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Barclays Introduces New Miles and More MasterCard with Up to 35,000 Bonus Miles

October 22, 2007 ccwatcher Barclays, Signup Bonuses, Travel Cards

Miles and More, the frequent flyer program of 12 European airlines, including Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and others, has partnered with Barclays to launch a new credit card for US consumers. The new card comes in a couple of different versions: The Premier Miles & More World MasterCard and the Miles & More World MasterCard. Each card has a number of attractive features, including the following:

	Premier Miles & More World MasterCard	Miles & More World MasterCard
Welcome Bonus	20,000 miles after first purchase	15,000 miles after first purchase
Balance Transfer Bonus	1 mile for each $1 of BT during the first 60 days up to 15,000 miles	1 mile for each $1 of BT during the first 60 days up to 10,000 miles
Partner Bonus	2 miles on ticket purchases with Miles & More integrated airline partners**	N/A
Annual Fee	$79**	$59**

In addition, both cards have the following benefits:

Earn 1 mile per dollar on all purchases**
Annual Companion Ticket**
No mileage expiration**
Annual fee waived for Senator and HON Circle Members**
Reduced rate foreign-exchange fee (1%)

Both cards also come with an intro balance transfer rate of 0% for 6 months. The associated BT fee is 3% with a min of $5 and a max of $50. This means that those with elite status can potentially earn 35,000 bonus miles with a 0% balance transfer of $15,000, without paying an annual fee.

For more information, see www.barclaycardus.com/milesandmore/.

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NASA Federal Visa Platinum with cashRewards: Up to 2% Cash Back

October 21, 2007 ccwatcher Cash Back Cards

NASA Federal Credit Union has a credit card offering a tiered cash-back plan:

Earn 1% of each dollar of new net purchases from $0 to $1,000; earn 1.25% of each dollar of new net purchases from $1,001 to $2,000; earn 2% of each dollar of new net purchases from $2,001 and above. There is no limit to how much cash back you can earn. The rebate credit amount will appear on your monthly statement and will be applied to your account annually in your November Statement.

You must be a member of the credit union to apply for the card, but membership is relatively easy to come by. You are automatically eligible for membership as a NASA employee or an employee of one of many selected businesses. Otherwise, you can be approved by joining the National Space Society for $18.

Link (via FW)

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Double Membership Rewards Points between October and December 2007

October 19, 2007 ccwatcher American Express, Reward Cards

Solicited Amex Green/Gold cardmembers can earn double Membership Rewards points between October 15 and December 15, 2007. Enroll by December 15 online at either:

Alternatively, targeted Rewards Green Card or Preferred Rewards Green Card cardholders can call 1-800-794-1308 and enter the code 106150001. Solicited Rewards Gold Card, Preferred Rewards Gold Card, or Rewards Plus Gold Card holders can call 1-800-794-1308 and enter 106150002 as the code.

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DiscoverBiz Card: 0% on Balance Transfers for 18 Months

October 14, 2007 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers, Discover

While the standard Discover Biz offer is 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, this promo offers 0% on balance transfers for 18 months and 5.99% on purchases for 10 months. The balance transfer fee is 3% and caps at a maximum of $75.

Other terms of the offer appear standard, including no annual fee, 5% on office supplies, 2% on gas and PurchaseChecks.

Link (via FW)

Note: This offer expired December 31, 2007.

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Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard®: 25,000 Bonus AAdvantage® Miles

October 7, 2007 ccwatcher Citibank, Signup Bonuses, Travel Cards

Citi now has an offer for 25,000 bonus AAdvantage® Miles when you sign up for a new AAdvantage® credit card and spend $750 within 4 months. The annual fee is also waived for the first year as part of this deal.

The offer can be found here and is valid until May 31, 2008, per FW.

Note that if you plan to spend at least $10,000 in a year on the card that there is another viable option available, with up to 40,000 bonus miles: 20,000 after spending $750 within four months, another 10,000 miles after spending at least $10,000 in the first year, and a final 10,000 bonus miles for spending at least $10,000 in your second year. That offer is available here and is available until November 30, 2007.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend $750 on the card, you can take advantage of this offer which will give you 15,000 bonus miles after your first purchase of any amount.

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Credit Agencies to Offer File Freeze Universally

October 6, 2007 ccwatcher Credit Report

Freezing your credit report should soon become an option for security-minded consumers in all 50 states. A couple of weeks ago, TransUnion reported that it would allow consumers to freeze and thaw their credit files as a means to prevent identity theft. Yesterday, Experian followed suit by announcing they would also offer such a service. The third major credit bureau, Equifax, claims that it will be offering the same service soon, as well.

A credit freeze blocks access to a consumer’s credit report and score, making it significantly more difficult to obtain new credit. Currently, consumers in 15 states don’t have this ability. (For credit freeze rights in your state, see this page.) Freezing your credit won’t help, however, if an identity thief already has access to your credit accounts.

If you are a victim of identity theft, the credit bureaus will allow you to freeze your file for free. Otherwise, they will charge either $10 to add, lift or remove a credit freeze, unless a lower fee is mandated by state law. This means it will probably cost you $30 to place freezes across all three bureaus.

TransUnion’s service is planned to go into effect on October 15, while Experian’s will go live November 1. No date has been set for Equifax as yet.

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Save $500 on Sony HDTVs with Sony Visa Signup

October 1, 2007 ccwatcher Cash Back Cards, Citibank

Sony now has a promotion where you’ll earn 50,000 Sony Rewards points ($500 credit) when you apply for a Sony Visa. The Sony Rewards points must be used to purchase a select Sony HDTV from Sony Rewards. The selected models primarily are 40″-52″ BRAVIA models and 60″-70″ SXRD Real Projection TVs, the full list of which can be found at the link below.

Note that this promotion is available for new Sony Card account holders only; existing Sony Card holders are not eligible.

Link (via FW).

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Citi Launches Expedia Branded Credit Card

September 28, 2007 ccwatcher Citibank, Travel Cards

Citi has expanded its relationship with Expedia.com by introducing a new credit card. The Citi PremierPass® / Expedia.com® World MasterCard® comes in two versions: the no-fee card and the Elite card.

The benefits of the no-fee card include:

0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 6 months (3% BT fee with $5 min and no cap)
Earn up to 3x ThankYou Points when you book on Expedia
$50 off first Expedia purchase
1 point for every 3 miles flown
1 point per $1 spent on other purchases

The features of the Elite card include:

0% APR on purchases for 6 months
Earn up to 3x ThankYou Points when you book on Expedia
$100 off first Expedia purchase
1 point for every 1 mile flown
2 points per $1 spent at supermarkets, drug stores and gas stations
1 point per $1 spent on other purchases
Complimentary companion tickets
$75 annual fee

These cards represent slight variations from the existing Citi PremierPass cards. The primary differences seem to be:

The initial signup bonuses come in the form of Expedia discounts ($50/$100) versus points (10,000/20,000)
The spending requirements to get the signup bonuses (only a single purchase for the Expedia-branded cards vs. $100/$500 in spending for the regular PremierPass cards)
The bonuses for Expedia-related spending
The intro 0% offers: Currently the standard no-fee PremierPass card offers a 15 month 0% balance transfer offer (3% fee with $5 min and no cap) while the standard Premier Pass Elite card does not offer any intro rate for either purchases or BTs.

For more information on the Expedia cards, see here and here.

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Steve Case Tries to Start a Revolution

September 24, 2007 ccwatcher General

According to USA Today, Steve Case, former chairman of AOL, is backing a new type of credit card called the RevolutionCard. Designed to compete against the entrenched companies in payment systems, its features include:

a line of credit

the ability to store up to $15,000 on the card (loaded electronically from the user’s bank account)

free online payments

interest rates pegged to the card holder’s credit rating

beefed up identify-theft protection:

PIN-based, with no name or account number on the card

Allows creation of temporary one-use PINs

In addition to these unique features, RevolutionCard intends to carve its niche by offering low fees to both consumers and merchants. For instance, merchants will only be charged 0.5% of the sales price per transaction processed. Consumers will save money with free online payments (similar to Paypal), no annual fee and interest rates based upon the customer’s current credit score.

Of course, ramping up card acceptance to critical mass will be a significant challenge, but currently the card does claim acceptance by about 100,000 merchants including Barnes & Noble. Its goal is to reach 7 million merchants in 3 years.

To find more information, see www.revolutionmoney.com. To apply for a card, see www.revolutioncard.com.

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Report: Two-Thirds of Consumers Mishandle Intro Rate Balance Transfers

September 19, 2007 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers

Perhaps there’s a good reason why introductory balance transfer offers are so prevalent–and it’s not because credit card issuers are being charitable. Not only are they an easy way to attract new customers, but they also seem to be quite profitable for the issuers.

In a working paper from the MIT Department of Economics called “The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions Over the Lifecycle,” the researchers found that of the nearly 15,000 people surveyed, roughly two-thirds made new purchases after transferring a balance using the teaser rate.

Experienced credit card users know that this is one of the easiest credit card traps to fall into: any new purchases made on your card will accrue interest at the regular interest rate, but any payments that you make will first be made towards your balances held at the lowest interest rate. As a consequence, it’s a mistake to ever make new purchases with a higher APR while holding a low rate balance.

According to the study, however, more than one-third of customers continued to make new purchases every month, racking up interest at the higher rate. Another one-third made some purchases during the first six months, but must have noticed the higher interest charges and stopped.

As long as these trends continue, it seems there’s little chance that credit card companies will stop making these offers, which is good news for those who know how to play the game.

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