MyCardBlog

Happy New Year! I hope every mycardblog.com reader will have a very happy new year. Several days ago, my friend Steven promised me that he would send a copy of his earning of 2007 to me. Yesterday afternoon I got the email. I simply edited the email and post it below.

Credit card sing-up bonus:

Chase Freedom $250*2 (including his wife)

BOA Iowa Card $250

American Express Business Gold Rewards Card $250*2+$130*2 for delay

Citi Professional Card $150*2

Chase United Mileage Plus Visa Card $500 (25,000 miles*2)

BOA American Express Rewards Card $100 (Both of them applied for this card as I posted several days ago, but only one of them got approved.)

Discover More $40

Banking Sign-up bonus:

Chase Free Checking $100*2

BOA MyAccess Checking $100

Citi EZ Checking $200

LaSalle Bank $100

Fidelity $400

Chase Check Card promotion $50*2

ING $50

Earning from 0% APR BT offers:

Balance Transfer $35,000*5%=$1750 (actual earning may be less than $1750, say $1600)

Cash Back from Spending with Credit Cards:

Around $700

Total Earning: $5770!!!

He told me that sing-up bonuses from credit cards are generally easy to get as long as you have a long enough credit history and a nice credit score. His credit score was about 775 as indicated from CreditSecure from American Express. Currently, his credit score is about 710. In the new 2008, I hope you guys can establish a solid credit profile and earn more bonus from credit card issuers and banks!

Senate Bill (SB) 250 (Corbett) will allow consumers to redeem gift cards for cash once they falls below $10.

Consumers will get a break this holiday season thanks to a new California law – Senate Bill 250 by Senator Ellen Corbett (D – San Leandro). The new law gives consumers the right to cash in an unused or partially used gift card when the value of the card is less than ten dollars. Currently, gift cards worth less than five dollars can be subjected to dormancy fees and a store can refuse to give the remaining value back in cash no matter how small the value.

“At this time of year when so many people are purchasing gift cards it is important to know there are new laws protecting consumers,” said Senator Ellen Corbett, the author of the new law. “With the enactment of SB 250 consumers can feel more confident this holiday season that when they give a gift card that they will not be making a donation to a retailer because as of January 1, 2008, Californians will be able to cash in the remaining value of a gift card below $10.”

“SB 250 was based on the simple, common sense notion that consumers should get their money’s worth without having to buy something they don’t really want,” said Richard Holober, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California. “After all, the retail store or restaurant chain was already paid for the full value of the gift card.”

Businesses have profited mightily from millions of gift cards with small balances that are never redeemed – an undeserved bonanza for their sellers. Between 2005 and 2006, companies claiming millions of dollars in income from gift cards that remained unredeemed for two years after they were purchased included: $43 million for Home Depot; $43 million for Best Buy; $30 million for Limited Brands; $8 million for Nordstrom; and more than $7 million for Michael’s Stores.

Thanks to SB 250, come January 1st, California will lead the nation in consumer protections for gift cards users.

The positive impact the new law will have on millions of consumers is highlighted by the recent “Consumer Reports Holiday Shopping Poll” showing nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans plan to purchase gift cards this holiday season – second only to clothing (71%) among respondents. Nationally, Americans are expected to spend 70 billion dollars this year on gift cards alone – with billions of those dollars going unused. For Californians, that’s about to change.

You can also see the release at Consumer Federation of California.

Well, I have a post about Capital One Card Lab. This post turned out to be one of the most popular posts from the search engine. Several days ago, my blog was hit by more than 200 IPs from Google by the single keyword: CapitalOne Card Lab. Today I will briefly introduce gift card lab.

Christmas is coming and the gift card is a very popular gift during holiday season. They seem to be a perfect solution to the problem of what to give this holiday season. According to the survey conducted by ConsumerReports.org, about 62% consumers are planning to buy gift cards this year. It’s also estimated that gift-card sales will reach 80 billion in 2008. The primary driver for the growth of gift cards is that a gift card allows a recipient to choose the gift they really want. However, another question comes up. How can we make the gift cards special? Customize the gift card by yourself—choose your favorite picture and make the card design by yourself at giftcardlab.com. At gift card lab, you can choose upload your favorite picture and make a card design by yourself. In this way, you make the gift card really special. It’s second to none! I think this is really a good idea. At the same time, you can choose from thousands of card designs provided by gift card lab to customize you card designs. There are also a bunch of different styles for specific occasions like birthday, anniversary, mother’s day, father’s day, Christmas and graduation. Furthermore, the visa gift cards offered by gift card lab can be used at anywhere visa card is accepted.

Anyway, if you don’t have any idea on what to give as a special gift, gift card lab might be a choice for you. (www.giftcardlab.com)

These days the president blog (Chinese) is holding a campaign—“What do you do other than blogging?” Well, I was chosen to write a post about my life other than blogging. Actually, this idea has been in my mind for a long time. However, I have been working very hard to find out more deals and sign-up bonuses for blogging. I actually don’t have much time to think about writing something about my personal life. OK. Today I got the chance to sit down and write something about my daily life.

As a graduate student, I have to spend tons of time in research. Reading papers, doing experiments, and analyzing my data are three major activities everyday. However, when I have time, I will watch TV. My favorite TV programs are “Modern Marvels” in History Channel and “How it’s made” in Discover Channel. Meanwhile I like National Geographic Channel and Animal Planet very much! They are just wonderful! You can learn a lot of stuffs about nature. I’m also watching some dramas like the “Prison Break”, “24 Hours” and “The Closer”.

Another hobby is watching NBA basketball games. Although I don’t play basketball too much (I don’t have time to play basketball right now.), I like watching other guys playing on TV. In order to watch NBA games, I subscribe the NBA league pass which will let me essentially catch every exciting game.

In a word, TV is my favorite “pet” in my daily life. Maybe my next plan is to visit some National Parks like Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park and the Grand Canyon National Park.

I think most you of you have already known the 2008 Mazda CX-9 Test-Drive Promotion. I just want to share my experience with you. If you don’t know the promotion and want to get the free $25 gift card, this might be a right post for you.

Here is the information about this promotion:

Test-Drive offer ends 01/31/08. Entries must be postmarked by 02/07/08.

CX-9 Test-Drive Rules: Must be 18 years old or older and have a valid driver’s license to participate. This certificate has no cash value. This is a nontransferable test-drive offer exclusively for you. Valid for only one test-drive offer per household. This test-drive offer is valid when you test-drive any new vehicle in the Mazda family. Used vehicles do not qualify. Please allow 2 weeks for gift delivery by e-mail. Only one Mazda test-drive offer may be redeemed in a 120-day period. Offer ends January 31, 2008. Only original, completed certificates postmarked by February 7, 2008 will be accepted. Mazda North American Operations is not responsible for late, undeliverable, incomplete, stolen, lost, illegible, mutilated, tampered-with, postage-due, misdirected or delayed test-drive certificates or gifts. While supplies last. Mazda Program HQ, P.O. Box 802290 Santa Clarita, CA 91380-2290.

Click here to register for this promotion.

Here is what I did:

I went to the nearest Mazda dealer as indicated in the email I got from Mazda. I just told the dealer that I didn’t want to test drive the card but wanted to get the free $25 gift card. I told him to give me his business card and sign the certificate for me. He just smiled and was very corporative.

I can get out in less than 5 min. I believe that they are willing to do this for us. Because they also don’t want to waste time on you.

I am thankful that Amazon paid me to get Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse and Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe. (The price is -$24.02 after $80 mail-in rebate from Logitech.)

I am thankful that National City Identity Protect let me b**p all of hard inquiries at TransUnion and Equifax in 3 months.

I am thankful that Bank of America gave me $200 cash bonus for opening MyAccess Checking account there.

I am thankful that Chase approved 2 credit cards in one month for me and the dynamic rewards program from Chase Freedom which allows me to earn more cash back than before. I am also thankful that they send me 2 checks ($20 each) to enroll the Chase Payment Protector Plan. The balance on each card is $0 all the time.

I am thankful that Chase Bank gave me $100 for opening Chase Free Checking account there. (But I’m still waiting for the $50+$50 to be credited soon.)

I am thankful that American Express approved the Starwood Preferred Guest Card which allows me to get up to 5 free nights at SPG hotels in Chicago. I am also thankful that they approved the Blue from American Express for me which offers 0% APR on purchases for up to 15 months.

I am thankful that American Express OPEN for Business offered a free $20 Amazon gift certificate for taking a short survey.

I am thankful that Discover and American Express are still offering super nice services for their cardholders.

I am thankful that AAA saves me a lot of money by switching my auto insurance from State Farm to them. (more than $300!)

I am thankful that Google Adsense and Kontera provides so many advertisers on this blog and allows me to earn some small money.

I am thankful that BestBargainsDaily.Com offers me timely deal information.

I am thankful that CardBenefit.Com offers great benefits for us.

I am especially tankful for all of the support I have received regarding this blog. In the next coming year, I hope I can provide better posts for you all.

At first, I’d like to thank you all for supporting my blog. I have been watching the Alexa ranking of my blog is increasing all the time in the past three months. When this was born the ranking was about 6,860,000. And then, I can see the ranking rocks to 1,147,988 in two weeks! After that, the ranking increased to 1,130,728 and then to 882,723. Two weeks ago, the ranking was 851,542. And now, the ranking is 759,419. Although Alexa is not the only method to measure the success of a website, it can tell you something. As a matter of fact, my Google Page Rank is still very low (PR=1) as well as the Technorati standing. In fact, I’m a lazy guy who is not willing to make any changes. But when I see my blog is so popular with my readers, I think it’s time to make my blog more readable. I want to bring new reading experience for you. I can’t say this blog theme is the perfect one, but it’s really an easy managing blog for me. I spent about 24 hours trying different themes. And I find this one is the best. I will still be working on it in the following days to make some small revisions. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave some comments. Let’s make this blog even better! (By the way, if you are also a blogger and willing to exchange link with me, please let me know.)

However, I have some questions in my mind. How much did you get from the major US banks in the past 3 months? Are you becoming more knowledgeable about credit cards and banks? I have got more than $600 in the past three months from BOA, AMEX, Chase, ING, and CapitalOne. I also got two checks ($54 and $25) from Citi and HSBC respectively. How about you?

American Express sent out an email to me this afternoon. The title is “Tell Us What You Think & Get an $20 Amazon Gift Card”. Contents follows:
Dear David:
As one of our most valued Cardmembers you’ve been invited to try out the Beta version of the OPEN B2B Supplier Directory. Visit the directory, search for wholesale vendors, and take a brief survey about your experience. While supplies last, you’ll receive a $20 Amazon.com Giftcard for your thoughts.
The B2B Directory allows you to find wholesale vendors who accept the American Express Card for your essential business expense……….

The link to the survey is here. Use whatever key words you want to search. And then click “Do A Search, Take A Survey, Receive A Giftcard” logo as showed at the beginning of this post. I know some friends want to take more than one survey. However, don’t expect to take more than one survey on a computer, they will record your IP. At last you will have to fill in your email address. I’m waiting for my $20 free money now. This is a special notice to my friends, please don’t post to other forums. Earn more free money by yourself!!! Because there is a notice “while supplies last”. Hurry up!
“Giftcards for survey completion are no longer available.“ Sorry, this deal has been expired. “Please allow 45 days to receive your giftcard.” hurry!