MyCardBlog

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 have a post about how to know your credit score. However, the score you can get from those credit services are not the official FICO credit score. Sometimes we call it FAKO score. Of course, if you have a WaMu credit card, you can get the official FICO credit score for free. Today I found that at myFICO.com you can use free FICO score estimator to roughly estimate you myFICO score. The process is very simple. You just have to answer 10 simple questions about your current credit status—how many credit cards, balance, loans, etc. Then you will get an estimated FICO score range. If you don’t want to deal with credit bureaus, this is a nice tool to roughly know your credit score. I think this will be helpful for your future use. I used this credit score estimator and got the following credit range.

Click here to get your FICO score.

I just received my new issue of Money magazine (January 2008). I found a very interesting article as “The Future of Your Money Is Here”. In this article, they introduce some websites which they think may bring a virtual world of speed, simplicity, and intelligence to your financial life. It’s really nice. As we all know the number of sites that waste your time and give bad advice is expanding, and there is no standard measurement to judge whether this website is worthwhile or not. Money magazine has tested some websites and consulted experts and users to create an easy-to-follow guide to where to go and what to do once you get there.

PERSONAL FINANCE:

TO TRACK ALL YOUR MONEY IN ONE PLACE
Moneycenter.yodlee.com

TO IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE
Cnnmoney.com, ConsumerismCommentary.com, GetRichSlowly.org

TO EXCHANGE IDEAS
SavingAdvice.com

CARS

NARROW THE FIELD
ConsumerReports.org

SEE WHAT OTHERS THINK
Edmunds.com

GET THE BEST PRICE
CarDeals.org

INVESTING

TO GET IDEAS
Pimco.com, LeggMason.com, Efficientfrontier.com

TO TEST YOUR IDEAS
Diehards.org

YOUR CAREER

TO STAY IN TOUCH
Facebook.com

TO MEET NEW PEOPLE
Linkedin.com

SHOPPPING

TO HUNT FOR BARGAINS
Slickdeals.net, FatWallet.com

TO FIND BUYER REVIEWS
Amazon.com

TO COMPARE PRICES
Pricegrabber.com

REAL ESTATE

TO CHECK OUT REAL ESTATE
Trukia.com, Zillow.com

TO GET THE NEIBORHOOD SCOOP
Outside.in

TO LOOK UP SCHOOL INFORMATION
GreatSchools.net

TO GET THE LAY OF THE LAND
Maps.Live.com, Maps.Google.com, Walkscore.com

COLLEGE

TO START THE SEARCH
Nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator

TO GET THE DIRT
CollegeConfidential.com

TO TOUR BY VIDEO
CampusTours.com

I agree what they have summarized. But of course different people have different opinions even on the same thing. So I’d like to hear more voices from you. Please feel free to add some wonderful website you visit daily.

The best blog about credit card and banking bonus—-www.mycardblog.com.

As Associated Press indicated the Honest Abe will become Colorful Abe with splashes of purple and gray livening up the $5 bill. Today government showed off the new design of $5 bill fearuing Civil War president—Abraham Lincoln.Starting in 2003, the $10, $20 and $50 bills are already colorful today. The primary reason for the redesigns is to stay ahead of counterfeiters and their ever-more-sophisticated copying machines. Pastel colors were added in those bills. According to the report, the government will start printing the new notes next week at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The goal is to have 1.5 billion $5 bills ready to be put into circulation, at a date still to be determined.

There will be a new large-size 5 printed in the lower right-hand corner of the backside of the bill in high-contrast purple ink which was added to help the visually impaired.

Our government hopes those changes will make it harder for conterfeiters to pass fake bills. As the report sated, there were 3,945 arrests related to counterfeit bills with about 62 million loss.

The next bill to get a makeover will be the $100. However, according to the report, the government is only about one-third of the way through the redesign of the $100 and hopes to have that process completed by this time next year.

Will we be safer to use bills in the near future?

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 received a lot of emails about my previous posts—“How to Make Money with $100”. I mentioned that if you have an ING orange saving account, you can get up to $250 bonus by referring your family members or friends to open orange saving account. Some of friends are not sure all the features of this account. Many of them are afraid of be charged extra fees by ING. I have been using this account for a long time and like it very much. Hereby I write a brief review with this account.

ING Direct is a branchless or virtual bank in the United States that was funded in 2000. ING Direct is a member of Feral Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). I think most of us have known that the Net Bank was acquired by ING in September 2007.

People open the orange saving account for two goals: 1). Use it to make direct deposit to take advantage of sign-up bonuses offered by other banks or financial institutes; 2). Enjoy the famous $25 sing-up bonus and earn high rate interest (currently 4.2% APY). A unique feature is you don’t have to maintain a minimum balance to get such high interest rate. As long as your account is active, you can enjoy the 4.20% interest rate without any restrictions.

$25 sign-up bonus if you referred by your friends with minimum $250 initial deposit. (Sometimes they offer $50.)

High interest rate, no monthly fees.

No minimum balance required to earn interest.

No fees, no service charges, no penalties, no hidden fees.

24/7 access your online account.

Link other bank accounts can be easily done via mailing checks or online (Maximum 3 external accounts can be linked online. No maximum accounts limit if you link account through mailing checks.)

Safe and secure—FDIC insured.

They offer Automatic Savings Plan which allows you to automatically have a fixed amount of money regularly transfer to your orange saving account from your linked checking account. All you have to do is to specify how much money you would like transferred, and how often you would like it moved. It’s very simple and easy to maximum your earning.

Other comments:

You might have to wait 10 days until your initial deposit becomes available. Your sing-up bonus will show up immediately you open the account. You have to wait 30 days or so to link other accounts online. At the same time, you can link your other bank account by mailing a check to them. Online funds transfer usually can be finished in 3 business days without any charges. No hard pull to open this account. Click here to learn more features.

I know most of us have a good credit score and many of us are taking advantage of the credit score to make some free money. However, some of my readers are afraid of lowering the credit score if he/she applies for too many credit cards. It’s true that credit inquiries (hard pulls) will temporarily lower your credit score. But the influence will be not so obvious after 6 months or so. I would say credit score is nothing if you’re not using it. If you are not going to buy a house (or apply for a mortgage) in the next two years (Credit inquiries will disappear from your credit report after 24 months.), you are free to use your credit. Credit inquiries will slightly influence your mortgage rate but not influence the auto loan (as long as your credit score is 700+).

This post is to tell you how to get a free trip to Europe or Asia by redeeming Citi ThankYou Points for an airline ticket. You can redeem your ThankYou points for an airline ticket because ThankYou Network provides Fixed Flight Travel option:

Eligible Citi cardmembers can also take advantage of our fixed flights option for air travel by calling one of our ThankYou Network Travel Specialists. You can count on getting a ticket for the date you want to fly. Note: please book 14 days in advance and plan for a Saturday overnight stay. Tickets are subjected to availability.

Account or the following Card Accounts are eligible for fixed flight airline tickets at fixed ThankYou Point amounts: Citi PremierPass Card, Citi PremierPass Card – Elite Level, Citi PremierPass Card – Smith Barney Elite Level, Citi PremierPass / Expedia.com Card, Citi PremierPass / Expedia.com Card – Elite Level, Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, CitiBusiness PremierPass Card, CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, Citi Chairman Card and Citi Chairman American Express Card. This list is subject to change without notice. Fixed flight option Travel Rewards are only available when you call the ThankYou Service Center (800-842-6596). Agents will work to offer you the best deal on available flights – you are not required to select the fixed flight option.

According to the ThankYou Network, if you have 60,000 ThankYou points, you can redeem them for a free airline ticket to Asia and Europe. (Only 25,000 ThankYou points are needed for flights anywhere in the continental US and Alaska at any time of year.)

So the goal is to get enough ThankYou points (You should have one of the above mentioned cards which are eligible to use the fixed flight travel option.) Here are some recommendations for you:

• CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network (10,000 ThankYou Points—see this post)
  
• Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network (15,000 ThankYou Points—see this post)
• Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level (20,000 ThankYou Points)
• Citi PremierPass Card (10,000 ThankYou Points)
• CitiBusiness PremierPass Card (15,000 ThankYou Points)

Other methods to earn ThankYou points:

Use Citi checking/saving account and debit card (Citi Bank will send about 300 ThankYou points every month. If you use all of the banking services provided by Citi Bank, you may get up to 800 points per month.) You can also use other credit cards like Citi mtvU card and Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card to earn ThankYou points.

So remember, if you have a decent credit score with solid credit history, you can do a ThankYou Points AOR to get enough points for a free trip to Europe or Asia.