Credit Card Hot Deals

[BillRubin]

<< My Mastercard is through my credit union. Low rate, no annual fee, pleny of time to pay before interest is charged, and I pay it off every month anyway. As far as I can tell this beats the cashback things, if you have to make $10,000 of purchases to earnback the $60 annual fee. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know. >>


What annual fee?? I don't think that any card being dicussed here has a $60 annual fee. Discover (which is poor for rebates) is free, as are all of the Citibank cards with the exception of their American Airlines Aadvantage card, which is $50.

If you pay your bill in full each month, then the only thing you should be looking for is cashback, etc. Citibank allows you to set up your card on their site so that it automatically pays the bill on the due date. You can tell it to pay the minimum (shudder), a set amount, or the total amount due. It is incredibly convenient and basically does away with late or missed payments. I believe that Citibank only gives you 20 days from the statement date before payment is due, which is low (but in line with most other major cards). Your credit union may give you 25 days which is probably the only advantage they have.

PS for some serious information on rebate credit cards, visit this site.

Bill

 

[Thyme]

<< Credit cards, gotta love em.

I'm thinking serisiously about buying an $8000 KTM 520 with a 0% apr credit card and transfering the balance to another 0% apr card in six months. Anyone do this before with this much money? Any problems? Thinking I'd start with the First USA Plat card or the Juniper.

Tanks!

Jim >>



Be VERY CAREFUL when doing that. Most CCs have a different rate for balance transfers. You can really get burned doing that.

 

[jschner]

Thyme, thanks! Yeah I hear you. The KTM dealer wants 16.75% already for a loan so I should be miles ahead if I make sure the balance transfers are lower than this. Preferably 0%. I just hope there are good cards available in six months if I do this. This bike has a two month waiting period in California and I just found one I can pick up tomorrow if I have the nerve to make a HOT deal out of this with cards. One draw back. This would definitely take me out of the HOT DEALS forum for awhile. But who would notice right!

Feed the family or get the bike? I'm so confused!

Jim

69 dude!

 

[Tanner]

Hey guys...

I tried this...

applied for the AMEX Blue card telling them that I make only $20k/yr...they rejected me on that basis...not enuF income...

so...(I'm a glutton for punishment and BAD credit)

I reapplied about 2-3 wks L8r...just to see if I could up my income and see if they would give it to me w/o checking on it... So far...nothing...no letter of rejection again

So...we'll see if they ck. that stuff out...as I have been rejected for about 3 diff. credit cards about a year ago when I applied for 3 in the same one week period...(don't do that...the frequency of your credit checks will kill you on all of them!)

my $.02

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Tanner

 

[Jfur]

<< Its strange that someone is having problems with citibank. The reason I have been with them so long is because they have been excelent in every aspect of there service. I had someone get my CC # and they caught it after the first instance(3 charges of aprox $200 and did not have to pay them). They were also speedy when it came to replacing lost cards.

Can someone tell me if 9.9% is common for a visa/mc??? thanks >>



I had Citibank cards for 10 years, until they (allegedly) sent out two new cards (unrequested, years before mine had expired!), then when I called in to inquire about the letter I received asking why I had not activated the unrequested cards, they immediately cancelled both of mine. Of course this was three days before X-Mas and my landlord was fumigating so I was staying in a hotel that I had reserved under that cc. Not to mention I bought several gifts online that did not go through. Citibank refused to help me in any way to get a new number in time for the fumigation -- there was NOTHING they could do to help me. I called them back after I returned home and cancelled both cards. I will NEVER do business with them again.:|

 

[Thyme]

Bump

 

[seatidex]

I hate Discover Card. The customer service for dispute is very bad. I also received tons of mails and phone calls asking me for applying a new Discover card. I am considering sueing them when I have time!

 

[dealonfire]

I never used a discover card. Why not get a VISA or MC card that also offer cash rebate. there are more than a few choices. the juniper 2% cash rebate mastercard and the citi 1% rebate visa are good choices

With the Juniper Cash Rebate Mastercard, you get 1% rebate starting $2000, 2% rebate starting $10000.
They offer wireless account access. I can check my account detail on my cell phone's wap browser. They also keep 16 MONTHS of statement online for you, so you won' t have to pay in case you want to request past statement. There is also no annual fee for this card. the maximum rebate is $500 per year.

 

[GPz1100]

RigorousT said:



<< Yeah Citibank is great. I'm gonna be so when my ClickCiti card
expires. They stopped taking applications but are honoring it until
2003. >>




Being a click citi customer myself, I just called them up to verify.

According to the CSR I talked to, their standard click citi accounts will be renewed, however, the click citi college accounts will not.

We'll see when the time comes of course, as companies like to make changes all the time, but for now this is promising news.

 

[TheCleaner]

How about good airline cards?


I have costco Amex, works great w/o annual fee.

 

[Scrounger]

Just wanted to say thanks to AznRyda for reviving this topic and everyone for the good input. I needed a new card since Direct Merchants Bank (originally SW Bell Visa) that I had used for the last 7 years decided to start charging me an annual fee when I recently cancelled my account after I thought I had lost the card. They had some kind of cash rewards but am sure that it is barely enough to cover that fee. I wrote CS at DMB and complained but all they did was offer to lower my rate which did me no good since I pay my balance monthly. I decided to jump ship. Applied for the Juniper and got approved for $12,500 as fast as the page could load after I hit the submit button. Kinda scary if they actually verified my info that fast. I think the limit is even higher than my old card so I feel pretty happy with it. Looks like they have all kinds of great features in the online access. Sweet.

 

[AznRyda]

Last bump before it's demise. I hope this thread has helped you guys along the way.

 

[dealonfire]

TheCleaner,

There is a airline mile credit card for just about every airline mileage program. All of them charges annual fee which ranges between $40 to $85. You earn 1 mile per dollar spent. You will need 25000 miles to exchange for a roundtrip ticket within US/Canada(except hawaii).

Unless you have other ways of earning frequent flyer miles, or you are a frequent flyer yourself, it doesn't really make sense to apply for one of these airline mile credit card given the annual fee.

I would go for the cash rebate card since it reward you with cash not miles or points. $25000 spent can earn you $380 cash with the Juniper cash rebate mastercard. That's better than a roundtrip airline ticket, especially if I don't need it.

 

[erub]

dealonfire:
I respectfully disagree. My parents have two different airline credit cards. My Dad has a First USA Rapid Reward (Southwest Airlines) card. He gets a free segment (I think that's what they call em) every $1000, so if you were only using that card for miles, it would get a free ticket after $16000. He flies about once every month or so (not exactly a frequent flier) and we rack up a free roundtrip ticket once or twice a year. My mother uses a Citibank AAdvantage Card (American Airlines) - it gives you a free coach roundtrip every $25K. But after 9/11 they lowered the needed miles to 17K or so...I'm not sure if they've since raised it or not. Both these cards have around a $60 annual fee.

 

[kmschwem]

If you've got a gas guzzling vehicle like I do you would do well with one of the gas station cards offered through a bank called "The Associates". The ones I know of are Phillips 66 and Conoco. I currently have the Phillips 66 card, you get a 2% back on gas purchases at Phillips 66, 1% on other purchases. I'm going to get a Conoco card too which gives 3% back on purchases at Conoco and 1% back elsewhere. Truck is happy!

http://www.theassociates.com/pf/credit/portal/acq_index.htm

 

[roamerr]

On the question earlier about using credit cards introductory rates as loans -- DO IT!!!

I have done it for years -- my max I have had outstanding was $14,500 -- I purchased a 2000 Nissan Frontier. I transferred it from one card to another for 1.5 years(actually paid off approx $5K during that time). I then traded for a 2001 Ford Escape. I have approx $9000 on credit cards at 0% interest at the present.

To do it just watch for credit cards with 0% interest and no balance transfer fee and 6+ months for the offer. When the time comes up transfer to another. Some will have 0% but a transfer fee of 3% UP TO $40 or so -- use those if you have no other available -- the $40 (most I've paid is $29) is cheap since interest for 6 months + is $0.

Do this a couple of times and your mailbox will fill up with offers! Only hassle is tracking the time period since I will need to get another card at some point (my next is Sept 2002!!!).

Only caution I have is your Beacon score (what lenders rank you by) will fall since it looks at # of loans or credit cards over a period of time. This effected me when I bought the Escape since my score was 693 and I needed 700 to get 6% interest on the $12000 I financed. No big deal since my credit union ended up giving me 5% 3 days later.

 

[dealonfire]

erub,

I know about those two cards. It's correct the Southwest rapid reward card will give you one roundtrip airline ticket for 16 credits, thats $16000 spent at 1 credit per $1000. However, any credit you earn will expire within one year. also since southwest's routes are more limited, the southwest roundtrip award ticket is only worth like $200-$250 now on ebay.

With the American Airline citibank card, you earn one roundtrip ticket with 25000 miles, that's $25000 spent. That ticket is worth around $300-$350 on ebay after 9/11.

If you need these tickets for yourself, then it might make sense for you to apply their credit cards.
If one can spend $25000 within a year, I think most people will take the $380 cash with the .Juniper cash rebate card

 

[JJordan]

FarmBureau Bank's Visa has TRUE 2 % rebate similar to Juniper if you just wait until you have spent $35,000 (points build up, but do not expire annually so you have lotsa time to get the $35,000 spent Trade in 35000 points for $750 credit to your card. NOT CAPPED AT $500 -- You can earn up to 60,000 points and they carry over to the next year. At lesser levels, the payout is less than 2 %, but unlike Disacover, et. al., you can get the full 2 % if you wait.

 

[YaKuZa]

Is the Blue Card the way to go? Seems to be very popular.

 

[Thyme]

JJordan, do you have a link? That sounds like the best cash-back card mentioned here.

 

[fishie74]

Nobody has mentioned the PayPal Mastercard Debit card. OK, OK, I know it not a 'credit' card, but it does give you 1.5% back on all purchases, which gets put back into your PayPal account as soon as the purchase you made is approved. You do have to be a verified premier (is that right?) member of PayPal to get the card in the first place though...which means paying more fees to PayPal! You win some, you lose some.

The Fish.

 

[jbloggs]

May be this offer may push you over the edge if you're still deciding on the AmEx Blue.

$10 Amazon GC when you become an AMEX Blue card member

 

[dealonfire]

AMEX Blue is a must have card. If you have never applied for one, you should. If you have applied once and was declined, try again. forget about the reward program they have, just the best value guarantee program is a good reason to get that card.

 

[Ranger X]

For cash back rewards, the best would have to be Juniper Platinum Mastercard.

.25% on the first $1,000.00 of purchases; .50% on the next $1,000.00 of purchases; 1% on the next $8,000.00 of purchases; and 2% on purchases which exceed $10,000.00

 

[nddidi]

Discover Platinum card holders,

I just got a noticed in the mail telling me that they're increasing ARP % rate to 18.99% for purchases from 14.99%
and 20.99% for CASH advance from 19.99%.
And this will go into effect in Feb/March billing cycle. I was wondering if anyone else got this notice.

I thought they only increase these % rates if I defaulted on one or two billing cycle. And the thing is I never was behind on payments. Always paid on time.

I will call them to ask to see what's going on.