MyCardBlog

This is a guest post from Debbie Dragon.

Rewards programs through credit cards are the result of credit card company competition. When they began, the typical rewards program offered a small percentage of cash back on all purchases made with the credit card, in order to encourage new customers to apply for the card.

As competition continues to rule the industry, credit card companies have had to improve on the types of rewards offered to continue attracting new customers to their card over a different card. Today’s rewards programs offer quite a bit more than 1% cash back! When used correctly, there are many rewards programs that can really benefit cardholders – including those that help you pay down your mortgage.

It’s a bit strange to think a credit card could help you pay down your mortgage – but if you choose a card with mortgage rewards and learn how to use it effectively, you could end up paying your mortgage off sooner than expected and without any additional cost to you.

Mortgage rewards credit cards give you a percentage of your purchases back in the form of rebates applied to your mortgage.You may get up to 6% cash back on home related purchases (improvements, utilities, etc), and smaller amounts of cash back on other purchases. Of course, if you just go out and start swiping your card like a Desperate Housewife, you’re going to find yourself owing more in interest and finance fees on your card purchases than you earn in mortgage rebates.

Here’s how to make your mortgage rewards credit card work for you:

• Each time you need to pay for something or make a purchase throughout the month, put it on your mortgage rewards credit card.
• Record the transaction in your check register, as if you paid for it with cash.
• When the statement comes in the mail, write a single check or make a single online payment to pay the balance in full. You’ll already have the money because you’ve been deducting it from your check register the entire month.

This strategy allows you to spend as much as possible on the credit card to get the most rewards, but without going into debt that you can’t repay.

If you aren’t a homeowner yet, you can still benefit from mortgage credit card rewards if you choose a card that lets you grow your earned credits towards the purchase of your dream home. 

Some cards offering mortgage rewards programs:

• Bank of America’s Home Advantage Card
• GMAC Mortgage Equity Rewards MasterCard
• Countrywide Credit Card Rewards Platinum Visa

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Debbie Dragon is a writer for CreditorWeb.com where she writes about credit cards, rewards programs and general finance.

Choose a right gas rewards card at the pump can save a lot of money each year. According to latest study, if you choose a rewards credit card at the pump instead of cash, you can save at least $100 or more each year. If you are driving a SUV or truck, then a gas rewards credit card is a must in your wallet. Anyway, the right gas rewards card eases your pain at the pump.

I have reviewed and summarized the best gas rewards cards in my previous posts: 5 Top Rated Gas Rebate Cards and Best Gas Cards Roundup. This post is kind of reminder for many mycardblog.com readers. Gas rewards cards are similar to cash back rewards cards with some enhancements directed at those looking to save money on gas. Most gas rewards cards offer a high rate of cash back at gas stations and relatively low rate of cash back on other purchases. In most cases, you have to carry one general rewards card and one gas rewards card in your wallet to maximum your rewards. Following are some gas rewards cards that I high recommended:

1. TrueEarnings Business Card from American Express and Costco: This card offers 5% cash back on gasoline purchases. (Note: Exclude gas purchased at warehouse clubs other than Costco, superstores or supermarkets. For example, if you fill your tank at Costco gas stations, you can’t get full 5% cash back. However, if you purchase gas at BP, Marathon, or Shell gas stations, you can get 5% cash back. ) This is a business card (Individuals can still apply for a business card!). The non-business version only offers 3% cash back which is just as good as the Chase Freedom Card. That’s why I recommend the business version. Besides the cash back from the gas stations, you can also get 3% cash back at restaurants and 2% cash back for traveling. Since the American Express SimplyCash card changed the cash back rate on gas from 5% to 3%, this card is the best gas rewards card so far.

2. Dicover Open Road Card: If you ask me which credit card is the best from Discover, I would say the Discover Open Road. Although the Discover More is a good credit card, the rewards categories from which you can get 5% cash back change every quarter. Some might can’t catch it. The only drawback of this card is you can only get 5% from the first $100 spent on gas and auto maintenance purchases every month.

3. Chase BP Visa Rewards Card: If you have a BP location near your home or you always purchase gas at BP gas stations, you should consider this card. You can get 10% cash back for any gasoline purchases made at BP gas stations in the first 2 months. And after that, you can continue to get 5% cash back at any BP gas station.

The gas companies themselves would like to partake in the money that credit cards generate, so many have a branded credit card issued by credit card companies. You can also look at the Shell Platinum MasterCard from Citi if you visit Shell gas stations a lot.

4. National City Everyday Rewards Visa Card: This card only offers 4% cash back on gasoline purchases. But you can also get 2% cash back at restaurants. A brief review can be found here.

5. Blue Cash from American Express: You will find out that this card is always a top rated cash back credit card at every credit card website. You will earn full 5% on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases after you spend $6,500 in the year. If you are a big spender, this card is good for you. However, if you can’t spend $6,500 in a year, please forget about it.

Whenever you  want to choose a gas rewards credit card, you should carefully compare each credit card first. You should also be aware that most credit card have a limit of $75 at the pump.

There is not doubt that credit card is one of the most powerful purchasing tools in the world. You can use a credit card to buy groceries at your local grocery stores, pay bills online, purchase electronics like MP3s, HDTVs, laptops etc., and fill your tank at pumps. Billions of transactions are done through credit card each year at US. Credit card companies even offer sign-up bonuses and promotional rates now and then. If you are a smart credit card user, you can save a lot of money by choosing a right credit card for you. However, there are still some common basics about credit card that you might not know.

1. Merchants can’t require a minimum transaction amount!

There are many grocery stores or Chinese restaurants that require you to pay by cash if your purchase is under a minimum amount pre-set by the store. This is obviously violate the credit card issuer’s merchant agreement. Under no conditions that a merchant can refuse to accept a credit card transaction because of a minimum.

Visa indicates that: Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

MasterCard indicates that: A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.

Anyway the merchants can not establish minimum or maximum amounts as a condition for accepting a Card. You can find similar requirements from Discover card and American Express.

2. Merchants have the right to refuse the unsigned credit card.

When you receive the welcome package from your credit card issuer, you can see “Not Valid Unless Signed” at the back of your credit card. This is quite understandable. The reason why the credit card companies require you to sign at the back of your credit card is to minimize the risk of credit card fraud.

Visa indicates: While checking card security features, you should also make sure that the card is signed. An unsigned card is considered invalid and should not be accepted. If a customer gives you an unsigned card, the following steps must be taken: 1). Check the cardholder’s ID. 2). Ask the customer to sign the card and then compare the signature on the card to the signature on the ID. “See ID” or “Ask for ID” is not a valid substitute for a signature.

3. Merchants can not charge a surcharge for using a credit card.

I know some Chinese restaurants always charge extra amount of money for using a credit card as payment. $0.5 is very typical for them. This violates the merchant agreement!

Visa requires: Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment.

MasterCard requires: A Merchant must not directly or indirectly require any Cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any Merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a Transaction. A Merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments. A Merchant is permitted to charge a fee (such as a bona fide commission, postage, expedited service or convenience fees, and the like) if the fee is imposed on all like transactions regardless of the form of payment used, or as the Corporation has expressly permitted in writing.

4. Merchants cannot require you to present ID

I have two posts about how to deal with “Show ID with Credit Card” problem. (post 1 and post 2) Some merchants may require you to present your ID at  checkout but it’s a violation of the rules.

Visa: When should you ask a cardholder for an official government ID? Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to
provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. Laws in several states also make it illegal for merchants to write a cardholder’s personal information, such as an address or phone number, on a sales receipt.

5. Merchants are not allowed to place a hold for the estimated tip

The estimated tip is really common nowadays at restaurants. For example, if you go to dinner and final amount is $200 and you pay with a credit card, the restaurant might  try to “authorize” your card for $230–a 15% tip. Believe it or not, it’s a violation! What will happen if you don’t like their services and want to offer only 10% tip? Or you may want to leave cash tip! There is no way that a merchant can hold an extra amount of money to estimate your payment!

Visa requires: For restaurant, taxicabs, limousines, bars, taverns, beauty/barber shops, health/beauty spa merchants transactions with a Visa credit or debit card, authorize only for the known amount, not the transaction amount plus estimated tip. Cardholders now have the ability to check their credit or checking accounts almost instantaneously via phone, the Internet, or an ATM. Consequently, an authorization that includes an estimated tip can reduce a cardholder’s available funds or credit by an unrecognizable or unexpected amount.

If you meet any of above mentioned circumstances, you can call Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card or American Express. Or you can call the numer at the back of your credit card.

I received an email from Daren who is “a loyal MyCardBlog.com” reader about his newly launched App-O-Rama. Daren completed his AOR a few weeks ago, and “it’s time to report the results and some nuggets of info and techniques gleaned in the process.”

App-O-Rama is a concentrated spree of applying for new credit and higher credit limits. The most important thing to do before an AOR is to pretty up your credit scores to present the most attractive picture to potential creditors. The trick of an AOR is by applying for many credit cards in a short time period (in an hour or so), you don’t let the creditors see the new accounts and inquiries while they’re considering your applications. You chances to get approved by a credit card issuer is significantly increased in this strategy. For brief introduction of App-O-Rama, you can refer to App-O-Rama. For detailed guidance on how to prepare an AOR, you can refer to App-O-Rama (AOR): Profting from Credit.

Let’s see how Daren prepared his AOR.

Pre-AOR Preparation

1. Increase current credit cards’ limit through online account. (NO way with Chase to avoid hard pull, so I gave up with Chase Card.)

2. Pay off all of credit card balances.

3. Find out all of the credit cards that I would apply for and get the links to those credit cards.

4. Check my credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com to make sure that everything is fine.

Goal: credit card sign-up bonuses

Credit score from creditkarma.com 773 (TransUnion)

Current Accounts:

Chase Perfect Card, 5k since 01/07

Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card, 8K since 07/05

American Express Blue Cash Card, 12k since 02/06

Age: 29, HHI: 120K

AOR Result

• Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network—–Approved, $10k CL
• Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard—-Declined
• Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network–Approved, 12K CL
• Chase Freedom Visa Card—————————Approved, $8.8K CL
• AMEX Preferred Rewards Gold Card————Approved, $18K CL
• The Gold Card from American Express OPEN———Approved
• AMEX In Chicago——————————-Declined
• One from American Express——————Declined
• Gold Delta SkyMiles Card——————Declined
• AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest Card—————–Approved, $8K CL
• Chase Sony Card————–Declined (too many inquiries)
• Chase United Mileage Visa Card——Approved, 11K CL
• Discover More Card——–Approved, $7.5K CL (use code to get $100 after spending $500)
• Discover Business Card———Approved, 6K CL

Total earnings is around $1250(100 points=$1, 100 miles=$1) in about 1 hour!

If you’d like daily tips, thoughts, and suggestions on how to maximum your rewards and how to catch sign-up opportunities, subscribe to MyCardBlog for free by clicking this link.

This is my monthly updated list of credit card sign-up bonus. I have a special page for credit card sign-up bonus where you can find a complete list of credit cards which will offer you a certain amount of sign-up bonus. I hope this list will be helpful for those App-O-Rama planners. I think it’s necessary to keep a tidy list of credit cards with some fulfillment requirements. The aim is to keep you updated with sign-up bonus offers. There are two main requirements for a specific credit card entering in this list: minimum $50 sign-up bonus and must be a mainstream brand like American Express, Discover, Citi, Chase, BOA, etc. Thus all the credit cards on this list are available to everyone.

All the credit cards are listed in order of value and I will try my best to keep this list updated in a monthly manner. Basically, I assume 100 points/miles=$1. Because you can always redeem your points or miles for certain gift cards.

You may don’t know that you are carrying a contactless credit card in your wallet, but it’s true. The most horrible thing is this kind of credit card will transmit your name, card number and expiration date to any commercially available RFID scanner that near you or your wallet.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology or an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. RFID is widely used to track shipments and inventory in industry. After this idea was introduced to credit card market about 3 years ago, it allows customers to swipe the credit cards past readers in many locations as CVS and McDonald’s etc in a very easy and quick manner. Instead of swiping your credit card, you just hold it up to the reader and after a second it grabs your card number and expiration date through the air and processes the transaction without a signature. (See the American Express card for an example)

Nowadays, the contactless credit cards have become commonplace. There are about more than 42 million contactless cards in circulation. So it’s quite possible that you’re carrying one of these wave-to-pay cards in your wallet without knowing it.

Because it will dramatically decrease the transaction time and easily augment your credit card debit. Credit card issuers are really interested in this technique and making more and more contactless cards. As the number of the contactless cards has increased dramatically, so has concern over the safety of the RFID technique that makes them work. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts and security companies indicated that many of the cards will transmit the cardholder’s name, card number and expiration date unencrypted to anyone nearby with an RFID scanner! In a cybersecurity conference in June 2008, a State University of New York professor demonstrated how a hacker could steal personal information within a few inches. American Express, MasterCard and Visa cards issued by many major credit card issuers face the same problem.

Good new is that Visa requires that credit card issuers not issue cards that transmit the cardholder’s name. American Express also don’t send the name to the card reader. Of course, most credit cards offer zero liability feature to their customers. This might be helpful to protect your from money losses.

The contactless symbol for Visa card is a four vertical wavelike bands. However, some credit card issuers might use other names for the contactless feature. For example, Chase names the contactless payment feature as Chase Blink.

If you don’t like the RFID feature in your credit card, you can buy an “RFID-blocking wallet”. Or you can even manually remove the RFID chip from your credit card! Simply remove the RFID chip won’t damage the credit card.

If you are unsure whether your credit cards have an RFID chip in them or not, you can google your credit card name and RFID. Or you might refer to your credit card instructions. Usually if your credit cards have the MasterCard Pay Pass, Visa PayWAVE and American Express Express Pay features, your credit cards should have an RFID chip in it.

One of my most popular post here at MyCardBlog is “How to Apply For Business Credit Cards?“. As I indicated in the post, there are many good reasons why you want to apply for a business card. If you have a good cash back business card like SimplyCash Business Card and TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express, you can charge all of your expenditures on that card and then your credit usage as reported on your personal credit card report will be really low (Of course, you want to use a consumer card to build your credit history.). The credit usage (ratio of balance to credit line) is an important factor in determining your credit score or credit performance. In this way, you can enjoy more credit sign-up bonuses by taking the advantage of App-O-Rama strategy.

If you are a small business owner, you can’t imagine how much you can save by using a small business credit card. And, actually, all of the credit card issuers know that the business credit card market is much more profitable than consumer credit card market. Credit card issuers are trying a lot of marketing strategies to attract more small business owners to use their credit card products. That’s why business credit cards have more sign-up opportunities out there (The Gold card from American Express is offering 25,000 bonus points.). Another feature I want to mention here is many credit card issuers have build some business networks for small business owners to discuss business issues, share your opinions, and learn business knowledge. The following is a list of small business networks from credit card issuers.

OPEN FORUM from American Express: (www.openforum.com) This is a business forum and resource directory. Business owners can discuss and hare their opinions at the open forum. At the same time, American Express will also invite some successful business owners to share their experience there. Furthermore, American Express has added posts from several prominent bloggers such as John Battelle’s Searchblog to provide more useful information.

Small Business Online Community from Bank of America: (www.smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com) This is also a forum and resource directory. Members will also share their stories there. Bank of America also has a special team to write up some articles for forum members. If you are a customer of Bank of America, that’s a good place to talk about business.

SlingShot from Capital One: (www.joinslingshot.com/business) This is different from above mentioned two forums. The primary goal of this site is to provide resources for business owners. Of course, every member can discuss and share their opinions there.

Ideablob from Advanta: (www.ideablob.com) This is a special website! Business owners can share their ideas there and Advanta will award $10,000 monthly to the best idea as voted by members. There are also some great advisers trying to help business owners make their businesses grow all the way to success.

The Visa Business Network on FaceBook: (www.facebook.com/visabusinessnetwork) Facebook is a good place to find a new friend and communicate between your friends. Visa just launched this network in this June and will give out $100 advertising credit to the first 20,000 business that join its new The Visa Business Network on Facebook. It claimed that it’s a place that can help you and your business succeed.

If you’re a busines owner, or want to run a business in the near future, the above mentioned forums and websites are good for you.

I have many posts on how to get a free trip to Asia, Europe or other places by taking the advantage of Citi thankyou network and American Airline aadvantage program. (post 1, post 2 and post 3) Actually, the free airline ticket is one of the most popular incentives used by credit card companies to attract more applications. With the skyrocket high oil prices, the cost of airfares is going up steadily. This post is trying to list a bunch of credit cards that offer free points, miles or other bonuses that can be used to help you get a free plane ticket. Most of them are airline affinity credit cards, but they include general reward cards as well.

I should also point out that essentially all of them require annual fees but some of them waive the fees for the first year. When you get the promotion points, miles or other bonuses, please close those credit card account immediately. Usually, the rewards account is isolated from the credit card account. So it’s very safe to close the credit card account and sometimes you can even get better offers (A trick credit card companies often imply).

Airline affinity credit cards