If you’ve had a chance to view the new commercial for Visa Black Card, you may find it interesting that the creators, Curt Morgan and Brain Farm out of Wyoming, are actually more familiar with creating sports related digital commercials. Notable commercials and video include Quiksilver, ESPN and National Geographic (as well as lots of snowboarding stuff). So, Curt Morgan may have been a bit surprised when approached to create the new Visa Black Card commercial. However, after taking a look at the high action commercial, you will see that it kind of makes perfect sense.

There were specific requirements for this commercial. In order to match the reputation of the Visa Black Card, the commercial needed to represent all of the fantastic aspects of a luxurious lifestyle. In order to pull this off in typical Visa Black Card fashion, Curt Morgan and Brain Farm along with Visa Black, concluded that the commercial would follow a female James Bond theme (by way of Donna Feldman) and include high action, high intensity and of course be completely black.

Who Is Donna Feldman

As Curt Morgan of Brain Farm mentioned, Donna Feldman certainly appears to be a natural for the female James Bond part of the commercial. Her appearances range from Deal or No Deal , Fashion House and ads for Caesar’s Palace, Sports Illustrated and Revlon, just to name a few. She has actually done quite a bit of work in various film and print ads. It is generally agreed that her look alone pretty much nailed the character needed for the Visa Black Card commercial.

The Perfect House in Southern California aka The Razor

Another luxurious part of the Visa Black Card commercial is the house that was used in filming. In choosing the house to use for the commercial, Curt Morgan said “We were looking for the house of our dreams…” and the house they decided upon happened to be located in Southern California, and known as “The Razor”. This house, or piece of art (as would be a more appropriate title) spans 11,000 square feet in the La Jolla Farms area of San Diego and includes 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. It was designed by Wallace Cunningham and if you happen to have some extra cash lying around, is currently for sale at $19.3 million.

Transparency from glass walls that reach from floor to ceiling and the stunning optical illusions crated by the infinity pool are probably the most stunning aspects of The Razor. It is an amazing home evident even in photographs and for most of us, fits the theme that Visa Black Card attempted to portray in the commercial.

Trip to Monte Carlo

As if just traveling to Monte Carlo wouldn’t be extravagant enough, the crew for the commercial actually had to travel to Monte Carlo for only two shots in the video. The reason the trip was necessary, was because if you view the commercial, there is a black yacht. In true, exclusive, Visa Black Card fashion, this black boat is only found in Monte Carlo.

Curt Morgan mentioned that one of the challenges in shooting the commercial was committing completely to digital as opposed to film. The entire video was also completely live with no studio shooting at all which resulted in extremely adventurous and action packed scenes. From the super sexy, Donna Feldman driving the motorcycle down the winding road next to the The Razor, to jumping from the helicopter into the water (which she actually did) all the way to speeding away in a black yacht that can only be found in Monte Carlo to the tune of ACDC’s Back in Black.

In my opinion, the commercial succeeds in targeting prospective carriers of the exclusive Visa Black Card. If you are able to carry the Black Card, you quite possibly are able to also take part in a luxurious and high performance lifestyle such as the one that is led by Ms. Donna Feldman (minus actually becoming a female James Bond, of course.) The commercial successfully portrays all of the things that those of us non-carriers imagine the carriers take part in on a daily basis and wraps up the exclusivity of the Visa Black Card in a very nice, exciting, high intense, high action and high performance package.

Sources:

Donna Feldman
The Razor 

If you look at the official Chase website now, you will notice that they are offering only $100 cash back bonus of new applicants to their Chase Freedom Card. But review sites like ours are still offering the $200 cash back bonus version.

But the Chase Freedom – $200 Cash Back bonus deal on our site will end on Monday morning and from then on, the sign up bonus will be $100 just like what it is on the official Chase site right now.

Just as a recap, you need to spend $500 within the first three months to get the $200 bonus cash back. That is a 40% return for 3 months (120% return annualized).

If you had always wanted to get the Chase Freedom, now is the time to pull the trigger. You can apply for the Chase Freedom here ($200 cash back bonus version). Don’t apply from the Chase site. You only have until Monday morning (not sure of time) to get this bonus version.

Alright folks, the British Airways 100,000 sign up bonus is back. When the 100,000 deal came out last year, Mrs Credit Card and myself got into the act and we both got the card. The criteria to get the 100,000 miles is a little more strict than last year.

For the 2012 100,000 bonus miles deal, you will get 50,000 bonus Avios miles after you use the card for the first time. Then after you spend $10,000 within the first 12 months, you get 25,000 bonus miles. If you then spend another $10,000 (making it a total of $20,000) also within the first 12 months, you get another 25,000 miles. So in total, you have to spend $20,000 within the first year to get the 100,000 miles.

In contrast, we only had to spend $2,500 last year! So the criteria is definitely tougher. But it’s still 100,000 bonus miles. At present, this is the best sign up bonus deal in the market today (the Capital One Venture 100,000 points match just closed).

You can apply for the British Airways Visa Signature here.

Recap: How It Worked In 2011
Read the rest of this entry »

Users of the rewards program and college savings plan, Upromise will be interested in the order filed by the Federal Trade Commission regarding Upromise. The final order which settles charges with Upromise, Inc. includes a number of new requirements that have to be followed in order to keep the college savings service going.

What Is Upromise?

Upromise, Inc., is most known for providing a membership reward service which assisted consumers in saving money for college. With the service, you would use the web-browser toolbar that was provided. You would then use the toolbar for your online shopping through thousands of Upromise partner sites, such as with Overstock.com, Walmart, and Best Buy, and earn rewards. Rewards are also earned similar to credit card rewards on dining out, book travel and grocery coupons. You could even earn rewards from the Upromise credit card. These rewards are then redeemed for a savings plans in the form of savings accounts, 529 Savings Account Plans, payment toward an eligible Sallie Mae Student Loan, or just a check.

The Charges Against Upromise

It seemed like a handy dandy tool that may help consumers earn rewards like the many other toolbars out there that do the same thing. However, the Upromise TurboSaver Toolbar allegedly collected consumer’s personal information without disclosing that this information was being collected.

The information collected included minor things such as usernames and passwords, but also user information on secure websites such as online banks, credit card numbers, and Social Security numbers.

In fact, pre settlement order, the privacy disclaimer on the Upromise toolbar falsely indicated that personal information was secure and private with policies and procedures designed to safeguard information. They also claimed to automatically encrypt information but the filter used to collect the date was found to be too narrow and not structured properly. A lot of personal information that was entered onto web pages was actually collected without encryption.

Upromise defended the practices by claiming that some of the information was collected inadvertently but personal information was removed before transmitted. However, the failure to disclose the practice of collecting information was deemed by the FTC as failure to take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect consumers’ data.

The Settlement Order Between Upromise and the FTC

The Final Order by the FTC settling charges with Upromise does not require Upromise to discontinue collecting personal data as many people would probably prefer, instead they are required to disclose its exact data collection practices and ask for the consent before any toolbar products are added or installed. Other requirements include barring misrepresentations about the extent of the maintenance of the privacy and security of user’s personal information, among other things.

This order also requires Upromise to destroy data that has already been collected and to insure they have clear consent from the consumer to install any product similar to the Upromise toolbar. This disclosure also has to be separate from any other agreement, partially I would suspect, to insure that consumers are actually paying attention to and reading the disclosure. Consumers must also be notified of how the information will be collected and be provided instructions on disabling the toolbar and/or uninstalling the toolbar.

What Does this Mean to You?

The question however, is whether these types of requirements mean anything to consumers who probably never paid much attention the disclosures in the first place. How many Upromise users were ever aware that there was a security issue, or that their personal information was being collected? At some point, consumers will need to become more educated on how these services work and the potential risks of using these services. Upromise is guilty most of all for not disclosing information, but consider how many consumers ever thought to look into or investigate on their own how their personal information was being used when they installed the toolbar and shopped at participating retailers directly through the Upromise toolbar.

The other question is also directed toward consumers. At what point are we to be responsible for looking into and investigating services when we know full well, our information may be collected? And how many consumers will still choose to opt in on these services, even when they know that all of their personal information may be collected? Furthermore at what point if any, is the deal or discount worth sacrificing privacy?

Sources:

FTC and Upromise

FTC Decision and Order

I recently received an email from US Airways offering me 10,000 bonus miles if I signed up and switched utility providers. Since we are based in the Philadelphia area, PECO was our long time provider. Alternative providers became available after deregulations.

To be honest, we have gotten lots of junk mails from “new” providers promising savings. If you read the fine prints, the promised savings is only guaranteed for one year and after that, who knows. It’s like the cable companies and high speed internet services. They tell you the savings for the year, but never tell you whether you will save in the long term! The reason why I never took up these offers is that in the event of a severe weather (thunderstorms, snow etc), PECO (the local folks) will send folks quickly to fix broken lines etc. I’m not too sure how this will work for out of state providers who promise only savings for a year.

So I guess it comes as no surprises that utility providers will team up with airlines and try to use air miles as the “bait and switch”!

Below is a screenshot of the email I got from US Airways.

Fine Prints and Details – So here are some of the fine prints of this offer. Firstly, you will receive the 10,000 bonus miles after 2 billing cycles (ie you have used the service for 2 months). You will also get to earn double miles for every dollar you spend on “supply portion of the bill”.

This offer is available only to Pennsylvania residents serviced by Duquesne Light Company, Met-Ed, PECO, Penelec, PPL Electric Utilities or West Penn Power. Another important thing to note is that Energy Plus is currently offering service to most customers that fall under the residential and small business rates classes. Below is the rate classes for companies that are eligible to switch.

The eligible Duquesne Light Company rate classes are RS and GS.
The eligible PPL Electric Utilities rate classes are RS, RTD, GS1/G1D, GS3, GH1, GH2 and SA.
The eligible Met-Ed and Penelec rate classes are RS, RT and GS.
The eligible PECO’s rate classes are R and GS (<100KW) rate classes,
The eligible Penelec’s rate classes are RS and GS-Small rate classes,
The eligible West Penn Power’s classes are RS and GS rate classes.

Another thing to be aware of is that if you have solar panels and are using net meters, Energy Plus does not offer that service and if you do switch, you do not get any credits back from them.

But the good thing about this deal is that you can open unlimited accounts. So if you have a home and a business office (that is not home based), you could potentially get 20,000 bonus miles!

To be honest, 10,000 bonus miles is not enough for me to actually even bother switching utilities. But if you are going to switch to a cheaper provider, check if you have any similar offers from your frequent flier programs. I would go through your old email inboxes. If US Airways is sending this offer to residents in Pennsylvania, you can be sure they are partnering with other utilities in other states. And if you happen to want to switch to that partner, then you may find some extra miles coming into your account!