MyCardBlog

Capital One is reported to launch a nee type of rewards debit card that would change how banks and consumers approach debit cards last year. The unique feature of this debit card is: It can be linked to any bank account and used for purchases and ATM withdrawals, just like the debit card consumers get from their bank when they open a checking account. Another appealing feature of this card is better rewards. Plus this card also features zero-liability. This new type of debit card is being used by some Capital One credit card users.

Today, I received an email from Capital One indicating that if you apply for a new Capital One Debit MasterCard and make a first purchase, you would get 5,000 bonus No Hassle Points. The 5,000 No Hassle Points card be redeemed as a $50 gift card from Macy’s, Amazon.com, or Spa Finder. Furthermore, you can get 1 No Hassle Point for every dollar you spent on this card just like other Capital One credit cards do. However, this offer appears to require you to be a current Capital One credit cardholder.

During the application process, you have to link you current bank checking account to this debit card. You have to verify bank account access.

Basic features of this debit card:

• Earn No Hassle Points^SM on debit purchases. Earn 1 point per dollar spent when you sign for debit purchases.
• No need to open a new checking account. Your transactions are deducted from your existing checking account, wherever you bank.
• Shop with confidence, this card comes with MasterCard Zero Liability.
• There are 9 card designs to choose from.

Please note that, in order to get 1 No Hassle Point, you have to choose “credit” purchase at the check out. A credit purchase means a signature-based purchase. A signature-based purchase is one where you select “credit” (not “debit”) and typically sign a receipt instead of entering a PIN.

The application page can be found at: http://www.capitalone.com/debit/index2.php

The reference code is:K3E6L8K149

You can also call Capital One at 1-866-812-6923 to apply for this card.

National City Bank just released a new checking account promotion—”the best promotion“—as rated by one of the National City branch manager. I received this information from one of the local branch manager in an email. From what I can tell, you can get $163 bonus for opening a new National City Work Perks Checking Account with at least $250 direct deposit.
Following is the email I received:

I wanted to see if you would pass some information on to your readers concerning the best promotion I have seen in my 4 years here at National City. We are now offering $163 to any customer that opens up a Work Perks account and has at least $250 direct deposited. This offer is better than any other bank that I have seen so I wanted to ensure that I let you know so I can give as many of your readers $163 as possible. This is only for new relationships to National City so anyone who has already opened there accounts are not eligible unfortunately. I have attached a flyer that tells a little about it……..Of course with this account they can get the free savings, check card, online banking, online bill payment, free checks, and Credit Card.

According to the flyer, you can get $163 bonus in 60 days after you open a work perks checking account and make first direct deposit (>$250).

Some of you might be not familiar with the Work Perks Account which I currently have. There are three Work Perks Checking Account: Work Perks Interest Checking, Work Perks Preferred Interest Checking, Work Perks Elite Checking. Only the Work Perks Interest Checking doesn’t require monthly maintenance fees and there is no minimum balance requirement for this account. Both of the preferred and elite accounts require minimum balance to avoid monthly fees. The Work Perks Interest Checking account also provide free checks. However, this account requires you to maintain direct deposit from your employer to your account. Otherwise, your account will be converted to Free Checking account. You can visit www.nationalcity.com/workperks to get more information.

Fine print about this offer:

$163 offer available for new Work Perks checking accounts opened within two weeks of a National City onsite event at any qualifying company location. Offer limited to one per household and available only to households without an existing personal checking account at National City. A Visa® Check Card must be issued, and an ACH direct deposit of your paycheck for at least $250 must be received within 60 days of account opening to qualify for this offer. Your account must be open to receive the bonus. $163 will be credited to your checking account within 60 days after all conditions have been met. $163 credit is subject to 1099 reporting. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer and may be withdrawn at any time. Rates and minimum balance to earn interest may vary, depending on Work Perks checking account opened. For example, Work Perks Interest Checking requires a minimum balance of $1,500 to earn interest. 0.10% Annual Percentage Yield for Work Perks Interest Checking is accurate as of 8/8/08 and may change before and after account opening.

It seems this is an in-branch only offer. You might have to print out the flyer and take with it to your local National City Bank. The flyer about this promotion can be downloaded from MyCardBlog.Com.

As of 2007, National City Corp. ranked number 188 on the Fortune 500 list, and 9th in terms of revenue in the commercial banks industry with total assets of about $140 billion and a market cap of $24.542.1 billion.

We all know that, Fair Isaac, which created the popular FICO credit score, is making some small adjustments to the way it calculates American people’s credit scores. My previous report pointed out that the authorized user account will not be calculated in your personal FICO score. But according to the latest news, Fair Isaac will re-consider the new change and will take your authorizes user account as a factor of your FICO score. This might be good news for those who want to take advantage of policy.

Last month, Fair Isaac announced that its latest credit scoring system, “FICO 08,” will include authorized user accounts when calculating someone’s FICO credit score. Some credit repair companies used this policy and offered a way for folks with bad credit to raise their FICO scores. You would pay thousands of dollars to get added as an authorized user to the credit card of someone with a great credit history. When that account showed up on the authorized user’s credit report, the person’s credit score would rise. Normally, the authorized user will not receive the credit card.

However, it could be a long wait for us to get the new FICO 08 score. Fair Isaac is still revising the model with the three major credit reporting agencies, after which the company will focus on getting lenders to test and use new FICO. About the authorized user issue, it has been long known that if you have an account with a primary account owner with super credit performance, your credit score will be improved. Could people still do so by getting family members with great credit to add them as authorized users and improve their own credit performance? It seems that Fair Isaac will take this into consideration and make some necessary changes.

If you look at how FICO score are calculated, you would find that you can benefit from being an authorized user in the length of credit history and amount owed which take 45% of your FICO score. But there is still a risk— what if the primary account holders make a mistake? Authorized users could see their credit scores plummet if the primary cardholders default on the accounts.

It’s a really new policy and we should wait until the final result comes out.

Citi just released a new checking account bonus last week. Just followed Citi’s step, Amboy Direct is offering a $50 sign-up bonus for its Amboy Direct eSavings Account. Amboy Direct was offering $50 bonus back to this February. If you are not familiar with Amboy Direct, Amboy Direct is a division of Amboy National Bank which has been around for 118 years. The Amboy Direct division is aimed at online banking and has been around for about ten years.

This offer is good through 09/30/2008. Another reason why I introduce this banking bonus is the yield on the eSavings account is now 3.25% APY for balances of over $3K.

How to receive the $50 bonus?

To receive the $50 bonus, you must open a new Amboy eSavings account and keep a minimum monthly average balance of $3,000 or more for 90 days. The bonus will be credited within the following statement cycle after account meets 90 day balance requirements. Only one new client bonus per household. This bonus offer cannot be combined with other promotional offers. Offer good until 9/30/08.

Please note that if you previously have an account at Amboy Direct, you are not qualified to get the $50 bonus.

Features of the eSavings Account:

• No monthly balance minimums or service fees
• $100 minimum opening balance
• 3.25% APY on balances from $3K to $100K
• 1.00% APY on balances from $300 to $2,999
• No interest on balances below $300

The Amboy Direct’s eSavings Account has the ACH transfer feature like ING Direct’s Organge Savings Account, HSBC Direct Savings Account or Capital One Savings Account does. The ACH feature can allow you to do direct deposit to other bank accounts. Meanwhile, there is no hard pull during the account opening process.

Another banking news is TD Banknorth is offering a 2GB iPod Shuffle for opening a new checking account with direct deposit before 09/17/2008. If you apply for their credit card on the same day you apply for the checking account and get approved, you can get a 4GB iPod Nano.

You can either apply online at their website or you can go to the local branches to open an account. But this bonus is only eligible to residents in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Upstate New York. Promotion page can be found here.

Citibank just released a new checking account bonus promotion on Friday. Citi had many promotion offers this year and all of the promotion offers were proved to be true. Indeed, Citibank is a reliable bank to jump their promotional offers. The new promotion code is CY73. You can apply for a regular citi checking account online or by phone at 1-800-374-9500.

How to get the $100 bonus?

• Open a qualifying Citibank regular checking account and fund it with a minimum of $1,000 by 12/31/2008
• Within the first month after your account is opened, make at least one direct deposit into your account or make at least two electronic bill payments from your account each month for three consecutive months

The promotion page can be found here.

Some important information you have to notice within the fine print:

• This offer is only available to Citi cardmembers who are the primary credit card account holders
• Offer is not valid for existing Citibank checking customers
• Checking account must be funded with $1,000 or more by 12/31/2008 and must be in a Citibank Account, Citibank Everything Counts or Citigold account relationship package
• The $100 cash bonus will be deposited to your Citibank checking account within 120 days from the end of the statement period in which you met the qualifying requirements

Although $100 bonus is good, you will find that you have to keep combined minimum $6,000 balance in your citi account (checking, savings, loans and/or credit card account) to avoid monthly fees. When you apply for this account, you should think about this. My previous post has some useful thoughts from Jim Semple.

Good news is there is no hard pull reported during the account opening process.

The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is one of my favorite credit cards. With this credit card, you can accumulate starpoints for free hotel stays. You can also use starpoints to redeem a gift card from Amazon.com or Banana Republic, GAP and Starbucks etc. If you like, you can also transfer starpoints to many airline miles including AA, UA and Delta Airlines. If you apply now, you can get 10,000 bonus starpoints.

Starwood Preferred Guest program introduced the SPG Flights yesterday, a new redemption opportunity, which allows you to redeem your starpoints for a free airline ticket without any restrictions. This is the first hotel rewards program to offer airline ticket redemption option. This truly will benefit all starwood preferred guest members. Another obvious advantage of the SPG Flights over other airline rewards programs is you can redeem Starpoints for airline tickets whenever you choose, even during peak periods such as holidays.Thus you can avoid the standard restrictions that limit most frequent-flyer awards program.

With SPG Flights, you can choose hundreds of airlines over the world with no blackout dates. If there’s a seat available for purchase with cash, you can use your Starpoints. If you don’t have enough starpoints in your account, you can buy starpoints and use them for airline ticket redemption immediately.

Use your starpoints at SPG Flight is very easy:

1. Search for flights at www.spg.com/flights

2. Select your flight from many available options

3. Redeem Starpoints for an airline ticket

4. Fly

According to the SPG Flights Starpoints Chart, I think redeem airline ticket is much better option than other kinds of redemption choices.

SPG Flights Starpoints Chart (Thanks Sander for reminding me of this!)
up to $150 10,000
$150-$215 15,000
$215-$280 20,000
$280-$345 25,000
$345-$410 30,000
$410-$475 35,000
$475-$540 40,000
$540-$605 45,000
$605-$670 50,000
$670-$735 55,000
$735-$800 60,000
$800-$865 65,000
$865-$930 70,000
$930-$995 75,000
$995-$1060 80,000
Higher prices (examples)
$2,880-$3,140 235,000
$4,960-$5,220 395,000
$9,900-$10,160 775,000

Starwood Preferred Guest has been known for having the industry’s best redemption program.I hope they can keep current excellent work and offer more rewards opportunities.

Million of Americans are carrying debts in their daily life. And that is a good reason why there are more than 6,000 debt collection agencies in the United States. Most of these agencies operate their businesses under the law but we are sure that there are some of them do not. According to the Better Business Bureau, the complaints to debt collection agencies are increasing dramatically in 2007. So it’s necessary to understand some basics to deal with the aggressive debt collection agencies even if you legitimately owe the debt.

A collection agency is a business that pursues payments on debts owed by individuals or businesses on behave of the debt owners. Most collection agencies operate as agents of creditors and collect debts for a fee or percentage of the total amount owed. However, some agencies, sometimes referred to as “debt buyers”, purchase debts from creditors for a fraction of the value of the debt and pursue the debtor for the full balance.

Here are some tips on how to deal with debt collection agencies:

1. Avoid your debt goes to debt collection. Believe it or not, once your debt is transferred to a debt collection agency, things will go worse. The best strategy is try to contact and negotiate with your creditor and work out a reasonable payment arrangement.

2. There is a law out there to help you. You should know that The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) helps you fight back against unfair, unethical and even illegal bill collection tactics! The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has several publications designed to educate consumers about their rights under The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Harassing and nuisance phone calls, threats and abusive language are illegal and should be reported to the FTC and your state attorney general’s office.Don’t feel scared when you are dealing with a debt collector.

3. Don’t ignore notice from debt collectors. It’s a wrong wrong way to deal with debt collectors if you just ignore their notice (letters or phone calls). You should remember that the debt collectors might have your personal information including social security number. You are allowed to send written requests for verification of debt within 30 days of being contacted by a debt collector. If a collection information appears on your credit report, your credit will be ruined in the next 7 years. It will affect your ability to get low rate loans, cheap insurance and great rewards credit cards.

4. Keep copies and records. It’s a good habit to keep important files when you are dealing with debt collectors. Some experts would suggest you keep those documents forever. Because you don’t when you would use them again—specially proof of settlement or resolution of debts. This is an important step to protect yourself. You should also bear in mind that any agreements for making debt collection payments should be confirmed in writing and signed by the debt collector before sending in any payments.

5. Keep an eye on your bank accounts. There are some cases that debt collectors might file suit against consumers for nonpayment of debts. And if they win the lawsuit, freezing savings or checking accounts is one of the court-ordered options for collecting debts. What would happen if your bank accounts are not usable? I can’t imagine a life without any bank accounts! However, funds for Social Security or disability checks are exempt and cannot be used as a source of court-ordered debt payments.

The FTC Facts for consumers might be helpful to everyone too!

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study yesterday. According to this study, American Express ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with credit card issuers for a second consecutive year! Yes, American Express should pride itself on its outstanding customer service.I would also vote for American Express.

The Credit Card Satisfaction Study measures customer satisfaction with credit card by examining five key factors according to J.D. Power and Associates: interaction; billing and payment process; fees and rates; reward programs; and benefits and services. I would say this study really encompasses every factor of a good credit cards. The study is based on a 1000 point scale and relies on more than 7,600 customers’ responses. American Express scored 783 points and ranked highest. Discover Card followed American Express with a score of 751.

Ironically, although the industry average score is 721, only American Express and Discover can score higher than that. HSBC scored the lowest score—667. Capital One also performed not well with only 10 points higher than that of HSBC.

As indicated by the study, American Express performed well in every category. American Express got the highest score out of any of the other credit card companies in all of the five categories. Discover Card performed well in only 3 of the 5 categories: interaction, billing and payment processes, and reward program sections. In the press release of this 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Rocky Clancy, executive director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates, pointed out that “American Express and Discover Card are very different in their fees, reward programs and incentives, and their strong performances indicate their ability to suit the various needs that dissimilar types of cardholders have.”

The study also revealed that people who pay off their balances every month tend to choose their credit cards based on rewards programs (77%). People who carry balances on their credit cards pay more attention on interest rates and fees when choosing their credit cards (65%).

This study also found that 72% of cardholders use some kind of reward program. And the most interesting part is free hotel stays are the most satisfying type of reward! I think the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express and the Hilton HHonors Platinum Credit Card from American Express will be very popular in the near future.

Another find of this study is 25% of all cardholders don’t know if their card offers them additional benefits and 33% haven’t used any during the past year. (If you are reading this post, you should look at your credit card benefits now.) I hope this will change in the future as mycardblog.com becomes more and more popular among general American readers.

The pdf version of the press release of 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction can be viewed here.

My question is which credit card company can surpass American Express the next year.