Debt, Credit Card & Consolidation Current News Digest

Did you know that if you buy something with an American Express card and it’s lost, damaged, or stolen within the first 90 days, American Express will replace the item or reimburse you up to the amount of the purchase price? My friend Michelle just came back from a skiing trip with her family in which she managed to get an oil stain on her brand new ski jacket. She had no idea how it got there but she took it to the cleaners and they were unable to remove the stain.

Her husband remembered that their American Express Blue offered Purchase Protection and decided to give them a call. Why not right? As it turns out, they’re protected by a consumer protection most people forget about – American Express Purchase Protection.

How does it work? Use your AMEX card when you pay and you get 90 days of protection against accidental damage or theft. You file a claim and the protection replaces the item or reimburses you up to the amount of the purchase price. There’s a limit of $1,000 per occurrence and up to $50,000 per cardmember account per year. You can file an American Express claim online or call 1-800-322-1277 and you’ll be asked to provide proof of theft, accidental damage, or vandalism.

They were sent a claim form to fill out and needed to provide additional documentation such as receipt of purchase, AMEX statement with the purchase, and description of the damage. Had the jacket been stolen, instead of damaged, they would’ve had to include a police report as well.

American Express has a reputation, among merchants, of having the highest processing fees out of any of the issues. Not coincidentally, they offer some of the best consumer protections like return protection and purchase protection.

Her husband told me that they make most of their major purchases using their American Express card because of these types of protections. Between the 90 day product insurance and the doubling of the manufacturer’s warranty up to a year (which many issuers offer), there are two excellent reasons why I can see an AMEX beating out a comparable cash back card.

Every American Express card I looked at on their site included this Purchase Protection insurance policy and I totally forgot it existed. Have you ever used it? Heard of a friend who used it?

American Express Purchase Protection Perk from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

We’ve covered some of the best high interest savings accounts in the past, and I’d like to add a few more savings products to the list. While I associate American Express with top of the line credit cards, they actually also have a banking arm through which they’ve been offering a couple of high yield savings account options.

So if you’re looking for a place to stash your cash, and would like to work with a familiar name in the financial space, then I’d like to point out the following Savings Accounts from American Express Bank, FSB.

Personal Savings From American Express

American Express Bank has two types of accounts for your savings. Here are some details:

#1 Online Savings Account

The High Yield Savings Account from American Express is an online savings account that currently yields a 1.30% APY, with interest compounded daily. This account does not require a minimum balance and does not incur any fees. You’ll also get 24/7 access to your account via phone or the web. And of course, your accounts are fully FDIC insured. You’ll be able to access your money through the standard methods of electronic transfer and check writing.

#2 Certificates of Deposit

The American Express Bank also offers a variety of certificates of deposit of varying terms. Just like their savings account counterpart, these accounts are FDIC insured, are accessible 24/7 and don’t charge a monthly fee. Their terms range from 3 months to 5 years (60 months); the corresponding interest rate you can earn ranges from 1.00% APY for the 3 month CD to 2.95% APY for the 5 year CD. A one year CD yields 1.50% APY at this time.

These look like great options for your cash funds. For more information on these offerings, you can always check out the official site for Personal Savings from American Express. You can read more about these products through the site’s FAQs, as well as open an account in no time.

Personal Savings from American Express Review

If you’re in the market for a new credit card and you expect to travel throughout the year, a hotel rewards card might make sense for you. The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is an example of a card that offers you a lot of benefits if you’re a frequent traveler.

Why pick a hotel rewards card over any other type of card? While there are a lot of credit card rewards programs that can suit every card user, there are certainly those cards that are best for general purchases. If you don’t anticipate any trips within the next year or don’t travel much, then you might want to seek out a general type of rewards card or cash back credit card such as the American Express Blue Cash card, the Chase Freedom credit card or any one of the popular Citi credit cards. However, if you travel for business, need to leave your city to see relatives often, or if you enjoy vacations several times a year, then a hotel rewards card can help you earn free upgrades or stays at your favorite hotels and may actually turn out to be a better option that can provide you greater savings in the long run. It really depends on your spending patterns and credit card activity.

A Review of the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from AmEx

With the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card, you can accumulate Starpoints in various ways. For instance, it’s possible to earn 10,000 Starpoints with your first purchase, as long as that first purchase is within the first year that your card’s approved. These bonus Starpoints should show up on your statement about two to three months after your initial purchase.

Earn Your Way to an Upgrade or Receive Free Stays

When you use the card enough and you end up spending $15,000 in the first six months, you’ll earn an additional bonus of 15,000 Starpoints. The Starpoint bonuses have the potential to give you up to six free nights at certain hotels, based on the category of the hotels that interest you. You can earn a Starpoint for every dollar you spend on eligible purchases. If you’re planning a stay at a Starwood property, check with customer service to see if your visit is eligible for double points.

In addition, you can use your Starpoints to earn free stays or upgrades at more than 940 Starwood hotels and properties in over ninety countries. Starwood properties include Sheraton, Westin, and W hotels around the world, so you’re going to encounter some rather nice hotel rooms on the list. Check out destination favorites like Florida, Hawaii, and New York as well as cities near you. Also, there aren’t any blackout dates for your stays.

If you prefer, you can also transfer your Starpoints to the frequent flyer programs of over thirty major airlines. For many of the airlines, the points will transfer on a one-to-one basis. Before you try to book a flight, just be aware that you’ll still have to pay for taxes and fees on your own.

As another incentive, the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card comes with a low introductory APR of 2.9% for purchases for the first six months. After the intro period, it rises to 15.24%. It’s also a balance transfer credit card, so if you’re interested in moving your balance over, you can receive a 2.9% intro APR for the first six months. To qualify, you’ll have to request the transfer within 30 days of opening your account.

There’s no annual fee for the first year; but after that, you’ll pay $45 per year. You won’t have to pay extra if you need additional cards. And as with any other credit card, if you are able to avoid cash advances, late penalties or return payments, you’ll avoid hefty charges and rate increases.

Miscellaneous Benefits: Protection for Purchases

There are, of course, the standard benefits such as protection from fraudulent or unauthorized charges with a Fraud Protection Guarantee; a one year extended warranty on your purchases for covered products; purchase protection, in case your eligible purchase is stolen or lost; and ninety days of return protection.

Since this is an AmEx card, you’ll get the advantage of the American Express Selects program. This service gives you access to savings, special offers, events, and more.

You can also opt for additional coverage when you travel. If you want AmEx to help you with your traveling requirements, you can use American Express Online Travel to find good rates for your next trip. This service can help you out with air, hotel and car rentals. Emergency Check-In can allow you to book a hotel room even if you lose your credit card. Thanks to Assured Reservations, you won’t lose your room if you’re running behind schedule. And you’ll be protected by up to $100,000 in travel accident insurance.

Another useful feature is the prospect of Emergency Card Replacement. If you happen to lose your card, you might be able to secure a replacement as soon as the next twenty-four hours. When your travels take you more than 100 miles from home, then you can turn to the Global Assist Hotline if you need emergency assistance. This can really be useful if you’re out of the country and need a doctor or if you lose your luggage.

If you’re the kind of consumer who enjoys the perks of a hotel rewards card, the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card looks like a great choice.

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from AmEx Review

Sometimes I get questions that are out of my league. In the past, I’ve just sort of ignored these, but I’d like to try to answer more of them. To do this, I’m going to start asking for tips from some of the experts I’ve met through GRS.

For example, my good friend Mac from Get Fit Slowly (where I may eventually write again some day), came to me this week with a question about credit cards. In fact, it’s a question I get surprisingly often: He wants to know how to find the best credit card for his needs. To find out, I tapped a couple of the experts in my professional network.

First, let’s look at Mac’s situation:

My wife and I are long-time users of the Alaska Airlines Platinum Credit Card. We use this card to earn frequent-flier miles, and since we primarily fly up and down the West Coast to visit family with our children, Alaska seemed like the way to go. The card also has a few other perks:

• One frequent-flier mile for every dollar spent.
• Two frequent-flier miles for every dollar spent on alaska airline flights.
• One companion ticket each year (buy one full-price ticket, get a second for $99).

I have no idea what the interest rate is because we pay off the card every month without fail. Neither of us likes to carry cash, so we basically use this card for everything we can. (We even use it for small purchases like morning coffees and video rentals.)

Recently, I’ve been unhappy with some changes they’ve made to the card benefits. So, I’m looking into switching cards and was wondering if you could offer some advice. I’m looking for a rewards based card for folks who pay off their balance each month. Our rewards would be used for travel, so I’d like the best travel rewards primarily, but I’m not opposed to other rewards programs such as merchandise rewards, etc.

A few of the cards I’ve looked at but haven’t pulled the trigger on are the American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Sapphire Card. I’m not sure which of these to choose from or if there are better options out there. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are that looking at credit card offers makes my mind numb. I’d rather go to the dentist!

As most of you know, I carry just one credit card (a Capital One No-Hassle Cash Rewards card), and sometimes I think I should get rid of even that. But I really do like getting one percent cash back on the things I buy, so I’ve kept the card. (And I use it — a lot.)

If I were to start looking for a new card, I’d start by checking two sites: Index Credit Cards and Card Ratings. There are other credit-card sites out there, but these are the two I know best. Both have huge lists of cards that you can sort through to find the one that fits your needs.

In fact, because I know so little about this subject, I contacted both sites to ask if they could give feedback on Mac’s predicament. Here’s what Curtis Arnold from Card Ratings had to say:

Many of our readers share Mac’s frustration. I personally have never been a big fan of airline reward cards, but particularly in this tough credit environment; my personal mantra is that cash is king.

I would challenge Mac to take a look at our recent press release regarding the best credit cards of 2009. There are a couple of cash rebate credit cards that give you 2% cash back on every purchase and several cards that give you 5% back on certain types of purchase. If you do the math and compare the rebate percentage of these cards with your current one, I would be shocked if your current card even comes close.

Adam from Index Credit Cards suggested two options, depending on how important the travel rewards are to Mac and his wife:

First is the Citi PremierPass Card, which pays you points on purchases as well as on actual travel miles flown. There’s a no-annual-fee version of this card as well as a card that charges $75 annually but offers a more generous rewards package. Which you choose would obviously depend on how often you use your card and also how often you would buy airline tickets with it. You can use the points from this card for travel across airlines or for other rewards from Citi’s ThankYou rewards program.

Second is American Express Blue Cash. Based on Mac’s description of his card use habits, I’m assuming he puts a lot of expenses on his card every year. This card is a cash rebate card that works best the more you spend with it. At first you earn a modest 1% cash back on gas and grocery purchases and 0.5% on other purchases, but after you’ve spent $6,500 with the card, those reward percentages go up to 5% on gas and groceries and 1.25% everywhere else, with no limit on your rewards. Think hard about your expenses, though, because if you won’t spend significantly more than $6,500 per year, you’re better off going with a straight cash back card without this tiered formula.

See why I went out to the experts? This is all gibberish to me. Maybe I’m hurting myself with my ignorance, but I’m content with my Capital One No-Hassle Cash Rewards card. It gives me one percent cash back on everything I buy. That’s it. No muss, no fuss. The whole thought of having to track travel miles makes me tense! (Seriously.)

Anyhow, what are your thoughts? Where do you go to get info on current credit card offers? What should Mac look for in a card? Can you recommend any options for a family that doesn’t carry a balance, but uses their card for most of the purchases they make?

This website may receive payment by the companies mentioned in this blog.

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Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• How One College Student Handles Credit Cards
• Credit Card Advice from Consumer Reports
• I Do Not Use Credit Cards
• Follow-Up on the 63-Page Credit Card Agreement
• Credit Card Companies Are Closing Unused Accounts

American Express announced today that you could pay your tax bill using Membership Reward points. For every 200 points, you could pay $1 in taxes through Pay1040.com or OfficialPayments.com. You’d be assessed transaction fee but you could pay for that fee with points as well.

While it may sound appealing, 200 points for every $1 values each point at half a cent each. If you remember from my review of the American Express Membership Rewards program, half a cent per point is remarkably low. While there is no cash option for AMEX points, their recent “everyday expenses” program lets you pay everyday expenses using points that value them at 0.60¢ per point.

Official Payments charges a 2.35% fee for federal tax payments with a credit card, with a minimum of $3.95. Debit cards are charged a flat $3.95 fee.

I think this is mostly a PR move, considering the conversion rate is so low, but if you were contemplating this, consider another option.

Don’t Pay Taxes with American Express Points from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I had lunch with my friend Matt last week. Matt runs the popular community blog Metafilter, where the seeds of Get Rich Slowly were sown. As we ate our pre-Christmas tamales, we chatted about our respective websites. I mentioned that Charlie Park, who runs PearBudget, is acting as a technical reviewer for Your Money: The Missing Manual.

“You know,” I said. “Charlie and I both launched our projects at about the same time. And we were both active members of Metafilter before doing this.”

“I know,” Matt said. “Have you seen his new project? It’s called Wallet Garden. It’s awesome.”

“What does it do?” I asked.

“All it does is store phone numbers.” I must have looked perplexed because he fished out his wallet to explain. “See here on the back of my credit card? There’s a number to call if the credit card is lost or stolen. But think about that for a minute. If my credit card is lost or stolen, how do I know what number to call? It’s a sort of paradox or something.”

“So what does Charlie’s site do?” I asked.

“Well, it lets you enter these phone numbers. Or other phone numbers. It doesn’t keep any other info like your credit card numbers or anything. You just give each phone number a label, put in the phone number, and that’s it. Like, I might type in American Express and then put this contact phone number.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s it,” Matt said, “but it’s awesome. It’s so brain-dead simple, but it’s also so useful. I’m surprised you haven’t posted this on Get Rich Slowly yet. You really should. In fact, you should do it on New Years Day.”

“I can’t do it on the first,” I said, “but I can post it the following week. Wallet Garden, huh? I’ll have to give it a try.”

So there you go. Wallet Garden is a free, easy-to-use web app that does just one thing: It protects you from ID theft by cataloging the customer service numbers for your credit cards. If something happens, you have quick and easy access to the info.

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Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• links for 2006-09-30
• Warning: Identity Theft Doesn’t Stop During the Holidays
• links for 2007-04-26
• Free Paper Shredding Tomorrow (Saturday, April 28th)
• What to Do If Your Identity is Stolen

The Curious Case of Courtney Love’s Credit Cards Credit Card Guide News True or false: Did pop singer Courtney Love take out 104 American Express cards, charge $352059.67 to them, and then refuse to … and more »

CardSmart.co.uk

American Express platinum and other cashback credit cards 'could save holders … CardSmart.co.uk Credit card holders could ask their company to reduce their interest rate in the New Year, according to advice from a national newspaper. …

Years ago, when both credit and champagne flowed freely down Wall Street, the fabled 5% cash back reward credit card freely frolicked among elm and oak trees of Central Park. Nowadays, finding a decent 5% cash back reward credit card is rarer than seeing a unicorn… but today I saw one. His name was PenFed.

PenFed is short for The Pentagon Federal Credit Union, a credit union for the branches of the military and government, and has been a popular credit union for personal finance enthusiasts. A few years ago, you could get some pretty high interest rates on their certificates of deposit. Today, the interest rates are more pedestrian but I bet they’ll be more attractive in the future.

However, the real claim to fame, at least today, is their 5% cash back on gasoline credit card.

5% Cashback on Gasoline

While normally known for its great interest rates on deposit products (savings, CDs), offers a PenFed Visa Platinum Card that gives you 5% cash back on gasoline purchases. The PenFed Visa Platinum card is pretty lights out when you compare it to its competitors. You get 2% cash back on supermarket purchases, 5% cash back from gas purchases at the pump, and 1.25% cash back on all other purchases.

If that wasn’t enough, there are no limits to the rewards and the cash back is credited to your card each month. No points, no games, just straight up cash credited to your statement. That’s ideal.

Eligibility

Like any credit union, it’s only as good as your ability to join. To be eligible, you had to be connected to the military in some way – either active or retired, related to someone who is, worked at a military installation, a government employee, or employee/volunteer with the American Red Cross (here’s the full eligibility list).

Fortunately, if none of those apply, you can join the National Military Family Association and be eligible for an account through your affiliation with them. A single year annual membership costs $20, and eligibility to PenFed, and you can decline to renew the following year.

Deposit Products

Right now, the deposit products (checking, savings, CDs) aren’t all that spectacular. They used to be leaders in certificate of deposit rates but the shorter term rates just aren’t that appealing. A 12-month CD for 1.25% APY puts it near the back of the best CD rates, though rates get a little better the longer you stretch the maturity. Their savings account yields 0.35% APY, again not very appealing.

If you do open an account, be aware of the various minimum account balances and service fees PenFed charges for deposit accounts.

If I didn’t buy the vast majority of my gasoline from Costco, which only accepts American Express credit cards, I’d be all over this. I still might join in the near future just to get access to their CDs, which I anticipate will become more attractive whenever the Fed begins raising interest rates again.

PenFed Visa: Best 5% Cash Back Rewards on Gas Credit Card from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Could I interest you in a video camera?

Just in time for Christmas! If you’re interested in a free Flip Video Camcorder (worth around $120), then I’d like to direct you to the blog, Ask. Mr. Credit Card, where there’s an ongoing giveaway for 10 of these camcorders that’s sponsored by American Express. Okay, so I am not actually holding the giveaway, but I thought to spread the news on this, since I thought the prizes were cool. Mr. Credit Card has 10 Flip Video Ultra cameras that are for the taking for anyone who signs up to his newsletter and leaves him a comment. So check out his giveaway when you get a chance — I doubt this will last long.

And for more news around the web, do check out the great reading material below:

Personal Finance Articles

• Free Money Finance: The Worst Money Stories I’ve Heard
• Triaging My Way To Financial Success: Best of the Blogs 2009
• Mrs. Micah: How to Study for the GREs – Part 1: Writing
• Lazy Man and Money: Top 10 Sneakiest Business Tricks
• Monevator: Where Did All the Absolute Return Funds Come From?
• Political Calculations: Just a Touch of Chaos on a Tuesday
• Gen X Finance: Avoid Fund Overlap to Achieve True Diversification
• Gather Little By Little: The Holiday Finances
• Million Dollar Journey: Top 10 Wealthiest Canadians
• Frugal Dad: Are We Ever Done?
• Brip Blap: Never Underestimate The Influence of a Teacher
• Money Smart Life: How to Set Awesome New Year’s Resolutions
• Fat Pitch Financials: Festival of Stocks
• Well Heeled Blog: Carnival of Personal Finance

Want A Free Flip Video Camcorder?

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