MyCardBlog

I have many reviews and tips on the famous Chase Freedom Card which offers $50 sign-up bonus and gives you 3% cash back on certain categories. This credit card is one of my top rated rewards credit cards and it is also the most popular credit card issued by Chase with more than 1.5 million cardholders. If you use the Chase Freedom Card together with the Blue Cash from American Express, you will be surprised to see how much cash back you can earn from them (Of course, this is good for big spenders only.).

However, it seems I neglect the other upgraded Chase Freedom Card issued from Chase—the Chase Freedom Plus Credit Card. This is a new credit card product launched in late 2007 aimed to attract more credit card consumers who want to get more rewards by using a credit card. Some of previous Chase Freedom Card members have converted to the Chase Freedom Plus Card while they can still keep the same account number. So what’s new in the Chase Freedom Plus Credit Card?

As far as I can tell, there are four improvements on the Chase Freedom Plus Card.

• The number of bonus categories increases from 3 to 6.
• The rewards cap for bonus categories is lifted. This is a really good move for those big spenders!
• The sign-up bonus is increased to 10,000 bonus miles which can be redeemed as $100 ($50 for the Chase Freedom Card).
• More versatile rewards programs. Unlike the Chase Freedom Card which you can only accumulate points or cash, the Chase Freedom Plus Card allows you to choose which kind of rewards you want to accumulate. You can switch between cash back, points and miles.

According to the fine print, this program gives you more freedom to choose which rewards you like:

If you choose to switch how you earn rewards, and you are earning your rewards as rebates, your rebates will be converted to points at a rate of $0.01 to one point, and to miles at a rate of $0.01 to one mile. For example, $5 in rebates will transfer to 500 points or 500 miles. If you are earning your rewards as points, your points will be transferred to the cash back program at a rate of 1 point to $0.01. For example, 500 points will transfer to $5 in rebates. Points will be transferred to the miles program at a rate of 1 point to 1 mile. For example, 500 points will transfer to 500 miles. If you are earning your rewards as miles, your miles will be transferred to the cash back program at a rate of 1 mile to $0.01. For example, 500 miles will transfer to $5 in rebates. Miles will be transferred to the points program at a rate of 1 mile to 1 point. For example, 500 miles will transfer to 500 points.

The 15 categories that are eligible for receiving bonus rewards are:

• Cable/Satellite TV, internet providers
• Department stores
• Utilities
• Fast food & quick service restaurants
• Gas & convenience stores
• Drugstores
• Pet supply stores/veterinarian
• Phone/cell phone bills
• Movie theaters
• Grocery stores
• Movie rentals
• Dry cleaners
• Local commuting
• Beauty salons/SPAs
• Gym memberships

The bad news is this card has a $30 annual fee which can be waived for the first year.

My thoughts: Upgrade to the Chase Freedom Plus Card is not a good move besides to receive the $100 bonus. I would suggest you open a new Chase Checking Account which can give you $125 sign-up bonus (You can easily get a coupon with $125 bonus at the post office.). If you have a Chase checking account, your Chase Freedom Card will automatically be upgraded to get 3% cash back from 5 categories (You can only get 3% cash back from 3 categories if you don’t have a checking account at Chase.).

Choose a right gas rewards card at the pump can save a lot of money each year. According to latest study, if you choose a rewards credit card at the pump instead of cash, you can save at least $100 or more each year. If you are driving a SUV or truck, then a gas rewards credit card is a must in your wallet. Anyway, the right gas rewards card eases your pain at the pump.

I have reviewed and summarized the best gas rewards cards in my previous posts: 5 Top Rated Gas Rebate Cards and Best Gas Cards Roundup. This post is kind of reminder for many mycardblog.com readers. Gas rewards cards are similar to cash back rewards cards with some enhancements directed at those looking to save money on gas. Most gas rewards cards offer a high rate of cash back at gas stations and relatively low rate of cash back on other purchases. In most cases, you have to carry one general rewards card and one gas rewards card in your wallet to maximum your rewards. Following are some gas rewards cards that I high recommended:

1. 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 Costco gas stations, you can’t get full 5% cash back. However, if you purchase gas at BP, Marathon, or Shell gas stations, you can get 5% cash back. ) This is a business card (Individuals can still apply for a business card!). The non-business version only offers 3% cash back which is just as good as the Chase Freedom Card. That’s why I recommend the business version. Besides the cash back from the gas stations, you can also get 3% cash back at restaurants and 2% cash back for traveling. Since the American Express SimplyCash card changed the cash back rate on gas from 5% to 3%, this card is the best gas rewards card so far.

2. Dicover Open Road Card: If you ask me which credit card is the best from Discover, I would say the Discover Open Road. Although the Discover More is a good credit card, the rewards categories from which you can get 5% cash back change every quarter. Some might can’t catch it. The only drawback of this card is you can only get 5% from the first $100 spent on gas and auto maintenance purchases every month.

3. Chase BP Visa Rewards Card: If you have a BP location near your home or you always purchase gas at BP gas stations, you should consider this card. You can get 10% cash back for any gasoline purchases made at BP gas stations in the first 2 months. And after that, you can continue to get 5% cash back at any BP gas station.

The gas companies themselves would like to partake in the money that credit cards generate, so many have a branded credit card issued by credit card companies. You can also look at the Shell Platinum MasterCard from Citi if you visit Shell gas stations a lot.

4. National City Everyday Rewards Visa Card: This card only offers 4% cash back on gasoline purchases. But you can also get 2% cash back at restaurants. A brief review can be found here.

5. Blue Cash from American Express: You will find out that this card is always a top rated cash back credit card at every credit card website. You will earn full 5% on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases after you spend $6,500 in the year. If you are a big spender, this card is good for you. However, if you can’t spend $6,500 in a year, please forget about it.

Whenever you  want to choose a gas rewards credit card, you should carefully compare each credit card first. You should also be aware that most credit card have a limit of $75 at the pump.

There is not doubt that credit card is one of the most powerful purchasing tools in the world. You can use a credit card to buy groceries at your local grocery stores, pay bills online, purchase electronics like MP3s, HDTVs, laptops etc., and fill your tank at pumps. Billions of transactions are done through credit card each year at US. Credit card companies even offer sign-up bonuses and promotional rates now and then. If you are a smart credit card user, you can save a lot of money by choosing a right credit card for you. However, there are still some common basics about credit card that you might not know.

1. Merchants can’t require a minimum transaction amount!

There are many grocery stores or Chinese restaurants that require you to pay by cash if your purchase is under a minimum amount pre-set by the store. This is obviously violate the credit card issuer’s merchant agreement. Under no conditions that a merchant can refuse to accept a credit card transaction because of a minimum.

Visa indicates that: Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

MasterCard indicates that: A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.

Anyway the merchants can not establish minimum or maximum amounts as a condition for accepting a Card. You can find similar requirements from Discover card and American Express.

2. Merchants have the right to refuse the unsigned credit card.

When you receive the welcome package from your credit card issuer, you can see “Not Valid Unless Signed” at the back of your credit card. This is quite understandable. The reason why the credit card companies require you to sign at the back of your credit card is to minimize the risk of credit card fraud.

Visa indicates: While checking card security features, you should also make sure that the card is signed. An unsigned card is considered invalid and should not be accepted. If a customer gives you an unsigned card, the following steps must be taken: 1). Check the cardholder’s ID. 2). Ask the customer to sign the card and then compare the signature on the card to the signature on the ID. “See ID” or “Ask for ID” is not a valid substitute for a signature.

3. Merchants can not charge a surcharge for using a credit card.

I know some Chinese restaurants always charge extra amount of money for using a credit card as payment. $0.5 is very typical for them. This violates the merchant agreement!

Visa requires: Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment.

MasterCard requires: A Merchant must not directly or indirectly require any Cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any Merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a Transaction. A Merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments. A Merchant is permitted to charge a fee (such as a bona fide commission, postage, expedited service or convenience fees, and the like) if the fee is imposed on all like transactions regardless of the form of payment used, or as the Corporation has expressly permitted in writing.

4. Merchants cannot require you to present ID

I have two posts about how to deal with “Show ID with Credit Card” problem. (post 1 and post 2) Some merchants may require you to present your ID at  checkout but it’s a violation of the rules.

Visa: When should you ask a cardholder for an official government ID? Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to
provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. Laws in several states also make it illegal for merchants to write a cardholder’s personal information, such as an address or phone number, on a sales receipt.

5. Merchants are not allowed to place a hold for the estimated tip

The estimated tip is really common nowadays at restaurants. For example, if you go to dinner and final amount is $200 and you pay with a credit card, the restaurant might  try to “authorize” your card for $230–a 15% tip. Believe it or not, it’s a violation! What will happen if you don’t like their services and want to offer only 10% tip? Or you may want to leave cash tip! There is no way that a merchant can hold an extra amount of money to estimate your payment!

Visa requires: For restaurant, taxicabs, limousines, bars, taverns, beauty/barber shops, health/beauty spa merchants transactions with a Visa credit or debit card, authorize only for the known amount, not the transaction amount plus estimated tip. Cardholders now have the ability to check their credit or checking accounts almost instantaneously via phone, the Internet, or an ATM. Consequently, an authorization that includes an estimated tip can reduce a cardholder’s available funds or credit by an unrecognizable or unexpected amount.

If you meet any of above mentioned circumstances, you can call Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card or American Express. Or you can call the numer at the back of your credit card.

I have two posts about Advanta recently: Ideablob from Advanta and Small Business Network from Credit Card Issuers. Both of them introduced the pretty cool website from Advanta—Ideablob.com. Today I’m going to introduce the latest and most special credit card product from Advanta which is a dedicated credit card company for small business in US.

Advanta and Kiva.org just launched a new project named KivaB4B. Kiva.org is recognized as the world’s first peer-to-peer lending organization giving people the opportunity to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing countries through microfinancing loans. You should note that the purpose of the Kiva.org (nonprofit) is not to make money from the lending process but rather to lift the people at the developing countries from poverty. With the participation of Advanta, one of the largest business credit card issuers at US, I believe more and more people at developing countries will get the chance to get the money they need.

What’s the uniqueness of the KivaB4B project?

According to Jess at Advanta:

In recognition of their participation in the Project, Advanta provides the small businesses with resources to market their philanthropic activities to their community. Advanta also provides a financial incentive. If a small business owner uses an Advanta BusinessCard to make a grant to Kiva for an entrepreneur, Advanta matches the grant, dollar for dollar (up to $200 per account, per month).

This is amazing! If you are a small business owner and offer a loan through the KivaB4B program, Advanta will match your lending dollar for dollar up to $200 per month! It costs you nothing and the small businesses at developing countries will get doubled amount of what would get in the past!

Here is the details on how it works:

1. Select an inspiring business owner
2. Make a grant to Kiva using your Advanta business card
3. Advanta makes a matching grant through Kiva
4. Kiva distributes funds
5. As your funds are prepaid to Kiva, they are deposited into your Kiva account
6. Funds go to the people who need them

At the same time, Advanta released a new credit card product—the Kiva Business Card. We know that business card market is very competitive. Many big credit card issuers like Chase, Bank of America, Citi, American Express and Discover are promoting their business credit card products. However, most of their products are just regular-offer cash back, discount or sign-up bonus. The appearance of the Kiva Business Card gives you a chance to change the life of a people at the planet. It offers you an opportunity to help other people in the world as a business owner at US. This is a really smart strategy and will attract many business card members.

This Kiva Business Card also offers a 5% rebate on the first $1,200 of Bonus Qualifying transactions, and up to 1% on other purchase. The $1,200 is not that much but really a chance to help others and earn cash back.

If you are a small business owner and willing to help on this planet, the KivaB4B is a great chance.

I received an email from Daren who is “a loyal MyCardBlog.com” reader about his newly launched App-O-Rama. Daren completed his AOR a few weeks ago, and “it’s time to report the results and some nuggets of info and techniques gleaned in the process.”

App-O-Rama is a concentrated spree of applying for new credit and higher credit limits. 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. The trick of an AOR is by applying for many credit cards in a short time period (in an hour or so), you don’t let the creditors see the new accounts and inquiries while they’re considering your applications. You chances to get approved by a credit card issuer is significantly increased in this strategy. For brief introduction of App-O-Rama, you can refer to App-O-Rama. For detailed guidance on how to prepare an AOR, you can refer to App-O-Rama (AOR): Profting from Credit.

Let’s see how Daren prepared his AOR.

Pre-AOR Preparation

1. Increase current credit cards’ limit through online account. (NO way with Chase to avoid hard pull, so I gave up with Chase Card.)

2. Pay off all of credit card balances.

3. Find out all of the credit cards that I would apply for and get the links to those credit cards.

4. Check my credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com to make sure that everything is fine.

Goal: credit card sign-up bonuses

Credit score from creditkarma.com 773 (TransUnion)

Current Accounts:

Chase Perfect Card, 5k since 01/07

Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card, 8K since 07/05

American Express Blue Cash Card, 12k since 02/06

Age: 29, HHI: 120K

AOR Result

• Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network—–Approved, $10k CL
• Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard—-Declined
• Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network–Approved, 12K CL
• Chase Freedom Visa Card—————————Approved, $8.8K CL
• AMEX Preferred Rewards Gold Card————Approved, $18K CL
• The Gold Card from American Express OPEN———Approved
• AMEX In Chicago——————————-Declined
• One from American Express——————Declined
• Gold Delta SkyMiles Card——————Declined
• AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest Card—————–Approved, $8K CL
• Chase Sony Card————–Declined (too many inquiries)
• Chase United Mileage Visa Card——Approved, 11K CL
• Discover More Card——–Approved, $7.5K CL (use code to get $100 after spending $500)
• Discover Business Card———Approved, 6K CL

Total earnings is around $1250(100 points=$1, 100 miles=$1) in about 1 hour!

Today I received a pretty nice T-Shirt from Advanta innovative team for blogging about their very special website: www.ideablob.com. (”Small Business Network from Credit Card Issuers“) As I indicated in my previous post, the ideablob is an active online community for entrepreneurs and small business owners. People can submit their ideas to the community and get some comments or advice from community members and advisers. At the same time, every month, the community votes on the best idea. The winner will get $10,000 to help their idea grow. Because of its uniqueness, I’d like to give an brief review on ideablob which I think is of great help to those small business owners.

I like the idea to share the business ideas at a social networking site. Imagine there are 30 million small businesses in the United States, but there is not a good way to bounce their ideas off each other. In a nurturing environment like ideablob, you will have the opinions from many other small business owners and entrepreneurs. They will bring their experience, insights and help to your idea. Compared to other business networks, the ideablob is without the question the most unique and helpful site.

If you are not a business owner yet, you can still participate in the online community and share your opinions with others. This is a great learning process on how to form a great idea and put it into practice. You should always remember that great ideas always come from daily life!

Let’s see previous monthly $10,000 winners and their ideas:

Elizabeth Dehart, Organic Vending Machine, July 2008 Winner

Jessica Hammock, Develop Astronomy Curriculums for Underprivileged Youth, June 2008 Winner

Alex Eaves, STAY VOCAL, May 2008 Winner

Matt Allison, Portable Personal Trainer, April 2008 Winner

John Studer, No Sweat Apparel, March 2008 Winner

Aaron Fleishman, Mashavu, February 2008 Winner

Naomi Bar-Yam, Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England, January 2008 Winner

Chris Elam, Misnomer Dance Theater, December 2007 Winner

Marci Schankweiler, Crossing the Finish Line, November 2007 Winner

Tom Krieglstein, Red Rover, October 2007 Winner

If you are an Advanta cardholder like Matt, you will receive another 1,000,000 bonus rewards points which are equal to $10,000！That’s $20,000 total bonus!

How can you participate in the online community?

First, anyone over 18 can participate in the community. No matter what’s your job! All you need is your passion and wisdom! Once you register and activate your membership, you can submit your ideas (no limit!) and leave comments on other ideas. For official Q&A, you can go to here.

According to Jennifer at Advanta innovative team, ideablob has created an RSS feed of ideas from their system. This is very considerate! You can now choose to subscribe to specific industries ideas or tags.

I seldom mention Advanta in this blog because its customers are generally small business owners. Advanta is one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers in the small business market. The two credit cards: Advanta Life-of-Balance Platinum Business Card and Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards Options are my top rated business cards. If you are a small business owner, you can apply for one of those.

If you’d like daily tips, thoughts, and suggestions on how to maximum your rewards and how to catch sign-up opportunities, subscribe to MyCardBlog for free by clicking this link.

This is my monthly updated list of credit card sign-up bonus. I have a special page for credit card sign-up bonus where you can find a complete list of credit cards which will offer you a certain amount of sign-up bonus. I hope this list will be helpful for those App-O-Rama planners. I think it’s necessary to keep a tidy list of credit cards with some fulfillment requirements. The aim is to keep you updated with sign-up bonus offers. There are two main requirements for a specific credit card entering in this list: minimum $50 sign-up bonus and must be a mainstream brand like American Express, Discover, Citi, Chase, BOA, etc. Thus all the credit cards on this list are available to everyone.

All the credit cards are listed in order of value and I will try my best to keep this list updated in a monthly manner. Basically, I assume 100 points/miles=$1. Because you can always redeem your points or miles for certain gift cards.

You may don’t know that you are carrying a contactless credit card in your wallet, but it’s true. The most horrible thing is this kind of credit card will transmit your name, card number and expiration date to any commercially available RFID scanner that near you or your wallet.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology or an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. RFID is widely used to track shipments and inventory in industry. After this idea was introduced to credit card market about 3 years ago, it allows customers to swipe the credit cards past readers in many locations as CVS and McDonald’s etc in a very easy and quick manner. Instead of swiping your credit card, you just hold it up to the reader and after a second it grabs your card number and expiration date through the air and processes the transaction without a signature. (See the American Express card for an example)

Nowadays, the contactless credit cards have become commonplace. There are about more than 42 million contactless cards in circulation. So it’s quite possible that you’re carrying one of these wave-to-pay cards in your wallet without knowing it.

Because it will dramatically decrease the transaction time and easily augment your credit card debit. Credit card issuers are really interested in this technique and making more and more contactless cards. As the number of the contactless cards has increased dramatically, so has concern over the safety of the RFID technique that makes them work. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts and security companies indicated that many of the cards will transmit the cardholder’s name, card number and expiration date unencrypted to anyone nearby with an RFID scanner! In a cybersecurity conference in June 2008, a State University of New York professor demonstrated how a hacker could steal personal information within a few inches. American Express, MasterCard and Visa cards issued by many major credit card issuers face the same problem.

Good new is that Visa requires that credit card issuers not issue cards that transmit the cardholder’s name. American Express also don’t send the name to the card reader. Of course, most credit cards offer zero liability feature to their customers. This might be helpful to protect your from money losses.

The contactless symbol for Visa card is a four vertical wavelike bands. However, some credit card issuers might use other names for the contactless feature. For example, Chase names the contactless payment feature as Chase Blink.

If you don’t like the RFID feature in your credit card, you can buy an “RFID-blocking wallet”. Or you can even manually remove the RFID chip from your credit card! Simply remove the RFID chip won’t damage the credit card.

If you are unsure whether your credit cards have an RFID chip in them or not, you can google your credit card name and RFID. Or you might refer to your credit card instructions. Usually if your credit cards have the MasterCard Pay Pass, Visa PayWAVE and American Express Express Pay features, your credit cards should have an RFID chip in it.