May 9, 2008
A common misconception out there is that business credit cards can only be held by “real” businesses. Guess what? That’s not the case at all.
Who can apply for business credit cards?
As it turns out, anyone can apply (and be approved) for one. You don’t have to have own an “official” business at all. When filling out the application, simply enter your own name for the business (or dream one up if you wish) and use your social security number as the tax ID number (if they ask for one).
Is this legit?
The short answer is “yes.” This is totally legit because any individual can operate as a sole proprietor. There’s no need to file any paperwork, pay any registration fees, etc. You’re a sole proprietor if you say you are.
Want more justification? Maybe you occasionally sell things on eBay. Or maybe you specialize in family accounting (your family’s accounting - you balance the checkbook, right?). Or lawncare — you mow the lawn, right? If so, then you can choose to view yourself a business.
Unless you go to the trouble of registering a business name (and there’s really no need), the name of your business is the same as your legal name. Similarly, if you don’t register for a tax ID number, then your TIN is the same as your SSN. In this case, there is no real distinction between you and your sole proprietorship.
Why would I want a business credit card?
The main reason that an individual might want to apply for a business credit card is to take advantage of special introductory offers. For example, the Advanta Platinum BusinessRewards card offers a 15 month 0% balance transfer. Likewise, a number of the most generous credit card signup bonuses are associated with business credit cards.
Posted in Credit Card Facts 
1 Comment »
May 8, 2008
This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Blockbuster Total Access is running a new promotion where you get 50% off your first month plus a free $25 Visa gift card* just for signing up. So…
You can get their 3-at-a-time movie plan for one month plus the $25 gift card in return for just $10 for the first month ($19.99 thereafter). Moreover, unlike Netflix, you can exchange your movies in their stores which gives you more bang for your buck.
*You have to remain a member for six months to qualify for the gift card.
Posted in Miscellany 2 Comments »
May 5, 2008
In their “100 Best” issue, Money Magazine recently rate the three best credit cards for various purposes.
First off, Discover More is the best card if you carry a balance. Not only do they have a 0% balance transfer offer, but they also cap the transfer fee at $75. And if you don’t pay it off before the introductory period expires, their rates aren’t crazy. Moreover, you could also just transfer your balance to another card at that point if you need to.
Next up… Blue Cash from American Express is the best cash back reward card for big spenders. I’ve talked about this before, but Blue Cash pays up to 5% cash back on your purchases, thought the highest reward level don’t kick in until you’ve spend $6,500. Another nice thing about Blue Cash is that they automatically credit your rewards to your account, though they only do so once per year.
Finally, the Chase Freedom card is the #1 reward credit card for smaller spenders. As I’ve noted previously, this card pays 3% rewards on purchases in the three of 15 categories (including things like groceries, gas, and pet supplies) on which you spend the most each month. The only downside here is that the reward falls back to the base 1% once you’ve made $600 in eligible purchases in a month. A particularly nice feature of this card is that whenever you amass $200 in rewards, they throw in another $50. This effectively increases the reward rates to 1.25% and 3.75%. It’s also worth noting that there is currently a $50 signup bonus for the Chase Freedom card.
All in all, this list is in close agreement with my own views. In fact, we have both an Amex Blue Cash and a Chase Freedom card. We use the Amex card whenever possible, with the Chase card serving as a backup.
Posted in Credit Card News, Reward Cards No Comments »
May 2, 2008
I recently ran across an article talking about the advantages of contactless credit cards that transmit your account information via Radio-Frequency IDentication (RFID). While a lot of people are concerned about their account information being stolen from cards with embedded RFID chips, it seems that there are a number of security measures in place.
Here’s what they had to say about card security:
The contactless cards use secure data transmission. All information that is transmitted is subjected to 128-bit encryption
The contactless card never transmits your credit card number. Rather, your card transmits a unique number for each transaction. If someone intercepts that number, it would be useless even if they could decrypt it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that card issuers typically extend the same sort of fraud protection whether or not you swipe your card.
The article also argued that contactless cards are faster to use. Cash transactions take and average of 34 seconds. Transactions in which you swipe your card take an average of 25 seconds. But contactless credit card transactions take an average of just 15 seconds.
Beyond all of this, contactless cards remove one major headache associated with “old school” credit cards — the magnetic strip never goes bad. In fact, I’m currently carrying around an Amex Blue Cash Rewards card with a sketchy magnetic strip. I need to call and get it replaced, but just haven’t found the time.
I’m still not sure how I feel about all of this — and I’ve never actually used the RFID feature. In fact, I just discovered that my Chase Freedom card has this ability.
Posted in Credit Card Facts 1 Comment »
May 1, 2008
I just learned that my Chase Freedom Card comes equipped with an RFID chip for “contactless” transactions. Chase has dubbed this technology blink, and it’s available at anywhere that Visa’s payWave is accepted.
So here’s the deal… If you make three blink purchases with your Chase Freedom Card between now and June 6th, 2008 you’ll get a free $10 cash back bonus. While $10 isn’t a lot, payWave is accepted at a wide variety of merchants, so it should be pretty easy to take advantage of this offer. Moreover, this bonus comes in addition to your regular cash back rewards.
And don’t forget… There’s still a $50 signup promo for the Chase Freedom Card.
Posted in Credit Card Offers, Reward Cards 2 Comments »
April 28, 2008
This is just a quick followup to my previous post about getting a huge grocery discount by combining tax rebate promotions with a reward credit card. From what I’ve heard, both Meijer and Albertson’s will offer a similar deal though, in the case of Meijer, the extra 10% (in the form of a coupon) has to be spent on “general merchandise and apparel.”
Regardless, once you factor in the discount for using a 5% reward credit card on the initial gift card purchase, this is a pretty hot deal.
Posted in Credit Card Tips 1 Comment »
April 23, 2008
In case you haven’t heard, grocery chain Kroger (KR) is offering to add 10% to your economic stimulus tax rebate if you swap it out for a Kroger gift card. So instead of receiving $300, $600, or $1200, you’ll get $330, $660, or $1320 worth of groceries.
What’s even better is that you don’t actually have to show your check to take advantage of this deal — and you can make payment with cash, personal check, or credit card! So…
Let’s assume that you take advantage of this offer and make payment with a reward credit card such as the AmEx Blue Cash Rewards card. Because this card offer 5% cash back on grocery store purchases, you’ll get the 10% bonus from Kroger plus 5% cash back from AmEx.
An example:
Purcahse a $300 gift card purchase and get $330 in credit. On top of that, you’ll receive an additional $15 cash back from AmEx, meaning that you’ll spend $285 to get $330 worth of groceries. That’s an instant return of nearly 16%. Not bad for a quick trip to the service counter.
Posted in Credit Card Tips, Reward Cards 1 Comment »
