I plan on canceling a Chase Marriott Card that renews with an annual fee and a Starwood Preferred Guest from American Express that also has an annual fee the second year once these apps go through. I have had the Chase Sapphire Card before as a Visa. I am hoping to get that card as a MasterCard this time since it has been a few years and get the bonus offering.

I have decided to apply for two Barclayscards since they seem to have some of the best offerings right now for immediate gratification of points or miles. One card which is a US Airways card I found with no annual fee gives me 35,000 AAdvantage miles basically before the merger is completed and they get rid of US Airways branded cards. American Airlines will most likely discontinue their relationship with Barclayscard then move the US Airways customers over to a new card with Citi. It could go either way though and both of the banks lose out. They have a longer relationship with Citi so it is best you act on this now. I need all the American AAdvantage miles I can get.

CitiBusiness card was straightforward when I was approved it was instant and said my card will be in the mail within two weeks. This card is a card I have previously held and churned now but I believe I had the Visa version of it. This will be the MasterCard version and will give me 30,000 AAdvantage miles after I spend $1,000 on anything. I am hoping to use this card to just book rental car travel such as Hertz, Avis, or Budget because it pays 2x on these purchases.

I did not get instantly approved for the 2nd Barclayscard I applied for which was the US Airways Card for these Dividend miles I was hoping to convert to AAdvantage miles. The link is here where it is no annual fee saving $65 and getting you 35,000 miles if awarded the card.

Barclay stepped up it’s game with the Arrival World MasterCard and it’s new and improved sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles or $400 cash back in statement credits. The 40,000 miles can be used for a “cash back statement credit” which will equal $200 since you get 0.5 in “non travel” statement credits. This is a lot better than the previous sign-up bonus which was 20,000 miles or $200 in statement credits. The NFL Barclays card has 40,000 bonus or a $400 statement credit but the spend requirement is $2,500 instead of $1,000 with Arrival card. Another good thing about this Arrival card is that you get TWO times on any purchase which is double what most credit cards payout. I decided on the Arrival card and applied for it and got instantly approved. It was soothing to see the tropical palm tree and the welcoming beach in my approval screen.

The final card that I applied for is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Mastercard that has a bonus of 40,000 points which converts to miles on a 1:1 basis. This also converts over to $500 in travel through their site or $400 in cash credited to your card or your bank account with Chase. This card has no annual fee the first year with this promotional offer but they did not automatically approve me.

So far I am only two cards approved automatically and that is the Citi Business AAdvantage Visa Card and the Barclayscard Arrival World MasterCard.

There are two other cards I really wanted with this APP party I am having with myself. One is the American Express card to replace my Starwood card but there are no really good AMEX offers out right now because the Delta Skymiles card I really do not need Delta miles and you have such a threshold to spend on it before you get to the 40,000. The AMEX Business Gold card offer that was on CreditCards.com site match did not come up for me for some reason even when I did not enter my social security number so I did not apply for that card since I could not find one that had the 50,000 points. Maybe next time on these?

The Club Carlson Card is yet another card that I was dreaming about. Just because you get 80,000 points and a automatic gold status. It is a bit cheaper with the business card since you only have to spend $65 instead of $85 on the annual fee with their premium version. The gold version is $50 annual fee but you do not get as many bonus points or tiered rewards back from hotel spends. US Bank is the card issuer for Club Carlson’s hotel travel card and I do hope to apply for this in my next card application spree.

Hopefully my credit will be ok after this. I plan to call Chase and Barclay’s US reconsideration lines tomorrow and see if I can still get the US Airways and the Chase Sappire cards approved. I think I can get the Sapphire card approved if I cancel the Marriott Visa card I currently have with Chase. That is what I will recommend to the phone rep when I call in.

The 0% APR was fine I just paid it month to month the minimum payment so I would get no interest or fees then paid off the final amount owed before the last bill was due. The exciting part about this card is when I signed up I thought it might offer some rewards program worth using but you have to accrue interest to the 3x rewards points. You do get 1 point per dollar spent on purchases then 3 points per dollar on interest accrued on monthly balances. Basically this card pays you to spend money at 1 point per dollar then wants you to earn money off of the interest you owe. This can be tricky and something I really do not want to mess with since I pay off my credit cards before they accrue interest each month.

I did however get a special bonus of 1,500 points in the mail which advertised their new enhanced rewards program. It enabled me to look inside the program and see what reward I could get for 1,500 points. Keep in mind that most rewards programs 1,500 points means you get $15 worth of rewards because it means 1% of %1,500 in purchases.

However, with this rewards program at Commerce Bank you only get a $5 gift certificate for spending $1,500 which is really not 1% per dollar spent and not worth your time at all. We were also disappointed with the cash back redemption which really takes no effort for the credit card company to do a statement credit. This was 5,000 points redemption at only $25. So you are getting half a percent per dollar spent with this?

The worst thing about this credit card is that if you do not sign into your account for more than three months they will delete your account online and you have to go through the entire sign-up process to log-in to view your transactions. This is a major hassle if you wish to redeem rewards online and it takes you three months or more to get the points to add up. It is also a hassle if you do not log-in to your account each month and have a 0% transfer. Most people who have 0% balance transfers do not sign into their accounts until the last month just to pay it off completely. They also ask you four security questions and that seems to be a hassle as well. I prefer a bank with less hassles and more rewards.

We recommend this card for the 0% OFfer if it still exists but get out fast after that goes away and find another card to get rewards from!

he new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
Plus a Cashback ConcerigeSM who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
Safe…Because you’ll never pay for unauthorized purchases with our $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee.
0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 14 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.
Introductory 0% APR Offer: 14 months on purchases and balance transfers
Regular Purchase APR: 10.99 – 20.99% (V)*
Annual Fee: $0

Discover it™ Card Discover IT Card
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
Plus a Cashback ConcerigeSM who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%.*
0% Intro APR on purchases for 6 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.

Introductory 0% APR Offer: 18 months on balance transfers and 6 months on purchases
Regular Purchase APR: 10.99 – 20.99% (V)*
Annual Fee: $0

Discover® it for StudentsDiscover IT Card for students

Marketing Bullets:

The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee.
No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
Plus a Cashback ConcerigeSM who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
Safe…Because you’ll never pay for unauthorized purchases with our $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee.
0% Intro APR on purchases for 6 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 12.99% – 18.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.

Introductory 0% APR:

6 Months on purchases.

Regular Purchase APR:

12.99%- 18.99 V

Annual Fee:

$0

You can make eligible purchases with your points, your Citi Card or a combination of both. Eligible Citi cards include all Citi ThankYou Cards, the Citi Forward Card, CitiBusiness ThankYou Card, Citi PremierPass/Expedia Card, AT&T Cards, and Sunoco cardmembers with available ThankYou Points.

Linking your accounts is easy. Simply go to the Citi ThankYou page at Amazon.com and click the Get Started button in the blue box. From there follow the online instructions to link your ThankYou Member Account to your Amazon.com account

Yes, in order to link your ThankYou Member account to your Amazon.com account you must have successfully logged in to thankyou.com or have called Citi’s call center to set up your ThankYou Member Account. If you have previously logged in to thankyou.com then no additional steps are necessary and you can proceed to link your ThankYou Member account to your Amazon.com account.

If you are like me you may have more than one Amazon accounts and may want to de-link so that you can re-link this point sync with another one. In order to de-link your ThankYou Member Account from Amazon.com, you will need to go to the Shop With Points page in Your Account. Click “Disable” to de-link your ThankYou Member Account.

There is no fee to use Points when using Shop with Points at Amazon.com. Also, we noticed that the terms state that Citi has the right to change Point to dollar conversion rates at any time.

Update: We discovered that it is not on a 1:1 ratio of point conversion on Thank You and Amazon.com. I had 1,825 points which only gave me $14.60 credit on Amazon.com. This should have been $18.25 if it would have been paid through Chase, Membership Rewards, or Discover Card. We are once again displeased with Citi Cards as they hold one of the absolute worst rewards programs of all time behind Capital One.

I gave in and brought myself up to a Office Depot location before close one night. I was almost nervous just asking about it. I noticed that they had no more cards out but they did have a not that said “Vanilla Reload” as if it went there where it was supposed to hang on the display. I then asked about it and they dug them out from somewhere and I put $500 on my American Express Simply Cash Card. This is quite different than Noob Traveler and Million Miles Man and all the travel bloggers have you do which is use their INK PLUS (by Chase) Business Card to get 5% back. I figured that I will get the same 5% back either way.

I then walked over to Walmart and purchased a Bluebird starter kit. It was easy to find it was right in the middle of the aisle when I walked in the store. Talk about great placement.

I tried to pay the $5 starter kit fee with my Discover Card and it would not let me. It also indicated I had to load it with $1 or more to take the box out of the store. I then gave the cashier $6 in cash (since I was not sure what a debit card would do on this transaction).

I left the store went home and thought I activated the card but it then said I basically had to wait 5 days or so until the permanent personal card came in the mail to actually activate it and load money on it. You can load money on it from Walmart until it is the permanent card but no where else is what I found out.

When I received the permanent BlueBird in the mail I instantly loaded the $500 Vanilla reload on it and now I have a $501 balance. I will try using my Bill Pay and see how that goes as this test continues. In the meantime I have ordered a INK PLUS Business Card to get an extra 5% bonus on these Vanilla Reload cards.

The two 5% categories I picked were

• Hotels
• Restaurants

Although I was surprised that it did not combine the restaurants with fast food.  Discover and Chase and other bank credit cards let you put the category with everything under Dining which would include Fast Food and Restaurants.  Since I had to choose one or the other I decided it was best to choose the one that I would benefit more from in higher spending.  I definately spend more money at restuarants than fast food.  REstaurants hopefully still incude bars and nightclubs as well which is a big expense of mine of around $1,500 a month at least.

How to redeem these quarterly rewards from the Cash +  Visa?  It is best to wait until you reach $100 in rewards so you will get the $25 bonus!  Then do the following-

The U.S. Bank Cash+Visa Signature Card makes it as easy to redeem as it is to earn. With so many simple ways to get your cash back, you can choose the one that’s right for you.

Choose how to redeem your cash rewards:

Deposit into your U.S. Bank checking, savings or Money Market account
Receive a statement credit to your account
Receive a U.S. Bank Rewards card*

OR

Set up automatic monthly transfers using your S.T.A.R.T. savings program**

No minimum redemption when redeeming to checking, savings, or statement credit.

Get a $25 Cash+ Bonus whenever you redeem $100 or more in a single redemption — simply wait until you reach the $100 redemption level to redeem, and you’ll receive a $25 Cash+ Bonus Rewards Card.

Here are simple steps to redeem your cash back:

To redeem, log in to Internet Banking at usbank.com
Click the Rewards Center once you log in.
You can also call us at 800-285-8585 and we will help you redeem.

You earn 2 AAdvantage bonus miles per $1 spent on eligible purchases made with this card account at toy, electronics, computer and apparel stores, up to 5,000 AAdvantage bonus miles, through 12/31/12. Just when I was about to stash this card away for no further purchases this year I got this email. I think I will use this card for purchases at apparel stores which I hope includes Hollister, PacSun, Express, Armani Exchange, Guess Clothing, and American Eagle. Places I will be shopping for the Holidays when it comes to apparel and maybe Urban Outfitters and shoe stores such as Foot Locker. If this 3x works at Armani Exchange or AX it will be the only true way to get cash back from them since they have no online partners to earn back money. I may also use this card at Sony Store and the Apple store since that would fall under electronics I would think.

If you are looking to shop at Best Buy use the Chase Freedom card because they are doing a full five percent cash for this quarter. I just wish that American Airlines would get their act together or we will not even have our hard earned miles we earned from things like this. Hopefully the bankrupt airline will be able to survive into 2012 because I plan on earning lots of miles with this card. Read below for more terms on this:

After you sign up it says this offer starts within 4 business days of when you enroll and will end on 12/31/12. Electronics and computer stores are classified as merchants that sell, repair or lease a wide variety of electronic goods, including computer hardware, software and related equipment. Apparel stores are classified as merchants that sell clothing, furnishings and accessories geared toward a specific audience. We do not determine how merchants are classified, however, they are generally classified based upon the merchant’s primary line of business. We reserve the right to determine which purchases qualify for this offer. This promotional offer is non-transferrable and applies to the account ending in the last 4 digits referenced in this offer. AAdvantage® bonus miles awarded with this offer are subject to a maximum of 5,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles.

Discover is also offering a targeted offer on some cardholders where they asked me if I wanted to earn an extra 2% back on Saturday, October 6th. I believe this is in addtion to the already 5% or up to 1% you are getting on these purchases. “Sign up to earn 2% Cashback Bonus on any purchases made on 10/6/12. These purchases do not count towards annual purchases eligible to earn 1% Cashback Bonus. These purchases must post to your account on 10/6/12″.

Gas Purchases for the last few months of the year will be with my Chase Ink Plus Cash Card. I will get 3% back with this card up to $2,000. I will also be using this Ink Cash Business card for my restaurant, nightclub, and bar purchases since they all count towards the 3% on dining cash back with Ultimate Rewards.

The Breakdown:
Chase Freedom – Air Travel (AA.com), Hotels (Marriott, Starwood)
Best Buy and Kohls
Discover More Card – Amazon.com or any online purchases – I may just use this to pay all my paypal bills if that will work.
Chase Ink Business Cash – Gas and Dining (clubs)