So I’ve decided to move all my banking to USAA from Bank of America.  The fact that the big BOA still needs money from good old Uncle Sam doesn’t instill confidence in this customer.

So I set up a checking account and several different savings accounts at USAA to replicate the banking structure I had at BoA, and signed up for their USAA World Mastercard as well with the Total Rewards program.  My existing card is held through Citi, who happens to also need another boatload of cash to continue its business.  Since I don’t keep a balance on any of my cards, there’s really nothing to transfer, and I just need to change all of my automatic payments over to the new card.

I’ll probably continue to keep the Citi card active just in case, but I don’t anticipate using it.

No more going to the bank for me!

The other cool thing about USAA banking is the Deposit@Home feature, where you simply scan your deposits directly from your scanner via a Java applet on the website.  The funds are deposited directly to your account and are available immediately.  Kind of cool, and despite the a slight hiccup at first with the Java program, the system works pretty well.

The rewards program is a little different.

As for the rewards program with the Total Rewards card, there are a few differences compared to my Citi Dividend Platinum card.  The first being that you earn one point for every dollar you spend on the card, and one point for every two dollars you spend on your USAA debit card.  You can redeem these points for merchandise, gift cards, charitable contributions, or my favorite, cold hard cash.

With the Citi card, we had a limit of $300 in dividends per year, and by charging all our utilities to that card, plus everyday purchases, we achieved that $300 limit fairly quickly.

The USAA Total Rewards card doesn’t have such a limit, however the program isn’t quite as lucrative as the Citi program.  The Total Rewards program breaks down the rewards in a tiered fashion where you get more cash back the more you spend.  For instance, the first 20,000 points only returns you 0.83% in cash, but after that, you earn 1% cash back.  So the key is to wait until you have accrued more than 20,000 points to redeem for cash back.

I logged into my Citi Dividend credit card account the other day only to find out that they’ve put a freeze on my account.  Usually when this happens it’s because I’ve made a purchase that is “out of character” based on my historical transactions.  For instance when I went overseas and charged hotel rooms to my credit card.

This time though, the company says they have evidence that my credit card security has been breached, and they’ve reduced access to the account, and taken the liberty of issuing me new cards.  A phone call to Citi Cards revealed that I’m not alone.  It’s not clear how many accounts were affected, but the Citi customer service rep I talked to indicated it was in the hundreds of thousands.

While I appreciate Mastercard proactively resolving this problem, I’m a little peeved that it took almost a year to discover the fraud.  Needless to say, changing all my billing information to utility companies has been fairly straight forward, with the exception of the electric company.  Evidently I can’t change the billing information until after the next billing cycle.  Interesting considering that the account number they have on hand has been closed.

I’ve had a Citi AAdvantage card for years that gives me American Airlines AAdvantage miles when I use my card. Effectively I get 1 mile for every $1 I spend. It sounds like a great deal, and it would be, if using miles for travel weren’t subject to blackout dates and other restrictions.

I’ve accumulated enough miles to take a nice vacation somewhere, but the restrictions on when I can go make it impractical to use the miles.

So I’m in the market for a new card that will pay me cash back at the end of the year. I’m not too worried about the percentage rate, as I always pay off the card every month. There are very few rewards programs that beat cold, hard cash in my pocket at the end of every year.

Any recommendations?

The options for rewards programs are endless it seems.  Cash back, frequent flyer miles, hotel points… pick your reward.

Some rewards programs are better than others, as I found out on a recent trip to Europe.  I am a member of American Airlines AAdvantage program, which I earn a mile for every dollar I spend on my AAdvantage Citi card.  I also earn up to 10 miles per dollar depending on where I eat under the dinning program.

Sounds pretty nice, right?  Who would turn down a free ticket on your next vacation?

That’s the catch with the AAdvantage program. Chances are, program seats aren’t available on the flight you want to take, or on the day you want to take your trip. In addition, you might end up with a long layover (overnight) at an intermediate location somewhere between your home and destination.

In preparing for our trip to Greece, I inquired about using miles to get from the States to Europe.  We needed to leave on a Wednesday due to vacation days off from work and the time constraints of a wedding we were attending.  Unfortunately, the rewards program could only get one of us there, and we’d have to stop overnight in London.  Then, we’d have to buy another ticket on the same flights, which would cost more than a ticket straight through to Athens…  In addition, if we did buy the individual ticket, there is no guarantee of sitting next to each other.

When I joined the program, you earned miles as a reward for air travel on American Airlines.  As the reward, you could redeem your miles for ANY seat on American Airlines per their redemption schedule.  There were no blackout dates.

Then they added the dining program, the shopping program (i.e. earn 10 miles per dollar spent on flowers ordered from 1-800-Flowers.com) and all kinds of other ways to earn miles, but forget trying to travel over a holiday or on high demand flights…

On top of it all, the interest rate for the card is astronomical.  While it’s not a problem because I pay off the card every month, it’s really no incentive to keep the card if I can’t use the miles when I want to.

Rewards programs have changed over the recent years, turning from rewarding frequent fliers to dishing out miles for just about anything you can use your credit card for.  This is no doubt more profitable for the airlines, but does nothing to keep customer loyalty.

I plan on calling the AAdvantage program and redeeming ALL my miles for a trip to Hawaii for my wife and I, and after I cash out the miles, I’ll be looking for a better rewards program.

I’ve heard the Capital One program is good, but I’m open to suggestions.

What rewards program is in your wallet?

I just tallied up all my cash withdrawals from our trip to Europe, and compared the transaction and ATM fees to the fees that my local bank was trying to charge me just to convert currency.

The overall fee was 3% of the total currency withdrawn from the ATM, as compared to the 7% that my bank wanted to hit me up for to convert $100 USD to Euros…

So it turns out that using plastic does save you in the long run.  In addition, I found that both Visa and MasterCard have prepaid travel cards.  They work like travelers checks, but have a preset limit so that if the card gets stolen, you’re only out however much you have on the card at the time.  Of course, they also have a “Zero Liability” policy such that you are not liable for fraudulent charges if the card is stolen, much like the card I already carry.  So I’m not sure of the real benefit of using the card over my existing card…

Check out Visa’s TravelMoney Card if you are traveling abroad in the future…

It seems that the new TD Ameritrade is very worried about identity.  Not their identity, your identity.  As part of their “Security” services, they are pushing a third party service called Identity Track.

Essentially, Identity Track is an online service that watches your credit file, keeps track of your credit card information, and provides you with instant access to your credit score.  A perfect service for that paranoid individual who loses sleep at night over details in their credit report.

One of the nice features of the service is that it offers identity theft expense reimbursement up to $2,500 should your identity ever get stolen.  They will also give you quarterly credit updates listing new accounts or any negative information that may have been added to your file.

While I don’t hide the fact that I am very concerned about my credit score, I don’t think it’s worth the $9.99 per month ($119.88 per year) to keep tabs on it at all times.  However, if there is someone out there who does use this service, please let me know what you think of it, and if it’s worth the expense.

Ironically enough, after writing about getting a DUNS number, I received a statement in the mail for my Advanta Platinum Business Card with Cash Back.  I reviewed the statement, and in the fine print at the bottom under the “Additional Information” heading, it outlined how I could stay on top of my business credit with a free report from Dun and Bradstreet.

They listed a web address to get a free credit report:  www.dandb.com/smallbusiness/advantafreereport

I typed in the address, and the page comes up “not found”.  Hummm…

It turns out it’s the wrong address.  The address “www.dandb.com” is an artists website (they have just received free advertising).

The real address is a dnb.com address.  However, there is nothing free about it.  The fine print on the website reveals that they give out one free report to each new D&B customer.

So not only did Advanta get the web address wrong, it’s borderline false advertising, luring people to a site by telling they get something for free as long as they spend money to get a service they probably don’t need.

I’ve read a number of blogs from people who are playing the credit card 0% interest game.  For those that are not familiar with the game, you sign up for a credit card with no interest for a number of months.  When you’re approved, you max out the card in cash, and put the money into a safe account earning interest.  At the end of the no-interest grace period, you simply withdraw the cash and your interest, and pay off the card.

It’s essentially a free loan from the credit card for a certain number of months.

It seems like a great deal, but I fear that many people don’t realize the effect this has on your credit rating.  Effectively, for that initial interest free period, you have maxed out your credit card.  Something that will reflect poorly on your credit score.  Additionally, from the credit bureaus point of view, you’ve taken on more credit which seems like a good thing, but there is such a thing as having access to too much credit if your income does not back it up.  They will view this as an increased risk that you could default on payments.

The jury is still out on how much is too much, and it’s tough to quantify how much your credit score will be lowered each time you acquire more plastic.  (I might add that it doesn’t look good when you start closing out a ton of credit card accounts at the same time.)

So you have to weigh the positives with the negatives and make sure your credit score can stand a pounding before you ante up.  Think about this:  A credit card company offers you 0% interest for 6 months, and gives you a $10,000 credit line.  You take the full $10k and invest it into some interest bearing account at 5%.  Over that 6 months, you will make about $250 in interest.  So is it worth it to jeopardize your credit score for $250?  Maybe.  It depends on your current situation and credit score.

Remember, that not everyone’s credit situation is the same.  So don’t take someone’s word on it that playing this game will only lower your credit score by XX number of points.

Good luck if you chose to play the game, but just remember that if cash is King, your credit score is Queen.

Since I last wrote about the Advanta Platinum Business Credit Card, I came across a site that rates credit cards based on their current offers and rewards.

It turns out that my Advanta Business Rewards Platinum Card is the featured card of the week, and earned a top score at the CardRatings.com website.

After perusing the site, I found that they have reviews and listings on almost every type of card available.  From personal credit cards with (or without) rewards, to student cards, to business cards, to cards for people with bad or no credit.  They’ve also got articles covering just about every credit card related topic out there.

A very interesting site.  I definitely recommend it if you’re searching for a new credit card offer.

Today I received a credit card offer for American Express Platinum Business.  Usually, when you read the fine print, American Express has some stiff annual fees, so it’s usually a fairly quick read.

Glancing over it though, I noticed that there are no annual fees associated with the platinum business card.  In addition, they are offering 5% cash back on all my business purchases, not just a finite amount.  Also included is a $50 statement credit, and 0% introductory APR on purchases for the first six months.  The APR rises to prime +2.99% after that, which is currently a total of 10.24%.  A bit steep compared to the Advanta Card I previously wrote about.

I like the offer, but I’m still not crazy about the card.  Some places still don’t take American Express, and while the offer is attractive, I really don’t need any more business credit at this time.  I don’t know that I need another pull on my credit either, so I’ll pass for now.

I recently applied for the Advanta Corporate Credit Card for my little oil company. I got the offer in the mail, but unlike most offers, this one didn’t look half bad.

No annual fee.  0% APR for 15 months, and then a fixed 7.99% after that.  5% cash back OR free travel miles.  Free business cards, along with some other perks…

Not bad.  The 0% APR is nice, but I’ll never use it since I always pay off the my credit cards every month.  However a 7.99% fixed rate isn’t bad if I ever get stuck in a jam and can’t pay it off in a single month.  I like the cash back idea, and no annual fee is a must for a little company watching every penny.

I figured I’d apply and if approved, get a little line of credit… boy was I wrong.  A month later I got my “Welcome” packet in the mail, with a line of credit for $22,500.  Not too shabby for a new little company! 

The card requires a personal guarantee (as most do), and I’m not sure if they did a hard pull of my credit report (I should have waited to use all of my free credit report checks).  Consequently I have to attribute the large line of credit to my sky high FICO score. 

Just another reason why cash may be King, but your credit score is Queen.