Citi&#174 Dividend Platinum Select&#174 Visa&#174 vs Chase Freedom Visa&#174

By: Mr Credit Card

02/15/2012

I get lots of questions from readers asking whether they should should get the cash back card from Citi or the Chase Freedom Visa&#174. I will tackle this issue in this post. I’ll start off with stating that both cards are cash back cards that have very similar features and their differences are subtle and are found in their online shopping mall and their reward programs. Below is a table highlighting both features.

Cards
5% Rotating Category	Yes	Yes
Online Shopping Portal	Citi Bonus Cash Center Online, Offline Phone and Catalog Merchants	Ultimate Rewards Mall Online Merchants Only
Type Of Card	Cash Back	Cash Back & Rewards
Annual Fee	$0	$0

Rotating Categories – Both cards share a lot of similarities. Firstly, they offer cardholders a 5% rotating category where consumers can earn 5% rebates on certain types of expenses each quarter. Their expense types differ slightly and this is one area where consumers will want to check before they apply for either card. The good thing about the Chase Freedom is that they clearly identify their expense category for the whole year in advance. See this years Chase Freedom rotating categories. Citi, on the other hand, only show you the present categories for the present quarter. One thing to note is that the categories change from year to year, so there is no such thing as “this card has a better category”. But rather, it is more a situation whereby you can say “based on my spending habits”, this card will probably let me earn more rebates simply because of the type of expenses in their rotating category buckets.

Online Shopping PortalThe other similarity both these cards have is that they have online shopping portals. As an introduction, these online shopping portals have merchant partners. If you log into your account and shop online with their merchants through the portal with your credit card, you will be able to earn extra points or rebates.

Chase’s portal is their Ultimate Rewards Mall. Cardholders can earn extra points when they shop with their merchant partners. The Ultimate Rewards Mall let you earn extra points and not rebates. The reason is that cardholders of Chase Freedom can earn points that can be converted to cash rebates or rewards. According to our latest study on the Ultimate Rewards Mall, Chase has got 360 partners. Off these partners, 91 of them pay the highest rebates or matches the highest rebates paid when merchants are present in other partners as well.

Citi’s portal is called Citi Bonus Cash Center. According to our recent survey, they have the most number of merchants (594) among all credit card online shopping portals. Out of their 594 merchants, 207 merchants provided the highest rebates when you shop from Citi’s portal. In addition to online partners, Citi also has offline partners (some are the same as the online partners) whereby you can earn rebates shopping at their physical stores, over the phone or even their catalogs. In almost all aspects, the Citi Bonus Cash Center is a better online shopping portal than Ultimate Rewards. Since it is a dedicated shopping portal, you can rebates (not points) with Citi.

Ultimate Rewards Is A Full Suite Reward Program – The real difference between the two cards is the fact that while Citi Bonus Cash Center is merely a online (and off line) shopping portal, cardholders of Chase Freedom get to enjoy the full Ultimate Rewards program. That means the points they earn can be converted to cash rebates (just like the Citi Dividend), but it can also be used to redeem other rewards like gift cards, merchandise and even travel rewards through their online travel booking tool.

Furthermore, cardholders who hold both the Chase Freedom Visa&#174 and Chase Sapphire Preferred(SM) Card can combine their Ultimate Reward Points. That means that the points earned from Chase Freedom can be transferred to the Sapphire Preferred account where you can “transfer points to airline and hotel partners”.

Hence, in a way, the Chase Freedom Visa&#174 is not just a cash back card, but rather a hybrid cash back and rewards card.

So Which Card Is Better? – After looking at these two cards in detail, I would say that each has it’s own strong points. They are similar in many ways. They are first and foremost, cash back cards. They have 5% rotating categories and an online shopping mall. If you area an avid online shopper and are always looking out for deals and discounts, you may veer towards the Citi because their Bonus Cash Center has got more merchants than any other shopping portal. They also have partners where you can shop over the phone, in store or with their catalogs. From this perspective, the Citi is the better card.

But the Chase Freedom Visa&#174 also has it’s strong points. The most obvious one is its’ flexibility. It is both a cash back and a rewards card. For those who would like the option to earn either cash back or travel rewards, this card would make a better choice. Furthermore, when Ultimate Reward points are combined with the Chase Sapphire Preferred(SM) Card, points can be transferred to airline and hotel partners. It also means that cardholders who have both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Freedom will be able to earn points faster through the Freedom’s rotating categories and Ultimate Rewards mall, also also through the double points on the Sapphire Preferred through restaurant and travel spending.

So depending on your priorities, either card should be able to find a home in your wallet. Or even perhaps both, since they have no annual fees and having both in your wallet allows you to truly maximize cash rebates you earn by using the appropriate card at the right time.

Why Paying Gas With Credit Card Is Better Than Cash

By: Mr Credit Card

02/10/2012

Yesterday, I did our annual ritual and drove about an hour to see our CPA. I noticed the gas tank was about one eighth full when we started driving. So I reminded myself to fill up the gas tank on the way back. I kept my eyes open for gas stations along the way after we got off the highway. The gas prices definitely were cheaper than they were back where I lived. I made a mental note of the prices and noted one station that appeared to have the lowest price and I told myself that I will use this particular station on the way back.

On the way back after lunch, I remembered the gas station and stopped to fill up my car. The gas station was “US Gas”, definitely not one of the “big boys”. It definitely had the lowest price (or so I thought). The sign said that it was $3.49 per gallon for regular (the lowest grade). I recall that the next cheapest price was about $3.53 per gallon.

us gas station prices

It was only after I stopped my car that I realized that this was one of those stations that gave you the lowest price only if you paid cash. If you used your credit card, you will have to pay a higher per gallon gas price. To be honest with you, this was the first time I came across a station like that because there aren’t too many like that where I live. I decided to pay cash since I had cash in my wallet (which was very rare). The instructions at the pump says I had to “prepay”.

us gas station - prepay first

So I went inside the store and the guy behind the counter said I had to pay him what I thought the amount would be and he would give me the change if there was extra. I gave him a $50 and proceeded to fill up my car. True enough, the attendant set the maximum charge to $50. Once I hit $50, the pumped stopped. I knew my tank was not full, so I went back to the attendent and gave him another $10. I managed to fill up my car but it cost only about $8 more. So I went back inside again and got my $2 change.

So initially, I was rather happy. It appears that I have saved a few bucks. It was a little inconvenient as I had to carry cash and pay a couple of times because I underestimated how much it would cost to fill the gas tank.

As I was driving, I made it a point to compare other gas prices as well. I passed a Hess station and the price for regular gas was $3.53 and so were many other stations. And these other stations appear to charge the same price regardless of how you pay. Then my mind started doing some calculations and I realized that perhaps I could have actually been “saving more” money using a credit card! How could that be? Here’s how I look at it.

I have the Chase Freedom Card and the Amex Blue Cash (the grandfathered one). Right now for the 1st quarter, the Chase Freedom is paying 5% cash back for gasoline spending. So I made a mental calculation of what was 5% of $3.53. It turned out to be about 17 cents since ten percent of $3.53 was about 35 cents. So five percent was about 17 cents. But the price per gallon I paid at the station I went (which I paid for cash) was $3.49 per gallon. This was way less than 5% of the price at other stations. It fact, I only saved about slightly more than 1% by using the station I did and paying by cash. I could have gone to HESS, paid with my credit card and get 5% cash back, which was about 17 cents per gallon. Instead I only saved about 4 cents a gallon!

In fact, even if you used a cash back card that only paid 2% cash back on gas spending (like the Discover Open Road Card and the new Blue Cash Everyday), you are still better off paying the slightly higher price but with your credit card because the cash rebate will more than offset the higher price.

But with a 5% card like Chase Freedom or Discover More (more 1st and 3rd quarter this year), I could save much more. In fact, if you have the PenFed Cash Back card (which pays 5% rebates for gas the whole year round), you would save even more!

There have been lots of unhappiness with Visa and MasterCard because of interchange fees. There has been lots of rants about not using credit cards and using cash instead. Many site gas stations as a perfect example of how this should work. But when I did the math, it appears that as long as you are using a cash back card or a good gasoline cash back card, you are better off paying with a credit card because of the rebates you can earn.

But to be totally safe, make sure you do some price comparisons (especially if the gas stations are close by) and make a mental calculation if the lower prices (if you pay by cash) is more in percentage terms than the cash rebate you will get from your credit card. That would be the smart way to go about this whole business. But I bet you would find that in most cases, the rebates you get from your credit card for paying for gas will be more than the price reduction from the gas station if you pay by cash.

Platinum Trust Card and Express Platinum Card Scam Exposed by FTC

By: Mr Credit Card

02/09/2012

A catalog credit card and telemarketing scam has just been busted by a Federal Judge after a complaint by the FTC. The companies and people involved were based in Philadelphia and they deceived consumers into parting with fees on a useless catalog card that was supposed to build their credit.

As a prelude, this is how a catalog card works. A catalog card is not a Visa, MasterCard, American Express or a Discover card. Instead, it is a card where you are given a credit limit and you can only use it to make purchases at their online store (ie it is a proprietary store). To entice folks to sign up for such cards, they promise (or are supposed to) report your payments to credit bureaus. This scam involves deceiving consumers about the nature of their product and in the process scamming consumers millions of dollars.

The product involved was a catalog card called Platinum Trust Card and Express Platinum Card. These cards have the following feature. They promised an unsecured credit line of $9,500 (which is actually the norm for catalog cards). Consumers will have to pay an upfront fee of $99. Thereafter, they will have to pay a $19 monthly fee. If you take out the calculator, that works out to $238 annual fee a year! The cards are supposed to be report timely payments to credit bureaus.

The accusations against the defendants was on how they went about marketing their cards. They did so primarily through telemarketing. And they made a few false representations.

Firstly, misrepresentations were made to consumers that their card can be used anywhere Visa, MasterCard, Amex or Discover was accepted. This was clearly wrong. They can only be used at their own online store. That is why they are called catalog cards (very much like store credit cards). There were savvy consumers who actually are aware of what catalog cards were and asked if the cards can only be used at their online stores. The telemarketers denied that was the case and insisted that it can be used anywhere a regular credit card is accepted. Some consumers also asked more specific question like whether the cards can be used at gas stations or grocery stores or places like Walmart. In those instances, the telemarketers insisted that they answer was “yes” and that it can be used there

Secondly, another selling point of the card was that they helped consumer rebuild or build their credit because their payments are reported to the credit bureaus. The “credit bureau” that they were supposed to report to was called Innovis. But upon checking out their website, we found out that Innovis was not a credit bureau at all. In fact, one of their services was to help gathering credit information for companies based on the credit reports provided by the three major bureaus! The FTC found out that they did not report to any credit bureaus at all

The third issue the FTC had was that their “online store” had expensive products that required purchases in “bulk”. Apparently, there were ten online stores that consumers could “shop at”. They were given a login id and password. When they logged into their account, the online stores claims that “they offered products from Sony, Apple and other great brands for guaranteed low prices. Instead, they found products that were overpriced and required bulk purchases.

Perhaps that most serious issue was that the defendants actually withdrew cash from consumers account even if they declined their products! How was this possible? Most of the leads were gotten from online payday loan applicants. While there was nothing in the FTC letter that indicated otherwise, one could only assume that as part of the payday loan application, bank account information was given. Consumers found that even if they had declined the catalog cards offered to them, the initial payment was withdrawn from their bank account anyway!

This practice continue to happen even after consumers called in to complain. The FTC even highlighted examples of representatives who acknowledged the complaints and still withdrew money from consumers bank account. They were many cases that such withdrawals resulted in overdraft fees and some consumers even had to close these accounts to stop these incidents. The FTC did however mention that the only people who actually got back their money were those who complained to their bank and those who actually contacted BBB.

Another issue the the FTC highlighted was the fact that consumers could not resolve any of their disputes with customer service when they called in. They were put on hold for as long as half an hour. They also gave an example of a victim that actually made over a hundred calls. Some representatives promised that a supervisor would call back in a few days but nothing happened.

The FTC also highlighted the high “return rates” of their merchant processors. Any business which accepts payments via credit cards (or any form of card payments) should expect some form of returns due to returned goods (or in some cases charge backs). According to the FTC, the defendants told one merchant processor that they expected a 70% return rate, which is 70 times higher than the industry average in 2010! And in the first nine months of 2011, the return rate for just one of their processors due to unauthorized transaction (those fees taken out without customers permission) was 6.51% (which was more than two hundred times the industry norm).

The way that the defendants organized their business was also highlighted and makes for an interesting read. It involves a few defendants and a few registered LLCs in a pretty elaborate scheme. So this is how the whole scheme works. The parties involved in this case were Chase and Blake Rubin, Justin Diaczuk and Jules Shore. The corporate entities involved were Apogee One Enterprise LLC and Marquee Marketing LLC.

So here is how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Black Rubin does business as Maxim Management Group LLC and has open accounts with payment processors for the Platinum Trust Card. He is the primary contact for any complaints that are directed to BBB or through the phone representatives. Chase Rubin also does business as Maxim Management Group LLC and Oakmont Management Services LLC (both of which are Florida registered). He is the one who registered the domains platinumtrustcard.com and expressplatinumcard.com. He has also opened accounts with several payment processors involved with these cards.

When this whole scam first started, they actually operated out of Salt Lake City in Utah. And this is how they operated. Both Rubins claimed to operate through CR Ventures LLC, which is registered in Salt Lake City. This LLC does business as Platinum Trust Card and represents itself as being based in Salt Lake City. They have opened bank accounts and payment processor accounts under CR Ventures. They even settled a fraud charges with the state attorney in Utah with this entity. But it turns out that this entity was not even theirs. They actually own two entities called CR Ventures Now LLC and CR Ventures One LLC and the CR Ventures LLC was actually owned by an innocent person. But his LLC ended up being used and abused by these folks. The owner of CR Ventures ended receiving complaints from BBB, the State and consumers about Platinum Trust Card!

From January 2009 to August 2011, they operated under CR Ventures LLC (which they do not own) in Utah until they were sued by the State of Utah. They then changed the card name from Platinum Trust Card to Express Platinum Card and claim to operate out of Nevada!

The Nevada based LLC is Marquee Marketing LLC and is owned by Jules Shore. Jules registered domains that were tied to the cards they operated, signed a couple of virtual office accounts and essentially was funnel for proceeds from the whole scam.

Apogee One Enterprise LLC is operated by Justin Diaczuk and this entity has received money from consumers of the Platinum Trust Card and also funded what the FTC called boiler rooms (rooms of telemarketers), and even issued refund checks to consumers!

After the complaint by the FTC, a federal judge has ordered that all operations by the defendants and their entities to cease and their assets frozen.

Lesson To be Learned – But there are many lessons to be learned from this whole episode and also many unanswered questions. Firstly, the FTC did not mention who the payday loan folks were who presumably sold the info to the defendants and their entities. It is also scary that someone else could use your LLC as a pretext to market a scam. One should feel for the the owner of CR Venture and the unjustified complaints he has received.

The extent that people go through to hide their trails is also amazing. In this case, it involves four LLCs and four different people operating them, channeling funds to each other as “management fees”. Another thing that struck me was that there will always be payment processors who will be willing to service even scam artist. If one goes to a reputable processor, there is simply no way that you could ever be accepted or stay as a customer with the sort of refund and return rates (ie charge backs).

But for those who have fallen on hard times, they appear to be the most vulnerable to scams like that. In this instance, troubles began when they were simply cash strapped and took out a payday loan. Then their information is probably sold to scam artists like that and the telemarketing begins, filled with lies and deception.

It was also interesting to note that it appears none of the folks sitting behind the phones and actually deceiving the people on the other end of phone were not charged. One could only assume they were given scripts to follow. The FTC complaint mentioned that none of the actual telemarketers seem to know what they were actually selling! Some thought they were selling memberships, and others thought it was just a plain credit card. The real lesson is that if you have bad credit and you do really to rebuild it, the first priority is to remove inaccurate items from your credit report. And if you wish to get a credit card to build some history, a secured credit card is probably the best way to go about it.

References
FTC Complaint Letter

FTC Press Release Regarding This Matter

Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall Online Shopping Portal Review

By: Mr Credit Card

02/08/2012

We conclude our ongoing series of credit card online shopping portal review with the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal from Chase. I personally have the Chase Freedom card and I’ll take you through the portal with the help of some screen shots from my account. Like the Capital One Perk Central, Chases’ online shopping portal is partner of the Ultimate Rewards program and is not a standalone feature like Citi Bonus Cash Center, Add It Up or Shopdiscover. That means that rather than earning “cash rebates”, you earn points which you can exchange for cash back, travel, merchandise or gift cards.

I have had the Chase Freedom card for a few years and I’ve watched the Ultimate Rewards program grow from strength to strength.

To access the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you will first have to log into your account from www.chase.com. The screen shot below shows my chase account (you can see my Chase Freedom and British Airways Visa). Simply click the “Ultimate Rewards” link and it will take you to the UR page.

chase account

From the Ultimate Rewards home page, look for “earn faster” button on the top navigation. Under that button, you simply click on the “UR Mall” and you will get to the UR Mall.

ultimate rewards page

Once you are at the UR Mall, you can either “browse all merchants” or simply search via category. You will also see “special deals on this page.

ultimate rewards mall

To demonstrate how the “Mall” works, we are going to pretend that we will shop at Sears.com. So we’ll just click on the Sears.com icon and link and it will take us to a page where we will be able to read the terms and conditions.

In this example, Home Delivery Charges, Auto Services, PA & Installation, Master Protection Agreements and Protection Plans are not eligible for the extra points that you can earn with sears.com. Purchases at Sears auctions, Landsend.com, PartsDirect, Craftsman, Kenmore or Outlet are also not eligible to earn the extra points. In addition to that Sears Marketplace products with “Go to Site” button are not eligible. However, products with “Add to Cart” button are eligible. Great Indoors & Kmart products (including Kmart.com purchases) are eligible.

If you are happy with and understand the terms and conditions, you can click “start shopping” button and you will be taken to the Sears.com site where you purchases will be tracked by Chase. It will take approximately 45 days for the extra points to show up in your account.

ultimate rewards sears

Ultimate Rewards Mall Basic Facts – The UR Mall has 360 online merchant partners. Of the 360 partners, 91 of them give (or matches) the highest rebates paid by the same merchant in other portals. It only has online partners, unlike Citi Bonus Cash Center, Perks Central and Add It Up, which has both online and off line stores as partners.

Like Capital One’s Perk Central, it is also part of a larger reward program rather than a standalone one.

Credit Cards with Ultimate Rewards Program (including Mall) – Chase has a few cards which has the Ultimate Rewards program. The Chase Freedom, Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Classic and Ink Bold&#174 Charge Card all have UR as their program.

How Good is the UR Mall – The UR Mall stands in the middle of the pack when it comes to the number of merchants they have. They have more merchant partners than ShopDiscover and Perk Central and lose out on Add It Up and Citi Bonus Cash Center. They also do not have off line store partners.

However, most folks who choose a Chase Reward Card will not be choosing it based on the UR Mall at all. For example the Chase Freedom is one of the best cash back credit cards around. The Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold allow you to transfer points to airline and hotel partners that are almost exclusive to Chase.

Hence, while the UR Mall isn’t in the top of it’s class, it is still a very good shopping portal. You wouldn’t choose a Chase credit card based on this feature at all. But if you have their cards, there is no harm checking it out once in a while because you can earn extra points when you do your online shopping.

BOA's Add It Up Review

By: Mr Credit Card

02/07/2012

We continue our series of online shopping portal review with Bank of America’s Add It Up portal. Unlike other credit card online shopping portals, Add It Up is available to those with a simple BOA checking account (that means you do not need to get their credit cards to have this feature). If you do not have a BOA credit card account, you simply use your debit card that is given to you when you open a checking account.

Here are instructions on how to access the BOA’s Add It Up program. Firstly, you have to log into your account and you do so by going to www.bankofamerica.com and logging into the account. In this example, I am actually using my account. You can go to the Add It Up site from the link (shown in the orange arrow).

boa account after log in

Once you get to the Add It Up home page, you will see several offers. If you look at the left navigation, you can see that you can search their online retail partners by category. There are also “limited time offers” searches and there are also “recommendations for you”!

add it up home page

To demonstrate how this works, we will be using dell.com as an example. Let us assume that we are going to buy something from dell.com. We’ll click on the dell.com link on the previous page and it will take us to this page (below) where the terms and conditions are listed. In dell.com’s case, the special offer is an addtional 3% rebates on top of the regular 2% rebates, making it a total of 5%. The offer is limited until the end of February.

add it up dell.com example

But to be sure there are no surprises, you should actually click on the “blue terms and conditions link” and check out what it has to say. And true enough, there are more terms that you should be aware of. The first thing it says is that if you call dell for customer support and service (with any questions), you may not receive you add it up cash back. They also list several types of purchases like gift cards or purchases from auctions@DellExchange that are not eligible to earn the cash back from Add It Up. It also says that you can only earn cash back from 2 orders a month and the shipping has to be within the 50 US States and the District of Columbia. It further says that you will not earn cash back from Dell Small Business website if you click the tab on dell.com. You have to go to the Dell Small Business website (also a Add It Up partner) directly from the Add It Up menu.

So as you can see, it pays to read the terms and conditions before making your purchases. Once you are ready, just click the shop now button and it will take you to Dell.com where your purchases made with your BOA debit or credit card will be tracked.

add it up dell terms and conditions

Like the Citi Bonus Cash Center and Capital One Perk Central, Add It Up also has “in store” or “off line sotre” partners. If you click “instore” on the left navigation bar, it will take you to the following page (see below).

add it up instore partners

Once again, we will use a merchant as an example to see how this works. We will choose FTD. By clicking on the FTD link, it takes us to this page (below) where it list certain terms and conditions. It turns out that you can receive rebates from FTD even if you order by phone. They even listed the coupon code that you have to use with it together with their home iphone.

add it up ftd terms and conditions

Key Statistics of Add It Up – Compared to other credit card online shopping portals, the Add It Up program has got the second most number of partners (behind Citi Bonus Cash Center which has the most). In total, they have 528 partners (as of our last count in January 2012). Out of the 528 partners, 246 partners offered either the highest rebates, matched the highest rebates or were exclusive merchants.

The other key difference between this program and others is that you do not need a BOA credit card to use it. As long as you have a checking account, you can use your BOA debit card and earn cash back from your online and off line shopping.

Opinion – The Add It Up is a pretty decent online shopping portal. Among the five major credit card issuers that we studied, the Add It Up portal has got the second largest number of merchant partners (behind Citi Bonus Cash Center). That means it has more partners than Capital One’s Perk Central, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Discover. It also has off line partners where you can also shop over the phone and earn rebates (though Citi also has catalog partners).

For us, shopdiscover still remains our Editor’s Choice because the minimum payout is 5% (the highest minimum level compared to everyone else) and the Citi Bonus Cash Center has more partners than any other portal and comes in a close second place. This puts BOA’s Add It Up slightly behind Citi but ahead of Perk Central and Ultimate Rewards.

I wouldn’t rush out to get a BOA card simply because of Add It Up. But if you have one of their cash back cards or a checking account, you might just want to check it out the next time you shop online. It might earn you some cash rebates and save you a few bucks.

Capital One Perk Central Online Shopping Portal Review

By: Christina

02/06/2012

This is our ongoing series of online shopping portal review and today we will be looking at Capital One’s online shopping portal which is called Perk Central. Unlike Discover’s shopdiscover, Citi’s Bonus Cash Center of BOA’s Add It Up program, Perk Central is very much part of Capital One’s reward program. In this aspect, it is very similar to Chases’ Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall.

First, let’s look at how you can access the portal. The first step is to log into your capital one account by going to www.capitalone.com. After you log in, it will display your credit card information and you have to click on the “explore rewards” link (shown at the arrow).

capital one page after login

Clicking on the “explore rewards” link will take you to Capital One’s reward program page. To go to Perks Central page, you have to get to the “earn rewards” button on the top navigation and click online stores. That will take you to the page below.

capital one rewards page

There are a variety of ways in which you can search for your merchants. For example, you can “browse all merchants” (which is how it will look like below). You can also browse via categories, special offers. If you browse via all merchants, you will get a page (like below) listing every merchant partner that Perk Central has via alphabetical order. Beside the merchant will be the number of “miles” you will earn per dollar. Hence, the Perk Central program is not a strictly cash rebate program like the shopdiscover or Citi Bonus Cash Center program. Instead, you earn extra Capital One points for every dollar that you spend with their merchant partners and you can redeem these points for products on their program like merchandise and travel.

capital one perk central merchants

Once you have decided which online merchant you would like to shop with, you just have to click on their icons. In this example, we will pretend that we want to buy stuff at Ace Hardware online. So we click on the Ace Hardware link and it takes us to the following page where the terms and conditions are listed. In this example, they state that you will earn the extra miles from net purchases of products from Ace and this will not include things like taxes and shipping (which is very standard). Gift cards also do not count towards earning the extra miles. It also states that you will only earn the extra miles if you shop at Ace Hardware online via logging into your Capital One account. After clicking the “shop now” button, you will be taken to Ace online store where you purchases with your Capital One Card will be tracked.

capital one ace hardware merchant

Another feature of Perk Central is that they also have partners with off line stores or what they call in store partners. If you look at the screen shots, on the left navigation, there is a link to instore deals. When you click on it, it will take you to the following page (see below). This is where they will show their in store partners, the number of miles you can earn etc. One of the things you have to do before you go to the store to buy stuff is that you have to “activate your account” for that store from the “activate button” (see below’s screen shot).

capital one perk central in store offers

Key Features of Perk Central Compared With It’s Peers – First, let’s get a couple of key statistics out of the way. As of January 2012, Perk Central has 351 partners (Chase has 360, Add It Up has 528 and Citi Bonus Cash Center has 594 partners) and they have 238 partners which matches or has the highest payouts.

So in terms of number of merchants, they are really in the middle of the pack. The one feature they have is that they also have off line or in store partners where you can earn extra miles when you shop at a physical store partner. However, I feel that the Citi Bonus Cash Center has a slightly better deal here. That is because some of Citi’s off line partners allow you to buy their products over the phone or through their catalogs. I also prefer the Citi’s web interface because I can search for stores by inputing my zip code and the miles radius. Perks Central’s off line stores requires “activation” of your card which is a little inconvenient.

Opinion – The Perk Central portal stands in the middle of pack compared to other credit card portals in terms of number of merchants. It does have off line portals as well but the Citi Bonus Cash Center has better features on that front. For us, shopdiscover is still our Editor’s Choice as their minimum rebate is 5% (Perk Central starts at 1 mile/$1) and Citi is a close runner up because of the sheer number of merchants they have. This does not mean that Capital One’s Perk Central is bad. It simply means you should not get a Capital One card solely because of Perk Central. Capital One cards are known for their absence of foreign transaction fees (so is Discover) and their willingness to give folks with less than stellar credit a regular unsecured card. If your Capital One card comes with rewards, then consider the Perk Central as a “perk” and use it to earn “more miles” or “points”.

Citi Bonus Cash Center Review

By: Mr Credit Card

02/05/2012

Citi Bonus Cash Center is the online shopping portal for Citibank. In this post, we will review this shopping portal. The Citi Bonus Cash Center has existed for many years for cardholders of the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card. Back in 2006, the Citi Dividend paid 5% rebates on “everyday purchase” like gasoline, supermarket and drugstore spending but capped the annual rebates to $300. However, folks who shopped on Citi Bonus Cash Center could earn unlimited rebates. But then, the number of merchant partners was limited. But it has steadily grown and today, they have the most number of merchant partners compared to other online shopping portals.

Let’s look at how one can access the portal.

As you can see in the screen shot, you can search merchants by type, browse every merchant or go by alphabetical order.

citi bonus cash center online store page

Citi Bonus Cash not only has online merchant partners, but they also have off line in store partners where you can get rebates if you use your Citi Dividend Card at the stores. Quite often, the in store partner also has partnership with Citi for their online store. Some stores allow you to call them to order stuff and as long as you pay with your Citi Dividend card, you will get your extra rebates. There are stores where you can also earn extra rebates if you buy from their catalog or even if you call them and order by phone. There are also special coupon codes you can use for certain merchants.

If you look at the screen shot below, you will see the in store page. You can search for by phone and catalog offers, by cash rebates, and even by coupons. You can also search for stores within your zip code and you can specify by how many miles from your home should the search begin.

Comparison with other shopping portals – After having completed our recent survey on credit card reward programs shopping portal, the one thing that stands out for the Citi Bonus Cash Center is that they have more merchant partners than all other portals. At the time of the survey (January 2012), they had 594 online merchant partners (we did not even bother with the off line stores because most other portals do not have off line partners). Of the 594 partners, 207 of them had the highest rebates among other portals (if the merchants were also on other portals). Among the 207 merchants, some were also exclusive merchants with Citi. One of the reasons that Citi had so many partners was because they have many boutique online partners. That means that aside from the usual GAP, Best Buy partners, they have many other unique online stores.

The advantage that they have over other online portals is that they also have off line partners. And some of their off line partners allow you to shop via phone or through their catalogs. This is very unique and stands in contrast with a portal like the shopdiscover which only has online partners.

One of the things you have to be aware of is that we started doing our survey in December. And during that time (with the exception of Discover), other online shopping portals were changing partners and having also changing the rebates they pay. Hence, you have to be aware that a merchant may be Citi’s partner now, but later switch to another credit card issuer.

Cards Which Has Citi Bonus Cash Center Feature – The Citi Dividend Card and their student version (which incidentally are both cash back cards) can be used at Citi Bonus Cash Center. All you have to do is to log into the site using your credit card account login credentials.

Verdict and Opinion – The Citi Bonus Cash Center stands out among its competitors by having the most number of merchant partners and also giving cardholders the option of shopping via catalog, phone or in store for some of their partners. In our opinion, this portal loses out only slightly to Discover’s shopdiscover portal because Discover’s minimum rebate rate is 5% (a pretty high bar that no other portals can match). But in terms of sheer number of partners, no one comes even close.

ShopDiscover Online Shopping Portal Review

By: Mr Credit Card

02/02/2012

We are starting a series of reviews of online shopping portals that are offered by credit card issuers. In this episode, we will be looking at Discover’s online shopping portal called shopdiscover.com. What shopdiscover.com offers Discover cardholders is a chance to save money when they shop online with their merchant partners. In this review, we will look at how you actually use the portal. We will also be looking at certain statistics like how many merchant partners is participating in the portal, what rebates can you earn and more importantly, how does it compare with other credit card online shopping portals?

How to access shopdiscover.com? – To access shopdiscover.com, you would first have to log into your Discover account. Do do that, just go to www.discovercard.com.

log into discover account

After you have logged into your account, this is how it will look like. You have a couple of ways to get to the shopdiscover site (indicated by the arrows).

discover account

Once you get into the shopdiscover site, you can browse by retailers, travel deals etc. For demonstration purposes, I clicked on the browse retailer tab at the top navigation and it took me to the following page.

shopdiscover account

As you can see, this page list all the retailers that are on shopdiscover. You can also narrow it down by search for the level of rebate. For example, if you look at the left navigation, there is a button for 5% rebates merchants, 10% ones etc. You can also search via categories (ie type of retailers). There is also a navigation that takes you to retailers who offer free shipping.

list of shopdiscover retailers

For this review, I’ll pick Advanced Auto Parts as an example of a retailer that I would like to shop from. So I clicked on “Advanced Auto Parts” icon and it takes me to the terms and conditions page. For this retailer, you can get free shipping if you spend $75 or more and the free shipping applies to both your home or to a local store for pickup. You’ll also see that you do not earn the 5% cash back on things like taxes etc (only on the purchase price).

But what I like about this page is that at the bottom, there are coupon codes specifically for Discover Card holders that you can use to save even more money. When you click the “start shopping button”, you will be taken to the retailer’s website, which would be the same as if you went to your browser directly. But by going through Discover and using your Discover More Card, your purchases can be tracked and you can earn 5% rebates.

shopdiscover advanced autoparts example

shopdiscover advanced autopart site

Basic Statistics – We just finished conducting a survey of online shopping portals and here are some basic stats on shopdiscover. As of January 2012, they have 207 merchant partners. Compared to other shopping portals from Chase, Citi, BOA and Capital One, Discover has the least number of merchants. But out of the 207 merchants partners that they have, 166 of them (in total) was either an exclusive merchant, had the highest rebate among all other portals or matched the highest rebate paid. That means for Discover Card holders, you can almost be assured that you will be earning the most rebates for the majority of your purchases here.

Another observation is that the minimum rebate that Discover pays is 5%. Other portals start their rebates at 1%. Hence, with Discover, you can be assured that you will earn at least 5% rebates when you shop with their partners.

In terms of type of partners, ShopDiscover probably has the best relationship with mainstream fortune 500 retailers. Hence if you shop at apple.com, GAP.com, Walmart.com etc, you will be getting the best rebates with Discover compared to other portals. The reason why other portals may have more merchant partners is because most of them are boutique online stores that are not really “mainstream” or well known.

Verdict and Opinion – In our opinion, shopdiscover is probably the best online shopping portal among the major credit card issuers. The reason is because they pay a minimum of 5% rebates (compared to 1% for other portals). Secondly, among the partners they have, shopping with the bulk of them gets you the most rebates compared to other portals. Most of their partners are mainstream fortune 500 type retailers and so consumers will be very familiar with them.

The only quibble I have with the program is that their competitors have more merchant partners. But that is probably due to the face that Discover insists on paying their cardholders at least 5% rebates and potential partners might actually balk at supporting that payout structure (I suspect that is the main reason).

Otherwise, shopdiscover gets Ask Mr Credit Card’s shopping portal of the year award.

Cards that have shopdisover ShopDiscover is available on Discover More Card, Discover OpenRoad Card and the Discover More Student Card.

President Barack Obama's Black Credit Card? But Which Card Is It?

By: Mr Credit Card

01/30/2012

President Obama was filmed on CBS shopping at Best Buy last year (2011). While most reports focused on what he actually bought for his kids for Christmas, I was more interested in what carried card he carried. While I was watching the film, I noticed that his credit card was “black”. Only a credit card nerd and geek like me would be interested in stuff like that. So here is my best guess by deduction and elimination, of what credit card he carries.

Possible Black cards – Since the color of his credit card is black, I think it is possible to narrow down the possible cards. So here we go.

amexcenturion Amex Black Card – Given that he was even wondering if his credit card still works, it is highly unlikely that that he carries the Amex Centurion. He is a democrat, and has a more left and liberal leaning opinion. Hence carrying one of the ultimate status symbols of the “1%” ain’t going to look too good. So I think we can rule out this card. Since he will be flying Air Force One and staying in the best hotels guarded by his secret service agents, none of the perks like Ritz Carlton room upgrades, lounge access is going to matter to him.

visa black card image Visa Black Card – One again, I doubt that this was the card he was using. There was some dash of white or silver color on the card and the Visa Black card is literally all black. Since Visa Black is supposedly targeted at very few folks (but it seems having a five figure W2 qualifies) and cost $450 in annual fee, I doubt Barack Obama will be seem using this card.

delta reserve card image Delta Reserve Card – One again, I doubt the President would be caught carrying an elite $450 credit card. There is a blue Amex logo at the bottom right of the card and I did not see it in the video. He flies Air Force One and does not need the MQMs to get the Silver Elite Status! His bags fly free as well.

alaska airline signature image Alaska Airlines Visa – This is a possibility as there is a dash of white on the card (which is black). One would presume that as a Senator in Chicago, he might have used this card to rack up some Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles.

virgin credit card black Virgin Atlantic Amex Card – The Virgin Amex Black card is another possibility. But the only problem is that I doubt Obama would be saving miles to fly to London or Europe. Who knows, he might have taken advantage of past 50,000 bonus miles sign up? But I think we can rule out this card because I did not see the Blue Virgin Logo and Amex Logo on Obama’s card.

asiana amex image Asian Amex Card – Yes the card is blackish. But I really cannot imagine Obama saving Asiana miles to fly to Korea? Perhaps he is savvy enough to use the points with alliance airline partners (highly unlikely). There also isn’t any Blue Amex Logo on Obama’s card, so I think we can rule out this one.

overstock credit card image Overstock Credit Card – Overstock’s new credit card comes in black color. Perhaps the President is a bargain hunter and likes to get stuff on sale and discounts. This one might just be a possibility although I have to wonder where does he find the time to be surfing the net for bargains? Perhaps the First Lady does all the online shopping?

sony credit card image Sony Credit Card – Sony’s card is also black in color. Perhaps the President unwinds by playing lots of Playstation games and he earns reward points with the card buying their games. He also might have used his points to get a Sony Plasma TV as well! This card is definitely a possibility.

Adventium Card – Yikes. This is a subprime card that is issued by First Premier Bank. It is black, presumably to give the illusion that it is a prestige card and on the hopes that folks with bad credit are more likely to apply because of the “black color”. I really do not think the President will be using Aventium and I certainly hope not. I would assume that he was have a decent credit score and the nation would be shocked if he had bad credit!

BOA Business Charge Card – The dark grey color of the card sure looks like the one the President is carrying. Although why he would actually get a business charge card puzzles me. Perhaps he has an account with BOA? Or maybe he used to have a small business (doubt it because we would all know by now?).

BOA Accelerated Rewards Amex – The BOA Accelerated Rewards Card has a very dark greyish color that looks like the card the President is carrying. The only issue is that I did not see the bright blue Amex logo at the bottom right on his card. So that means it’s probably not this card? But being a no annual fee rewards card, I can see how the President would have applied for this.

Are we any closer to figuring out which card President Obama has? – After looking at the possibilities of credit cards with black color, I think the President could either be carrying the Alaska Airlines Visa, Sony Credit Card or Overstock.com Visa. The Amex Centurion Card is a possibility just based on the “blur image”, though I really doubt it.

So what do you folks think after watching the video? Any other ideas you would like to share? I bet I missed out a couple of other “similar color cards”. Please help me figure out which card Obama used in the video.

Chase Year End Summary Statement

By: Mr Credit Card

01/28/2012

Every year towards the end of January, Chase will have your year end summary statements ready for your viewing. You will actually get a reminder in your email (like I did here). Below are a series of screen shots of the email I got, the log in page and the actual statements.

I think if is very important to view your online summary statements. This is especially so for a cash back credit card like the Chase Freedom, which pays you 5% rebates on rotating categories. And you would really want to find out how they classify certain expenditure at certain places (you may get some surprises).

chase 2011 yearend summary reminder

chase 2011 yearend summary signin

chase 2011 yearend summary 2

As you can see below, the first part of the summary statement shows you overall spending broken down by the month of the year. Mine was a little erratic and that is because I also use the Blue Cash and Platinum Card (and also the British Airways Visa). So I’m just trying to max out rebates and sometimes, I just use a card that I feel like.

chasefreedom2011

I would like to show you the next section because it looks at my spending at groceries and drugstores. Chase used to have grocery and drugstore in their rotating categories (but no longer). So it is very important to check who do they consider to be supermarkets and drugstores. Looking at a statement summary will give you a clue since the merchant name is written beside the expense.

One interesting thing I found out was that Aux Petites Delicassi, a place which I go to every Tuesday mornings to buy croissants for breakfast is considered a grocery store! Did I earn 5% cash back last year during the quarter which Chase Freedom paid 5% rebates in groceries? I have to check again because I certainly did not expect them to be considered a supermarket! It really has to do with the code that Visa and MasterCard uses for the interchange fee. And the reason that I did not use my Amex Platinum was because this shop did not accept Amex.

So here is a great example of the benefits of checking your year end statement.

chasefreedom2011-2

The next section showed my spending on home improvement and landscaping. This occurred in April because Chase Freedom was paying 5% on home improvement in the second quarter last year. I was able to confirm if the stuff that I bought from was considered a home improvement store. I also ordered a Chinese Cable TV because MIL came to town and this was correctly classified as utilities. Dining was the next on the list and I made a mental to go through and just check the diners that showed up on this list. While the Chase Freedom only had dining in their rotating categories for a quarter last year, this is still very valuable information because if you intend to get a card like the Costco (which pays 2% on dining), then chances are that the dining places that were classified as restaurants for Chase will be classified the same way for other cards as well.

chase freedom year end summary statement - dining

One thing to note is that my year end summary for my British Airways Visa is also available, but it is not so interesting to show because all I did was toe meet their spending requirements to get their 100,000 bonus miles and I have used it sparingly since then. I’ll show you my Amex year end statements another day.

Everyone should have gotten their year end summary statements by now. Go through them, check your spending patterns and you may discover a couple of interesting things like I have.