MyCardBlog

You might have already observed that I seldom introduce some credit card issuers like Capital One, WaMu, and Advanta. The most frequently mentioned credit card issuers are Citi, Chase, American Express, Discover and Bank of America. I think the reason is Citi, Chase, American Express, Discover and Bank of America often offer some great promotions. Some small credit card issuers can’t afford the costs to get a new customer through promotions. So they seldom offer some great deals. However, we can’t ignore the fact that Advanta is a great small business card issuer. Hereby I will briefly introduce two credit cards offered by Advanta.

1. Advanta Life-of-Balance Platinum Card

This card would be a great substitute for those who often carry credit card balance. This card offers 2.99% APR on balance transfer for life! Of course, you have to make the balance transfer process in 3 months after you get approved. More importantly, there is not balance transfer fees associate with this card! If you need some emergency money, this card would be your great choice. Besides the great balance transfer offer, you can still get up to 6% cash back on certain places at your choice.

Up to 6% Cash Back on Gasoline and Diesel Fuel and Up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Utilities and Telecommunications and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Computers and Office Supplies and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Dining Expenses and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Building Supplies and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases

You can choose one of the above mentioned rewards program by calling customer service. Or you can also enroll in a free travel rewards program! This card is really awesome!

2. Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards Options

This card also offer great balance transfer offer—0% APR on balance transfer for up to 15 months! After that the rate is fixed at 7.99% APR. Plus you can earn up to 5% cash back on certain purchases (Cash Back rewards are also earned on Bonus Qualifying purchases, which include purchases in the following categories: “gasoline and diesel fuel,” “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies,” “online advertising services,” and “utilities and telecommunications.”) However, you can only earn 5% cash back on the the first $1200 that spent on above categories. You may also choose the no fee travel rewards program and earn unlimited rewards.

Advanta Business Cards are rated as the best business cards by the SmartMoney Magezine in 2006. Advanta was ranked among the “America’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune magazine.

AS I mentioned previously, everyone can apply for business cards although you don’t own a business entity. You can choose “proprietorship” at the “business type” and put in your own name as your “business name”. You can also transfer balance from your own personal cards to Advanta Business Cards. One thing I should point out is their credit check is a little bit trick. You must have 2 years solid credit history.

Sony Card is on the rock! If you make a redemption before March 31, 2008, you will get another 500 bonus points from sony rewards. It’s a pretty good deal especially when you can redeem some music downloads and movie tickets which essentially will cost you only about 1000 sony points. The 500 bonus points make your redemption get rewarded!

It’s very simple to get the 500 bonus points:
1. Browse the Rewards Catalog.

2. Add the items you want to your shopping cart.

3. Proceed to checkout — your 500 bonus points will be credited to your account (Offer is limited to only one redemption for an account and the bonus points will be credited to your account within 4~8 weeks after March 31, 2008).

According to the terms and conditions, you can choose anything in the rewards catalog.

Considering the ongoing 10,000 points promotion, the sony card is really on the rock! If you currently don’t have a sony card, you can find a link to get 10,000 bonus sony points. You might be also interested in this post.

I received an email from American Express today indicating that if I set up automatic bill pay for my cable bills, I would get 2,500 bonus points. I think this is a great deal to jump in!

According to the fine print, this is a targeted offer for those solicited card members only. This offer is good from March1 to march 31, 2008. Cable providers include: Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Direct TV, Dish network and Time Warner Cable.

The enrollment process is very simple: You first have to have your American Express online ID and password, and your cable provider’s account information including online ID and password (If you don’t have one, they will set up for you.).

Of course, you must be enrolled in the Membership Rewards Program which will provide the bonus points for you. This rewards program is available to some basic personal American Express Cards like: Blue Cash, Blue, Preferred Rewards Gold Card, Preferred Rewards Green Card and so on. Enroll this promotion here.

The Blue Cash from American Express is rated as the best cash rebate card by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. A few friends have asked why this card would be so popular. Here’s my personal review for this card:

Actually the big name of Blue Cash from American Express comes from the “UP to 5% cash back”. However, at the bottom of the application page, you can find the cash rewards details:

^”Everyday Purchases” are Eligible Purchases made at U.S. supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores, in each case that are not departments of superstores or warehouse clubs.

Until you spend at least $6,500 total on the card, you receive 1% at grocery stores, gas stations and drugstores, and 0.5% on everything else. After you reach the $6,500 point, you can start earning the full 5% on grocery/gas/drugs and 1.5% on everything else.

In order to get that $6,500 point, you have to spend at least $6500/12=$542 per month. It’s quite understandable to hear the complains about this card. It’s just because they can charge more than $500 per month one a single credit card. So it’s quite straightforward that this Blue Cash from American Express is only suitable for those who spend a lot on credit card and can easily reach the $6,500 threshold.

Other thoughts:

If you can pay your rent online with your credit card, I think this is a right card for you. Because you can easily spend $6,500 on this card.

If you prefer simplicity and only want to use one card for all your expense, then this might be a right card for you.

In a word, you have to make a lot of purchases on gas/drugstores/groceries and can easily pass the $6,500 point early in a year.

If you are a college student, I suggest the Citi mtvU card for college students (review).

Or you can also think of the Chase Freedom Card.

I have a post about the promotion from Sony Rewards. (here) I was not very sure about the promotion at that time, so I added “Possible” at the beginning of the title. Today I called sony rewards customer service (866-556-7669) today and verified the promotion.

In order to receive the 10,000 bonus points, you have to: 1). You must have a Sony Card in good standing and an active Sony Rewards account. If you don’t have the rewards account, you can create one to become eligible. 2). You must sign on to Sony Rewards at least once during the promotion period (2/15/2008 – 3/31/2008). 3). You must charge a total of at least $500 in purchases on the Sony Card during the promotion period. The purchases do not have to be Sony product.

The link sony.com/sonycard/flyfree is not to assure you that you are enrolled in the program. However, it’s to tell you that there’s a such promotion. This promotion applies to Sony Card Accounts automatically. You won’t get any confirmation information from sony rewards. I was also told by the customer representative that the free companion ticket was also a part of the promotion starting from April 1st and you only have to spend $300 on that card to get a companion ticket.

If you can’t spend more than $500 on this card, I suggest you buy some gift cards from Wal-mart, Target, bestBuy or Amazon.Com. The 10,000 points will be your reward for spending $500 on Chase Sony Card.

What Can We Do with 10,000 Points?

The Sony NWZS615FRED/PNK 2GB Walkman Video MP3 Player is the best bet. This video player will cost you $92 at Amazon.Com. At Sony Rewards, you can redeem this video player with only 9,995 points. Or you can consider the 815 version which will cost you 2,000 points more.

You can also consider the Sony CMTBX1 CMT Micro Component System with MP3 Playback which will cost you $99 at Amazon.Com. You can redeem it for only 9,995 points at sony rewards.

You can also redeem 5,000 points for a $50 Blockbuster gift card.

If you don’t have a sony card yet, you can apply a new sony card through this link and receive 10,000 bonus points.

Several days ago I received a mail from Sony Rewards: Spend $500 between 02/15/2008 and 03/31/2008 and get 10,000 bonus Sony Rewards Points in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.

“Spend $500 on your Sony card between February 15 and March 31, 2008 and get 10,000 Sony Rewards bonus points, in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.” The second part of the offer is “Spend $300 from April 1 to June 30, 2008 and get a free companion airline ticket voucher with purchase of an adult round-trip ticket.” The bonus points will be posted in 4~12 weeks after 31 March.

I don’t know whether this is a targeted offer or not. I haven’t use this card for a long long time. There is no promotion code you can find in the mail. But I think the link may be helpful to any sony cardmember. If you have an account at SonyRewards, you can click login. If you haven’t registered your sony card yet, click register to finish the registration process. But what I would tell you is after login sony rewards, you still don’t know anything about this offer. My suggestion is make the purchases according to promotion and save the necessary proofs in case you might need them. Anyway, I will give it a try. if you can’t get the bonus points, your loss would be $500*2% cash back=$10. But you can kick Chase/Sony out forever.

I seldom introduce the credit cards from Bank of America, although they are the largest credit card issuer in U.S. The reasons are very simple—bad rewards program & few sign-up bonuses. The most generous one was last July when the Iowa Rewards Credit Card from Bank of American was offering 2,5000 sign-up bonus points which could be redeemed for $250. And the most recent one was the Rewards American Express Card which offered $100 bonus.

This time you can get $50 statement credit from Bank of America when you sign up for the World MasterCard with WorldPoints. (Thanks to bugetcent.net for informing this deal!) According to the terms and conditions, in order to get the $50 bonus, you have to spend $25 on that card. The $50 bonus will be credited to your account within 8-12 weeks after you make the qualified purchases.

You may also want to consider the $75 bonus from MyAccess Checking account. (Previously they were offering $100.) Bonus from MyAccess Checking account is the easiest money to get. This checking account features no direct deposit needed, no minimum balance required and no monthly fees! Promotion code: AOU020608 is needed. Another requirement is you have to be a Bank of America credit card holder first, so take the chance to get a World MasterCard with WorldPoints first!

After you open the MyAccess Checking account, you may also want to play “BOA Keep the Change” which will offer you $250! A saving account associated with the checking account is needed. Overall, you can get $375 from Bank of America!

A lot of friends applied for Starwood Preferred Guest Card and are waiting for the 10,000 bonus points. Recently, several readers sent me emails about the 10,000 bonus points. They have been using this card for more than 3 months and still hasn’t received the bonus points in their SPG accounts. So I sent an email to SPG program. Well, this is just a remind that you may expect a delay on receiving the 10,000 bonus points. Following is what I got:

Dear Mr. David,

Thank you for your recent email concerning your Starwood Preferred Guest account. I welcome this opportunity to assist you.

I regret the delay in this response. We have received a deluge of e-mail correspondence and have not been able to respond in the timely manner that our members fully deserve.

There has been an unfortunate technical glitch delaying the transfer from American Express into your Starwood Preferred Guest account. American Express is working to resolve this issue and once this has been resolved the 10,000 Starpoints will credit automatically.

I apologize for any frustration and disappointment you may have experienced.

I would also like to invite you to visit our special promotions page to see if you are eligible for any upcoming promotions.

We appreciate your continued loyalty to the Starwood Preferred Guest program and welcome any further questions or concerns. Please feel free to contact us at Starwood.preferred.guest@starwoodhotels.com.

Best Regards,

XXXX
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

If you have a Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express, you may want to click the “special promotions page” as indicated in the email and try you luck to see whether you can get a special offer or not.

As I have reviewed this card before (see this post), it’s a wonderful card if you expect to earn travel rewards. It’s also ranked as one of the best travel rewarding credit card (see this post). 9,000 starpoints can be redeemed as $100 Amazon.Com gift certificate. Or you can redeem the 10,000 bonus points for 3 free night stays at Starwood Hotels. Business version of this card is also available. (Don’t know how to apply for business card? click here.)

• Earn 10,000 Starpoints® with your first purchase — enough for up to 3 free nights at a category 1 or 2 hotel.
• Earn 15,000 bonus Starpoints after you spend $15,000 in 6 months
• Use Starpoints® for free nights and upgrades at over 825 participating Starwood hotels and resorts in 95 countries
• Transfer Starpoints® — almost always on a 1:1 basis — to the frequent flyer programs of over 30 major airlines
• Earn one Starpoint® for every dollar you spend and double Starpoints® at participating Starwood properties and retail partners
• No annual fee for the first year and $45 thereafter
• Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds.