This Week In Credit Card News
by Jason SteeleObama Reafirms Support For Credit Card Bill Of Rights
Yesterday,the director of the White House National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers, went on the NBC Sunday morning talk show Meet The Press and confirmed the administration’s support of the proposed Credit Card Holder’s Bill Of Rights. Here is a Reuters article with all of the details. This should come as no surprise to anyone following this issue as Obama stated his support during the campaign. In fact, his campaign web site, which is still up says so here.
It is very easy for a president to say that they are in favor of something, but it is only important that they actually take steps to support it. George Bush, for example, expressed his support for regualating carbon dioxide emmisions and even claimed to support an extension the assault weapons ban, but famously did nothing to support either. What was news in Mr. Summers interview was his statement in support of accomplishing this soon.
Summers said Obama would be “very focused in the very near term on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses,” adding “We need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addict people to it,”
This is certainly a good thing to hear for all of those in support of this worthy legislation.
Bankruptcy On Talk Of The Nation
It is a sure sign of my advancing age that I listen to National Public Radio while in the car. So today, I could not help but overhear an interesting discussion on credit and bankruptcy on the Talk Of The Nation show. The featured guest was Time Magazine’s Jane Bryant Quinn, who has written an article exploring the merits of declaring bankruptcy. I am not familiar with the ins and outs of our bankruptcy code, so it was interesting to read the main benefits, which are preserving your retirement accounts, your children’s college savings plans, and possibly your home. She argues persuasively that using up these savings to pay the minimum on your credit card debt just isn’t worth it. The article is a good, short read, and the discussion on NPR is almost a half an hour. I would recommend either if you are considering bankruptcy, know someone who is, or are just curious about what it is.
Super Duper American Airlines Sign Up Bonus, Great For Churners
American Airlines actually invented the frequent flier program, an they still have a reputation for having one of the better airline loyalty operations in the business. Even better, they have a reputation among hard core frequent flier and reward card aficionados for allow their Citibank affiliated reward cards to be “churned”. This is the process of signing up for a card multiple in order to receive a sign up bonus. Most cards do not allow this, and their user agreements explicitly exclude sign up bonuses to any who have received one in the past. In reality, most banks tend to only be able to enforce this for people who have held a card in the last few years.
I have recieved sign up bonus on Delta and United cards multiple times, but it was at least five years since cancelling the first time until I attempted it again. With the American Airlines cards from Citibank, supposedly you can get several different cards at once, with a sign up bonus for each. Over at the One Mile At A Time blog, they are covering the fact that American Airlines has upped the ante to 30,000 bonus miles per card. The Frugal Travel Guy has listed churning these cards as his Number One Travel Deal for some time now. He claims that you can re-apply every six months for the cards which are fee free for the first year. In theory, that is 240,000 a year. We are talking four cards they offer, with bonuses of 30,000 miles a card, twice a year. Amazingly, the bonuses also count toward your “Million Mile” status on American Airlines.
I haven’t done this yet, but I am starting to wonder if it may be a good idea at some point.