Entries Tagged 'Credit' ↓

Chase has a new travel credit card called the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and they’re offering 25,000 bonus points after your first purchase. The 25,000 points can be converted into $250 in gift cards.

Benefits

1:1 POINT TRANSFER TO LEADING AIRLINE AND HOTEL PROGRAMS.
With Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer your points at full value to some of the industry’s leading frequent flyer and hotel programs, making it easy to “top off” your account.

TRAVEL REWARDS TAKE YOU 25% FURTHER.
Your points are 25% more valuable when you book flights online with our Travel Booking Tool. That means a flight that normally costs $350 can be yours for only 28,000 points. So you can fly for fewer points now and keep some points for your next reward.

ANNUAL POINT BONUS.
You’ll automatically receive 10,000 bonus points when you make purchases of $50,000 or more per year on your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.*

FIRST YEAR FREE. $95 ANNUAL FEE THEREAFTER.
The card is free for your first year. After the first year, the annual fee is $95.00.

Worth a look see!

Citi has been cracking down on unused credit cards and I was one of the people affected. They decided to drop the credit line on my Citi Professional card, a card I haven’t used in a year or so, and then axe it entirely at the end of the month. Fortunately, I have a proper response.

Citi lets you periodically request credit line increases through their online interface. Today, while looking at my Citi mtvU card, I requested it and they granted a $2,000 increase with no credit pull.

To request a credit line increase, log into your account. Then, at the top, look for Tools & Service, then click Request A Credit Line Increase. You will either be notified that you’ve been given one or asked to fill out more information.

If you are asked for more information, cancel it. If you offer the information, you’ll have your credit pulled. If you are offered an increase like this:

Congratulations!
Your credit line can be immediately increased by $2,000.00 for a total new credit line of $9,600.00.

During the evaluation process, a credit bureau report was not pulled.

Please indicate below whether or not you accept this amount. If you want a lower credit line, call Customer Service at 1-800-950-5114. Outside the U.S., call 605-335-2222.

Click Yes!

There you have it, quick and easy credit line increases.

Through the years I, like many of you, have managed to get myself onto a lot of junk mailing lists. Whether it’s a credit card offer or a catalog, it seems as though I’m frequently inundated with letters and books that are destined for a straight shot into the recycling bin, sometimes by way of a shredder. Rather than waste the post office’s time (and my time), wouldn’t it better if there was a way to cut these off entirely?

Yes, that’s where Opt Out Prescreen comes in. By signing up to Opt Out Prescreen you stop a majority of the financial related direct mailings. It’s those credit card offers and bank offers that present the most risk because they contain a lot of personal information and many an identity theft has profited off those mailings.

Once you get past that, there are a few other places you can go to stop catalogs such as Catalog Choice and Direct Mail.com. Finally, add your name to the Do Not Mail petition to create a Do Not Mail Registry much like the Do Not Call registry.

Why pay $10 or $20 a month for something you can do yourself? There is absolutely no reason. You can do exactly what identity theft protection companies do at a fraction of the cost (most of it is free anyway) and save that money for something more useful. For a full explanation of what you need to do, check out BFP’s Do It Yourself Identity Theft Protection guide.

Normally, American Express charges a $15 fee on Traveler’s Cheque purchases but until the end of the year that fee is waiveid with a coupon code – TCDIRECT. There will still be a $.95 shipping fee via USPS but the normal $15 charge is waived.

American Express treats these as purchases and not cash advances.

American Express Traveler’s Cheque website

By governmental edict from up high, you can get a copy of your credit report from each of the credit bureaus each and every year at AnnualCreditReport.com. It’s absolutely free, though the bureaus will try to sell you more stuff, and a popular strategy is to stagger them every four months so you get a snapshot every quarter. So, you get Equifax on quarter, then you get a TransUnion the next, then you get Experian the following quarter and then rinse and repeat.

If you want to figure out how to spend less money, the best way to is go entirely cash. Don’t charge a single thing to your credit card, don’t write a single check, and don’t pay for anything with anything else other than cash.

Going 100% cash is hard. It’s hard because we have grown accustomed to the features and conveniences of credit cards. We have access to a tremendous amount of capital with the swipe of a card and often find ourselves spending money we probably wouldn’t have if forced to carry around the cash to pay for it. We will be leveraging that same psychological feeling when we practice the art of going 100% cash.

The main reason this will save you money is because cash is real, whereas credit isn’t. There’s a reason why casinos use colorful clay chips rather than money – you abstract away how valuable the cash representation is. A $100 chip looks just like a $1 chip, it’s just a different color. Your $5,000 credit limit is personified by a smiling teddy bear on a plastic card with a magnetic strip. Your purchases will feel more “painful” because you have to hand over real money and so you’ll naturally spend less.

Another reason you’ll save money is because you generally won’t carry enough money with you to make huge purchases. Tempted by a $300 purse or a $500 Onkyo receiver? Unless you are rolling with that much cash in your wallet, you won’t be able to buy it when the urge strikes. You’ll have to go to the ATM, withdraw the money, and then return to the store if you really want it. By then, the urge will likely have subsided.

Try going entirely with cash for a week or even a day, you’ll notice that your spending will have fallen.

Are you looking for the best gas credit card now that we have $4 gas? Fortunately we have personal finance blogs to cut through the fluff and tell you straight which is the best card. Right now, the best gas credit card appears to be the American Express SimplyCash® card. It offers 5% cash back on gas and they credit it directly to your account. No shenanigans about requesting a check over $50, depositing a check, waiting, sometimes forgetting to request it, etc. Credit directly to your account FTW!

The only concern is that it’s a business card, which means you have to have a business right? Nope. You can apply as a sole proprietorship, use your social security number as your EIN, and you’re in luck. This is entirely legitimate and there are no tax implications of doing so.

The other cards mentioned, the Discover Open Road and the American Express Costco TrueEarnings cards are less desirable. The Discover Open Road limits your cashback to $20 a month (first $100 in purchases) and the TrueEarnings card has an annual fee unless you’re a Costco member (and is only 3% cashback, 5% for the business card version). You are better offer with the SimplyCash card.

Building and maintaining a strong credit history is a must these days. In the past, only lenders cared about your credit score and your credit history. Now, everyone from landlords to employers are checking your credit history and using it as a proxy for reliability and trustworthiness. They believe that someone with a low credit score and a weak history is less trustworthy, which may or may not be true, so it’s important for you to build and maintain a strong credit score and history. This is best accomplished when you’re a student because you’re finally on your own.

The first step is to try to apply for a student credit card such as the Citi mtvU credit card. The Citi mtvU card isn’t just the non-student card with higher interest rates and more fees, it’s actually a tailored card with features a student would like like 5% cashback at bookstores, points for good grades and on-time payment. It also means that students are more likely to be accepted. If you try to get a regular consumer credit card, the rules are going to be more stringent.

If you don’t qualify for that card, consider getting a credit card from a store you shop at in the mall. These cards often have low limits and zero benefits (make sure you get a card with no annual fee!) but you’re looking to build credit, not get access to easy debt. If you can get the mtvU card, or some other student card, don’t bother with getting a store card.

Don’t sign up for a credit card at some random table at school. 95% of these tables are legitimate, but you always run the risk of giving out all that sensitive data to a complete stranger that you shouldn’t trust. That person could use that information to steal your identity. Not worth it.

Good luck!

Discover is running a new Discover Business card promotion where they’re offering $100 bonus cashback after your first $1000 in purchases. You’ll earn cashback on your $1000 spending so that $100 is bonus money.

Remember, anyone can apply for a business card using their social security number as a sole proprietorship without any additional paperwork or tax implications.