Finance Gourmet » Credit Cards

BillGuard Safe and Legit?

Finance Gourmet — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:32:02 +0000

BillGuard is an online financial services company that monitors your credit cards for fraudulent charges. On the surface, this sounds like something you don’t need. After all, if you see credit fraud on your bill you are going to do something about it. However, in this fast-paced world, it is all too common for people to neglect to verify all of their charges, especially the smaller ones.

BillGuard Scam?

First, I like to see if something is a scam before looking further. After all, if you are throwing your money away, it really doesn’t matter how good of a job they do.

In this case, there are some concerns, but it would be hard to call the service a scam.

No credit card number or PayPal account is required, so there is no way for the company to charge you for some subscription or offer.

Second, the company never asks for your Social Security number either. It does ask for some usernames and passwords, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Finally, the company just raised $10 million from some well-known venture capitalists. That doesn’t mean, in itself, that the company is legitimate. However, there are a lot of easier ways to run an online scam than to convince some big name financiers that you are on the level while running a con.

BillGuard Secure or Not?

The whole premise of BillGuard is that the company will electronically review your credit card charges and flag items that appear fraudulent, or that at least require attention. To do so, it must access your credit card statements online, and that is where it the warm and fuzzy wears off.

BillGuard uses Yodlee to access your banking information. Yodlee is legit. They’ve been around a long time and big banks, with much more at stake than you, trust them inside their systems, so there is nothing to worry about here. Bill Guard uses Yodlee to get “read-only” access to your accounts. Once you get to that point, you are golden.

However, where it gets slippery is that, in my opinion, Yodlee doesn’t implement their platform correctly in these situations. In order to use BillGuard, and the safe Yodlee back end, you have to give your username and password to BillGuard, who then passes it on to Yodlee. Compare this to how PayPal works, where you give your credit card information to PayPal, and then PayPal passes the information back to the original service, in this case BillGuard. In that system, you only have to trust PayPal, because the merchant never sees your information, but here, you have to trust BillGuard too. They say that they don’t save anything and just pass it along to Yodlee, but you just have to take their word for it.

For whatever it’s worth, this is the same way the popular online money management too, Mint.com works.

BillGuard Review

If you decide that you are comfortable with the way your account information is handled, Bill Guard is an interesting concept.

While it is true that you are very likely to notice an unauthorized charge for $800, it is equally true that you may overlook an unauthorized charge for a small amount. This is especially likely if you have a joint account with a spouse. You may just assume that an $8.35 charge from a merchant you don’t quite recognize is your wife buying lunch. Again, you’d almost certainly ask what the $800 was legit, but $8 is harder to remember. Maybe the $8.35 is actually a new charge for your credit card rewards program that you never wanted.

Additionally, there are those charges that are maybe partially unauthorized. For example, if you did subscribe to a service for $12 per year, but they charge you $15 for some reason, you might not notice that either. Comcast is a terrible offender in this area. You agree to pay $100 for your cable and internet and then 6 months later you are paying $104 because of some increase in a fee here or there. Heaven forbid if your promotional rate expires. Your bill shoots up $50 without any warning. Of course, you agreed to all this, but that doesn’t make it right.

BillGuard works by crowdsourcing monitoring credit accounts for fraudulent and unauthorized activity. For example, let’s say you do notice that $8.35 charge and report it. Then, BillGuard looks at other people’s credit card charges for an $8.35 charge from the same merchant and flags it for review. If enough people flag the charge, then the signal gets stronger.

Unfortunately, it seems that BillGuard doesn’t work so well in the one area that would really help me. I want it flagged when my Comcast bill goes up, or my cell phone bill, or whatever. However, since everyone has different accounts and packages, they wouldn’t be flagging the same things. And, since pretty much everyone gets screwed over by the cable company or phone company at some time, allowing those flags to exist would generate a lot of false positives for people who aren’t currently being tricked.

Ultimately, BillGuard is an interesting service. However, it is unnecessary if you are already vigilant about monitoring and verifying your finances. But, if you have a lot of accounts and let months go by without reviewing everything, BillGuard might be just the little help you need to keep from being scammed.

BillGuard Safe and Legit? originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Quizzle Scam or Legit?

Finance Gourmet — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:45:56 +0000

I’ve gotten several request lately to review Quizzle. Quizzle is an online financial service that offers, according to the bold face type, a free credit report, free credit score and various financial tools.

Whenever someone points me in the direction of a personal finance company like this the first thing I check is if I can sniff out a scam. Often, you can spot the scam coming before you even see the fine print. Obviously, if something isn’t on the up and up, then there is no reason to waste any time on a review.

So, is Quizzle legitimate, or is this all a big con job?

Is Quizzle a Scam?

The biggest red flag for the various free credit score or free credit report offers floating around out there is to look for the words “free trial.” Typically, the way the free credit score scam works is that a financial company (including all three major credit bureaus) offer you a free report in big, bold type and in smaller type, lower down on the page, inform you that it isn’t actually free at all. Instead, you are being offered an automatically renewing trial membership in a credit monitoring program that costs $20, $30, or even $50 per month.

This kind of offering is all too common. There are some services that do follow through on the free offer. For example, I checked into whether Credit Karma was a scam and determined it wasn’t. My full Credit Karma review determined that the site offers a non-FICO score, but it is really free.

The way to see the trial offer trap coming, if you don’t see it before, is to watch out for the website to ask for your credit card information. There is no reason for a legitimate free credit offering to require your credit card information. Indeed, the reason you have to enter that information is so that they can automatically charge you the full monthly or annual fee for that trial service without asking when your free period runs up.

For example, Credit Check Total asks for your credit card number. To avoid suspicion, they actually offer free credit reports and scores for $1, so that’s why they need the number. Buried in the fine print, of course, is the information that they’ll use that same number to pay for your monthly subscription once your 7-day trial period is over.

Quizzle does not ask for a credit card number. So far, so good.

Who Owns Quizzle?

While the ownership of a company is never a precise indicator of a scam, there is some comfort in knowing who you are doing business with. In this case, it turns out that Quizzle is owned by Quicken, or more precisely is, “part of the Quicken Loans family of companies.”

That doesn’t mean Quizzle is legit, but it does mean that this isn’t two teenagers sitting in their bedroom concocting an online identity theft scheme.

How Quizzle Makes Money

Finally, in order for something to not be a scam, there has to be a legitimate business strategy for it to exist. In Credit Karma’s case, for example, the company relies on advertising and referral commissions to earn its keep.

Quizzle’s money making strategy appears two-f0ld. First, the company is a Quicken Loans company. That means it doesn’t necessarily have to make money on its own. It does act as a feeder for business to Quicken Loans. In fact, on the first sign up screen, there is just one question that isn’t just name, address, phone number type stuff, and it’s about whether you plan to buy a house. Guess what sister company is very interested when the answer to that question is yes.

Second, Quizzle offers several additional services that it does charge a fee for. These charges are never automatic and are all advertised clearly as being something you pay for. You can determine whether these Quizzle offerings are worth it or not for you.

As it turns out, Quizzle is not a scam. There is no hidden charge and the privacy policy only allows them to hand over your personal data to other Quicken companies, so that’s par for the course.

I looks like a full Quizzle review is in order. I’ll start looking into that.

Quizzle Scam or Legit? originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Credit Check Total Scam or Legit?

Finance Gourmet — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:17:14 +0000

After a review of Credit Kama here on FinanceGourmet, a reader asked if I would look into another service he had found called Credit Check Total at creditchecktotal.com.

Credit Check Total Review

With many financial services, the reality of the offering differs significantly from what the bold, large-type headline suggests. The Credit Check Total website leads with the bold headline that you can “see your whole credit picture” of all three credit reports and credit scores for just $1. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

Further down the page, but to their credit, not buried in the fine print, is information you need to determine if this near free credit report offer is right for you, or if Credit Check Total is a scam. It says that when you order the $1 credit reports and scores, that you will automatically, and without the ability to opt-out begin a trial membership that costs $29.95 per month.

The real trick here is that you have just a 7-day trial period. If you don’t cancel during those 7 days, then those $1 credit reports actually cost you at least $30.95.

When I looked into whether or not Credit Karma was a scam, I was on lookout for whether or not they tried to get me to enter a credit card number or bank account information. After all, there is no reason to require a billing method if your service is actually free. However, a lot of so-called “free” offers are actually trial subscriptions to a credit monitoring service. It looks like Credit Check Total’s offer might have been designed to avoid that red flag. By charging a $1 for their reports, they offer a legitimate reason to need a method of payment (and to test that it works).

There is no reason to pay $30 per month for a credit monitoring service. There are plenty out there that will do it for much less.

If that weren’t enough, the credit score offered through the creditchecktotal.com website isn’t even a real FICO credit score. The fine print says that it is calculated using the Plus Score Model and is for educational purposes only. As I have mentioned before, having the exact FICO score isn’t necessary since you should really just focus on making sure that whatever score you are using doesn’t go down. However, for $360 per year, you should at least get a FICO credit score included.

I do not recommend signing up for this service, even if you intend to cancel before the trial period is up. There is just no added value beyond getting your regular free annual credit reports.

Cancel Credit Check Total

If you go against my advice to not sign up for CreditCheck Total, then you will need to cancel your service to avoid paying a very high monthly fee.

If you insist on signing up, check to see if your credit card offers a temporary number. Many cards allow you to generate a temporary number online. Set it to expire next month, and if possible, set a maximum limit of $5. You can use a one-use number or set the limit at just $1 because they charge tax, and they do a reversible authorization on your card of $1 in addition to the actual $1 fee, probably to detect one-time use numbers.

Cancelling Credit Check Total before the trial period is up is necessary to avoid being charged the full credit monitoring service fee. Technically, you have nine days after you sign up for your $1 credit reports because it takes 48 hours for your monitoring to actually start. This is nice. At least the clock isn’t ticking while you aren’t getting anything. However, remember, this is not the typical 30-day trial that you often see for these services. In fact, the window to cancel is so short, I recommend cancelling immediately after you get your three credit reports.

How To Cancel Credit Check Total

According to the Terms of Service posted on their website, you can cancel the recurring credit monitoring service by calling 1-866-506-7894 or by using the website. Don’t wait until 5:00 p.m. on the last day as there is some fuzzy language about time zones and periods in the TOS.

Credit Check Total Scam or Legit? originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

TurboTax Refund Card Review

Finance Gourmet — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:37:33 +0000

TurboTax is a popular tax filing software package. There are several versions ranging from a free online basic TurboTax edition to a Home and Business TurboTax and more. They all in work in pretty much the same way. The software guides the user through a bunch of fill in the blank entry screens and does all the math and complicated tax worksheets automatically behind the scenes.

For a great many Americans, using TurboTax software is just as good as paying an accountant to file taxes.

Turbo Tax Refund Card

At the end of the Turbo Tax filing process, the software offers users the ability to get their tax refund via a prepaid Visa card. Unlike the Rapid Refund scams of years gone by, there is no promise of a faster refund, and the refund card is not actually a loan against your actual refund. That being said, the whole thing borders on being a TurboTax Refund Card scam.

Like all legitimate businesses, Intuit, maker of TurboTax, covers itself in a sea of fine print and disclosures buried deep beneath the suggestion that this refund method is actually advantageous for the taxpayer filing their taxes. So, technically, everything is on the up and up. However, chances are you’ll be better getting your refund a different way.

First up, is the news that you can get your refund fast, in some cases, the IRS direct deposits the money to your card in as little as 7 days. If you are paying attention, this is the exact same time frame for getting your refund direct deposit into your actual bank account instead of on the Turbo Tax Refund Card. In other words, there is no speed benefit to the card unless you were planning to ask the IRS to mail you a check.

Despite the Visa logo on the card, there is no credit card feature to the refund card. Rather, the card is the same thing as a prepaid Visa card. For those of you who don’t have much experience with prepaid credit cards, it works the same as a debit card only instead of being attached to a checking or savings account at your bank, funds are attached to the card itself. It is very much like a gift card with a prepaid amount on it. The difference is that you can refill it.

Many merchants have similar setups. I have a Starbucks card that works just like this, only it doesn’t have the sneaky fees that push this card from being a legit card to being very close to being a scam.

TurboTax Refund Card Fees

Of course, the devil is in the details. In this case, the devil is in all the fees for the TurboTax Refund card. The first month you have the TurboTax Visa Refund card, there is no monthly charge. After that, there is a monthly fee of $5.95 per month, unless you keep the balance on the card above $50. That means that you don’t want to be using this card to pay for small purchases over a long period of time.

Next up is the fee for cash withdrawals. Using an ATM to get cash from your TurboTax card will cost you $2.50 plus whatever fee the ATM itself charges. It even costs 50 cents to do a balance inquiry through an ATM, although they are free online or via phone or text. You do get ONE free withdrawal each month, but it has to be at an AllPoint network ATM, so check those labels closely.

There is a $4.95 fee to replace a lost or stolen card and if you decide to reload the card with money, that will cost you $4.95 too. You can avoid the fee by using direct deposit.

Is Turbo Tax Refund Card Worth It?

If you already have a bank account, just have your refund direct deposited into your checking account. It will be just as fast as having it sent to a Turbo Tax card, and chances are you already have plenty of ways to access your money ranging from an existing debit card, to checks, ATM cards, and even teller withdrawals, all without having to worry about tripping over any additional fees or expenses.

If you do not have a bank account, the TurboTax Refund Card will get you your refund faster. However, be sure to use up all the money within the first month or keep your balance above $50. Another option is to withdraw the whole amount in one ATM transaction. That first one is free, but remember there is a daily limit to how much you can withdraw. If it will take you two withdrawals (or more) to get all of your cash, be sure to leave at least $50 on the card to avoid the monthly charge. Otherwise, your refund could disappear quickly in a sea of fees.

If the money isn’t burning a hole in your pocket, consider just waiting for the check.

See the official company information here.

TurboTax Refund Card Review originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Granite Credit Card Review

Finance Gourmet — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:59:29 +0000

Getting a credit card with poor credit is no easy task. Credit card debt is easily wiped away in bankruptcy. Furthermore, because most credit cards are unsecured, banks and card issuers have little recourse to collect the unpaid balance other than reporting negative information to the credit bureaus. People with poor credit aren’t as likely to see that as a motivation to pay up.

Be sure to monitor your credit score on an ongoing basis so you know if it is getting better or worse. Residents of the U.S. can use online credit score reporting services like Credit Karma to monitor credit scores free. Check out the CreditKarma review here on Finance Gourmet for more details.

Granite Card Review

The granite Credit Card is available to residents of the UK who are not legally restricted from obtaining credit. The card is issued by Vanquis Bank, which bills itself as a financial institution that can help with credit repair. It is a Visa card which ensures wide acceptance at most retailers that take credit cards.

As you might expect from a credit card for people with low credit scores, the Granite Card is not cheap. The variable interest rate is currently a whopping 34.9 percent. The good news is that despite the hefty interest rate, there is no annual fee. While technically not a rewards credit card, there is a granite Rewards program that offers discounts from several leading retailers when you use the card to make purchases.

Unlike many credit cards for low credit scores, the granite Card is not a secured credit card. However, the card comes with a low limit that can grow over time with consistent payments and no over-limit issues. The credit card limit is just £150 to start. That amount can increase to up to £500 after your account is reviewed, depending upon just how bad (and how recently bad) your credit is.

The credit limit can potentially be raised every four months, assuming everything is going well. These increases are optional and solely at the discretion of the card issuer, so they are not something that can be relied upon. Over time, the card’s limit may grow to up to £3,000.

Beware, the monstrous interest rate on this credit card can quickly eat up both your credit limit and your ability to pay off the credit card. This card is strictly for those with the ability and the discipline to pay the full balance each month.

Granite Credit Card Review originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Capital One Rewards Catalog 2012

Finance Gourmet — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:21:48 +0000

Capital One No Hassle Miles can be earned on numerous Capital One rewards cards. The program follows the basics that all other miles based credit card rewards programs use. For each dollar you spend on the credit card, you earn 1 mile. Miles can be redeemed for free airline tickets, free hotel rooms and other free travel services.

2012 Capital One Rewards Catalog

Just like with the Capital Rewards Catalog 2011, Capital One saves money by not mailing a printed rewards catalog to every cardholder. Some customers report that they get catalogs because they have a high point balance, while others say that they only get the miles redemption catalogs when they have high card usage. Either way, there is no way to order a Capital One Rewards catalog in the mail. You either got one or your didn’t.

Fortunately, like all rewards programs, the merchandise you can redeem miles for is not offered at a bargain price. The reward “prices” are good for months at a time, so unless the card company is willing to hold inventory of merchandise (expensive), it is necessary to charge an amount of points that results in paying full retail or more for an item. You are much better off redeeming your rewards points and miles for free travel.

Capital One Rewards Chart

Fortunately, you don’t even need a complicated Capital One rewards chart to figure out how many miles you need to redeem for a free flight, depending upon whether you have Capital One No Hassle Miles, or Capital One Venture Miles.

For the Capital One Venture Card, and its no-fee cousin, the Capital One Venture One Card, you redeem your miles at a rate of 100 miles per dollar for any travel expense. (Only certain categories of travel expenses are allowed under the Venture One rewards program, but they include airfare, hotel and car rental.)

You don’t have to order your reward or redeem miles in advance. Rather, when your travel expenses show up on your credit card statement, you can redeem your miles against the existing charges. For example, if you spent $650 on a free plan ticket as your credit card reward, you would buy the ticket using the Venture card just like you would if you were not redeeming miles for free trips. When you see the $650 show up on your monthly bill, or online, login to to redeem your miles. Use 65,000 miles to cover the $650 charge and your balance is now $650 lower. Just pay the rest of your credit card bill like normal.

If you have a Capital One No Hassle Miles card, the deal does require a free ticket redemption chart. The chart is unchanged from the 2011 credit card rewards program.

A ticket that costs less than $150.00 takes 15,000 miles to redeem.

$150.01 to $350.00 takes 35,000 miles to redeem.

$350.01 to $600. 00 takes 60,000 miles to redeem.

Tickets over $600.01 are the price times 100 miles to redeem.

Redeem Miles for Cash or Gift Cards

You can also redeem No Hassle Miles for cash or gift cards.

Cash rewards are the same cost as statement credits. The only difference is that you don’t get a check in the mail. Each reward is redeemed at a rate of half the redemption points for travel. In other words, while 10,000 miles should get you $100 worth of travel, it only gets you $50 worth of cash.

Gift card rewards are dependent upon both the retailer and amount. Some retailer’s gift cards cost the same amount as cash. In that case, you are better off buying them, collecting the points for spending the money and then redeeming for a statement credit. Other retailers redeem at the same rate as travel.

Watch out for changing redemption rates based upon the size of the card. Some retailers will charge a higher rate on cards with smaller values. Often, the better rate begins at $100 gift cards, so check this price point first.

Capital One Rewards Catalog 2012 originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

VentureOne Card Review from Capital One

Finance Gourmet — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:49:14 +0000

Capital One has different types of Venture rewards credit cards. One of them is the VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, which is similar, but different from the main Capital One Venture card that Alec Baldwin pitches on TV. This VentureOne credit card is yellow instead of the Venture card which is blue.

Earn VentureOne Credit Card Miles

The VentureOne credit card is a travel rewards credit card, so cardholders earn miles instead of earning points, although in practice, it is the same thing. Owners of this credit card earn 1.25 miles per dollar spent on every purchase. There is also a one-time bonus for new cardholders of 10,000 miles if you spend $1,000 during the first three months you have the card.

The amount of miles you can earn each year is unlimited and the miles do not expire.

Redeem Miles for Free Travel

The best feature of the VentureOne card rewards catalog is that there is no need for a rewards catalog. Unlike getting the Capital One rewards catalog for the Miles Plus program, there is no need for this card’s reward catalog to come in the mail.

Instead, the number of miles needed to earn free travel is equal to the cost of the tickets multiplied by 100. For example, if you spend $382 on airline tickets to Las Vegas, the number of miles you have to redeem to get them for free is 38,200. That beats trying to manage the credit card reward points ranges typical on other rewards cards.

This rewards ratio is better than a one-percent cash back credit card, which is the minimum to be considered a good rewards card. Assuming all miles are earned at the 1.25 point level, travel rewards are equivalent to 1.25 percent cash back. (Check here for information on how to compare rewards credit cards.)

The great thing about this card is that there are no hoops to jump through to book your reward travel. You don’t have to book the tickets through Capital One or use a special Travelocity website or anything like that. In fact, you don’t have to redeem your miles in advance at all. Instead, you just buy your tickets using the VentureOne card. You can buy your airline tickets anywhere including direct from the airline, through a travel agent or from an online travel website like Expedia. Then, you log on to your account and redeem your miles and you get a credit on your statement.

Since you can book your airfare by any means, there are no blackout dates and no restrictions on which airline you can fly in order to get your free plane tickets.

Miles can also be redeemed for other travel expenses including hotels and rental cars.

Compare to redeeming NoHassle Miles via the Capital One rewards catalog 2011.

VentureOne Interest Rate, Terms and Conditions

There is currently no annual fee for the VentureOne card.

There is currently an introductory 0% interest rate for one year for new card holders. After that, the interest rate is a variable rate equal to Prime plus 8.65 percent, 12.65 percent or 16.65 percent, depending upon which credit rating tier you qualify for. As of today, that means the card has a 11.9%, 15.9% or 19.9% interest rate for current cardholders no longer getting the zero percent interest rate offer. The current cash advance APR is 24.9%, also a variable rate. There is also a 3 percent cash advance fee with a minimum of $10.

As with most variable rate credit cards these days, the interest rate will look absolutely TERRIBLE when interest rates go back to normal levels. A Prime rate of just 5 percent means that the best possible rate on this card will be 13.65 percent and the highest tier customer will be paying a rate of almost 25 percent interest! In other words, you do not want to be carrying a balance on this credit card.

The grace period for interest free purchases is 25 days.

VentureOne Card Perks

The Capital One VentureOne card also comes with the usual lineup of Visa Signature benefits including free auto rental insurance coverage and travel accident insurance. Also included is 24-hour roadside assistance and the Visa extended warranty program.

Venture One Card Review

So, is the VentureOne card worth it?

If you are looking for a card without a complex travel rewards catalog or a travel rewards miles chart, then the VentureOne card is worth a look. Is does have the all important no annual fee feature, but the interest rates are high and will get much higher when the Fed starts raising interest rates.

No related posts.

VentureOne Card Review from Capital One originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Bank of America Charges $5 Per Month For Debit Card

Finance Gourmet — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:04:58 +0000

Use your debit card from Bank of America even once and you’ll be charged a $5 fee. That’s on top of other fees that BoA charges.

The bank that is hardly the top of the most customer friendly list has decided that it can no long afford to be in the banking business without money grabbing fees. The company blames recent rules that limit the amount that can be charged to merchants accepting debit card transactions. However, BoA is charging everyone, regardless of whether they make a debit card (limited fee) or credit card (unlimited fee) transaction. In other words, they want to charge the fee to as many customers as possible.

Obviously, Bank of America customers who are not fools are better off opening another banking account with a credit union or less greedy bank (or one that knows how to actually make money being a bank) and using the debit card from them.

One option for those who don’t want to hassle with another brick and mortar bank is to open an online banking account. Most online checking accounts offer a free debit card. Transfers between banks such as Bank of America and Ally or ING Direct are typically free. Just transfer your funds to the online bank and use their debit card instead. You don’t even have to close your BoA account or change your direct deposit to another bank.

Customers with brokerage accounts may wish to check for checking or debit card options there as well. Fidelity, for example, offers free checking and a free debit card. Again, funds can be easily (and freely) transferred between the bank and the brokerage.

Finally, people who don’t want to pay Bank of America’s $5 debit card fee tax can also take advantage of a PayPal account with a debit card. Not only is the debit card from PayPal free, it offers one percent cash-back, paid monthly and credited directly to your account, no waiting.

In other words, you can pay Bank of America $5 per month for no reason, or you can earn 1 percent on every transaction you make. If you are sticking with using your Bank of America card, then you get what you deserve. As they always say, the markets will sort it out. In this case, the markets will separate the suckers from those who are smart enough to actually care about their money.

No related posts.

Bank of America Charges $5 Per Month For Debit Card originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Latest Citibank ThankYou Rewards Premier Card Offer

Finance Gourmet — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:15:34 +0000

Over at one of my favorite deal news websites, I noticed that Citibank is offering a bunch of bonus points for people who sign up for their ThankYou Premier rewards card as its latest Citi rewards card offer.

As regular readers know, I don’t recommend that people go chasing after credit card rewards or applying for new credit cards just to get credit card points or miles. If, on the other hand, you are currently in the market for a new credit card AND you are looking for a rewards credit card, this offer might be interesting.

First, off, be sure to read all of the fine print in the credit card agreement as well as my Citibank ThankYou Premier rewards card review. On of the big things you will want to note is that this card comes with a very steep annual fee. That should knock it out of the running for most people, but if you tend to rack up a lot of spending on a card for whatever reason, you might be able to make money by earning more rewards than you pay for the annual fee.

Second, although the ad claims that you can get $500 in gift cards with 50,000 ThankYou points, that is only true if you get certain gift cards or redeem your Thank You points for certain denominations of cards. Make sure to read my Citibank rewards catalog review form more information on how to turn miles and points into rewards.

Citi Premier ThankYou Rewards Card

Basically, the Citi Premier Thank You credit card rewards program works like this:

You get 1 ThankYou Point for ever $1 you spend
You get 1.2 Thank You points for every $1 you spend at gas stations, grocery stores, drugstores and certain parking charges.
You earn 1 point for each mile you fly if you buy your airline tickets using the Citibank credit card.
You get an anniversary bonus each year based on how long you have been a cardholder. So if you’ve had your Citi card for two to three years, you earn a 3 percent annual bonus on the points you earn charging things to your credit card.

The special offer gives you 50,000 points IF you spend $2,000 within the first three months the card is open. If you have a big purchase planned, or if you are the type of person who charges everyday things to credit cards and then pay it off every month, the target should be pretty easy to hit.

This is not a good credit card for anyone who won’t spend a lot of money on the card since it has a $125 annual fee. You have to earn those dollars back with points in order to make it a money maker. Otherwise, you’ll just be paying high bank fees for no reason. Keep in mind that it will take approximately $12,500 in charges to get $125 worth of gift cards at the rate of 1 point per dollar spent.

Remember, the 50,000 free bonus points will cover your annual fee for the first year, but after that, you’ll have a credit card with a high annual fee, so you need to make it worthwhile by redeeming your Thank You points for merchandise, cash back, gift cards or free travel.

The interest rate for this Citibank Premier rewards card is 13.99%, 17.99% or 21.99% depending upon your credit score, so this is also not a card you want to carry a balance on.

Who Is Citi ThankYou Premier Card Best For?

This card is best for people who travel a lot. You earn points for each mile flown, plus 1 point for each dollar the ticket costs. If you frequently fly business class or first-class this card should pay off well for you.

Other potential situations that would make this a good credit card are those who make big purchases a few times each year and pay them off quickly, and for those who use their cards instead of cash and then pay off the balance each month.

Customers interested in other rewards credit cards may wish to check out the Capital One Rewards catalog to see how it stacks up with this program.

Latest Citibank ThankYou Rewards Premier Card Offer originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

PayPal Debit Card Worth It?

Finance Gourmet — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:03:23 +0000

PayPal is a popular way to pay people online and also a useful resource for freelancers to get paid electronically. Funds can be transferred electronically from your PayPal account to your linked bank account at anytime. However, there can be a significant delay between when you initiate a PayPal transfer and when it shows up in your account. To help alleviate this issue, PayPal offers a debit card linked to your PayPal account.

I recently got my own PayPal debit card and have had a chance to use it and see how all the little tricks work. Technically, I got a PayPal Business Debit Card, but I don’t see any differences from the regular one.

Is a PayPal MasterCard Debit Card a Good Deal?

PayPal is no different than any other for-profit company, they want to make money. They take a commission on certain types of payments and charge fees for things like receiving international currency in your PayPal account and for letting customers or clients pay you via credit card.

The PayPal debit card is another way for PayPal to make money while giving you more ways to access the funds in your PayPal account, which the company hopes in turn will encourage you to use it more. Like other credit card companies, PayPal earns fees from the retailer every time you use your PayPal MasterCard.

The big lure of the PayPal Debit MasterCard is that you can use it to pull cash out of your PayPal account by ATM instantly. The catch is that PayPal charges you a $1 fee for each ATM withdrawal, in addition to any fees charged by the ATM itself. Unlike many bank ATM cards, the PayPal ATM card is not a member of any ATM network, so no ATM is a free ATM for PayPal debit cards unless it is a surcharge-free ATM.

Read here to learn about the Capital One rewards catalog.

In fact, when I recently started an ATM withdrawal and then changed my mind after seeing that the ATM charged $3 for a withdrawal, I clicked decline. But, since the ATM processed that as a withdrawal and then a credit, PayPal charged me the $1 fee anyway!

I am currently trying to get that refunded. Which, brings me to another drawback to the PayPal debit card.

PayPal is an eBay owned company that does everything online. That isn’t bad in itself, but PayPal sticks closely to the less if more business strategy of online business. There is no 1-800 number or anyone to call at a bank to take care of issues. You get to use the automated online links for predefined issues, but for something like an incorrect ATM surcharge, you’re stuck with emailing and waiting for an answer.

The one dollar surcharge makes the PayPal debit card a bad deal for withdrawing money. Be sure to only make large withdrawals, or if your time permits, just make the free withdrawal transfers to your bank account instead.

The other option is to take advantage of the MasterCard part of the card that lets you charge things instead.

PayPal Debit Card Features

There are some valuable benefits from using the PayPal debit card. First, as a MasterCard, you can use your PayPal card just like a credit card at any merchant, online or offline, that takes MasterCard. Good luck getting Red Robin to let you pay for your meal with PayPal without the card.

Second, the PayPal Debit MasterCard offers 1% cash-back on all purchases made with the card. However, you get this feature ONLY IF you sign-up for cash back rewards online.

The sort of PayPal debit card scam here is that you have to link your PayPal account to an eBay seller account that accepts PayPal as a preferred method of payment. This is not a big deal if you already have a PayPal account and don’t mind making it a preferred method of payment, but it seems like a bit of a credit-card company trick to withhold your chance to earn one-percent cashback until you do something with eBay.

For those of us that use PayPal for payments and not for online auctions, this is an unnecessary step to get one of the benefits of the PayPal debit card. However, if you plan to use your PayPal MasterCard to charge things, take the extra time to setup an eBay account and link it to your debit card to get your 1% cash back. You never have to sell anything, you just have to link the accounts. Just open an eBay seller account and then never use it.

There is another catch to PayPal Debit Card cash-back. It only counts on transactions where you do NOT use your PIN number. So, tell the cashier to use credit, or hit the cancel button on the little payment screen when it asks for your PIN number or you are throwing your cashback away.

The good news is that once you have activated PayPal cash back, it is seamless and easy. The 1% cash back gets credited to your PayPal account balance every month, so there is no waiting until the end of the year or waiting for a check in the mail.

PayPal Debit Card ATM withdrawals are limited to $400 per day and the maximum daily spending limit for the card is $3,000.00.

You can link a backup form of payment to your PayPal card if you choose. Basically, you link another credit card to your PayPal card and if you don’t have enough money in your PayPal account for your transaction, PayPal will pull in the money from your backup credit card.

Personally, I would just use the backup credit card directly, but I can see situations in which someone might want to take advantage of this feature.

PayPal Debit Card Email Notifications

One other interesting feature of the PayPal debit card is that it sends you an email confirmation for every purchase you make. On the one hand it’s great to have that notification. On the other hand, do you really need an email each time you buy a hotdog or fill your car with gas?

Obviously, email filters and such make managing the PayPal notifications easy, but it is something to know before you get the PayPal debit card and start using it everywhere you go.

I downloaded the PayPal Android app and it lets me see transactions as soon as they show up on the system and monitor my account balance and transactions from my phone. Obviously, you can also manage your PayPal account online.

Finally, the one other bad thing about the PayPal debit card is that as an accessory to your PayPal account, it only offers online statements for the last three months. Most banks and credit cards keep your statements online for much longer.

All PayPal accounts only offer the previous three months of statements online. Unless your PayPal account is seldom used, for record-keeping purposes, you’ll need to get into the habit of saving your online e-statements before they get too old and disappear from the system.

In the end, there is no reason to not have a PayPal debit card is you frequently get money in your PayPal account, just know the gotchas and be smart to avoid unnecessary fees and take advantage of your cash back rewards.

PayPal Debit Card Worth It? originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com