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Citi Dividend: Is the End of 5% Near?

August 20, 2006 ccwatcher Cash Back Cards, Citibank

Editor’s Note: The following info is oudated. For the latest details on the Citi Dividend Card, see this link.

Various message boards have been abuzz recently with rumors that the Citi Dividend card will soon no longer offer 5% cash back on supermarket, drugstore and gas station purchases. One such thread is on FW here.

Based upon several conversations with Citi CSRs, the general consensus is that changes are coming. And according to one poster who says that they have already received the new terms, they are:

2% for supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores, convenience stores and utilities including cable.
1% on all other purchases.
Maximum of 300 Dividend Dollars in a calendar year.
Utilities include electric, gas power, water supply and refuse services, but not telephone service. Cable includes satellite and other pay television and radio service.

The new terms should be mailed out to customers over the next month or so. If these new terms are indeed rolled out, it obviously represents a huge downgrade in benefits to existing cardholders. Then again, these type of changes should not be that unexpected, considering Citi was likely losing quite a bit of money on customers who only used the card for gas, grocery and drugstore purchases. It also follows Chase’s decision back in April to discontinue its own 5% cash back program.

The obvious question is what to do now. Already folks at FW have suggested the HSBC Direct Rewards Platinum Mastercard as an alternative. It offers:

5% CashBack at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations. For other stores, 0.5% on up to $3K purchases, 1% for more. CashBack capped at $500 for any yearly anniversary period of the account. CashBack is paid annually, anything less than $10 is forfeited.

There are a few other potential downsides, including a reputation for low credit limits. Perhaps more importantly, one would almost expect that should HSBC receive a huge influx of new applications in the short-term, that these terms would be short-lived as well.

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Jo-Ann Credit Card: For the Crafty Consumer

August 9, 2006 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers, Barclays, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses

Arts and crafts lovers can rejoice. According to CardTrak, Barclays Bank and Jo-Ann Stores have teamed up to launch the new “Jo-Ann Platinum MasterCard” that links to Jo-Ann’s Preferred Customer program. Per the press release:

Customers earn five points for every $1 spent at Jo-Ann stores or Joann.com and one point per $1 spent on all other purchases with the Jo-Ann Platinum MasterCard. Once a customer earns 1,000 points, she will receive a $10 creative cash(TM) card. For every 500 points earned above 1,000 points, customers will receive an additional $5 in creative cash(TM). After the customer’s first purchase or balance transfer, she will receive a $10 creative cash(TM) card to begin saving on purchases. Customers will also be enrolled in Jo-Ann’s Preferred Customer program to receive valuable coupons and sale notifications. There is an introductory APR on balance transfers of 0% for the first six billing cycles.

So, what this basically boils down to is a 5% reward when you spend at Jo-Ann that can be used for Jo-Ann certificates. Unfortunately, this offer is so new, it’s not even available on the company website, http://www.joann.com, as of the time of this post.

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Double Rewards on Chase PerfectCard Purchases in August and September

August 8, 2006 ccwatcher Cash Back Cards, Chase

According to this post from CardRatings, you may be eligible for 2% cash back on non-gas purchases in August and September:

Received a card from Chase that they are paying 2% cash back on non-gasoline purchases on their PerfectCard (formerly known as Freedom Card) for the months of August and September. Gasoline purchases still pay 3% cash back, $15 max per month. Non-gasoline purchases are exempt from the $15 limit.

It’s unclear whether this is a targetted offer, so YMMV.

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Chase World MasterCard: 0% APR Until March 2008

August 5, 2006 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers, Chase, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses

Unfortunately this appears to be a targetted offer, but many people at FW are reporting receiving the following offer in the mail for the Chase World MasterCard:

0% Fixed APR until March 1, 2008 on both purchases and balance transfers
No annual fee
No balance transfer required
No balance transfer fees associated with the offer
After March 1, 2008, the APR becomes 8.99% fixed

The card itself earns points redeemable for cash, travel or gift certificates.

Looking for a World MasterCard? Try these options:

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Amex To Revamp Membership Rewards Program

August 1, 2006 ccwatcher American Express, Reward Cards

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), American Express is rolling out significant changes to its Membership Rewards program. Among the changes announced are:

Elimination of double points for spending on “everyday purchases” at gas stations, grocery stores and drugstores for the Green, Gold and Platinum charge cards
A new double points program to encourage online spending at certain merchants
Limiting the Membership Rewards Options program to holders of its credit cards. Cardholders on the Options program will be switched to the basic Membership Rewards program, which may raise their annual fee.

The report indicates that American Express will start notifying customers of these changes, as well as others, in their August bills.

On the whole this is clearly a disappointing development, as there is almost no good news in the announced changes.

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Use Your PenFed Credit Card And Win Up to $500 Weekly

July 26, 2006 ccwatcher Cash Back Cards, Sweepstakes

Every week between now and September 8, 2006, when you use your Pentagon Federal Union credit card, you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing to win a day’s worth of purchases free, up to $500:

The winning transaction day’s worth of charges will be credited to each weekly winner’s credit card account, minimum of $50 and maximum of $500.

More details of this “Summer Sweepstakes” promotion are available at https://www.penfed.org/promo/200606cccontest/overview.asp.

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Chase Flexible Rewards Visa Platinum – 6 points/$ on Everyday Purchases for 12 Months, $50 Signup Bonus

July 24, 2006 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers, Chase, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses

Ripped from FW:

Earn 6 flexible rewards points for every dollar in everyday purchases (gas, grocery and drugstore purchases) for 12 months, 1 flexible reward point for everything else
$50 bonus upon signup — technically, they give you 6,000 bonus points which can be redeemed for $50 cash back check or gift certificate
0% APR for 12 months
No annual fee
Call 1-888-735-4870 and specify offer code LB0

According to the ad scan, the offer ends August 31, 2006.

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Goldpoints Plus: 20,000 Bonus Signup Points Before July 31

July 20, 2006 ccwatcher Bank of America, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses, Travel Cards

According to CardTrak, Carlson Hotels Worldwide and Bank of America have just launched a new affinity card, allowing cardholders to earn 2,000 bonus points for each stay at a Carlson hotel. The standard rate of earning is 3 points per dollar spent. These points can be redeemed for free hotel nights, which start at 15,000 points per night, or airline miles, merchandise and gift cards.

If you make your first purchase before July 31, 2006, you’ll earn a bonus of 20,000 points. If you wait until August 1, 2006 or later to make your first purchase, your bonus is 10,000 points. For further details, see http://www.goldpointsplus.com/.

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Earn an Extra 5000 Thank You Points With Citi Business Signup

July 19, 2006 ccwatcher Business Cards, Citibank, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses

I personally find this offer very interesting. Well, not so much the offer itself, but the manner in which to get it. This thread at FW points out that for the Citi Business card, you can get an extra 5000 bonus Thank You points (for a total of 15000) when you signup if you pretend you don’t really want the card at first. As the poster states:

went to apply for citi business (the one with 10000 bonus) hit back button on my browser, and got a popup offering another 5000 if i don’t back out and go apply, as in 15000 total bonus points to sign up just because i almost didn’t

More accurately, if you apply on Citi’s web site itself (http://www.citicards.com), click on the Small Business Credit Cards link, then click the “Apply Now” button for the CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, it will create another window with the application. If you then close that window, another popup will appear, offering you another 5000 points for completing the application. Such is the world of marketing that we live in today.

On a side note, when I first tried to test this, I was using Firefox with my pop up blocker automatically turned on, so the popup didn’t show. You’ll need to disable any popup blockers you have in order to see this offer.

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Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards MC: 2% Thank You Rewards for 1 year, $100 Gift Card, 0% BT Until August 2007

July 17, 2006 ccwatcher Balance Transfer Offers, Citibank, Reward Cards, Signup Bonuses

Courtesy of FW, here’s another Citi signup offer with a bonus:

2 Thank You points per dollar on everything for 12 months.
0% APR on balance transfers until 8/1/07 with no balance transfer fees
10,000 Thank you bonus points after first purchase — redeemable for a $100 gift card

The promo code is F1G7. You can apply online at http://apply.citicards.com using this promo code or by calling 1-800-491-0848.

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