This offer has expired.

Citi is starting a limited time promotional offer of a $50 statement credit after $50 in purchases on three of their student credit cards – the Citi mtvU Platinum Select Card, the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card, and the Citi Forward Card. This is a $50 statement credit on top of the features the cards already offer. I’m personally a fan of the Citi mtvU card because it gives me 5 reward points for ever $1 I spend at books (Amazon.com included) and restaurants. Before I had the Citi mtvU card I was using their Dividend Platinum Select (which is still in my drawer) because I was all about the cashback.

These offers expire 1/15/2011.

Here are some more offer details:
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For years I’ve been accumulating reward points in Citi’s Thank You Network with my Citi mtvU credit card, usually turning them into student loan checks for ACS. With my student loans paid off and the conversion rate weaker (it used to be 2,500 point for $25, now it’s 3,300 for $25), I’ve been looking for an alternative in the gift card department. Unfortunately, none of the cards are really appealing and I thought we could convert the points into a charitable donation but I wasn’t sure how the deduction worked.

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I logged into my Citi account today and discovered that they were offering a new opt-in promotion where you can earn a 20% bonus on ThankYou Points that you earn using your card for the next six months. I did some research and learned on this Fatwallet Finance forum thread that this might be a targeted offer, so if you log in and don’t see it, you’re not going crazy. It’s a nice little offer that will juice up my Citi mtvU card’s already healthy 5% at restaurants and Amazon.com to an even healthier 6%. If you have a 1% cashback card, it only gets you an additional 0.2% but there are no strings attached so you might as well take the extra cash back.

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This offer has expired.

Citi is running a college student holiday promotion from now until January 15th, 2010, on their Citi mtvU Platinum Select and Citi Forward credit cards. From until January 15th, new cardmembers who are college students who apply and are approved for the cards have the chance to earn 3,600 bonus points for paying their bill on-time and for staying under the credit limit for three months. Normally credit cards will give you rewards for spending aX dollars within three months, Citi is doing something more responsible – rewards based on timely payment and responsible borrowing.

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Comparing the best reward credit cards is easy. You review the percentage-back rewards on each category, compare it to your own spending, and decide based on which one will give you the greatest rewards. It’s a little harder to find out if the rewards you get are worth it, as fewer cards offer cash.

Over the next few days I’ll take a look at some of the catalogs of the most popular credit card companies. I’ll give you the lowdown on their products, where you can get the maximum value out of your points, and a closer look at how each system works so that you can decide on which card to use.

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A few years ago, cash back credit cards were everywhere. Today, the offers are harder to find as company hunker down and deal with the financial crisis we’re facing. Despite the economic climate, cash back credits are still out there and you can still get a little cash back on your purchases.

How do cash back credit cards work? Each credit card company does it differently but the basic idea is the same. Every time you make a purchase with the credit card, your cash back or rewards account goes up in value. When you reach a certain threshold, you can cash out your cash back. Some companies will write you a check (Citi), while others will directly credit your account balance.

Is cash back worth the hassle? The answer is it depends. Some cards offer high cash back percentages on certain purchases and you can optimize your cash back by using several cards. Many of the best credit cards have rewards. I don’t recommend using more than two or three cards because the return on your time will decrease as you get more cards (you may find it helps to write down the cash back categories on the card itself).

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If a recent Your Take post on credit card credit limits is any indication, there’s no secret to getting a higher credit limit on your card. I thought I was high with a near $70,000 credit limit but plenty of people had total unsecured credit limits in the $60,000 – $100,000 range. While it wasn’t a scientific survey, I wouldn’t surprised to read that, in general, unsecured credit limits are much higher than people expect.

That being said, I think a good way for a consumer to protect themselves from the somewhat unpredictable credit score system is by increase their credit limits as much as possible without increasing how many credit cards they have.

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During a recession, the flow of credit tends to tighten up as banks and lenders take fewer “risks.” The result of this is that people who are credit-worthy but have no credit history, such as students, are caught in the middle. Without a credit history, they can’t get credit cards and loans. With credit cards and loans, they can’t establish a credit history.

An old standby practice, piggybacking, was recently eliminated as the new FICO score rules changed how it treated authorized users. In the past, someone with poor or no credit could “piggyback” as an authorized user on an account of someone with good credit. Many parents put their children on their credit card accounts to help them establish credit, the parents were “co-signing” their child’s debts, so it was perfectly acceptable. Unfortunately, people started abusing this and selling “authorized user positions” on their accounts, some for as much as $500 or $1,000 a piece, so FICO had to respond.

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