American Express Blue Cash Changes Reward Payout Options

The American Express Blue Cash Rewards Card has been a favorite for a long time. It offers one of the higher cash back rates once you reach the $6500 spending limit each year.

Here is how the rewards breakdown works:

For your first $6500 in purchases:
Earn 1% on purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, and drugstores
Earn 0.5% on all other purchases

After you have spend $6500
Earn 5% on purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, and drugstores
Earn 1.25% on all other purchases

You used to have to wait an entire year to get your Blue Cash rewards. They were applied as a statement credit on your account on the anniversary date of the account opening. So then you just ended up having to use the card for purchases to access the reward.

Well American Express has made a change for the better on this card. Now, you can redeem rewards upon request whenever you have accrued 25 reward dollars or more. You no longer need to wait a year and can have access to your rewards immediately.

I know that having to wait an entire year for your rewards was a big reason why people avoided this card. These days most cards give you access to your rewards once you hit a certain dollar amount which makes me think this is why American Express made this change.

Check out the American Express Blue Cash Rewards Card site for more details.

American Express Mandated Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

Citi Forward Card Promo – $200 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate

EDIT: This promotion has expired and is no longer available

There is a new Citi Forward promotionwhere you will get a $200 Restaurant.com gift certificate after you make $100 in purchases with the card by September 15th, 2010.

It’s as simple as that, all you have to do is apply for the card and make $100 in purchases by 9/15/2010. You will receive the gift certificate details by mail 6-8 weeks after you have met the minimum purchase requirement. You then can redeem the gift certificate at restaurant.com.

If you have never bought anything from restaurant.com, they offer discounted dining certificates to restaurants all over the country. In most cases you can find one of your favorites there and get a great deal off of the bill using their service.

The Citi Forward card is a rewards card. You will earn 5x ThankYou® Points for every $1 spent at restaurants, on books, movies and music. You also get 1 reward point for every $1 you spend on all other purchases. Even better is that you can earn up to 2,500 when you sign up for Paperless Statements.

The Citi Forward comes with 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers for 12 months and 0% Intro APR on Purchases for 7 months. After that, the APR will be 12.99%-19.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. Both the rate and duration of this offer will be based on your creditworthiness.

There is no annual fee for this card.

See the Citi Forward Promo page for the terms and conditions of the card.

25000 Skymiles from Platinum Delta Skymiles Card

Get 20,000 free Delta Skymiles when apply for the Platinum Delta Skymiles Card from American Express and make your first purchase. 5000 of those miles are counted as Medallion Qualification Miles which help you get closer to elite status on Delta Airlines.

This card also comes with a feature called “Mileage Boosts”. When you make $25,000 in purchases during a calendar year, you will get an additional miles boost of 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles. You can get another 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles when you spend reach the $50,000 in purchases mark during that same year. If you spend a lot, this card will get you into elite status on Delta fast!

If you add 2 additional cardmembers to your account you will then receive another 5000 Skymiles bonus to your account. Note that this card has an annual fee of $150. There is no additional card fee.

For more details on this card and how to apply, see the Platinum Delta Skymiles Card Detail Page

$75 from Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa

Bank of America has a new promotion going with their Cash Rewards Visa. When you open a new Cash Rewards Visa at BankofAmerica.com you can get up to $75 in bounus applied to your account.

You will receive a $50 statement credit when you make purchases totaling $50 within the first 60 days of account opening. There is also a $25 statement credit when you enroll your new account in Online Banking within 60 days of the account opening date. The statement credits should appear within 8-12 weeks after you complete the qualifying events.

The Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa is a cash back credit card. You will receive 1% cash back on all purchases using the card. There is a promo offer where you can earn 3% cash back on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases for the first 6 months.

What is unique about this card is that you get a 25% bonus for all cash reward redemptions of $300 or more. So if you wait to redeem your cash back until you have more than $300 available you will get an additional 25% back.

This card also comes with an introductory 0% APR for your first 7 or 10 billing cycles for purchases. The number of billing cycles depends on your credit score when applying. This card has no annual or inactivity fees.

$50 Cash or $100 Travel Credit from Miles Discover Card

Discover Card has a new promotion where you get 12,000 miles when signing up for the Miles by Discover® Card. To get the 12,000 miles, you need to make 1 purchase every month for 12 months after appying for the card. You will earn 1,000 miles each month the purchase is made, up to 12,000 miles. The 1,000 miles will be posted within 8 weeks after the purchase.

The 12,000 miles can be converted into the following:

• $25 Account credit for every 5,000 miles(12,000 miles = $50 Statement Credit + 2,000 miles)
• $50 Travel Credit for every 5,000 miles (12,000 miles = $100 Travel Credit + 2,000 miles)
• Redeem for gift cards starting at 1,000 miles.

There is no annual fee on this card. There is also a 0% Balance Transfer option for 6 months available. Please note that the balance transfer fee is 3.0% of the balance with a minimum of $10 and a maximum of $75. You also will receive 0% APR on purchases for the first 6 months.

Card Application Page

Year End Promotions Expiring

I hope everyone had a great holiday and if you are like me you are dreading those pending credit card bills from all the Christmas shopping you did! If you are looking to make a little cash before the end of the year, you might take a look at a few of these promotions that are ending on 12/31:

• OptionsXpress Promo – OptionsXpress is giving away $100 when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Optionshouse Promo – Get 100 free trades when you open a new account, with $2.95 flat rate stock trade commisions. (see post for more details)

There is nothing better after Christmas than a little extra cash in your pocket. So if you are interested check out the associated post to learn more about the promotion and how to qualify.

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