rewards

How To Compare Rewards Credit Cards

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Not long ago, comparing rewards cards was pretty straight forward. Most credit card offers gave cardholders one point, or one mile, for each dollar spent and charged to the card. Credit card rewards programs sometimes offered bonuses for earning miles either for using the cards during specific periods of time or when shopping at certain types of stores. Often, these special offers came in the form of “double miles” or even “triple points”. These days, such offers are non-expiring specials on some credit cards. Other cards, such as some Capital One rewards cards offer a base miles earning rate other than 1 mile per dollar. My Capital One No Hassle Miles credit card, for example, has a base miles earning rate of 1.25 miles for each dollar spent, with two times miles per dollar spent when the card is used in certain types of retail shopping establishments. Of course, comparing which card offers the highest miles earned per dollar spent is useless without also comparing what rewards those miles or points can be redeemed for. In order to determine which rewards cards are good values and which ones are below average (or worse) it pays to keep in mind that …

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Credit Card Rewards Programs – Are New Laws Making Them More Stingy?

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It is standard lobbying practice for any industry about to come under additional regulation from Congress to shout to the press, and whoever else will listen, that any and all proposed regulations or laws of any kind would adversely affect the poor customer. Thus, any additional rules or regulations of any kind on credit card companies would make things worse for credit card customers. More reading: Citibank Thankyou Points catalog. Grandstanding aside, while poorly thought out regulations can hamper entire industries and harm customers, many times new government oversight can have a positive affect both on the industry as a whole, and on the experience of customers as well. In the case of recent credit card legislation, the new rules and regulations on banks and credit card issuers were thoroughly debated not just between Republicans and Democrats, but within those parties as well. Fortunately, the by-product of real debate is often good legislation. Unfortunately, the power of lobbyists can overwhelm good debate when the sides are fractured. What emerged from Congress in the form of newer, tougher, credit card industry regulation was indeed thoroughly debated, but was it good for customers, or did it, as the industry claimed, hurt ordinary …

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How To Fight Credit Card Company Interest Rate Increases

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With Congress passing legislation to reign in some of the worst credit card abuses, credit card companies have been scrambling to get their terms and conditions, also known as the card contract, changed to terms more favorable to them before the new rules take affect. By changing your credit card agreement before the new credit card law takes affect, these card issuers can avoid having to play fairly as dictated by the new rules. However, this can mean bad things for customers and credit card account holders. Apparently, the banks aren’t concerned about losing business, because they are modifying terms on credit accounts left and right regardless of the person’s credit score or credit history. What can the average credit card customer do to fight back? Unfortunately, not too much, but there are some things that you can do to keep the credit card companies from cheating you out of your hard earned money. Credit Card Interest Rate Increases Under the old law, whenever a bank wanted to increase the interest rate it charged customers, it just sent out a letter saying that they were changing raising the interest rate. Consumers had no rights to do anything about it. The …

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Credit Card Company Tricks and How To Beat Them

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Citibank raised the interest rates for customers with high credit scores who had never missed a payment.  Virtually every credit card company opposed the very tame reforms recently passed into law by Congress.  The sad truth is that is isn’t a matter of if your credit card issuer will try something sneaky, it’s a matter of when, and how bad will it be. While there is always tension between a company that must turn a profit and consumers who want to get as much as possible for the lowest price, with most relationships between a business and consumer there is at least some degree of fairness.  Unfortunately, this is seldom the case for the relationship between credit card company and credit card user.  Instead, in this relationship, the credit card company works hard to hook a customer and then slowly tries to squeeze the maximum profit out of them.  Between absurd fees, sudden contract term changes, and just plain old subterfuge, your credit card company is out to get you if you stop paying attention. Top Credit Card Company Tricks – 0% APR Credit Card Offers While there are many areas the banks that issue credit cards are less than …

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Review Citibank Rewards Points Elite Level Premier Pass Card

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The Citibank PremierPass credit cards offers higher point earnings for frequent travelers, but comes with a steep annual fee.  And, most cardholders were recently nailed with a steep increase in interest rate even if they had good credit.  Do the PremierPass pros outweigh the cons?

citibank-credit-card-premierpass-elite

Earn Points Citi Premier Pass Card

The basic Citibank rewards points chart looks like this.

  • 2 ThankYou Points earned for ever $1 spent at Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, Drugstores, Parking, and Public Transportation like subways.
  • 1 Thank You Point earned for all other $1 spending.
  • 1 Thank You Point earned for every mile flown on any airline, including other people whose tickets you bought with the card.

ThankYou Points Redeem Chart

Points / $ Travel Reward* Spending Required Cash Back Equivalent
Grocery, Parking, Drugstore, Gas 2 Points / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $10,000 2%
Everywhere Else 1 Point / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $20,000 1%
50 / 50 Split 1.5 Point / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $15,000 1.5%

* Since there is no fixed flight option anymore, I tested a couple of flights through the booking system and it appears that tickets are pricing at approximately 100 points per dollar.

Reward Value is average unless you maximize shopping at the 2 for 1 points locations.

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Citibank Credit Card Rewards Thank You Network Update

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According to an email received this week, the fixed flight option will no longer be available as of March 1st. Quick Summary Before 3/1/09 – Great deal for flights between $200 and $400 (the closer to $400 the better the deal).  Still a good deal for flights over $400. After 3/1/09 – Deal Gone.  You pay 100 points per dollar.  Average travel reward at best. Check here for updated information about 2011 Citibank rewards credit card programs. Look here for an updated review of the Citibank rewards catalog 2011. Fixed Point Travel Flight Option What does that mean for Citibank credit card holders?  A worse deal. Until 3/1/09 you can get a domestic flight reward on “virtually any airline” for 20,000 ThankYou Points, up to $400.  If the ticket is more than $400 then it is 5,000 points for every $50. That works out to 50 points per dollar for a $400 flight and then 100 points per dollar after.  That, of course, only works at exactly $400, but any flight over $200 costs you less than 100 points per dollar. Even if you go over $400, you are still getting a good deal because that first $400 comes at …

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Find The Capital One No Hassle Rewards Site

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It seems that several visitors are finding their way to the Finance Gourmet because they are trying to figure out how to access the Captial One No Hassle Rewards information on the Captial One website. Some people just wanted a mailed printed Capital One Rewards catalog, but they aren’t very common. It isn’t exactly hidden, but if you are one of those people who wants your webpages to be pretty clear, you might be a little frustrated.  There are two ways to get there that I know of: If you login to your Capital One credit card account online, you will see a screen like this one.  You’ll notice that there is a “Rewards Summary” link in two spots on the main card management screen.  Click it and you’ll get information on how many points you have earned.  On that screen is a button that says “View and Redeem Rewards.”  Click that, and you are in business. If you would rather just go there directly, the address is https://nohasslerewards.capitalone.com From there, you can look at what rewards are available and order your rewards directly from the site.  Keep in mind that you’ll need to have cookies enabled (especially if you …

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