How would you like a personal assistant for free?

Lost? Can’t figure out your GPS? Don’t have a GPS? Ring up your credit card’s concierge service and ask!

Need tickets to a show? What about tickets to another country? Both are within a credit card concierge service’s wheelhouse and booking both are complimentary (the cost of the tickets aren’t, but the service is free and you can’t even tip them if you wanted to).

Concierge service used to be the exclusive benefits of those carrying American Express’ Centurion Card (yep, the black one made of the pulverized bones Spanish privateers), but today you can find it as a benefit of a lot of cards you wouldn’t expect.

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For a limited time, American Express is offering a free look at your Experian PLUS credit score and Experian credit report. The Experian PLUS credit score is not the same as your FICO score but there’s no way for you to see your FICO score based on Experian data, so this is about as close as you’ll ever get. Experian PLUS uses a different range too, from 330 to 830, versus the FICO score range of 300 to 850.

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I was watching a Frontline program, The Card Game, which talked about the recently passed CARD Act. It was broadcast in November 2009 but by then the regulations and rules that would take effect in March had already been written in stone. The first piece talks about Providian, a secured credit card company that was purchased by Washington Mutual (and then acquired by JP Morgan Chase when WaMu “failed”), and a cut of the commercial showed a consumer say – “people treat you differently when they see you have a gold card.” It was Providian’s “gold” secured card.

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It seems like all the credit card related news lately has been really negative, as card companies react to the CARD Act, but today I wanted to mention a positive credit card story. I read it first on the New York Times Bucks blog over a week ago but American Express is now rewarding cardholders, in their Membership Rewards program, who volunteer. You get 500 reward points for every hour of volunteering up to 10,000 points a year. As long as the project is listed in the VolunteerMatch.org database, it’s eligible.

I think it’s pretty awesome that American Express is doing this and while there are a few hoops to jump through, I suspect to prevent fraud, it’s certainly a nice little enticement for those on the fence about volunteering and a nice perk for those who already do. Some have complained the list is a bit narrow but I believe that they’re probably directing hours to the groups that need it most. You can read the press release here.

I think volunteering and helping others is its own reward but getting 10,000 points in the process certainly doesn’t hurt. To get the rewards you’ll need to have an American Express card in the Membership rewards program, such as Blue from American Express and American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card.

(Photo: thetruthabout)

Did you know that if you buy something with an American Express card and it’s lost, damaged, or stolen within the first 90 days, American Express will replace the item or reimburse you up to the amount of the purchase price? My friend Michelle just came back from a skiing trip with her family in which she managed to get an oil stain on her brand new ski jacket. She had no idea how it got there but she took it to the cleaners and they were unable to remove the stain.

Her husband remembered that their American Express Blue offered Purchase Protection and decided to give them a call. Why not right? As it turns out, they’re protected by a consumer protection most people forget about – American Express Purchase Protection.

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American Express announced today that you could pay your tax bill using Membership Reward points. For every 200 points, you could pay $1 in taxes through Pay1040.com or OfficialPayments.com. You’d be assessed transaction fee but you could pay for that fee with points as well.

While it may sound appealing, 200 points for every $1 values each point at half a cent each. If you remember from my review of the American Express Membership Rewards program, half a cent per point is remarkably low. While there is no cash option for AMEX points, their recent “everyday expenses” program lets you pay everyday expenses using points that value them at 0.60¢ per point.

Official Payments charges a 2.35% fee for federal tax payments with a credit card, with a minimum of $3.95. Debit cards are charged a flat $3.95 fee.

I think this is mostly a PR move, considering the conversion rate is so low, but if you were contemplating this, consider another option.

We recently received a new Privacy Notice from Citi for 2009, which looked a lot like this online form, and never really appreciated how marketing happens behind the scenes. I implicitly understood that there was some marketing involved but when it’s all spelled out in a privacy document it can be a little disconcerting because the document pretty much covers every potential type of marketing, not the ones they actually do.

For example, they talk about sharing information with other companies in the Citigroup family thought I’ve never received a solicitation from another company at Citi. They also talk about third party nonaffiliated companies, but I’ve also never received anything there (probably because I opt out of junk mail as part of our do it yourself identity theft protection)

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American Express wants to give away ten Flip Mino video cameras to ten Bargaineering.com readers.

The giveaway is in conjunction with a big promotional push they’ve been doing for their American Express Charge Cards and the Membership Rewards program, AMEX’s reward points catalog. They want to give Bargaineering.com readers a taste of the types of rewards they have in the Membership Rewards catalog… so they’re giving away ten Flip Mino video cameras.

Ten.

While I don’t have an AMEX charge card, one of my AMEX credit cards earns Membership Rewards points and I’ve accrued quite a tidy sum of them over the last couple of years. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Southwest Rapid Rewards points because we live near a huge Southwest airport, Baltimore Washington International, and they convert at a very attractive rate. Also, when it comes to gift giving time, I usually turn to the gift cards in the catalog because I can get favorable conversion rates and gifts cards that people love. That’s a win-win there.

So how do you enter to win one of these Flip video cameras? Answer this question in the comments below or in a post on your own blog (in case you want to get more in depth, some people have emailed me saying that a comments box just isn’t large enough to fit what they want to write… which can only help your chances!), linking back to this post:

What is the savviest way you have made your money work harder for you this holiday season?

(if you opt to blog about your savviest way, please email me too just in case the trackback doesn’t come through)

This contest will be open until noon on December 22nd, 2009, when we will select the ten best answers to win a Flip Mino camera. This isn’t a random drawing so try to be creative, we want to see some interesting ideas that other people can use to be savvier with their money. Three of the cameras will be earmarked for creative ideas from registered readers on the Bargaineering Bucks Leaderboard (AMEX rewards their cardmembers, we reward our loyal readers!).

One entry per person and household (we’re not shipping more than one camera to any one address, even if you have a cornucopia of savvy money ideas) and void where prohibited.

Get your thinking caps on and good luck!

Thank you for all the entries, I will post the first names of winners once they’ve been selected, validated, contacted, and confirmed.