Pragmatic Finance

After preparing for my app o rama for over a month I finally got down to business. My goal was to get sign up bonuses and as much 0% balance transfer money as possible.

Whew. A few notes…the advanta is a business card that has 5% cash back on gas, office supplies, utilities, computer equipment, cell phones, and internet services with the usual 1% back on all else. Sounds awesome. The only catch is that the cash back is capped at $25 max per month and $300 per year.

I went for the USAA American Express because I have heard USAA is generous with limits and it has a 1% foreign transaction fee. This gives me a card to use on trips overseas. It will also help me to keep my utilization lower since it’s going to be pretty stressed due to the balance transfers.

The Washington Mutual’s bt offer is only 6 months but the real reason I am getting it is for the free FICO score. I am sure that will eventually come in handy.

The American Express Gold Business has a lot of potential bonus points if you spend a lot on it. I doubt I will get to those levels but the immediate bonuses from amex and cardoffers make it well worth it.

Adding up the totals…if I am approved for all cards I will get…$710 in cash from signup bonuses, 12k discover miles, and 15k skymiles. I am hoping, with my current citi offers, to acquire 50k in balance transfer cash at about 35 to 45% utilization.

I decided it was time to do an app o rama to make some more free money. Never heard of it? I discussed what an app o rama is not too long ago. It’s simply a process of opening up a bunch of new credit cards when your credit score is high in order to get sign up bonuses and 0% balance transfer offers. Read the rest of this entry »

Citibank is still offering it’s Professional Card that includes a sign up bonus of 10k thank you points. This is the equivalent of $100 if you trade those points in for a gift card or student loan rebate. The card also gives back 3 thank you points (~3%) for auto rentals, restaurants, gas stations, and certain office supply stores. I am pretty sure I have gotten the extra thank you points from Office Depot so I know that one counts. It also gives 1 thank you point for all other purchases.

You simply need to make a purchase after receiving the card to get the bonus. Like most Citibank cards, there is a 0% interest balance transfer option available too. It lasts for 12 months from when you make the first transfer.

You don’t have to have a business or be a professional to apply. It has some business card features but it goes on your personal credit file and is listed in Citibank’s personal credit card section. It almost seems as if it is some hybrid of the two.

I love making money off credit card companies. I have been getting into a habit of opening up credit cards for sign up bonuses and 0% balance transfer offers haphazardly but there is one method to maximize your results. I have heard it referred to as an App-o-Rama or an application spree but the strategy is the same. Wait until you can maximize your credit score and then apply for all the cards you plan to….at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

Bank of American has a new promotion for their extra bases credit card. You can get a free iPod and an offical Major League Baseball Jersey. If you read the fine print it appears you have to make purchases or cash advances of $75 to get the jersey. Then you can make purchases or balance transfers of $2000 to get the iPod Nano. The balance transfer offer is 12 months at 0% interest but it has a 3% fee with no cap.

It seems the best way if I decide to apply for this is to get the card and make a purchase for $75. Pay that off and then do a balance transfer. If you did the minimum of $2000 that would be $60. So you would be getting a jersey, iPod, and 12 months of 0% interest balance transfer for $60.

MBNA cards have one of the most unique features available: the ability to pay off a credit card using another credit card. I’m sure many of you have paid bills using bill pay from your bank or used a credit card site to pull funds from your bank but this feature is a little different.

If you have an MBNA card you have the option to pay the bill online. If the card is considered one of their own cards and not one of the cobranded ones then you also have the ability to pay other bills with it.  The kicker here is that you can select other credit cards as bills.  Interestingly, their system considers the Fidelity cards to not be cobranded. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that Citibank took the links to apply for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card off their site. If you follow an old link and try to apply you get a message that they are making changes to the card. Unfortunately “improvements” is probably not the right term. Several months ago I discussed about Chase no longer accepting new applications for their gas/grocery/pharmacy 5% back cards and the possibility of the end of 5% rewards cards. I was hoping Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned before, I get 5% back with the Citi Platinum Select mtvU Visa when I go to restaurants, bookstores, or movie theaters and with the Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard when I go to gas stations, drugstores, and grocery stores. But what about other purchases? For most of these I then use the MBNA/Fidelity Investments 529 College Rewards Card.

This card pays 2% cash back in the form of a deposit into a Fidelity 529 account. The deposits are made every 3 months (March 30, June 30, Sep 30, and Dec 30). You can receive rewards up to $1,500 annually so this can cover up to 75k of spending per year that you don’t have other special cards for.

So what about this 529 plan?
This could be a great excuse to open up a 529 plan for your children or you could even get the distributions out yourself and have a great cashback card. You will want to open up a 529 plan with Fidelity before you begin so that you can input that account number on the application form. There are four options but they seem to be pretty much the same. I went with the Unique National Plan by New Hampshire.

You can choose between two different investment options on how to invest the money. There are age based plans that get more conservative as the target date approaches. There are also custom plans that set a certain asset allocation between stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You can choose anything between 100% stocks to 100% bonds and money market funds. I went with one of the age options. I decided to choose a fairly conservative date of 2012 so that it would be fairly constant. You can also change the plan if you wish. If you want to keep the money in the account long term you should probably invest more into equities. If you want to withdraw the money immediately and simply have an awesome cash back card you can invest mostly in fixed income funds.

The next decision to make is who to put as the beneficiary. You could select your children and start a college fund for them. Another option is to make yourself the beneficiary. The latter really works well for me as a college student with no children. I can withdraw the money anytime and face no penalties or taxes, even on the growth. Even if you aren’t in college you can still withdraw the money that you (or MBNA’s rewards) deposited without any penalty. If the beneficiary doesn’t have any college expenses then they must pay income tax and a 10% penalty on the growth of the fund but no one pays anything on taking the principal out.

The only drawback is that you must set up a monthly deposit of $50 or pay an annual fee. But since you can take that money out that shouldn’t be a problem. Just don’t withdraw all of the money in the account or they will close it. There is a 0.30% annual maintenance fee for administering the account but in the grand scheme of things that is fairly insignificant.

That sounds like too much work…
After you get everything set up there is no work at all other than getting your money out when you want it. If you don’t want to bother with a 529 plan, though, then there is also a MBNA/Fidelity Investment Rewards card that gives 1.5% back straight into a brokerage account. There are no minimums or fees with their brokerage accounts so it’s no problem if you just wanted to use it to get cash back. If you go with that card instead, you might want to check out the $100 Fidelity new account bonus being offered.

Overall, though, I am very happy with the 529 card. The extra cash back is definitely worth it. I can change the asset allocation and beneficiary if I later decide to use it for college savings for my children one day.

You can get 10,000 Thank you points when you apply for the AT&T Universal Rewards Card and make a purchase within 3 months. You can use the points for various items but the most cash equivalent is a $100 gift card available for various merchants or a similar check towards student loans.

It appears to also give 5% back on AT&T products purchased directly from them but this is probably not that useful to most people. As mentioned when discussing the Citibank Dividend Platinum Select, this card also gives 5% back at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies for 12 months. There is a 0% balance transfer offer for those that like to play that game. And of course, no annual fee.

If you decide to take advantage of its balance transfer offer, be aware that you will want to make a purchase with the card first. Then pay it off before requesting th BT so you can get the $100 bonus and pay no interest. As with many other Citibank cards, you have 12 months to make the balance transfer and then you have 0% interest from the time you initiate it. There is also no fee to transfer balances.

You also may be able to combine it with the $40 bonus from cardoffers.com by clicking through that site first.

Not too long ago I read a post at Tired but Happy that detailed her Credit Card Limits and asked for others to respond with theirs. I have been meaning to make a post like this for awhile so I definetely will. I will try to put them in the order I received them…

A local credit union Visa: $3,500
This was my first card. I got it over 4 years ago. I was totally oblivious to what credit was and how it worked. In retrospect, though, getting one from a credit union as a starter card wasn’t a bad idea. To give you an idea about how unaware I was, the lady asked me if I was just getting the card to establish credit. I said naw, I just want one in case of an emergency. Ahh, the bliss of ignorance

Capital One No Hassel Visa: $600
Yes, that is 600, not 6k. I got this card as I thought It might be a good idea to have more than one as my limit on the other card was still fairly low. I didn’t know anything about cards so it was simply a response to a mailed offer. I was very dissapointed in the original $300 limit. After two years they increased it to double when they upgraded it on their own to the no hassel version but its still a joke. Its my second oldest card so I have kept it because of its affect on my Fico score, even with my dislike of Capital One. They haven’t allowed me to increase my limit on the phone.

the next few cards are almost a year old.

Discover Student Card: $1,000
I got this a little over a year ago. I received a mailed invitation for a student card and decided that it might be a good idea to get a card with the 4 major issuers. No other logical reason than that. They haven’t increased my limit yet on this one. I am going to call sometime soon and see about getting it rasied to take advantage of the current get more promotion.

American Express Blue Cash: $6,700
Like the discover, this card was a response to a mailed invitation and an attempt to get one from each of the four major card companies. I also really liked the way the blue cash card looked, lol. It started at $2,000 limit and I have increased it through the automated online option they have.

Citibank Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard: $7,200
Ahh, this first card I received as I began to learn about credit and finances. I got this card to save 5% back at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies. I started out at $3,200 and it has been increased through the online button.

Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa: $9,000
After I actived the Citi card above, I learned about the 0% Balance Transfer Game. So I needed another card to get gas and groceries with. This was the other similar offer and I am very glad that I got it. They have been very good at classifying every purchase I have had at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies as everyday purchases for the 5% back. I originally started with $5,000. I used this card as my main card for all purchases for awhile. I applied for a credit increase to its current value online and they happily obliged. It cost me a hard inquiry though.

Chase Amazon Visa: $5,000
I was using Amazon.com alot for purchasing books for classes and I decided to get a card after I saw that they offered a $30 bonus and 3 reward points for dollar spent at Amazon.com. I originally had a $2,500 limit but got it increased to 5k at the same time I asked for an increase to the Chase Cash Plus Rewards Card.

MBNA/Charles Schwab Visa: $500
The sole reason I opened this card for a $100 bonus. I originally was given a limit of $2,500. I reallocated some of that limit to my Fidelity Investment Rewards card after I obtained it. I kept it open as I think closing it might decrease my average age. But now that I think about it, the change would be very insignificant, especially with all the new cards I received so I probably will close it eventually.

the next few cards were obtained earlier this year

Citibank Professional MasterCard: $6,000
I applied for this card for the 10k thank you points (~$100). It also has a 0% balance transfer option that I will take advantage of in a couple of months. The 3 points back on restaurants and certain office supply stores is nice but I haven’t used it all that much.

Citibank Simplicity MasterCard: $4,500
Like above, I applied for the 10k thank you points. I haven’t used it much and I probably won’t accept for another 0% bt.

MBNA/Fidelity Investment Rewards: $4,000
I was originally given a 2k limit but I transfer some of the limit from the Charles Schwab. This card gives 1.5% back on all purchases in the form of a deposit to your Fidelity brokerage account. I had just taken advantage of the $100 bonus offer from Fidelity so this was a perfect card to use for all purchases I didn’t have a specific card for. However, not too long after I got the card I discovered another one that I like even better…

MBNA/Fidelity 529 College Rewards MasterCard: $3,200
Well, I had heard about the 529 card before I applied for the Investment rewards one. However, I didn’t realize that I could make myself the beneficiary and take out the money tax free while I was in college. Also, I didn’t realize that there was no fee if you had automatic monthly deposits into your plan. So I got this card a few weeks after the above. Its now my main card for purchases that I don’t have a specific card for. I might transfer the limit from the other Fidelity card to this one in the future.

Citibank mtvU Visa: $4,000:
This is my newest card and I am loving it. It gets the equivalent of 5% back at restaurants, movie theaters, and bookstores. I am also able to get the cashback for fastfood and even at some bars. It has 0% apr for 6 months on purchases and balance transfers and I am taking advantage of both. I bet this limit will be increased alot as I am using it quite frequently.

Whew, that was alot. Over 55k in credit. Not too bad considering just over a year ago I had less than 3k. I will probably consolidate the citi professional and simplicity when I use up their bt offers as well as close and consolidate the fidelity cards into the 529 card. After I redeem my rewards on the amazon card from chase I will close that one too as the mtvu is much superior. Later this year I am going to apply for some more cards to finish off the top bonuses, get some more 0% offers, and increase my credit limit, hopefuly over 100k, by the end of the year.

The Citi mtvU Card is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards. It is a student card that gives you 5% back at restaurants, bookstores, movie theaters, record stores, and video rental stores in the form of 5 thank you points and 1% back on other purchases. Even better, any purchase at a merchant who classifies themselves under one of those categories will net you 5 points, even if it really isn’t say a restaurant or bookstore. For example, you can receive 5% back at Amazon.com, fast food places, and even some bars. It also gives 10% back on purchases from the mtv shop but I doubt I’ll be using that.

This card is supposed to be for students only but they did not make me verify that I attended the college I go to. I am guessing that if you are young, have student loans, and nothing raises a red flag on your credit report you will get approved without needing any verification. I have read that you can be denied for having over 10k in revolving, ie credit card debt so might want to avoid the 0% Balance Transfer game when you want to apply for it.

Speaking of which, it has 0% apr on purchases AND balance transfers for 6 months. I took out a bt for about 90% of the credit limit and left the rest for purchases. Has worked out great. And of course there is no annual fee. If you apply, do so through CardOffers to get a $40 bonus from them.

There are also some other ways to get points. You get 25 bonus points per month as long as you pay your bill ontime and don’t go over your credit limit. If you want to deal with the hassel of sending in your grades you can receive points for that as well. The scale is:

You can download the mtvU grade submission form and send it with a copy of your grades. I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t tell you how easy it is or if you have to send an official transcript. So far I have had the card for one statement and gotten 5% back all my dining, including fast food and one bar. I even got 50 points instead of 25 under the description of “Good customer bonus.” I don’t know if thats a mistake but I am not going to complain. Combining this with the Citi Dividend Platinum Select and Discover Card get more program you can get 5% back on a very wide selection of purchases.

Discover Card has a rewards program named the Get More Program which gives 5% cash back on purchases made at specific merchants or for specific categories. Normally the promotion covers items that are hot or purchased heavily that season. Adding this to other rewards cards, such as Citi Dividend, allows you to increase the number of purchases you get 5% back on. The Get More Program is only offered for the Platinum and student cards, not the Miles or Gas card. This makes sense because the former two have otherwise basic rewards programs.

I got a student card about a year ago. The rewards program on normal purchases for this and the platinum card is very mediocre, giving low rewards which only reach 1% after 3k in purchases. However, the Get More Program makes this card fairly useful. It might not be worth the trouble to get this for just this use. However, if you already have one of these cards you should definately sign up it. Its easy to register, just log onto your account and click a few buttons. They send you an email to confirm that your registered. Cash back can be redeemed in $20 increments as a credit to your card, a check, or even a deposit into your bank account. You can also get even more back if you redeem as gift cards, increasing your rewards anywhere from 20% to 100%, depending on the gift card merchant.

Overall, this is a pretty slick marketing gimmick for Discover. I pretty much keep a card in my wallet all year round that I normally wouldn’t carry with me. Most people tend to stick to one or two cards that they use all the time. If they get people using the card often based on what’s hot for that season many will continue to use it for other purchases as well.

The current Get More promotion started in July and lasts until the end of September (07/01/06-09/30/06) and covers:

Tuition: from preschool to college

Apparel:

• Gap
• Kohl’s
• Marschalls
• TJ Max
• Famous Footwear

Office/Home:

• Dell
• Office Depot
• OfficeMax
• Staples
• Linens ‘n Things
• Pier 1 Imports

Here’s the details and disclore if you wanna read the details.

Sign up to earn 5% Cashback Bonus on tuition and payments (at daycare centers, pre-schools, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and correspondence, business, secretarial, vocational or trade schools) and at Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Kohl’s, Pier 1 Imports, Linens N Things, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Famous Footwear, Gap, and Dell from 7/1/06 (or the date on which you sign up, whichever is later) through 9/30/06, subject to a cap of $2,000 in purchases. Offer applies to purchases that are submitted to us under Merchant Category Codes 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 8351 and/or are made at specified merchant locations. Tuition purchases do not include purchases made at park districts, bookstores, education supply stores, camps, music, art and dance schools. Allow up to 5 weeks for this reward to be added to your Cashback Bonus Account. You will continue to earn a Cashback Bonus of up to 1% on all other purchases. Discover Platinum Gas, Home Improvement, Restaurant and Education Card members are not eligible to participate in this promotion. See Cashback bonus Terms and Conditions for furthur details.