MyCardBlog

I mentioned in this post that the Business Gold Rewards Card offers 25,000 bonus membership points after spending $1,000 before October 1, 2008. Many readers from MyCardBlog have applied for this card and already charged $1,000 on this card (including myself). If you’re still wondering whether you’re eligible or not to apply for this business card even though you’re not a business owner, you can check out this post to learn how to apply for a business card without “real business”. Faced with slumping economy nowadays, most financial institutions are trying to cut their costs. Last October, American Express offered 25,000 bonus points without any minimum spending requirement. Bank of America and Chase Freedom Card also offered $250 sign-up bonus early last year. However, this Business Gold Rewards Card is the only one to offer you 25,000 bonus points which can then be redeemed as a domestic round-trip airline ticket. Based on my own application process, I want to point out that if you can’t get instant approval, American Express may call you to verify your personal information and ask what your business is. You have to be prepared to answer this question and don’t miss the call from American Express. You actually don’t need a high credit score to get this credit card.

However, there is a big change on this card. According to American Express, effective from 06/16/2008, the Business Gold Rewards Card will be renamed as the Gold Card from American Express OPEN. If you apply for this card and spend more than $1,000 before 10/01/2008, you can still get 25,000 bonus points. With this card, you can save up to 25% business expenses from selected partners of OPEN Savings. The first-year annual fee will be waived and after that, the annual fee is $125 per year. You can use the saving calculator to see how much you can save if you use this card regularly.

Another big change of American Express business card is the gas rebate of SimplyCash Business Credit Card will change from 5% to 3%. 3$ cashback is capped on $12,000 per year. If you charge more than that amount, you can only get 1% cashback. This rebate change will be effective on 07/01/2008. Considering this card doesn’t charge annual fees and still offer 5% cashback on office supplies and wireless services, the American Express SimplyCash Business Credit Card is still a nice card.

Another business card that is worth mentioning is the Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card which is offering up to 20,000 bonus miles (15,000 + 1,000*5). 15,000 bonus miles will be available after first purchase. This card is good for those who travel a lot. Of course, the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card is still offering 10,000 bonus points after first purchase which can be redeemed as a $100 Amazon.com gift card.

I believe the 35% cash back from eBay via Microsoft live search cashback is the most popular topic on the internet yesterday. I think it’s necessary to write up a post about Microsoft live search cashback program and introduce how to get 35% cash back from eBay via live search cash back.

What’s Live Search Cashback?

Live Search cashback is a new cashback program that combines the power of Live Search with a comparison-shopping engine to bring consumers some of the best deals on the Web (to maximum the cashback rewards for online shopping consumers). The program rewards consumers with a cash back rebate for a purchase, and gives merchants/advertisers the opportunity to sell on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis. The motivation behind Microsoft to launch this program is to beat Google in the search engine business.

If you just use Google’s product search feature, you can get a list of stores that sell the product you want but without any information about tax, fees, and cashback for that transaction. However, Microsoft’s Live Search offers: 1). It tells you which stores carry the product and each store’s price, plus any additional charges (shipping cost and taxes). 2). It will offer certain amount of cashback for if you use the link provided by Live Search. (Of course, you have to register an account there.) It even will automatically determine which store offers the best price after cashback. It saves you a lot of time. Another feature Live Search can develop in the near future is to get store ratings together. Sometimes, lowest prices doesn’t mean best service.

In a word, Microsoft Live Search offer search engine and cashback together which make it very competitive for better online shopping experience. The cashback you can get even higher than some other cashback programs like Chase Rewards Plus, ShopDiscover Program or other famous rewards websites. Live Search Cashback is certainly worth checking out first every time you’re looking for something to buy online.

How to get 35% cashback from eBay?

1. Register an account at http://search.live.com/cashback.

2. Use live search to search the items you want to shop. (Usually you can try the items are known to generate 35% off links and redo the search process on ebay. You don’t have to search on the live.com again! That’s why this deal is damn hot!)

3. See whether you can get “You may get 35% off with PayPal if eligible.” from www.ebay.com. (examples will be shown below) If you can’t get it at the first attempt, you can try other words or you can try some accessories of that item. This is the most time consuming process. For example, I want to buy a pentax camera lens. If I use “pentax 50″, I can’t get any links for 35% cash back. However, if I try “pentax 100″, I will get a cashback link to www.ebay.com.

4. If you can get that link from your search results, click that link and try to find out the lowest price available at eBay and finish that transaction ASAP.

5. Wait for the cashback shows up in your account.

Some terms and conditions you should know:

1. You must successfully complete an eligible purchase on www.ebay.com using “Buy-It-Now” within 60 minutes of clicking an eBay link with Lice Search cashback logo. (this is a “Online Session”)

2. Cashback only applied to the first eligible item you commit to buy during an Online Session. No good for additional items.

3. PayPal payment is required!

4. Purchases of vehicles, gift cards, real estate or purchases made at www.express.ebay.com and www.half.ebay.com are not eligible to receive the cashback.

5. Maximum cashback for each Online Session is $250 and you can only get up to $750 totally. (Limit of 3 Online Sessions/transactions per account)

6. you can combine other coupons or other eBay promotions with Live Search cashback rewards.

Note: If you search for wii, you can only get 10% now. But if you use “wii cheap” you can still get 35% off link. If you search “PS3″ you can only get 10% off now, but if you use “PS3 cheap” you can still get 35% off link.

Update: Only 10% off right now. 35% off seems dead.You can only get 25% cashback right now.Simple search “25%” at live.com and you will get the link to get 25% cashback on ebay.com.

If you choose a right plastic and put it in your wallet, you might save hundreds of dollars a years at the pump. Following are my top-rated gas rebate cards.

Do you want to save 20 cents or 40 cents per gallon at the pump (Yes, current gas price is $4!)? Do you want to enjoy rewards other than at the pump?

Some gas-rebate cards can help you save money at everywhere. If you are still doubting the power of cash rewards that gas-rebate cards can bring to you, we can do the simple math. I assume you are driving a 20-mpg car with annual mileage at 15,000 and the gas price is fixed at $4/gallon. A 5% gas rewards card can save you $150 a year. If you are driving a SUV, truck or other cars, then a right gas-rebate card can save you even more money. Of course, the prerequisite is you are not carrying balance on your credit cards. If you carry balance every month, you top choices would be those with low interest rates.

How to pick a gas rebate card?

I think you should consider you driving habits and credit habits before you pull the trigger. If you drive the same route daily or weekly and fill your tank at the same pump, you can choose a gas store card issued by gasoline company and a credit card company. If you want to carry balance and pay off part of your monthly bills, you should consider a card with low interest rate as well as gas rewards. You might also think about how you like the cash rewards paid to you. Some rewards are credited to your account monthly (AMEX SimplyCash Card). And some rewards are issued to you at the end of the year. Following are some cards for your reference:

1. Ameircan Express SimplyCash Card: This card definitely should be on the top of this ranking although is a business card. (For tips on how to apply for a business card without a business, you can read this post.) Because it also gives you 5% cash back at wireless services and office supplies. You can get 5% cash back at pumps without limit! The cash rewards will be credited to your monthly statement (nice!). Another feature I want to point out here is this card is a business card and the usage of this card will not appear on your personal credit report. NO matter how much you spend on this card, it just won’t affect your credit score.

2. Discover Open Road Card: This card offers 5% cash back on gas and auto-maintenance purchases. This card is especially designed to drivers who want to save money on auto maintenance by using a credit card. The trick of this card is you can only get 5% from the first $100 spent on gas and auto maintenance purchases every month. However, Discover offers great rewards program. If you choose to redeem you cash as a gift card, your rewards might be doubled! Yes, this is why I like Discover card! If you like online shopping, you might also take advantage of the ShopDiscover program.

3. TrueEarnings Business Card from American Express and Costco: This card offers 5% cash back on gasoline purchases. (Note: Exclude gas purchased at warehouse clubs other than Costco, superstores or supermarkets. For example, if you fill your tank at Wal-Mart gas stations, you can’t get 5% cash back. But you can get 5% cash back at BP or Shell gas stations.) You can get 3% cash back at restaurants and 2% cash back for traveling. You can get 1% cash back for everything else. If you‘re a Costco member, you might try this card. This card has non-business version which only offers 3% cash back on gasoline purchases.

Start saving at the pumps now!

If you pay your balance off every month, choosing a credit card with rewards that match your spending profile and interests can pay. Following are a few credit cards with cool rewards programs.

Nowadays thousands of credit cards are competing for comsumers’ attention. On some occations, credit card issuers will issue some cool credit cards with cool rewards programs. In this way, that certain credit card will capture customers’ attention and become popular. Maybe they are not best, but they definitely are worthy of notice.

Free Credit Scores: WaMu Credit Card offers free credit scores to their credit card holders. The credit score is usually basedon your credit profile at TransUnion. Unlike to other credit scores (FAKO score), they offer you genuine FICO credit score which is widely used by credit grantors to judge your credit. The credit score is updated once every month. If you have a credit card from WaMu, this is the most convenient way to monitor your credit score. If you receive the invitations from WaMu, you can try to apply for it. As far as I know, over 80% people received the invitations can get approved.

Help Our Earth: Your purchase can make a difference! Every time you use your GE Earth Rewards Card from GE Money, part of your net purchase will go to climate projects (specificlly, emission reduction projects). Or you can choose to share the cash rewards between you and those climate projects. If you want to contribute to make our earth more clean and help reduce the CO2 emission, you can use this card.

Make-A-Wish: Every time you use your Bank of America Make-A-Wish Platinum Plus Card, Bank of America will make a contribution to Make-A-Wish Foundation. It’s another convenient way for you to help our society. If you are a suporter of Make-A-Wish Foundation, this card is your top choice.

Nature and Wild Life: Bank of America offers a couple of credit cards aimed to sponsor some Nature and Wild Life Organizations. For every purchase you made with Bank of America Nature Conservancy Platinum Card, BOA will donate part of your purchase (1%) to Nature Conservancy at no cost to you. If you prefer to Wild Life Foundations, you have other more choices there. Many options are available here.

Phone Discounts: The AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards Card offers 10% rewards for 12 months when you use AT&T products and you can continue to receive 5% after that. There no such a card to help you save money at AT&T. This card also offers 0% APR on balance transfer for up to 12 months. You can get 1 ThankYou Point for every dollar you spent at non-AT&T products.

Get Awarded for Being A Good Student: Citi mtvU card for college students offers bonus points for good GPA you get every semester! (2,000 bonus points if your GPA is 4.0.) If you pay your bills on time every month, you can also earn 25 bonus points for being a good customer! This card also features huge discount at Amazon.Com and restaurants. Amazon.Com is considered as a boostore, you can get 5 thankyou points for every dollars spent at Amazon.Com.

City Rewards: American Express issue a series of city rewards credit cards: IN Chicago Card, IN New York Card, IN Los Angles Card. Every time you use that card to make a purchase, you can accumulate a INSIDE rewards point which can then be redeemed to eat, drink, play in Chicago, New York, Los Angles as mentioned above. If you use that card at city essentials, your rewards will be doubled. So cool!

There are also many other opotions for you. If you are tired of getting cash back, accumulating airlime mileages, and hotel rewards points, you can try some new rewards program.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest consumer price index, food prices overall rose 5.3% in 2007, while prices for basic staples such as milk, bread and eggs soared by double-digit percentages. And it’s expected that similar increase will continue this year. Yes, we can’t control the prices of the food, but we can earn mximum rewards if we can smartly enough to choose a good credit card. Supermarkets are playing all kinds of tricks to luring you to buy somehting expensive although there are other cheap alternatives. Sometimes you can mistakenly pick up a wrong merchandise which will get more money out of your pocket. However, one thing we won’t do wrong is to put a right grocery rewards card in your wallet. Here are 5 grocery rewards cards worth swiping:

1. Blue Cash from American Express

If you use this card as you primary card, it offers the best grocery rewards around. The bottom line is you have to spend more than $6,500 per year. Once you have spent more than $6,500 on the card, you can earn 5% cash back on “everyday purchases” at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores. You can earn 1.5% cash back on everything else. The only drawback of this card is you can only get 1.5% cash back (0.5% on everything else) before you reach that threshold. Another feature is there is no monthly or yearly cap on this card. You can earn as much as you can!

2. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card

This card offers 5 thankyou points for every $1 spent at grocery stores, gas stations and drug store. Not like Blue Cash from American Express which requires you to spend more than $6,500 to enjoy the 5% cash back, there is no minimum spending requirement to earn 5 thankyou points for every $1 spent. However, you can only get 5 thankyou points offer for 12 months. After that, you can only get 1 thnkyou point for every $1 spent everywhere.

3. Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card

You can get 5% on supermarkets, drugstores and gas station purchases and utilities for 6 months. After that, you can only get 2% cash back. You can also get 1% cash back on everything else. This card is not so good as Citi Diamond Prefferd Rewards Card which offers 5% cash back for 12 months. But, this card has college student version which enable college students to build their credit history and earn cash back rewards.

4. Household/Orchard Bank Platinum Card with 2% Cash Back

This card has been mentioned in my “7 Great Credit Cards You Should Know” post. You earn 2% cash back on everything including grocery! If you can’t get a rewards card which enables you to get more than 2% cash back, you should consider this card. Usually this card is by invitation only. The invitations from Household Bank and Orchard Bank (owned by HSBC) are “real invitations”. Not like CapitalOne Bank, once you receive an invitation from them, you are guaranteed to have their cards. (CapitalOne Bank sends out a lot of invitations to you but you can still get rejected because their pre-approved invitation is a joke!) The only drawback of this card is you can’t expect high credit limit from HSBC. The typical credit limit is around $300~$2000. If you request to increase your credit limit, you can either get rejected or only a small amount ($300) will be granted.

From low fees to frequent-flyer miles: 7 credit card will give you something back.

1. Household/Orcahrd Bank Platinum Card with 2% Cash Back

Both cards can give you 2% cash back for everything! Yes, it’s true. They are much better than those cards with only 1% cash back. If you have one of these card, your minimum cash back is 2%. You can selectively use this card and other cash back cards to achieve better cash back rate. Actually, both Household Bank and Orchard Bank are owned and operated by HSBC Bank. HSBC is new in the credit card market. Their targeted consumers are those with low credit scores but have the ability to pay their debits. Previously, this card can is by invitation only. If you receive an mail invitation to apply for this credit card, you are guaranteed to get approved. But you have to make sure that there’s a “2% cash back” in your invitation letter. Recently, Household Bank is promoting the visa version. You are allowed to have one master card and one visa card. Online application site is www.hbaccept.com (for those received the invitations).

2. Blue Cash from American Express

Once you’ve charged $6,500 in a year, you can get 5% back on grocery, drugstore and gas purchases and 1.5% on everything else vs. 1% for the average cash-back card. (Below $6,500 you earn 0.5% to 1%). Blue credits the cash to your account automatically, so you don’t risk leaving rewards on the table. As stated at the very beginning, the power of the Blue Cash Card appears when you spend more than $6,500 in this card in a year. In a word, this is a for those big spenders. Another feature worths mention is this card offers 4.99% APR for balance transfer for life! if you are short of cash, you can borrow money from this card. The 4.99$ APR is much lower than those payday loans.

3. Discover More Card

The most attractive part of this card is it offers 5% cash back on selected categories which are changing every quarter. plus Discover is working to offer better cash back rewards program for its newly launched ShopDiscover Rewards Program. You can also get about 5%~15% for shopping through ShopDiscover. The other feature is the low fee balance transfer offer. Not many issuers still offer 0% interest for 12 months on balance transfers. Discover does. Plus, it caps its balance-transfer fee at $75 vs. $99 or more at other banks. You’d better pay off all your balance before the introductory period expires, but even if you can’t or don’t, the interest rate is not that terrible: It starts at a respectable 10.99%.

4. Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express

This is a great hotel rewards card for those who want to get rewarded for free hotel stays. The minimum points you need to redeem for a free night stay at Starwood Hotels is 2,000 points. The sign-up bonus for this card is 10,000 points. You can redeem for an Amazon.Com gift certificate for only 9,000 starpoints. The gift certificate will be shipped to you via UPS next day air. (super quick!!!) You can also transfer those starpoints to other rewards programs like AAdvantage miles.

5. Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level

You earn one point for every dollar charged, plus a point for every mile you fly. (Note: miles can not be redeemed as ThankYou points before your spending match the miles.) You can double your points at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, commuter transportation and parking merchants. Redeem points for plane tickets on any airline; you won’t face blackout dates and restricted seats. If your spending can match your fly miles. You can redeem those fly miles to thankyou points. That’s why this card is best is best to buy flight tickets. The rate starts at 10.24%. Recently this card is offering 20,000 sign-up bonus after 4600 in purchases are made with 3 months of account opening.

Discover just updated their website few days ago. Their url is www.discover.com now although the previous url: www.dicovercard.com is still available. To be honest, I really like current design in my account. Another feature I want to mention here is they just launched the ShopDiscover program. ShopDiscover is a rewards program which will give you extra rewards in addition to the cash back or other rewards you can accumulate for online shopping through ShopDiscover. For example, if you place an order at www.circuitcity.com through the link at ShopDiscover (in your account), you can get extra 5% cash back plus up to 1% cash back you can get for using your discover card. SO it’s a rewards shopping program similar to Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center. The only difference here is ShopDiscover offer better cash back than other rewards programs. For example, Dell home offers 5% cash back at ShopDiscover while Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center only offer 2% cash back. Apple store offers 5% cash back at ShopDiscover, Chase Rewards Plus only offer 4% while Citi Cash Bonus Center only offers 1% cash back. GNC.Com offer 15% cash back at ShopDiscover, Chase Rewards Plus only offers 6% cash back and Citi Cash Bonus Center offers 8.5% cash back. You can also find out that ShopDiscover program offers better cash back rate from HP, OfficeDepot, SonyStyle, TigerDirect and other famous online shopping websites. It’s really great!

The only drawback for ShopDiscover is that due to the high cash back rate, there are only limited merchants you can choose from. For example, Staples.Com and BestBuy.Com are not offering cash back at ShopDiscover while you can still get about 3% cash back from Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center.

Another good news is cash back Bonus (ShopDiscover) offers are valid for all Discover Cards that offer a Cashback Bonus Rewards program. Double Miles offers are valid for Miles by Discover CardDiscover Business Miles and card members. (Chase Rewards Plus is dedicated to Chase Freedom card members.) You don’t have to enroll in a special website like Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center. The ShopDiscover link is available at your online account. All you have to do is login your online account and click the related retailer’s link. It’s much easier and safer. The cash back will be accumulated in your regular Cash Back bonus program. You can redeem the Cashback Bonus you earn through ShopDiscover just like your regular Cashback Bonus. If you choose to redeem your cash back for a gift certificate, your cash back bonus will be increased or even doubled! (That’s why I like Discover More Card.)

As far as I know, Discover is working hard to get more online merchants. They want to give our customers better options for using Discover Card. Discover is also committed to offer minimum 5% cash back for their Discover card members.

My post—”my favorite rewards credit cards” has already told you guys how I use my credit cards in a combination manner. Yes, in this way, I can get myself rewarded for using my credit cards to a maximum degree. These days I notice another useful information for National City Everyday Rewards Cardholders. If you use your National City Everyday Rewards Card at Wal-Mart or other supermarkets, the spending will be counted as “Groceries”. Yes, it’s true! The expense category is “Groceries” and it will give you 2% cash back for using this card at Wal-Mart or other supermarkets. If you don’t have a Household Bank or Orchard Bank 2% cash back card, this maybe a good choice for you. National City is accepting online application now.

OK, let’s go to today’s topic—how to manage your credit cards?

My rule for credit card usage is:

• Use a credit card for every expense whenever or wherever you can.
• Only charge as much as you can pay off every month—never carry a balance on your credit cards.
• Try your best to get a rewards credit card—I know sometimes it’s hard to get a perfect one but keep trying.
• Take the every opportunities as you can to get some free money—get yourself rewarded for having a good credit history!

Many people indicate that you can easily go crazy spending money by using credit cards. Because when you are using that piece of plastic, you are not feeling that you’re using your money. Yes, it won’t touch your money at your checking or savings account right away. But, finally, you have to write a check to credit card company otherwise you will be charged for a high interest rate. So, when you use it, you can tell yourself that you have to pay the money back to the credit card company. If you can’t pay off the balance every month, you have to pay the interest which is typically around 18% APR. Actually, credit card companies try to intrigue you to charge everything on your credit cards and hope you will not be able to pay off all the balance. In this way, they can get more profits other than some transaction fees. Don’t carry balance on your credit cards is always the top 1 tip for every debit management expert.

Get rewarded for using your credit cards is a sweet thing. If you pay your bills using check or money orders, you get nothing back. But, if you use you Chase Freedom Card to pay your cell phone bills or cable bills, you can get 3% cash back. Or if you use the SimplyCash Card from American Express, you can get 5% cash back. So why not get a plastic to pay for the bills online? You can also save the money for stamps.

When you’re using a credit card, you have to remember that use your plastics wisely can bring some profits for you. If you have a very high FICO credit score, you chance to get a new credit card is very high. When there’s a sign-up bonus opportunity, you can’t let it go. Because it’s the reward for maintaining a good credit score. You can always check “MyCardBlog” for updated sign-up opportunities. Warn: If you’re gonna purchase a mortgage in two years, please forget about this. A hard pull on your credit report might give you a 0.5% difference on your mortgage rate which will cost your hundreds of dollars. If you don’t have such a plan, then just go ahead. Hard pulls mean nothing to you! (Of course, there’s a trick to bump all of your hard pulls from your TransUnion and Equifax credit report.)