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Credit Card Tips and Strategies, Issue #012 -- Get 2% rebates on travel expenses!
Credit Card Tips and Strategies Newsletter 012
Date : 27th July 2006
Table of Contents
1. Get 2% rebates on travel expenses
2. Starwood Preferred Guest Program
3. Save money on your home improvement project
4. Chase Continental Airlines Business Card
5. Chase Amazon Credit Cards
6. New Sub-Prime Cards
7. Cardholders Review Menu Page
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How to earn 2% rebates on travel expenses?
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Chase made a revamp to their BP Visa credit card not too long ago. Previously, this card
allowed you to earn 3% rebates when you make any purchases (including gasoline) at BP
Amoco stations. There was nothing too exciting about this card then. In fact, I suggested that readers get the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card instead as it allows cardholders to earn 5% rebates on supermarket, gasoline and drugstore urchases!
There are a couple of improvements. Firstly, you can now earn 5% rebates for purchases made
at BP Amoco stations. The 5% rebate is on par with the highest rebate paid for gas credit
cards.
But the second improvement is outstanding and unheard of in any other card that I have
researched so far. You can earn 2% rebates on any travel related expense including airline
tickets, hotel stays, car rentals. I have never come across any credit card that pays a 2%
rebate for these items (with the exception of dedicated airline or hotel credit cards -
which come with an annual fee most of the time and you earn points, rather than cash rebates).
In fact, for the first 90 days, you can earn 10% rebates for gasoline purchases at BP Amoco
and a whopping 4% rebates on travel related expenses!
Thirdly, you earn 2% rebates for purchases at restaurants. There used to be a Discover
Restaurant card that allowed you to earn 5% rebates, but this card has been discontinued.
It is very rare to find cards that pay more than 1% rebates at restaurants.
So even if you do not use BP Amoco stations, you may want to consider this card. This
is a great travel credit card disguised as a gas credit card!
Check out our review here :
BP Visa Review
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Starwood Preferred Guest Program
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I started reviewing frequent guest programs a while ago and I have just finished going
through the Starwood Preferred Guest program. This program has won more Freddie Awards
than any other hotel program (even frequent flyer programs) and in fact, it has dominated
most of the award categories.
What is so exciting about this program is this : Firstly, there are no blackout dates.
Secondly, you can transfer points to miles on 30 airline partners. Most of them allow you
to transfer 1 point for 1 mile. Because you can earn 2 points for every dollar you spend
at Starwood Hotels, it is equivalent to earning double miles if you intend to transfer
points for miles. Savvy travellers make use of the Starwood Preferred Guest program from
American Express to earn even more points..and miles?
Many of these airline partners are non-American airlines. Hence, expatriates may want to
consider getting a Starwood Preferred Guest Card as a way to earn miles for their domestic
airlines. In fact the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card is used by many travellers simply
to earn points to be converted into air miles.
You can read our review of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program here :
Starwood Preferred Guest Program Review
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Save Money on your Home Improvement Project
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Chase has recently introduced the Chase Home Improvement Card. This card allows the
cardholder to earn three points for every dollar you spend at home improvement stores.
These points can then be exchanged for either gift certificates or cash rebates. There
is no other such credit card in the market today.
Hence, if you have a home improvement project that may stretch for a couple of years, then
you may want to check this one out.
You can read our review of the Chase Home Improvement Rewards Card here :
Review of the Chase Home Improvement Rewards Card
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Chase Continental Airlines Business Card
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We are now offering the Chase Continental Airlines Business Card and have written a
review on the card. This is a pretty good airline card as you can earn doubles miles, get
decent bonus miles after your first purchase with the card. As an extra incentive to the
small business owner who travels frequently on Continental, Chase is doing a novel thing
by allowing new cardholders to get a 5% discount on Continental ticket purchases for the
first year.
You can read our review here :
Review of the Chase Continental Airlines Business Mastercard
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Chase Amazon Credit Cards
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We are also now offering the Chase Amazon credit card (both personal and business versions)
on our website. Both these cards allow you to earn 3 reward points for every dollar you
spend at Amazon.com. These points are then redeemable for Amazon gift certificates (2,500
points gets you a $25 gift certificate). If you find yourself buying something from
Amazon.com every month, perhaps this is a card you can consider.
Review of the Amazon.com Visa
Review of the Amazon.com Business Visa
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3 New Sub-Prime Cards
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We are now offering three new sub-prime credit cards on our website. They are
the Total Visa, the Imagine Gold Mastercard and the Tribute Mastercard. Since, we have
added a few new unsecured sub-prime credit cards, I have decided to list them on a new
page with just unsecured credit cards for those with bad credit. You can read our reviews
of these card from the following page :
Unsecured Credit Cards for Bad Credit
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Cardholders Review Menu Page
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As of the last count, we have readers post reviews of 17 credit cards. I have decided to
compile them on just one page so that everyone can access it easily. These are credit card
reviews written by readers who have had experiences with the card. This page is on our
navigation bar, but you can check it out here :
Cardholders Review
Nick Lian
http://www.askmrcreditcard.com"
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