Switching Purchases from MasterCard to Discover

For the next three months, I'll be switching over my purchases from MasterCard to Discover. Simply put, the next three months, Discover bumps up the cash back rate to 5% for the all important Home Improvement and Department Stores.

You have to sign up for the bonus after you login to your Discovercard account. Just click on the quarterly signup bonus and you should receive an email like:

Thank you for participating in our 5% Cashback Bonus program. We just wanted to remind you how easy it is to make your money worth More.

Just use your card at home improvement stores, department stores, and clothing stores from April 9, 2009 until June 30,2009, and get 5% Cashback Bonus on up to $400 in these purchases*. Remember, all your other purchases will earn up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus automatically.

Within one or two shopping trips, we'll hit the $400 limit, but it will be nice to save $20 (5%) on those purchases instead of the usual $4 (1%).

Somehow I missed the Warehouse Club 5% bonus in March, but since the only club we belong to is COSTCO -- and they only take American Express -- we would not have saved anything for that bonus.

July 1 is another important bonus that you need to sign up for. During July, August and September, you get a 5% bonus for purchasing gas on your Discover Card.

So for the next few months, I'll be pulling out my Discover Card instead of MasterCard to save an additional 5% of the purchase price.

Chase Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate Saves You Money

The Chase Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate is one of the best credit card offers I have received for my business in a long time. I must admit that it is very tempting to get the card to increase our credit line.

It's not like we need to extend our credit line, but there were several stories that many credit card companies are reeling in credit lines to reduce market exposure.

One of the best features of the Chase Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate is that you get 3% rebates on eligible business expenses. Basically, you get the 3% for most business related expenses except when purchased as superstores, warehouse clubs or discount stores.

So you have to do the math if you actually are going to save money with the extra 3% going somewhere else than a discount store. But even if you don't qualify, they still give you 1% back for unqualified purchases.

The card doesn't carry an annual fee so having this for emergency cash flow is good to have on your books. The first 6 months you have 0% APR, so it's free cash until the big payment is due.

They supply quarterly and annual reports which may help you. All I really care about is that I can download my transactions into Quickbooks for my accountant.

All in all, the Chase Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate is something worth looking into for managing your business expenses.

Airmiles Credit Card Takes Us to S.F.

We had a wonderful weekend trip to the Bay area with complements from our airmiles credit card. Even though the trip was relatively short, it was nice to get away for the weekend and not worry about the economy and just focus on the good things in life: love, eating, eating and more eating.

The free airline tickets saved us lots of money so we splurged on shopping without feeling too guilty. Plus we saved 5% on our rental and hotel by using Discover. However, it took a day to get over guilt of not working on our "save money online" site which getting close to launch, but it will get done when it's good and done.

It must have been over 20 years since we've been to China Town and the Wharf. The food was delicious and even the sand in the Clam chowder was good.

Now that most of the United Air miles are gone, I'm either going switch over to Delta or just use my cash back card more often. It's really hard to justify using United since we hardly fly them.

It will take a couple of more years before we accumulate enough frequent flier miles before we can take another free trip. With the bad economy, we had a sense of urgency to take this trip sooner than later. (Who knows if our miles will still be around or what shape the airline industry will be in a couple of years from now.) But it was a good trip to San Fransisco with thanks to our airmiles credit card.

Don't Abuse Your Credit to Get "Free Money"

An interesting article on ArtWoo where the author makes some valid arguments that credit cards should be used only in times of emergency and living within our means is the prudent thing to do:

Credit cards make sense to use if you know and understand how to use them correctly. Americans abuse credit cards, mistaking them for "free money" and opening many different cards at the same time to satisfy their thirst for expensive things and, ironically, things they can't afford.

If you use your credit wisely, you can actually save money by purchasing on credit. This requires paying off your credit every month to avoid interest and fees. In this sense, the 30 day loan is "free money" since your money is increasing with interest while sitting in your savings account.

Also, if the credit card that you use is a "cash back" card, you're also discounting the purchase price from 1 to 5%.

Saving money to get "free money" is ultimately the plan you need to work at:

1. Pay everything in cash for two months.
2. Keep track of everything you purchase.
3. Use Quicken or MS Money to help you track and budget your expenses.
4. Accumulate enough savings for your monthly budget then start rotating monthly expenses on your card to get the cash back and interest free loans.

Remember the important thing is to save and budget. Use your credit cards wisely by paying off the balance each month.

5% October Cash Back Bonus Down the Drain

I really screwed up big last month using my Discover Card. I forgot to sign up for the 5% cash back bonus which is something you need to do every 3 months by either login into the Discover account center or by calling Discover.

The last quarter of the year, the 5% cashback bonus includes purchases at grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and movie rentals.

A major portion of our expenses are eating so it's not unusual to spend $1000 on food for the month. With 5% cash back, we would have saved about $50 in October, but since I forgot to sign up the first of October, we only saved $10 under the normal 1%.

The rest of the year we should be able to save more especially when planning meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

If you haven't signed up already, give Discovery a call or apply your savings online in the account center. It's never too late to sign up for the extra cash back -- just make sure that you remind yourself to do it as early as possible in January, April, July and October to take advantage of the savings accumulated over three months.

The Discover More Card - Tips to Reduce Your Credit Card Payments

Credit cards are unsecured lines of credit giving you flexible spending accounts. The Discover More Card gives you the flexibility of cash while saving you money on purchases. The best way to take advantage of the Discover More Card is to eliminate the fees and interest which Discover will charge you.

Fees and interest payments will quickly diminish the 5% you earn towards every purchase. But with careful planning, budgeting and especially paying off monthly charges, you can save a substantial amount of money over extended periods use of Discover More Card.

Credit Card Fees

One can avoid fees by making a payment towards your account. However, if the balance is not paid in full, your account starts accruing interest on the balance and future purchases until the balance reaches zero. Discover can charge you from $19 to $39 even if your payment is only a day late.

Sometimes a simple call to Discover will reverse the late fee especially if the payment is due around a holiday. But the best way to avoid the fee is to mail your payment one week before it is due or schedule an online payment.

Cash Advance Fees

Most charge companies have a minimum transaction fee on top of the interest you incur at the time of the cash advance. If the cash advanced fees annualized, you may end up paying upwards to 30%. Thus, try to avoid taking out cash unless you need cash for an emergency.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR)

Credit companies charge various fees for using their credit card. You should make it a priority in avoiding late fees by making your monthly payment on time.. While annual fees were predominate several decades ago, there is no reason to carry a charge cards that have annual fees.

Using Credit Cards Hurt Gas Station Owners

Several Gas Station Owners have been hit hard by the rising gas prices, but not where you would expect. Credit card fees are eating into their profits and they're beginning to accept cash only.

This is how it works...

Credit card companies make it on both ends of the sale. First they collect merchant fees for every sale and then they collect interest on consumers who don't pay off their monthly short-term loan. Usually these fees run a few percent and sometimes as high as 5% for low volume merchants.

I can remember back when processing credit cards was a real pain in the butt. You had to look up the card in the "dead-beat" list that had a publication of thousands of cards that were stolen or over extended.

Then you called Visa or Mastercard to get approval for the sale. You talked to a live operator stating the facts about the card. The whole process took several minutes while angry customers wait in line behind them.

Sometimes you were instructed to cut up the card in half which was sometimes golden especially if the customer was a real prick. But as a merchant, you lose out on a sale and make your customer angry at you.

Today, you just swipe the card thru a card reader and you get back an approval in a few seconds. The process is all automated and hardly justifies the merchant fees they charge since there is no live operator anymore.

So are Gas Station Owners Justified in not Accepting Credit Cards?

Not really since the 2% merchant fee is built into the price. Eighty-percent of their customers are going to use credit and the other 20% will pay by cash. By using your gas card or cash back card, this price increase goes back to you in rebates.

Basically what they can do is lower the price of the gas to compete with other local gas stations. They will push their customers away, have lower sales and eventually go out of business.