As the reward card contributor to this blog, I receive many questions regarding the best reward strategies. Here are a few of my most recent inquiries.
Every time I go to the store, I get an offer to save 10% by applying for their credit card. Is this worth it?
In a perfect world where we had unlimited credit and we didnt really care about our credit scores, the only downside would be the time and hassle filling out the application. I was amazed the other day when I was offered a discount at Target if I filled out a credit application when I was only purchasing about a hundred dollars worth of merchandise. As usual, I said no thanks and put the purchase on my Starwood American Express, where I hope to earn points towards hotel or travel rewards worth perhaps %5 of my purchase. While tempting, I have to realize that if I were to apply for a card from every retailer I visit regularly, I might have a wallet that weighs a few pounds! My strategy is to stick to cards where I get a large reward and a large sign up bonus.
For example, I recently purchased a $600 digital camera from Sonys online store. They offered me a $150 purchase credit, essentially 25% off, plus 12 months free financing, plus enough Sony Points to earn a $25 off of my next purchase. Since I will likely need additional lenses and accessories from Sony in the future, I felt that I was getting both a reasonable reward, and a large sign up bonus. In addition, the shipping costs were almost precisely offset by the lack of sales tax.
Ultimately, you do not want to risk your credit score by opening up too many cards or cancelling them too quickly. You also do not want to become too overwhelmed by statements and offers from too many reward cards.
What Reward Cards Do You Currently Use?
My primary card these days is the aforementioned Starwood American Express. This works for me and my family as it is flexible and offers a high rate of return of 5% or more when used for premium international airline travel and Starwood hotels. I recently got a American Express Platinum Business card in response to an unbeatable offer I received. It gives me 5% cash back off of gas, wireless bills, and office supplies, %3 off travel, and 1% off everything else. So far, I have only used it in the 5% cash back categories.
Of course Amex is not accepted everywhere, that is why I have the Capitol One rewards Visa. With it, I get about 1.5% cash back, which is not bad for a Visa/Mastercard. I also take pride in the fact that I do not pay any foreign currency exchange fees when I make purchase in other countries. While I would love to say that i am a jetsetter who spends big money across the globe, I am afraid my travels are more modest. Nevertheless, I hate paying exchange fees as a matter of principal, even if they would not have added up to much.
I also have my Internet banks debit/ATM card. This is great for cash and as a backup in case my other Visa is lost or stolen. Finally, I guess I will soon be adding the Sony card to my collection as well.
These cards work for me and my wife, because of our particular travel and spending habits. Everyones lifestyle is different, so dont expect to maximize your rewards by replicating my wallet.
Can I get a business card, even though I do not own a business?
Of course you can. Everyone is qualified as far as the card issuers are concerned. My Amex Platinum Business card was no more difficult to receive than any other card. Some people who really need the sign up bonuses will even apply for the business card in addition to the regular card. In extreme cases, it might even make sense for a husband and wife to both get the standard and the business card, quadrupling their rewards!
You write a lot about Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. What do you think of Discover and Diners Club?
I dont hold either one, but I know some people who do. I have seen some pretting good reward offers from them, but so far, I am not sold. The problem is that they are not accepted at many merchants. Discover has a reasonable number of merchants that accept it, but it still trails even American Express by a wide marging. Diners Club is even less accepted than Discover. It is hard enough hearing that your Amex is not accepted as often as you do, and I just dont want to flip out so many cards that I feel like a dealer in Vegas everytime I purchase something. Until their networks increase, or their rewards become irresistable, I will be sticking with the big three. I will keep my eyes open though.
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Every time I go to the store, I get an offer to save 10% by applying for their credit card. Is this worth it?
In a perfect world where we had unlimited credit and we didnt really care about our credit scores, the only downside would be the time and hassle filling out the application. I was amazed the other day when I was offered a discount at Target if I filled out a credit application when I was only purchasing about a hundred dollars worth of merchandise. As usual, I said no thanks and put the purchase on my Starwood American Express, where I hope to earn points towards hotel or travel rewards worth perhaps %5 of my purchase. While tempting, I have to realize that if I were to apply for a card from every retailer I visit regularly, I might have a wallet that weighs a few pounds! My strategy is to stick to cards where I get a large reward and a large sign up bonus.
For example, I recently purchased a $600 digital camera from Sonys online store. They offered me a $150 purchase credit, essentially 25% off, plus 12 months free financing, plus enough Sony Points to earn a $25 off of my next purchase. Since I will likely need additional lenses and accessories from Sony in the future, I felt that I was getting both a reasonable reward, and a large sign up bonus. In addition, the shipping costs were almost precisely offset by the lack of sales tax.
Ultimately, you do not want to risk your credit score by opening up too many cards or cancelling them too quickly. You also do not want to become too overwhelmed by statements and offers from too many reward cards.
What Reward Cards Do You Currently Use?
My primary card these days is the aforementioned Starwood American Express. This works for me and my family as it is flexible and offers a high rate of return of 5% or more when used for premium international airline travel and Starwood hotels. I recently got a American Express Platinum Business card in response to an unbeatable offer I received. It gives me 5% cash back off of gas, wireless bills, and office supplies, %3 off travel, and 1% off everything else. So far, I have only used it in the 5% cash back categories.
Of course Amex is not accepted everywhere, that is why I have the Capitol One rewards Visa. With it, I get about 1.5% cash back, which is not bad for a Visa/Mastercard. I also take pride in the fact that I do not pay any foreign currency exchange fees when I make purchase in other countries. While I would love to say that i am a jetsetter who spends big money across the globe, I am afraid my travels are more modest. Nevertheless, I hate paying exchange fees as a matter of principal, even if they would not have added up to much.
I also have my Internet banks debit/ATM card. This is great for cash and as a backup in case my other Visa is lost or stolen. Finally, I guess I will soon be adding the Sony card to my collection as well.
These cards work for me and my wife, because of our particular travel and spending habits. Everyones lifestyle is different, so dont expect to maximize your rewards by replicating my wallet.
Can I get a business card, even though I do not own a business?
Of course you can. Everyone is qualified as far as the card issuers are concerned. My Amex Platinum Business card was no more difficult to receive than any other card. Some people who really need the sign up bonuses will even apply for the business card in addition to the regular card. In extreme cases, it might even make sense for a husband and wife to both get the standard and the business card, quadrupling their rewards!
You write a lot about Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. What do you think of Discover and Diners Club?
I dont hold either one, but I know some people who do. I have seen some pretting good reward offers from them, but so far, I am not sold. The problem is that they are not accepted at many merchants. Discover has a reasonable number of merchants that accept it, but it still trails even American Express by a wide marging. Diners Club is even less accepted than Discover. It is hard enough hearing that your Amex is not accepted as often as you do, and I just dont want to flip out so many cards that I feel like a dealer in Vegas everytime I purchase something. Until their networks increase, or their rewards become irresistable, I will be sticking with the big three. I will keep my eyes open though.
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No, not the bright one. See the little weird thing to the left of it? The things thats green on top and reddish-pink below? Thats a nearby star, one so close that its motion across the sky caused it to blur during the few years it took to get the observations of this image! Normally, you dont notice the stars motions in the sky; the constellations look pretty much the same as they did thousands of years ago. But stars do move across the sky as they follow their separate orbits around the Milky Way center. In high-magnification images, some fast-moving stars can be seen to change position. The changing colors for this star are because some exposures were made with one filter, and then later exposures with a different filter, with the star moving in the intervening time.
Unlike the galaxies billions of light years away, this star is inside our own Galaxy, most likely only a few dozen light years away at most. If it were much farther its motion would be dimmed by distance, and it would appear as rock steady as the other objects in this picture. Incidentally, I found another object blurred in a similar multi-hued way, but it looks like a galaxy. Since galaxies dont move that quickly (they are too far away to see that motion) I think it might be a reflection inside the telescope from a bright nearby star. Such ghost images are common in deep exposures like this, and play havoc with analysis.
These are a handful of close-ups I found in a few minutes of perusing this devastating image. What will astronomers find over years of study? No doubt theyll look at statistics of the galaxies; how close together they appear to be, how clustered they are as opposed to spread out. Once distances are found to some of these objects we can begin to learn more about how the early Universe behaved itself. We can figure out how galaxies formed at such an early time, and what the structure of the Universe was like back then.
And remember as you look at this picture: youre seeing one teeny tiny fraction of the area of the entire sky. No matter where we look in the sky, we see galaxies splayed out like this. The cosmos is a grand place, full of wonder and delight. Exploring it is just about the noblest thing we can do.
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Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux Apache - Free 191 Page Preview from Tradepub. Learn about everything you'll need to build and maintain your Linux servers, and to deploy Web applications to them. Whether you're planning on running Linux at home, or on a leased Web Server, this book will walk you step-by-step through all of the common administration tasks, from managing traffic reporting to log-file rotation. This guide even includes step-by-step instructions on installing Linux (Fedora 4), Apache 2.0, PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1 on a home or office development server, so you can test all of your applications before rolling them out.
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Guess what....I know you guys have been asking and we finally got it approved. We now can take the discover card! I am looking into getting AMEX next but for now we accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover.
BTW- to my chicagoland clients...I am trying not get the images posted for your sneak peak however my computers have not been working with me this week and so the process has been slower than I would have liked....I am trying though.
I will try to post something again soon.
News the best top 10 >>> discover card
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