Credit card offers total value: $975.

Here is every credit card promotional offer I am aware of, listed in a handy table along with fulfillment requirements. The only rules about having a card appear on the list is that the promotional offer be worth at least $50 and it must be a mainstream brand like Citi, Discover, Capital One, American Express, etc. No offers available only to a small geographic region, these are all mainstream ones that are potentially available to everyone if you qualify.

They are listed in order of value and I will attempt to keep this list updated monthly. (this list does not include free airline miles promotions, i.e. those cards that give only miles as a promotions, but some of these cards allow you to convert points into miles) For the cards that have (pts) next to the dollar value, which currently is all of them, you will get your rewards in points (which can often be converted into gift cards) and the maximum value is displayed there. $100 in points is usually 10,000 points, but not always, so be sure to read the terms and conditions. Without further ado, here are nearly a thousand dollars in promotions!

Who is eligible for a business card? Anyone can be a sole proprietorship without filling out any additional paperwork. Put in your name as the business name, your social security number as the ID number, and you can apply as a business. You don’t pay extra taxes, you don’t have to fill out any extra paperwork, this is 100% legal and acceptable.

If you know of an offer that isn’t on the list, please leave it in the comments or email me, thanks!

(Fat stack photo taken by Refracted Moments™ on Flickr)

Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money asked five credit card industry experts (basically representatives of companies that run credit card websites) and a frequent flier guru for their favorite cards in one of three categories: travel programs, cash-back programs, and savings programs. Travel programs are those cards that offer miles and upgrades and perfect for those with a lot of travel each year. The cash-back programs are, as you would expect, those cards that offer the best cash-back rebate. Finally, the savings programs are those cards that give you savings towards something, instead of straight cash, such as for a house, a car, or even directly into a brokerage account.

One trend you’ll see is that all of the winning cards are American Express! Is this some kind of conspiracy? Hardly. American Express is less widely accepted because they have higher merchant fees. The higher fees means that they’re able to offer higher reward earn rates because their profits are better. So, in each category you’ll see an American Express card winning out.

Travel Reward Cards

The winner of this category was the Starwood American Express card, a card on my list of $100 credit card signup deals (you get 10,000 points after your first purchase). Number two was the Diners Club MasterCard followed by American Airlines AAdvantage® MasterCard, United Mileage Plus Visa, Choice Privileges Visa, and Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard as honorable mentions. It’s tops because of its flexible points program and it’s higher than average earn rate; which is around 1.25% if you convert things the right way. You earn a point for each dollar spent and you get 5,000 bonus points for every 20,000 points you spend, which is how you get to the 1.25% earn rate (.25% over the competition). The article lists two very important drawbacks: United, in an attempt to force you to use their card, charges twice as many points as its competitors, and, the typical limitation of AMEX card acceptance in general (less widely accepted because of their higher fees).

Cash-Back Reward Cards

The winner of this category was the American Express Blue Cash with Chase Freedom Visa taking second and the Citi Professional Cash MasterCard and Discover Motiva earning honorable mentions. AMEX Blue took top honors because of it offers 5% cash-back on everyday purchases and 1.5% everywhere else (on its highest tier). It also does not have an annual cap on rewards. This makes it good for high spenders but they recommend trying out the Chase Freedom Visa if you aren’t as big of a spender and it automatically picks your three biggest categories to give you 3% cashback on.

Savings Reward Cards

I thought this category was a little forced but a Fidelity Investments 529 College Rewards American Express wins out followed second by the Citi UPromise MasterCard. Citi Home Rebate Platinum Select MasterCard, GM Flexible Earnings MasterCard, and the NestEggz Visa received honorable mentions. So, why the Fidelity card? It offers 1.5% rebates and can supplement a 529 plan automatically every 50 points you earn. I’m not entirely sure why I wouldn’t get a cash-back card instead, but I suppose it “forces” some 529 saving (in the same way that throwing loose change in a jar is saving).

Personally, I think that you want to always go the route of cash-back. Getting rewards and points and everything is nice, but that just means it’s harder for that money to come back to you. With points, you have to spend it on something in the catalog at the exchange rate they dictate. With cash, you do whatever you want. Also, I think having multiple cards (a max of three) is the best way to go because some cards offer better cashback on different categories. For example, I use a Citi mtvU card whenever I eat in restaurants because it offers 5% cash-back and then I use an American Express Costco TrueEarnings on travel and everything else (3% and 1%). Lastly, we use a Citi CashReturns card to float the purchases for our wedding because it’s offering 5% cashback on everything for three months! Using different cards offers you different earn rates so you can match up the peaks.

Credit card companies are just like every other business. There are essentially three concepts to understand when dealing with a business, especially credit cards:

• They exist to make as much money as possible,
• They have relatively well documented rules and operating procedures,
• They’re willing to break #2 in pursuit of #1.

So, to that end, here are 7 unwritten and often forgotten credit card tricks or “secrets” (I hate the term “secrets” because how much of a secret can they be if I know it?) that may save you a few bucks someday. If you don’t learn a single secret or you have a secret of your own, please let me know! Secrets are better when you tell everyone!

1. Just ask: Lower interest, reduce or eliminate fees

This is truly the best tip of the bunch, hence the top billing, and everything else looks like chopped liver compared to this bit (despite how popularized it’s been of late). The credit business is extremely competitive, take advantage of it by asking for what you want. If you made a late payment and were assessed a late payment fee, call them up and request that they take it off. If your interest rate is too high, call them up and request that they lower it. If they decline, simply tell them that you want to cancel the card or that you’ll take advantage of a new offer that you just received in the mail. They make so much money from you when you spend (they charge the merchants a processing fee) that the piddly late fee pales in comparison to the riches they will reap by keeping you as a customer. If they don’t budge, punish them by taking your business elsewhere.

2. Roll credit limits of the same issuer onto fewer cards

This is a popular one with 0% balance transfer junkies because Citi has a “not so often spoken” rule of limiting a cardholder to at most three lines of credit (without regard to the actual dollar limit). This stinks for balance transfer arbitragers because they want to keep rolling that 0% balance from card to card to card and that gets dicey if they can only have three. One way of getting around this rule is to ask that you roll the credit limits of one of the cards into another one of the cards. They are generally willing to do this because the alternative is that you cancel the card and they lose the business. Since they were willing to give you the total limit in the first place, putting it on two cards instead of three hardly makes a difference to them. This has an added benefit for you from a credit score perspective - you reduce the number of open lines of credit while keeping your credit utilization and total credit limit the same. Double win!

3. Request an increase to the credit limit without a credit pull

I’ve written about how you can request a credit limit increase in the past and not get a credit pull but I wanted to repeat it in a post like this because it’s something not a lot of folks know. What you basically do is, through your online account management portal, go through the normal process of requesting a credit limit or line of credit increase. Sometimes, based on how long you’ve been with the issuer and your credit worthiness, they may offer you an increase on the spot without a credit inquiry. Do not bother trying this within the first six months or first year with the card, they generally won’t offer this without a credit pull so you’d just be wasting your time.

4. Capital One & Discover don’t have a foreign transaction fee charge

When you purchase something overseas, your credit card will often charge you a foreign transaction fee to handle the foreign exchange process for you. In fact, part of that fee is imposed by Visa and MasterCard itself, so any Visa and MasterCard that charges you less than 1% is actually eating the fee. Capital One and Discover are the only two companies that do not charge a foreign transaction fee; Capital One actually pays the fee for you and Discover, since it’s not on the Visa or MasterCard network, just doesn’t charge for it. As I wrote in the other article, if you want to pick between the two then I’d go with Capital One because Discover isn’t as widely accepted overseas (Capital One cards are Visa or MC).

5. Change your card to a different type or rewards program

Do you have a Citi Platinum Select card and you would instead prefer to have a Citi Professional card? Just call up and ask; they’ll probably honor your request. If they don’t, just ask to cancel the card and retentions will probably do it for you. This will only work if they’re the same class of cards, so if you want to change from a Citi mtvU card (student) to a CitiBusiness card (business), that will probably be impossible (but still worth asking). They figure that you can always cancel and apply for the new card anyway so they might as well reduce their overhead by just shifting it over for you. It’s all about lowering costs for them and retaining the customer, converting cards is hardly a chore.

6. Most cards double manufacturer’s warranty

Most credit cards will cover purchases on that card to double the original manufacturer’s warranty, up to an additional year. This comes at absolutely no cost and it’s offered because most people never take advantage of it. Part of the reason is that you often forget this is something that is even offered in the first place (because most people think of manufacturer’s warranty first and then straight to repair or replace) and the credit cards only mention this when you’re buying.

7. Most cards offer auto rental liability insurance

This particular “secret” has been documented quite a bit lately, the fact that many credit cards offer some form of rental car insurance (collision and loss) if you use that card to pay for the rental. What it doesn’t cover your personal auto insurance may also cover so between the two you often don’t even need the insurance (really it’s a waiver) from the rental company in the first place. Some cards, such as American Express, have programs where you can pay extra to have additional coverage.

(Photo by mike hipple)

Money magazine recently did a recap of the best reward credit cards out there and they were surprisingly on the money with a lot of their picks. Personally, I roll with the Discover Open Road card for gas purchases and the Citi mtvU card for food, and then my American Express True Earnings card for practically everything else.

For Big Spenders: Blue Cash from American Express
The only knock against the Blue Cash is the tiered rewards system, something a lot of other cards have abandoned, but when you exceed the $6500 a year level, you can get 5% cash back on the coveted everyday purchase category of supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations and 1.5% everywhere else with no annual rebate cap. With how few 5% cash back cards there are for that category, if you are willing to use this card for a lot of things to get to that $6500 level, the 5% will reap rewards that very few other cards can meet.

Balance Carriers: Discover More
If you are carrying a balance, I wouldn’t recommend the Discover More card even though it offers the 12 month 0% balance transfer because they now carry a fee, I’d instead go with any other Citi card because they don’t have a transfer fee. There are plenty of no fee or zero fee balance transfers out there that can get you the same offer and I’ve compiled a list of 0% balance transfer credit cards here. The card itself is useful for its cash back potential because the Get More program rotates what you can get 5% cash back on. For this quarter through June, you get 5% at Home and Apparel shops like Lowe’s, Linens ‘n Things, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. It’s a nice utility card to have but it’s sometimes a pain to remember where you get the bonus at.

Heavy Drivers: Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select MasterCard, Discover Open Road
The really cool thing about the Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select is that for every hundred miles you drive, you basically get $1 in cash back. Another huge plus is 6% cash back on everyday purchases (gas stations, supermarkets and drugstores) but unfortunately that lasts only 12 months, then it falls to 3%, and is capped at $1,000 a year (which is higher than most caps). I think the whole free money for driving aspect is clever and if you consider the average annual mileage of 12k - 15k, that $120 - $150 isn’t chump change.
Money also recommended the Discover Open Road card, it used to be their Gas card, but the only advantage it has over the Driver’s Edge is the 5% cashback that lasts “forever,” instead of for only 12 months. The Open Road card doesn’t come with the especially lucrative cash back for driving bonus so I think it has to take a back seat to the Driver’s Edge.

Heavy Flyers: Discover Open Road, Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards
I’m always ambivalent to cards that offer miles because I live so close to a Southwest hub and am able to get really good prices on flights to almost anywhere I want to go, so I’m a little inexperienced with what programs are good and what programs are not so I’ll just defer to Money’s judgment.

Skinflints: Chase Freedom Visa Card
Ha, I had no idea what skinflint meant until today but it means someone who is so cheap and miserly that he or she would “skin a flint” to save it. Anyway, if you don’t spend at all and want some flexibility, I suppose the Chase Freedom card is what you’ll want. Just recently they had a promotion where they gave new applicants $250 statement credits after their first purchase and that offer has been coming on and off at seemingly random. Outside of that promotion, the card is decent, giving you 3% for everyday purchases. Check out my review of the Chase Freedom card for more.

Source: CNN Money

I just made a trip to China and one of the interesting things I learned before I left was that a credit card will often tack on a foreign currency transaction fee if you use your card abroad - this fee is tacked onto the cost of the purchase and is used to cover the foreign currency exchange, in theory. No matter what the reason, the fee still exists and it certainly would be helpful to know which card issuer charges the most and which charges the least right? So, check out the table below:

Visa and Mastercard automatically charge the card issuer 1% for the foreign currency transaction itself so a lot of the Visa/Mastercard cards will pass that onto the end user (which is included in the number above). Capital One is the lone exception, eating the fee, and Discover and American Express obviously aren’t on that network so don’t have that extra overhead.

It looks like Capital One and Discover are the best for this though I’d argue that you likely want to get a Capital One card because Discover isn’t as widely accepted overseas.

I was a little bored one day and thought I’d try to find fifty fun facts about credit cards that I didn’t know before hand and put them all in once place for you all to munch on and enjoy over the weekend. Some of the things I already knew, like the AMEX Centurion card has a $2500 annual fee and a $250,000 annual spend requirement, but others I didn’t, like how American Express started off as a shipping company and later branched out into financial services.

I broke the fun facts into these general categories: Historical Nuggets (with subcategories for each major card company), Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…, Technobabbliciousness, Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed, and Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$. Historical Nuggets obviously covers the history of cards and the various companies. The Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm… covers some useful consumer information that may one day come in handy in your daily life. Technobabbliciousness covers some interesting facts about the technology behind credit cards. Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed covers various court rulings and other legalese that explain why the environment is the way it is (like ridiculous fees and interest rates!). Finally, Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$ is just a collection of mind-boggling statistics that should make you think twice about starting your own credit card company.

Historical Nuggets

1. In the beginning, credit cards were just charge accounts, offered by individual stores and only usable at those stores. The first credit card that could be used at multiple locations was offered by The Diner’s Club in 1950. (full story)
2. Diners Club issued that first card to only two hundred customers and it could only be used at twenty seven restaurants in New York City.

American Express History

3. American Express started off as a shipping company in 1850, shipping products across the United States and capitalizing on the limited reach and slow speed of the United States Postal Service. Their main customers were banks and they shipped various financial instruments like stock certificates and other notes. They began selling money orders and traveler’s checks in 1882 and issued its first credit card in 1958. (full history)
4. In 1984, American Express billed their Platinum Card as extremely exclusive and it had an annual fee of $250 ($484.84 in 2006 dollars). Today, the extremely exclusive card for American Express is their black Centurion card with a $2,500 annual fee! (and requirement to spend $250,000 a year)

MasterCard & Visa History

5. MasterCard and Visa are networks of banks and financial institutions. American Express is its own company and Discover Card is a subsidiary Morgan Stanley (who is spinning off the business).
6. Visa was originally called BankAmericard, a card offered by Bank of America in 1958 in California. By 1970, they had created an association, called the National BankAmericard, Inc., of all the US Banks that issued the BankAmericard. It wasn’t renamed to Visa until 1976. (full history)
7. Visa actually stands Visa International Service Association.
8. The Visa logo colors were chosen because the blue represented the sky and the gold represented color of the hills in California where Bank of America was founded. (from Wikipedia).
9. Originally formed under the name Interbank Card Association and they acquired the MasterCharge brand and logo in 1969. MasterCharge was originally formed by four California banks in 1967, who joined together to form the Western States Bankcard Association to battle the BankAmericard of Bank of America. MasterCharge was renamed MasterCard in 1979.
10. In 1984, MasterCard was the first to use a hologram on its cards to deter fraud.

Discover Card History

11. Discover Card was introduced by Sears in 1985 and gained notoriety because it charged no annual fee.
12. At the time, Sears also owned the brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds Organization and the Discover brand was integrated into that organization. When Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Discover went along for the ride.

Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…

13. Wonder why minimum payments are so low? It allows consumer to carry more debt while keeping to the same low minimum payment. You can give someone with the ability to pay $100 per month a credit limit as high as $5,000 if they only had to pay 2% a month. If the minimum payment were 5%, they could only have a credit limit of $2,000. The lower the minimum payment, the deeper in debt someone could be in.
14. It is against the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and AMEX, for a vendor to require you to provide your phone number, home address, or other personal information for credit card transactions. In fact, some states make it illegal for them to require it. (It’s not illegal to ask, but it is if they refuse to process the transaction without that information)
15. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, Discover Card and AMEX, you do not need to present a driver’s license in order to complete a credit card transaction.
16. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not require a minimum purchase amount. Under AMEX, it’s more of a hint that the vendor shouldn’t put up any barriers to use but AMEX also has a discrimination rule, so if there is no minimum amount for MC/Visa, there cannot be a minimum amount for AMEX. (Consumerist has all the relevant merchant agreements consolidated)
17. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not charge a surcharge for using the card (the anti-discrimination rules still apply for AMEX). In some states, it is actually illegal to charge a surcharge for credit card purchases. This rule does not apply to government agencies.
18. On the flip side, offering a discount for cash payment (over credit card payment) is permitted by all of the card companies (looooophole!).
19. A merchant may, on taking a personal check, require that you offer a credit card number. It is against merchant agreements to charge a credit card in the event of a bounced check (and it’s also very dangerous to have all that juicy information on one little slip of paper, plus this may also be illegal in your state).
20. You can lower your interest rate with a phone call. Credit card companies are like cell phone and cable companies, they’re afraid you’ll leave and join with one of their competitors. Use this to your advantage by comparing offers from other credit cards and bringing this information to your credit company.
21. When you use your card, you agree to the cardholder agreement, you don’t have to sign anything. If you get an update to the agreement, you also agree to the updates once you use your card.
22. A fixed interest rate on a credit card can change with only 15 days of notice. Fixed is not fixed in the sense that a mortgage loan is fixed, it’s fixed in the sense that the credit card company can change it with only 15 days notice!
23. If you have multiple balances with different interest rates on one card, payments are generally applied to the balance with the lower interest rate. You will have no choice in the matter and you cannot request it be made to the higher balance. So if you have a $100 balance at 19.99% and a $5,000 balance at 4.99%, your payments apply to the $5,000 at 4.99% first. A note about this will be in your agreement.
24. The credit card sale process works as follows: The vendor sends an authorization request for the value of the sale. The credit card company checks the card limit and reduces the credit limit by that amount (it puts a “hold” or a “block”) and sends the vendor electronic confirmation that the card is good. The vendor sends a deposit transaction or a sale transaction. The credit card company sends the money. This process is usually quick and painless… with the following exceptions:
25. Hotels and rental car agencies usually send an authorization request for the estimated cost of your stay or rental and they keep this “block” on your card for 10 to 15 days (independent of how long you actually stay there) even if you pay with something else.
26. When you use a credit card at a gas pump, the pump authorizes the purchase for something in the neighborhood of $50 first. So if you have less than $50 left on your limit, the pump will reject your purchase attempt.
27. Restaurants typically will authorize a credit card purchase for the amount of the bill plus 25% (for gratuity), so again, if your limit can’t handle the extra 25%, the purchase transaction will be rejected.

Technobabbliciousness

28. Ever notice all your credit cards are of uniform shape and size? Their dimensions are governed by the ISO 7810 standard, an international standard for identification cards. Banking cards, as well as driver’s licenses and retail cards, follow ID-1 (passports follow ID-3). If your card has a smart chip, it follows ISO 7816, and if it has RFID, it follows ISO 14443.
29. The expiration date on the card is “fake.” You can still use the card after its expiration date because the card number on your replacement will be the same. The reason why cards do expire varies from company to company but mostly it’s because the credit cards take a lot of abuse and just need replacing (they estimate the magnetic strip is good for only about three or four years of swiping).
30. Interested to know what’s on the magnetic stripe? Check out this breakdown of the three tracks on Wikipedia (the rest of the page explains other magnetic stripes).
31. There are generally two types of magnetic strips, high-coercivity and low-coercivity, with the high-coercivity being stronger and more durable (also requiring more expensive equipment to handle). (from Wikipedia)
32. Higher-coercivity are usually black and low-coercivity strips are a dark brown, but there are special cases such as American Express’ patented silver colored magnetic strip.
33. Hotel keys and other low-coercivity stripped cards are susceptible to being scrambled by a weak magnetic force, including cell phones.
34. Credit card numbers conform to the Luhn algorithm, which is just a simple checksum test on the number. What you do is start from the right and double each second digit (1111 becomes 2121), then add them all together, and you should end with a number evenly divisible by ten. If it doesn’t, it’s not a valid credit card number.
35. The first digit of the number is the Major Industry Identifier. 1/2 are for airlines, 3 is for travel/entertainment, 4/5 for banking and financial, 6 for merchandizing and financial, 7 for petroleum, 8 for telecommunications. 0 and 9 are for other assignments but you’ll likely never see them. If you look at an American Express card, you’ll see it starts with a 3, a throwback to their travel/entertainment roots.
36. The first six digits will correspond to the issuer, including the major industry identifier. 34xxxx/37xxxx are for American Express, 4xxxxx is for Visa, 51-55xxxx is for MasterCard, and 6011xx is for Discover.
37. The rest of the digits (except the last one, which is a checksum digit) is your account number.

Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed

38. Minors, those under the age of 18, are not obligated to pay back any charges to their credit cards (unless a parent co-signs, but then its the parent who is on the hook) because they are not allowed to enter into a binding contract.
39. If there are unauthorized charges on your card, you’re on the hook for $50 each, maximum (unless your agreement says you are responsible for less, you cannot be responsible for more). If you report your card missing and an unauthorized charge appears after you’ve reported it, you are liable for $0.
40. By law, you are only allowed to dispute charges for “unsatisfactory goods or services” if you made the purchase in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address and the purchase was for more than $50. (and if you’ve made a good faith attempt to resolve it with the vendor) While a credit card company may not hold you to this, they are protected by the law for purchases outside your home state/100 mile radius.
41. Credit card companies are prohibited by law from sending you a card that you didn’t ask for, unless it’s a renewal or a substitute card. If you get a credit card you didn’t apply for, contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint.
42. A common clause in most user/member agreements is that the cardholder waives their right to sue the credit card company. The cardholder must instead go through a binding arbitration hearing with the credit card company and cannot take the company to court or participate in a class action suit.
43. Before 1996 and the Supreme Court case Smiley vs. Citibank (517 U.S. 735, Thanks j), there were restrictions on how much a credit card company could charge for a late payment. The ruling in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted that restriction and fees that were once around $5-$10 jumped to $30 or more today.
44. There is no federal law regulating the rate of interest a credit card company can charge! The federal government use to regulate but repealed those laws during the Great Depression and never put them back in place, they now rely on the states to handle usury.
45. In the Supreme Court case Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp (439 U.S. 299, Thanks j) in 1978, the Court decided that national banks only need to follow the usury laws of the state they are headquartered in, not the state in which their customer resides.
46. Credit card companies are all headquartered in states with high or no cap on interest rates. American Express is located in Utah (no cap), Bank of America is in Arizona (36%), Citibank is in South Dakota (no cap), Capital One is in Virginia (no cap), Providian is in New Hampshire (no cap), and JP Morgan Chase, MBNA (now Bank of America), Morgan Stanley/Discover, and HSBC are all located in Delaware (no cap).

Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$

47. Each American household receives approximately 6 offers a month. The typical response rate is .33% (one third of one percent). You can opt out of these mailings via OptOutPrescreen.
48. Each direct mailing acquisition costs approximately $80, according to R.K. Hammer, bank card advisory firm.
49. Credit card companies earned $90.1B in interest in 2006, up from $89.4B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).
50. Credit card companies earned $55.2B in fees in 2006, up from $54.8B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).

Bonus Fun Fact:
Mastercard’s market capitalization is a whopping $14.24B, American Express’s stands at $71.62B, and Morgan Stanley stands at $86.40B. Visa is not publicly traded (yet). While you can’t compare their market caps because such a large part of Amex and Morgan Stanley’s businesses are not in credit cards, it’s still interesting to look at the numbers. Incidentally, Bank of America has a market cap of $239.17B. (These figures as of 1/11/07)

If you’re a Discover card holder (the Miles card is excluded), the Get More program will apply for travel related services in the first quarter of next year (January through March).

The 5% cash back applies on these purchases (only on the first $1,000 in purchases):

• Airlines
• Cruises
• Hotels
• Car Rentals
• Amtrak® Trains
• Greyhound® Buses

Incidentally, you still have a few days to take advantage of a Discover mall spending promotion they have going on until December 31st. Spend $200 on your Discover card and bring the receipts to a Mall’s concierge/customer service desk for a $20 gift card.

Now that the site generates some income, I have a bona fide “business” and that calls for a business card! My choice right now is the Discover Business card because it offers a 0% Intro APR on purchases for 12 months, which means I can put my MBA classes on it and get 0% for a little while (too bad I just paid for some classes, but there’s always next semester). There, unfortunately, isn’t a 0% balance transfer offer like many other Discover cards but 0% on purchases for 12 months is still a nice perk, especially if you’re just starting a new business.

A few other perks are that I can get 5% cash back on office supplies, 2% on gas (but I’ll be using a Citi Driver’s Edge card for gasoline), and 1% for everything else.

Why would I get a business card when I could just buy stuff with my personal credit card? One reason is that the reporting functionality offered by Discover looks pretty comprehensive and could be valuable come tax time. Secondly, having a “business” credit gives me a little more credence when it comes to tax time because anything that makes you look like you have a business will help. Lastly, getting business credit is difficult and so the earlier I try, the better.

Anyone have any advice about business credit cards or about this Discover card?

I had a search referral the other day, “gas card 41 cents cash back credit card,” which I assume is about the Shell branded credit card (they ran that commercial with the little yellow boxes with red 41’s written on them a little while ago). Personally, I don’t like getting a gas station branded credit card because you’re then forced to go to that station in order to get the 5% at their gas stations. The Shell card itself, though offered by Citi, has a promotional offer where you can get 15% cash back gasoline for 90 days, after which it’ll revert to the normal 5%. While 15% cash back sure is nice, it’s only valid for 90 days and only at Shell gasoline stations.

Before the 5% cash back on the Citi Platinum Select card was canceled, I would’ve advocated for that card over a card like the one from Shell. Now, however, it’s not as easy to find a 5% cash back card on gasoline these days so maybe that Shell card sounds a little tempting… if only for 90 days. I think you shouldn’t get it because it’s simply not flexible enough and there are other options out there.

Two that I know of, one of which I just applied for, are the Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select and Discover’s Open Road Card. The Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select card will give you, among other sweet driver related benefits, 6% cash back on gasoline for a year whereas the Discover Open Road Card will give you 5% on gasoline (and auto related) purchases on your first $1,200 in purchases for the foreseeable future.

Update: I’ve since created a comprehensive list of credit card offers & promotions that contains far more than the handful of promotions available here.

It costs credit card companies $200 per new credit card sign up, so make them give you some of that via gift cards or straight cash:

Discover Business - Get $100 in free money once you spend $1,000 within the first three months. It is a business card but you can use your Social Security Number as your EIN (that’s what sole proprietorships do). There is also a 0% APR balance transfer for 12 month offer and there is no annual fee.

Business Gold Rewards Card - Get $250 in free money! (this deal will be expiring very soon) It is a business card but you can use your Social Security Number as your EIN (that’s what sole proprietorships do). Just as a warning, this card has a $125 annual fee that is waived for the first year.

Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express - 10,000 StarPoints good for a $100 gift card to Amazon.com after your first purchase. Unfortunately no balance transfer and the $30 annual fee is waived for the first year.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card - 10,000 Membership Reward points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account 6 to 8 weeks after your first purchase, annual fee waived for the first year. 10,000 points is worth $100 in gift cards or 10,000 miles.

CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network - $100 worth of Thank You Rewards after $250 in purchases.