American Express is in trouble like every other financial companies nowadays. And now it has got the approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve to become a commercial bank which will allow American Express to gain the access to the huge bailout plan fund in the near future. This is said to be the last big independent credit card company that transforms to a bank holding company.

The reason for this transition is probably the increased number of credit-card holders failed to repay loans since the credit crisis. However, American Express is still keeping running credit card promotions to credit card holders. My last mention of the promotion from American Express was “American Express My Wishlist Teaser” which will be terminated on November 21, 2008. Another promotion that is worth mention is the $10 statement credit for shopping at walmart.com.

Today I received a mail from American Express indicating that I can use my Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express at walmart stores or walmart.com twice with at least $40 per transaction. The mail from American Express clearly indicates that

Receive a 20 $ statement credit on any American Express card account when you spend $40 or more two times at walmart stores or walmart.com between Nov 18 and Dec 18 2008.

The link to register your credit card to qualify for this offer is http://offers.amexnetwork.com/walmart.

You have to fill in your credit card number, expiration date, security code, billing zip code and name on the card.

This is a really easy money to get since you can simply buy two $50 walmart gift cards and you can get $20 back! This promotion is targeted to most of American Express credit cards like Simply Cash Business Card, and Blue Cash from American Express etc.

Fine print:

To be eligible to receive the $20 statement credit, you must be 18 or older, a holder of a valid consumer American Express Credit or Charge Card issued in the U.S. and you must have recieved this offer letting you know that you have been pre-enrolled in the campaign (a Registered Cardmemeber) To receive $20 Statement credit, Registered Cardmembers must complete 2 separate transaction of at least $40 or more at any Walmart store or online at www.walmart.com (each, an “Eligible Transaction”) between 11/18/08 and 11:59 PM EST on 12/18/2008.Only one registration per Cardmember account permitted. Certain American Express Cards, including, but not limited to , HealthCare Related Cards, Prepaid Cards, and Corporate cards, are not eligible for this offer. To receive offer, both transactions must be made on the same American Express card. Transactions made on another card account or a supplementary Card with different Card account number are not eligible. The $20 will be credited to the Card account as statement credit. Statement credits are generally issued within 5 business days upon completion of the 2 Eligible Transactions, but it may take up to 2 billing cycles from the date of you last Eligible Transaction for the statement credit to be posted to you account. Limit one statement credit per Cardmember.

I just reviewed the new Chase Freedom Card which is somewhat like Discover More Card now. Compared to the new Chase Freedom Card, the Discover More Card is highly recommended for everyday purchases. Chase Freedom Card only offers 3% cash back for selected categories which change every quarter. However, Discover More Card offers 5% cash back for selected categories which change every quarter too. Chase Freedom Card offers 5,000 bonus points for new customers through www.chasefreedomnow.com. Discover More Card offers $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 or more.

Following is the invitation flyer I received:

To apply, go to apply.discovercard.com and put in the code: DBFT.

According to what I know, Discover Card is loosing their application process which means many of you can apply for a Discover Card even your credit score is not very high.

Every year during the last two months American Express is offering great offers for American Express credit card members. This November American Express is running My WishList Teaser Program which offers great wish certificates for shopping at selected retailers. This program is running the same as other American Express Program which are all on a first come first served basis.

Where to find the My WishList Teaser program?

The website for all American Express My WishList Promotions is http://mywishlist.amexnetwork.com.

There are great offers for this promotion:

11/03 Petsmart spend $75 and get $20 statement credit

11/05 Borders spend $60 and get $20 statement credit

11/07 BestBuy spend $500 and get $150 statement credit

11/10 Sports Authority spend $100 and get $25 statement credit

11/12 BestBuy spend $500 and get $150 statement credit

11/14 Bluefly get $100 off $400

11/17 Brookstone get $20 off $100

11/19 Body Shop spend $75 and get $25 statement credit

11/21 Borders spend $60 and get $20 statement credit

How to participate in the My WishList Teaser Program?

My WishList Teaser is a program from American Express that offers limited quantities of limited-time Wish Certificates only available when you use any American Express Card on a first come first served basis. Note: Corporate Cards and Pre-Paid Cards are not valid.

This program starts at 12:00PM ET on November 3, 2008, and ends at 11:59PM ET on November 21, 2008. The offer number is limited and the time to click for the offer starts at 12:00 PM on each above mentioned date. You must first enter your credit card number and verified by American Express first.

The reason why American Express launches this program is: “It’s our way of getting ready for the 2008 Holiday My WishList Program which launches on December 1, 2008 and saying “thanks” to our Cardmembers for their business throughout the year and for making American Express their Card of choice.”

Beginning on December 1, 2008 American Express will launch official My WishList Program.

This year’s offers are as followed:

2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350

42″ Sharp Aquos Full HD 1080p LCD TV at the price of $700

Dell Studio 15 Laptop at the price of $499

Dinner with Gordon Ramsay at The London NYC for $2,500

So please make a note on December 1, 2008 and get the chance to win a 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350!

We are talking about credit cards that might offer $50, $100, $150 or even $200 bonus. But do you know that there is a credit card that can offer you (not everyone) up to 140,000 bonus points? Yes, 140,000 membership rewards points which are equal to $1,400! The name of this credit card is the Platinum Card from American Express which is designed exclusively for Goldman Sachs Clients.

If you apply for a new Platinum Card from American Express at American Express website, you can only get 25,000 bonus points which can be redeemed for a free round-trip ticket. And you have to spend $1000 in your first 3 months of membership to qualify for this 25,000 bonus points, otherwise you can’t get the bonus points.

Right now, American Express and Goldman sachs are running a promotion. If you apply for a Platinum Card from American Express through this website: http://gs.americanexpress.com/ and are a Goldman sachs client, you are eligible to get 100,000 sign up bonus after first purchase! If you spend more than 100,000 each year, you can get additional 40,000 bonus points.

Following are two important sentences from American Express and Goldman Sachs:

1. As a Goldman Sachs client, you can earn 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after your first purchase on your new Platinum Card.
2. Apply by January 31, 2009 and you can earn 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after your first purchase.¹ Receive an additional 40,000 bonus points when you spend a minimum of $100,000 on your Card for each year of membership.

Fine print about this promotion:

100,000 Membership Rewards bonus points will be credited to your Membership Rewards program account 6-8 weeks after your first purchase appears on your monthly billing statement. The bonus points will appear as two separate credits: one for 10,000 points (Bonus ID: 4338) and one for 90,000 points (Bonus ID: 1914). To be eligible to earn bonus points, your application must be received by January 31, 2009, you must be enrolled in the Membership rewards program at the time of spend, and you must make your first purchase on your new, enrolled Platinum Card designed for Goldman Sachs clients before February 28, 2009.

Other benefits about this card?

First, this card has an annual fee of $450 and $175 for every authorized user. (On very rare occasion you might have seen a fee waived offer.)

• Access to the following airport lounges: American Airlines Admiral Club, Continental Airlines Presidents Club, Delta Crown Room Club, and Northwest Airlines WorldClubs. Plus you can gain complimentary admittance for yourself, your family, or up to two guests at airport clubs around the globe.
• Up to 4 complementary companion airfare tickets a year.
• Access to book cruises, private jets, yachts, and villas and hotel upgrades. Plus you can get free Starwood Preferred Guest Gold Status.
• No pre-set spending limit.
• Access to invitation only events.
• Roadside Assistance program.

If you are going to get a Platinum Card from American Express, I would suggest you apply through http://gs.americanexpress.com/.

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 posted some similar posts in the past several months. The purpose of this post is to keep you updated about the latest sign-up bonus opportunities from major US credit card issuers. 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.

My latest post about American Express turned out to be a very interesting post: American Express Rates Credit Risk by Where You Live and Shop. Although I have heard something about this before this report from MSNBC, this was the first time this kind of credit monitor was confirmed by a credit card issuer. I believe other credit card issuers also use similar method to monitor consumers’ credit performance.

Anyway, good news is I received a promotion offer from American Express targeted to my Starwood Preferred Guest Card. According to the email I received, if I use my Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express from October 15 to November 15, 2008, I will get a $10 Walmart gift card for any purchase over $50.

This is really a great deal. Last time, American Express offered a similar offer to a majority of American Express card members for shopping at Amazon.com (here).

The email indicated:

Use your American Express^® Card at walmart.com between Oct. 15, 2008 and Nov. 15, 2008 and when you spend $50 or more on a single transaction you can receive a Walmart gift card worth $10 — redeemable at walmart.com or at Walmart stores.

Fine print:

Offer valid for spend only at walmart.com. Offer valid when you pay with your American Express® Card. Offer valid on a single transaction of $50 or more when you spend during Oct. 15, 2008 and Nov. 15, 2008. The Walmart gift card will be mailed 10-12 weeks after promotion period has ended. Offer limited to one Walmart gift card per Cardmember.

Maybe an iPod shuffle is a good choice to take advantage of the $10 bonus. Or some GPS units at Walmart.com is pretty cheap compared to other online shopping stores.

I believe this offer is targeted to many American Express cards like Blue Cash from American Exprss, and Blue from American Express etc.

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!

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.

The Discover More Card is a really cool credit card with many exceptional features. However, the most disappointing thing about this Discover More Card is it rarely offers sign-up bonus. Today when I received my new issue of SmartMoney magazine, there is a sign-up bonus code from Discover More Card which is offering $100 bonus after you make first $500 in purchases. I think this would be a great opportunity for those who want to apply for the Discover More Card.

To get the $100 bonus, you have to apply for a new Discover Card through apply.Discovercard.com and put the code: DBBA. Or you can call Discover Card at 800-206-4960 and mention the code to get this offer. This offer expires on December 2, 2008.

Besides the $100 bonus, there are other great benefits from the Discover More Card.

1. Get 0% APR on balance transfer until October 2009.

2. Get 5% cash back on regular categories which are change every quarter like travel, groceries, restaurants and more.

3. If you visit China, the Discover Card is accepted anywhere that accepts the China UnionPay credit card which is the largest credit card network in China. Currently, the Discover Card is the most widely accepted American credit card in China.

However, the cash back calculation method for the Discover card is kind of complicated.

You can earn a full 5% cashback bonus on category purchases throughout the year by signing up for each program. In addition, earn full 1% unlimited cashback bonus on all other purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3,000; other purchases that are part of your first $1,500 earn 0.25% and other purchases that are part of your second $1,500 earn 0.5%. Warehouse purchases earn 0.25%. (Sam’s Club for example)

You only need $20 cashback bonus to start to redeem your cash back rewards. The other reason that I like the Discover Card a lot is the excellent ShopDiscover Program. The cash back rates at ShopDisover are unbeatable. You can get 5% cash back from BestBuy, Apple Store, Dell Home etc. It’s a good choice to make online purchases at ShopDiscover. You can earn extra cash back.

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.