Chase Sapphire Card, Travel Rewards Card with $100 Sign On Bonus
Chase Sapphire Card is a point rewards credit card best used for airfare purchases with no 
annual fee. The reason that you can’t see Visa or MasterCard icon in the card image is because it’s available in either Visa or MasterCard versions. Unlike other Chase credit cards, this card doesn’t have credit limit.
You can get reward points in three ways:
- Sign on bonus: $100 value. after your first purchase, you get 10,000 points which can be easily redeemed to $100 cash
- Regular purchase: 1% cash back value. for your regular purchase, Chase Sapphire Card rewards you 1 point for every $1
- Airfare purchase: additional 2% cash back value. on top of 1 point for $1 rewards, you get double point rewards (2 points for $1) for airfares you spent if you book flights through their Ultimate Rewards Website.
Rewards points can be redeemed into cash (100 points for $1) or used to purchase merchandise through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. As soon as you earn $25 worth of rewards, you are allowed to redeem, make Chase Sapphire Card’s rewards easier to be redeemed than Chase Freedom Credit Card.
Important Disclaimer: the credit cards information in this post were accurate as of the date of publishing, some or all of the card programs may be discontinued, their terms may be changed after wards.
Credit Card Comparison: Complete List of Secured Credit Cards
There are many ways to classify credit cards. From the perspective of when you pay off bill, credit cards can be classified into charge cards and non-charge cards. This post focus on another way of credit card classification, from the perspective of whether you put down a collateral to get credit card debt, credit cards can be classified into:
- secured credit cards: the credit card debt you get is dependent on a collateral you put down with credit card company, it’s usually an amount of cash, and usually the amount of collateral you put down is the amount of credit limit you get.
- unsecured credit cards: the credit card debt you get does not require you put down a certain amount of collateral. This type of credit cards is the general type of credit cards we commonly use.
This post shows major secured credit cards for you to choose
| Card Name | Features | More | |
 |
Applied Bank® Secured Visa® Credit Card |
Prepaid Debit Card issued by Applied Bank; no credit line is attached. Operates on Visa Inc. network. | Regular APR: 9.99% fixed;CREDIT Bureau Reporting;Minimum $200 deposit required. |
 |
Applied Bank® Secured Visa® Gold Card |
Prepaid Debit Card issued by Applied Bank; no credit line is attached. Operates on Visa Inc. network. | Regular APR: 9.99% fixed;CREDIT Bureau Reporting;Minimum $200 deposit required. |
Important Disclaimer: the credit cards information in this post were accurate as of the date of publishing, some or all of the card programs may be discontinued, their terms may be changed after wards.
Iberia Bank Removed Overlimit Fees on Credit Cards
Iberia Bank has recently announced that it no longer charges overlimit fees on any of its credit cards. If you have one of Iberia Bank credit cards, you will not need to worry about spending above credit limit and be charged a fee.
| Card Name | Benefits | Requirements | |
 |
IberiaBank Visa® Platinum Rewards Card |
1.99% BT APR for up to 6 mths; 1 point/$ point rewards | requires Excellent Credit; regular APR: 9.75%; annual fee: none |
 |
IberiaBank Visa® Gold Cash Back Rewards Card |
1.99% BT APR for up to 6 mths; 1% cash rewards | requires Excellent Credit; regular APR: 9.75%; annual fee: none |
 |
IberiaBank Visa® Classic |
1.99% BT APR for up to 6 mths | requires Good Credit; regular APR: 8.75%; annual fee: none |
Important Disclaimer: the credit cards information in this post were accurate as of the date of publishing, some or all of the card programs may be discontinued, their terms may be changed after wards.
Review of Online Saving Accounts
The following are online high-yield savings account APY rates offered by major online banks, from high to low.
Discover Online Savings: 1.85%
- rates are only valid if you deposit $500 or more
AmEx High Yield Savings Account: 1.85%
- no minimum balance requirement
Capital One Costco InterestPlus: 1.75%
- rates are only valid if you deposit $5,000 or more
- 10% quarterly bonus on interest earned
Ally Bank Online Saving Account: 1.7%
- no minimum balance requirement
Capital One Online Saving Account: 1.6%
- rates are only valid if you deposit $10,000 or more
Dollar Savings Account: 1.6%
- $1,000 minimum deposit
FNBO Direct Online Saving Account: 1.5%
- no minimum balance requirement
HSBC Online Savings Account: 1.35%
- no minimum balance requirement
Emigrant Direct: 1.3%
- $1,000 minimum deposit
ING Direct Online Savings Account: 1.3%
- no minimum balance requirement for Orange Savings Account
Capital One High Yield Money Market: 1.2%
- no minimum balance requirement
Citi Ultimate Money Account: 1.2%
- $100 minimum opening deposit
- Requires a checking account
Citi Ultimate Savings Account: 1.2%
- $100 minimum opening deposit
E*Trade Complete Savings Account: 0.5%
- no minimum balance requirement
(Rates updated on 10/26/2009)
Important Disclaimer: the credit cards information in this post were accurate as of the date of publishing, some or all of the card programs may be discontinued, their terms may be changed after wards.
Credit Score Q&A: Positive and Negative Actions on FICO Score
Q: if you cancel/close a credit card account within a short time (lets say 6 months) you took it, will it affect your credit score?
A: It will probably not. This kind of behavior should fall into the “New Credit” section that is in your credit report, however, since the majority of this section is to figure out your interest to new credit, the more you are interested, the more negative to your credit. Given this guideline, if you close new accounts shortly, that doesn’t affect your credit score negatively.
References: How Your FICO Credit Score is calculated from myFICO.com. You may also find out your FICO score by visiting here.
FICO Scores are calculated from a lot of different credit data in your credit report. This data can be grouped into five categories as outlined below. The percentages in the chart reflect how important each of the categories is in determining your FICO score.
These percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the general population. For particular groups – for example, people who have not been using credit long – the importance of these categories may be somewhat different.
Payment History
- Account payment information on specific types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
- Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgements, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past due items)
- Severity of delinquency (how long past due)
- Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
- Time since (recency of) past due items (delinquency), adverse public records (if any), or collection items (if any)
- Number of past due items on file
- Number of accounts paid as agreed
Amounts Owed
- Amount owing on accounts
- Amount owing on specific types of accounts
- Lack of a specific type of balance, in some cases
- Number of accounts with balances
- Proportion of credit lines used (proportion of balances to total credit limits on certain types of revolving accounts)
- Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing (proportion of balance to original loan amount on certain types of installment loans)
Length of Credit History
- Time since accounts opened
- Time since accounts opened, by specific type of account
- Time since account activity
New Credit
- Number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by type of account
- Number of recent credit inquiries
- Time since recent account opening(s), by type of account
- Time since credit inquiry(s)
- Re-establishment of positive credit history following past payment problems
Types of Credit Used
- Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent information on) various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.)
Also check out service review of credit reporting/monitoring and identity theft services
Important Disclaimer: the credit cards information in this post were accurate as of the date of publishing, some or all of the card programs may be discontinued, their terms may be changed after wards.
