MyCardBlog

Credit score is nothing if you’re not using it. Nowadays most credit card consumers have been aware that they can meke some small money by taking the chance of credit card sign up bonuses. Due to the competition between credit card issuers, credit card issuers are always give out sign up bonuses to promote certain types of their credit card products. The most famous ones may be the Chase Freedom Card $250 Bonus offer and the University of Iowa WorldPoints Platinum Plus Mastercard Credit Card $250 Bonus offer in 2007.

Because of the severe economy situation, we are not expecting the huge promotion from our credit card issuers for a while. But the fact is there are still may sign up bonues oppportunities out there. I have a Comprehensive List of Frequent Flier/Point Sign Up Bonus. Following is a comprehensive list of cash backsign up bonus. I hope this list will be of some help for you to get some free money.

I have many posts about how to profit from credit cards. I mention a lot about the sign up bonus opportunities here at mycardblog.com. But I actually miss a lot about how to profit from credit card balance transfer offers. The primary reason why I don’t mention a lot of credit card balance transfer is different credit card issuers will target to different credit card members. Thus different people might qualify for different balance transfer offers. The credit card balance transfer is not so easy for many new to credit card game. I have a series of posts on how to do balance transfer.

But I’m still receiving some emails inquiring the credit card balance transfers. Some readers are keeping receiving the balance transfer offers from credit card issuers. And they don’t know how to deal with them? jump or not jump? Profitable or not profitable? This post: Win A Balance Transfer Game is kind of a brief guide to the balance transfer game.

What’s credit card balance transfer?

A balance transfer is the act of transferring balance from one credit card, usually with high interest rate, to another credit card which is supposed to have better terms and rates. When you receive a balance transfer offer, you will be informed with the following items: offer rate, offer duration, and transaction fee. Please be noted that when you have many items with different interest rates on your credit card statement, usually your payments will be applied to lowest-rate balances first and highest-rate last.

Why are you receiving balance transfer offers?

Credit card merket is very competitive today and is a big business. Credit card companies are making a lot of profit from finance charges. The national average APR on credit card is about ~15% which is significantly higher than any other financial products. With that kind of interest, it’s tough to pay down a credit card, because it is consistently charging interest and adding to the principle. Unfortunately, it’s normal for American households with credit card debt to carry balances of $10,000 or more on credit cards. A typical family has to pay more than $1,000 in interest charges on credit cards each year. This is much more profitable than the transaction fees. In an effort to lure consumers to their credit card, many companies offer balance transfer offers to your credit card. And you might become one of the money machines for them in the near future.

Would the balance transfer work for you?

Balance transfer credit cards are very popular credit cards. It can be an emergency fund for you if you are short of cash for a while. Or it can give you some profit from the interest rate difference between a high rate savings account and you credit card offer. For a savvy consumer, this can be an excellent method to reduce credit card debt.

Looks good but you have to watch out……

You should always bear in mind that credit card companies aren’t making these offers out of the goodness of their hearts. They are gambling that they’ll win. They are wait for you to fail to pay off your balance or neglect to switch your balance to another credit card before the grace period is up. So to win the balance transfer game, diligence is required. You also have to read carefully about the fine print.

You should be shopping for the following features:

Low interest rate offers: A 1% APR will cost you a lot of money in a 1 year period if you carry a lot of balances. Some credit cards come with 0% APR promotion with short duration time (3~6 months). You should consider a step ahead before you jump for it.

Low transaction fees: Today’s balance transfer offers always come with a 3% transaction fee. Some with a cap some don’t. You should read carefully about the offer before you use the balance transfer checks. The American Express Blue and Blue Cash Card offer great 4.99% fixed interest rate without any transaction fees. If you are short of money, they are good choices.

Annual fees: Of course, you want a credit card without any annual fees.

Sign-up bonus/other rewards: Well, this is a great additive for me to jump the offer. The Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card and Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card are offering balance transfer bonus for making a balance transfer larger than $1000.

At last, as a kind reminder, please don’t forget to minimum balance to your credit card every month. Pay late only once and you will fall into the debt hell.

I believe the most surprising news today is the failure of WaMu. On Thursday, Washington Mutual Inc was closed by the U.S. government and all the assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion. What a shock! This would be the biggest bank failure in US history. The largest US savings and loan will be out of US banking history in the future with more than 100 years’ history.

WaMu was one of the hardest hit banks by the housing bust and credit crisis. Although the WaMu is taken over by FDIC, all customers should expect business as usual on Friday, and all depositors are fully protected. Note that most bank failures are released on Friday, giving it the weekend to go through the books and enable them to reopen smoothly the following Monday. This time, the news is leaked from the media.

The transaction means JPMorgan Chase & Co will now have 5,410 branches in 23 U.S. states from coast to coast, as well as the largest U.S. credit card business. This means the JPMorgan Chase & Co will be the largest credit card issuer in US. At the same time, JPMorgan Chase & Co will past Bank of America and becomes the second largest bank in US just behind Citigroup. If Bank of America completes its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co, then Bank of America will the nation’s largest bank.

Obviously,  the WaMu’s collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have changed the American financial situation. Think about this: government takeovers of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the insurer American International Group; bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc; JPMorgan Chase & Co’s purchase of Bear Stearns; the unknown future of Merill Lynch. The question remains: Who will be the next?

The full coverage of the WaMu failure can be found here.

There are not many credit card promotions out there but as you might discover that there are many banking sign up bonus opportunities recently. Today one of MyCardBlog.com readers sent me a link which offers up to $500 free gas for opening a checking account with direct deposit. I was shocked and wanted to share this huge promotion to many of you (This promotion is only available at many states.).

The Flagstar Bank is offering up to $500 free gas card for opening a new checking account with direct deposit. However, this is not the offer that you can redeem your $500 gas card all at a time. Instead, you can only get $25 each month and it takes 1 year and 7 months to get the $500 gas cards. Some details about this promotion can be found at www.flagstar.com/gasoffer.

Banking requirements for the $500 gas card:

• Open a primary checking account with an automatic, recurring direct deposit of income of at least $250 per month.
• Direct deposit must be established within first 60 days of account opening to be eligible.
• Minimum opening deposit is $50.
• All accounts must remain open and active for a minimum of six months.
• Offer is limited to new customers only.

How to get the $500 gas card?

As a pointed out, the redemption process takes about 19 months to get the $500 gas cards. Basically, you have to mail your receipts (>$100) to get a $25 gas voucher each month. But it’s still a good offer since you can save $25 on gas each month.

To take advantage of the offer, you have to register at www.freegasward.com which operates the promotion. After completing the registration process, you can print out your fist gas voucher which can be used immediately. Then you have to make a minimum monthly purchase of $100.00 in gasoline each month and mail the original receipts (not photocopies, or receipts collected on the same day) with your redemption voucher to: Free Gas, 14100 Walsingham Rd., Suite 36, Largo, Florida 33774.

You can only select one brand of gasoline and collect the receipts from that brand of gasoline. Receipts from other brand will be voided.

The details of the promotion can also be found at local Flagstar Bank branches.

Flagstar is the largest publicly traded savings bank headquartered in the Midwest United States (Troy, MI). The bank currently operates 171 banking centers (as of September 2008) in Michigan, Indiana and Georgia. The website of this bank is www.flagstar.com.

I have talked a lot about the cash back, sign up bonuses, rewards points, balance transfer offers, and low interest rates at mycardblog.com. Believe it or not, the above mentioned factors will affect how a customer choose a credit card from so many credit card products nowadays. Smart credit card issuers have now used new tricks to attract more customers in a competitive market. Many credit card issuers are creating some eye-catching credit card products to compete with other credit card products. American Express is on the track.

American Express is testing the Butterfly from American Express that folds in half and pops out of a small silver case attached to a key ring (shown in the picture). Right now the Butterfly card is only available to Gold card members and it’s free. Although the credit card number of the Butterfly card is different from your normal Gold card, the Butterfly card is linked to your Gold card account. Butterfly card charges will appear in a separate itemized section of your statement following your traditional Card charges. In this way, you can track your Butterfly card spending just like your traditional Card when you Manage Your Card Account online.

You can use your Butterfly card anywhere that accepts American Express cards. Just don’t forget to unfold the card at the checkout. The Butterfly card will expire after two years after when American Express will send a new card to you.

Using Butterfly card will also accumulate rewards points for you as long as you are currently enrolled in the Membership Rewards program. However, you can’t apply for additional cards for your authorized users at this time. The Butterfly card is only issued to some targeted card members of the Gold Card from American Express Open. (previously known as the business gold rewards card)

If you have a Gold Card from American Express Open, you probably are the first to try the new product from American Express.

American Express just released a new promotion—“On the Card” which enables American Express card members to get $30 statement credit after committing a series of purchase requirements. This is really nice to all American Express card members since all of the purchase requirements are really easy to fulfill. As an American Express card member, I’m really satisfied with their high-quality customer service. As a matter of fact, in 2008 J. D. Power Credit Card Satisfaction Study, American Express was ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction. If you don’t have an American Express, you should try to get one.

What’s “On the Card”?

On the Card is a program from American Express that provides Cardmembers with an opportunity to get a $30 statement credit. The $30 reward will be in the form of a statement credit on the American Express Card that you will use to register for the program. To receive the $30 credit, you have to go to www.amexnetwork.com/bac30 to register your American Express card.

During the registration process, you have to choose 8 merchants from a list of pre-determined 20 merchants. The 20 merchants are categorized into 4 categories. You have to pick up 2 merchants from each category.

“On the Card” lasts for 8 weeks, beginning on September 23, 2008, and ending on November 16, 2008. Please keep in mind that once you’ve selected your 8 merchants and registered for the program, you can’t change the merchants. Otherwise you can’t receive the $30 bonus.

Both in-store and online purchases will count toward your eight purchases. And there is no minimum amount requirement you should spend at each merchant. You can spend as much or as little as you like on each purchase.

Please note that there are only 12,000 registration slots available. Cardmembers can register for the program on a first-come, first-served basis. This promotion is start today, so you can go ahead and register you American Express card to reserve your slot. Once your registration completes, you will receive a confirmation e-mail.

If you can’t register your American Express at above mentioned website (according to program FAQ):

1. You did not receive an invitation to participate in the “On the Card” program.
2. You did receive an invitation but are trying to enroll a new Card or recent replacement Card which we may not have recorded for the promotion.
3. The program if full. There are only 12,000 registration slots available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Once you have successfully shopped at all 8 merchants, you will receive a statement credit from “On the Card” generally within 5 business days.

It really a great chance to get some small money for using American Express credit card. In this way, American Express just wanted to tell Cardmembers about the many places they can use their American Express Cards.

Update: the invitation email is attached. This email is targeted to my Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express.

Each credit card issuer will run some customer appreciation promotion some times per year. Perhaps the most popular ones are the American Express’ My WishList Promotion and Discover’s Mall Promotion. The latest Discover Card mall promotion was ended on September 7, 2008 (reported here). Today I noticed that Discover Card has released the detailed promotion plan for the next mall promotion starting from November 1, 2008.

The promotion rules are really simple (How to turn receipts into rewards?):

Get a $20 Discover Gift Card when you make $200 in purchases with your Discover Card at a participating mall between 11/1/08-1/4/09, while supplies last. To redeem the $20 gift card, the original receipts must be presented to a participating mall’s Customer Service.

Two noticeable differences from previous promotions are:

1. This promotion has expanded to over 160 malls nationwide.

2. The promotion period has been extended—over 2 months now!

The promotion page can be found at:http://www.discovercard.com/mallpromo/index.html

Following is a non-complete list of participating malls.

If you shop a lot at Amazon.com, the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card is a good choice for you. I have a brief introduction of this credit card back in this July. (Maybe this is the first report of the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card.) I also pointed out that you can get $100 off your Amazon Kindle with a new Amazon.com Visa Card. The new Amazon.com visa card will give you 6 points for every dollar spent at Amazon.com for the first 90 days. This is a great feature which will save you a lot for the first 90 days.

Today I receive an email from Chase Amazon.com Visa Card indicating that I can upgrade my Amazon.com Visa card for free! This upgrade offer is targeted to current Amazon.com Visa Card holders.

After upgrading your Amazon.com Visa Card:

For first 90 days, you can get 6 points for every Amazon purchase, 4 points for gas/drug store/dining purchases and 2 points for everything else. After 90 days, you can continue to get 3 points at Amazon.com, 2 points for gas/drug/dining and 1 point for everything else.

There will be no new card issued to replace your current Amazon.com Visa Card. There is no hard pull during upgrade process. All you have to do is call customer service at 888-247-4080 and simply tell them you want to upgrade your Amazon.com Visa Card. After you get approved, it will need 3 days to take effect.

I would say this is a good promotion since the Thanks Giving and Christmas are coming in 3 months. If you shop regularly at Amazon.com, you can save a lot during the 90 days promotion period.

I always use this Amazon.com Visa Card as my primary payment method. The other Chase credit card that I use frequently is the Chase Freedom Card. With a Chase checking account, you can get 3% cash back from 5 pre-set categories. It’s pretty easy to accumulate $50 and redeem it. A lot of MyCardBlog.com readers have this credit card. I you still don’t have one, you’d better get one. You will be surprised how fast you can accumulate your cash rewards.