MyCardBlog

I received an email from American Express today indicating that if I set up automatic bill pay for my cable bills, I would get 2,500 bonus points. I think this is a great deal to jump in!

According to the fine print, this is a targeted offer for those solicited card members only. This offer is good from March1 to march 31, 2008. Cable providers include: Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Direct TV, Dish network and Time Warner Cable.

The enrollment process is very simple: You first have to have your American Express online ID and password, and your cable provider’s account information including online ID and password (If you don’t have one, they will set up for you.).

Of course, you must be enrolled in the Membership Rewards Program which will provide the bonus points for you. This rewards program is available to some basic personal American Express Cards like: Blue Cash, Blue, Preferred Rewards Gold Card, Preferred Rewards Green Card and so on. Enroll this promotion here.

Steve sent me an email during last weekend talking about his earnings from some banks in the past 6 months. He said he was not aware of so many opportunities of sign-up bonuses. He just jumped some popular deals and really enjoy his earning:

BOA MyAccess Checking plus “Keep the Change” program: $100+$180 (accumulated via playing paypal and paying small bills)

Chase Free Checking: $125 (using ING to make direct deposit);

ING: $25+$10 ($25 is sign-up bonus and $10 for 1 referral.);

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card: 10,000 bonus points ($100 Amazon gift card);

Chase Freedom Card: $50;

Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network: 15,000 ThankYou Points ($150 Shell gift card)

Citi CashReturns Card: ~$200 cash back in 3 months;

Total amount is $740+$200

Thanks Steve!

I have a post about the promotion from Sony Rewards. (here) I was not very sure about the promotion at that time, so I added “Possible” at the beginning of the title. Today I called sony rewards customer service (866-556-7669) today and verified the promotion.

In order to receive the 10,000 bonus points, you have to: 1). You must have a Sony Card in good standing and an active Sony Rewards account. If you don’t have the rewards account, you can create one to become eligible. 2). You must sign on to Sony Rewards at least once during the promotion period (2/15/2008 – 3/31/2008). 3). You must charge a total of at least $500 in purchases on the Sony Card during the promotion period. The purchases do not have to be Sony product.

The link sony.com/sonycard/flyfree is not to assure you that you are enrolled in the program. However, it’s to tell you that there’s a such promotion. This promotion applies to Sony Card Accounts automatically. You won’t get any confirmation information from sony rewards. I was also told by the customer representative that the free companion ticket was also a part of the promotion starting from April 1st and you only have to spend $300 on that card to get a companion ticket.

If you can’t spend more than $500 on this card, I suggest you buy some gift cards from Wal-mart, Target, bestBuy or Amazon.Com. The 10,000 points will be your reward for spending $500 on Chase Sony Card.

What Can We Do with 10,000 Points?

The Sony NWZS615FRED/PNK 2GB Walkman Video MP3 Player is the best bet. This video player will cost you $92 at Amazon.Com. At Sony Rewards, you can redeem this video player with only 9,995 points. Or you can consider the 815 version which will cost you 2,000 points more.

You can also consider the Sony CMTBX1 CMT Micro Component System with MP3 Playback which will cost you $99 at Amazon.Com. You can redeem it for only 9,995 points at sony rewards.

You can also redeem 5,000 points for a $50 Blockbuster gift card.

If you don’t have a sony card yet, you can apply a new sony card through this link and receive 10,000 bonus points.

Brad is my lab mate and he is extremely interested in using App-O-Rama (AOR) to earn some free money. After a little bit research across the internet, he finally launched his mini business AOR last week and sent me a copy of his result.

Credit Score is around 750
Stated Income: $100k
Sole Proprietorship (using SSN# as ITIN)
Years in business: 0
Income: $0

Current Cards..................Type......Limit

Citibank Dividend Platinum.......Personal...$13k

Chase Freedom Card...............Personal...$7k

WaMu Platinum Card...............Personal...$16k

American Express Blue Cash.......Personal...$11k

Total..........................................$47k

Cards applied for...................................Status

Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network............Approved

Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network........Approved

Citi Business/AAdvantage MasterCard.................Declined

Chase Business Platinum.............................Approved

Chase Business Rebate...............................Approved

Chase Business Cash Rewards Visa....................Declined

Discover Business...................................Declined

Discover Business Miles.............................Approved

CapitolOne Visa Business Platinum...................Approved

Business Platinum with Preferred No Hassle Miles....Declined

AMEX Blue Cash for Business Card....................Approved

AMEX Starwood Business Card.........................Approved

Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards.........Approved

I can’t imagine how much free money and sign-up bonuses he can get for this mini business AOR. He said this AOR wasn’t well prepared but he liked results so far. He has moved much of the new credit line to his high rate saving account. Since the business report is hidden from his personal report, he is planning to launch his personal AOR soon.

Several days ago I received a mail from Sony Rewards: Spend $500 between 02/15/2008 and 03/31/2008 and get 10,000 bonus Sony Rewards Points in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.

“Spend $500 on your Sony card between February 15 and March 31, 2008 and get 10,000 Sony Rewards bonus points, in addition to your points earned on everyday purchases.” The second part of the offer is “Spend $300 from April 1 to June 30, 2008 and get a free companion airline ticket voucher with purchase of an adult round-trip ticket.” The bonus points will be posted in 4~12 weeks after 31 March.

I don’t know whether this is a targeted offer or not. I haven’t use this card for a long long time. There is no promotion code you can find in the mail. But I think the link may be helpful to any sony cardmember. If you have an account at SonyRewards, you can click login. If you haven’t registered your sony card yet, click register to finish the registration process. But what I would tell you is after login sony rewards, you still don’t know anything about this offer. My suggestion is make the purchases according to promotion and save the necessary proofs in case you might need them. Anyway, I will give it a try. if you can’t get the bonus points, your loss would be $500*2% cash back=$10. But you can kick Chase/Sony out forever.

A summary of posts in this week:

$50 from Bank of America World MasterCard with World Points

WaMu Savings for Success

$5 from Sears and Ebates

$100 Bonus from TD Ameritrade

Want A Credit Card? — Get The Easiest Ones

The Four Credit Cards That Everyone Should Have

I seldom introduce the credit cards from Bank of America, although they are the largest credit card issuer in U.S. The reasons are very simple—bad rewards program & few sign-up bonuses. The most generous one was last July when the Iowa Rewards Credit Card from Bank of American was offering 2,5000 sign-up bonus points which could be redeemed for $250. And the most recent one was the Rewards American Express Card which offered $100 bonus.

This time you can get $50 statement credit from Bank of America when you sign up for the World MasterCard with WorldPoints. (Thanks to bugetcent.net for informing this deal!) According to the terms and conditions, in order to get the $50 bonus, you have to spend $25 on that card. The $50 bonus will be credited to your account within 8-12 weeks after you make the qualified purchases.

You may also want to consider the $75 bonus from MyAccess Checking account. (Previously they were offering $100.) Bonus from MyAccess Checking account is the easiest money to get. This checking account features no direct deposit needed, no minimum balance required and no monthly fees! Promotion code: AOU020608 is needed. Another requirement is you have to be a Bank of America credit card holder first, so take the chance to get a World MasterCard with WorldPoints first!

After you open the MyAccess Checking account, you may also want to play “BOA Keep the Change” which will offer you $250! A saving account associated with the checking account is needed. Overall, you can get $375 from Bank of America!

A lot of friends applied for Starwood Preferred Guest Card and are waiting for the 10,000 bonus points. Recently, several readers sent me emails about the 10,000 bonus points. They have been using this card for more than 3 months and still hasn’t received the bonus points in their SPG accounts. So I sent an email to SPG program. Well, this is just a remind that you may expect a delay on receiving the 10,000 bonus points. Following is what I got:

Dear Mr. David,

Thank you for your recent email concerning your Starwood Preferred Guest account. I welcome this opportunity to assist you.

I regret the delay in this response. We have received a deluge of e-mail correspondence and have not been able to respond in the timely manner that our members fully deserve.

There has been an unfortunate technical glitch delaying the transfer from American Express into your Starwood Preferred Guest account. American Express is working to resolve this issue and once this has been resolved the 10,000 Starpoints will credit automatically.

I apologize for any frustration and disappointment you may have experienced.

I would also like to invite you to visit our special promotions page to see if you are eligible for any upcoming promotions.

We appreciate your continued loyalty to the Starwood Preferred Guest program and welcome any further questions or concerns. Please feel free to contact us at Starwood.preferred.guest@starwoodhotels.com.

Best Regards,

XXXX
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

If you have a Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express, you may want to click the “special promotions page” as indicated in the email and try you luck to see whether you can get a special offer or not.

As I have reviewed this card before (see this post), it’s a wonderful card if you expect to earn travel rewards. It’s also ranked as one of the best travel rewarding credit card (see this post). 9,000 starpoints can be redeemed as $100 Amazon.Com gift certificate. Or you can redeem the 10,000 bonus points for 3 free night stays at Starwood Hotels. Business version of this card is also available. (Don’t know how to apply for business card? click here.)

• Earn 10,000 Starpoints® with your first purchase — enough for up to 3 free nights at a category 1 or 2 hotel.
• Earn 15,000 bonus Starpoints after you spend $15,000 in 6 months
• Use Starpoints® for free nights and upgrades at over 825 participating Starwood hotels and resorts in 95 countries
• Transfer Starpoints® — almost always on a 1:1 basis — to the frequent flyer programs of over 30 major airlines
• Earn one Starpoint® for every dollar you spend and double Starpoints® at participating Starwood properties and retail partners
• No annual fee for the first year and $45 thereafter
• Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds.