I just received a letter from Chase telling me “CONGRATULATIONS” and that my account has been approved for an “upgrade” to the Chase PRESTIGE Credit Card!

What’s all the big fuss? Well, the letter said that I will become a Charter member in the new elite-level credit card program and enjoy an array of 18 valuable services and benefits available only to those who hold the Chase Prestige Credit Card! Wow!

So to cut to the chase, here were the list of benefits :

So it all sounds great until I read a paragraph or two below. Here is what it says : Yet the cost for your elite card upgrade is just $79 , automatically billed to your account annually for as long as your account is in good standing……………..And if you are not satisfied with your “upgrade”–for any reason– call 1-888-326-7157 and we’ll give you a refund, no questions asked.

In my opinion, the best feature is probably the 5% cash back you get from the US hotel rooms, airline tickets and car rentals. If you travel a lot, I can see how this card will benefit you. For now, I will just leave this as it is but I am tempted to give this a go for a year and see how it works.

If you have been upgraded, I would like to hear your experiences.

I just got an email from Chase telling me about a new service from my Chase Flexible Rewards Card. They now have a service whereby you can enroll and basically send a text message to them from your cell phone and a chase representative will call you back and help you.

Signing up is actually quite easy.

1. Dial 41411 - then text the following “txt4help enroll [10 digit code that was sent to your email].

And that’s it.

Whenever you need to speak to a Chase rep, just dial 41411 and text the message [txt4help]. Then you just have to wait and a representative will call you back on your phone pretty shortly.

To top it off, Chase even provide several short cuts for certain specific request. Here is a list of the codes

txt4help dis - Requests a service call back regarding a disputed charge on your Chase credit card

txt4help stop - Removes you from Chase Mobile Extras service. You can always re-enroll with your private enrollment code(s).

txt4help lost - Requests a service call back regarding a lost or stolen Chase credit card.

txt4help cmd - Provides a text response listing all available txt4help commands.

txt4help help - Provides general information on Chase Mobile Extras and the Internet address for more information.

I personally think this is a great tool because it will save you so much time from listening to endless instructions when you dial the 800 number on the back of the credit card. When you call the 800 number, companies take steps to direct you to automated answering sections (especially for mundane things like checking your balances). This is to save time and cost for their call centers as they want their operators to answer only important and complex questions (not the easy ones that can be answered by a machine). I suspect that Chase may simply get more call for simple stuff like what is my balance. If this happens, call center costs go up! Then who’s going to pay for it?

As the sunshine and wonderful weather in summer comes around, many of us will be taking vacations. Some of us will be driving to the shore and beaches, while others will be flying. A couple of weeks ago, Mrs Credit Card took a short trip to New Jersey for a couple of days. This was how she used our reward points to save on her hotel stay.

Right now, we are mainly using our American Express Platinum Card, the Blue Cash Card and the Chase Flexible Rewards. We have accumulated quite a bit reward points for both the membership rewards and our Chase Flexible Rewards.

There are a couple of ways that we could do to use our points. Firstly, Mrs Credit Card drove to New Jersey, so there was no need to use points for an airline ticket. Secondly, she decided to stay at the Marriot Hotel since it was in a convenient location. Our first choice was to use the membership reward points and either get a gift certificate for Marriott, or transfer points to the Marriott Rewards program. Mrs Credit Card decided not to sign up for the Marriott Rewards program so she decided that she wasn’t going to do that.

She also checked with the Chase Flexible Rewards program and found out that we can exchange 10,000 points for a $100 check. We decided to use the Chase Flexible Reward Points because we simply did not want to use our membership reward points (saving up for airline tickets). The Chase Flexible Reward Points also have a five year expiration date so we decided to just it this time round. The hotel bill was around $149 a night excluding taxes. So while we could possibly have got the hotel stay for free, we simply decided to check out the Chase Flexible Rewards. So Mrs Credit Card saved $100 with a $100 Marriott check.

Now that summer is here and you may be planning your vacation, I think it would be prudent to check all the reward points you have earned with your credit card. If there are any that are expiring soon, it is best to use them (especially for a vacation or short weekend trip).

When the Home Depot was closing down to make way for a Walmart in King of Prussia, they started having sale to get rid of inventory. It started off with 10% to 30% off and 2 weeks later - it’s now 20 to 40% off.

During the first week of the sale. I would drive by and remind myself to do a list before I go in. My lists included a window screen, several light bulbs, mulch, air filters, carbon dioxide detectors, rugs, garden hose, flash lights & a toilet seat. (Yes, mine needed to be replaced !)

I persuaded my neighbor - who is a contractor to come along. He has the Chase Home Improvement Rewards^SM Card which he used for my purchases as he would earn 3 rewards for every dollar he spent at Home Improvement Stores. Needless to say, he also loaded up.

When we finally went last Friday, we saw so many guys with big trucks loading up their merchandise. Somehow I was getting excited and thought maybe I’ll get a good bargain for a grill. (Although it’s not on my list) It’s so hard to focus when you know everything is discounted. You want to buy almost everything because you tell yourself that you’ll need it someday. So, I walked around for 2 and a half hours and only succeeded in getting light bulbs, mulch, garden hose, a rug, 3 flash lights and yes, my beloved toilet seat. No, the grill is still out of reach - maybe it would be further reduced in another week of two. It’s such a big place and if you are not a frequent shopper in Home Depot, you spent half the time searching for the right ailse. Frankly, it’s not my favorite shopping destination.

As much as we made some savings with purchases that we eventually needed to make, going to close out sales can tempt you to buy more than you planned, and often on unnecessary stuff. If I had done it again, I would have wrote down a list of things I needed to buy rather than walk around for two hours looking at every discount!

We are now offering the Chase Freedom^SM Cash Visa® Card on our site.

This card is the replacement of the Chase Cash Plus (which was one of the best cash back card as it paid 5% cash rebates on purchases made at supermarkets, gasoline stations and drugstores, until it was discontinued). The new Chase Freedom Card pays you 3% cash rebates on supermarket, gasoline stations and quick service restaurants purchases. For other regular purchases, you will earn 1% cash rebates. The only restriction in this card is that you can only earn 3% rebates for the “3% items” for up to $600 in monthly spending. For most people, that should not present a problem.

This card is certainly better than the Citi Dividend Platinum Select, which only pays 2% cash back on supermarket and gasoline station purchases.

You can also choose to earn reward points rather than cash rebates and hence, the card is also flexible.

At the moment, the Chase Freedom^SM Cash Visa® Card is probably the best consumer cash back credit card without a tier formula. Though the Blue Cash® from American Express pays 5% cash rebates on supermarket, gasoline and drugstore purchases, it only kicks in after you spend $6,500 every year. With the Chase Freedom Card, you earn 3% straight away.

If you are looking for a cash back card, this is a card that you should definitely consider. I have also just written a review of the Chase Freedom Card.

Chase has announced that they will soon be doing away with using the 2-cycle average daily balance method to calculate your monthly balance. This is great news for Chase cardholders who carry a balance.

With the 2-cycle method, cardholders who carry irregular balances or those who have a balance and are reducing it every month will find that their month end balance will be higher than if the card use the regular 1-cycle average daily balance method. This is because the 2-cycle method uses the average of the present and previous month to calculate the monthly balance.

In the past, I have been reluctant to recommend low APR Chase credit cards (just for their low interest rate) because of this reason. But it looks like I will have to revisit their cards and update my recommendations soon.

Credit card companies have always been sneaky in the past about raising fees like over-the-limit fees etc. This is a positive move from them.

United has just announced today that they have a new expiration policy on United Mileage Plus Miles. From now onwards, miles are valid for only 18 months versus 36 months previously.

The rationale for this is that it will enable the “true frequent flyer” and loyal customers to compete with fewer people to get award seats. This will also reduce their operating costs.

Their website stated that Mileage Plus accounts that have not earned or redeemed miles since July 1, 2006 will have associated miles expire on Dec. 31, 2007.

However, like all airline frequent flyer programs, there are ways to “keep your account active and extend the life of your miles). You can do the following things :

1. Fly United or one of its 28 airline partners and earn UA miles.

2. Sign up for the United Mileage Plus® Signature Visa® Card or United Mileage Plus® Platinum Business Card. And oh! make sure you use your card!

3. purchase products or services from more than 100 travel and retail partners (may be difficult if you do not know which are their partner merchants!)

4. use miles by taking a trip to one of the 841 destinations United and its partners serve (basically telling you to use up your miles)

5. use miles for merchandise, hotel stays and dining (ditto)

6. transfer miles to another Mileage Plus member (please redeem seats on someone else’s airplane!)

7. donate miles to the Mileage Plus Charity Miles program (good for your soul and good for UA as well!).

I see this trend continuing as airlines consolidate (US Airways still wants Delta Airlines). However, if you are not a frequent flyer, but occassionally want to use United Mileage Plus Miles to get a free airline ticket, there are credit cards that help you get around this. Here are your alternatives.

1. Get an American Express® Preferred Rewards Green Card. Yes, you have pay an annual fee plus $10 when you transfer points to miles. But Membership Reward Points do not expire and you can choose when to transfer miles. Even if you are not a frequent flyer member of any airline, you can always set one up before you book your flight, transfer membership reward points over and get your free airline ticket!.

2. Get the Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card. The flexible Rewards program allows you to transfer points into United Mileage Plus Miles. The conversion is slightly less than one for one, but with this card you do not pay any annual fee at all. (Note : this information cannot be found on Chase website. But I have this card and can vouch for it).

Since getting the Chase Flexible Rewards Card earlier this year, Chase has sent me their Chase Protector Plan in the mail every once in a while. Today, I decided to open it and read the terms and conditions carefully. This is what the plan is all about.

The Chase Protector Plan is essentially an insurance policy in which cardholders pay a premium every month in return for protection against various events like unemployment. When these events happen, you are
allowed to suspend your payments with no adverse effects on your credit rating. You will also not incur interest charges.

Let’s take a closer look at the events that can trigger the suspension of payments.

1. Leave of absense or Business Hardship - 6 months

2. Life Events (birth or adoption of child, marriage, domestic partnership, divorce, retirement, change of primary residence, experiencing a natural disaster or death of a covered person) - 4 months

3. If you incur a household, medical, transportation, or education expense of $50 or more for one of the three federally recognized holidays - New Years’ Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day) - 1 month

4. Up to 2 years for other qualifying events like unemployment.

You have to pay a fee of $0.89 for every $100 in monthly ending statement each month.

While many people dismiss insurance type products that credit card issuers try to push to cardholders, I am quite tempted to take this one up because there is hardly any insurance against job losses or any of the other trigger events. Should you lose your job, paying your bills and conserving cash (and obviously looking for your next job or starting your own business) should be your top priority.

I do not use the Chase Flexible Rewards as my main card, so the fees should be just be a couple of dollars at most a month. The only thing that may limit the effectiveness is my relatively low credit limit on this card compared to my main cards - the Blue Cash and the Amex Gold Card.

I would be curious to see if you have signed up for something similar.