MyCardBlog

We are talking about the best credit cards all the time. Actually, there is no definitive answer to which is the best credit card. Different people have different spending styles. One might be interested in playing games, one might be interested in buying books, movies or even musics, and some might want to save money on gas. The key to get the best credit card is to choose the card that fits your spending styles.

Following is a list of best credit card offers from Kiplinger.com. Let’s see what they pick as the best credit cards.

BEST FOR CASH REBATES

American Express Blue Cash

I have a review of this card. The blue cash card from American Express is a really good cash back credit card. It’s one of the top rated cash back credit cards by me. Kiplinger.com rated this credit card as the “Best Cash Rebate Card” in 2006. “Everyday Purchases” made at drugstores, gas stations, and U.S. supermarkets earn up to a 5% rebate, and all other purchases earn up to a 1.5% rebate ($6,500 threshold). You will see how much you can save by using this card.

BEST GAS CARD

Chase BP Visa

This Chase BP Visa Card is an excellent gas card in terms of the rate it offers. 5% cash back at BP stores anywhere in the United States at any time. At the fist 60 days, you can double your cash back. Plus you can earn cash back for dinning and traveling. There are other great gas rebate cards out there. For example, Discover Open Road Card is a good substitute. For more tips on choosing a gas card, you can read the 5 Top Rated Gas Rebate Cards.

BEST TRAVEL REWARDS

Simmons First Visa Platinum Travel Rewards

This is a little surprise to me. I didn’t hear anything about the Simmons First Bank and the credit card products offered by Simmons First. Anyway, it looks like a great travel card but without any sign up bonus. Usually, travel credit cards offer some sign up bonus. Like the Citi PremierPass Card Elite Level is offering 20,000 bonus points. But you need only 22,000 points for a coach ticket, worth up to $325, to any destination within the 48 contiguous states. You earn one point per dollar spent with this no-fee credit card.

BEST LOW RATES

Wells Fargo Prime Rate

Wells Fargo is a not a big credit card issuer in US. But this credit card product is indeed a great offer to American people. As Kiplinger.com describes: “Cardholders who carry a monthly balance will appreciate this card for its 5% interest rate and $19 annual fee. The rate will never exceed prime, the rate at which banks lend to their best customers. Free alerts remind you when your bill is due and notify you if you’re approaching your credit limit.”

Everyone will have different opinions on which credit card is the best one. Will you share your opinion with us?

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.

ShareBuilder.com is a famous online stock brokerage firm founded in 1996 and now it’s an ING company (purchased by ING in November 2007). ShareBuilder built its name by having low commissions and easy-to-use online interface. ShareBuilder also provides service for recurring, and automatic purchases of shares of stock and ETFs.

I received a postcard from ShareBuilder which offers $50 sign up bonus plus cheap commission opportunities. I’d like to share the promotion with you. I personally think it’s a time to buy in some potential stocks and wait for growth. The $50 bonus is very easy to get—Open your account using the promotion code INVEST50, make a trade before 12/31/08, and $50 will be deposited in your account in 4 to 6 weeks. Details can be found at www.sharebuilder.com/invest50.

The account at sharebuilder.com features no account minimum balance requirement and no inactivity fees. You can choose from more than 7,000 stocks and ETFs. You can even schedule your investments on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.

Another feature of ShareBuilder that is worth mentioning is the ability to buy fractional shares. I believe this is the only one brokerage company that allows you to buy fractional shares. No other brokerage allows you to buy fractional shares of stock. This feature helps you to invest your money on a regular basis. For example, you can invest $100 weekly to buy Citi stocks regardless of the real prices of Citi stocks.

However, I’d like to mention that the $4 per trade is only available on every Tuesday. You can schedule to buy a stock on Tuesday for $4 per trade. But on other days, the price is pretty high compared to other brokerages. So the ability to schedule a trade is really great.

Another feature is periodic promotion from ShareBuilder.com. ShareBuilder always offer sign up bonuses or other kinds of promotions to its new or current customers which makes your experience of ShareBuilder.com much better.

Of course, there are other great brokerages you can consider before you open up an account online like E*Trade, Zecco, TradeKing, and TD Ameritrade etc.

Following are two articles for your reference: SmartMoney’s Annual Broker Survey and Best of the Online Brokers-Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

WT Direct is offering a new winter promotion now. This promotion is similar to the one I mentioned in August 2008 from which you can get about $50 to $250 new account bonus depending on your account balance. The WT Direct Online Savings Account is on the list of my Top 7 Online Banks for High Interest Savings.

The promotion page can be found here. It’s very simple to get the bonus, here is how:

• OPEN a new account — use promotion code “WTG3DNC”
• LINK an existing bank account to your new WTDirect account during the application process.
• FUND your new WTDirect account by initiating an online transfer by 12/22/08.
• EARN your bonus — calculated by determining the average balance from 1/1/09 – 2/28/09.
  During that time, you will have 100% access to your funds.
• RECEIVE your cash bonus in mid-March. It will be deposited directly to your WTDirect account.

Following is the bonus level which determines how much you can get:

• $250 bonus for $50,000 balance
• $200 bonus for $40,000 balance
• $150 bonus for $30,000 balance
• $100 bonus for $20,000 balance
• $50 bonus for $10,000 balance

Fine Print:

This offer is available to new WTDirect clients only. To receive the bonus, clients must enter the promotion code “WTG3DNC” at the time of account opening. There is no minimum balance required to open the account. WTDirect account must be funded via electronic (ACH) transfer which must be initiated by 12/22/08. Clients may transfer funds in and out of the WTDirect account during the promotion period (1/1/09 – 2/28/09) and the bonus will be based on the average balance level during that time.

If you have a large fund, it’s a good time to catch the deal. For balance over $10,000, you can enjoy 3.06% APY which is relatively high rate under current banking environment. If your balance is under $10,00o your rate will be not high, so this is not a long term account choice for those with less than $10,000 money.

There is no hard pull during the account open process. All the accounts at WT Direct is insured by FDIC with a limit of $250,000.

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 just posted on how to save money via Live.com search cash back program on HP, Circuitcity, Target, AT&T and eBay yesterday. According to the post, you can save 25% for shopping at above mentioned websites through Live.com search. It’s a great opportunity to save money during the holiday season. It would be great if you search at live.com first before you place the orders.

The shocking news is Microsoft live.com cash back program will be offering 40% cash back for shopping at hp.com on Black Friday! 40% is huge considering the cash back rate. The highest rate live.com offered is 35% at ebay.com. So how to get the 40% cash back?

Details about the promotion can be found at hp.com via the link.

According to the link, live.com will offer 40% cash back for shopping at hp.com from 7am to 7pm on Black Friday. Please remember the time is on PST, so that’s equal to 10am to 10pm EST.

Many may not know how to qualify for the promotion, here are some points:

1. Cash back excludes all gift cards and transactions that use coupon.
2. You do not need to pay with Paypal (this is for shopping at eBay.com only). Because live cash back works with credit cards or other payments. But you have to click the link at live.com to place the order.
3. There is no cash back limit, unlike eBay’s $200 limit. But you have to pay attention that there is a total of $2,500 total cash back limit per account per year.
4. This is an HP advertised special, so it will work 100% on anything with instant rebate and without EPP/APP/ Additional Coupons.

FDIC just released the third quarter report which indicated that the problem banks have increased to 171! This is a shocking news to all of us. Maybe your bank will be on the list of problem banks. Although FDIC increased the insured amount to 250k, consumers are still feeling scared and uncertain about the American’s banking industry.

It’s very obvious that the banking industry is getting worse. The number of problem banks has increased from 117 to 171. The banks are taking steps to tighten the loan applications to minimize the losses. Provisions for loan losses continue to be high.

In the report, FDIC indicated:

Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported net income of $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2008, a decline of $27.0 billion (94 percent) from the $28.7 billion that the industry earned in the third quarter of 2007.

Nine FDIC-insured institutions failed in the third quarter, the most since the third quarter of 1993. The failures included Washington Mutual Bank, with assets of $307 billion. The FDIC’s “problem list” grew during the quarter from 117 to 171 institutions, the largest number since the end of 1995. Total assets of problem institutions increased from $78.3 billion to $115.6 billion.

Problems still exist in the banking industry:

Higher levels of troubled loans, in both consumer and commercial portfolios, led to increased provisions for loan losses in the quarter.

Charge-offs and noncurrent loans are still increasing. Insured institutions charged off (removed from their balance sheets because of uncollectibility) $27.9 billion in troubled loans in the third quarter. The annualized net charge-off rate of 1.42 percent was the highest quarterly average since 1991.

Community banks are also facing increased stress. Community banks — those with total assets of under $1 billion — are beginning to exhibit stresses similar to those facing the industry as a whole.

Higher loss provisions for bank failures were primarily responsible for a decline in the fund balance to $34.6 billion at September 30th from $45.2 billion at June 30th.

The full press release can be accessed from here.