Author Archives: ccwatcher

Overview of MBNA Home Advantage AMEX, Bank of America Pet Rewards Visa

American Express, Bank of America, MBNA, Reward Cards

There’s a couple of new threads on FatWallet about these cards. The cards themselves aren’t new, but it’s worth pointing them out, as they potentially have their niche uses:

MBNA Home AdvantageSM American Express® Card:

  • No Annual Fee
  • Introductory 0% APR for Cash Advance Checks and Balance Transfers through your first twelve billing cycles.*
  • Earn one Point for every $1 in net retail purchases
  • Earn five Points for every $1 in net retail purchases at select home-product merchants, such as The Home Depot®, Linens ‘n Things, Pier 1®, and theKitchenStore.com®
  • Redeem Points for payments toward your mortgage- at a rate of 1% of every net retail purchase
  • Redeem Points for air travel, name-brand merchandise, gift certificates at popular retailers, and cash

Unfortunately, the five Points for every $1 is only offered for your first six months. As FW notes:

…Unlike the 5% gas station, supermarket, and Drugstore cards out there which are dependent on Visa, Mastercard, or AMEX coding this card actually determines the 5X points based on the merchants MBNA decides are eligable to participate. It could be a good card though for at least 6 months for those who make a lot of purchases from Home Depot. Since if you were to spend $10,000 on a home improvement project you would net 50,000 points which pretty much is a ticket to Europe or $500 CashBack or $500 towards your mortgage. Also the interest rate is reasonable at 7.9% Fixed.

Bank of America Pets Reward Visa:

  • Put your pet’s picture on your card or choose from one of three adorable designs
  • Low introductory annual percentage rate (APR) on all purchases and balance transfers for the first six billing cycles1
  • Earn 500 bonus PetRewards Points after your first purchase
  • No annual fee
  • Earn two PetRewards Points for each dollar you spend at participating veterinary clinics, pet retailers, farm and feed and neighborhood pet specialty stores.
  • Earn one point for each net retail dollar you spend on all other everyday purchases using your PetRewards Card.
  • Redeem PetRewards points for pet food discounts, veterinary care savings and animal shelter donations.

As pointed out by this thread at FW:

It is a 2% card or 4% depending on the purchases. You earn 1 point for regular purchases and 2 points at participating pet food stores, vetinary clinics, and certain other locations. The redemption schedule though is 1,000 points = $20 for vetinary care.

The bottom line? This only seems like a useful card if you either 1) really want a credit card with your dog’s picture on it, or 2) you spend a lot on your pet. Since many pet purchases can be made at supermarkets where you can earn 5% with many cards, it severely reduces the utility of the card.

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Chase Unveils New Points System For United Mileage Plus Visa

Chase, Travel Cards

Today, Chase announced a new kind of currency that its Mileage Plus Visa will earn called “Mileage Plus Choices.” These “Choices” will be redeemable for five new kinds of awards. From the Choices FAQ:

  • When you fly United, United Express, Ted or Star Alliance on a ticket purchased using your Chase Mileage Plus credit card on united.com, you earn:
    • Choices for the purchase
    • Mileage Plus Redeemable Miles and Elite Qualifying Miles/Elite Qualifying Segments when you complete the flight.
    • You earn a mileage bonus for booking on united.com.
  • You can redeem Choices for:
    • A statement credit against the purchase of any available seat on any available flight purchased on united.com, as well as any car rental purchased at www.united.com/cars or hotel purchased at www.united.com/hotels with your Mileage Plus credit card – No blackouts.
    • Economy Plus Access
    • Elite Qualifying Miles/Elite Qualifying Segments

Also, when purchasing free air tickets the amount of “Choices” needed is based on the price of the ticket rather than the traditional set redemption amounts. For example, if you buy a round trip ticket on united.com for $180, you can redeem 18,000 Choices to receive a $180 statement credit. This compares favorably with the 25,000 Miles that you would traditionally have to redeem for an award ticket. If the ticket cost exceeds $250, you could also use 25,000 Choices for a Saver award (assuming availability) but any Redeemable Miles you have in your Mileage Plus account will be used first before Choices are used. As an example, from the FAQ:

  1. Starting balance: Choices – 20,000 Redeemable Miles – 55,000
  2. Book a Saver Award for U.S. domestic travel: 25,000 Redeemable Miles
  3. Ending balance: Choices – 20,000 Redeemable Miles – 30,000
  4. Your Choices balance is not reduced, because Redeemable Miles are applied first and your Redeemable Miles balance still exceeds your Choices balance.
  5. Starting Balance: Choices – 20,000 Redeemable Miles – 30,000
  6. Book another Saver Award for U.S. domestic travel: 25,000
  7. End balance: Choices – 5,000 Redeemable Miles – 5,000
  8. Your Choices balance is reduced because your Redeemable Miles balance falls below your Choices balance, requiring that Choices be redeemed to complete the transaction.

In general, these changes look like a true enhancement to the redemption program, rather than an “enhancement” disguised as a devaluation, as is often the case. For more information on these changes, visit: http://www.united.com/chase.

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Visit Museums Free In May With a Bank of America Card

Bank of America, MBNA

Now there’s no excuse to visit the museum. According to CardTrak, in the month of May, people who show a Bank of America ATM, check or credit card or MBNA credit card can visit participating museums with a guest for free.

It’s called the “Museums On Us” program and although it’s restricted to 56 participating museums across the Northeast US, it seems like a great program for those who can take advantage. Full details can be found at http://www.bankofamericapromotions.com/museums/.

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American Express “Going Once”: Auctioning Unique Travel Packages

American Express

For this week only, American Express is offering 8 one-of-a-kind travel packages up for auction, exclusively to their Cardmembers. Every day, Cardmembers have the chance to bid on a different dream vacation package. In addition, there are a limited quantity of fixed-price “Buy Now” luxury packages, featuring unique accomodations and activities.

Full details of this promotion can be found at http://www.mylifemycard.com/goingonce.

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BP Visa: 5% on BP, Amoco Purchases, 2% on Travel and Dining Purchases

Chase, Reward Cards

Courtesy of CardRatings:

Effective May 1, the BP Visa is being revised to:

5% on BP, Amoco purchases (was 3%)

2% on travel-related expenses (hotels, airfare, car rentals) and dining out (new benefits)

1% on all else, except nothing on non-BP gas purchases.

AND …..

The rewards schedule is not not tied in with a BP gas purchase. It is based on a points total, and 2500 points gets you a $25 check or $25 gift card…

…New cardholders get double rebates for 60 or 90 days (I’m not sure which). Existing cardholders will be automatically switched to this new better program effective 5-1-06.

As a gas card, this offer is only mediocre since it requires that you fill up at BP, but the 2% on travel and dining is attractive.

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Citi Platinum Select: No fee, 0% on Balance Transfers Until August 2007

Balance Transfer Offers, Cash Back Cards, Citibank

FW points out a 15 month balance transfer deal, this time for the Citi Platinum card:

  • The standard card offer comes with 0% on balance transfers and purchases until May 1, 2007
  • Apply online at www.apply.citicards.com, using the offer code F1D5 to extend the 0% on balance transfers until August 1, 2007
  • Using this offer code also waives any fees on your initial balance transfer

One thing to note: If you test out the offer code, you’ll notice that, contrary to what the thread states, you will still only receive 0% on purchases until May 1. This is still a good deal, nonetheless.

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MasterCard Monthly Bonus Sweepstakes: Win $1,000/month for 10 Years

MasterCard, Sweepstakes

Every time between now and May 31, when you sign using your Debit MasterCard, you’ll be automatically entered in a sweepstakes to receive $1,000/month for the next ten years. If you use your Debit MasterCard PayPass, you’ll receive double entries for each eligible purchase. Note that PIN-based and international transactions are not eligible.

Full details are available at http://www.priceless.com/promo/sweepstakes.html.

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