Chase has just updated its famous and most popular credit card product—the Chase Freedom Credit Card. You can’t find any link to apply for the previous Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card. Since this is a new credit card product or more accurately, this is the replacement of the previous Chase Freedom Card, I will do a short review of this card and give some tips here.

The Chase Freedom Card is one of my favorite credit cards, and I use it a lot. But it seems the new card members will not receive the great cash back offers now. Now, it seems that the Chase Freedom’s rewards program just got downgraded to a program that’s like other general rewards programs: 3% Bonus Cash Back on Gas, Groceries, and Fast Food Purchases for the First 6 Months. 1% Unlimited Cash Back on Everything Else. No Cap. No Expiration. This is a huge change of their rewards program! It’s very obvious that this rewards program is not as good as previous one! Besides, Chase also do the rewards as discover card: cardholders will receive quarterly bonus opportunities, which offer 3% cash back. I’m really disappointed at the rewards program.

The only highlight of this card is the 0% intro APR on purchases for up to 12 months. I think Chase is aimed at those in great need of money because of the financial crisis. For general consumers, this Chase Freedom Card is not a recommended card any longer.

One thing I am still happy with the Chase Freedom Card is, however, the great Chase Rewards Plus program. If you are a Chase Freedom Card owner, you are automatically enrolled in the Chase Freedom Rewards Plus, a shopping rewards program like ebates.com, ShopDiscover etc. Your rewards earned through the Chase Rewards Plus is credited to your Chase Freedom Card and you can redeem the rewards altogether.

Plus, according to Chase, this credit card is designed for those who have excellent credit and who plan to take advantage of the cash rewards program.

A very useful tip: If you apply for the new Chase Freedom card through www.chasefreedomnow.com, you can get 5,000 bonus points which can be redeemed for a $50 gift card. So you can still get $50 sign up bonus from this card, but only at www.chasefreedomnow.com.

So it’s very obvious that this Chase Freedom Card is not a great cash back card for everyday rewards. The question is: are there other cards that give you great cash back rewards?

Following are some suggestions:

TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express: 5% cash back at pumps, 3% cash back for eating out, 2% cash back for traveling, and 1% cash back for everything else.

Blue Cash from American Express: You can get 5% cash back on everyday purchase if you spend over $6,500 each year.

Discover More Card: earn 5% cash back on selected categories for every quarter which is way better than curerrent Chase Freedom Card.

There are many black card designs out there in the market. The most famous one probably is the American Express Black Card which is dedicated to those with high incomes. Other credit card issuers are also promoting their “Black Card” to attract more customers. This post is a summary of 5 cool Black Card designs.

1. American Express Centurion Card: This is the most famous credit card with an annual fee of $2,500. And you must have to spend more than $250,000 each year otherwise your card account will be canceled by American Express. This card is not available for general market. You must have to receive the invitations from American Express to be eligible to submit your application. The complete review of this card can be found here.

2. Citi Chairman Card: This is the Citi version of Black Card. The annual fee for this card is $500. This card is the high end card product from Citi. But the benefits from this card is not so good as those from the American Express Black Card. This card is actually an American Express card although you can’t find any visa, mastercard, or American express card designs. The review on this card can be found here.

3. Bank of America Accolades American Express Card: This is the Bank of America’s version of Black Card. This is the first premium credit card offered by Bank of America targeted exclusively for the banks “affluent, wealthy and ultra- wealthy clients served through Premier Banking & Investments, the Private Bank of Bank of America and its extension, Family Wealth Advisors. After you become one of the account members of the Premier Banking & Investments, you will be eligible to apply for this card. (You must have more than $200,000 in assets with Bank of America.)

4. Merill Lynch Merill+ Visa Card: This is the Merill Lynch version of Black Card. There is nothing special for this card but a black card design. This card features a 1.9% APR on balance transfers, check cash advances and direct deposits for the first 12 billing cycles. There is no annual fee associated with this card.

5. Chase +1 Student MasterCard: This is a very very special black card which doesn’t contain any black features. This card is designed exclusively for college students. So even students can have a black card now. If you are a college student and want to get a “Black Card”, this is your top choice.

I recently wrote a post on “Get Overdraft Fees Back from Bank of America by Writing to Their CEO“. Many BOA customers did exactly the same way to get their overdraft fees back. But there are some banks that will not allow their customer service representatives to refund the fees to their customers. As a matter of fact, the fees charged by banks are huge every year! It’s a way to make profit for bank. ($33 billion dollars were payed by US consumers in insufficient funds and overdraft fees in 2003.) If you don’t check your online account frequently, sometimes you will accumulate more than $300 fees! If you don’t want to pay that fees, a collection agent might contact you. Your credit would be ruined in this way.

So the experience on how to fight with banks are essentially important. I made a mistake on one of my Chase Checking account several days ago. And I want to share my experience here with you.

I paid the Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card with my Chase checking account without knowing that I didn’t have enough funds in that account (My direct deposit goes to National City Bank.). And in the next two days I didn’t check my online account thus I was not aware that I have a negative balance in my checking account. When I noticed it, there was a $32 “insufficient funds fee” charged in my account. The next day I went to Chase to deposit my money there immediately. However, Chase charged another $20 insufficient funds fee for that day. So for just two days I was charged a total of $57 insufficient funds fees by Chase.

Since this is the first time I made such a mistake, I called Chase customer service up and request to get a refund. The first time when I called in, an lady with Indian accent (speaking Indian English) told me that she could not refund me. She said I had already got a refund before! I told her that I knew she was lying. I then called Chase again after 10 mins. This time an American lady picked up the phone and told me that if I didn’t make a mistake in the past 12 months, I should receive the a refund. She told me that she put my request into the system and I would know the result in a few minutes. Yes, it did! A few minutes later, a refund of $57 went back to my account!

Then I knew that Chase allows its customers to make a mistake every 12 months! So if you are charged by Chase with an insufficient funds fee, you can call Chase and ask for a refund. If you failed at the first time, you can call Chase up again and do the same thing. Of course, the requirement is you should only make a mistake every 12 months.

Sometimes consumers might get confused with “insufficient funds fee” and “overdraft fee”. Actually both of them are indicating non-sufficient funds in your banking account. Different banks might have different ways to describe them. Sometimes you will also see Nn-sufficient funds fee (NSF) which means a transaction, check, or entry in excess of available account balance is returned unpaid. Overdraft, otherwise, means the entry is paid by bank.

I have many posts about the promotion from the New Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card. If you are new to the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card, you can take the chance to save money ($100) for purchasing an Amazon Kindle at Amazon.com. If you are already an Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card member, you can call the customer service to upgrade your current card to a new credit card. This would give you a chance to get 6 rewards points for every $1 spent at Amazon.com. Today I noticed that there is a new promotion from Amazon.com for the Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card—-free Amazon Prime!

The promotion page for the free Amazon Prime with the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card can be found here. According to the promotion page, you can get one year free Amazon Prime for signing up the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card ($79 value). With the Amazon Prime Membership, you can get unlimited free 2-day shipping for a year! If you want to choose the one-day shipping, you should only pay $3.99. The Amazon Prime is very popular among Amazon.com customers. There is no minimum order requirement to use the Amazon Prime.

New features of  the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Credit Card:

• Absolutely new card design-the black card is replaced with the blue card
• At the first 90 days of account opening, you can get 6 points for every dollar spent at Amazon.com; 4 points at gas stations, drug stores and restaurants; 1 point at anywhere else.
• You can choose which kind of rewards you’d like to redeem the rewards points for. You are free to choose from many rewards options.

Fine print:

Most applications can be processed within seconds. In some instances an application may require additional time to process, and the account may not be available for immediate use. To purchase gift certificates, and downloadable items such as e-books with your Amazon.com Rewards Visa card, you will have to wait until your card arrives in the mail.

This offer is available to newly approved Amazon.com Visa card members who have not participated in a previous Amazon Prime Free Trial or paid membership as either a member or invited guest. Amazon Prime is a $79 a year subscription-based membership program that provides free two-day shipping, $3.99 overnight shipping, and other shipping benefits. The 1-Year Free Membership period will begin when your Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card is approved. Your card will be charged $79 for the year and will be offset by a $79 credit on your credit card statement. At the end of your Free Year, your membership will continue and Amazon Prime will automatically charge your Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card, or another credit card Amazon.com has on file for you, for the next year and annually after that. If you prefer, you can set your Amazon Prime account to “do not auto renew” through the “Your Account” page on Amazon.com at any time prior to the initial charge or any renewal charge and you will not be charged for the next year. Since the first year is free, if you decide to cancel, there will be no refund. In subsequent years you can always request a refund of the most recent charge if your benefits have not been used in the new term. By signing up for this offer, you authorize Amazon Prime to charge your Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card or another credit card Amazon.com has on file. Amazon Prime benefits apply to millions of eligible items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com. Shipments to AK, HI and PO Boxes excluded, other restrictions apply.

Take the chance to get a brand new Chase Amazon Rewards Visa Credit Card and get free Amazon Prime Membership!

WaMu was acquired by JP Morgan Chase & Co in last week. And the Wachovia (banking operations) is acquired by the Citi Group yesterday. The FDIC press release can be found here. Another bank that is still in struggling is the National City Bank. The stock price of National City dropped a lot in the past week. However, in the credit card market, it seems that every credit card issuers are still in good operations even though we still have serious credit crisis now.

JP Morgan Chase & Co should be a very reliable bank under this situation. Today I was informed that there is a new promotion that is going to start between October and December from Chase. This promotion is targeted to the Chase Freedom Card members.

According to the invitation letter, you can choose one of the three pre-selected bonus rewards:

• 3% cash back
• $25 gift card
• 3-bureau credit report and score

To redeem this offer, you have to register at www.chasebonus.com/holiday1 and select which bonus award you would like to have. And then from October 1 to December 31, 2008, all you have to do is to spend more than $250 on home furnishing, home repair, and home and garden supply purchase! (I believe different customers will receive different purchasing requirements.)

Compared to the $25 offer, I would probably go for the free 3-bureau credit report and score which values more than $25.

Fine print: Bonus Rewards is defined as a choice of cash back, $25 gift card or a 3-bureau credit report and score. In order to be eligible for a bonus reward, you must first enroll by blogging on to the opt-in website using your last name, last 4 digits of your account number and zip code. Once your bonus reward selection has been made, it cannot be changed. If you selected the 3-bureau credit report and score as your bonus reward, the credit report information will be obtained from one or more of the three national credit repositories, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Chase uses First Advantage Membership Services to provide  the information to you.

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.

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.

Today a reader sent me an email about the damn hot deal from Chase Sony Card. Of course, this deal is only attractive to those who want a Sony DSLR camera.

From now on, if you apply for a new Chase Sony Card through the following link: http://www.sonyrewards.com/en/gateway/?offerlink=snal, you can get a new Sony DSLR A350K for only $449! The retail price for the Sony DSLR camera is $799. So with a new Sony Card approval, there will be a $350 discount applied to this camera! If you are waiting for a camera, this is a good deal to catch.

The Sony A350K features:

Live View LCD Monitor: The camera features a Live View mode which allows you to use the camera’s LCD monitor to take photos similar to a point-and-shoot camera. As far as I know, this is the first DSLR camera that has the live view function. This camera uses a 2.7″ Clear Photo LCD Plus screen with 230,4000 pixels and adjustable brightness.

14.2 MP Super HAD CCD: A large 23.5 x15.7mm APS-C size imager with Sony’s advanced design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing the sensitivity and reducing noise. With 14.2 MP resolution, the picture can provide greater detail when you make big prints.

Super Steadyshot In-Camera Image Stabilization: The in-camera image stabilization technique allows you to shoot pictures in low-light situation. You can also spend less money on the lens because all of VR/IS lenses are very expensive.

Anti-Dust Technology: This feature can help you to keep the CCD imager clean for better pictures. This camera utilizes both static-free anti-dust coating on the CCD filter and ant-dust vibration that automatically shakes the CCD to dislodge dust each time the camera is shut off.

There are more features that can be found at SonyStyle.com. If you are seeking for a digital camera, I would suggest you consider this offer. The picture quality from a DSLR camera is much better than a general digital camera.

The Chase Sony Card is running another promotion in September. I received a mail from Sony Card stating that I could get $25 credit if I spend more than $100 during 09/12/2008 and 10/09/2008. This is a good deal since I can get about 25% cash back for the first $100.

My friends who also have this card also received the offer but in email. They have to sign up through the link in the email. Personally, I think the Chase Sony Card is a good credit card to own. Because it always offers some great deals to its cardholders. The most recent one is the “10 Below” from Sony Card. If you sign up a Sony Card according to this post, you can get $150 credit for purhcase of $299 or more.

Following is the content of the mail:

You already know that you Sony Card gives you the financial freedom you need to take care of whatever life brings your way. It’s also the only card that rewards you with the best of Sony, including electronics, CDs, DVDs, movie tickets and live entertainment. And when you use your card right now, you can also receive $25.

It’s easy to receive your statement credit-just use your card. As long as your purchases add up to $100or more from September 12 through October 9, 2008, you will automatically receive your $25 statement credit. And since every purchase counts-from a week’s worth of groceries to a weeklong getaway-chances are you’ll reach $100 in no time!

I don’t know whether this is a targeted offer or not. But you should keep an eye on this offer.

I should also admit that the Sony Card is good to keep but it’s not the card we should use daily. My top choice credit card in my daily life is the Chase Freedom Card which offers 3% cash back (or 3.75%) on everyday purchase. Another credit card from Chase is the BP visa card which is offering 5% cash back on gasoline purchase at BP locations (10% for the first 60 days).

Chase and Amazon.com have worked together to launch the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card. Compared to the old Amazon.com visa card, the new rewards card offers more rewards options, higher cash back rate at the first 90 days of account opening, and better look of card design. For some Amazon Kindle fans, the best news is you can get $100 off Amazon Kindle with a new Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card!

The Amazon Kindle has been out in the market for a while and received great reviews both from consumers and experts. The Amazon Kindle sets out to change the way we read books, newspapers, weblogs, and more and is developed by Amazon itself. With the Amazon Kindle, you can have instant wireless access to 115,000 books sold by Amazon just like an electronic book reader, an audiobook player, and a wireless Web browser. Kindle uses a cellular data network to deliver books, newspapers, magazines and weblogs to you immediately. This network is called “Whistler” and is free for you to use. Amazon provides the data connectivity free of charge as part of Kindle’s purchase. Sweet!

The price of Kindle is $359.00 right now at Amazon.com. The Kindle was very popular: Amazon’s initial manufacturing run sold out in just five hours, and it took Amazon six months to get it back in stock. (Somehow, I think this is kind of a marketing strategy.) But if you read carefully, you can find that:

Get the Amazon Rewards Visa Card and Get $100 Off Kindle

Thanks to Chase, you get $100 off Kindle when you get the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card. Limited time only.

Here’s how this works: 1) Apply online. Get a response in as little as 30 seconds. If you’re approved, we will instantly add the card to your Amazon.com account and you’ll get $30 back on your credit card statement after your purchase. 2) Add a Kindle to your cart. 3) Place your order using the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card and enter this promo code: VISACARD to get the additional $70 savings at checkout.

The question is whether the new Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card is better than its previous version?

Following is the details of the cash back rate:

From what I can tell, the new Amazon.com Rewards Card is really an upgraded version of rewards card. The old Amazon card gives 3 points for every dollar spent on Amazon and 1 point for other purchases. The new card add two new reward categories—restaurants and gas stations from which you can get 2 points for everyday $1 spent there. At the same time, the new Amazon credit card comes with an introductory double points offer! You will get 6 points for every dollat spent at Amazon.com within the introductory period. The new card also gives you airline miles, cash, or flight tickets in addition to gift certificates for redemption.

Overall, the new Amazon Visa Rewards Card is a better credit card product and if you are a fan of Amazon Kindle, it’s the right time to grab it!