MyCardBlog

Recently many friends asked me which credit card was the best student credit card. Although I have already a post indicated the Citi mtvU Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students is the best credit card for college students, there are actually many great choices out there. And since the credit card issuers are tightening their credit approvals, it’s not easy to get a credit card from a single credit card issuer. Hereby I introduce many great student credit card products.

At first, I should let you guys remember that in the past all college students can let their family members to add them as authorized users in their credit card accounts. In this way, all college students can build a solid credit history. But this method doesn’t work from now on. It’s really difficult to establish a good credit history now. But the positive side is the credit card companies know that students need money and usually lack the ability or knowledge to manage their personal finance. Students credit cards are usually a big income for most credit card companies. Therefore most credit card issuers are willing to issue their credit cards to college students.

Of course, the top choice is still the Citi mtvU Platinum Select Visa Credit Card for College Students. This Citi mtvU Card is specialized for college students. You get 5 thankyou points for each dollar spent at restaurants, bookstores, video stores and movie theaters. Meanwhile you can also get 5 thankyou points for every dollar at Amazon.com. Plus you can rewards for being a good student. You can earn 250~2,000 bonus thankyou points each semester for maintaining a good GPA. In a word, this Citi mtvU card is highly recommended for college students.

Following is a list of other great student credit cards:

• Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card for College Students
• Citi Driver’s Edge Card for College Students
• Discover Student Card
• Discover Open Road Card for Students
• Chase+1 Student MasterCard
• Bank of America Student Platinum Plus Visa Credit Card

I went to Chicago Premium Outlet this morning. There were a lot of people there. It’s even very difficult to find a parking lot. There are many reports and analytical reports indicated that during this holiday shopping season most merchants couldn’t get the expected sale income. Many experts said that there might be huge After-Christmas sales after December 25, 2008. So where to shop the After-Christmas deals?

The first place you want to visit is dealnews.com. Dealnews.com has a special section for After-Christmas sale deals. It seems that dealnews.com has already compiled all of the after-Christmas deals. I strongly suggest you visit the above mentioned website to see what you want to grab.

Another place you can get some ideas on what are on sale is walletpop.com. Geoff Williams at Walletpop summarized some great deals at many famous retailers like J.C.Penney, Target, Sears, Home Depot, and IKEA etc. Washington Post has a report which indicated that retail sales of items excluding gasoline from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 were down 2 to 4 percent from the comparable period last year.

U.S. News & World Report also has a great article, explaining where to find the best After-Christmas sales. USA Today has a report titled “After-Christmas Sales Could Offer Really Big Bargains“. This report even said the After-Christmas day is the second Black Friday this year. MSNBC also reported “Retailers Offer Shopping for Insomniacs”.

Happy holiday to all MyCardBlog.com readers and enjoy shopping!

Bank of America is always offering $75 to $100 sign up bonus for its MyAccess Free Checking Account. This account features no minimum balance requirement, no direct deposit requirement and no monthly fees. However, a very obvious problem with Bank of America is the overdraft fees. Many Bank of America customers are reported to pay huge amount of overdraft fees to Bank of America. My post “Get Overdraft Fees Back from Bank of America by Writing to Their CEO” is very popular and helped a lot people get the overdraft fees back from Bank of America.

Today I am going to briefly introduce a funny story happened between Bank of America and a customer.

According to the report at Herald News, a Bank of America customer who was unhappy with the service his received at a local Bank of America branch simply dialed 911 and reported a robbery. “As odd as it sounds, we took a bank robbery (call) from the bank robber,” Lt. Ken Teppel said.

According to the police, the man had attempted withdrawing some money that the bank had a hold on. When the bank wouldn’t release the funds. Then the suspect indicated that he was going to shut the bank down.

As reported by the newspaper, after about 15 to 20 minutes of talking by phone with the branch’s employees from the parking lot, police determined the bank was not, in fact, being robbed. They promptly entered the building and arrested suspect.

SO here comes the suggestion for most Bank of America customers:”if you feel angry with the service received at the local branch, please don’t call 911 but the 800 number.

Capital One Credit Card is highly recommended for a international trip. The worldwide acceptance of mastercard and visa card combined with 0 transaction fee make the Capital One credit cards really good credit cards for using internationally. More information about using Capital One credit card can be found in this post.

Another innovation from Capital One I like is the Capital One Card Lab which was launched in November 2007. With the Capital One Card Lab, Capital One credit card customers can personalized the rewards and card design according to their own credit scores.

Today I will introduce the Capital One Image Card which is another attractive feature I think most Capital One credit card members will like. The Capital One Image Card program was introduced in Jan 2008. This program is another way to allow Capital One credit card customers to personalize their own credit cards by printing their own “personalized image”. New and existing Capital One credit card members can go to www.capitalone.com/imagecard and upload your own photo or choose an image from the existing gallery for your credit card. Of course, the image has to be approved by Capital One. Once the image is approved, a new card will be mailed at no cost to you.

It’s true that putting a personalized image on the credit card is a unique way to express your personality and creativity.

It’s apparent that Capital One is dedicated to serve their credit card customers. Following are some great credit card offers from Capital One.

Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Automatically earn 2% cash back on purchases at gas stations and grocery stores, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is no limit to the cash back rewards you can earn, and your cash rewards never expire.

Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards Earn unlimited 1.25 miles for each dollar spent on purchases (25% more than regular airline miles credit cards).

Capital One No Hassle Points Rewards Earn unlimited 2% back (2 points per dollar) in point rewards for purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores, plus 1% back for all other purchases.

Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards for Travel and Gas Earn 3 miles per dollar spent on travel and gas purchases, and 1 mile per dollar on everything else. This credit card is ideal for travelers.

Capital One No Hassle Miles Ultra Earn unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on all purchases. A special 2% cash back credit card.

I have introduced a lot of promotions from our credit card issuers like Chase, Discover Card and American Express. Actually, there are many more promotions from other credit card issuers. PayPal is running huge promotions via corporate with other online merchants like buy.com. This is a summary of holiday promotions from many credit card issuers and other payment processing providers.

Discover Card

The most famous and popular promotion from Discover Card is the Discover Mall Promotion. I first reported this promotion in September. You can take the chance to save with a  $20 Discover Gift Card for every $200 you spend on your Discover credit card at over 160 shopping malls nationwide through Jan. 4, 2009. According to the terms and rules, there is a limit of five gift cards per account with a total of $100 value. No enrollment is necessary. The process is quite simple, take your receipts with you to the customer service at each participating mall and the officers there will issue a $20 Discover Gift card for every $200.

Chase

First of all, the famous Chase Rewards Plus program is offering cash back for shopping online through the Chase Rewards Plus. Chase Freedom Cardholders are automatically enrolled in the program. You can get up to 20% cash back from top online retailers.

Chase is also running the Holiday Bonus Rewards promotion. This seems to be a targeted offer, every registered cardholder can receive a $25 Target Gift Card for purchases exceeding certain threshold amounts in preset categories made from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. The promotion website is here. You can visit the website to see whether you are eligible or not and how to get the $25 gift card. If you register you credit card at the chase bonus website, you can see other wonderful promotions like: 500 bonus points for adding an authorized user to your account, 1,000 bonus points for enrolling at Chase Online, and 2,500 bonus points for signing on for Chase Fraud Detector.

Bank of America

Bank of America is offering $10 for every $100 you spend getting around the New York City. The promotion website is here. You have to enroll your Bank of America visa credit card to be eligible to get the $10 cash back. Maximum amount you can get is $100.

Visa

Visa is running discount promotions with many top merchants. The promotion details can be found at visa.com. Visit the visa.com and find out the promotion details at each merchant. Print out valuable coupons with 20% or more savings. The promotions cover all you need for the holiday season. But you have to have a Visa credit card to use those coupons.

MasterCard

MasterCard is also running a wonderful promotion with Home Depot. You can get the details of the promotion by visiting the MasterCard Overjoy of Giving website. The promotion offers every MasterCard cardholder a chance to win two identical prizes — one to keep and the other to give. Winners will have the chance to receive two identical cars, trips, shopping sprees or home makeovers courtesy of The Home Depot. The rule is very simple: every time you use your MasterCard to make a purchase during the promotion period ( Nov. 1 and Jan. 2, 2009) you will automatically get a chance to win that week’s sweepstakes.

You can also visit MasterCard website to find the latest discount information for using your MasterCard credit card.

I believe this is great news for most credit card users but a nightmare for the credit card issuers. The Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Reserve and National Credit Union Administration has approved a new rule set to take effect in July 2010 that will regulate credit card companies’ ability to raise interest rates and how they apply payments to existing balances. The government is aimed to stop the “unfair and deceptive” practices used by credit card issuers.

The Washington Post first reported the new rules. The new rules allow credit card companies to raise interest rates only on new credit cards and future purchases or advances, rather than on current balances. This is the most important change in the new credit card rules. This new term will definitely help a lot of credit card users who carry balances every month.

Some major/noticeable changes you might want to know:

Minimum time to pay your balance-the minimum time for a borrower to pay is 21 days. (Some credit card issuers are using 20 days now.)

NO two-cycle billing-this is commonly used in current credit card industry and unfair. Ne rules prohibit such tricks. This will dramatically reduce your interest burdens. (Under this method, when a consumer pays the entire account balance one month, but does not do so the following month, the bank calculates interest for the second month using the account balance for days in the previous billing cycle as well as the current cycle.)

Payment allocation-When different annual percentage rates (APRs) apply to different balances on a credit card account (for example, purchases, balance transfers, cash advances), the final rule requires banks to allocate payments exceeding the minimum payment to the balance with the highest rate first or prorata among all of the balances.

Changing of Interest Rate-The new rules will prohibit the credit card issuers to increase your interest rate for an existing balance. New rule requires banks to disclose at account opening all interest rates that will apply to the account and prohibits increases in those rates, except in certain circumstances. If your credit card issuer want to increase your interest rate on your credit cards, the increased new rate can’t be applied to previous balance.

NO high-fee subprime credit cards-Banks would be banned from financing security deposits and fees for credit availability (such as account-opening fees or membership fees) if charges assessed during the first 12 months would exceed 50 percent of the initial credit limit. Fees exceeding 25% of available credit must be spread over no less than the first six months that the account is open. This might cause trouble for some subprime credit cardholders. With less revenues, subprime credit card issuers might require the applicants to have better credit performance.

It’s obvious that the new rules will bring less revenues for credit card industry. it’s even projected that the new credit card rules might cost the credit card industry about 10 billion dollars. Our credit card issuers might have to bring new ways to make money. It’s also possible that the sign up bonuses might disappear for many credit card products. The full press release from Feds can be found here.

These days I received a lot of emails regarding canceled credit cards. It’s a truth that credit card issuers are closing a lot of credit card accounts. I think this is a very common question. There are many reasons that your credit card will be closed. Or sometimes you want to close your credit card account. I will briefly discuss how your closed credit card accounts will affect your credit score.

Actually there are many reasons for a credit card company to close your credit cards. The NO. 1 reason is low activity associated with your credit card. Credit card companies are losing money to maintain a dormant accounts. Meanwhile, unused credit card accounts usually have higher risk in terms of identity theft. The other reason is the credit card companies determine that you are at the risk of credit default. Thus they want to close your credit card accounts. Note: credit card company will access to your credit report regularly (once per month). Of course, the reason why your credit card account is closed is never clearly stated in the letter mailed to you.

Whether your credit score will be affected or not by closing your credit card account depends on your credit history with this credit card and other cards. If the closed account is the oldest one in your credit report, unfortunately, you credit score will decrease for several points. The length of time your accounts have been open is the third most important factor in your FICO score. Plus, you should also remember that closing an account will also reduce the available credit (increase the ratio of the balance to credit) which could also lower your credit score.

However, if you have a lot of other credit cards on hand and are still active and you have a relatively high credit score (>720), the closure of a credit card account will not affect your credit score too much. If the closed credit card is not the one that has the longest history, then you have nothing to worry about. But if you have a slim credit history and very few credit cards, it may be wise to keep your credit card active. In case your credit card is closed, you can always call them up and request them to reopen the account.

Some readers might just want to open a new credit account for sign up bonus ($250 or $150 or $100 or even $50). Then you might want to close the credit card account after you receive the bonus. I will say it’s OK to do this. There is nothing to worry about as long as you have enough active credit cards accounts.

American Express is one of my favorite credit card issuers at U.S. (another one is Chase). I like the high quality customer service and great credit card products provided by American Express. Yes, I know they have the famous “Financial Review“. American Express was ranked highest in 2008 J.D. Power credit card satisfaction study. And the great news is American Express again tops on the most trusted companies list this year!

American Express remains on top of a list of most trusted U.S. companies for the fifth consecutive year. This news is released by Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe. The list is aimed to provide the survey result of the most trusted companies for privacy. According to the survey report, the study asked 6,486 adult-aged U.S. consumers which companies they thought were most trustworthy and which did the best job safeguarding personal information. A total of 706 companies were named by consumers; 211 made the final list of most trusted companies.

There are many other big companies on the list. eBay Inc. was ranked NO. 2. IBM was ranked NO. 3 and Amazon.com was ranked NO. 4. Apple Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc. are all new on the list. Google, Countrywide Financial, Bank of American all dropped out of the top 20.

I’m supurised to not see Citi, Chase and Discover on the top 20. It’s very important for the credit card companies to proctect the privacy of their customers. I am glad to see the Charles Schwab, eLoan and US Bank are on the top 20. The full report of this survey can be found at truste.org.