Banking Solutions for HNY Digital Natives
How to manage your cash if you have a significant amount and are comfortable with digital solutions Read More ›

Marriott Bonvoy
Update for Marriott Programs and Credit Cards Read More ›

20% Off Wyndham / Days Inn / Ramada / HoJo
20% Off the Wyndham Hotel Group family including Days Inn, Ramada Inn, Howard Johnsons and more. Click here for more info. Read More ›

Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®
Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® gives 40k bonus points after spending $1k and up to 2.2 points per dollar. My new favorite. Read More ›

Free Travel Genius Selected for MIN52
Free Travel Genius Selected Among Some of the Most Innovative Massachusetts Startups. The site will compete at the Mass Innovation Night on July 10th. Read More ›

JetBlue’s Miles Won’t Expire
Jet Blue gets rid of points exirpation Read More ›

Hyatt Summer Bonus
If you have the Chase Hyatt card, get 5,000 extra points this summer Read More ›

Google Wallet – Free Money?
Send money by Gmail with Google Wallet. Get your penny today to activate your ability to send money and see what Google Wallet can do for you. Read More ›

American Express Business Gold – 50,000 bonus points
American Express is currently offering 50,000 points for its Business Gold Card (and you don't even have to pay a fee). See details here. Read More ›

Amex Small Business Saturday 11/24/2012
Small Business Saturday is soon. Get $25 free for every American Express card you register. Read More ›

Starwood AMEX Review – 25,000 Starpoints
August 2015 Update: since writing this article, the point value has been a degraded somewhat. Internet consensus is about 2.5 cents per point. Also, the annual fee went up to $95. On the plus side, they added free Boingo wireless(Current Cardholders Register Here, removed foreign transaction fees, added premium in-room internet and, for the business version only, gave access to the Sheraton club lounge Earn: 1 Starwood Preferred Guest point per dollar spent (2 points at Starwood hotels). I value Starpoints at about 4 cents for my use, though may be worth 2-3 cents for a more budget oriented traveler (see my analysis below). Starwood points can be converted into Airline points (e.g., American) with a 25% bonus making this card clearly superior to all of the Airline cards. Even better Read More ›

Hilton Cards – Diamond Status & More
A comparison between the American Express Hilton Surpass Card and the Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Reserve Card. Check out the signup bonuses, gold status and chance for diamond status. Read More ›

Chase Hyatt Card – 2 free nights ANYWHERE
$1,000+/- worth of Hyatt stays for $75 with the Chase Hyatt Card. No brainier! Read More ›

[Expired]125,000 Points on British Airways from Chase
Chase British Airways Visa -- 125k points from Chase BA Visa after spending $20k or 50k points for $96. Worth it if you spend wisely. Read More ›

Capital One Venture Card
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Fee: $59 Annual Fee (waived first year) – it takes about $8k per year of spending to make back the annual fee compared with Capital One’s fee free 1.25% cash back card. Ongoing Points: 2 points for each dollar spent Point Value: Each point is basically worth 1 cent toward any travel charged to the card.  It doesn’t have to be booked through their service, so buy that discount airline flight, stay in that B&B, take a taxi, whatever, and then choose to have your points applied to that item on your statement. Bank:  Capital One Card Type: Visa Signature No foreign transaction fees! Read More ›

What if they don’t say YES right away — Expediting and Reconsideration
What if they don't say YES right away? This is a list of some of the key (and often secret) phone numbers for checking on application status, moving along a "stuck" application, getting another shot if the company says NO, canceling (and getting paid not to) and other key phone numbers. Read More ›

140k Hilton Points or RT USAAustralia
With two Hawaiian Airlines Visa cards, $158 in card fees and $2,000 of spending, you can get a round trip flight to anywhere Virgin Atlantic flies or 140,000 Hilton Points. Read More ›

[Expired] Virgin and BA: 30% Amex MR Bonus
Both British Airways "Avios" (until 1/31/2012) and Virgin Atlantic (Targeted, until 1/13/2012) are offering 30% bonuses for Membership Rewards Transfers. Read More ›

Extra 10k Membership Rewards Points [Expired]
Get an extra 10,000 membership rewards bonus points by signing up for the Extended Payment Option without using it or incurring any costs. Read More ›

Chase Priority Club Visa – 80k points
The Priority Club Visa officially only delivers 30k points on first use, but there is a link floating around that should generate 80k bonus points on the first use. There have been numerous message board posters confirming this works, however, I have not tried it myself. Read More ›

Chase Freedom
Chase has upped their bonus offer for the Freedom card to $200 (after spending $500). Along with no annual fee and 5% cash back on rotating purchase types, this may be a good entry level credit card for many people. Read More ›

Chase Slate – True 0% Interest
Chase just created a version of their Slate card that allows for 12 months of 0% interest on balance transfers with NO TRANSFER FEE. This is a true free loan for 12 months. Read More ›

Chase Southwest Plus
Chase is offering the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus with 50,000 Rapid Reward points (aka "Two Free Flights") for your first purchase. The points are worth up to $833 of Southwest discounted coach airfare so could mean even more than two flights in many cases. Read More ›

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card 40k bonus
$400 cash back or 40,000 United points for spending $3,000 with no need to pay an annual fee. Talk about a no brainer. Read More ›

40k AAdvantage Miles from Citibank
The 50k Citi Aadvantage offer is back. See details. Read More ›

Updated Chase Marriott Premier Card
Chase announced a major update to their Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card including upping the bonus to 50k, eliminating foreign transaction fees and no fee the first year. This is a great card for someone that is trying to up their Marriott status. ALTERNATIVE OFFERS: Similar offer to the above, but with a $75 statement credit (note that this may be for a limited time): Apply Here Similar offer to the above, but with 70,000 bonus points: Sorry, link appears to be dead If you have applied for any of the Chase Marriott cards in the last 2 months, it is worth a call to customer service to see if they will match you up to 70,000 points Read More ›

Chase Ink Cards (Plus, Cash)
Chase has 2 business cards under the Ink brand, the Ink Plus and Ink Cash (they used to have an Ink Bold and Ink Classic). The Ink Plus is clearly superior for anyone with significant spending. It gives you a much higher initial bonus and then allows you to do 1 to 1 transfers to certain valuable hotel and airline programs. If your spending is more modest, you may want to convert the card down to an Ink Cash card (or convert anyway if you already have a Sapphire Preferred for personal use). The Ink Cash and Ink Plus both provide 5X on office supplies (i.e, everything at Staples and Officemax) and Cable/Telecom (e.g., your cable bill, cell phone bill) and both provide 2X on gas. The Ink Plus also provides 2X on hotels and the Ink Cash 2X on restaurants. Note, this is for businesses, but that includes any type of work where you are comfortable calling yourself a “sole proprietor” and using your social security number for the tax id and your own name for the business name. Anyone that does contract work, sells stuff on ebay, babysits, etc. qualifies as a business. Also note that there are some reports that you can get more than one of the same Ink card (AND MORE THAN ONE BONUS) if you have more than one business. It is likely that you would need a separate employer identification number for each business, however, one of those can be your own social security number. Applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) is not a huge deal, though personally I would not go through the hassle for the sole purpose of a credit card bonus. If you do get an EIN for your 2nd sole proprietorship, make sure to let you accountant know. Read More ›

Amex Platinum – Could be worth it
The Platinum Card(R) from American Express is very expensive ($450 annual fee), but for certain travelers, it is worth it. Read More ›

Citi Forward Card – 5x on Restaurants & Amazon
**2/1/2013: Note that the Citi Forward card appears to be in flux right now. I have removed the links temporarily until I can determine what is going on. There are reports of only receiving 2x points for the key categories and the non-student version isn’t on Citi’s website.</strong></p> 10/20/2011: Citi starts you off with 10,000 Thank You points after spending $650 and signing up for paperless statements in the first 3 months. The Citibank Forward Card is a great additional card to keep in your wallet for all of your restaurant spend and spending on Amazon.com since you get the equivalent of 5% back (gift cards, etc.) on those purchases. With no annual fee, this card gives you 5 thank you points for each dollar spent on: Restaurants – including fine dining and fast food; but sometimes not when it is principally a bar Books – including Amazon.Com, Amazon Marketplace, Barnes&Noble(in store only) Movies – including most theaters, blockbuster, redbox; but not netflix Music – including iTunes Note: The bonus 5x points are based upon how the merchant codes the transaction. This could change over time, so keep an eye on statements. Cell phone protection (key terms): Damage or Theft (w/police report) Coverage up to $250 per incident (up to 2/year) with a $50 deductible A simple loss is not covered, nor is the phone covered while in the mail or in checked luggage Pre-paid phones are not covered You must pay your cell bill on this card to get coverage (starts the following month) If you don’t mind carrying around a few cards, this is a great one to add to the mix. Read More ›

Quicktip: 500 American Miles in 10 Minutes
Update: Link expired Liberty Mutual will give you 500 AAdvantage miles for filling out a quote form. Takes under 10 minutes. I did it a few days ago so it will probably be some time before they hit my account. I’m pretty close to hitting my 1 million miles / gold for life by the December 1st deadline, so every bit counts. Read More ›

Credit Score Update
You must ensure your focus on points doesn't ruin your credit and it certainly doesn't have to. Read more about my experiences maximizing my points while simultaneously keeping my credit score in the mid to high 700's. Read More ›

Amex Money Back via Facebook
So AMEX and Facebook have teamed up with the like, link, love promotion. Basically, you like AMEX on facebook, you link you AMEX card to the application, then you pick various cash back offers. For every offer, they will ask you if you want it in your feed, but you can just say no. The great part is, you can forget about it and get surprised with money back on your credit card bill each month. For example, I just bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad laptop (so I can blog to you from everywhere!). I had clicked on the Lenovo spend $999 and get $150 offer on facebook. I upgraded to the i5 processor, the HD webcam, the premium screen, the fingerprint reader, the 9 cell battery and a an airplane/car/travel charger kit (of course). The system retailed for about $2,000 and after two levels of sales and a coupon code, it was down about $1,010+tax, then down to $860 after the facebook rebate less $40 from FatWallet for using their link and my net was $820. There are also various travel related rebates as well. Register Here Read More ›

American AAdvantage Lifetime Status Rule Change
American announced new rules for obtaining gold and platinum lifetime status. There isn't much time left to post those credit card points. Read More ›

[Back On] Amex Business Gold – 60k+ points
Amex revamped the Business Gold Rewards Card with 50k MR points after spending $10k + 3x on airfare and 2x on advertising, gas and shipping. NO FEE 1st year. Read More ›

Audience Rewards – Free Points from Starwood, Delta and USAir
Need a handful of points to top up an account or to keep from losing them in a dormant account? Read More ›

AMEX Premier
A review of the Premier Rewards Gold Card Read More ›

Introduction and Credit Scores
I created this site since friends kept asking for my advice on which credit card to get. It seemed easier to just write it all down! Unless otherwise stated, my advice is for people with good credit that are able to pay off their entire credit card balance each month. For those that are looking to improve their credit, consider the Orchard Bank Secured Mastercard. You also accept that my advice is provided as a courtesy and you agree to do your own research. Applying for credit can have a negative effect on your credit score (see below). Also, credit card bonus offers change rapidly — while I try to keep this site up to date, you must check the credit card company’s website for the latest rules before you apply. Read More ›

Best Reward Credit Cards for Monthly Spending
Starwood Amex, Capital One Venture Card, Hilton Surpass Amex, Amex Blue Cash Preferred Read More ›

Guest Post: Coping with a Bad FICO Score
I am happy to report that Tim Chen, CEO of NerdWallet, has been gracious enough to guest blog for us. NerdWallet has great tools to help you pick a credit card including expertise in individuals with below average credit. Read More ›

[Expired] Starwood Amex – 30,000 SPG points
For current information, see my review of the card. Read More ›

Coins are over!
For those of you that were buying coins from the US Mint on your credit cards to get points, that option is closed. Read More ›

Up to 3,000 American AAdvantage Miles for your email address
American is giving away up to 3,000 American miles for allowing them to spam you. Click here and put in your AA account number. Make sure to hit SKIP when the video comes up. You will basically get 500 points for each newsletter you allow them to send you. Read More ›

Starwood Elite Shortcut
Contact me if you use Starwood hotels often, but not enough to quality for Platinum. I may be able to help you get some of the elite benefits. Read More ›

Cruise
If you ever want to take a cruise, email me. I have ways of getting discounts. Read More ›

[Expired] AMEX Platinum – up to 100,000 MR Points
Old method to get 100,000 membership rewards points. Read More ›

Amex Blue Cash Everyday / Preferred
6% on supermarkets is hard to beat. If you shop for a family, the Preferred is a no brainer to have in your wallet with 3% on gas stations to boot. The no annual fee everyday card isn't too shabby either with 3% on supermarkets and 2% on gas stations . Read More ›

Hilton Surpass American Express Card Review
_Click here for updated information. _ Bonus: 40,000 bonus points on your first purchase (worth $200 to $720 depending how you use it) Earn: Rewards equal to 1.5% to 5.5% cash back for normal purchases or 3% to 11% for supermarket, gas, etc., depending on your travel preferences. Read More ›

Quick Tip: Oneworld Reward Flight Search on Qantas.com
@WanderngAramean gave me a great tip: Read More ›

GoMiles.Com
Update: Gomiles is no longer active. I am now using award wallet. So I started using GoMiles.com to keep track of all my and my family’s miles. You give them all your login info, so you need to trust them. A friend of mine is a partner in the firm, so I am going to go on faith. They are also certified by TRUSTe though I don’t really know what that means. They flag when you have status and let you know when points are about to expire (probably its most important feature). Check it out here: Edit: Also note that we will soon be ranked by: Blog Directory. Read More ›