Discover’s popular Holiday Mall promotion is back and is bigger than ever. For every $200 you spend on your Discover card at one of 160 participating shopping centers between November 1 and December 31, 2007, you’ll receive a $20 Discover gift card. There is a limit of five gift cards awarded per account.
For more details and to see a list of participating malls, see this link.
American Express has a new promotion, “On the Card,” where cardmembers can register to earn a $30 Amex-branded prepaid card. As part of registration, Amex cardholders must select two stores each in four categories, for a total of 8 stores, where they will make a purchase between now and December 9, 2007. Registration is limited to 12,000 participants.
To register or to find more information about this promo, please see onthecard.amexnetwork.com.
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:
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/.
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.
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.
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.
Note: This offer expired December 31, 2007.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The features of the Elite card include:
These cards represent slight variations from the existing Citi PremierPass cards. The primary differences seem to be:
For more information on the Expedia cards, see here and here.