Here’s the email:

Dear XXXXXXX,

Congratulations! You are now eligible to receive your annual complimentary Credit Score and Report, exclusively for American Express ® Cardmembers.

Log in now to see My Credit Score and Report

With this valuable benefit, you will be able to:

* Ensure that the information on your Credit Report is accurate and up-to-date
* Find out if anyone else has viewed your Credit Report
* See how information in your Credit Report affects your Credit Score

With such great complimentary benefits, it’s easy to stay on top of your personal credit information.

Want a more comprehensive look at your credit? By enrolling in CreditSecure® you’ll get:

* Unlimited access to your 3 national credit reports and scores
* 3-Bureau daily monitoring
* e-mail alerts of key changes to your credit activity.

To get the complete picture, enroll in CreditSecure at: www.americanexpress.com/mycreditsecure.

Sincerely,

Customer Care

You must be a new customer in order to get it free for 30 days. No need to be reminded to cancel which is absolutely great. More info on their free credit report and score FAQ.

American Express Premier Gold $150 Bonus

The American Express(R) Premier Rewards Gold Card is currently offering 15000 bonus points = $150 gift cards after $1000 in spending in your first 3 months. You can order coins to fulfill this promotion to do this quickly. This offer is a quick easy way to make $150 bonus. There is no fees for first year, so I would cancel the card before the anniversary if you don’t find it useful.

Offer Details:

1. Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 15,000 frequent flier miles in a number of programs (or 10 Southwest credits), or you can simply get $150 in gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, or Macy’s. I think you can also get cash equivalents at a reduced ratio.
2. Offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
3. Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $30,000 per calendar year.
4. No annual fee for your first year. After that it is $175.

Simply sign up through the link , which is completely free for credit score approximation. You will need to give up some personal information such as Social Security in order to access your credit report. Credit Karma stands out in their comparison tools. The visual presentation compares you nationally with your age group, location, etc.

Again, this is completely free, and there is simply no trial here. You check as often as you want, and it doesn’t hurt your credit score. Although you may just check your score once a month since the score will only be updated monthly.  Finally,  play with the credit simulator to see how you could raise your credit score within your account.

Some important notes:

It’s not a real FICO credit score. If you want a real FICO score, you can still do it free under a 30 days free trial from MyFico. You would need to cancel within 30 days in order to get it for free.

If you only want to look at your credit report and not your credit score, then simply visit annualcreditreport.com from the government for a complete free report of your credit history.

Here’s a recent email from the CSR:

Thank you for contacting the Internet Service Center.

Thank you for inquiring about the ability to view your
credit score online. I’m happy to explain this new feature
to Chase Online.

Starting February 11, 2010, some credit card customers who
log onto Chase Online will see a full-page ad notifying
that you can find out your FICO credit score at no charge.
The FICO score is valuable to you because it’s a key
factor in determining the loan rates and credit card terms
that you are offered.

The ad features a “Show me my free credit score from FICO”
button that you click on to see your score.

When you click on the button, you’ll be taken to a special
Chase Online page that gives you your credit score (within
a 10 point range) and additional information about how to
improve or maintain your credit score. FICO scores can
range from 300 to 850; they’re provided by Experian, a
third-party credit reporting agency.

When you click “Go to My Accounts” on the full-page ad you
will see a banner ad promoting the free FICO score after
subsequent log-ins to Chase Online.

Please note, your FICO score is calculated based on
information from your credit report (e.g. payment history,
length of credit history, new credit, amounts owed), but
the score does NOT reflect your full credit report.

If you have questions about your FICO score, please call
Experian at (888) 397-3742. Also, if you would like to
obtain your Credit Report you can contact any of the three
credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax (800-685-1111) and
TransUnion (800-888-4213).

I’m not really sure how we were able to offer this but
being a bank I believe since we do work closely with
credit reporting agencies we may have been able to have a
contract with them to offer this to our crdit card
customers. I’m sorry that I cannot answer your question
but enjoy this new wonderful benefit and have a great
weekend Ms. xxxxxx.

If you have any questions or require further assistance,
please e-mail us via the Secure Message Center or contact
our Internet Service Center.

You should be able to see the screen like below inside your Chase account:

$25 ING Savings Bonus

ING Direct is an online bank with the quickest $25 bonus I can think of. I have set up some automatic links so you can sign up right away. In order to get the bonus, you must go through my referral link and deposit $250. The $25 bonus will take no longer than a day to show up. There is no monthly or minimum fees. Setup is extremely fast and easy. Not only it’s a quick $25, the account is 1.25% APY and FDIC insured. You can also use this account to send money to other bank accounts such as Chase and Bank of America, and it will count as a Direct Deposit requirement.

Once you got your account open, you can send 50 referrals to your friends and family members to make up to $500 more.

Make sure to deposit $250 for opening deposit

1. ING $25 Referral Link!
   
2. ING $25 Referral Link!
3. ING $25 Referral Link!

Expect a Hard:

1. Barclay’s Business (i.e. Bank Atlantic) – per call on, but soft when done to new account.
2. Chase – always a hard pull
3. Citi – hard pull is definite if they ask for income verification.
4. Discover – hard pull at or beyond 15k
5. FNBO – Always hard through form.

No Hard Pull:

1. Juniper / Barclay’s – call the CSR on the back of your card and ask for an increase.
2. Discover (personal) – credit limit increase $2K every six months by calling 1-800-DISCOVER. It’s a soft pull.
3. US Bank (personal) – increase credit limit by 20% every 3 months with usage .
4. Wells Fargo – Call CSR and ask for increase without hard pull. They might say “we have to hard pull” then just talk to another CSR later.
5. USAA – Choose soft pull for additional review.
6. Citi – You can do this within your online account. CLI is instant unless ask for income verification.
7. AMEX – Use online form for no-hard CLI. If your credit limit is more than $25K, don’t bother asking. Otherwise they might reduce your credit limit.
8. Bank of America – Use online form for no-hard CLI.
9. WalMart – Use online form for no-hard CLI. Every 6 months usually.
10. Principal – No credit check for pre-approved limit increase.

Chase Sapphire $100 Bonus

Currently, Chase Sapphire(SM) Card is giving away 10,000 Bonus Points after first purchase. The 10,000 bonus points can be cashed in for a $100 check. There is no annual fee with the Chase Sapphire Card. I personally have this card and got a $100 Check.

With the Chase Sapphire Card, you get 2X on all airfare booked through Ultimate Rewards. There is no earning caps, point expiration, or blackout dates. Also, earn 10x for every dollar when shopping at select merchant through Ultimate Rewards Mall and 1 point for every dollar on all other purchases. Chase gives you 24/7 Dedicated service advisor (No voice recording) with premier travel protection benefits.

1. Minimize your credit utilization – Credit Reporting Companies (CRCs) take the amount you owed on a single card and the percentage use of your overall credit limit into consideration. My rule of thumb is never go over 70% on any single card and stay less than 50% of your overall credit limit on all cards.
2. Pay your bill on time – never, ever be late on your bills, especially pass the 30 days mark. You will see your credit score drop dramatically if this ever happened.
3. Attain higher credit limit – back to number one, you can always minimize your credit utilization by increasing your credit limit. This can be done by continuing calling credit card companies to increase your credit limit or having a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC).
4. Avoid hard inquiries- hard inquiry is always done whenever a new application for a credit card. Make sure the inquiry is worth it before doing so. Sometimes check your credit report to make sure they don’t pull more than once.
5. Do not close accounts of old credit cards – your credit card history plays a big role into determining your credit score. The more established cards will result in higher credit score.

Now here are some trickeries to increasing that credit score.

1. Continue calling calling Credit cards’ CSR to ask for higher credit limit without doing a hard pull. Do this once every three months on all cards.
2. Ask to allocate credit line to your older cards to maximize credit limit, then close the just opened accounts with low limit.
3. If you want to build your kids’ credit score, add them as an authorized user to your best credit card. By 18 years old, they will already have an established credit history. This can be done with a mortgage loan too.
4. If you are looking in increase your credit limit, play the App-O-Rama game in an hour time frame to avoid multiple inquiries. You will take a credit beating, but it will go back up once the six months mark is over.
5. If you are young, try to keep your official residence in one place such as your parents on your credit report.

It’s also a good idea to check up on your credit report often. If you want a free credit report, check out www.annualcreditreport.com for a complete free report each year. For a free monthly credit score, the best way I know how is getting a WaMu credit card. It’s the only card that gives you monthly free score.

Before we go into the strategies of keeping credit score high, why do we need it high? If your score is above 750, you are most likely to pay lower premium on car insurance and house insurance, better rate on your mortgage and car loan, and even employers look at your credit history to see if you are responsible to hire you.

Of course nobody came into this world and has a score of 750 or higher right away. Unless your parents have added your name to their mortgage or credit cards as an authorized user, your credit history starts when you reached at the age of 18 years old.

At the beginning of your credit history, you are most likely to open a checking account and savings account. Most likely your score is adequate around 650 reported around the big three credit reporting agencies (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian). These big threes are private companies that each have their own scoring model to designate your score. Since they keep it extremely secretive, no one is for sure one strategy will work over another.

Keep in mind, no two credit profiles are alike, hence many factors can contribute to your credit score. These includes, but not limited to, the age of your account, your payment history, and your debt/credit limit ratio.

Another factor is how your credit is collected. If you have a business card, the balance you carry each month is never reported to the credit agency. However, all personal credits card will report your credit limit, the balance, and the minimum payment due.

Since there are many ambiguities in the world of credit reporting, here are a few known facts to keep in mind.

1. The relevant of high tech has allowed them to report your credit inquiry much quicker. Just because you did twenty inquiries in 1 hour on an app-o-rama doesn’t mean they won’t know till tomorrow. These inquiries are reported in minutes or hours.
2. Secured revolving lines of credit such as HELOC is different from an unsecured line of credit. Your credit cards are unsecured lines of credit, hence play a more prominent role into your credit rating.
3. Rate shopping on your car insurance, house mortgage, or car loan are usually grouped together within a 14 days window. In doing so, it will only count as one credit inquiry. Of course, credit cards’ inquiries do not get this same treatment.

Come back tomorrow for the second edition of keeping your credit score high with all the strategies.