MyCardBlog

I was not aware that your driver’s license can be used as a debit card until my friend Jon told me the trick today. I think it’s a very interesting idea to use our driver’s licenses as a debit card. So I did some research and found out that this idea was already put in practice for more than one year by National Payment Card LLC. And people in 24 states in the United State can use their driver’s licenses as debit card and use them at the pumps or anywhere else.

National Payment Card LLC is said to be the only Non-Bank service provider whose ACH Decoupled Debit platform has been designed exclusively for the gas station /convenience store industry. Their patented technology can turn existing cards, such as driver’s licenses, loyalty cards or membership cards, into private label debit cards. What’s a brilliant idea!

Currently, their business focus is on the gas stations. They want to spread the idea that a driver’s license can be used at the gas stations. The reason is very simple, “It’s one of the only markets price-sensitive enough that a few pennies off can count as a serious incentive for consumers.”As I mentioned previously, there are 24 states in the United States where people can register their driver’s license and use it at the pump just as a general debit card with a pre-selected PIN. (The 24 states are highlighted in yellow in the following map.)

How does this work?

First, you have to register your driver’s license at www.rollbackprice.com. You have to provide your name, address, driver’s license number, birth date, bank information and a PIN.

After confirmation, you are eligible to use your driver’s license by swiping your driver’s license (linked directly, via the existing magnetic stripe, to your bank account), and entering a PIN.

The transaction is not processed by general network but via National Payment Card network which can substantially reduce the cost for many gas station owners. And this is why many gas stations will give you a certain amount discount for using the driver’s license at the pump. (Debit cards and credit cards are forms of payment that carry large merchant fees from the banking and credit card industry. These charges are  actually indirectly charge more money for the consumer.)

I would say this is really a great move in the payment industry. The only drawback is you can only use it at the gas station right now, although they want to promote the technique to other places in the long run. If we can use the payment card at other places, we might save a lot of money each year.

Nowadays Google is everywhere. And indeed we need Google. Google provides search engine, maps, news, videos, emails, shopping tools (Google checkout), online advertising services (Google Adwords and Google Adsense), calendar, Google readers, Picasa web album, web browser (Google Chrome) and even the latest operation system on mobile devices (Google Andriod)! The truth is we live with Google. Can you imagine the days without Google?

However, the only question remains is (as a credit card expert): will there be any possibility of Google Credit Card? Or more precisely, the gCard. Right now, we have Visa Card, MasterCard, Discover Card and American Express in US market. (There might be also other credit card products from other countries like China’s China UnionPay.) I think it’s very natural to have the idea of inventing a gCard just follow the Google Checkout. Because we believe Google has the ability to get a new kind of credit card product to the market.

Of course, this just is a speculation. But if Google can really launch a new credit card product like gCard, we can expect great rewards program and best cash back. Just like Microsoft offered 35% cash back for shopping at eBay through live search. Maybe we can expect 5% cash back for a year for using Google Credit Card or maybe 5% cash back for the first 3 months just as the Citi CashReturns Card did.

I should admit that inventing a gCard might be a little bit difficult and if Google really wants to involve in the payment industry, it will cost Google a lot of money.

However, why I want to mention the gCard here? Because we never seen a credit card product from Google with other credit card issuers at US. For any company like Google, I think it’s very easy to launch a co-branded credit card product with any credit card issuers at US. Because we never seen a Google Visa Card issued by Citi Bank, a Google MasterCard issued by Chase, and a Google American Express card issued by American Express……Furthermore, Bill Me Later was lately acquired by PayPal. And Google checkout is still far behind the PayPal in terms of the transaction amount. I believe Google has the ambition to launch the Google Credit Card with their own payment system (gCard).

Anyway, I think there will be a Google Credit Card comes out in the near future as a step following the Google Checkout.

Credit score is nothing if you’re not using it. Nowadays most credit card consumers have been aware that they can meke some small money by taking the chance of credit card sign up bonuses. Due to the competition between credit card issuers, credit card issuers are always give out sign up bonuses to promote certain types of their credit card products. The most famous ones may be the Chase Freedom Card $250 Bonus offer and the University of Iowa WorldPoints Platinum Plus Mastercard Credit Card $250 Bonus offer in 2007.

Because of the severe economy situation, we are not expecting the huge promotion from our credit card issuers for a while. But the fact is there are still may sign up bonues oppportunities out there. I have a Comprehensive List of Frequent Flier/Point Sign Up Bonus. Following is a comprehensive list of cash backsign up bonus. I hope this list will be of some help for you to get some free money.

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.

Many of us may still not know that credit score actually can help you earn some free money. Some of you might be worried that if you apply too many credit cards, your credit score will be dramatically affected. My opinion is: 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.

My post”Earn ThankYou Points for A Free Trip To Europe and Asia” was a very popular post (update). Actually, there are many frequent flier programs out there. You may get a free flight ticket from any airline company. Following is a comprehensive list of frequent flier mile/point sign up bonus.

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.

In the redesigned October issue of Consumer Reports (www.ConsumerReports.org), there is a report about the American’s best and worst credit cards. This result is based on a complete study of hundreds of credit cards and actually only a small portion of them is named. In this report, consumer experts indicates 12 credit cards that are worthy of consumers’ consideration and 3 to stay away from.

Most of credit cards in the 12 named credit cards are very common at mycardblog.com. But some of them are not that good, at least, from my point of view. The best credit cards for low-rate or low-fee as rated by consumer reports were: Capital One Platinum Prestige, Clear from American Express, and Iberiabank Visa Classic (You might find a similar credit card from some credit unions). The best cash-back cards included Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards, Chase Freedom Visa, and Discover More. The best gas cards were Chase PerfectCard MasterCard, Discover Open Road, and Hess Platinum Visa (I would also put Chase BP Visa card here.).

Three cards to avoid were First Premier Bank, HSBC American DreamCard and New Millennium Visa or MasterCard. These are subprime credit cards. They usually charge very high interest rates and sky high annual fees or other kinds of fees like account setup fees, processing fees, and monthly service fees. Of course, you should avoid them.

In this report, the experts also point out that consumers should do a credit card checkup to make sure their accounts haven’t changed for the worse. “Several card issuers have doubled or tripled interest rates for some customers in recent months, even though many were current on their bills and have good credit.” said Greg Daugherty, executive editor of Consumer Reports.

According to this report, the consumers’ credit card balances are up from $825 billion at the end of 2005 to $962 billion in May. Some credit card issuers are beginning to tighten their credit limits and charge higher interest rates for many borrowers. We also often hear that someone’s credit cards are closed by the credit card issuers these days. This is a sign that credit card issuers are going to make some changes to minimize their risks.

The most interesting part of this report is the consumer experts give out some useful tips on how to get most from a credit card.

1. Find a low interest rate or even 0% APR credit card if you carry balance on your credit cards.

2. Check your mails from credit card issuers to see whether they are about changing your credit card terms like lower credit limit or increase interest rate.

3. Try to contact credit issuer if you find anything that you feel uncomfortable.

4. Be aware of some “dirty tricks” from your credit issuers.

5. Choose the right credit cards according to the type of borrowers you are.

The full report can be found at ConsumerReports.org with paid subscribers.

Consumer Reports is an American magazine published monthly by Consumers Union. It publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory.

Sam is a subscriber of mycardblog.com. He just finished an AOR (App-O-Rama) and wanted to share his results with mycardblog.com readers. He sent an email to me and listed all the credit cards that he applied for within one day. He told me that he was inspired by my post “MyCardBlog Reader Daren’s AOR Result”.

I believe the AOR trick is pretty easy to mycardblog.com readers. I have some posts about how to perform an AOR and what you should know about AOR. (App-O-Rama, App-O-Rama: Profiting from Credit) You must remember that the most important thing to do before an AOR is to pretty up your credit scores to present the most attractive picture to potential creditors. And you must reduce your accounts at a single credit issuer if you have many accounts there. You chances to get approved by a credit card issuer is significantly increased if you submit your applications in a short time period.

Sam’s case:

Inquiries within last 12 months: TU = 1, EX = 1, EQ = 0
Inquiries within last 24 months: TU = 21, EX =9, EQ = 5

HHI: $225K (Includes investment income and wife’s income)

Chase Flexible Rewards 9,000 CL
Citi Mastercard 3,000 CL
Citi Diamond Preferred 16,000 CL
Discover More 8,000 CL
HSBC GM Flexible Earnings 6,500 CL
BOA Financial Rewards Visa 21,000 CL
WAMU ESPN Total Access 21,000 CL
GE Money Cash Rewards Card 15,000 CL
AMEX True Earnings (Costco) 23,000 CL
AMEX Hilton Honors 22,000 CL

AOR Result

• Chase Freedom Visa Card—————————Approved, 16,000 CL
• Chase United Mileage Visa Card——Approved, 8,600 CL
• AMEX Preferred Rewards Gold Card————Declined
• The Gold Card from American Express OPEN———Approved, 13,000 CL
• AMEX In Chicago——————————-Declined
• One from American Express——————Declined
• Gold Delta SkyMiles Card——————Declined
• AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest Card—————–Approved, 7,000 CL
• AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card—————Approved, 10,000 CL
• Discover Business Card———Approved, 10,000 CL
• Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network—–Approved, 12,000 CL
• Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard———-Declined
• Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network–——Declined
• Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards Options————Approved, 22,000 CL
• Advanta Life-of-Balance Platinum Business Card——————Approved, 8,000 CL

According to sam, he thought he would make his AOR much better if he can eliminate the credit inquiries within 24 months or wait until them disappear.