Still Alive-Get 25,000 AMEX MR Points For Opening A Free Business Gold Rewards Card!

Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card

25,000 AMEX MR points can be easily transferred into 25,000 Continental miles.
25,000 Continental miles is enough for a domestic ticket, or churn the card 3 times and use their 70,000 mile coach award ticket to Israel, or save up for the 100,000 mile business-first class ticket to Israel!

There is no fee for one year.

Other card benefits:
-Additional Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can't go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

American Express Financial Review-What Is It And How To Avoid It...

American Express occasionally freezes the credit card accounts of individuals with high-risk patterns.

They request lots of personal information, such as IRS returns, that most people are hesitant to fax away in today's age of security risks.

I personally have a dozen or so AMEX cards, and have never had a financial review, so I don't speak from my own experience, but here are some important steps you can do to avoid the dreaded financial review:

-Keep your credit lines on each of your AMEX's below $25,000.
One symptom commonly found among people who have been hit with a review is very high credit lines.

-NEVER utilize over 50% of the credit line of any of your AMEX cards.
If you have a Starwood card with a $10,000 limit, never have a balance of over $4,999, even if you pay it off every month on time.

-Keep your collective credit balances well below your stated annual income.
If you reported an annual income of $200,000, AMEX won't like it if you have $190,000 of credit available to spend in one month.


What if you do get hit with a financial review?

Immediately call up AMEX and ask to close down every one of your accounts.
If the AMEX financial review bean-counters close your accounts they will say closed by issuer, which is quite bad.
If you pre-emptively close them they will simply say closed at customer request, and will barely hurt your credit.

Suffering from Starwood AMEX withdrawal?
Don't worry!
Since you pre-emptively closed your accounts, just wait a few months and then you can apply all over again, and you will even get the signup bonus again!

Current AMEX Promos For The Month Of July!

Reminder: Apply for these special signup offers before it's too late!

Originally posted on 07/08
Related Links:
Google Credit Card Processing Linky
How Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card


Consumer Cards:

Jetblue:
Annual fee=$40
Special Offer:
-Get 50 award points (instead of the regular 25) with your first purchase.
Neat card benefits:
-When you have a Jetblue AMEX you can keep all of your Jetblue Trueblue mileage account points from expiring simply by using your card or flying Jetblue!
-Double points for speding on entertainment, leisure, travel and dining!

Jetblue Amex Linky


Starwood:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $30 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $15,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
Neat card benefits:
-Ability to use Starwood points in so many ways, including transferring to airlines mileage at very favorable rates (20,000 starpoints=50,000 Lanpass Kilometers)
-90 day window to return any purchase up to $300 to AMEX regardless of the store's return policy.

Starwood AMEX Linky


Hilton:
Annual fee=None.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $5,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
-Earn 2,500 points for each of your fitst 4 stays at a Hilton paid for on your Hilton AMEX.
Neat card benefits:
-Earn 5 points per dollar spent at Hilton, supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, dining, U.S. Postal Service, and for wireless phone bills.
-Earn 3 points per dollar spent elsewhere.

Hilton AMEX Linky


Business Cards:

AMEX Business Gold Rewards:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $125 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Earn 25,000 AMEX Membership rewards points after your first purchase-enough points for a free ticket when you transfer the points into miles on a US carrier!
Neat card benefits:
-Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can't go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

Another Special Edition Of Citi Reduced AAdvantage AAwards!

Related Post:
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards For July-September 2007 Linky

These are valid from any US48 city for AA flights between September 7, 2007 and November 14, 2007.
You must be a Citi AAdvantage cardholder to book travel.
Just call 800-882-8880 to claim the award and reference the award code listed next to each destination.

Destinations:
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Coach: 17,500 CBPLMM18
Business/First: 52,500 CBPLMM53


Fort Myers, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38


Tampa, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38


Jacksonville, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38


Honolulu, HI
Coach: 27,500 CBPLM28
Business/First: 67,500 CBPLM68


Kona, HI
Coach: 27,500 CBPLM28
Business/First: 67,500 CBPLM68

Get ANOTHER 2,500 Starwood Points When You Are Activating Your Starwood Consumer Card!!!

Related Post:
Hot AMEX Signup Bonuses For July!


This is really simple, but it may not work for everyone.

I discovered this after activating a few family member's cards.

When you are activating your card, push "0" to speak to a live person.
They will run through a whole activation spiel with you.
As part of the spiel they will offer you the ability to add an additional card to your account and get 2,500 bonus starwood points for adding one cardholder, with no annual fee!

Getting an additional card should not affect your credit at all.

You do not have to give the other cardholders social security number, just a birthdate (Tell them that you don't know their social security number).

If you are not offered the additional card or the 2,500 points, just ask for it!

Good luck, and please post your experiences!

Additionally I was not successful in one try at getting this promo for an existing card, but if anyone is successful, please post that as well!

An Attempt At Clarifying People's Confusion Regarding Starpoints...

Note: Even if you didn't follow these steps and you signed for the starwood credit card before getting a starwood number, you will still have a starwood number, and possibly multiple numbers if you have more than 1 credit card.
Just call up AMEX to find out what it is, and then register it on www.spg.com
If you have multiple numbers then call Starwood to merge the accounts.

Many people have emailed me and commented that although I am always posting great uses for Starpoints, I do not make the process entirely clear.

Another point of confusion among some people seems to be where the points are stored.

For starters, here's a point of comparison:
Having points with Starwood is just like having miles on American Airlines(AA)!
-With both AA and Starwood you have a mileage account, in which you collect "miles" (AAdvantage miles with AA or Starpoints with Starwood).
-They both have affiliated credit cards, AA has one issued by Citi and Starwood has one issued by Amex.
-Every month Citi automatically transfers your miles over to your AA account, and every month Amex automatically transfers your points into your Starwood account.
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards have signup bonuses and both cards can be churned (meaning that the signup bonus can be earned multiple times.)
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards come in consumer and business versions.
The business versions generally have more benefits. (AA's business card earns double miles for AA tickets, and the Starwood business card saves you up to 5% on stuff like Delta or Jetblue tickets and Fedex with Amex Open Savings)

Having said that, here is a step by step process of turning starpoints into free tickets.

Step 1: Go to www.spg.com (SPG stands for Starwood Preferred Guest.)

Step 2: In the middle column it says, "JOIN STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST"
Enter in your Email address and click join!

Step 3: Fill out your personal information, make a spg.com user ID and password, and get a SPG Starpoints number.

Step 4: SAVE YOUR STARPOINTS NUMBER AND YOUR USER ID/PASSWORD IN A SAFE PLACE!

Step 5:Open up a consumer and business starwood amex card to receive 20,000 starpoints for signing up.(Links for the best offers can be found at the top of this site. The consumer version currently has a sweet bonus offer worth up to 25,000 starpoints!)
Be sure to enter in your Starwood number that you just received into the application forms!

Step 6: You will see the points from the starwood credit cards show up into your starwood account within a week of when the statement closes.

Step 7: Decide what you want to do with your starpoints! Read about the options in the knowledgebase!


Let's say that you want to transfer the 40,000 starpoints you have (because you have churned each of the starwood cards) into 100,000 kilometers on LAN in order to get a ticket from Chicago-Tel Aviv (cost=95,000 kilometers).


Step 8: Go to the knowledgebase and find the link to get 5,000 free kilometers for signing up for a LAN account.

Step 9: Sign up for the LAN account and keep you user ID, password, and LAN number in a safe place.

Step 10: Click on the following link to take you to the transfer points page: Starpoint Transfer Linky

Step 11: Go to Airline transfer, and click on "transfer now."

Step 12: Login to your starpoints account when prompted.

Step 13: Choose to transfer to LAN Lanpass, at a ratio of 1 starpoints=2 lanpass kilometers. You also get a bonus 10,000 kilometers for every 20,000 starpoints that you transfer, so (contrary to what the starwood site itself may indicate) 40,000 starpoints will net you 100,000 kilometers.

Step 14: When the kilometers show up in your Lanpass account call up LAN to book your mileage ticket to Israel. They should ticket you on British Airways via London.


Some tidbits that you may not know:
-You can transfer starpoints between any starpoint account in your household simply by giving starwood a call!
-You automatically become elite (preferred plus level) when you have the starwood AMEX card! With preferred plus elite status you get a free room upgrade upon check-in and a guaranteed 4pm late checkout at any Starwood brand hotel!
-You can sign up anyone in your family for a Starwood AMEX card and give AMEX your starwood number. All of the points earned will conveniently automatically go into your account!

SMOKING HOT! Get 25,000 AMEX MR Points For Opening A Business Gold Rewards Card!

Related Post:
How To Get A Business Credit Card

Amex Business Gold Rewards 25,000 MR Points Offer Linky
The first year on this card is fee-free!
25,000 Amex MR Points can be transferred into 25,000 miles on many airlines, including Continental, Delta, and Frontier!

BOILING HOT! BEST STARWOOD SIGNUP BONUS OFFER EVER!!!

-Earn 10,000 starpoints for opening up the card.
-Earn another 30,000 starpoints (15,000 for the 1 point per dollar spent, and a 15,000 point bonus) for spending $15,000 on the card in the first 6 months of having the card!
The Starwood Amex is currently churnable (you can earn the signup bonus multiple times)
Need some help getting to $15,000?
You obviously didn't read my previous post!
Starwood Signup Offer Linky
HT: Asher O.

Deal Reminder: Process Credit Card Payments With Google For Free Until 12/31/07!!!

I originally posted this deal back in November 2006, but it definitely merits a repost reminder!
You can send an invoice to anyone to pay you with Google checkout.
It wont cost a penny to process-all you need is a bank account!
A word to the wise: Don't pay yourself or anyone in your household...
Google Checkout Selling Account Signup Linky
Free Credit Card Processing Promo Info Linky

Starwood Branded Hotels In Israel.

In the recent Starwood post an anonymous commenter asked about the Starwood branded hotels in Israel.
Less than 20 minutes later another anonymous commenter answered,
"Israel is one of the best places to use the starwood points (since they dont categorize them properly) - Le meridien dead sea 2-3000 points and the Herods Eilat which usually costs around 350 Dollars (cat 3) is only 7000 points in America it would be a Cat 6 - The Jerusalem Sheraton is also only 7000 points but not such a great hotel - still a unreal value."

Now that is how the comments system is supposed to work-other people answering questions that they know about!

Since I have a planned trip to go to Israel in August for the first time since I was an infant, I have been looking into this issue as well!
P.S. If anyone has any other Israel tips (cell phones, car rentals, GPS rentals, etc.) please leave a comment!


There are 13 Starwood hotels in Israel.

Category 1:
Le Méridien Dead Sea
Sheraton Moriah Dead Sea
Le Méridien Haifa

Category 2:
Sheraton Moriah Eilat
Sheraton Moriah Tiberias

Category 3:
Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel
Sheraton City Tower Tel Aviv
Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv
Herods Forum Eilat
Herods Vitalis Spa Eilat
Le Méridien Eilat
Sheraton Herods Palace Hotel Eilat

Category 4:
Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel and Towers


Again, here is the cost in starpoints by category,

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points

Restricted Cash And Points: (Tentative-Launching June 28th.)
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60

Launching June 28th: Improved Starwood Starpoints/Cash Hotel Awards!

Please note: This news has yet to be confirmed from Starwood, but the source is trustworthy enough to make a post about this already.

Good news!
It will soon be cost even less starpoints to stay in great hotels worldwide!

Here's a brief summary in order to understand what is changing.
There are 6 good uses for starpoints.

Use #1: Unrestricted, No Blackouts/Capacity Controlled Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #2: Restricted Cash And Points Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #3: Hotel Room Upgrades: Starts at 1,000 points.
Use #4: Nights AND Flights: 60,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 3 hotel.
70,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 4 hotel.
Use #5: 5th Night Free: When you book an unrestricted category 3-6 hotel award for 5 nights you only pay for the points of 4 nights.
Use #6: Transferring into Real Airline Miles. 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles on numerous airlines.

Use #2 is what is dramatically improving.
Until now the cash and points option was only available at maybe 50 htoels worldwide.
Now it will become available for all hotels in categories 3-6 and for Asia/Pacific hotels in categories 1-2 as well.

Here is the pricing difference between an unrestricted hotel stay and a restricted cash and points stay.

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points
Category 5: 12,000 points (16,000 in peak season)
Category 6: 20,000 points (25,000 in peak season)


Restricted Cash And Points:
These rates are tentative and not official yet-hopefully they will be confirmed by Starwood by June 28th!
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60
Category 5: 4,800 points + $90
Category 6: 8,000 points + $150

AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards For July-September 2007 Released!

Reduced mileage awards is one of the quarterly benefits of the AA Credit Card.

Q3 Reduced Mileage Awards Linky
Fly to select cities worldwide for 7,500 less miles than American Airlines regularly charges!

Sample Destinations-Valid From Any US48 City:
17,500 Miles:
-NYC(JFK)
-Palm Springs, CA
-Montreal
-Toronto
-Calgary
-Dominican Republic (Off-Peak)
-S. Maarten (Off-Peak)
-Bermuda (Off-Peak)

32,500 Miles:
-Buenos Aires, Argentina (Off-Peak)
-Montevideo, Uruguay. (Off-Peak)

Have A Citi AA Credit Card And Traveling Through An AA Hub Within The Next 2 Weeks? Get 500 Miles For Free!

For the next 2 weeks there are Citi kiosks in AA's hub airports (DFW, JFK, MIA, and ORD) giving away free 500 mile certificates to Citi AA credit cardholders.
Limit 1 certificate per cardholder per day.

AA Miles Auctions For Citi AA Credit Cardholders!

Auction Linky
Just curious-with a week left for the auction, who is bidding over 200,000 miles for lifetime Gold Elite status?
After all, AA gives Gold status for completing an easy challenge and lifetime gold is given out for free to all who cross the million mile mark...

Coming Soon: Earn Starpoints On Your House!!!

This is huge-pay your mortgage with plastic!!!
If anyone is able to pay for their mortgage on their Amex please post a comment!
AmEx Plans Mortgage Rewards

FICO Scores Will Soon No Longer Factor In Authorized Accounts!

Trying to build credit? You had better hurry up!

One of the best ways for a teenager to start building credit is about to end.
Having a parent add a child as an authorized user with their own SSN on a long-standing and high limit credit card has for years been an easy way to quickly build credit and start off with a high credit score.

Starting later this year only the primary credit credit card holder will get FICO credit for the account.

The authorized account holders were always given credit in the past as a benefit for college students to build their credit.

The reason for the change was because some people were renting out their authorized accounts to non-relatives who just wanted a quick and unfair credit boost...

I wonder how this change will affect everyone's credit scores...

News Article Linky

An Introduction To Cathay Pacific Asia Miles-Part 1.

One of the numerous uses of starpoints is the ability to transfer points into airline miles at a 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles rate.

Cathay Pacific is arguably the best airline in which to transfer points to.
Note that Cathay Pacific has no US based credit card, so the Starwood Amex is the absolute best method to earn Asia miles from credit card spending.

People have been asking for months to help clarify the highly complicated Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program, so here's a start.

The confusion stems from the fact that the program is very different than normal US based mileage programs, but its primary value is owed to that uniqueness.

First of all, about the airline, Cathay Pacific.
-They operate with their hub in Hong Kong.
-They are part of the Oneworld (AA, BA, JAL, Qantas, etc.) Alliance.
-They consistently win awards for their top-notch business and first classes, and even economy is much better than US based airlines.

Cathay Pacific has 2 programs, the Marco Polo club and Asia miles.
Marco Polo club is only for recognition for frequent fliers. If you are just transferring starpoints you will never need to worry about the Marco Polo Club, so just ignore it.

US based mileage programs charge based on the country of flying. If you want to go from New York to Tel Aviv or Los Angeles to Tel Aviv on Continental it will be the same 70,000 miles in coach or 100,000 in business/first.
At the same token, Los Angeles to Hawaii and New York to Hawaii will always be 35,000 miles.

Asia Miles charges based on the distance of the flight. For regular mileage tickets there are 7 mileage zones.
Mileage Zone Chart Linky
Here's how it works:
First go to the great circle mapper to research the one-way distance of a flight.
For example type in ORD-LHR(Chicago/O' Hare-London/Heathrow) to discover that the distance is 3,953 miles, or that JFK-GRU(New York/JFK-Sao Paulo) is 4,745 miles.
Then plug the number into the Asia Miles award chart to discover that both of those distances will fall into Zone C.
While you use the one-way distance to figure out the zone, the miles shown is the price for a round-trip ticket in that zone.
So a round trip ORD-LHR on AA or British Airways or JFK-GRU on AA or JAL will be 45,000 in coach, 60,000 in business, and 90,000 in first.
These rates, especially for business class, are significantly less than if you have miles on AA, BA, or JAL.

Here's where the program gets really bizarre:
Look at the distance from LAX-HNL(Los Angeles-Honolulu) and SFO-HNL(S. Fransisco-Honolulu).
Believe it or not, LAX is further from HNL than SFO is. 157 miles further to be precise.
Because of that very small difference though, SFO-HNL falls into Zone B, while LAX-HNL falls into Zone C!

To be continued...



©2007 Ctownbochur.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

BOILING HOT! HURRY! Open A Continental Consumer Credit Card And Get 15,000 Miles And A $150 Flight Credit!

Update: The $150 just posted to my Continental Account without any issues!

Deal originally posted 03/14-12:31 am.
Deal status: DEAD!
Reminder: You must make a purchase with this card by April 3rd to get the $150 Continental money!

Be sure to follow these steps in order to get credit!

Step 1: If you do not yet have a Continental Onepass account Sign up for one here. Otherwise go on to step 2.

Step 2: If you do not yet have a Continental Gift account Sign up for one here. Otherwise go on to step 3.

Step 3: Register for the $150 flight credit offer by entering in your onepass number.

Step 4: PRINT AND SAVE THE PAGE CONFIRMING THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED FOR THE PROMOTION IN CASE YOU DO NOT GET THE FLIGHT CREDIT!

Step 5: Apply for the Continental Consumer Mastercard.

Step 6: You must make your first purchase with the card by April 3rd, so hurry up and apply today!

Notes:
-The flight credit will post 6-8 weeks after your first purchase.
-The flight credit is good for at least 36 months.
-The flight credit can be used online.
-The continental credit card is churnable.
-A free ticket from the US to Israel on Continental is 70,000 miles in coach and 100,000 miles in business-first.
-The card's annual fee is $85, but you will get 15,000 miles and a $150 flight credit!
-The card gives you 5% off all Continental flights for the first 12 months you have it.
-The card gives double miles for many purchases including all continental purchases.
-The card also allows you to hold the price on continental.com tickets for 24 hours.

SMOKING HOT!!! HURRY!!! GET $250 CASH BACK FOR GETTING A CHASE FREEDOM CARD!!!

Update 8-05/01-7:00pm: DEAD!

Update 7-05/01-12:00pm: Alive Again!

Update 6-04/22: Deal Confirmed-I got my $250 check from Chase!

Update 5-04/06: DEAD!

Update 4-04/05: Alive Again! If you dont see the offer for the $250 cash back at the bottom of the offer page try clearing out your browser's cache and cookies...

Update 3-03/17: DEAD!

Update 2: Here is an image of the page with the $250 offer.

Update: If you do not see the $250 fine print on the page you may not be getting the deal!
Try clearing out your web browser's cache and cookies and then try clicking on the link again and you should see the $250 offer!
Also it would be a good idea to print the page mentioning the $250!

Offer Linky

(You can also get to this offer via the chase.com homepage. You may have to refresh the page a few times before the $250 offer comes up.)

Note the fine print on the bottom of the offer page which mentions this deal:

"*You will receive $200 in bonus rebates which can be redeemed for a $250 check. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks after your first purchase for bonus rebates to post to your account. First purchase includes purchases, balance transfers, or any checks that are used to access your account. To qualify for bonus rebates, account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. The bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts. Only one bonus per account. Existing cardmembers/accounts are not eligible for the bonus offer."

American Express Business Platinum Card Adds 2 New Benefits; Annual Fee Will Increase Beginning May 1st.

The American Express Business Platinum card will be going up from $300/year to $395/year starting on May 1st.

Many readers of site were able to get the card for negative $250 during the last Business Amex promo.

The 2 new benefits, which are effective immediately for all cardholders, are Domestic companion tickets, and Regus Executive Club Membership Office membership.

With the domestic companion benefit, any ticket $299 and above($699-$899 for Hawaii and Alaska) qualifies for a free companion ticket.
What really is unique about this companion program is that it actually works.
-There is no special fare class that you have to book in, any old ticket on one of the Big 6 airlines qualify.
-If the ticket is under $299 Amex will round the ticket up to $299 so that you can get the other ticket for free.
-You can use this program up to 4 times per calender year.
-The cardholder must be one of the travelers.
-There are some blackout dates.

The other new feature is the Regus Executive Club Membership.
You can now access offices and get free internet and refreshments in offices around the world!

The other amazing card benefits have stayed the same for the most part, some of them include:
-Free Continental, Delta, And Northwest Airline Club Access.
-Free Starwood Gold Status.
-Free elite status with Avis, Hertz, and National Rental cars.
-If any item that you buy(up to $10,000)is lost within 90 days of purchase, the money will be refunded.