The Sun's Financial Diary

About two weeks ago, I applied and approved for a new Chase Freedom card. The main reason for me to apply the card is the advertised $250 bonus after first purchase, though I can still use the 3% cashback on grocery store, gas, and fast food restaurant purchases. What could be better than $250 free [...]

Plus, you will also get 0% balance transfer for 12 months 5 reward points on every dollar spent on purchases at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations. For the 0% BT, the card’s terms and conditions say The transaction fee for balance transfers is 3% of the amount of each balance transfer, $5 minimum, $75 maximum. [...]

I have done a number of 0% balance transfers using my Citi cards in the past four years, and all of them were fee-free: I paid absolutely nothing for the free loans, including the latest BT from Citi PremierPass card. Though the card carrier says there’s a maximum fee of $250, my statement tells me [...]

As I expected, another charge of $37.90 from Netherlands appeared on my AMEX Costco card when I checked my statement line-by-line over the weekend. It has been more than a month since I reported similar charges to American Express and except a letter acknowledging my report and assuring me an investigation is underway, I haven’t [...]

Yesterday I got a couple of convenient checks from Bank of America. Together with the checks is a letter saying that I can use the check to make balance transfer which has a promotional rate of 0% APR till November 2007. That sounds a good deal as I have $14,500 credit line with the card [...]

Though this card doesn’t offer 0% APR balance transfer, the $250 bonus is just hard to resist. In addition, the Chase Freedom card also has another benefit that’s very appealing to me: 3% cashback for purchases made at grocery stores, gas stations, and quick service restaurants. Currently, the best rewards program I have is with [...]

If you have a home loan with Countrywide, then this credit card may be right for you. The Countrywide Visa Rewards card, issued by FirstUSA, has the following features: No annual fee Earn 1 point for every $1 spent in card purchases and interest Introduction 0% fixed APR for up to 12 months (balance transfer [...]

The mail I received yesterday from Discover regarding the Discover Miles Card reward program says starting April, card members can enjoy more benefits with the “completely redesigned” reward program. The card, renamed to the Miles by Discover Card, will offer more flexibilities for cardholders to earn and spend the rewards. Here’s a comparison between the [...]