It’s a great offer for the college students who do well at managing their money and want to be rewarded. It’s our free money feature offer this week.

How to Get Your Double Rewards

1. Open a new college Citi mtvUTM or Citi Forward card by September 30, 2009.
2. Use your card at bookstores, record stores, restaurants (including fast food), movie theaters, and video stores.
3. Get 10 points per dollar for the first 3 months.
4. Redeem your points for various rewards including gift certificates, cash back, merchandise and travel.

Double Points Terms and Conditions

• This offer is only valid for new cardmembers who are college students approved through this offer.
• Rewards for paying on time, having a good GPA, and enrolling in paperless statements are outlined below.

Citi Card Details

Citi mtvUTM Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students

• 10 ThankYou® Points on every dollar spent at bookstores, record stores, restaurants (including fast food), motion picture theaters and video entertainment rental stores for the first 3 months and 5 points thereafter. You will earn 1 point per dollar on other purchases.
• 0% APR* on Purchases and Balance Transfers for 6 months if you qualify based on your application and credit history.
• Earn 25 ThankYou Points every month when you pay on time and don’t go over your credit limit.
• Earn up to 2000 ThankYou Points twice a year for having a good GPA.

Citi® Forward Card

• 10 ThankYou® Points on every dollar spent at bookstores, record stores, restaurants (including fast food), motion picture theaters and video entertainment rental stores for the first 3 months and 5 points thereafter. You will earn 1 point per dollar on other purchases.
• 0% APR for 6 months on Purchases & Balance Transfers.
• 6,000 bonus points after $50 in purchases are made within 3 months of account opening.
• 2,500 bonus points when you sign up for paperless statements within 3 months of account opening.

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How to Get Your Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

1. Sign up for a free account at Card Offers using the referral ID 1003120517.
2. Select the credit cards you want to apply for.
3. Earn cash for each approved card application, up to $40 each.
4. Get your check within 6 – 8 weeks after each bonus is posted.

Card Offers Details

Available Cards. You can choose from 22 different credit cards at Card Offers that offer the cash rewards.

Discover Cards. Discover cards need to be activated before getting your reward. The other issuers will give the reward after card approval.

Refer a Friend. You can also earn additional money using the Card Offers refer a friend program. You get $20 for each friend that is approved for a card. The limit is $20 per friend, but there is no limit on the number of friends you can refer.

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Discover is offering 5% cash back on the following categories July through September, 2009:

• Gas Stations
• Hotels
• Theme Parks
• Zoos
• Bookstores

How to Get Your Cash Back

1. Sign up for the Discover Get More program.
2. Pay using your Discover card.
3. Earn 5% cash back on up to $300 in purchases from July through September.

Discover Get More Details

Total Cash Back. Obviously 5% of $300 is only $15. But it’s $15 you didn’t have before, so why not take advantage of it?

Sign Up Required. To be eligible for the promotion, you must sign up first. When you login to your online account at Discover, they’ll let you know if your Discover card is eligible for the promotion.

Get More Calendar. Discover changes the 5% cash back categories each quarter. I like to check it each quarter to see what the new deal is.

Discover Cards

Don’t have a Discover card? Here are some of the most popular cards with My Dollar Plan readers:

Discover® More(SM) Card

Discover® Motiva(SM) Card

Miles by Discover® Card

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The Fidelity card is our Free Money Friday offer this week.

How to Get Your 2% Cash Back

1. Open a new Fidelity Retirement Rewards Card and a Fidelity Account*.
2. Make $2,500 in purchases.
3. $50 cash back will be credited to your Fidelity account.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3.

Fidelity Account Details

Eligible Fidelity Accounts*. You can choose to link your cash back credit card to a variety of Fidelity accounts, including the following:

• All non-retirement accounts
• Traditional and Rollover IRAs
• Roth IRAs
• SEP IRAs
• Fidelity–managed 529 Plans

IRS Rules. Be aware that if you select a retirement account, the cash back will count against your yearly contribution limits, so you’ll have to keep careful track.

Credit Card Details

• No annual fee.
• 2% cash back on everything, with no cap.
• Card is an American Express card issued by FIA Card Services.
• The 2% is tracked in points. You get 2 points for each $1 you spend, and a $50 deposit after you reach 5,000 points.

Action Plan

I’m putting this card on the list of possible cards for my husband. Since I have the old 2% cash back credit card that deposits into our 529 plan, I don’t have a lot of use for this one. But it will be a good back up for my husband when you combine it with the Schwab 2% cash back credit card.

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How to Get Your 2% Cash Back

1. Open a new Schwab Bank Invest First card and a Schwab One Brokerage Account.
2. Once approved for both accounts, link them together. You can call or go online to link them.
3. Cash back will be credited to your brokerage account monthly.
4. Invest the proceeds, or access your cash back by check or debit card.

Credit Card Details

• No annual fee.
• 2% cash back on everything, with no cap.
• Card is issued by FIA, which is part of Bank of America.

Brokerage Account Details

Brokerage Minimum. When you open the Schwab credit card (or a high yield investor checking), there is no minimum on the brokerage account. Otherwise the minimum is $1,000.

Fees. There are no monthly fees for the brokerage account.

Accessing Cash. According to Schwab, you can “Access your money easily with fee-free checking, a Visa check card, online bill pay and fund transfers.” I plan to move my money directly to our checking account with Schwab, which is our primary checking account.

Action Plan

Even though we have an old 2% cash back credit card that deposits into our 529 plan, I’m planning to apply for this card. It’s always good to have a back up with the rapidly changing credit card environment.

In addition, it’ll be a nice way to transfer money since we already have our checking account at Schwab, and a portion of my Roth IRA since they announced the lower expense ratios.

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The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is the featured Free Money Friday offer this week!

How to Get Your Gift Card

1. Open a new Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card.
2. Earn 10,000 Starpoints with your first purchase within one year.
3. Earn an additional 15,000 Starpoints if you spend $15,000 in 6 months.
4. Bonus points will be credited to your account 8-12 weeks after your first purchase and after you meet the spending threshold.
5. Redeem 9,500 points for a $100 Amazon gift card; 23,500 points for a $250 Amazon gift card (see below for more options).

Tips and Tricks

Gift Card Choices. While I’m a big fan of Amazon, and it’s always my first choice, there are many other redemption options. You can choose free hotel stays, frequent flier tickets, and various gift cards.

Earning Starpoints. In addition to the bonus Starpoints, you earn one Starpoint for each dollar spent on your guest card.

Annual Fee Waived. The card does have an annual fee of $45. However, with this offer the fee is waived the first year.

For more information on the card, check out the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card information page.

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I remembered an old service I used about a year ago from American Express, called CreditSecure, where you can get your free credit reports and scores. Free Money Friday, here we come!

How to Get Your Free Credit Reports and Scores

1. Log into your American Express credit card account online.
2. Make the following selections from within your account:
• Personal Cards
• Additional Products & Services
• CreditSecure
3. Enroll in the 30 day trial to get immediate access to your scores and reports.

CreditSecure Service

The 30 day review is for first time users. As long as you cancel within 30 days, your credit reports and scores will be free. I used my free trial over a year ago, so it won’t let me do another one, but if you haven’t used yours yet, it’s a good service.

After the 30 days, they offer unlimited access, at $11.99 per month, which was actually a pretty cheap way to get daily access. If you want to have the unlimited access immediately, you can cancel and reenroll if you don’t want to wait the 30 days.

American Express CreditSecure Details

Credit Reports. You get access to all 3 credit bureau reports.

Credit Scores. The scores are “PLUS” scores, which were close to our
FICO scores.

CreditSecure. The program that obtains your reports is run by an Experian company.

Credit Monitoring. The service also provided email alerts for changes that were posted to our credit reports.

How to Cancel

After the 30 day trial, they will bill your American Express credit card. To cancel the service, call 1-866-617-1893.

American Express Cards

To be a member, you just need to use your American Express card to enroll. If you don’t have one, here are some reader favorites:

• Blue Cash from American Express
• TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express
• Preferred Rewards Gold Card

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So this week, for Free Money Friday, we’ll feature the (even better) Discover Miles card.

Discover is offering 12,000 bonus miles, which you can convert to a statement credit, for using the Discover Miles Card.

How to Get Your $50 Bonus

1. Open a new Discover Miles Card.
2. Earn 10,000 bonus miles by making one purchase each month for the first 10 months (1,000 bonus miles each month).
3. Promotional miles will be applied within 8 weeks.
4. Redeem 10,000 miles for a $50 account credit or have it electronically deposited into your bank account.

How to Get Your $100 Bonus

1. Earn the miles in the same manner above.
2. Use your card to purchase any travel on any airline, cruise, vacation package, hotel or car rental.
3. Redeem 10,000 miles for a $100 travel credit to your account within 90 days after the purchase posts to your account.

More About the Miles

Annual Fee. There is no annual fee.

Extra Bonus Miles. You can actually earn 12,000 bonus miles if you use the card each month for the first 12 months. I used 10,000 in my example, because you can redeem them in 5,000 increments.

Miles for Purchases. In addition, to the bonus miles, you earn 2 miles for each dollar you spend on your first $3,000 in combined travel and restaurant purchases each year and 1 mile for each dollar above that and all other purchases.

Miles Never Expire.

Flexible Redemption. Because you don’t actually have to use the miles to book a flight, you can easily use your card for a business trip, or take the kids to a hotel overnight to get your $100!

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Today Discover is offering a 25,000 bonus miles for the new Escape by Discover Card.

How to Get Your Bonus Miles

1. Open a new Escape by Discover Card.
2. Earn 1,000 bonus miles by making one purchase each month for the first 25 months.
3. Redeem your bonus miles for any airline, cruise, hotel stay, car rental, or gift cards to 90 different retailers.
4. Promotional miles will be applied within 8 weeks.

More About the Miles

Annual Fee. There is a $60 annual fee. However, if you earn 25,000 miles over 2 years, your $120 investment will more than pay for itself.

Extra Miles. In addition to the bonus miles, you earn 2 miles for each dollar you spend on all purchases.

Miles Never Expire. The miles never expire, so you don’t have to worry about redeeming them right away.

Do the Math

Update: I received a question about redemption, so I thought the following information would help:

I verified with Discover that 10,000 miles can be redeemed for a $100 credit for any travel purchase. For example, if you make $10 in purchases each month for 20 months, you’ll end up with 20,400 miles. Redeeming those for $200 in travel credit will cost you $120 for 2 years of annual fees. You’ll net $80, or almost 40% back on your purchases.

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American Express is offering a $100 gift card for using the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card.

How to Get Your Gift Card

1. Open a new American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card and enroll in the Membership Rewards program.
2. Spend $500 in 3 months to get 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points.
3. The bonus points will be credited to your account 6-8 weeks after your first purchase.
4. Redeem points for a $100 dollar Gift Card.

Tips and Tricks

Gift Card Choices. I took a look at all the gift cards available. There are too many to list, but they had lots of hotels, restaurants, shopping, and various other choices. We have a new Ruth’s Chris Steak House, so I think that’s what we’d redeem it for!

Annual Fee Waived. The card does have an annual fee of $125 (plus $35 for additional cards). However, with this offer the fee is waived the first year for the basic card and for up to five additional cards.

For more information on the card, check out the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card information page.

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I’m always on the lookout for another free way to get a copy of our credit report. After some research I found Credit Check Total had just what I needed… and just in time for Free Money Friday!

Free Credit Reports and Scores

Credit Check Total offers a free 7 day trial. You get all 3 credit reports and scores from all 3 credit bureaus.

Here are additional details from Credit Check Total:

• 3 Free National Credit Reports and Scores with 7-day trial to Credit Check Total Credit Monitoring.
• Unlimited Experian®, TransUnion® and Equifax® Reports and Scores for only 19.95/month.
• Automatic, daily monitoring of all 3 national credit reports from Experian®, TransUnion®, and Equifax®.
• Email alerts of key changes to any of your 3 national credit reports.
• Monitoring with Experian begins within 48 hours of enrollment in your free trial.
• Monitoring with Equifax and TransUnion takes approximately 4 days to begin, though in some cases cannot be initiated during your trial period.

Cancel

Make sure you cancel! After the 7-day free trail offer ends there is a $19.95 charge per month. Even though the terms say that “You may cancel your trial membership any time within 9 days of enrollment without charge,” I would play it safe and cancel in the 7 day window.

To cancel this one, I couldn’t find an online option, so you’ll have to call: 1-866-506-7894.

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Of course that could always change with one trip to the mailbox! I thought about many of the different angles that I have dealt with credit card companies in the last few months. Here are some of my observations.

Applying for new cards. I just turned over all my cards this summer to new offers without any problems. I’m getting ready to turn over all of Scott’s cards next month, so I’ll keep you posted.

Reallocation. When I got my new TrueEarnings Costco Business Card from American Express, I asked if I could reallocate some of the balance from my SimplyCash Business Card which has a credit limit over $75,000. Their response was that I would need to wait 60 days before doing so. I thought that was interesting and something I haven’t heard before.

Cutting lines. There’s a very interesting thread that I’ve been following at Fatwallet where American Express is reducing credit lines. We haven’t gotten a letter yet, but I wouldn’t be worried if we did. I don’t carry any balances there, so it wouldn’t affect me. Now, if Chase or Bank of America cut a credit line where I’ve carefully placed a 49% balance I would not be too pleased.

Balance transfer fees. I’ve been monitoring the credit cards with 0% balance transfer offers, and they are still out there. I did get an email that Discover will be removing the maximum balance transfer fee on November 1 for their cards (so you could probably still lock in a maximum fee if you applied this week). I’ll be watching to see if other cards follow suit.

Freezing HELOCs. Back in May, a reader that had his HELOC frozen asked if I was worried about the same. There’s a reason that I have our home equity line of credit at a credit union; I believe that they have tighter lending guidelines and don’t feel as much pressure during a “credit crunch”… although I could be wrong! Either way, I’ve decided to max out our line, just in case. It’s below 3.5% on a tax adjusted basis, so I don’t have a problem paying a few dollars in “insurance” to keep it open right now. Once we turn over all our cards, I’ll drop it back down.

Credit Reports. Last time I checked our credit reports with the free FICO scores & credit reports offer, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I usually scan the section where current lenders check to see if anything has changed on your report. They didn’t appear to be checking on a more regular basis. I’ll be interested to see if it looks different now (Note to self: time to find another free offer for credit reports!)

Interest Rates. I ignore them. Completely. All the time. We don’t carry a balance on any of our routine spending, so I couldn’t really care less what they would charge if we did. For all I know all of my cards could have had the interest rate raised, but I wouldn’t even know.

What About You?

Have you seen any effects of the so-called “credit crisis” on your stash of credit cards?

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I got a letter that the program will change to 3% now. That change, coupled with my need to use an American Express card at Costco has had a domino effect on my cash back plan.

I always want to get the most cash back possible for all our spending, so I ran the numbers and calculated break even points between each card for each category that had tiers to break through. Here’s my new plan.

Best Cash Back Credit Card By Category

Tips and Tricks

Spousal Tip

If you are like me, the only thing that will spoil the new plan will be trying to reteach your spouse which card to use where. My poor husband finally had it figured out too! Write where the card should be used in a black marker on the front of the card.

Business Cards

Want a business card, without a business? I explain how individuals can use Business Cards.

Discover Quarterly Promotion

Discover has quarterly promotions; sign up online with any Discover card. October 1 – December 31 has a 5% Cash back bonus on up to $400 on these purchases:

• Grocery Stores
• Restaurants
• Movie Theaters
• Movie Rentals

Action Plan

I have three of these cards currently, so I’ll put those into the rotation. I’ll plan on applying for the rest in a few weeks.

Did I miss any? I want to hit the highest cash back in every category; let me know if there’s a card out there that’s better than the ones I found.

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Why does it matter which card I use? Because I never like to give up free money! There’s one card that I keep just for cash back everywhere. It’s the Blue Cash from American Express.

I already have one, so it’s naturally the one that I pulled out when I went to join Costco. I also use it whenever the American Express Wishlist comes around (which will be soon…. I’ll let you know!)

It’s also one of those cards that is perfect for people who just want to carry one card and forget about chasing all the various cash back offers.

Blue Cash from American Express

• Earn Up to 5% Cash Back on Everyday Purchases
• No Annual Fee
• 0% APR for Up to 12 Months on Purchases

How the Cash Back Works

So exactly what does “up to 5%” really mean? Here’s a helpful chart from the Blue Cash from American Express site:

“Everyday Purchases” are Eligible Purchases made at U.S. supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores, in each case that are not departments of superstores or warehouse clubs.

Um, ok. So exactly what percentage cash back am I earning? For supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores, I took a few annual spending amounts and calculated the cash back percent:

• $7,500: 1.5%
• $8,750: 2.0%
• $10,400: 2.5%
• $13,000: 3%
• $26,000: 4%

We were spending about $9,600 per year on gas and groceries. So that’s about 2.3% using the Blue Cash from American Express.

Once you cover the $6,500 threshold, you’ll also earn 1.5% on all your other purchases, which is fantastic, compared to most other cash back cards around right now.

More Features of Blue Cash

Unlimited cash rewards. This is a fantastic option for me. Every time I find a card with great rewards, my plan gets foiled by the limits. Not here!

Cash Tracker. They have a nifty online dashboard meter that shows you how much you’ve spent and how close you are to breaking through the tier.

Readers Love It. Whenever I write about credit cards, I hear about this one. Here are some recent comments:

• I have American Express Blue Cash and in addition to the rewards they have great (and usually quick) customer service. – sara l
• I’m with sara – you can’t beat American Express customer service. I have the Blue Cash and a Blue Rewards and I never use anything else (unless it’s a merchant who doesn’t take Amex…!) – Brip Blap

More Blue

In addition to the Blue Cash from American Express, you can also check out the other Blue cards:

• Blue from American Express: Earn points to redeem for entertainment, retail, and travel rewards.
• Blue Sky from American Express: Earn points for any airline, any hotel, any cruise or any car rental with no blackout dates, advance purchase requirements, hotel room restrictions, or travel restrictions.

Action Plan

Whenever I switch out some of our cards, it ends up being a domino effect. I’ll do a more thorough reevaluation of my stash of credit cards in the future. Stay tuned to see the other cards that I’m planning to use. Until then, I’ll be using my Blue Cash from American Express.

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Why Are Business Cards So Useful?

They don’t report on your individual credit report. So you can use 90% of the limit on a bunch of cards and it won’t hurt you when you apply for more. It will appear as if they don’t even exist. This is clearly one of the most significant ways that I can carry over $200k in credit card balances and continue to be approved for more.

Do You Need a Business?

No. Most credit card companies allow you to open a business account as a sole proprietor using your name for the business name and your SSN. Before I had a “real” business I did this all the time. If it asked for my income, I just put down the amount of stuff I sold on eBay, which wasn’t that much. It doesn’t really matter though, because you can often reallocate your credit limits for bigger balance transfers.

In addition, some of the cards specify that “transferred balances must consist of business-related expenses.” Interpret that how you feel comfortable. I’ve always been honest with the companies and said what I was doing with the money and none of them had any problem with it.

Here are some 0% balance transfer business cards to get you started. As always, I’ll keep this list updated, so you can bookmark it and use it for reference in the future. If you want to make your plan of attack with the personal cards too, you can use the full list of 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards.

0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards for Business

Sorry, there are no cards available right now.

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