MyCardBlog

The Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express is one of my favorite credit cards. The extended warranty feature and great customer service are the main reason for me to use this card to buy electronic products. The other reason why I like this card is it always offers some great promotions now and then.

Right now, if you are a Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express cardholder, you can earn free 2,000 starpoints from American Express by adding two authorized users in your account and make a purchase. The 2,000 bonus points are very easy to get. You don’t have to provide the social security numbers of the authorized users to get the additional cards. All you need is to fill in your credit card number, card ID, the last four digits of your SSN and the name of the authorized users. American Express won’t run a credit check during this process because you pay the money that charged on the card. Furthermore, the additional cards are free, and have no annual fee. You can apply for two cards for your family members or friends and ask them to make a small purchase to get the bonus points. After that, you can get the credit cards back. I requested two cards through the promotion page. One for my roommate and another for one of my good friends.

According to the fine print:

1,000 bonus Starpoints will be awarded to your Starwood Preferred Guest Account 8-12 weeks after the first purchase on an approved Additional Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card submitted with this application. The Additional Cardmember must make their first purchase with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card within one year of Card approval. Bonus offer applies to first 2 Additional Card added on this application only.

For those don’t have this Starwood Preferred Guest Card right now, I strongly suggest you get one. It’s very flexible to transfer your starpoints to airline miles, gift cards, or other rewards. If you sign up now, you can get 10,000 bonus starpoints which can be redeemed for a $100 Amazon.com gift card or up to 3 free night stays at Starwood Hotels.

If you spend over $15,000 on this card in 6 months, you can earn another 15,000 bonus points! That’s equal to 40,000 starpoints!If you were lucky like me, you might get 20,000 bonus starpoints!

I have many posts on how to get a free trip to Asia, Europe or other places by taking the advantage of Citi thankyou network and American Airline aadvantage program. (post 1, post 2 and post 3) Actually, the free airline ticket is one of the most popular incentives used by credit card companies to attract more applications. With the skyrocket high oil prices, the cost of airfares is going up steadily. This post is trying to list a bunch of credit cards that offer free points, miles or other bonuses that can be used to help you get a free plane ticket. Most of them are airline affinity credit cards, but they include general reward cards as well.

I should also point out that essentially all of them require annual fees but some of them waive the fees for the first year. When you get the promotion points, miles or other bonuses, please close those credit card account immediately. Usually, the rewards account is isolated from the credit card account. So it’s very safe to close the credit card account and sometimes you can even get better offers (A trick credit card companies often imply).

Airline affinity credit cards

Many readers send me emails about “how to use credit cards and get maximum rewards“.  Believe it or not, this is a very difficult question to answer. Different people have different credit cards (or the ability to have different cards), different people have different preference on credit cards rewards (some like cash rewards, some like airline miles, and some like hotel points), and different people have different spending habits. So this is not a “yes or no” question and there is no unambiguous answer to this question. All you have to do is to look through all the major credit card issuers websites and find out those that best fit you. Of course, don’t forget to visit MyCardBlog.com from where you can find some great credit card tips and promotion offers.

Here I briefly introduce how I use my 12 credit cards:

1. Chase Freedom Visa Card. I use this credit card a lot because I can get 3% cash back from 5 categories (I have Chase checking account.) pre-determined by Chase. I use it to pay my cell phone bills from T-Mobile and Cable service fees from Comcast. I also use this card to buy groceries at Meijer, Schnucks, and other places (not include Wal-Mart). I also charge my lunch at subway, chick-fill-a, and other places noted as quick service restaurants. Sometimes I will also use this card at department stores like Macy’s, JCPenny, Sears or other stores. Chase Freedom Card takes about 70% of my monthly expenditures. This card is highly recommended. According to what I know, you can also apply for a second Chase Freedom Card even though you have one Chase Freedom Card on hand.

2. National City Everyday Rewards Visa Card. I have a review on this card. This is my first credit card and I like it very much. I usually use it to pay at the pumps from which I can get 4% cash back. I also use it a lot at some restaurants where I can’t get full 3% cash back from my Chase Freedom Card. Of course, I also use this card to buy movie tickets.

3. Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express. I use this card to buy electronics products from online merchants or local BestBuy, Circuit City, Office Depot, etc. I also use this card to rent cars and book hotels. The reason why I use this card to pay for electronics and car rentals is American Express is the best extra insurance provider and I trust American Express. I can usually get extended warranty for my electronics from this card. By the way, I get 20,000 bonus starpoints from this card and redeemed them as 2 $100 Amazon.com gift cards.

4. Discover Open Road Card. Sometimes I use this card at gas stations to get 5% cash back (or use National City Everyday Rewards Card). I use this card to buy some parts for my card at Auto zone or other places. I will also pay my oil change service fees with this card. This card is recommended to those with small cars (SUV is not recommended because there is $100 limit from which you can get full 5% cash back.).

5. Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card. I only use this card when I shop around at Amazon.com. Previously this is a black card but it’s redesigned with blue color (see this post). They also add more redemption options.

6. Chase Sony Card. I use this card when there is a special promotion offer targeted to me. Otherwise, I will not use it.

7. Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard. I used to use this card a lot. However, since I had the Chase Freedom Card, I never used it.

8. Household Bank Platinum MasterCard. I used to use this card a lot. But I’m not using it now. 1% and 2% seems no big difference to me.

9. Blue from American Express. I seldom use this card. I’m planning to switch this card to the Blue Cash from American Express.

10. WaMu Visa Platinum Card. Recently, WaMu sent me two same new credit cards and claimed that they have upgraded my card to the premier platinum protect card. I don’t know the difference between platinum protect card and normal platinum card. I don’t know why they sent me two same cards. I never used it. I use this card to monitor my credit score. I just hope they will not send me the third same card in the future.

11. Bank of America Rewards American Express Card. I seldom use this card. The rewards program from Bank of America is not so good.

12. A Credit Card from local credit union. One of my first credit cards. I’m not using this card now.

You might get some ideas on how to use your credit cards now.

For those who missed the $50 gas card bonus from TCF Bank in this June, here comes the other chance to get $50 gas card from TCF Bank. This is by far the easiest money to get!

How to get the $50 gas card?

Open a TCF free checking account online or at TCF local branches.

Fund your account with a certain amount of new money.

You can get a $50 gas card on the spot if you choose to open an account at the TCF local branches, or a $50 gas card will be mailed to you within 30 days.

I have never seen a sign-up bonus that awarded immediately on the spot! (Note: TCF has branches located in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona.)

The free checking account features:

• No minimum balance requirement
• No monthly service charge
• FREE Online Banking
• FREE Online Bill Pay with Online Statements

Plus you can also get the following free account services:

• FREE TCF Check Card with FREE TCF CashRewards
• FREE TCF Express Teller ATM transactions
• FREE 24-hour automated Express Phone service
• FREE Online Banking with check images
• FREE customer service support by phone

TCF Bank is FDIC insured which means you can depost up to $100,000 at TCF Bank without any risk of the failure of TCF Bank. Altough TCF Bank is not a national bank, it is the 13th largest VISA Classic debit card issuer in the United States by sales volume. You can imagine how many students or residents are using the debit card issued by TCF Bank which provides free rewards.

The promotion page can be found here.

Chase just released another promotion on Chase Visa Check Card. My latest Chase check card promotion was posted here from which you can get $25 credit for every $250 charged on Chase Visa Check card with “no PIN” purchases. It seems this is a targeted offer and only those invited can enroll their Chase check cards. If you can’t register your Chase check cards, you can try this offer.

This summer you can get 3% cash back (maximum $200) when you use your Chase Check Card at grocery stores, gas stations and discount stores. Offer starts from now through August 31, 2008.

Here is how it works:

1. Enroll your Chase Visa Check Card now (through this link)
2. Use your card at gas stations, grocery stores and discount stores from July 1 – August 31, 2008
3. Earn 3% cash back (credited to your checking account statement)

The 3% cash back is not so much compared to other credit cards like Chase Freedom Card, Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card, Citi mtvU Card, or Blue Cash from American Express. But 3% cash back is the most you can get from a check card or debit card which typically only offers 1% cash back. This offer is good for those without any credit card as I mentioned above. If your you Chase check card is invited to join the previously mentioned “$25 for every $250″ offer, you can try whether you can stack this offer with that one.  If you can get both promotions work for you, then you can save pretty much money this summer.

However, in order to get the cash back, you have to remember that:

When you pay at a keypad, be sure to press CREDIT instead of DEBIT. Purchases made using your Personal Identification Number (PIN) do not qualify. As Chase clearly indicates in the promotion page, the qualifying purchases include all debit card purchases made without using a PIN. Such “non-PIN” purchases include purchases you sign for, contactless “blink” purchases, Internet purchases, phone or mail-order purchases, small dollar purchases that do not require a signature, and bill payments (where billers process the transaction as a credit card). Cash advances and cash transactions do not qualify. If you are asked “Debit or Credit” at checkout, always select “CREDIT” and sign for the purchase.

E*Trade is some kind of new to regular banking customers. Because the major business of E*Trade is online discount stock brokerage service. The investors of E*trade can buy and sell securities such as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds via electronic trading platforms or by phone. But actually E*Trade is also a big online banking service provider. The company also offers banking and lending products such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit (CD), and credit cards. The most popular banking service is the complete savings account which offers great interest rate and sign-up bonus.

E*Trade has brought back the $25 sign-up bonus for its complete savings account customers. This $25 is very easy to get. All you have to do is open a complete savings account through this promotion page with minimum $1 deposit. According to the promotion page, the $25 will be credited to your Complete Savings Account within 30 days of the account. This promotion is good through August 31, 2008. There is no hard pull during the account opening process. All they want to do is to verify your identity.

Another good reason to open the complete savings account at E*Trade is to enjoy the high interest rate from E*Trade. Current rate is 3.30% APY. Compared to the national average interest nowadays, this rate is really competing. For example, the rate of Orange Savings Account from ING is 3.00% and Capital One is offering 2.50% for its Online Savings Account. Plus this complete savings account features no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fees.

Another feature I want to point out is the money transfer between E*Trade and other financial institutes are really quick with their QUICK TRANSFER service.

The banking products and services are offered by E*Trade Bank. The E*Trade bank is a FDIC insured bank which means bank deposits are FDIC insured to at least $100,000. E*Trade Bank is rated as the “Best of the Breed” by Money Magazine in August 2007.

Citi was offering two great promotions back to this March. 1. $200 bonus for opening a checking account. 2. 16,000 thankyou points and triple your thankyou points for 12 months for opening a new Citi checking account. Right now, both of the two offers have expired. However, I believe Citibank will release new promotion code in the near future.

Today I came across a very good chance to get the easiest money. Citi is sending out brochure which indicated that you can have 6,000 bonus thankyou points for making a simple survey. We know that many businesses will do some surveys about their products, services, or websites. And some of them will always give out a certain amount of bonuses. For example, American Express B2B survey once was offering $20 Amazon.com gift card for finishing a 1 min survey. Actually, there are many survey companies that run professional paid surveys. I have a post on how to make some small money by taking surveys. If you want, you can always get some small money by taking some short surveys from SurveySavvy.

This time the Survey from Citi bank is actually not a formal survey. If you have a checking account with them, you can call Citi at 1-866-422-1443 by 08/08/08 and mention code ATTS. After some short questions (less than 2 mins), you can get 6,000 thankyou points in your account at thankyou network in 90 days. The 6,000 thankyou points can be redeemed for a $50 gift card at the thankyou network.

Here is the details:

We’d like to take the opportunity to show our appreciation for your business with a $50 gift card, redeemable with 6,000 thankyou points. If you’re not currently a ThankYou member, we’ll enroll you so you will get the points. Just give us a call!

We can talk about as much or as little as you like. Mostly we’re just looking to know what we can do to make your banking life easier. No matter what, your time will be well spent. (Of course, what you do with the $50 gift card is entirely up to you.)

If you haven’t received the brochure, you can still call them up at 1-866-422-1443 and mention the code to receive the free 6,000 thankyou points! Remember, you have to have a Citi checking account to get the thankyou points!

Citi thankyou network is the rewards program that runs all of the promotions for Citi banking and credit card customers. You can earn thankyou points for having a checking or savings account at Citi. Or you can also earn Citi thankyou points by using Citi credit cards. Thankyou points can be redeemed as gift cards , cash or travel rewards. Some great thankyou rewards cards are: Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, Citi PremierPass Card, Citi mtvU Card etc.

From the video we can see that our money at US banks are actually very safe up to the amount the FDIC insured. The action of FDIC is really quick.