MyCardBlog

American Express is always redeemed as the best credit card issuer at the United States. The 2008 J. D. Power Credit Card Satisfaction Study also revealed that American Express was ranked the best credit card company. My previous post “Funny Stories with Citicards” described some ridiculous mistakes made by Citi. As Sander mentioned in the comment,  American Express also will do something unfriendly to their customers. The famous Financial Review is a typical example.

Today I just noticed a very interesting article about American Express and wanted to share with you.

It’s no doubt that as the credit crunch reaches from Wall Street to Main Street, many credit card issuers are reducing their credit limits to certain customers. Some customers also found that their credit card accounts were closed without any reasonable explanation from credit card companies.

The question is how the credit card companies decide whether or not to reduce your credit limit or close your account. Your first reaction might be the credit score or credit report. I do believe your credit performance during the credit crunch is a very important factor, however, there are other criteria you might have never been thought of—American Express will close your account by taking into account of where they live, where they shop and who holds your mortgage.

The story was first published at MSNBC (link).

Jesse Gilleland of suburban Washington, D.C. had two American Express cards canceled and the limit on a third card cut. The company said the decision was based in part on where he  shops and who holds his mortgage.

As indicated in the mail, American Express clearly indicated that the reason why the limit of Jesse’s Platinum American Express Card was reduced were due to:

“Our credit experience with customers who have made purchases at establishments where you have recently used your card.”

“Our analysis of the credit risk associated with customers who have residential loans from the creditor(s) indicated in your credit report.”

The mail from American Express can be downloaded at here.

While I have heard that some credit card companies will use the above mentioned factors to determine the customers’ creditworthiness, this indeed is the first time I saw it happen.

It’s more interesting to see that this was confirmed by the American Express spokeswoman Kim Forde by saying: “We are looking at some other factors, too, in light of the economy. We are looking at consumers holding subprime mortgages (and) those living in areas where there has been a greater deterioration in home prices.” and “You have to remember that this is one contributing factor. That’s not the sole reason, but it’s certainly data that we’re looking at.”

The reason why I want to introduce this story is behavioral score is used by the credit card issuers. When you are talking about credit score, you should remember that there are many other “invisible” scores that credit issuers might take into account.

I hope this will not happen to me and readers at MyCardBlog.Com.

The full story can be found at MSNBC business section (direct link).

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.

The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is one of my favorite credit cards. With this credit card, you can accumulate starpoints for free hotel stays. You can also use starpoints to redeem a gift card from Amazon.com or Banana Republic, GAP and Starbucks etc. If you like, you can also transfer starpoints to many airline miles including AA, UA and Delta Airlines. If you apply now, you can get 10,000 bonus starpoints.

Starwood Preferred Guest program introduced the SPG Flights yesterday, a new redemption opportunity, which allows you to redeem your starpoints for a free airline ticket without any restrictions. This is the first hotel rewards program to offer airline ticket redemption option. This truly will benefit all starwood preferred guest members. Another obvious advantage of the SPG Flights over other airline rewards programs is you can redeem Starpoints for airline tickets whenever you choose, even during peak periods such as holidays.Thus you can avoid the standard restrictions that limit most frequent-flyer awards program.

With SPG Flights, you can choose hundreds of airlines over the world with no blackout dates. If there’s a seat available for purchase with cash, you can use your Starpoints. If you don’t have enough starpoints in your account, you can buy starpoints and use them for airline ticket redemption immediately.

Use your starpoints at SPG Flight is very easy:

1. Search for flights at www.spg.com/flights

2. Select your flight from many available options

3. Redeem Starpoints for an airline ticket

4. Fly

According to the SPG Flights Starpoints Chart, I think redeem airline ticket is much better option than other kinds of redemption choices.

SPG Flights Starpoints Chart (Thanks Sander for reminding me of this!)
up to $150 10,000
$150-$215 15,000
$215-$280 20,000
$280-$345 25,000
$345-$410 30,000
$410-$475 35,000
$475-$540 40,000
$540-$605 45,000
$605-$670 50,000
$670-$735 55,000
$735-$800 60,000
$800-$865 65,000
$865-$930 70,000
$930-$995 75,000
$995-$1060 80,000
Higher prices (examples)
$2,880-$3,140 235,000
$4,960-$5,220 395,000
$9,900-$10,160 775,000

Starwood Preferred Guest has been known for having the industry’s best redemption program.I hope they can keep current excellent work and offer more rewards opportunities.

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study yesterday. According to this study, American Express ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with credit card issuers for a second consecutive year! Yes, American Express should pride itself on its outstanding customer service.I would also vote for American Express.

The Credit Card Satisfaction Study measures customer satisfaction with credit card by examining five key factors according to J.D. Power and Associates: interaction; billing and payment process; fees and rates; reward programs; and benefits and services. I would say this study really encompasses every factor of a good credit cards. The study is based on a 1000 point scale and relies on more than 7,600 customers’ responses. American Express scored 783 points and ranked highest. Discover Card followed American Express with a score of 751.

Ironically, although the industry average score is 721, only American Express and Discover can score higher than that. HSBC scored the lowest score—667. Capital One also performed not well with only 10 points higher than that of HSBC.

As indicated by the study, American Express performed well in every category. American Express got the highest score out of any of the other credit card companies in all of the five categories. Discover Card performed well in only 3 of the 5 categories: interaction, billing and payment processes, and reward program sections. In the press release of this 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Rocky Clancy, executive director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates, pointed out that “American Express and Discover Card are very different in their fees, reward programs and incentives, and their strong performances indicate their ability to suit the various needs that dissimilar types of cardholders have.”

The study also revealed that people who pay off their balances every month tend to choose their credit cards based on rewards programs (77%). People who carry balances on their credit cards pay more attention on interest rates and fees when choosing their credit cards (65%).

This study also found that 72% of cardholders use some kind of reward program. And the most interesting part is free hotel stays are the most satisfying type of reward! I think the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express and the Hilton HHonors Platinum Credit Card from American Express will be very popular in the near future.

Another find of this study is 25% of all cardholders don’t know if their card offers them additional benefits and 33% haven’t used any during the past year. (If you are reading this post, you should look at your credit card benefits now.) I hope this will change in the future as mycardblog.com becomes more and more popular among general American readers.

The pdf version of the press release of 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction can be viewed here.

My question is which credit card company can surpass American Express the next year.

American Express sent me an email targeted to my Starwood Preferred Guest Card about the amazing “People Lower Price” promotion. This is a really interesting promotion which offers an opportunity to you to purchase amazing electronics at the cost of 50% of retail price. The promotion website is: http://peoplelowerprice.amexnetwork.com.

What is the “People Lower Price”?

If you have an American Express credit card, you can visit the above mentioned website every Tuesday from September 9 until September 30, 2008. There will be a hot electronic product on sale. The starting time is 12PM ET — until 5PM ET or while supplies last. As far as we can see from the website, the first one is Flip Mino Digital Camcorder, the second one is Lenovo IdeaPad Y730, the third one is Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite and the last one is Sharp Aquos 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV. The price of the each featured product will begin to drop (slowly and not much). After you are counted in the program, you are eligible to click “Buy Now” button and place the order at a price that you think is right for you. This is kind of like Dutch Auction.

A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer’s price, or a predetermined reserve price (the seller’s minimum acceptable price) is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price.

How does the “People Lower Price” work?

• When a featured product goes on sale at 12PM ET and you click on “Count Me In,” you’ll be asked to enter your Card number for verification because only Cardmembers can participate.
• Once you have been verified, you will be counted in for that product and the number of people needed for the next price drop will lower. You can only be counted in one time for each product.
• After you have been counted in, you can purchase the product when the price is right for you by clicking on “Buy Now.” Inventory is limited, so don’t wait too long.
• The more people counted in, the lower the price drops, so invite others to join in with the “Tell Your Friends” feature.
• When you come back to the website to participate on a different Tuesday, you won’t have to enter your Card number again. Just click on “Count Me In” to help lower the price!

If you want to participate in the promotion, you can set a reminder at the promotion page.

Sony Rewards also runs a similar program called “Reverse Auction” which allows you to purchase a features Sony product at a price you think is right to you. This program runs every month.

I have a post about PayPal Plug-In ($10 off $50 from PayPal Plug-In) which is offering $10 off for using this new online shopping assistant. Today I received an email from American Express which is offering 2500 membership rewards bonus points for using their Online Assistant.

The Online Assistant is a new product from American Express aimed to make your online shopping even easier. Right now, if you download the American Express Online Assistant and register the Online Assistant (enter your American Express Card information), you can get 2,500 bonus Membership Rewards points. What’s the new online shopping service can do for you? Basically, the Online Assistant remembers passwords, automatically fills forms, and even saves receipts. It can store your credit card information and at the checkout it can automatically fill in the form for you. The Online Assistant can even store your receipts after each transaction! You can edit your credit card information at the Online Assistant at any time.

There are several features of the Online Assistant that will offer you convenience when you shop online.

• Websites: Use this option as a “favorites”. Websites will automatically be stored here for your convenience as you save receipts on the related sites.
• Passwords: Manage Passwords or link to websites where you have saved login information.
• Fill Form: Instantly access your eWallet to fill registration and payment forms online.
• Receipts: View saved purchases and reports.

You can store any or all of your American Express Card products, as well as information such as different addresses for billing or shipping.

Your information at Online Assistant is encrypted using 128 Bit AES encryption. And all of the information in your eWallet is encrypted and stored locally on your PC. If you don’t like it, you can uninstall the Online Assistant software and/or cancel your Online Assistant account at anytime.

You can download the Online Assistant at http://www.americanexpress.com/onlineassistant

According to the fine print:

To receive this offer, the download of the Online Assistant is required by 09/30/2008. This offer is good for solicited Cardmembers only. Bonus points will be credited to your account 6-8 weeks after the promotion period ends. To earn bonus points, prior enrollment in the Membership Rewards program is required at time of the Online Assistant download. One download per Cardmember only. Bonus ID 1696. POID K939:000.

It seems this bonus offer is targeted to my Blue from American Express Card. My friend who has the Preferred Rewards Gold Card also received the email.

To learn how to use the Online Assistant, you can click this link. Remember: Only Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 6.0 & 7.0 are supported

The Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express is one of my favorite credit cards. The extended warranty feature and great customer service are the main reason for me to use this card to buy electronic products. The other reason why I like this card is it always offers some great promotions now and then.

Right now, if you are a Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express cardholder, you can earn free 2,000 starpoints from American Express by adding two authorized users in your account and make a purchase. The 2,000 bonus points are very easy to get. You don’t have to provide the social security numbers of the authorized users to get the additional cards. All you need is to fill in your credit card number, card ID, the last four digits of your SSN and the name of the authorized users. American Express won’t run a credit check during this process because you pay the money that charged on the card. Furthermore, the additional cards are free, and have no annual fee. You can apply for two cards for your family members or friends and ask them to make a small purchase to get the bonus points. After that, you can get the credit cards back. I requested two cards through the promotion page. One for my roommate and another for one of my good friends.

According to the fine print:

1,000 bonus Starpoints will be awarded to your Starwood Preferred Guest Account 8-12 weeks after the first purchase on an approved Additional Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card submitted with this application. The Additional Cardmember must make their first purchase with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card within one year of Card approval. Bonus offer applies to first 2 Additional Card added on this application only.

For those don’t have this Starwood Preferred Guest Card right now, I strongly suggest you get one. It’s very flexible to transfer your starpoints to airline miles, gift cards, or other rewards. If you sign up now, you can get 10,000 bonus starpoints which can be redeemed for a $100 Amazon.com gift card or up to 3 free night stays at Starwood Hotels.

If you spend over $15,000 on this card in 6 months, you can earn another 15,000 bonus points! That’s equal to 40,000 starpoints!If you were lucky like me, you might get 20,000 bonus starpoints!