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I actually don’t know this offer until one of my colleagues sent me an email about the topic that’s being discussed at slickdeals.net. This “$5 statement credit each day Chase card is used in July” is really tempting. If you use your Chase credit card every day in July, you can get up to $155 statement credit after 6 ~8 weeks. This means you can get a free Starbucks coffee each day in July. Of course, the prerequisite is you have to receive the offer from Chase.

What do you have to do to get $5 statement credit each day in July?

If you make a single purchase with your Chase credit card, no matter how much you charge on this card,a $5 statement credit will be credited to you account. This offer applies to your purchase transactions only and the maximum amount you can get is $155—$5 each day.

Who will qualify for this offer?

You will qualify for this offer as long as your Chase credit card is in good standing, open and not in default when your statement credit is posted. This offer is not transferable and only targeted to certain Chase credit card members.

When will you receive the statement credit?

If you are qualified for this offer, the statement credit will be credited to your monthly statement after 6~8 weeks following the last calendar day of the month in which it was earned. So it takes about 6~8 weeks to receive your bonus.

The original poster got this offer for his Chase Platinum Card. I have a Chase Freedom Card, Chase SONY Card and Chase Amazon.com Card and none of them got the similar offer. I believe most of you might be interested in this offer, thus I called Chase customer service at 800-432-3117. The customer representative I talked to knew nothing about this offer. She said she would add a note and send this to the department which is dealing with promotions and targeted offers about my inquiry. I hope some of you can receive this offer.

I have a post about App-O-Rama long time ago. It seems the idea of App-O-Rama is not so popular as before. I think the main reason is the credit card issuers like Citi, Chase, Bank of America, and American Express are cut the chances of sign-up bonuses and 0% APR offers and they also added huge amount of fees (~$100) on balance transfers. However, I think it’s still necessary to write a complete introduction of App-O-Rama for those who have a good credit and want to profit from credit card applications.

App-O-Rama is a word set out by Wall Street Journal and refers to a frenzy of applications. App-O-Rama can be defined as a strategy of completing multiple credit card applications in a short time period (typically less than 45 min). App-O-Rama also commonly known as AppORama, Application-O-Rama, App-a-Rama, or AOR. The purpose of an AOR is to take advantage of the way your credit score is calculated and credit applications are processed in order to get the most free moneys from credit card issuers.

Why App-O-Rama (AOR)?

• To obtain as many credit card sign-up bonuses (airline mileages or hotel rewards points) as possible.
• To obtain many balance transfer offers and transfer to a high interest savings account or CD and earn 5%+ interest on the money borrowed at 0% APR introductory rates.
• Maximum your credit line and use it to pay off your interest-bearing loans, mortgages, and automobile payments, while paying 0% APR introductory rates on the money borrowed.
• Build a solid credit history (only after you pay of all the balances).

Consquences of App-O-Rama (AOR):

• Temporary drop of your credit score due to many new credit inquiries (Usually, credit inquiries less than 6 months will ding your credit score).
• New and existing accounts might also be closed due to sudden drop of credit score or increase of credit card balances (due to balance transfer). There are many cases of this.

Who can’t do App-O-Rama?

• Those with poor credit scores (Believe me, you won’t get many approvals.).
• Those without solid credit history (less than 2 years).
• Those always carry credit card balances or with credit card debit.

How to prepare for an App-O-Rama?

Again, before you start your App-O-Rama, please keep in mind that to take advantage of this you need a good FICO score (higher than 700) and a long history of established credit.

Step 1. Maximum your FICO score and pay down/off your credit card balances. You have to pay down as much of your credit card bills as possible. Due to the delay of reporting of your account balances, you need to do this at least a month or two before you launch your AOR. Then you should call up your current card issuers and request to increase your credit limit without a hard credit inquiry. In this way, you can get higher credit limit from your new credit card issuers which are likely to match your current maximum credit limit. You should also have to bump all of hard inquiries on your credit report (How to Get Hard Inquiries Off Your Credit Report).

Step 2. Choose the right credit cards. This is a time consuming process. You have to get a list of credit cards which will give you a certain amount of sign-up bonuses, 0% APR offers or other rewards. For example, you can choose the Starwood Prefferd Guest Card from American Express which is offering 10,000 bonus starpoints after first purchase. You can also choose the Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network which is offering 10,000 thankyou points after $250 in purchases. You might be also interested in the Blue Cash from American Express which is offering up to 15 month 0% APR on purchases and 4.99% fixed APR for life on balance transfer. You can refer to this post to choose some credit cards.

Step 3. Plan the right time and start to pull the trigger! Now you have a list of credit cards on hand. You need to plan the time a little bit better. Early in the morning and Monday or Tuesday is highly recommended for App-O-Rama. When the credit approval system can’t approve your application, your information will be delivered to a credit analyst. Before he/she looks over your credit report, you’d better make sure that he/she can’t see your other applications. So you want to let your information presented to him/her as early as possible. That’s why you should plan your AOR in the morning and Monday or Tuesday.

Card companies say only a small number of their cardholders play this game. But if you have a solid credit history and a perfect credit score, why not try this? You deserve to get those money because you have a good credit performance.

One of the most scariest types of identity theft is new account fraud. It happens when an identity thief steal your personal information, open a series of new credit card accounts, loans or other account under your name. According to a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study, 8.3 million U.S. adults become victims of ID theft each year. Consumers Union estimates that this amounts to more than 22,000 victims per day and 15 victims per minute. After you are a victim of ID theft, the out of pocket cost varies widely but 10% percent of all ID theft victims reported costs of $1,200 or more, and 10% of victims of new accounts and other frauds reported out of pocket costs of $3,000. One quarter of all new accounts victims reported expenses of at least $1,000. More than half of consumers (56%) who suffered new account fraud did not discover the fraud until after the first month, and for 24% of consumers, it took more than six months to discover new account fraud.

I wrote a post about credit freeze and mentioned how to use credit freeze to prevent identity theft. Today I’m going to write more details about this. Because credit freeze is very useful to prevent ID theft.  A credit freeze, also known as a security freeze, credit report freeze, a credit report lock down, a credit lock down, or a credit lock, allows an individual to control how a U.S. consumer reporting agency (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) is able to sell his or her data. The credit freeze locks the data at the consumer reporting agency until an individual gives permission for the release of the data. In this way, a credit freeze allow us to stop thieves from getting credit under our names. When we choose to freeze our credit, a business will not be able to open new accounts for a thief until you permit to do so. Placing a credit freeze does not affect your credit score – nor does it keep you from getting your free annual credit report, or from buying your credit report or score.

When you place a security freeze on your file, you will be provided a personal identification number or password to use if you choose to remove the security freeze from your file or authorize the temporary release of your credit report for a specific person or period after the security freeze is in place. The cost of placing, temporarily lifting, and removing a credit freeze also varies.  Identity theft victims might get free credit freeze in many states while other consumers might have to pay $10 for this service. As the credit freeze laws varies according to states, you can find more helpful information from here. Once you decide to temporarily lift your freeze, you have to contact Equifax, TransUnion or Experian and provide the following information:

1. Sufficient identification to verify your identity.
2. Your personal identification number or password provided by the credit reporting company.
3. A statement that you choose to remove the security freeze from your file or that you authorize the reporting agency to temporarily release your consumer report.

It’s very obvious that a credit freeze is very helpful to keep an identity thief from opening most new accounts in your name. However, it’s not an all-purpose solution to all kind of identity theft. It will not protect you from an identity thief from using your current credit cards or other accounts. It is also helpless when a identity thief wants to use services that don’t do a ID check in your name. If there’s identity theft already going on when you place the credit freeze, the freeze won’t be able to stop it. You should also consider the cost and hassle that credit freeze might bring in before you place a credit freeze on your credit report.

I have pointed out in this post that you can get free 100 thankyou points from Citi ThankYou Network by entering the promotion code: CITICCI508IN. Today I realize that many of you might not know this promotion code. 100 thankyou points maybe not too many but will accelerate your accumulation speed. Once you accumulate 10,000 thankyou points in your account, you can redeem a $100 gift card from Citi ThankYou Network.

To get the 100 thankyou points, you should go to the promotion page: https://www.thankyou.com/promotionalCodePage.jspx. Log in your account, and put in the code: CITICCI508IN.Sometimes an error message or “You have previously received bonus points for this promotional code.” might show up, but when you check the point balance, you will see 100 points have already been added in your account. Or you might see the following message: Congratulations! You have received 100 Bonus Points.

The other promotion code is: DPR1CDW408WK. To add this promotion code, you should visit the above mentioned page and log in your account and enter the code. Similar situation might show up but anyway 100 points will be credited to your account. Someone might even get 200 points from this promotion code. It’s highly YMMV.

Citi thankyou network is an excellent rewards program. If you are not a member yet, you can apply for a Citi credit card with thankyou points and register at www.thankyou.com. Suggested Citi credit cards are: Citi mtvU Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students, Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards Card and Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network.

This Everyday Rewards Visa Card issued by National City Bank is one of my favorite rewards card. I use this card essentially everyday. I have also mentioned this card in “My Favorite Rewards Credit Cards” post. I forgot to mention that this card was selected as one of Kiplinger’s Best of the Cash Back Card. I personally use this card together with Chase Freedom Card a lot. The default APR of this card is also among national average. So this is an ideal cash back card for daily use.

This Everyday Rewards Visa Card is designed for those with average credit who would like to earn cash back on everyday purchases. You use this card for everyday purchases and accumulate rebates every month. Once your rebate accumulated in your account is more than $100, they will automatically send rebate check to you with your monthly statement. Or you can call them up and ask them to deposit the rebate check as a credit in your account.

How about the cash back compared to other rewards cards?

You can earn a certain percentage cash back on each purchase depending on where you use your card.

4% cash back on gasoline at the pump—up to $250 in eligible monthly net purchases. Although there are many 5% gas rebate card out there, 4% cash back is not that bad. Because you have many other rewards categories from which you can still earn cash back. $250 is enough for most drivers (but not business travelers).

3% cash back on cinema and movie rentals—up to $150 in eligible monthly net purchases. If you watch or rent movies a lot, this might be a right card for you. Or if you want to get more for what you spent, you can try the Citi mtvU Visa Card which gives 5 thankyou points for every dollar spent at theaters and video stores.

2% cash back on groceries, restaurants, and fast food—up to $750 in eligible monthly net purchases. This is why I love this card. With a single credit card, you can maximum you cash back from wherever you spend. You don’t have to carry many credit card in your wallet and wondering which card to use at checkout. You can even get 2% cash back from Wal-Mart (categorized at grocery).

Of course, you can earn up to 1% cash back on everything else. (only 0.25% for the first $10,000)

In addition to the rewards program, cardholders can also get up to $25,000 in travel accident insurance, auto rental insurance, and other varies travel and emergency assistance services. There is no annual fee associated with this card.

To apply for this card, you’d better go to your local branch and submit your personal information there. In this way, National City can make a decision very soon. If you submit your application online, you would probably have to wait for about several days. Their online application system seems to not make instant approvals.

Another important note for international students: If you have a checking or savings account at National City Bank, you can talk to the banker and ask him/her to apply for this card for you. According to what I know, many international students can get this card without SSN.

Many of you might not know that you can protect your identity with a virtual credit card number when you’re shopping or paying bills online. These one-time use credit card numbers are linked to your actual credit card number, but are unusable by others or will be expired in a certain time period. If someone was able to obtain your virtual credit card number and try to use it elsewhere, it simply would not work. In this way, you can simply protect you and your identity. You don’t have to bother your credit card costumer service and fill in some forms. Virtual credit card number actually is named as Controlled Payment Number when it came out. A Virtual Credit Card Number can also be called as a “substitute credit card number” or “one-time use credit card”. It’s usually generated through the use of a web application or a specialized program offered by your credit card issuers.

Typically, a virtual credit card number has a limit and an expiration date between 2 to 12 months chosen by the account owner and can be used for many times with the same merchant. (can’t use it with many merchants) You real credit card number will never be revealed to the merchant. There are many credit card companies (Citi, Discover, Bank of America) offer this kind of service for free to their customers. I will briefly introduce each of them below:

Citi Bank—Virtual Account Numbers

This is a security feature of Citi credit cards. Whoever has a Citi credit card is eligible to use virtual account number as long as he/she has registered his/her credit card online. Generating a virtual account number is very easy in your Citi online account. Log in to your online account and select “Get a Virtual Account Number” on your screen. You can choose to download a software or opt for the online program which requires you to log in your account each time you need to generate a virtual account number. After you enter you real credit card number, the tool will automatically generate a new number for you. You can decide when the virtual credit card will expire between 2 to 12 months but on longer than the actual expiration date of your real credit card. If you want to change the expiration date, you have to generate a new credit card number. The virtual account numbers can be used when the purchases don’t require the presence of a physical credit card. You have to allow pop-up windows when use this program.

Discover Card—Secure Online Account Numbers

The Secure Online Account Number is a free service that providing additional online security for Discover card members. Like Citi’s virtual account numbers, you can choose to download the software (PC version) or use a online web application (browser version) to generate a virtual account number every time when you need one. For the PC version, download the tool and it will automatically launch each time you go to make a purchase. Click the “Fill Form” button, and a secure account number, Valid Through (Expiration) date and CID (security code) will be generated and automatically entered into the “Credit Card Number” field(s) of the online merchant’s checkout form. For the browser version, you have to follow these steps:

1. Click “Launch Now” button on the Secure Online Account Numbers main page to get a secure number. Sign in with your Account Center user ID and password.
2. Open a new browser window so you can view both Discovercard.com and the shopping site at the same time.
3. Shop at your favorite Web sites, copy and paste the secure number into the retailer’s checkout page. When ordering via phone, give the customer service representative the secure number.

According to Discover card:

Secure account numbers always expire on the same date as your actual Discover Card account number. When your Discover Card is reissued with a new expiration date, it will be necessary to update the expiration information on any retailer’s Web site where you have stored your actual card number or any secure account numbers.

Bank of America—ShopSafe

ShopSafe is a free service that can generate a temporary credit card number every time you want to make an online purchase.This number links directly to your real credit card account number but keeps your card number completely private and completely protected. The ShopSafe number is used as another credit card number but the merchant will never know your actual account number. To get ShopSafe, sign in to Online Banking and choose “Use ShopSafe” from your Account Activity screen. You can enter desired spending limit and expiration date there. And then ShopSafe creates a temporary account number that allows you to purchase with confidence. The ShopSafe service allows you to set your “Valid Thru” date for up to 1 year in the future.

Note: American Express card is not eligible to generate a virtual credit card number from above card issuers.

When you are not confident with some online merchants, you can use virtual credit card to help you prevent any credit card fraud.

I mentioned in this post that the Business Gold Rewards Card offers 25,000 bonus membership points after spending $1,000 before October 1, 2008. Many readers from MyCardBlog have applied for this card and already charged $1,000 on this card (including myself). If you’re still wondering whether you’re eligible or not to apply for this business card even though you’re not a business owner, you can check out this post to learn how to apply for a business card without “real business”. Faced with slumping economy nowadays, most financial institutions are trying to cut their costs. Last October, American Express offered 25,000 bonus points without any minimum spending requirement. Bank of America and Chase Freedom Card also offered $250 sign-up bonus early last year. However, this Business Gold Rewards Card is the only one to offer you 25,000 bonus points which can then be redeemed as a domestic round-trip airline ticket. Based on my own application process, I want to point out that if you can’t get instant approval, American Express may call you to verify your personal information and ask what your business is. You have to be prepared to answer this question and don’t miss the call from American Express. You actually don’t need a high credit score to get this credit card.

However, there is a big change on this card. According to American Express, effective from 06/16/2008, the Business Gold Rewards Card will be renamed as the Gold Card from American Express OPEN. If you apply for this card and spend more than $1,000 before 10/01/2008, you can still get 25,000 bonus points. With this card, you can save up to 25% business expenses from selected partners of OPEN Savings. The first-year annual fee will be waived and after that, the annual fee is $125 per year. You can use the saving calculator to see how much you can save if you use this card regularly.

Another big change of American Express business card is the gas rebate of SimplyCash Business Credit Card will change from 5% to 3%. 3$ cashback is capped on $12,000 per year. If you charge more than that amount, you can only get 1% cashback. This rebate change will be effective on 07/01/2008. Considering this card doesn’t charge annual fees and still offer 5% cashback on office supplies and wireless services, the American Express SimplyCash Business Credit Card is still a nice card.

Another business card that is worth mentioning is the Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card which is offering up to 20,000 bonus miles (15,000 + 1,000*5). 15,000 bonus miles will be available after first purchase. This card is good for those who travel a lot. Of course, the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card is still offering 10,000 bonus points after first purchase which can be redeemed as a $100 Amazon.com gift card.

My post “2008 Chase Check Card Promotion” was very popular in the past several months. Enroll your Chase debit card before 06/15/08, you can get $25 for every $250 in qualifying purchases made with your Chase Visa Check Card—up to $75. This promotion has ended on June 15, 2008. If you spent more than $250 before June 15, you should expect to receive your $25 (up to $75) bonus before July 1, 2008.Today I noticed that Chase just launched a new debit card promotion: Make 10 blink purchases by using your Chase debit card and you can get $10 bonus.

How to get the $10 bonus?

1. Enroll your Chase visa check card or visa check business card before August 31, 2008 at www.chasemake10blink.com.

2.  Make 10 blink purchases with minimum $5 each time in the next following 30 days of registration. (In order to be considered as blink purchase, you can’t use your PIN at checkout. You should use your debit card as a credit card.)

3. Get $10 directly deposited to your Chase checking account.

It looks like that this $10 is easy money to take if you receive the invitation from Chase bank. If your Chase debit card is not a blink card, you can’t participate in this promotion. A blink card should have a ‘blink” sign on the face of the debit card. (Note: Chase first applied the blink technique on their credit cards.) Of course, you should use your blink card at the stores where you can blink at the checkout. To find where you can use your blink card, you can go to www.chaseblink.com and locate the places that allows you to blink. Usually you can find a blink card reader at quick service restautants (McDonald’s), convenience stores (7-Eleven) and drug stores (CVS Pharmacy).

Chase first launched the blink cards in 2005. The difference between a regular card and a blink card is the blink card contains a tiny RFID chip. This allows you to pay for something using a contact-less terminal (no swiping). The card will communicate with the reader via radio frequency technology and transmits to the reader approximately the same data that’s stored on its magnetic stripe. Once the transaction is successful, the reader will emit a signal to acknowledge payment is done. Chase brands the technology Blink, American Express calls it ExpressPay, MasterCard calls it PayPass. They are all pretty much the same thing.

RFID doesn’t have a great reputation and is not so popular among thousands of cardholders right now. There are some privacy
and security concerns. If you don’t want the contactless feature of your debit card or credit card, you can call Chase to issue you a new card without blink capability.

As I mentioned in this post, Chase Freedom Card members can have 5 categories to get 3% cashback if they have a Chase checking account. My Chase Freedom Card actually gives me 5 categories to have 3% cashback this month. Following is from my monthly statement.