MyCardBlog

For those who still don’t have a checking account at Chase or WaMu, there is good news. Chase and WaMu branches will have a new checking account bonus for those who open a new checking account on President’s Day. The bonus is $100 and there is no coupon or promotional code needed. You have to go to your local branches to get the bonus and open a new checking account.

Here’s what you should do to get the bonus:

1. Call your local Chase/Wamu branches and confirm there is a checking account promotion on President’s Day with $100 bonus.

2. Go to your local Chase/WaMu branches and open a new checking account with $100 new money.

3. In order to qualify for the bonus, you have to set up direct deposit from your payroll/PayPal/ING etc and to waive monthly fees.

4. Wait for the $100 bonus show up in your new account.

Also for those who still don’t have a OLD Version Chase Freedom Card which offers 3% cash back on 5 different categories, you can still get one at local Chase Branch. Of course, this offer comes with $50 sign up bonus. The new Chase Freedom Card obviously is not as good as the old one.

The WaMu Visa Platinum Credit Card was very popular among credit card members due to its unique free FICO credit score check. Actually, the credit card was previously owned by Providian. Now, since WaMu was acquired by Chase, all financial products provided by WaMu will be merged to Chase system. In this way. the bad news is no more FREE FICO credit score will be displayed.

I believe all WaMu credit card members have received the email sent out by WaMu titled “Important information about your credit card online access”. There will be many new important changes in the near future about the WaMu credit cards. All online access to WaMu credit cards will be moved to Chase online on March 9, 2009, including credit card account management, online payments and email alerts.

The most important point in the email is “However, please note that your free FICO credit score will no longer be displayed, and only 3 months of transaction history will be available online.” If you wish to access your historical transaction information currently available online, you will need to save, download, or print it by March 1, 2009.

Online access to wamucards.com will be unavailable from March 4-8, 2009. The new website for WaMu credit card members is www.chase.com/wamucards.

But actually all the online credit card account features keep the same:

Your credit card account number will remain the same.
Just keep using your WaMu card until it expires; we’ll send you a new Chase card before the expiration date.

You can reach us at the same toll-free number.
Continue to call the phone number on the back of your card whenever you need help from a Service Representative.

You’ll pay your credit card the same way you always have.
Simply mail your payment to the mailing address on your statement. Or, beginning March 9, you can pay by phone, online or at any of our Chase or WaMu branches. We’ll send you a new payment address when your Chase card arrives.

From my points of view, there is no need to keep the WaMu credit card since the free FICO credit score feature will be no longer available.

There are many great credit card promotions out there that I haven’t reported for a while. This is a summary of current credit card promotions from American Express, Chase and Discover Card. If you want to use your good credit standing/current credit cards to earn some extra money/bonus, you can refer to your credit card issuers for more details.

Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card is offering 10X bonus points for paying your bills with the Chase Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card. The title of the email I received is “Start 2009 with More Amazon Rewards – Earn 10x Points for Paying Bills”. If you use this card to pay your monthly bills and earn 10 points per eligible $1 spent between January 15 and March 31, 2009. Chase Credit card can do automatic payments for you. It’s easy to setup:

1. Contact the companies that bill you via phone or the company website (check your statement for contact information or visit www.chasebillmanager.com).

2. Arrange for your bills to be charged to your Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card.

3. Earn reward points for paying your monthly bills!

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is offering free 3 months trial of Clear for fast pass at airport security. The process is pretty easy. All SPG members can register at this website with SPG membership number to get a free three-month clear service. If you’re pleased you’ll be renewed automatically for a one-year membership at $199. More information about Clear can be found at www.flyclear.com.

25,000 bonus miles for applying for a new Miles by Discover Card. The invitation code is DBAW. You can apply for this credit card at apply.Discovercard.com or call 1-800-206-8854. This is a no-annual-fee credit card. Usually this credit card only offers 12,000 bonus miles. I personally think this is a great offer. The link to this invitation letter is here. You’d better keep a copy of the offer.

The Discover Motiva Card is also offering $100 bonus for opening a new account.

Apply for a new discover Motiva card and get $100 cash back bonus, NEW CARD MEMBERS Only – if you have any other Discover card then you do not qualify.

site: http://apply.discovercard.com
Call: 1-800-210-9022
INVITATION CODE: DBHR

I have introduced a lot of promotions from our credit card issuers like Chase, Discover Card and American Express. Actually, there are many more promotions from other credit card issuers. PayPal is running huge promotions via corporate with other online merchants like buy.com. This is a summary of holiday promotions from many credit card issuers and other payment processing providers.

Discover Card

The most famous and popular promotion from Discover Card is the Discover Mall Promotion. I first reported this promotion in September. You can take the chance to save with a  $20 Discover Gift Card for every $200 you spend on your Discover credit card at over 160 shopping malls nationwide through Jan. 4, 2009. According to the terms and rules, there is a limit of five gift cards per account with a total of $100 value. No enrollment is necessary. The process is quite simple, take your receipts with you to the customer service at each participating mall and the officers there will issue a $20 Discover Gift card for every $200.

Chase

First of all, the famous Chase Rewards Plus program is offering cash back for shopping online through the Chase Rewards Plus. Chase Freedom Cardholders are automatically enrolled in the program. You can get up to 20% cash back from top online retailers.

Chase is also running the Holiday Bonus Rewards promotion. This seems to be a targeted offer, every registered cardholder can receive a $25 Target Gift Card for purchases exceeding certain threshold amounts in preset categories made from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. The promotion website is here. You can visit the website to see whether you are eligible or not and how to get the $25 gift card. If you register you credit card at the chase bonus website, you can see other wonderful promotions like: 500 bonus points for adding an authorized user to your account, 1,000 bonus points for enrolling at Chase Online, and 2,500 bonus points for signing on for Chase Fraud Detector.

Bank of America

Bank of America is offering $10 for every $100 you spend getting around the New York City. The promotion website is here. You have to enroll your Bank of America visa credit card to be eligible to get the $10 cash back. Maximum amount you can get is $100.

Visa

Visa is running discount promotions with many top merchants. The promotion details can be found at visa.com. Visit the visa.com and find out the promotion details at each merchant. Print out valuable coupons with 20% or more savings. The promotions cover all you need for the holiday season. But you have to have a Visa credit card to use those coupons.

MasterCard

MasterCard is also running a wonderful promotion with Home Depot. You can get the details of the promotion by visiting the MasterCard Overjoy of Giving website. The promotion offers every MasterCard cardholder a chance to win two identical prizes — one to keep and the other to give. Winners will have the chance to receive two identical cars, trips, shopping sprees or home makeovers courtesy of The Home Depot. The rule is very simple: every time you use your MasterCard to make a purchase during the promotion period ( Nov. 1 and Jan. 2, 2009) you will automatically get a chance to win that week’s sweepstakes.

You can also visit MasterCard website to find the latest discount information for using your MasterCard credit card.

Washington Mutual has already been sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co in this September. The previous WaMu free checking account and high yield savings account is a great combination to enjoy high interest rate from a good savings account and an easy to use checking account. This combination is reviewed here.

Today I received an email and a mail from WaMu which is offering $100 bonus for opening a free checking account at WaMu.

The email stated that:”As a valued WaMu Credit Card customer, you may have heard that we’ve joined forces with Chase, one of America’s largest banks. To celebrate our bright future, we’re offering you $100 simply for opening a WaMu Free Checking account.”

It seems that this offer is targeted to WaMu Credit Card customers. There is a promotion code came with the email. Mine is 0070-ADCR-8845. This offer ends on 01/24/2009. The online application page can be found through this link.

WaMu Free Checking Account features:

• FREE Access to over 14,000 WaMu & Chase ATMs nationwide
• FREE Checks
• FREE WaMu® Debit MasterCard® with $0 Liability Fraud Coverage
• FREE Online Banking with Bill Pay
• One overdraft or bounced check fee waived per year

The $100 bonus is a sweet deal, especially when this account only requires you to make $100 initial deposit to receive $100 bonus (no direct deposit is required!).

Plus if you use the WaMu Debit MasterCard comes with your free checking account, you have the chance to win $1,000 per day!

WaMu is running a sweepstake for the WaMu debit MasterCard users. Each time you sign for purchases between November 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, you will be entered for a chance to win the daily prize of a $1,000 gift card. You’ll also be automatically entered to win the grand prize of $50,000 on New Year’s Eve. Please note that only the signature based transactions are counted. The details can be found here.

Sony just released a new credit card product via partnership with Chase—the PlayStation Visa Card. This is a special credit card product for PlayStation Fans. As indicated in the PlayStatioin blog, this credit card is ”to offer fans a new way to show off their PlayStation pride and earn reward points towards the purchase of PlayStation and SONY products.”

What’s special with this PlayStation Visa Credit Card?

First of all, you can get a PlayStation 3 with only $249! Since the introductory of the PlayStation Credit Card, the approved credit card members can get a new PlayStation 3 for only $249. That is $150 off a regular PlayStation 3. This promotion is valid until December 31, 2008. To take advantage of this offer, you can go to to www.sony.com/newpscard to get instant approval for your card, and an immediate $150 credit when you purchase a PS3 directly through the website. Or you can do this in another way: you can go www.sony.com/getpscard to apply for the card and upon receipt of the card, use it at any authorized PlayStation retailer to purchase a PS3. The $150 credit will show up on your billing statement.

If you are not a PlayStation fan, you can sell off that PlayStation 3 on eBay for a profit!

Will there be a Wii credit card soon?

The Chase Sony Card is a good card to keep for most of us, although the cash back program is not so good as the Chase Freedom Card or Discover More Card. The reason is very simple-the Sony Card is always offering great sign-up bonus and great cash back promotion each year in the March or April. For example, in 2007 many Sony Card members received $100 statement credit without any requirement. And in 2008, the Sony Card is offering 10,000 bonus points for spending more than $500 in a month which is equal to $100 cash back!

I have some posts about sign-up bonuses from the Chase Sony Card: $150 Bonus from Chase Sony Card and Get A Sony DSLR A350K for $449 with New Sony Card Approval. Today I realized that the Sony Card is offering $200 bonus at www.sonystyle.com. The link is here. If you go to the www.sonyrewards.com, you can only get a $50 bonus link. So if you want to get a new Sony Card, you’d better follow my link to sonystyle.com and then submit your application.

How to get the $200 bonus?

Your first single sales receipt purchase made at a SonyStyle store, including SonyStyle.com equal or greater than $299 (”Qualifying Purchase”) will automatically qualify you for a $100 Statement Credit. A $100 card credit will be applied to your Sony Card account 8-12 weeks after your first purchase (first purchase does not include balance transfer or balance transfer checks) account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment.

You will qualify for an additional $100 card credit if you charge to your Sony Card account a total of $1,500 or more by March 31, 2009. To qualify for these card credits, your account must be opened by 12/31/08 and first purchase must be made by 1/31/09. The additional $1,500 spend must be completed by 03/31/2009. The second credit of $100 will be applied 8-10 weeks after the qualifying period (3/31/2009).

The process to get the $200 bonus seems complicated but it’s still a good credit card deal to catch not to mention that the Chase Freedom Card has already changed the cash back program for new card approvals.

Chase just launched a new credit card product not long time ago—the Chase Travel Rewards Credit Card. This is a high-end Chase Credit Card with some great benefits. Furthermore, this card is offering 25,000 bonus miles after first purchase which is a great deal to catch for most people with decent credit score and solid credit history.

The 25,000 bonus miles is the reason why I recommend this card to my readers. Nowadays, most credit card issuers are having a hard time. More and more credit card members are filing bankruptcy and can’t pay their balance down. Recently most credit cards are not offering 0% APR on balance transfer any more. This is a sign that credit card issuers are tightening their wallets. Chase Freedom Card is now only offer 3% Cash Back on Gas, Groceries, and Fast Food Purchases for the First 6 Months. And then the categories will be changing every quarter. The Chase Freedom Plus Card seems not have been influenced and is still offering 10,000 bonus miles and 3 miles per $1 on 6 categories.

So what is the requirement to get 25,000 bonus miles?

After your first purchase, you’ll receive enough bonus miles to redeem for a round-trip ticket when booked through Chase. In addition to booking travel on your own, Chase Travel Rewards lets you redeem a round-trip ticket with a $400 value for just 25,000 miles.

Although there is a $49 annual fee, this fee is waived for the first year. (Pretty same as the Gold Card from the American Express)

Chase claims that the rewards can be used to book any flight, any hotel, any reservation — anytime, anywhere. With Chase Travel Rewards, you won’t be tied down to one business or even a group of businesses. Earn and spend your miles the way you want. There are no caps, no expiration, and no blackouts.

As Chase indicates, you can redeem for:

• Any flight
• Any hotel
• Any restaurant
• Any time
• Any place

There is no pre-set spending limit on this card which gives you additional spending flexibility should you need it, so you can enjoy added peace of mind. You will receive a year-end summary statement from Chase which allows you to better understand you spending and save more in the future.

How to apply for the Chase Travel Rewards Credit Card?

You can view more information at www.choosetravelrewards.com (Yes, this is not chasetravelrewards.com but it belongs to Chase.). Or you can call 1-866-253-3569 to apply by phone.