Archives for December 2011

5% Off BP Gas With American Express

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

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!

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Average Credit Score and Consumer Debt Loads By Age Group

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

CreditKarma.com (which provides free credit scores) recently released an infographic “The Lifecycle of Debt and Credit Scores” that shows both the average credit score and the average amounts of different debt types by age bracket. I notice that mortgage debt jumps significantly from the 30-34 to the 35-39 bracket, and sadly doesn’t go back down to those levels until past age 80. I’m surprised by the amount of mortgage debt from the 65+ crowd.

It’s also a little sad to see credit card debt being held by someone 95-99, and I also wonder why average credit scores start to decrease again after age 80. Is it because of increased money problems from health issues, or something like a “you can’t take it with you” attitude?


(click to enlarge)
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Perkstreet Checking: Best Bank If You Prefer Debit Cards Over Credit Cards

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

PerkStreet Financial(SM) MasterCard® Debit CardRegular readers will know that I like using credit cards for the cashback or travel rewards, even though I never carry a balance from month to month or pay any interest. However, I also accept that many people prefer debit cards as they suck money straight out of your checking account. If that sounds like like you, you’re not alone – when it comes to a charge card purchase, nationally it’s just as likely to be a debit card as a credit card. I get it – debit cards more psychologically similar to spending cash and there is no change of racking up a balance (although there are overdraft fees).

The best way to describe Perkstreet Financial is that it’s the best checking account if you don’t like using credit cards. They offer the best cashback rewards on debit cards by far:

  • 1% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases. The cash back you can earn on these purchases is unlimited.
  • 2% cash back at popular retail stores. On online purchases at: Amazon.com®, iTunes®, Target.com, Apple.com, Walmart.com and Bestbuy.com, on in-store purchases, when you have a Current Account Balance of $5,000 or more at: Walmart, Target®, Best Buy® & Apple® stores, and when you and a friend use your cards at the same restaurant, bar or coffee shop within 60 minutes of each other.
  • 5% cash back at a rotating set of retailers. For October 2012, they are The Cheesecake Factory®, Pottery Barn®, Pottery Barn Kids®, PotteryBarn.com, Ace Hardware®, AceHardware.com.
  • PowerPerks 2.0 with deals updated every week. With no yearly limits.

As long as you have some sort of activity each month (billpay, deposit, withdrawal, cleared check, debit card purchase) then there is no monthly fee. Some other improvements they’ve made are that you can deposit checks sent overnight for free at UPS Stores or Mailbox Etc. (or via free prepaid envelopes). They don’t offer ATM rebates like some other places like my account at Ally Checking, but they do offer 42,000 free ATMs across the country; use their ATM locator to see if there are convenient ones to you.

Right now, you can get an extra $25 bonus cash back when you apply for an account online by December 25th, fund with $25 or more, and use your card at least 3 times in the first month. (Ironically, last time I started an application they let me fund with with a credit card up to $500 and promised it would go through as a purchase and not a cash advance.) – This promo is now expired.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Groupon BuyLocal $10 Promotion

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Here’s a quick Groupon promo for both new and existing users. You can get a $10 credit after registering on this page on 12/19 and buying a “local” Groupon worth $10+ by midnight 12/24. Valid for the first 150,000. Local means a physical business in your area – no online deals or getaways. More details in the FAQ.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Practical Gift Guide: A Few Of My Favorite Things

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Not done shopping yet? December 16th (today) is Free Shipping Day for many merchants who are offering free delivery by Christmas Eve. Also, the last day for things bought with Amazon’s Free Super Saver Shipping to arrive before Christmas is Monday the 19th. I’ve noticed they spring for 2-day air more often this time of year.

In that spirit, I’ve seen a lot of silly gift guides floating around, so here’s a few things in different price ranges that I actually own and found to be good value:

Quality Jackets With Lifetime Warranty ($50-$200)
Given how long good outerwear can last, I don’t see why you wouldn’t spend a little more for the good stuff. I have a mix of different jackets that have all lasted over 10 years and also have lifetime warranties in case they don’t last another 10. First, I had a soft fleece jacket from REI that went 10 years before the zipper broke. I took it into the store and they fixed it for me free of charge. I have an outer jacket from L.L. Bean that is now 15 years old and hasn’t given me any cause to return it. (I’m actually more proud that it still fits since it’s a graduation present from high school, but still.) Finally, I have a Gore-Tex jacket from North Face that has gone 10 years and still repels snow and water. Even their own fabric instructions say you can just wash them like anything else.

Sales are everywhere, but I noticed that REI currently has 30% off any REI-branded item with promo code REISAVE. Also don’t forget your favorite cashback shopping portal.

Enamel Dutch Oven ($45)
We got a Le Creuset dutch oven as a gift, and we think it’s a great product even though they retail for $200+. You get all the benefits of cast-iron (great heat retention, works on stove, works in oven) but with a nice, durable enamel coating (easier cooking, easier cleanup, looks nice). Did I mention it lasts forever? However, you should know that the respected magazine Cook’s Illustrated did careful testing of various competing products and found the $45 Tramontina dutch oven to be of comparable quality at a fraction of the price. Seems like a great value. If anything, replace the plastic knob with a metal one for high-temperature baking.

Travel Underwear & Socks ($10-$20)
Didn’t see that one coming, did ya? Frequent travelers always talk about packing light. When packing for a longer trip, I found it hard to fit everything in a carry-on if you’re packing 7 pairs of socks and 7 pairs of boxers. The trick is to buy quick-drying underwear and socks, so you really just need a minimum of two pairs – one to wear while the other is trying. (Or theoretically even just one pair if you like sleeping commando…) I like the ExOfficio Men’s Give-N-Go Boxer Brief and these J.B. Expedition Adventure Travel Quick Dry Socks. (Ladies’ versions available as well.) I actually pack 3 pairs as they are also lighter and thinner than my regular clothes.

Drying tip: Wash them in the sink with your soap of choice. Wring dry by hand. Now place a dry towel flat on a bed, and then place the damp clothing onto the towel. Roll the towel up with the clothes inside, and then wring the towel again tightly. You should have removed enough of the water to finish hang-drying overnight.

What practical gifts do you recommend?

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Recent Smaller Offers Updates & Follow-Up

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

From time to time, I post smaller deals that offer some sort of bonus or discount. This has been a feature of the blog since the very beginning – my 5th post ever on was about getting 10,000 free Delta miles back in December 2004 (very expired). Even though credit card deals tend to be the most lucrative, and some people may scoff at getting $10 here and $10 there, I actually find it fun and if I grab them all then it adds up. I try to only include deals with national availability, minimal effort and/or driving, and that don’t require any spending that you wouldn’t do otherwise.

Here’s a quick follow-up just to all the deals that have been going on recently, unfortunately several are expired:

That’s over $100 value in about a month. And remember, if you have a spouse or partner you can potentially double everything. 🙂 Finally, don’t forget to enter my own $5,000 giveaway!

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


November Spending Survey Results and Follow-Up

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Last month, I challenged readers to predict their spending for the month of November, track it, and then come back and see how well their predictions went. Over 60 people completed my online Google spreadsheet survey, and an unknown amount of people did it manually via paper. It’s all anonymous so hopefully that makes it easy to be honest.

Well, I finally went back and recategorized my own expenses in Mint, and here are the results that I can share. The first two columns are the average and median of all the online responses. This is just for kicks, it really doesn’t show much valuable data. The third and fourth columns are my own household predictions and final spending tallies.

  Average Median MMB Predict MMB Actual
Housing $1,436 $1,237 $3,100 $3,100
Food $523 $500 $600 $656
Transport $305 $200 $200 $191
Debt $370 $50 $0 $0
Utilities $240 $200 $300 $317
Personal $395 $220 $100 $311
Total $3,279 $3,000 $6,000 $6,402

The real goal of this post was to motivate some of you readers to track your spending and see if you found any surprises. Budgeting every month is hard, but just tracking your spending for a single month can point out problem areas to target. If you missed it last month, you can just download the PDF version and do it this month or any time. Some thoughts on our own spending:

  • Predicting housing costs is probably not very useful, as for most people this doesn’t change much from month-to-month.
  • Food continues to be our weak spot, both groceries and dining out, although for the most part we spend a lot on food and we choose to do so. We’re trying to buy more fresh vegetables and such, and need to work on planning ahead of time so we don’t buy stuff at “retail” prices at the supermarket for our recipes.
  • Gas is another area that probably stays relatively constant from month-to-month, it’s hard to separate the noise from actual gas-saving efforts like driving less or with less vigor. We actually usually spend less than this in most months. We have no car payments.
  • I broke down Personal as “health insurance, medical expenses, clothing, personal care, entertainment, etc.” Our health insurance premiums are covered by work, but we’ve had several visits recently where the copays have been adding up as well as other things. We also bought more clothes than usual this month.
  • Regarding the total number, another factor here is that we bought most of our holiday gifts in November. I read somewhere that the average household spends about $1,000 during the holidays in general, with $700 going towards gifts. We’re pretty close to that, and our rough budget was $1,000 towards gifts for the family and friends.

In the end, I think when it comes to overall spending, it’s best to concentrate on the recurring big stuff – housing, food, transportation. This takes preplanning and structural changes such as getting a roommate, moving closer to work and getting rid of a car, or downsizing the living space. However, in month-to-month budgets, it’s often those forgotten and occasional expenses and sneak up and bite us. Things like holiday gifts, doctor’s bills, car repairs, birthdays and weddings for other people, and so on.

How’d you do?

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


How Opening and Closing Credit Card Accounts Affects Your Credit Score

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I’ve been taking advantage of credit card bonuses and rewards for over 10 years now, earning thousands of dollars in perks while paying zero interest. I can honestly say that sign-up bonuses have never been larger than today. My rule used to be that I would only apply in exchange for at least $100, but now cards with $500 bonuses have been around for several months. I basically paid for all my holiday shopping with them!

A common reader question is – how does opening and closing all these cards affect your credit score? I’ve answered parts of this question here and here, but here’s the all-in-one answer.

Credit Score Basics

fico data turned into fico scores

Credit scores come from proprietary mathematical formulas, the most popular one being Fair Isaac (FICO). The input is the history and data from our credit reports. The output is a numerical prediction of our creditworthiness. Since we have 3 different credit reports (Experian, Equifax, Transunion), we have 3 different credit scores. They’ll never reveal all the ingredients to the secret sauce, otherwise they’d have nothing to sell us. Thus, we must make do with what we have. FICO has released this breakdown for us, along with many other collected details over time:

image altered from original in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score

Effect of Opening New Credit Cards and/or Closing Existing Accounts

35% On-Time Payments. Not surprisingly, the biggest chunk of the score is your record of timely payments. If you pay your bills, you’re likely to… keep paying your bills! Briefly, anything 30-days late or worse can show up here, although a 60-day late or 90-day late is even worse. If you just barely miss a due date and pay it off within 30 days, it shouldn’t show up here. This factor has nothing to do with opening or closing credit cards.

30% Capacity Used. This refers to how much of your available credit you are using, also known as utilization ratio. The lower the better. Being maxed out on all your cards is obviously not a good sign. Utilization ratio is tracked both on an overall level and on a per card level. For example, having five different cards with a $1,000 balance each and $10,000 credit limit each (10% ratio x 5 cards) is better than having 4 cards with no balance and one card with the $5,000 balance (50% ratio on 1 card).

In the long run, having more credit cards would be a good thing as it should mean more available credit and a lower utilization ratio. For the same reason, you should never close a credit card unless not doing so would cost you money. You want to keep all the available credit you can.

15% Length of Credit History. The longer your credit history, the better. Both the age of your oldest account and the average age of all your accounts are tracked. Continuously opening new credit lines will thus hurt your credit score. At the same time, having a lot of old cards can “anchor” your average account age as well. If I already have 20 cards averaging 8 years old, adding another new credit card won’t make that average budge hardly at all. Recently, I learned that closing a credit card actually has no effect on your average age of accounts or credit history length. The closed account will stay on your credit report for 10 years.

If you have “young” credit history, you’ll need to balance the desire for new accounts (which will one day be old accounts) with how good your other factors currently are to keep a good credit score. Another strategy is to be added as an authorized user on someone else’s account with a long age. (They took this away for a while due to abuse, but brought it back. Just make sure it’s legit, for example with your spouse/partner or parents.)

10% Types of Credit Used. We’re getting to the lesser factors. How do I know? This factor refers to the mix of different credit accounts out there – revolving credit like credit cards, retail accounts (store cards), installment loans like auto loans, and home mortgages. Having a greater mix is better. However, I have never had a store card, auto loan, or a mortgage on my credit report, and my credit score has remained excellent. You definitely don’t need all of these types to have a good credit score.

Now, I do think it is a good idea to have at least some form of credit to show that you can handle the idea of borrowing something and paying it back. A credit card allows you to do this within the monthly grace period without paying any interest.

10% Past Credit Applications. This what everyone worries about, but it’s again we see it is only a 10% weighting. This factor makes sense though, as applying for a lot of credit in a short period of time is an indication of financial troubles. Therefore, you should be very careful with what are called “hard” credit inquiries. Hard credit inquiries (“pulls”) are usually from loan applications (asking for more credit). Soft credit inquiries occur when you are just checking your own credit score, or when other financial companies check your credit history as identity verification or for pre-approval offers (here, you didn’t ask for it).

Hard pulls affect your credit score negatively for a temporary period of time. For mortgage and auto loans, there are special accommodations by FICO for “rate-shopping”; All hard inquiries within a 14 day period for mortgages or auto loans will only count as one inquiry.

In regards to apply for new credit cards, it’s difficult to know the effect of a hard inquiry by itself, as a new credit card account will also affect the other factors above (average age of accounts, credit limits, utilization ratio). For someone with a longer credit history, a new credit card application will have little effect. For someone with zero credit cards, it will have a larger effect. The general consensus is that each hard pull knocks about 3-5 points off your credit score, and the effect decreases as time passes – after 6 months the effect is reduced, and after a year it is gone. The recording of inquiries does stay on your report for 2 years.

Takeaways

  1. For a high credit score, the most important things to do are to pay your bills on time and not use all of your available credit limit. Don’t lose sight of this.
  2. Applying for new credit cards will affect your score negatively for the short-term, with the effect going away over time and gone in a year. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t precious. Only apply if it’s worth it through lowering your existing interest rates, upfront bonuses, cash back, or travel rewards. Hard pulls are the same as cash for me!
  3. Never close an existing credit card unless you are avoiding a fee or in exchange for something worthwhile (like a mortgage approval). Closing an account never helps your score, but only really hurts if it makes up a huge chunk of your existing credit limit.

Based on my own experiences, my personal choice is to limit myself to about 3-5 credit cards per rolling 6-month period (more when there are good offers and less when there isn’t). My primary concern is not really the credit score, but more the fact that individual issuers might not approve me just due to the inquiries even though my score is fine. I’ve scored over $2,000 in bonuses the last year alone, and that’s not even including my wife.

p.s. It’s not FICO, but now you can get your free credit scores with no trial periods from all 3 major credit bureaus. Tracking them regularly can alert you to significant changes in your reports.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Navy Federal Credit Union No Balance Transfer Fee Promotion

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

NavyFed Credit Union has a limited-time promotion going on until Sunday, December 11th where if you do a balance transfer from an external financial institutions to your existing Navy Federal card, you’ll get a fixed 0% promo APR for 12 months with no balance transfer fee.

Membership eligibility for NavyFed is primarily restricted to military personnel including Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force – including retirees and family members – but also include some civilian employees in Department of Defense. From the “existing” wording, it doesn’t appear that this applies to new card applications.

December 11th is Balance Transfer Day. It’s also your opportunity to save big! When you consolidate credit card balances from other financial institutions onto your existing Navy Federal card, the savings really add up. Get a 0% fixed promo APR* on balance transfers for 12 months. After that, your current standard variable purchase rate applies. And you’ll save even more because we don’t charge a balance transfer fee. You pay absolutely nothing—unheard of anywhere else!

Well, although it is indeed hard to find a no balance transfer fee 0% APR offer these days, it’s not “unheard of anywhere else”. Last month, the Chase Slate® also came out with 0% introductory APR on both balance transfers and purchases for 15 months with $0 balance transfer fee and $0 annual fee. All you have to do is initiate your balance transfer within 60 days of opening the account.

Either way, both are a good opportunities to lower the interest rate on your existing balances and accelerate that debt-free payoff.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.  “The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Citi ThankYou Preferred Card 50,000 Point Bonus = $500 in Gift Cards

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

(Update 2: I’ve been notified that 12/22 may be the last day to apply for this $500 gift card offer from the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. The promo details remain as noted below, but I should point out that the Citi ThankYou Premier Card is also offering a bonus worth 50,000 points = $500 in gift cards. Learn more about the Premier card offer here.

Briefly, the Premier card allows you to get a 33% bonus when redeeming towards airfare. And it’s easy to use! Prices are the same as Expedia, and you can mix cash and points when redeeming. That makes 50k points with a Premier card worth $665 in airfare. The spending requirement for the Premier is lower as well. However, while the Premier has no annual fee the first year it is $125 for subsequent years, while for the Preferred card there is no annual fee period. Decisions, decisions.)

The Citi ThankYou Preferred Card has upped their game with a 50,000 ThankYou Point bonus broken down into two parts: You get 25,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $5,000 in purchases within 6 months of account opening, and you get an additional 25,000 bonus points after another $5,000 in purchases are made within the next 6 months after that. You do not need to qualify for the first 25,000 points to be eligible to earn the second 25,000 points. See below for details on how this is worth $500 in gift cards, airfare, or a check towards your student loan or mortgage. No annual fee.

This offer is both better and worse from their last 50,000 point promo back in June. The required spending is higher, although spread out over a much longer period. You basically have to spend $5k within 6 months twice, for an average of $833 a month. However, the last offer was for the Premier card with a $125 annual fee. This Preferred version has no annual fee.

ThankYou Point Redemption Options

Here’s a summary of your best values for ThankYou points, in case you don’t want to slog through all the many redemption options at ThankYou.com. In general, it takes 10,000 ThankYou (TY) points to redeem for a $100 gift card to retailers like Gap, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Cabelas, CVS Pharmacy, Kohl’s, Land’s End, LL Bean, Sears, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples, and Walmart. Bolded are my favorites. So with 50,000 TY points, you could get five $100 gift cards from different stores.

Want something closer to cash? For a check mailed to you, it costs 8,000 points for $50. For a statement credit, it’s 7,500 points for $50. A check mailed towards your mortgage payment or student loan (made out to your lender) costs 2,500 points for $25. This works out to 1 cents per point. Otherwise, it may be better to redeem your points for a Walmart gift card and then sell it for cash at a site like PlasticJungle.com that offers you 90 cents+ on the dollar. I just checked, and a $500 Walmart gift card would net you $455 in cash or $477.75 in Amazon gift certificates.

Now let’s look at the advertised airplane ticket option. A good question is whether a flight booked through the ThankYou Travel Center costs the same as through any other travel site like Expedia, Orbitz, etc. I have some old ThankYou points lying around, so I went to the redemption site and found that the prices are very closely aligned to what is offered at sites like Expedia.com. I did a few quick searches for random flights, and the cost of the flight matched up with the cost in points in a 100:1 ratio. For example, the exact same flight below that cost $360 including taxes and fees on Expedia would cost 36,000 TY points. ThankYou Travel Center screenshot:

Expedia.com screenshot:

Citi couldn’t stay way, given all the other $500 value offers still hanging around. I love that this is the new standard for a simple credit inquiry, and that basically my wife and I can score at least $2,000 in free money a year, exempt from taxes, with as little as two credit applications per year. (We actually do much better than this…) We just refinanced a mortgage and got a new homeowner’s insurance policy, so I know it’s not hurting us in other areas either.

Quick recap. 50,000 ThankYou Points = $500 in gift cards, ($500 Walmart Gift can be easily sold for $450+ online), $500 to pay down your student loan, $500 to pay down your mortgage balance, or $500 in airfare at the same rates as available at Expedia.com.

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How To Find Amount and Date of Past Roth IRA Contributions?

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Here’s a reader question about tracking Roth IRA contributions is previous years (slightly paraphrased for clarity) that I answered to the best of my ability, but perhaps there is a better solution out there.

I am looking to make a withdraw of my Roth IRA contribution that I made
prior to 5 years to avoid taxes and penalties. My question is:

How do I find out how much and when I made contributions?

This will tell me how much I can withdraw without taxes or penalties. I am also only age 50. Thank you!

My initial answer was to look at past income tax returns, as that should provide a good record of your Roth IRA contribution history. However, since Roth IRA contributions do not affect your tax liability, they likely aren’t listed directly on the tax return. Going through my own old returns, I found my contributions noted in a supporting document called a Roth IRA Carryover Worksheet. In addition, your IRA broker (trustee) should send an IRS Form 5498 (PDF) showing the amount of your contribution each year. If you’re really lucky, perhaps your broker has records for previous years.

If you don’t have access to old returns or the proper supporting documents, you can ask the IRS for a copy. There are two options:

  • Request a tax return transcript. A transcript is not a direct copy of your actual return, but includes most of the line items of a 1040 Form going back up to 10 years. It is free and can be done online, via mail, or over the phone. However, as noted above the return itself may not include Roth IRA contribution information. Update: Form 4506-T does allow you to request Form 5498 transcripts, which should include IRA contribution data.
  • Request an exact copy of your tax return and all attachments. This option gives you an exact copy of a previously filed and processed tax return and all attachments. You must complete Form 4506 (PDF) and include a check for $57 for each year requested. Copies are generally available for returns filed in the current and past six years. Would Form 5498 be an included attachment? I’m not sure.

Any better suggestions?

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MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


Connect to Compete: $10/Month Broadband Internet For Lower Income Families With Children

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I just wanted to spread the word about a new program Connect to Compete which is a “private and nonprofit sector partnership to promote broadband adoption and improve outcomes in disadvantaged communities” that offers broadband internet access for $9.95 a month as well as discounted computers and digital literacy classes. Partners include Cox, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cablevision, and more.

The discounts are available to households with at least one child eligible for the free National School Lunch Program (offering millions of lunches and growing). According to the income guidelines, a family of 4 within the lower 48 states can’t make more than $29,055 a year to qualify. Also, you must not have outstanding balances with the service provider. The program will not go nationwide until September 2012, but there is a sign-up form on the website to be notified when is arrives in your area.

If you are served by Comcast, this is very similar to Comcast Internet Essentials, which appears to be live already.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.