My Credit Cards Blog

What’s so special about American Express One credit card? They encourage you to save since it will deposit cash rebates of 1% of purchase value into a high yield savings account under the cardholder’s name. The FDIC insured 3.5% APY account is opened automatically with your credit card application.

More importantly, card holders can enjoy the many benefits such as no maximum credit limit imposed and the ability to track their monthly spending. The tracking alert system helps you keep tabs on how much you spend on your card.Furthermore, American Express will hook you up with a $50 bonus upon the first purchase made with the American Express One card. You can deposit money into your 3.5% savings account anytime. Last but not least, they waive the first year fee of $35. If you don’t find the account useful, you can cancel your card before the 1 year anniversary without paying any fees at all.

More great features include the convenience of managing their card account and bill payments online. Also, the American Express One card includes travel accident insurance and car rental insurance coverage for card holders. Finally, the grace period for this card is set for 30 days which is 10 days longer than the average credit card. With the rebates into high-yield investment accounts and a $50 bonus, American Express One is easily one of my top credit cards.

My favorite and only everyday’s brick & mortar bank is Washington Mutual. By signing up online, you will get free checking + 5% APY Savings account. You can’t beat that for a brick & mortar bank! From personal experience, I get great customer service. If you ever overdraft your account, they will give you one freebie per year. Did I mention that you will get free bill pay and free checks for life! There is no monthly checking fees. If you do use their debit card, get 3 cents back on each purchase. Wow! Simply amazing.

This bank deserves CC Dude’s 5 out 5 stars rating. If you already has a WaMu account and you are not getting the 5% APY rate, simply open this new one and close your old one. Open now by clicking through the link below.

Open a free checking and high-yield savings account, with a 5.0% APY by filling out the WaMu Free Checking™ application. Learn more!

By RocketC

Okay, so if the $75 annual fee is still scaring you away from the Citi PremierPass Elite card, let me try to answer some of your misgivings. Here is our story:

Both my wife and I each signed up for a separate Citi PremierPass Elite card in July for the free bonus points. (Don’t let the current 20K promotion slip away! These things don’t last forever). We redeemed the total points for seven $50 gas gift cards, a $50 Old Navy card and still have points left over to spend somewhere else.

But there is another benefit to the Citi PremierPass Elite card that we did not know about when we signed up: It offers a free companion fare on most major airlines. It costs a bundle to fly my family to the west coast every year to visit family. However, this year, we are going to cut our costs in half by booking with our Premier Pass Elite cards – I will book my flight plus a free ticket for our second born, my wife will book her flight and that of our first born. We will get four flights for the price of two. Furthermore, the Citi PremierPass Elite card has a range of airlines to choose from. We will pick the one that best fits our itinerary, schedule and price range.

The $75 annual fee does not look so bad to us. Then I plan to convert to the Regular Citi PremierPass Card before paying next year’s annual fee. The Regular Citi PremierPass Card also offers a free companion fare – for next year’s trip.

Beat that deal with a stick.

This post is guest-blogged by my friend RocketC. I highly recommend to check his blog at RocketFinance.com

One of the best ways to make/save money is by applying for credit card bonuses. I just found out that the Citi PremierPass Card - Elite Level is offering 20000 bonus points for signing up. 15K bonus points after first purchase and another 5K bonus points after $500 in purchases. If you click on the link, you will only see 15K bonus points offer. Here’s a little Hustler’s trick:

If you click on Citi PremierPass Card - Elite Level, there is only a 15000 bonus points offer showing. However, turn off pop-up blocker, and then exit the page, and you will see the page below.

If you don’t want the 20000 points for $200 in gift card, then you can exchange it for an airline round ticket in the U.S. When you travel in the continental United States and Hawaii you can get a companion ticket every single time you buy a round-trip Coach Class excursion-fare ticket with your card for $299 or more. Also, for every mile you fly, you will get equal bonus points to the number of miles of your flight.

There is, however, an annual fee of $75. Lets do the math: $200 bonus - $75 fee = $125 profit. You might be discouraged, thinking, *Damn…I really don’t want to pay any annual fee.* Don’t worry, you are on Hustlermoneyblog. Here’s a neat little hustle to get away from the annual fee. Once you get your 20000 bonus points, go ahead and cash them out for an airline ticket or $200 in gift card. Now call the CSR and ask them to convert to the Regular Citi PremierPass Card. This is very simple. It’s just switching to a different card and there is no hard inquiry on your credit. Why? Because the Regular Citi Premier doesn’t have an annual fee. They will simply credit you the $75. Make sure you tell them that you will only keep the card if they reverse the fee and give you the Regular PremierPass. If it doesn’t work, threaten to cancel the card. They will most likely to offer you something to keep you as a customer. Call back to a different CSR if they don’t offer you something good. If they don’t give you anything, you can still cancel and be prorated to the amount of months left on your card. E.G. Cancel after 2 months, hence (2/12) x $75 fee = $63 back since you only have them for 2 months. YMMV.

My best card in my wallet would be the Citi Professional. Currently, they are running a $100 bonus promotion whereas you get 10,000 points after first purchase. Once you get your 10,000 points, you can redeem it for $100 gift certificate at any of these stores. Some of these stores include Best Buy, Sears, Target, Gap, Home Depot, etc.

To me, Citi Professional is just an overall good card with their cash back program. Citi Professional gives you 3% cash back on restaurants, gas stations, auto rentals, and office supply merchants in term of Thank You points. Also, there is no annual fee and they itemized your spending report every quarter, telling you what kind of purchases you made. On top of the $100 bonus, I highly recommend the Citi Professional card for the everyday usage.

I just found out today. American Express really wants you to get this $250 bonus, they are extending AmEx Business Gold for 1 last week. You will only find this deal at Hustlermoneyblog, so don’t hesitate any longer.

As always, anyone can sign up for the AmEx business gold credit card:

Whether you have a home-based business or that you have sold something on Ebay, you can apply for a business credit card. You can put your name as the business name and your social security number as the tax id. Your business is called sole proprietorship and it’s perfectly legal with the IRS.

Many people have manage to use the 25000 bonus points for a $250 gift certificate or a free round-trip ticket anywhere in the U.S.

This deal will end on October 15th, 2007, so apply today.

**CC Dude Hint: After you get this card in the mail, call the CSR and ask them about the extra 5K points bonus by adding two authorized users. This would make this card a total of 30K bonus points**

Looking for some extra money, then sign up this CitiBusiness PremierPassSM Card for 15000 bonus thank you points which can be redeemed for $150 gift certificate bonus. There is no fee for fist year, and $75 afterward. I intend on signing on to get the bonus and then cancel the card before the first year anniversary.

Of course anyone can get a business card,

Whether you have a home-based business or that you have sold something on Ebay, you can apply for a business credit card. You can put your name as the business name and your social security number as the tax id. Your business is called sole proprietorship and it’s perfectly legal with the IRS.

If you don’t like gift cards, you call them (1-800-842-6596) to get $150 credit toward your student loans.

Along with the 15000 points promotion, you will also get 12 months of 0% APR on balance transfer. Check out the fine print:

Transaction Fee for Balance Transfers: 3% of the amount of each balance transfer, minimum $5, maximum $50, but waived with the 0.00% APR balance transfer offer described above.

Waived with this offer? Sweet! This means that you don’t have to pay any BT fee for first time balance transfer. I intend on putting the BT money in this 5% APY WaMu Savings Account.

Last but not least, you can get a free companion ticket whenever you book a ticket that is at least $299 within the continental US or Hawaii. The companion ticket feature can be used unlimited times. Even if you just use this feature once, it will more than pay for the $75 annual fee.

Take advantage of this offer by signing up to the CitiBusiness PremierPassSM Card today!

HOT OFFER: $40 bonus with Discover More Card

The Discover More Card is a cash back credit card with a reward combo. Cardholders earn 5% cash rebate for purchases at merchant partners of Get More Purchase program, double the value of your cash rebates if you exchange them for gift certificates or gift cards of partner merchants, and earn unlimited rebates.

For a limited time only, you can get $40 cash back bonus when you make $500 in purchases.

The best part about this card is its 5% cash back program. For October to December, you can get 5% cash back whenever you dine at restaurants or go to the movies. The 5% cash back is up to $400 in purchases in these categories. The program starts today. For those with a Discover card, sign up the 5% bonus here.

The Discover More Card is a tiered cash back credit card with up to 2% rebate. It’s based on your annual expenditure. If your annual expenditures exceed $3,000, you earn 1% rebate. How do you come up with the 2%?

You can double the value of your rebates by exchanging your cash rebates into gift certificate. E.G. $50 cash rebate can get you a $100 gift certificate from one of the following merchants.

Bennigan’s
Black Angus/Cattle Company Steakhouse
Bonanza Steakhouse
Chili’s Grill & Bar®
Maggiano’s Little Italy®
On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina®
Ponderosa Steakhouse
Red Lobster
Romano’s Macaroni Grill®
Steak & Ale
Ace Hardware
Bed Bath & Beyond®
Callaway Golf
Cooking.com
Crutchfield
K B Toys
Pep Boys
Pier 1 Imports
The Sharper Image®
Sofa Mart
Sprint
Staples®
AMC Theatres BLOCKBUSTER®
BLOCKBUSTER Online®
Borders Books & Music®
Fandango
Great American Days
Hollywood Video
Waldenbooks®
M&M’s World
Mrs. Fields
Omaha Steaks Carnival Cruise Lines
Celebrity Cruises®
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
Royal Caribbean International
Samsonite Company Stores
BLOCKBUSTER Online®
Callaway Golf
Cooking.com
Crutchfield
Fandango
L.L. Bean
Mrs. Fields
Omaha Steaks
Ultra Diamond Outlet

Another great feature is called Shop Discover. It’s a shopping portal through Discover’s website with great merchants. Here are some cash back from feature merchants: 7% Barnes and Nobles, 5% Circuit City, 5% Overstock.com, and more.

Discover More Card has no annual fee with APR rate ranges from Prime Rate plus 2.74% to 9.74%. Of course, you can get a 0% APR for 12 months for both purchase and balance transfer.

Quick Summary:

• Apply now and get $40 Cashback Bonus*
• Earn more cash in more ways than anyone else^SM*
• Unlimited cash rewards, automatically
• Up to 20% Cashback Bonus® when you shop
  online*
• Double rewards with more than 80 Cashback Bonus
  Partners*
• Customer Service in less than a minute, anytime you want
• 0% Intro APR*

Apply Now!