MyCardBlog

I came across  an article that titled “BofA to charge annual fees on rewards cards” at msnbc.com. It seems that the credit card holders of Bank of America should be warned before the policy to be effective soon. Rumors said that all of the Bank of America rewards credit card will be charged a $29~$99 annual fees starting next year.

According to the article, Bank of America will fist test this strategy to see what the feedback is. But there is no actual plan yet. Betty Riess, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said the fee is being “tested” on 1 percent of its credit card accounts globally, but declined to give specific numbers.

So the question is how they could choose the 1% credit card accounts?

Here is the answer:

The Bank of America accounts that will be charged fees were selected based on “risk and profitability,” Riess said. That means customers in good standing who never carried a balance — and never incurred interest charges or late fees — could be among those getting notices.

Customers are told that they can reject the fee, but will subsequently have their account closed. The deadline to reject the change of terms is Dec. 16.

SO please take a look at the mails from Bank of America in the next following months.

I’m writing this post because I find that many of you might be not aware that if your apartment is listed at Rent.com (an Ebay company), you are eligible to get $100 visa Rewards Card from Rent.com. I just received this $100 visa rewards card today so this promotion should work.

The process to get the $100 rewards card is pretty easy. All you have to do is using Rent.com to find your new apartment. If you find an apartment that features the $100 Reward Card and tell the leasing office that you found the property on “Rent.com” when you visit. After you lease, just report your lease on the Rent.com website. And then Rent.com will take care of everything!

But please be advised that not all of properties listed at Rent.com will award $100 rewards card. You have to find the ones that features the $100 Rewards card. That how they work:

Some properties featured on our site pay us a fee only when their Rent.com advertisement results in a lease. When a renter reports their lease at one of those properties to us, we know to contact that property to collect our advertising fee. So for those properties, we reward renters for telling us about their lease by offering a $100 prepaid Visa® debit card!

More information about this $100 visa rewards card is here. According to the rule, you have to report your lease to Rent.com within 60 days of move-in. It takes about 6~9 weeks to receive the $100 rewards card after you report your lease to Rent.com. Good Luck!!!

Chase Freedom Card is not a great rewards card for your general purchases now. And this credit card always offers $50 sign up bonus for new customers. Now this Chase Freedom Card is offering $100 bonus via the link: http://www.chasefreedomnow.com/100-cash-back/. If you visit the regular www.chasefreedomnow.com, they still offer $50 bonus. So it is a great chance to earn $100 bonus.

Note about how to get the $100 bonus:

You will receive $100 in bonus rebates with this bonus offer, which can be redeemed for a $100 check. To qualify and receive your bonus, you must make qualifying transactions totaling $500 or more during the first 3 months from account opening. Qualifying transactions include purchases, balance transfers, and any checks that are used to access your account, and exclude cash advances. After qualifying, please allow 6 to 8 weeks for bonus rebates to post to your account. To be eligible for this bonus offer, account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts. Existing cardmembers/accounts are not eligible for this bonus offer.

This Chase Freedom Card is offering 1% cashback now. This card is also offering 0% introductory APR on purchases. Length of your introductory period will be either 12 billing cycles from account opening for purchases or 6 billing cycles from account opening for purchases depending on our review of your application and credit history.

Today I received an email from PayPal that there is a $100 bonus for using Bill Me Later on PayPal. I think this is a great opportunity for people who have good credit and can pay off bills on time using Bill Me Later. The link to this promotion page is here ($100 bonus).

The rule of this promotion is pretty simple:

• You’ll receive up to $100 off as a credit. If you spend less than the offer amount, your discount will be equal to the amount of your purchase (before tax and shipping). For example, if your offer is “up to $100 off” and you spend $5, you will receive a discount of $5. Please allow 1-2 billing cycles for this amount to be reflected on your Bill Me Later statement.
• It’s a limited time offer that’s only available through PayPal. Complete your purchase before midnight ET on October 31st, 2009 to receive this offer. Limit one per customer.
• Select “Yes, I’d like No Payments for 90 Days…” to be eligible to receive the promotional offer.

Interestingly, there are other similar offers but with different bonus amounts: $25, $10 and even $0. (you only need to change the amount off at the above link) So it is possible that this is a invitation-only event which means that if you do not receive the email from PayPal associated with your email address, you are not eligible to get the $100 bonus.

Bill Me Later is not a PayPal company and offers finance services for online shopping. If you pay off the balance in full before the promotion date, you will not be charged money by Bill Me Later. Otherwise you have to pay a little fees.

Another point you need to know is when you apply for the Bill Me Later account, you are subjected to a “Hard Pull“.

Recently, we have seen a lot of sing up bonus opportunities from major US banks. Some are even offering up to $300 bonus! Now, KeyBank is offering $200 bonus at new branched opened in 2009 in Colorado state. If you happened to be a resident at Colorado and have a new Key Bank branch nearby, please do not miss this chance. You can also forward this post to your friends at Colorado.

This $200 bonus promotion is advertised at Denver Post (link) but not at Key Bank’s website.

Rules to get the $200 bonus:

• open a qualifying relationship package checking account by 12/4/09
• make one debit card transaction
• make a combination of two direct deposits and/or automatic payments each of $100 or more by 2/5/10

These new branches are located in the Colorado cities like Denver, Aurora, Louisville, Littleton, Centennial and Thornton.

Please be advised that this is a local only opportunity. Key Bank is not accepting internet account application now.

Greent Dot, the largest prepaid debit card issuer, has teamed with Paypal to let Green Dot prepaid debit card users to load their money to Paypal account directly via the Greent Dot’s MoneyPak. Usually, when a user wants to use Paypal, he or she needs to have a valid US bank account or credit card to be eligible to register at Paypal. This move will let people to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted without the need for a bank account or credit card.

MoneyPak, a prepaid debit card, can be purchased with cash at a retail store like Walmart, CVS/pharmacy, Kmart, Rite Aid and Walgreens. The money in the prepaid debit card then can be loaded directly into a PayPal account and used to shop online anywhere PayPal is accepted, including eBay.

The new MoneyPak has more functions than just load the money to PayPal account. For example, MoneyPak allows people to reload prepaid cards, make cash payments, pay bills and fund other accounts. MoneyPak is powered by Green Dot’s industry-leading cash acceptance network, and costs $4.95 or less.

More details can be found at http://www.moneypak.com.

It seems that a lot of regional banks are offering sign up bonus for new customers recently. Now Northwest Savings Bank is offering a $100 bonus for opening a new Switch Checking Account. This is an easy $100 to make. If you are luckily to be a resident of the states which have Northwest branches, you should take this chance to earn this $100 bonus.

How to get the $100 bonus from Northwest Savings Bank?

• $100 minimum initial deposit
• Customers must set up a monthly direct deposit of $100 or more (Direct Deposit is defined as a Direct Deposit of a paycheck, pension, Social Security or other regular monthly income electronically deposited into the new account)

$100 credit will be posted to the account within 7 days of the first verified Direct Deposit. You can either open a new account online through the promotion page or print a PDF file and take it to the local branches. Northwest Savings Bank has branches at Florida, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Dime Savings Bank at New York is offering huge sign up bonus from which you can earn up to $300. This is the best sign up bonus in this year as far as I know. This promotion is even better than the Citizens Bank’s $220 bonus mentioned several days ago. I have never seen a bank like Dime Savings would place their promotion in their website so clearly. The promotion is listed as the start landing page of the homepage of Dime Savings Bank (www.dimewill.com). The promotion is scheduled to end on 11/15/09. There are two different accounts to choose from: (1)  Prime Dime Rewards Checking-$300 bonus; (2) Dime Rewards Checking-$225.

How to get the $300 bonus from the Prime Dime Rewards Checking Account?

• $100 for opening a new account opening (paid on the spot!)
• $100 for setting up direct deposit to the new account
• $100 for completing two online bill payments

The last two awards will be deposited to your account after 6 months.

The $225 bonus for the Dime Rewards Checking Account is similar to above Prime account other than that only $75 is awarded for each banking activity.

The only difference between Prime and non-prime account is the requirement of average daily balance. For the Prime Dime Rewards Checking Account, $15 monthly maintenance fee will be charged if average daily balance is under $5,000. For the Dime Rewards Checking Account, $12 monthly maintenance fee will be charged if average daily balance is under $2,500.

This account can be opened nationwide and a hard inquiry will be performed by the Dime Savings Bank.