MyCardBlog

I just reviewed the new Chase Freedom Card which is somewhat like Discover More Card now. Compared to the new Chase Freedom Card, the Discover More Card is highly recommended for everyday purchases. Chase Freedom Card only offers 3% cash back for selected categories which change every quarter. However, Discover More Card offers 5% cash back for selected categories which change every quarter too. Chase Freedom Card offers 5,000 bonus points for new customers through www.chasefreedomnow.com. Discover More Card offers $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 or more.

Following is the invitation flyer I received:

To apply, go to apply.discovercard.com and put in the code: DBFT.

According to what I know, Discover Card is loosing their application process which means many of you can apply for a Discover Card even your credit score is not very high.

Chase has just updated its famous and most popular credit card product—the Chase Freedom Credit Card. You can’t find any link to apply for the previous Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card. Since this is a new credit card product or more accurately, this is the replacement of the previous Chase Freedom Card, I will do a short review of this card and give some tips here.

The Chase Freedom Card is one of my favorite credit cards, and I use it a lot. But it seems the new card members will not receive the great cash back offers now. Now, it seems that the Chase Freedom’s rewards program just got downgraded to a program that’s like other general rewards programs: 3% Bonus Cash Back on Gas, Groceries, and Fast Food Purchases for the First 6 Months. 1% Unlimited Cash Back on Everything Else. No Cap. No Expiration. This is a huge change of their rewards program! It’s very obvious that this rewards program is not as good as previous one! Besides, Chase also do the rewards as discover card: cardholders will receive quarterly bonus opportunities, which offer 3% cash back. I’m really disappointed at the rewards program.

The only highlight of this card is the 0% intro APR on purchases for up to 12 months. I think Chase is aimed at those in great need of money because of the financial crisis. For general consumers, this Chase Freedom Card is not a recommended card any longer.

One thing I am still happy with the Chase Freedom Card is, however, the great Chase Rewards Plus program. If you are a Chase Freedom Card owner, you are automatically enrolled in the Chase Freedom Rewards Plus, a shopping rewards program like ebates.com, ShopDiscover etc. Your rewards earned through the Chase Rewards Plus is credited to your Chase Freedom Card and you can redeem the rewards altogether.

Plus, according to Chase, this credit card is designed for those who have excellent credit and who plan to take advantage of the cash rewards program.

A very useful tip: If you apply for the new Chase Freedom card through www.chasefreedomnow.com, you can get 5,000 bonus points which can be redeemed for a $50 gift card. So you can still get $50 sign up bonus from this card, but only at www.chasefreedomnow.com.

So it’s very obvious that this Chase Freedom Card is not a great cash back card for everyday rewards. The question is: are there other cards that give you great cash back rewards?

Following are some suggestions:

TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express: 5% cash back at pumps, 3% cash back for eating out, 2% cash back for traveling, and 1% cash back for everything else.

Blue Cash from American Express: You can get 5% cash back on everyday purchase if you spend over $6,500 each year.

Discover More Card: earn 5% cash back on selected categories for every quarter which is way better than curerrent Chase Freedom Card.

Citibank is running a new checking account bonus now. We haven’t seen banking bonus from Citibank for a while. The latest mention of banking promotion from Citi Checking Account is back to this May. That promotion was offering $200 checking account bonus.

The promotion code for this bonus is CY72. You can either go to the promotion page or call Citi at 800-374-9500 to open a checking account.

How to get the $100 bonus?

1. Just open a qualifying Citibank regular checking account and fund it with a minimum of $1,000 by 12/31/2008.

2. 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 and get $100 deposited into your new account.

But you ought to look 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. All accounts are subject to approval. 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. Fees may apply to the checking account. Within the first month after account opening, customer must complete at least one direct deposit to, or at least two electronic bill payments from, the checking account each month for three consecutive months to get $100. Electronic bill payments are those you make using Citibank^® Online, Citi MobileSM or CitiPhone Banking^®, excluding bill payments made to Citibank credit cards and transfer payments made to accounts with Citibank or its affiliates. $100 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.

As a feature of the Citi Checking Account, you can get fee-free use at over 21,000 ATMs nationwide, including over 5,700 at 7-ELEVEN stores.

Citibank right now is the fourth largest bank in the United States and takes about 3.5% of market sahre in the United States.

There are many black card designs out there in the market. The most famous one probably is the American Express Black Card which is dedicated to those with high incomes. Other credit card issuers are also promoting their “Black Card” to attract more customers. This post is a summary of 5 cool Black Card designs.

1. American Express Centurion Card: This is the most famous credit card with an annual fee of $2,500. And you must have to spend more than $250,000 each year otherwise your card account will be canceled by American Express. This card is not available for general market. You must have to receive the invitations from American Express to be eligible to submit your application. The complete review of this card can be found here.

2. Citi Chairman Card: This is the Citi version of Black Card. The annual fee for this card is $500. This card is the high end card product from Citi. But the benefits from this card is not so good as those from the American Express Black Card. This card is actually an American Express card although you can’t find any visa, mastercard, or American express card designs. The review on this card can be found here.

3. Bank of America Accolades American Express Card: This is the Bank of America’s version of Black Card. This is the first premium credit card offered by Bank of America targeted exclusively for the banks “affluent, wealthy and ultra- wealthy clients served through Premier Banking & Investments, the Private Bank of Bank of America and its extension, Family Wealth Advisors. After you become one of the account members of the Premier Banking & Investments, you will be eligible to apply for this card. (You must have more than $200,000 in assets with Bank of America.)

4. Merill Lynch Merill+ Visa Card: This is the Merill Lynch version of Black Card. There is nothing special for this card but a black card design. This card features a 1.9% APR on balance transfers, check cash advances and direct deposits for the first 12 billing cycles. There is no annual fee associated with this card.

5. Chase +1 Student MasterCard: This is a very very special black card which doesn’t contain any black features. This card is designed exclusively for college students. So even students can have a black card now. If you are a college student and want to get a “Black Card”, this is your top choice.

I recently wrote a post on “Get Overdraft Fees Back from Bank of America by Writing to Their CEO“. Many BOA customers did exactly the same way to get their overdraft fees back. But there are some banks that will not allow their customer service representatives to refund the fees to their customers. As a matter of fact, the fees charged by banks are huge every year! It’s a way to make profit for bank. ($33 billion dollars were payed by US consumers in insufficient funds and overdraft fees in 2003.) If you don’t check your online account frequently, sometimes you will accumulate more than $300 fees! If you don’t want to pay that fees, a collection agent might contact you. Your credit would be ruined in this way.

So the experience on how to fight with banks are essentially important. I made a mistake on one of my Chase Checking account several days ago. And I want to share my experience here with you.

I paid the Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card with my Chase checking account without knowing that I didn’t have enough funds in that account (My direct deposit goes to National City Bank.). And in the next two days I didn’t check my online account thus I was not aware that I have a negative balance in my checking account. When I noticed it, there was a $32 “insufficient funds fee” charged in my account. The next day I went to Chase to deposit my money there immediately. However, Chase charged another $20 insufficient funds fee for that day. So for just two days I was charged a total of $57 insufficient funds fees by Chase.

Since this is the first time I made such a mistake, I called Chase customer service up and request to get a refund. The first time when I called in, an lady with Indian accent (speaking Indian English) told me that she could not refund me. She said I had already got a refund before! I told her that I knew she was lying. I then called Chase again after 10 mins. This time an American lady picked up the phone and told me that if I didn’t make a mistake in the past 12 months, I should receive the a refund. She told me that she put my request into the system and I would know the result in a few minutes. Yes, it did! A few minutes later, a refund of $57 went back to my account!

Then I knew that Chase allows its customers to make a mistake every 12 months! So if you are charged by Chase with an insufficient funds fee, you can call Chase and ask for a refund. If you failed at the first time, you can call Chase up again and do the same thing. Of course, the requirement is you should only make a mistake every 12 months.

Sometimes consumers might get confused with “insufficient funds fee” and “overdraft fee”. Actually both of them are indicating non-sufficient funds in your banking account. Different banks might have different ways to describe them. Sometimes you will also see Nn-sufficient funds fee (NSF) which means a transaction, check, or entry in excess of available account balance is returned unpaid. Overdraft, otherwise, means the entry is paid by bank.

Every year during the last two months American Express is offering great offers for American Express credit card members. This November American Express is running My WishList Teaser Program which offers great wish certificates for shopping at selected retailers. This program is running the same as other American Express Program which are all on a first come first served basis.

Where to find the My WishList Teaser program?

The website for all American Express My WishList Promotions is http://mywishlist.amexnetwork.com.

There are great offers for this promotion:

11/03 Petsmart spend $75 and get $20 statement credit

11/05 Borders spend $60 and get $20 statement credit

11/07 BestBuy spend $500 and get $150 statement credit

11/10 Sports Authority spend $100 and get $25 statement credit

11/12 BestBuy spend $500 and get $150 statement credit

11/14 Bluefly get $100 off $400

11/17 Brookstone get $20 off $100

11/19 Body Shop spend $75 and get $25 statement credit

11/21 Borders spend $60 and get $20 statement credit

How to participate in the My WishList Teaser Program?

My WishList Teaser is a program from American Express that offers limited quantities of limited-time Wish Certificates only available when you use any American Express Card on a first come first served basis. Note: Corporate Cards and Pre-Paid Cards are not valid.

This program starts at 12:00PM ET on November 3, 2008, and ends at 11:59PM ET on November 21, 2008. The offer number is limited and the time to click for the offer starts at 12:00 PM on each above mentioned date. You must first enter your credit card number and verified by American Express first.

The reason why American Express launches this program is: “It’s our way of getting ready for the 2008 Holiday My WishList Program which launches on December 1, 2008 and saying “thanks” to our Cardmembers for their business throughout the year and for making American Express their Card of choice.”

Beginning on December 1, 2008 American Express will launch official My WishList Program.

This year’s offers are as followed:

2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350

42″ Sharp Aquos Full HD 1080p LCD TV at the price of $700

Dell Studio 15 Laptop at the price of $499

Dinner with Gordon Ramsay at The London NYC for $2,500

So please make a note on December 1, 2008 and get the chance to win a 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350!

We are talking about credit cards that might offer $50, $100, $150 or even $200 bonus. But do you know that there is a credit card that can offer you (not everyone) up to 140,000 bonus points? Yes, 140,000 membership rewards points which are equal to $1,400! The name of this credit card is the Platinum Card from American Express which is designed exclusively for Goldman Sachs Clients.

If you apply for a new Platinum Card from American Express at American Express website, you can only get 25,000 bonus points which can be redeemed for a free round-trip ticket. And you have to spend $1000 in your first 3 months of membership to qualify for this 25,000 bonus points, otherwise you can’t get the bonus points.

Right now, American Express and Goldman sachs are running a promotion. If you apply for a Platinum Card from American Express through this website: http://gs.americanexpress.com/ and are a Goldman sachs client, you are eligible to get 100,000 sign up bonus after first purchase! If you spend more than 100,000 each year, you can get additional 40,000 bonus points.

Following are two important sentences from American Express and Goldman Sachs:

1. As a Goldman Sachs client, you can earn 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after your first purchase on your new Platinum Card.
2. Apply by January 31, 2009 and you can earn 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after your first purchase.¹ Receive an additional 40,000 bonus points when you spend a minimum of $100,000 on your Card for each year of membership.

Fine print about this promotion:

100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points will be credited to your Membership Rewards program account 6-8 weeks after your first purchase appears on your monthly billing statement. The bonus points will appear as two separate credits: one for 10,000 points (Bonus ID: 4338) and one for 90,000 points (Bonus ID: 1914). To be eligible to earn bonus points, your application must be received by January 31, 2009, you must be enrolled in the Membership rewards program at the time of spend, and you must make your first purchase on your new, enrolled Platinum Card designed for Goldman Sachs clients before February 28, 2009.

Other benefits about this card?

First, this card has an annual fee of $450 and $175 for every authorized user. (On very rare occasion you might have seen a fee waived offer.)

• Access to the following airport lounges: American Airlines Admiral Club, Continental Airlines Presidents Club, Delta Crown Room Club, and Northwest Airlines WorldClubs. Plus you can gain complimentary admittance for yourself, your family, or up to two guests at airport clubs around the globe.
• Up to 4 complementary companion airfare tickets a year.
• Access to book cruises, private jets, yachts, and villas and hotel upgrades. Plus you can get free Starwood Preferred Guest Gold Status.
• No pre-set spending limit.
• Access to invitation only events.
• Roadside Assistance program.

If you are going to get a Platinum Card from American Express, I would suggest you apply through http://gs.americanexpress.com/.

Although we may all know that National City Bank is to be sold to PNC Bank by the end of this year. It seems that this deal got some troubles. Rep. Steve LaTourette, an Ohio Republican wrote a letter to Henry Paulson and asked for an immediate investigation into PNC’s recently deal to acquire National City Bank. Even the GOP president candidate John McCain says he supports a probe as well. According to the latest news, a Delaware law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against National City Corp., its board of directors and PNC Financial Services Group over PNC’s purchase of National City.

Although there is so many troubles out there, National City Bank is continuing to attract more new money from new customers by offering great sign up bonus opportunities. The previously reported $200 bonus for opening a new National City Checking Account onlie has expired on Oct. 31, 2008. But there is a new promotion just released: $150 National City Visa Gift Card for opening a new checking account. This time you can also open a new checking account at your local branch! And the promotion time has been extended to the end of 2008!

This is definitely a great opportunity to open a new checking account at National City Bank either online or at local branch. This sign up bonus is even better than the all-year-long Chase checking account bonus.

Here is how to get the $150 bonus:

1. Open any new personal checking account online, at a branch or by phone by 12/31/2008 with a minimum $50.
2. Set up a direct deposit to your newly opened checking account with at least $250 per month. Direct deposit must be received within 60 days of your account opening.
3. Make 10 check card purchases within 60 days of account opening.
4. Limit of one bonus per household and available only to households without an existing National City checking account.
5. Visa gift card will be mailed within 60 days after all conditions have been met.

The most important part is how to establish a direct deposit to National City Bank. Someone might not want to direct their payroll to National City. Some may have already had a checking account at Chase which also requires direct deposit. Actually, all ACH transfer will be counted as direct deposit. In this way, ING and PayPal should work. But I’m not sure.

Since National City branches located only in IL, MI, IN, FL, KY, MO, OH, WI and PA, only the residents in the above states can participate in the promotion.

The promotion page can be found at www.nationalcity.com/cash.