MyCardBlog

I just introduced the best credit card offers from Kiplinger.com. As I indicated in the post, the best credit card means you should find one credit card that fits your spending styles. If you are short of some cash and want to use a credit card to consolidate your credit card balances, the Associated Bank Platinum Credit Card is a good choice for you.

This credit card features 0% APR on balance transfer for up to 12 months. Plus there is no balance transaction fees associated with the balance transaction. Note that the 5% transaction fee is typical right now in the credit card industry. This is a no-annual-fee credit card.

The details of this credit card can be found here. This credit card is actually issued and maintained by Citi. After you click the “Apply Now” button, you can go to Citi website to apply for this credit card. But it seems Citi hided this credit card from its website.

As indicated on its own website, this credit card is aimed to save money for you. So you can feel free to apply for this credit card and do balance transfer with it.

• You can consolidate your higher-rate balances with a low, promotional rate on Balance Transfers for the first 12 months.
• No Annual Fee and no Balance transfer fees with the offer described above.

Another feature I want to mention is the APR for purchase is only 7.99%. This is a really low rate if you are carrying balances. This credit card also provides Free Personalized Checks. Use your free supply of  personalized checks to make purchases, get extra cash or transfer balances. You can even use your personalized checks where credit cards are not accepted.

0% APR on Balance Transfer without balance transfer fees is a really great deal during current finance situation. You can also deposit those money to high interest savings accounts or CDs.

Associated Bank is the 41st largest bank holding company in the United States.

Sony just released a new credit card product via partnership with Chase—the PlayStation Visa Card. This is a special credit card product for PlayStation Fans. As indicated in the PlayStatioin blog, this credit card is ”to offer fans a new way to show off their PlayStation pride and earn reward points towards the purchase of PlayStation and SONY products.”

What’s special with this PlayStation Visa Credit Card?

First of all, you can get a PlayStation 3 with only $249! Since the introductory of the PlayStation Credit Card, the approved credit card members can get a new PlayStation 3 for only $249. That is $150 off a regular PlayStation 3. This promotion is valid until December 31, 2008. To take advantage of this offer, you can go to to www.sony.com/newpscard to get instant approval for your card, and an immediate $150 credit when you purchase a PS3 directly through the website. Or you can do this in another way: you can go www.sony.com/getpscard to apply for the card and upon receipt of the card, use it at any authorized PlayStation retailer to purchase a PS3. The $150 credit will show up on your billing statement.

If you are not a PlayStation fan, you can sell off that PlayStation 3 on eBay for a profit!

Will there be a Wii credit card soon?

I just mentioned the $50 bonus from ShareBuilder which is a online based brokerage company. Today I’m going to introduce the new credit card product from another broker—Charles Schwab. Charles Schwab is one of the largest discount brokers in the world. It’s generally believed that Schwab offers the same services as traditional brokerages but with lower commissions and fees than many other brokers.

Besides discount brokerage, the company offers a wide range of investment research, mutual funds, annuities, bond trading, and now checking and mortgages through its Charles Schwab Bank. The Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking Account is one of the best checking accounts online. It was rated at the Best Checking Account by Money Magazine in May 2008. Indeed, the rate offered by the Charles Schwab is really high—1.5% APY without balance requirement! Plus there is no minimum balance requirement for this account, and no monthly service fees associated with this account. Schwab will even reimburse you for any ATM fees charged by other banks. I strongly suggest you open a checking account at Charles Schwab for high interest rate they offered as a checking account. (This APY is also comparable to other savings accounts.)

The most exciting part is the new credit card product launched by Schwab recently. The name of the new card is Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Signature Card. The reason why I want to introduce the new credit card product is the excellent cash back program Charles Schwab Bank offered for this credit card.

You can get unlimited 2% cash back on this card without annual fees and minimum monthly purchase requirement. (The unlimited cash back is really a good choice for many eBayers.) Plus there is no foreign exchange fees associated with this credit card. The unlimited 2% cash back will deposited into your Schwab One brokerage account each month automatically.

If you already have a Schwab One brokerage account , you can apply for this credit card right away.

If you don’t have a Schwab One brokerage account yet, you can apply for the Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Signature Card first. Once you get approved for the credit card, you can open a new brokerage account at Charles Schwab.

You can also open a new credit card account by calling 866-724-9223, and use code FACYR4.

Please remember: to receive your 2% cash back rewards, you must have a Schwab One brokerage account (“Schwab One account”) linked to your Schwab Bank Invest First card.

The Chase Sony Card is a good card to keep for most of us, although the cash back program is not so good as the Chase Freedom Card or Discover More Card. The reason is very simple-the Sony Card is always offering great sign-up bonus and great cash back promotion each year in the March or April. For example, in 2007 many Sony Card members received $100 statement credit without any requirement. And in 2008, the Sony Card is offering 10,000 bonus points for spending more than $500 in a month which is equal to $100 cash back!

I have some posts about sign-up bonuses from the Chase Sony Card: $150 Bonus from Chase Sony Card and Get A Sony DSLR A350K for $449 with New Sony Card Approval. Today I realized that the Sony Card is offering $200 bonus at www.sonystyle.com. The link is here. If you go to the www.sonyrewards.com, you can only get a $50 bonus link. So if you want to get a new Sony Card, you’d better follow my link to sonystyle.com and then submit your application.

How to get the $200 bonus?

Your first single sales receipt purchase made at a SonyStyle store, including SonyStyle.com equal or greater than $299 (“Qualifying Purchase”) will automatically qualify you for a $100 Statement Credit. A $100 card credit will be applied to your Sony Card account 8-12 weeks after your first purchase (first purchase does not include balance transfer or balance transfer checks) account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment.

You will qualify for an additional $100 card credit if you charge to your Sony Card account a total of $1,500 or more by March 31, 2009. To qualify for these card credits, your account must be opened by 12/31/08 and first purchase must be made by 1/31/09. The additional $1,500 spend must be completed by 03/31/2009. The second credit of $100 will be applied 8-10 weeks after the qualifying period (3/31/2009).

The process to get the $200 bonus seems complicated but it’s still a good credit card deal to catch not to mention that the Chase Freedom Card has already changed the cash back program for new card approvals.

I have a review on the ShopDiscover Program developed by Discover Card. Frankly speaking, the cash back offered by the ShopDiscover Program is much higher than other cash back shopping websites. However, the obvious disadvantage of the ShopDiscover Program is the online merchants are not too many compared to other cash back websites. Today I realized that the ShopDiscover Program actually just added more stores for the coming shopping season. It’s a great time to use ShopDiscover to save money for the shopping season.

The ShopDiscover Program is a rewards program which will give you extra rewards in addition to the cash back or other rewards you can accumulate for online shopping through ShopDiscover. This is a similar program like Chase Rewards Plus, Bank of America Rewards Shopping Mall, and Citi Bonus Cash Center. You can earn extra cash back for shopping online through above mentioned websites.

The advantage of ShopDiscover Program is high cash back rate compared to other websites. For example, Sony offers 5% cash back at ShopDiscover but you can only get 4% cash back at ebates.com and 3% cash back from Chase Rewards Plus. You can get 5% cash back from Best Buy through ShopDiscover but you can only get 1% from ebates.com and 3% from Chase Rewards Plus. The difference is huge if you are shopping for a laptop, desktop or other electronics.

The disadvantage of the ShopDiscover Program is you have no way to track your click history thus you will miss your cash back for shopping through ShopDiscover. ebates.com and fatwallet.com will offer click history in your account thus you can know exactly when you placed the order. If the merchant missed your order, you can complain by providing the click history and your order confirmation. In this way, your cash back will never miss. But in ShopDiscover, you don’t have access to your click history and order confirmation email alone is not so useful sometimes. I personally missed a cash back reward from ShopDiscover which should give me $12.00 for purchasing an iPod touch at apple store (5% cash back is highest among other cash back websites.).

Some added online stores are:

Banana Republic 10%

Best Buy 5%

Dell 5%

EastBay 10%

Enterprise 10%

GAP 10%

Guess 10%

hotels.com 5%

Lenovo 5%

Old Navy 10%

Onlineshoes.com 15%

Ralphlauren.com 5%

Sony 5%

North Face 5%

I should also mention that you can get 5% cash back from Wlamart.com through ShopDiscover. This is the highest rate that I have ever seen.

In order to qualify to get the cash back, you have to shop through ShopDiscover (click the link at ShopDiscover) and place the order using a Discover Card (Any Discover Card will qualify.). The most popular Discover Card is the Discover More Card which offers 5% cash back on selected categories which change every quarter. Since Chase Freedom Card changed its new cash back rate, the Discover More Card is much better than the Chase Freedom Card. Another popular Discover Card is the Discover Open Road Card which offers 5% cash back on gasoline purchases.

Of course, there are other rewards sites for your reference:

ebates.com, fatwallet.com, cashrewardsplus.com, live.com/cashback, jellyfish.com, and mrrebates.com.

American Express is in trouble like every other financial companies nowadays. And now it has got the approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve to become a commercial bank which will allow American Express to gain the access to the huge bailout plan fund in the near future. This is said to be the last big independent credit card company that transforms to a bank holding company.

The reason for this transition is probably the increased number of credit-card holders failed to repay loans since the credit crisis. However, American Express is still keeping running credit card promotions to credit card holders. My last mention of the promotion from American Express was “American Express My Wishlist Teaser” which will be terminated on November 21, 2008. Another promotion that is worth mention is the $10 statement credit for shopping at walmart.com.

Today I received a mail from American Express indicating that I can use my Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express at walmart stores or walmart.com twice with at least $40 per transaction. The mail from American Express clearly indicates that

Receive a 20 $ statement credit on any American Express card account when you spend $40 or more two times at walmart stores or walmart.com between Nov 18 and Dec 18 2008.

The link to register your credit card to qualify for this offer is http://offers.amexnetwork.com/walmart.

You have to fill in your credit card number, expiration date, security code, billing zip code and name on the card.

This is a really easy money to get since you can simply buy two $50 walmart gift cards and you can get $20 back! This promotion is targeted to most of American Express credit cards like Simply Cash Business Card, and Blue Cash from American Express etc.

Fine print:

To be eligible to receive the $20 statement credit, you must be 18 or older, a holder of a valid consumer American Express Credit or Charge Card issued in the U.S. and you must have recieved this offer letting you know that you have been pre-enrolled in the campaign (a Registered Cardmemeber) To receive $20 Statement credit, Registered Cardmembers must complete 2 separate transaction of at least $40 or more at any Walmart store or online at www.walmart.com (each, an “Eligible Transaction”) between 11/18/08 and 11:59 PM EST on 12/18/2008.Only one registration per Cardmember account permitted. Certain American Express Cards, including, but not limited to , HealthCare Related Cards, Prepaid Cards, and Corporate cards, are not eligible for this offer. To receive offer, both transactions must be made on the same American Express card. Transactions made on another card account or a supplementary Card with different Card account number are not eligible. The $20 will be credited to the Card account as statement credit. Statement credits are generally issued within 5 business days upon completion of the 2 Eligible Transactions, but it may take up to 2 billing cycles from the date of you last Eligible Transaction for the statement credit to be posted to you account. Limit one statement credit per Cardmember.

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.

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!