If you’ve been watching any TV, visiting any financially focused website, or have opened a financial magazine or newspaper, you’ve probably seen a Chase ad and information about their “Blueprint” program. They’ve done a huge media push over a program that, while a little innovative, only helps people who are carrying a balance. With the average credit card debt, it’s refreshing to see a credit card company offer up tools to help people pay down debt.

I think there are two reasons they’ve pushed these features out. First, it’s great PR to have a credit card company offer features that help people pay down debt. Second, it’s great business to have a credit card company offer features that help people pay down debt because it means they are less likely to default on it! I read the August 2009 Nilson Report, a credit card industry trade magazine, and it listed Chase has having the most outstanding debt at nearly $166 billion. A good customer is a paying customer, not a bankrupt one.

The Blueprint program has four components: Full Pay, Split It, Finish It, and Track It.

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I’m often emailed by readers to list what I feel are the best reward credit cards currently available. I personally think that “best” is such a subjective term, the best set of reward credit cards really depends on your spending profile. If you spend a lot in a particular category, you’ll want to get the best card for that category and make sure it has a place in your wallet. If you don’t know what you spend a lot on, you might as well save yourself the hassle and get one that works in all scenarios.

The best cash back credit card is the one that maximizes your reward earnings and converts those rewards into cash or products that you would buy at a favorable exchange rate. Many cards offer high reward points on the front end and then effectively reduce your rewards by converting them at a horrible exchange rate when you redeem them. It’s important to look at both sides of the equation.

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I spent the last weekend at Ocean City, MD with a few friends and one of them told me a story about how they experienced problems with their Chase Freedom card. If you don’t know about the card, it offers a unique cashback program that changes its categories to match your top three spending categories (plus a $50 bonus after your first purchase). Each billing period, it looks at your top three categories and gives you 3% cashback on it. Reader Joe also told me that if you have a Chase checking account then you get 2% back on the top five categories. Finally, if you let your cashback bonus accrue to $200, then they’ll kick in an extra $50. It’s “one of [his] favorite cards.” (here are the cards I consider the best cash back credit cards)

But, my friend this weekend told me that one day he was checking out his statement and noticed that he was not getting credited with any bonus cashback. He was getting the standard 1% on everything, but he wasn’t getting 3% on his top three categories. After a brief phone call, he was told that there was a problem with his account but that he would be getting the credit retroactively applied.

Always double check that you’re getting what you’re supposed to.

Credit cards, banks, cable companies, cell phone companies, etc. are always changing their promotions and there’s no way to confirm they coded your account correctly. There was the whole headache surrounding Verizon’s free LCD TV promotion, there are always hiccups around hot promotional offers from credit cards (Chase Freedom once had a $250 first purchase promotion!), and so it’s no surprise that companies get their paperwork mixed up and fail to credit consumers when they’re supposed to.

Unfortunately, you can’t trust a company, with all its people and its mainframes, to keep those sorts of things straight. They’re not trying to be deceptive, they just can’t keep millions of accounts straight and that’s somewhat understandable. Ultimately, it’s your money and your responsibility, so be sure to double check what a company is supposed to do.

(Photo: neoliminal)

Well well, it looks like we finally have the return of a long lost cash back favorite from a year or two ago… the coveted 5% cashback on supermarkets, drug stores and gas stations credit card in the form of the Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card. (if that’s not your thing, here’s my list of the best cash back credit cards)

A few years ago, there were a dozen of these types of cards. In the last year, that number dropped to zero. Those that did exist only offered it on gasoline and imposed ridiculously low limits such as the Discover Open Road card (gives 5% on gasoline but only up to $5 a month!). Back in the heyday, each were vying for “share of wallet,” the industry term for how much of your spending gets put on their card. They often earn a couple percentage points per transaction so the hope is that you use the card for more than the 5% categories, which is a loss leader for them (this ignores the finance charges, fees, and other charges they impose for a variety of reasons).

Looks like they’re making a come back with the Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card is leading the way.

Any catches? Yes, there are a few. Like all Citi cards, the cashback now comes in the form of ThankYou Network points rather than straight up cash. Those with student loans can convert the points into “cash,” making it a truly 5% cashback card. If you don’t have student loans, you’ll have to take it in the form of gift cards to get a full percentage value. You can always sell the gift cards and still get close to 5% cashback in the worst case.

Another catch is that the 5% promotion is for the first 12 months. I normally don’t like promotional offers (with the exception of when the Citi CashReturns had 5% cashback on everything) but right now this is the only card that offers 5% on the “everyday shopping” category (which includes supermarket, drug stores and gas stations). There are a couple alternatives if you’re looking for a gas cashback credit card, but none exist (to my knowledge) for supermarkets.

Finally, the only limit on cashback is an annual limit of 75,000 ThankYou points – it’s unlikely you will reach that limit ($15,000 in spending in the 5% categories!).

Some other features that may be of interest: 12 month 0% APY balance transfer, no annual fee, 1% cash back on everything else. The 12 month 0% APY balance transfer is nice but it has a balance transfer fee of 3% with no limit, I’d pass on that. The no annual fee is standard and the 1% cashback on everything else is also pretty standard.

Overall, I think this card is a good option if you’re looking for a way to shave 5% off your supermarket and gas bills.

Update: Other 5% Cashback Cards

Since writing the post, I’ve received numerous emails about two other credit cards that offer cash back in this category: Blue Cash from American Express and the Chase Freedom card.

Blue Cash from American Express. The Blue Cash from American Express offers 5% cashback at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations with no limit whatsoever. The card also offers a 0% balance transfer for 12 months with a 3% transfer fee capped at $99.

Chase Freedom. The Chase Freedom card is a slightly different type of cashback card in that it gives you 3% cashback in your top three spending categories (which can change based on your spending each month). It’s not a 5% card, despite what some people claim, but I mention it because it’s better than 1% and they offer $50 cashback after your first purchase.

A little while ago Chase ran a sizzling hot promotion where if you signed up for their Chase Freedom card and made a purchase, they’d reward you with $250 (Chase $250 promotion) but lately they’ve been a little tighter on the promotions, until today. Now, if you apply for a Chase Freedom card, you can get $50 after your first purchase plus get 3% cash back at certain locations and 1% at others. It’s not as hot as the $250 promotion from a few months back but it’s certainly better than nothing if you were looking to snag the Chase Freedom card in the first place.

If $50 isn’t enough for you, check out these credit card promotional offers, many of which offer $100 gift cards.

It sounds like Chase is giving new cardholders some grief when it comes to collecting on the $250 promise they made with their $250 new cardholder promotion, so I hope that I can give some words of advice for everyone.

• Since Chase is giving many people grief, I recommend not participating in their promotions in the future. When I signed up for the American Express Business Gold card, which promised me 25,000 Membership points, they delivered without a single question. That’s how you run a promotion, customers shouldn’t have to fight you or show proof, just to get the promotion you offered.
• That being said, make sure you were actually eligible, the offer was a limited run promotion but it was alive and dead so often in a short period of time, even they might be confused.
• Get it escalated to a supervisor and keep plugging away until they demand a screenshot, then send them this screenshot.
• Don’t let them beat you, perseverance will get you your rightful $250. $250 is a lot of money, don’t let them take it from you.

Good luck!

The Chase $250 bonus promotional offer has expired.

A couple months back Chase was offering $250 after your first purchase on their new Chase Freedom Rewards Card and now that offer is back!

The first time of the offer terms is hard to read but I believe it says that you’ll get points that can be redeemed for a $250 check. The bonus offer is valid only for first-time card members with new accounts…. Existing card members/accounts are not eligible for the bonus offer (I think this refers to existing Freedom card members, but I’m not 100% sure). Act quickly because this offer died fast last time around.

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You’ve probably seen numerous promotions about the latest card from Chase, the Chase Freedom Rewards card, and the recently expired $250 promotional bonus for signing up for the card; but if you are like me, you never really took a look at the merits of the card to see if it was worth applying for. From a superficial glance, I would say it looks like a solid grocery and gas station card as it offers 3% cash back from those purchases and 1% from everything else. In addition to those mainstay options, you can also get 3% back from quick-service restaurants (I think that’s lingo for fast food).

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