Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus Summary 2011: Over $2,500 in Free Money

Looking back, 2011 was a great year for credit card sign-up incentives. The major issuers rolled out some new cards and features and offered up big bonuses to get you to try them out. By picking up the tastiest offers, you could have reaped thousands of dollars in bonuses even with average incomes and without spending more than normal. If you have good to excellent credit, why not earn some money with it? Here’s what Mrs. MMB and I decided to jump on last year:

Chase Sapphire Preferred: $500 cash or $625 in travel
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card gives you 50,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. With this new card, Chase is basically trying to make a premium card that competes with American Express, with their Ultimate Rewards rivaling Membership Rewards. (It’s metal and heavy, too!) For example, you can now transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Continental/United, Southwest, British Airways, Hyatt, and Marriott. This the same system the Chase Freedom card uses now as well.

But my favorite features are the cash options and the 25% bonus towards travel. 10,000 points = $100 cash = $125 towards travel at no markup (same price as Expedia, Travelocity, etc). You can mix points and cash however you like, which means 50k points = $625 towards any airfare or hotel nights. No annual fee the first year, $95 after that. For more details, please see my Chase Sapphire Preferred review post.

Chase Ink Bold: $500 cash or $625 in travel
The small business version of the Chase Sapphire, this card also offers a huge sign-up bonus. The Chase Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards gives you 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months your account is open. For more details, please see my Chase Ink Bold review post, including details on what constitutes a small business.

Citi ThankYou Premier: $500 in gift card or $665 in airfare
The Citi ThankYou Premier Card is another travel-oriented premium credit card gives you 50,000 ThankYou points after spending $2,500 within 3 months of account opening. The special feature here is that it offers you a 33% premium on when used towards travel. That means those 50,000 ThankYou points can be redeemed for $665 in airfare. They also have their own airfare portal with the same prices as Expedia, and you can also mix and match cash and points if you don’t have enough points to pay for the entire amount. For more details, please see my Citi ThankYou Premier review post. (Now expired)

Delta Gold SkyMiles American Express: 30,000 miles + $99 Companion voucher
The Delta Gold SkyMiles American Express is not a great deal for everyone, but it works out very well for us. (It’s actually our second card, I had one previously.) My wife and I both fly cross-country together to a city primarily served by Delta at least once a year to visit the parents. The sign-up incentive is pretty good – 30,000 Skymiles after just $500 in purchases within 3 months. More importantly, the card comes with a buy-one-get-one-for-$99 companion voucher that saved us $250+ this year since it’s usually during a holiday. We’ve used this voucher before, and the prices are comparable to online travel engines, but you do get stuck with the taxes of $50 or so. The annual fee is free the first year, and $95 after that. You also get a free checked bag on every flight for you and up to 8 travel companions (so one card gets us two free bags as a couple, a $25 value per person each roundtrip). The total one-year value of this card is at least $600 if value a mile at a penny.

Grand total: $625 + $625 + $665 + $600 = $2,515
That’s just for four cards from three different issuers, which is far less than the most cards I’ve applied for in a year on my own. This means a couple could make over $5,000, which is 10% of the 2009 US median household income of $50,221 per US Census. As for us, we plan on making good use of this money to cover future airfare and hotel expenses. This total also does not include any earnings from cash-back rewards credit cards.

If we include the Chase Ink Bold, the required spending total was $11,000. Exclude the Ink Bold, and it goes down to $6,000, which if you use time-shifting techniques like pre-paying bills such as insurance/utilities or buying gift cards for groceries/gas, works out to a reasonable $500 per month. That’s well within our normal spending anyway.

Honorable mentions go out to three other cards:

• The Chase British Airways 100,000 miles offer came back in 2011 (now expired), but both my wife and I already jumped on it previously and have already used it for a luxurious business-class trip around Europe.
• The Southwest Airlines card offered up 50,000 points (also expired) which was good for over $800 in Wanna Get Away airfare after just one purchase of any amount. The current offer is 25,000 points for a still-respectable $416 in airfare. We don’t fly Southwest all that often, so we passed on this card this year.
• The Hyatt Card offers two free nights at any Hyatt in the world after any first purchase, which includes some rather swank hotels. There is a $75 annual fee. My sister got this card and we were pretty close to applying, but we wanted to hold off until we had firm travel plans since I believe you have a certain time to redeem.

My psychic powers tell me that some of you are wondering about this , so here’s the answer: How Opening and Closing Credit Card Accounts Affects Your Credit Score.

Posted in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 31 Comments »

No Fee 0% Balance Transfer For 12 Months – Discover More Card

Update 1/9/12: Reader CC writes in with her success story, which differs from some previous reports of a one Discover card at a time limit. Please let me know if you have a different experience. I forget to add before – if you apply for the card and don’t get the credit line you want, call them up and tell them you want to do a $X,XXX balance transfer and they may work to accomodate you.

A few updates- I called Discover and they changed the policies again

1) you can have more than 1 credit card
2) You have to open a new card to get the promo they won’t apply it to the old one.
3)If you call and speak to a rep and give them a balance to transfer they will recalculate the credit line
4) They will let you transfer the old credit line to the new one ie I had a $7.3K balance on the old one so they left it open with $500 and gave me a new card with a $7K balance. I was able to keep my 5 yrs of credit history with the 1st card active. I’ll probably transfer the line back to the original place in a yr.
5) I just saved a year of interest on my Citibank student loans for $6,550 with 15 minutes of work

Back for 2012! Limited-time only. Just in time for some New Year debt-busting action, Discover has brought back the Discover More Card with No Balance Transfer Fee, offering 0% intro APR on both balance transfers and purchases for 12 months. You can literally borrow money for free and pay it back in 12 months (keeping in mind you’ll still need to satisfy the minimum payment each month until then). Use this opportunity to lower your interest rates and make every cent you pay go towards shrinking that principal. There are different versions of this card, so please use specific application link. No annual fee.

When you see the application, be sure to scroll down to the “Important Information” and verify that you are getting 0% for 12 months and no balance transfer fee. You should see the following text at the top under “Interest Rates and Interest Charges”:

APR for Balance Transfers: 0% intro APR for 12 months from date of first transfer, for transfers under this offer that post to your account by July 10, 2012.

And then the following a bit lower under “Fees”:

Transaction Fees * Balance Transfer – Intro fee of $0 for transfers that post to your account by 8/10/2012 with the 0% intro APR balance transfer offer described above. After that, 3% of the amount of each transfer.

Application Quick Tips
In order to get the highest credit limit possible, be sure to maximize your reported income as much as you can legitimately. You can no longer include the income of other people living with you, but do include things like freelance income, overtime, rental income, interest and dividend income, alimony, child support, etc.

If you wish to get cash directly from this balance transfer offer without it being classified as a “cash advance”, one tip is to request money to be transferred to other non-Discover credit cards that you have. This will create a negative balance, after which you request a refund check be sent to you. Citibank and American Express are recommended for this because they have automatic features on their websites to request a credit balance refund.

Arbitrage Opportunities?
Don’t have higher interest debt you wish to refinance? Really, the only thing I could see buying with this 0% money would be a US Savings I Bond that will earn you 3.06% for the first six months, and then a different rate based on inflation for the next 6 months. You can buy $5,000 in electronic bonds per person per year, and another $5,000 in paper bonds if you use your tax refund ($20k total for a couple).

Offer Comparison
Now, the Slate Card from Chase currently has a similar offer going, also 0% APR for 15 months with no balance transfer fee. The good thing about Discover is that you can transfer balances on a Chase card to Discover, while you can’t transfer existing Chase balances to another Chase card. Other than that, why not take advantage of both?

Discover More Card with No Balance Transfer Fee application link

Posted in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 43 Comments »

ShareBuilder Promotion Codes: Free Automatic Trades (Updated 2012)

Update January 2012: There are a few new codes that give you automatic investment credits, and also two new codes that will give you $50 and $25 bonuses respectively if you make a $25+ transfer over (each) to ShareBuilder with no trades required. Thanks to readers ML, Will, George, BR, and MBR for the most recent updates.

Here are some promotion codes for existing ShareBuilder accounts. ShareBuilder is a discount brokerage now owned by the same folks behind ING Direct. They give out codes for various promotions, and they often work in your account even if you weren’t given the code directly.

Don’t have an account yet? Grab this $50 opening bonus first, all you have to do is deposit $50 before 3/31/12, and then add the promo codes below afterward. You can usually double-dip on codes if you have both a individual account and joint account. Got kids? Get even more by opening up custodial accounts for each of them.

How To Use
To enter the codes into your account, first log in to ShareBuilder, and then go to the Accounts tab > Overview > Profile & Settings > Enter Promotion tab shown below.

In the marked box, enter a code. If it works, you should see a confirmation that says something like:

Thank you for referring ShareBuilder to your friends! Your 2 real-time trades have been credited to your account and are available to use immediately.

How To Verify
To see how many free automatic trades you have, click on the top Trade > Automatic Investing and look for “You have XX Automatic Investment credits”. If you click on it, you’ll note that these may have different expiration dates. Here’s what I see:

Active Codes

BDAY12JY (1 free automatic investments, expire 3/31/2012)
12AIP (12 free automatic investments, expire 3/31/2012)
SK483GXM2BU9 (5 free automatic investments, expire 12/31/2014)
START50 ($50 bonus with electronic deposit of $25+, enter this code before the code below)
INVEST122111 ($25 bonus with electronic deposit of $25+)
3AIP
3AIP*GEJZOH (try if above doesn’t work)

Expired Codes
TAF5ANL*073t0C TAF2RA*2VvUQt TAF2RD*c48Ugc TAF5AR*2AsFg5 TAF5AW*1FkJgR TAF2RG*2VvUQt TAF5AC*2AsFg5 TAF2RM*2VvUQt TAF5AZ*2AsFg5 TAF5AA*t9sUKs BDAY11NV

Posted in Deals & Offers, Investing | 107 Comments »

Cash Back Credit Cards: Rotating Categories 2012 January to March (5% Cash Back + Up to $200)

Who doesn’t like cash back? The following credit cards offer a hefty 5% cash back on rewards, but only in certain categories that rotate each quarter. Even though this may not seem like much, by keeping track of their promotions and using different cards smartly, I can easily rack up hundreds of dollars in additional rewards per year without otherwise changing my spending habits. None of these have an annual fee.

Here’s an update for the offers during the first quarter of 2012. Pretty good variety this quarter. If you had all three of these, you could put up to $1,500 of gas on the Discover, get 5% back on all your Amazon.com purchases from the Chase Freedom, and get 5% back on $1,500 in electricity, gas, water, garbage, cable TV, and cell phone bills from Citi Dividend.

Chase Freedom Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back
Reward categories change quarterly.

From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

• Gas Stations
• Amazon.com

You must enroll each quarter at ChaseBonus.com, but it’s very quick. All other purchases earn 1% back, with no tiers or expiration of rewards. Currently, the Chase Freedom Visa has a promotion offering a $200 bonus cashback if you sign up and make just $500 in purchases in your first three months.

Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card – $100 Cash Back
Reward categories change quarterly. From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on

• Fitness club
• Health care
• Utilities

Health care is defined as merchants that provide examination, diagnosis and treatment of health-related conditions and includes services by licensed physicians or dentists, facilities that aid in diagnosis or treatment, and devices or corrective equipment for such treatment. Fitness clubs are defined as merchants that operate sports and recreation facilities requiring membership. Utilities are defined as providers of electric, gas power, water supply and refuse services, cable and satellite television and radio services, and wireless/telecommunications services.

After you get your card, you must enroll by logging into your account online or calling 1-800-231-0891. There is no cap on the 5% back, except for the $300 overall cap on all dividend rewards annually. All other purchases do earn a standard 1% with no tiers, and rewards do not expire as long as you have activity once every 12 months. Currently, the Citi Dividend Platinum Select has a promotion offering a $100 bonus cashback if you sign up and make just $500 in purchases in your first three months.

The Discover More Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

• Gas Stations
• Museums
• Movies

You must enroll online to activate the rewards each quarter. Discover card has a tiered cashback rate on other purchases (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.).

Don’t forget to also check out my list of the best cash back rewards credit cards, which include an American Express that gives 6% back on groceries and PenFed gas that gives 5% back on gas.

Posted in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 6 Comments »

4 Fandango.com Movie Tickets = $24

Daily deals site KGBDeals has a national deal of 4 Fandango.com movie tickets for $24. Each ticket has a maximum value of $12 (total $48). Deal is scheduled to run through the New Year’s weekend, over 7,000 sold so far. If you use eBates ($10 new user bonus) or Mr. Rebates ($5 new user bonus), can get some additional cash back.

Fandango codes will not be available until promotion end date on January 3rd, 2012. Valid until February 12, 2012. Both tickets must be purchased together in the same transaction for the same movie and showtime. This offer may be applied to IMAX or 3D tickets, up to maximum per-ticket code value.

Posted in Deals & Offers | 9 Comments »

Free $10 Credit Towards Amazon Kindle e-Textbooks

Update: Here are some good investment books that you can get for free or cheap with this discount code. Check out the top-selling Kindle e-textbooks for ideas, but I like The Ivy Portfolio and the classic Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. Thanks to reader Max for the tip.

Amazon.com is offering another $10 of free credit towards Kindle e-Textbooks with the code ETXTBOOK. Additional directions and a place to enter your code at this link. I don’t believe you actually need a Kindle to use these electronic textbooks, as there is a Kindle app for PC, Mac, iPhone, and Android phones as well. You must use it by 11:59 p.m. PST on January 9, 2012. I got this for an Amazon Student account, but it should work for everyone.

Are electronic textbooks much cheaper than paper textbooks after taking into account selling the used book back? I have no idea.

Posted in Deals & Offers | 8 Comments »

Republic Wireless Review: $19/Month Unlimited Plan Details

Republic Wireless is a new cellular service that uses WiFi to place calls and text whenever possible, saving you and them money. They advertise an $19 a month Unlimited Plan with unlimited minutes, data, and text – all with no contracts and no early termination fees. What’s the catch? Read on.

(Instead of having the information all over the place, I’m keeping all updates and news about Republic Wireless in this one post. Everything is dated, and the new stuff is on top.)

Republic Wireless goes “all-in” (11/26/11)
In response to complaints about the confusing limits of their “unlimited” service, Republic Wireless has a new blog announcement that they will not kick anyone off their network during their Beta phase. Everyone will get unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and unlimited data the entire time. Also, their money back guarantee now lasts 90 days instead of 30. I guess Republic just wants to see if they can pull this thing off without kicking anyone out of the network for using too much Sprint data… at least initially.

Long-term, it’s nearly impossible for them to allow this. On average, they can’t have people go over their Sprint network usage (see below), but maybe there will be enough low resource users to counter the high resource users. In any case, you might get a nice year or so of unlimited everything at $19/month during their beta without worries.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted in Deals & Offers, Frugal Living | 18 Comments »

Citi Diamond Preferred Card: 0% APR For 21 Months

Update: The following Citi holiday promotion has ended. If you’re in the market for a top notch balance transfer credit card, check out our list of the best credit cards offering a 0% intro APR on balance transfers.

Here’s another nice 0% interest balance transfer offer – it is a holiday promotion, but any time is a good time to pay down your balances even faster with less interest! The Citi Diamond Preferred MasterCard now gives you 0% APR for 18 months on both balance transfers and purchases. Now, the balance transfer fee is 3% (minimum $5). This means that you could transfer a balance of up to $6,650 and still have your transfer fee completely covered. Transfer less than that, say $5,000, and you’d actually net yourself $50. Remember, purchases are at 0% APR as well. No annual fee.

Comparing this with the other best no fee 0% APR balance transfer offers, the Slate from Chase Card mentioned earlier has no balance transfer fee at all, for a period of 15 months. If your balances are less than or around $7,000 you would get six more months at 0% with the Diamond Preferred over the Slate. If your balances are higher and/or you plan on paying them offer within a year, then the Slate would work out better.

Which reminds me… Citibank balance transfers are the easiest to get in the form of a check sent directly to you. I just confirmed in my Citi account and here is a screenshot to show what to look for.

*Online purchases are coded differently than physical locations where you swipe your card – even paying your cable bill online or auto insurance online counts.

Posted in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 15 Comments »

Sharebuilder New Account $75 Bonus

Discount stock brokerage Sharebuilder is offering a $75 cash bonus as long as you open a new account with $100 by December 31st with promotion code EXTRA75. It doesn’t appear that you even need to make a trade. Fine print:
Read the rest of this entry…

Posted in Deals & Offers | 21 Comments »

$5,000 Cash & Two iPads Holiday Giveaway from MyMoneyBlog (Winner Announcement)

Winner Announcement! The contest is now over. Congratulations to Devin A. and Julia D., the lucky winners of $2,500 and an iPad 2. You should have received an e-mail notification to your registered e-mail address. Thanks to all who entered, I hope to do it again next year.

‘Tis the season of giving so I’ve decided to award two lucky MyMoneyBlog readers with $2,500 in cold hard cash!  And as an added bonus, each winner will receive a brand new iPad 2 (64gb).  Yes, really! I don’t think you’ll find a richer giveaway on the web so please tell your friends, family and coworkers to get an entry in!   Winners will be selected at random on the morning of Wednesday, December 21st and to enter the giveaway, you need to follow two simple steps:

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted in Deals & Offers, Giving Back | 113 Comments »

Groupon $10 for $20 at Old Navy

Groupon is again offering $20 to spend at Old Navy for $10. 100,000+ sold already, with days left so it may sell out. I guess the idea is for some last-minute Christmas gifts. You can buy one for yourself and also one as a gift.

Posted in Deals & Offers | No Comments »

5% Off BP Gas With American Express

American Express has another promotion offering 5% off all gas purchases at BP until 1/31/2012 when you register your card. It says you must be invited, but these offers are often found via a simple banner link somewhere on their website and usually work as long as they accept your card number. You get the 5% back via statement credit, on top of your existing card rewards. I registered my trusty Starwood AmEx travel rewards card with no issues.

Try yours… it’s worth a shot for an additional 15+ cents off per gallon. If you combined this with the Blue Cash Preferred AmEx with 3% back on gas, you’d be looking at 8% total cashback.

Update: The wording is ambiguous, could mean 5% back on all your purchases for the entire month!

Posted in Deals & Offers | 24 Comments »