Chase has a new credit card sign up bonus that they’re offering with their Chase Sapphire card. The $100 is this week’s Free Money Friday offer!

How to Get Your $100 Sign Up Bonus

1. Apply for the card and make your first purchase.
2. Earn 10,000 bonus points.
3. Cash your points in for a $100 statement credit that you can apply to purchases made within 60 days of the redemption date.
4. Points may take 6-8 weeks to post to your account but statement credits will post within 5-7 business days of redemption.

Chase Terms and Conditions

• First purchase/first use includes purchases, balance transfers, or any checks that are used to access your account, and excludes cash advances.
• This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts. Existing cardmembers/accounts are not eligible.

More on Chase Sapphire

Statement Credits. Cashing in your points for statement credits starts at 2,500 points but after that, you can redeem any additional points in increments of 100 points for $1.

More Points. There is no maximum number of points you can earn with this card and you can even shop through Chase‘s Ultimate Rewards Mall to earn more points.

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Keeping all the credit card rewards programs straight is sometimes a little tricky. A reader, Jake T., recently wanted to know more about the new Chase Sapphire card. Here you go, Jake, everything you need to know about it!

Chase Sapphire Review

The Chase Sapphire card has been generating a lot of buzz since it first opened since it promises that customers will speak to a dedicated service advisor any time they call.

Or maybe it’s the $100 sign up bonus they are offering that is enticing everyone. Either way, the card is a popular one right now. Let’s take a closer look at what else the Chase Sapphire card has to offer.

Chase Sapphire Features

• Rewards: The Chase Sapphire card offers a points program, redeemable for gift cards, merchandise, cash back and more.
• 24/7 Dedicated Service Advisor: As mentioned above, Chase promises you will reach a live representative whenever you call Customer Service. Just call the number on the back of your card and you’ll be connected to a Chase Sapphire customer service advisor immediately—without pressing “#” or any of the other string of numbers you usually need to enter to get through the menu items. Guaranteed.
• No Annual Fee: The Chase Sapphire card has no annual fee.

Chase Sapphire Rewards Program

Rewards Program. The Chase Sapphire card uses a point system. Points never expire and there are no limits on how many points you can earn.

Earning Points. You earn one point per dollar on all purchases and two points per dollar on any airfare booked through Ultimate Rewards. You can also earn up to 10 bonus points per dollar when you shop online at the Ultimate Rewards Mall.

Redeeming Points for Cash Back. Chase lowered the minimum to cash in your points to 2,000 points for $20. After that, you can redeem any additional points in increments of 100 points for $1. The conversion rate is equal to 1% cash back on all purchases, 2% cash back on travel, and 10% cash back at the rewards mall.

Redeeming Points. You can redeem the points for gift cards and merchandise. You’ll need 2,500 points for a $25 gift card. Some of the stores you can exchange your points for gift cards at are:

• Best Buy
• Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn
• Exxon, Mobil, or Shell
• Gap or Target
• The Home Depot or Lowe’s
• iTunes
• Macy’s, Norstrom, or Saks Fifth Avenue

Chase Sapphire Details

Blueprint. Chase Sapphire comes with Blueprint, a unique set of features that lets you manage your finances—on your terms. Design your plan and see progress on every statement. Essentially, the blueprint program allows you to set up payment plans to make sure you are paying off everyday purchases in full each month without interest and track your spending. It also allows you to pay off larger purchases over time, but that’s not something we’re going to endorse without a 0% APR.

Year-End Summary. Your year-end summary organizes all your previous year’s transactions into categories by purchase type. This is great for tracking spending and filing tax returns easily.

Choice of Payment Date. If your originally scheduled payment date is inconvenient, change it to a date that better suits you. You can align it with the same day your other payments are due, or the same day you get paid.

10,000 Points – $100 Sign Up Bonus

As an added bonus, don’t forget to check out the $100 Sign Up Bonus that Chase is offering right now for the Sapphire card!

Here are the highlights on how to get the 10,000 point bonus, which you can cash in for a $100 statement credit:

1. Open a new Chase Sapphire card and make your first purchase.
2. Get 10,000 bonus points.
3. Cash your points in for a $100 statement credit that you can apply to purchases made within 60 days of the redemption date.
4. Points may take 6-8 weeks to post to your account but statement credits will post within 5-7 business days of redemption.

Chase Sapphire Overall

If you’re in the market for a new credit card, check out the Chase Sapphire card. The points program is a nice perk and if customer service is important to you, you’ll love the “no voice recording” feature of its Customer Service!

Hope that helps Jake!

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Citi’s sign up bonuses just keep getting bigger each week! Today’s Free Money Friday offer is another double offer: a $50 gift card and a 0% Balance Transfer!

How to Get Your $50 Gift Card

1. Apply for the Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card.
2. You will receive 6,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $300 in purchases are made with your card within 3 months of account opening.
3. Once these points post to your account, you may redeem for your choice of a $50 gift card good at leading national merchants or save them to use for other great rewards.

Citi 0% Balance Transfer

• 0% APR does not apply to cash advances.
• 0% Intro APR on Purchases and Balance Transfers for 12 months. After that, the APR will be 12.99%-20.99% based on creditworthiness*. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.
• The balance transfer fee is 4.0% of balance transfer amount, $5 minimum.
• New cardmembers only.

More on Citi Card

Perks. This card has no annual fee and offers 5x Thank You points on purchases at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations for the first year.

Balance Transfers. Learn more about how you can still take advantage of balance transfer offers.

Purchases. Don’t forget you can also take advantage of the 0% for 12 months without any fees by using it for purchases.

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Cash rewards credit cards are a fantastic way to get free money without much effort.

Chase Freedom, a card I’ve had forever, just sent me a new card in the mail with a copy of their 5% cash back calendar for 2010.

Of course they covered a lot of ground with cash back calendar that corresponds perfectly with our plans including working on the house and yard in spring, vacationing in the summer, and holiday shopping in the winter.

How to Get Your 5% Cash Back

1. Open a new Chase Freedom if you don’t already have one.
2. Enroll your card in the current offer.
3. You can enroll online once you get your card for the 5% cash back offer.
4. Earn 5% cash back rewards on the current category.

Chase Freedom 5% 2010 Cash Back Calendar

More on Chase Freedom Cash Back

Other Purchases. Other Chase Freedom purchases earn 1% cash back.

Sticky Notes. I usually write the current categories on a sticky note, and tape it to our cards. Then, when I can’t remember which categories are currently at 5%, I can glance at the list.

Zero Balance Transfers. Chase Freedom also has a Zero Balance Transfer Credit Card offer for 12 months.

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UPDATE: The statement credit is no longer available but the rest of the details remain the same.

Citi is offering a great 0% APR for 18 months on balance transfers or 12 months on purchases.

Citi is offering a great 0% APR for 18 months on BT or 12 months on purchases

Citi 0% Balance Transfer

• 0% APR does not apply to cash advances.
• 0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months and 0% Intro APR on purchases for 12 months. After that, the APR will be 11.99%-19.99% based upon your creditworthiness. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate*
• The balance transfer fee is 4.0% of balance transfer amount, $5 minimum.
• New cardmembers only.

More on Citi Card

Perks. This card has no annual fee and offers online discounts with Extra Cash from Citi.

Balance Transfers. Learn more about how you can still take advantage of balance transfer offers.

Purchases. Don’t forget you can take advantage of the 0% for 12 months without any fees by using it for purchases.

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Tracking the best cash rewards credit cards and optimizing our spending with each of the credit cards that pay cash rewards is a passion dear to my heart. It’s also a fun game to play!

With a constant changing landscape of cash rewards credit cards you always have to be on your toes to make sure you’re earning the most cash back on your purchases.

Current Cash Rewards Credit Card Plan

Here’s what our current strategy looks like based on our purchases.

American Express TrueEarnings Costco. We use our Costco card for 3% cash rewards on gas and restaurants, besides using it at Costco. If you don’t have one, you can get the costco sign up bonus for opening a new account.

Discover More Card. I’ll be dusting off our Discover More card for 5% cash rewards on gas starting in July. The cash rewards rotate, so we have to stay on top of the quarterly schedule. If you don’t have one, it’s a great time to sign up since they give you a $50 Sign Up Bonus, and you should be able to get it before July.

Chase Freedom. We’ve had a Chase Freedom for as long as I can remember. Chase also switched to a 5% cash back on quarterly categories that you have to remember to enroll in. They’re currently offering 5% on drugstore purchases through June.

2% Cash Rewards Credit Card

For the rest of our purchases, we use our Schwab credit card. Since they stopped accepting new applications for their 2% cash back credit card, if you didn’t get one, you’ll have to get the Fidelity Credit Card instead for 2% cash back.

Other Cards

We also have some old credit cards that pay 4% cash rewards for wireless service and groceries, but they’re long gone. Getting grandfathered into old programs is one of the best reasons we’ve kept so many of our credit cards open (of course the other reason is for the 0% balance transfer deals!)

Which are your favorite cash rewards credit cards right now?

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