The Sun’s Financial Diary

I just received a letter from Amazon.com which informs me that my Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card is being upgraded to Amazon.com Rewards Visa Signature Card with Signature benefits.
I got the card in 2006 when I started to make more and more purchases at Amazon.com. I thought getting the card makes sense for the 3% cashback [...]

I usually don’t pay too much attention to mails credit card companies send to me because, being very careful with my credit, I have largely stayed out of trouble with credit card companies. Most of the time, I don’t even read those letters that come with account policy or agreement changes. They just don’t concern [...]

Since I am a Citi cardholder, I occasionally get promotional offer from the bank, offers on credit card and banking products. Recently, they sent me a promotion for cheap concert tickets this summer through Citi Private Pass. I myself is not a fan of music, but I thought I’d pass this promotion along to those [...]

Early this year, Discover introduced a new prepaid debit for teenagers, the Discover Current Card. Even though the Current card is designed specially for teens, it gives their parents a great deal of control on the way their children use the cards. The goal is by using this card, parents and teens can work [...]

Nowadays, you won’t find many credit card issuers who are willing to give you 12 months of free loans (0% APR for 12 months) and even if there are card companies can give you 0% APR for 12 months, they usually charge at least 3% if you use the card to make balance transfer (the [...]

A couple of days ago, I read an article on the Wall Street Journal about a new credit card rewards program Chase has just launched. The new program is called Ultimate Rewards, similar to Citibank’s ThankYou Network program and American Express’s Membership Rewards program. Basically, cardholders earn rewards points when using participating Chase credit cards [...]

I have heard some rumors that Chase no longer gives 3% cash back to Freedom Card holders for shopping at gas stations and grocery stores. I haven’t got the notice from Chase myself yet and my latest statement on May 13 still shows 3% cash back for every $1 of eligible purchases made at gas [...]

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 yesterday. The House, already passed its own version of the bill last month, also voted 361 to 64 today to wrap up the legislation. Now the bill is sent to the President for his signature to become a law, [...]

Last Friday we received a membership renewal letter from Costco. Together with the notice is a $64.86 reward gift check from Costco. As a Costco Executive Member, we are able to enjoy the 2% cashback for shopping at Costco and the reward check is what we have accumulated last year, which also means that in [...]

A quick summary of credit cards that currently offer incentives:

Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express 25,000 Starpoints: Open a Starwood Preferred Guest Card and get up to 25,000 bonus Starpoints that can be redeemed for airline tickets, hotel stays, or room upgrade. $45 annual fee is waived for the first year. Find out more [...]