promotion. Because in order to get the bonus, you have to use the check card to make qualifying purchases. What’s more, the official rules for both promotion are essentially the same. You can get both promotions working on the same check card!

To enroll in this program, click here.