DansDeals.com

Update 5: Remember that the application window closes at 11:59pm est on Sunday…best of luck to all!

Update 4: The technical difficulties with getting to AMEX application pages continue…The best solution is to use a web browser from where you don’t login to your other AMEX accounts, or to clear your cookies and cache from your web browser in order to get the application to properly load.

Update 3: Due to the numerous technical issues AMEX has been having this week with their applications not loading properly, the window to apply for a card under this promotion will be extended until the actual 5th anniversary of this website-Sunday, November 22, at 11:59pm est. This will be the only extension, so please make sure to apply by then to participate!
The raffle will be held towards the end of November as AMEX is taking up to 7 days to report approvals.  The winners will be notified no later than 11/30.

Thanks for your understanding and best of luck to all!


Update 2: All problems should be fixed now, please post a comment if any of the links aren’t working!

Update: There have been some technical difficulties with some of the AMEX links over the past day.  They are being worked on and I will update this post when they are fixed.


Welcome to the Dansdeals.com 5th Anniversary Promo!

As of 11:59pm on 11/17: Total number of participants: 36, total number of applications: 56, current raffle ticket leader (@ 1 ticket per app, 3 more tickets per approval) for a guaranteed free night: 13 tickets.

Originally posted on 11/08:

There will be 2 winners of this promotion!

The grand prize winner will get 6 free nights valid at any Hyatt hotel or resort in the world!

The person with the most raffle entries will also get 1 free night valid at any Hyatt hotel or resort in the world.  If the person with the most raffle entries wins the grand prize then the “most entries prize” will go to the person with the 2nd most entries.  In case of a tie for most entries the person who applies for the cards earlier will have precedence.

The winner will be able to choose from Park Hyatt’s (found in places like Sydney, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Washington DC and Chicago) that go for as much as $1,300/night for a room or Grand Hyatt’s in places like Kauai or even in NYC, or any other Hyatt in the world.

Raffle entries are earned by applying for the credit cards listed below.  If you get approved for the card you will get even more raffle entries!

You will earn 1 raffle entry for each card that you apply to.  You will get 3 additional raffle tickets for each card that you are approved for!

The promotion window for applying for the credit cards is between 11/08 at 6:00am EST and is tentatively scheduled to close next Wednesday night, 11/18, at 11:59pm EST.  The closing time is subject to change.

Important-To get the raffle tickets please follow all directions exactly and email me no later than 11/23, at 12:59am EST with:

1. A list of the exact credit cards that you applied for.

2. The exact local time and location from where you clicked on each application link.

3. Your full name and home address.

-By entering you consent to have your name published on this site if you win!

Send the email to 

-Please post a comment if you have any questions!

You must apply via the links below in order to get the raffle tickets.

AMEX Cards:

Starwood AMEX (Free for first year, $45 subsequently) 10,000 Starpoints signup bonus, 15,000 bonus Starpoints for spending $15K. Includes AMEX Return protection, extended warranty, and purchase protection.

AMEX Premier Rewards Gold Charge Card (Free for first year, $175 subsequently) 15,000 AMEX MR Points signup bonus after spending $1,000, 15,000 bonus points for spending $30K in a year, triple points on air travel, double points on gas and groceries. Includes AMEX Return protection, extended warranty, and purchase protection.

AMEX Gold Charge Card ($125/year) 10,000 AMEX MR Points signup bonus after spending $500. Includes AMEX Return protection, extended warranty, and purchase protection.

Delta Reserve AMEX ($450/year) Delta SkyClub membership included. Earn up to 40K elite miles/year.Includes AMEX extended warranty, and purchase protection.

AMEX Platinum Charge Card ($450/year) 25,000 AMEX MR Points after spending $1,000.  Free unlimited access for you and family or 2 guests to AA, Continental, and Delta airport lounges.  Includes full gamut of AMEX protections including lost item refunds, travel and baggage insurance, roadside protection, and much much more.

Delta Platinum AMEX ($150/year) Earn up to 25,000 miles signup bonus and up to 20,000 elite miles/year. 1 free companion certificate/year, waived expedite fees and award partner fees on Delta mileage redemptions. Includes AMEX extended warranty, and purchase protection.

Costco AMEX (No annual fee for Costco members) $25 cash back signup bonus, 3% cash back on gas up to 3K/year and dining out, 2% cash back on travel, 1% cash back on everything else. Includes AMEX extended warranty, and purchase protection.

Chase Cards:

Chase Sapphire (No annual fee) 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points signup bonus. Includes extended warranty and return protection.

Chase Freedom (No annual fee) $50 cash back signup bonus, 1%-3% cash back on purchases based on rotating categories.

Chase Slate (No annual fee) 0% intro APR.

Discover Cards:

Discover More Card (No annual fee) Up to 5% cash back, Free Balance Transfers and 0% APR for 6 months,

Discover Motiva Card (No annual fee)

Discover Escape Card ($60 annual fee) 1,000 miles every month you make 1 purchase for 25 months, Free Balance Transfers and 0% APR for 6 months,

Discover Miles Card (No annual fee) Free Balance Transfers and 0% APR for 6 months,

Discover Student Card (No annual fee) 0% APR until 05/10.

AMEX Canada Cards:

AMEX Air Miles Card ($50 annual fee) 50% bonus Air Miles

MBNA Canada Cards:

Best Western Card (No annual fee) 5,000 BW points signup bonus.

Eco-Logique Card (No annual fee)

Gold Card (No annual fee)

Pharmaprix Optimum Card (No annual fee) 15,000 points signup bonus.

Premier Rewards Card (No annual fee)

Shoppers Optimum Card (No annual fee) 15,000 points signup bonus.

Sony Card (No annual fee) 2,000 points signup bonus.

WorldPoints Card (No annual fee) 1,000 points signup bonus.

BA Visa Card Linky

Gary points to a seemingly incredible offer from Chase: Sign up for a $75/year British Airways card and you’ll get 50,000 BA miles.  Spend $2,000 on the card within 3 months and you’ll get another 50,000 miles. Plus you get 1.25 miles per dollar spent.  In addition if you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year you get a voucher for a free companion award ticket when you book another award ticket.

Sounds incredible, no?
Ahh…but what Gary doesn’t mention are their outrageous fuel surcharges on BA award tickets.

BA Fuel Surcharges (not including actual taxes) per longhaul segment (A Round-Trip JFK-LHR-TLV is 4 segments):
Economy (Under 9 hours): $107
Economy (Over 9 hours): $141
Premium Economy (Under 9 hours): $128
Premium Economy (Over 9 hours): $177
Business/First (Under 9 hours): $157
Business/First (Over 9 hours): $205

Other taxes and fees that BA charges will typically add more than $100 to the award ticket in addition to the fuel surcharges.

A Business Ticket from LA to Tel Aviv will cost 130,000 miles plus over $800 in fuel surcharges and other fees and taxes!

I think I’ll stick with Continental’s BusinessFirst, at 115,000 miles and $50 in taxes.
AA’s card may only get you 30K miles, but it is easily churnable and you won’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars in taxes for an award ticket…plus AA has a sweet OneWorld chart with awards that cost less miles than BA and have no fuel surcharges.

Now that you’re equipped with the rest of the story you can decide whether this card makes sense for you. 100,000 miles is indeed an incredible offer, but I personally stay far away from programs that charge such high fuel surcharges…I enjoy free award flights, not discounted flights.

Update: Per request of Discover, all comments on this post have been removed and future comments on this post are not allowed.

Discover Current Debit Card Linky

Use the following code when applying to waive the $5 monthly fee for the first month: DM110810

The card is meant for a parent to give to their teens. You can open up to 3 teen debit cards per parental account.

Each of the 3 teen debit cards can be funded with up to $2,500 for a total of $7,500.  You can fund it with any Discover, Mastercard, or Visa credit card and the funding will count as a purchase.

Update 2: The current signup and spending threshold bonus for the Canadian Starwood Mastercard is slated to expire on 08/31! Be sure to sign up before then to take advantage of the current offer!

Update: Some interesting things to point out from tipster up North:

-You only need to spend $40CAD in a Starwood hotel to qualify for the first stay bonus.  So if you have a cash and points stay where the cash portion is at least $40 and charge it to your Starwood MBNA card you will get a 5,000 Starpoint bonus.  You can also qualify by adding other incidentals to your hotel bill even on an award stay as long as they hit $40CAD.

-You are able to have more than one Starwood MBNA card and they can credit all to the same Starwood account, so that if you reach $30,000CAD in annual spending you can switch to the 2nd card, as the 5,000 Starpoint threshold bonuses for hitting 10K in spending ends once you hit $30,000 in a year on a card.

Originally posted on 03/09/09:

Starwood Canada MBNA Credit Card Linky

Canadians rejoice-You too can collect Starwood points via credit card spending, plus there is no annual fee for the Canadian Starwood credit card.

The Canadian version of the Starwood credit card is a Mastercard and offers 5,000 Starpoints after your first purchase.

You earn 1 Starpoint for every 2 Canadian dollars spent, and there are threshold spend bonuses. You get a bonus 5,000 Starpoints for every $10,000 CAD in spending, up to 15,000 Starpoints for threshold spending annually.

You will also get a bonus 5,000 Starpoints after your first stay in a Starwood hotel. (Would be interesting to know if a purchase from the hotel bar would qualify as well…)

Besides for the obvious appeal of being able to transfer Starpoints into miles of dozens of airlines at favorable ratios, there are also some great values at Canadian hotels.

Take the Westin Harbour Castle in downtown Toronto.  (Side note: I have the best memories of this hotel as a 10 year old getting the autographs of the ‘95 World Series bound Indians that I described a couple years ago in a post titled “Manny being Manny.” I believe that most visiting teams still stay at this hotel)  A random date check (06/07) on spg.com shows a rate of $279. Using points, which have no capacity controls, it is available for 7,000 Starpoints, or a value of about 4 cents per Starpoint.  Better yet, it is also available using Cash & Points for just 2,800 Starpoints and $45, or a value of a whopping 8.4 cents per Starpoint!  It would take a solid Nights & Flights Starpoint redemption to beat that kind of valuation!

Update: Even with already having 3 other personal Chase cards (Continental Presidential Plus MC, United Visa, and Chase Freedom) I was able to get instant approval on the Sapphire Preferred card!

Offer Linky

With 25,000 points on this card you can:

-Get a plane ticket worth up to $312.50.

-Transfer the points into BA or Continental miles, or Marriott or PC hotel points at a 1:1 ratio.

-Get a $250 refund check.

The card has a $95 annual fee, which is waived for the first year.

AMEX Gold Rewards Consumer Charge Card Linky

AMEX is set to eliminate their longstanding offer for the first year free on their Gold Rewards charge card with no pre-set spending limit within the next couple days.

The card comes with all of the benefits of an AMEX charge card as well as 10,000 bonus AMEX MR points after spending $500 within the first 3 months that you have the card.  AMEX MR points can be transferred into miles on dozens of airlines at a 1:1 ratio.

The card also offers 2 AMEX MR points per dollar spent on all groceries and gas purchases for the first year that you have the card!

The normal annual fee for the card is $125/year.

www.americanexpress.com/creditreport

This is for 30 days access to your “Experian Plus” score, you do not need to cancel the service, it will cancel automatically after 30 days if you don’t upgrade to the premium credit secure service.

Offer Linky

Read T’s And C’s for full rules.

Delta Consumer AMEX: Fee-free for first year. Get 20,000 bonus miles with your first purchase, and 5,000 additional bonus miles for requesting 2 additional fee-free cards.

Jetblue Consumer AMEX: $40 annual fee. Get 50 TrueBlue points with first purchase (halfway to a free RT ticket to anywhere in the world that Jetblue flies to) and make your entire Trueblue balance extend for an additional year whenever you use the Jetblue AMEX.

AMEX Clear: No annual fee. 0% interest on all purchases for the first 12 months.  3.99% balance transfers with no balance transfer fees.  No late fees.  No overlimit fees.  $25 AMEX rebate for each $2,500 in purchases.

Hilton Consumer AMEX: No annual fee. Earn up to 50,000 HHonors bonus points. Get 3 points for each dollar spent.  The US Mint should be able to help you to get over the $5,000 threshold to earn the bonus points…

Update: You can read about all of the card benefits here, but remember to apply via the link in this post in order to get the 25,000 AMEX MR points (The link on the card benefits page offers no signup bonus at all!)!

AMEX Platinum 25K MR Points Offer Linky

The AMEX Platinum charge card is the best credit card that exists today.  Not for spending mind you (those honors go to the Starwood AMEX), but for the benefits provided.

Yes, this card costs a whopping $450/year, but you can get far more than that back out of it (Especially if you find 4 people to split it with!)

Right now for the first time ever there is a public offer to get 25,000 AMEX MR Points for applying for the card and spending $1,000 on it within 3 months of receiving it.  25,000 AMEX points can be transferred to airlines like fuel-surchargeless Continental for a free domestic ticket, or it will get you halfway to the 50,000 miles required to get to Israel on Alitalia (and Alitalia will let you fly for the same amount of miles to Israel non-stop on Skyteam partners Continental or Delta).

So, what do you get for $450 (Besides for the signup bonus)? Here are just some of the benefits:

• Unlimited free lounge access for you and your spouse and kids, or for you and 2 companions when flying with:

AA: AAdmiral’s Club

Continental: President’s Club

Delta: Crown Room Club

Northwest: WorldClub

Hate air travel? Hint: It’s probably because you don’t have lounge access!

• Friends fly free!
  

For 4 times every calender year you can take a companion with you for free on a domestic ticket as long as you book through AMEX and your fare is at least $299 (not hard to do these days!)

If the lowest available fare is $250 they can adjust it to $299 to get you the free ticket!

You can also use this program to Hawaii and Alaska, but the minimum qualifying fare is $699 from the west coast and $899 from everywhere else.

Plus if you apply for this card now you can use this service 8 times even if you cancel the card before the annual fee comes due again next July, due the calender year system that they use!

• Give an AMEX Platinum to 3 other people for one fee!

With the AMEX Platinum consumer card (unlike the platinum business card) you can add 3 other people to your account for $175.  Each of these cardholders will receive all of the benefits of having the card, such as lounge access, and each one will also get 4 more free companion tickets per year!  The fee is $175 regardless of if you have 1, 2, or 3 additional cardholders.

• Lose something? It’s covered!

If you lose an item within 3 months of purchasing it, just let AMEX know about it within a month after the loss, fax them your receipt, and they will immediately issue a refund for the item! This protection is for items up to $10,000, and for up to $50,000 in claims per calender year.  No police report or any other dirty work is required!

• Fine Hotels and Resorts Benefit Program

Book a room at any of the 600+ Fine Hotels and Resorts worldwide and you’ll receive room upgrades, 4pm late checkout,  and other special benefits and treatments.

• 24/7 Platinum Concierge

Need hard-to-get reservations, trip advice, or event planning? These guys will take care of it!

• Complimentary Starwood Gold Elite Status

This normally requires 25 paid nights in Starwood hotels or $30,000 spent in a calender year on the Starwood AMEX.

It gets you complimentary upgrades at Starwood hotels, 4pm late checkout time, and bonus Starpoints when staying at Starwood hotels.

• Car Rental Elite Status

Get elite rental status at Avis, Hertz, and National.

• Baggage protection:

Up to $3,000 in coverage for loss or damage to your checked or carry-on baggage when flying!

• Complimentary Membership Rewards First membership

Expanded access to AMEX’s luxury reward options.

• Premium Seats program:

Get access to choice seats at sports and entertainment events in NYC and LA.

• Event ticket protection (Not available for NYC residents)

Get a refund on event tickets (even when bought from scalpers) if you lose the ticket, have a medical emergency, have an transprtation accident, have jury duty, and for many other scenarios.

• No Pre-set Spending Limit.

There is no credit limit on this card!

• By Invitation Only Events

Get access to exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime events available only to Platinum Card members!

Plus the AMEX Plat has many, many other benefits and protections!

You can now get a free domestic ticket on Delta or their Skyteam partners (Continental, Northwest, etc.) when you apply for either of these credit cards and add 2 additional cardholders!

Delta Consumer Card:
-Signup bonus is now 20,000 miles, plus you can get an additional 5,000 miles if you apply for 2 free additional cardholders at the same time as you apply for the card!
-No annual fee for the first year.
-The Delta consumer AMEX gives double miles for all spending at:
Stand-alone supermarkets, Gas stations, Drugstores, Home improvement stores, The U.S. Postal Service, Wireless service providers, and on Delta tickets.

Delta Business Card:
-Signup bonus is now 20,000 miles, plus you can get an additional 5,000 miles if you apply for 2 free additional cardholders at the same time as you apply for the card!
-No annual fee for the first year.
-OPEN savings: Get a automatic 5% Cash rebate in addition to miles for spending on Delta tickets and with many other OPEN savings partners various other stores/chains/hotels and all Delta tickets.
-Threshold bonuses: Get an additional 5,000 bonus miles after hitting 15K and again after 25K in yearly spending.
-Get a $99 companion certificate upon renewal of the card.

Update 2: The AMEX Simply Cash card’s gas rebate will soon be reduced to 3% automatic cash back.  If you apply right now you will be grandfathered and will receive 5% automatic cash back on gas for at least 12 months! Wireless and office supplies purchases will continue to receive 5% cash back. You will receive a letter regarding any changes to your card’s features approximately 60 days before any changes takes place.

Originally posted on 05/16:

Update: Just to clarify, this card has no annual fee, so it also makes for a great place to which you can transfer the credit limit of other AMEX cards that only come with the first year free, and then transfer back the credit limit when you reopen the first year free card!

Related: Don’t Have A Business Credit Card Yet? What Are You Waiting For?!?

AMEX Simply Cash Business Card Linky

With gas now at $4/gallon and climbing you can save yourself over 20 cents a gallon by paying with the AMEX Simply Cash credit card!

If you apply now you will pay 0% interest on all purchases made on the card for 12 months!

You will get an automatic monthly 5% cash rebate for the following purchases:
-Automobile Gasoline (Any purchases categorized as purchasing automobile gas. If you purchase more than 75 gallons in a single transaction it won’t be be considered gas for an automobile and won’t be eligible for a rebate. Sorry Airliners-that excludes you knocking 5% off you gas bill!)
-Wireless Service (Any purchases categorized as being from a wireless merchant)
-Office Supplies (Any purchases categorized as being from an office supplies merchant)

-1% cash rebate for everything else.

The cash rebates are automatically credited monthly against your statement balance!
You will never have to request a rebate or cash a check, it’s all done by AMEX!

-The 5% offers aren’t limited time offers, they are permanent offers.
-You don’t need to spend a minimum amount on the card in order to qualify for them, if you only want to use the card for gas, to purchase cell phones, and pay off your wireless bill, you will get 5% off the total bill!
-There is no limit to the amount that you can save!

Additionally this card qualifies for AMEX open savings, so you will get the following additional cash rebates on top of the cash rebate at all Open Savings partners, including (but not limited to!):

-3% cash back at Delta, Hyatt, Jetblue, and Stubhub.

-5% cash back at Fedex/Kinkos, Flowers.com, and Yahoo marketing.

The card also offers comes with many premium AMEX features including:

-$100,000 Travel Accident Insurance

-Baggage Insurance Plan: up to $1,250 for carry-on baggage and up to $500 for checked baggage.

-Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance Plan: coverage for theft of or damage to rental vehicles.

-Buyer’s Assurance Plan: Up to one additional year of warranty protection on purchases.

-Purchase Protection Plan: Coverage against accidental damage and theft for up to 90 days from the date of purchase.

You guys let me off easy with this one, some of those other articles would’ve required way more time and effort!

After being denied a signup bonus from United/Chase, I went right back and reapplied for the card but just left the mileage plus number blank.

United/Chase automatically generated a new mileage plus number for me and deposited my bonus into that account. Then United had no problem merging the account into my existing mileage plus account…

Good luck!

Business credit cards are great. They allow another opportunity to earn points/miles for opening a credit card, and best of all they do not affect your personal credit score!

Unlike on a personal card where you should be very careful to never utilize too much of the total available credit, you can utilize a greater percentage on a business card because it won’t count against your personal credit score.

Another advantage of a business card is when you sign up for cards that have just the first year fee-free. On a personal card you may negatively impact your credit score when you cancel the card because your total available credit goes down (unless you move the credit to another card) On a business card you can cancel the card without any worries as it won’t affect your personal credit score!

You do not actually need a business to apply for a business credit card!

Here is what you should fill out on the application form: (This is all 100% legal as confirmed with credit card CS agents.)

-Business Type: Sole-Proprietorship

-Business Name: You can just enter your exact name as the business name!

-Tax ID number: Most forms (including AMEX) allow you to leave this blank. Alternatively you can enter your SSN, as that is the tax ID number for sole-proprietors.

Here are some business card apps that you can try out!

You can check the status of an AMEX application by using the AMEX Status Checker

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

AMEX Blue For Business (15 Months no interest on purchases) 

Starwood Business Card Linky

Jetblue Business Card Linky

Delta Business Card Linky

Blue Cash For Business Linky

Good luck!

Congratulations to Avi Rubenfeld of Chesterfield, MO for winning last week’s credit card promo!

Today is the last day for this promo! There’s no better time than now to finally switch to that Starwood card that you know you should be using!

Here’s a little gravy for those of you busy playing the churning game… Apply for any of the credit cards via the links listed below and you will be entered into a raffle for a free one-way business class ticket valid to any destination served by Airtran Airways!

You must apply via the links below in order to get the raffle tickets.

Each successive entry is worth incrementally more raffle tickets:

1st entry=1 raffle ticket

2nd entry-2 more tickets (3 total)

3rd entry=3 more tickets (6 total)

4th entry=4 more tickets (10 total)

And so on.

Even if you are not approved for the credit card, you will still receive the raffle tickets as long as the application is processed!

The promotion window for applying for the credit cards is between 01/15 at 1:30am EST and will close this Thursday night, 01/17, at 11:59pm EST.

The raffle will be held by this Friday, 01/18 at 2:00pm EST.

Important-To get the raffle tickets please email me no later than this Friday, 01/18, at 12:59am EST with:

-A list of the exact credit cards that you applied for.

-The exact local time and location from where you clicked on each application link.

-Your full name and home address.

-By entering you consent to have your name published on this site if you win!

Here is the list of qualifying credit cards: Please do your own research into which cards are best for you!

AMEX Consumer Credit Cards:

AMEX Green (5,000 MR Points/No fee for first year)

AMEX Gold (10,000 MR Points/No fee for first year)

AMEX Blue Cash: (Up to 5% cash rebate/No annual fee)

AMEX Clear (No Annual Fee, Late Fees, Overlimit Fees, Cash Advance Fees, or Balance Transfer Fees)

AMEX Delta (Up to 17,500 Skymiles/No fee for first year)

AMEX Hilton (Up to 50,000 HHonors points/No annual fee)

AMEX In:Chicago (Exclusive Chicago Rewards/No annual fee)

AMEX In:LA (Exclusive LA Rewards/No annual fee)

AMEX In:NYC (Exclusive NYC Rewards/No annual fee)

AMEX Jetblue: (50 Trueblue points=Halfway to a free RT ticket/$40 annual fee)

AMEX Starwood: (The most rewarding credit card on the planet/No fee for first year)

AMEX Knot: (5,000 MR Points+Free Wedding Planning Kit/No annual fee)

AMEX Nest: (5,000 Mr Points+Free Nest Planning Kit/No annual fee)

AMEX Business Credit Cards:

AMEX Business Blue Cash (Up to 5% Cash Rebate/No annual fee)

AMEX Business Gold (Up to 40,000 MR Points/No fee for first year)

AMEX Business Green (5,000 MR Points/No fee for first year)

AMEX Business Delta (Up to 30,000 Skymiles+5% off Delta Tickets/No fee for first year)

AMEX Business Jetblue (50 Trueblue points=Halfway to a free RT ticket+5% off Jetblue Tickets/$40 annual fee)

AMEX Business Starwood (The most rewarding credit card on the planet/No fee for first year)

Chase Consumer Cards

Chase Amazon.com Visa (1,500 points/No annual fee)

Chase Amtrak World Mastercard (5,000 points+free car rental insurance worldwide/No annual fee)

Chase BP Visa (Up to 10% off at BP/No annual fee)

Chase British Aiways Visa (20,000 Miles/$75 annual fee)

Chase +1 Student Card (No annual fee)

Chase Freedom Visa Signature ($50 cash bonus+Triple rewards where you spend the most/No annual fee)

Chase Continental World Mastercard (20,000 Miles+5% off Continental flights/$85 annual fee)

Chase Business Cards

Chase Business Amazon Visa(1,500 points/No annual fee)

Chase Business Cash Rewards (Up to 5% cash back/No annual fee)

Chase Business Continental World Master Card (20,000 Miles+5% off Continental flights/$85 annual fee)

Good luck!

Credit scores will be changing at all 3 credit agencies over the course of this year, here is some of what’s known about the change:

-Scores will remain between 300 an 850

-The biggest change is that authorized users will no longer receive credit for being listed on an account. Until this point one of the easiest ways for a teenager to build credit was to be listed as an authorized user on one’s parent’s credit account. This will no longer be possible. However, joint-account holders will still receive credit for the account. You should contact your credit card issuer and see if it is possible to change from being an authorized user to a joint-account holder!

-Joy! Fico ‘08 will be much more lenient on people who apply often for credit!

-People who utilize a high percentage of their available credit will be more severely penalized: If your total available credit between all of your accounts is just $5,000, and your monthly statement is $4,500, you will take an even bigger hit on your Fico ‘08 credit score than you did previously. If your total available credit between all of your accounts is $75,000, and your monthly statement is $4,500, then you will come out much better with Fico ‘08 than you did previously. The lower the utilization percentage is, the higher your credit score will be.

-People with “thin” credit files will be penalized, making it even harder for a teenager to build credit.

-Fico ‘08 will be more forgiving of an occasional late payment, but will be much harsher on chronic late payers, or those 90+ days past-due.

-Fico ‘08 will reward those with multiple types of accounts, such as revolving and installment accounts.

What Fico ‘08 means for churners: Until this point there has been a trade-off when churning a card; you initially take a small hit for applying for credit, but a little later your score goes up for having a lower credit utilization percentage. With Fico ‘08 you should see an even smaller initial hit for applying for credit, and then a greater gain from the new added weight given to low credit utilization!

Unfortunately the authorized user change will throw a monkey-wrench into just about everyone’s credit scores…

Related Post:
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards Special Edition For January-February 2008 Linky

Q1 Reduced Mileage Awards Linky
Fly to select cities worldwide for 7,500 less miles than American Airlines regularly charges!

Sample Destinations-Valid From Any US48 City:
17,500 Miles:
-Charlotte
-Dallas/LUV
-Houston
-Milwaukee
-S. Francisco
-Toronto

-Various Caribbean/Mexican/South American destinations from 22,500 miles.

32,500 Miles:
-Brussels, Belgium

Update 2: Don’t forget to cancel this if you don’t want to pay the $12.95 monthly fee! 

Update: By now you should have received the $50 rebate form, send in any receipts totaling $50 and enjoy the cash (no need to send me a thank you note)! You do not need to keep your account active in order to receive the $50!

Originally posted on 10/25:

Whoever said that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” obviously was not a dansdeals.com reader…

Offer Linky

This offer is incredible!


Just sign up for a free 30 day trial with Citi identity monitor and you will get a $50 rebate form sent to you in the mail!

You will get the rebate form within 2-3 weeks after signing up. With the form you will have to send in receipts showing at least $50 worth of purchases from anywhere! Multiple receipts totaling up to $50 are allowed!

After you get the rebate form you are free to cancel-there is no requirement to have identity monitor active in order to receive the $50 rebate!

You will receive the $50 within 4-6 weeks of sending in the rebate form and receipts.


With Citi identity monitor you will get all 3 of your credit reports and scores!

Canceling is easy, just call them at 866-279-9637, they have never given me a hard time, and they’ll even waive the $12.95 monthly fee if you forget to cancel within the 30 day trial!


I am happy to report that even after opening too many credit cards to possibly count, I still have an “excellent” score!

You’re 18 years old and you’re ready to play the lucrative miles game!

Only problem, you’ve applied for some great-sounding credit cards and have been rejected.

Don’t worry, those rejections won’t hurt you in the future.

It’s easy to build up your credit history to get any card you desire.

Method 1:

This way is really easy. Unfortunately it will stop working sometime soon, so get a move on if you want to do it!

All you need to do is ask one of your parents to add you to their oldest credit card with a high credit line that is clear of any delinquent payments. On most cards is shouldn’t cost a penny to add someone as a secondary user.

The key is for your parents to make sure to add you as an authorized user and to supply the credit card issuer with your social security number.

You never even need to use your new card, just wait 60-90 days and then apply for an easy to get credit card, like the Starwood AMEX, and you should be approved without any problems.

Method 2:

This takes a little more work, but it’s fairly simple as well.

Open up a store-issued credit card. Good ones that are available nationwide are ones from GAP or Macy’s. They are very easy to get approved, and they are fee-free.

Store cards are generally only valid at the chain that you apply for. (Although the GAP card will also work at Banana Republic and Old Navy)

Just make a few small purchases on it for 3 months and then apply for a real credit card. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting approved.

Of course don’t forget to pay your bill on time, or else it will be a long time until you get approved for a real credit card!

Good luck, and enjoy the credit card mileage game while it lasts!

Update: There’s been some interesting discussion in the comments about whether you will be able cancel the card once you get the miles and have them prorate the annual fee, or if you will be able to switch this card into a no annual fee card and get the miles for free. The bottom line is that YMMV (Your mileage may vary) you might get a great rep who will help you out and you can wind up with this whole deal for free, or you might not.

Is the deal hot? Yes, and it’s simple why. Even if you can’t get Chase to prorate or waive the $85 it is worth it because of the value of a mile.

In essence you are buying 20,000 miles for $85, a cost of about 4/10ths of a penny per mile.

As far as the uses go:

-Coach ticket to Israel on Continental is about $1,000 for 70,000 miles= 1.42 cents per mile value

-BusinessFirst ticket to Israel is about $5,000 for 100,000 miles= 5 cents per mile value.

-3 systemwide RT Tickets on Southwest/ATA is about $1,000 for 20,000 miles=5 cents per mile value.

-12 systemwide RT tickets on Southwest with a companion pass is worth at least $5,000 for 50,000 miles=10 cents per mile value.

-5 nights of $400 hotel rooms is worth $2,000 at a cost of 20,000 miles=10 cents per mile.

As you can see, buying miles for under half a cent each is a hot deal, and can be extremely hot if you make good use of the miles, or if you get the fee prorated or waived and pay nothing!


Related Links:
Transfer Amex/Amtrak/Continental/Starwood Into Choice Points And Southwest Credits Post!

Chase Amtrak Mastercard Post



Continental Business World Mastercard Linky

Continental Consumer World Mastercard Linky

Chase bank offers 2 Continental Mastercards, a consumer and a business version.

They both now offer 20,000 Continental mile upon signup.

They can be applied for at the same time without any problem.

Best of all-both cards are churnable, so even if you’ve gotten a bonus from Continental in the past you can earn it again!

Unfortunately both cards have $85 annual fees, which are not waved for the 1st year. But the value you can now get out of Continental miles far outweighs the fee for a year.

What you can do with just 20,000 Continental miles:

Boring:

-Use all of it for a short-haul domestic flight on Continental.

More interesting uses:

-Transfer it into 100,000 Choice Privileges points, enough for 5 stays at normally $400/night Manhattan hotels.

-Save up for a 70,000 coach(3.5 card churns) /100,000 businessfirst ticket (5 card churns) to Israel.

-Transfer it into 40 Southwest credits. Assuming you took my advice and signed up for the 8 free credits, you now have a couple options:

-3 Sytemwide Round-Trips on Southwest Or 3 Systemwide Round-Trips besides Hawaii on ATA.

-1.5 Round-trips to Hawaii on ATA (32 credits/Hawaii ticket)


Chase has just upgraded the Continental Airlines Business Card to “World For Business” status.

World Mastercards are the only US issued credit cards that offer free CDW insurance when renting a car in Israel.

Both Continental cards have “World” status.

Additionally both cards will let you save 5% on all Continental.com tickets by using the code: ONEPASS
Other benefits for the business card include:
-Earn 5,000 more bonus miles once you spend $25,000 on the card.

-Earn 2 miles per dollar spent on Continental tickets.

-Earn 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, and at office supplies stores!

-Earn 1 mile per dollar spent elsewhere.

Correction: This article originally indicated that the Amtrak World Mastercard included car rental liability insurance everywhere in the world. It does not have that protection. Generally, anyone who has an auto insurance policy is covered for liability (3rd party injury/death coverage). I could not find any credit card that does have liability protection for car rentals.

The card does have car rental CDW insurance everywhere in the world. This includes coverage in case your rental car is damaged or stolen.

Amtrak Credit Card Linky

This card has no annual fee, and points can be transferred to Continental at a 1:1 basis or to Choice Privileges at a 1:5 basis!

Because this (surprisingly for a no-fee card) is a premium “World Matercard”, it includes car rental CDW (Collision/Damage Waiver) insurance even in places like Israel where no Visa/AMEX/Regular Mastercard covers you!

The signup bonus is 5,000 points, which isn’t bad for a no annual fee card.

Even if you don’t use the card for spending you can transfer those points into 25,000 Choice points.

Once the points are in Choice they can be used for

-Choice hotel stays

-Luxury hotel stays

-Transfered to Southwest credits at 5,000:2

-Transferred at a 5:1 basis to 9 different airlines including every major U.S. based carrier.

Spending on the card earns 1 point per dollar spent.

Remember that you cannot transfer more than 25,000 Amtrak points out of an Amtrak account within a calender year!

Special bonus: The first person to prove whether or not this card is churnable (able to earn the signup bonus more than once) wins a $50 GC to Amazon.com!

Related Post:
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards For October-Decmber 2007 Linky

These are valid from any US48 city for AA flights between 01/08/08 and 02/29/08.
You must be a Citi AAdvantage Platinum cardholder to book travel.
Just call 800-882-8880 to claim the award and reference the class code listed next to each destination.

Destinations:
Calgary, Canada
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM181
First/Business: 37,500 CBPLM381

Vancouver, Canada
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM181
First/Business: 37,500 CBPLM381

St Thomas, Virgin Islands
Coach: 22,500 CRPLM231
First/Business: 52,500 CRPLM531

Cozumel, Mexico
Coach: 22,500 CMPLM231
First/Business: 52,500 CMPLM531

London/Stansted, UK
Coach: 32,500 CEPLM331
First/Business: 82,500 CEPLM831

Shanghai, China
Coach: 42,500 CAPLM431
First/Business: 82,500 CAPLM831

If only Delta’s Saver reward availability wasn’t so incredibly poor, this would actually be a sweet deal…

Offer Linky

25,000 Miles=A free domestic plane ticket, 33% of the miles needed for free passage to Israel, or 25% of the way to Israel in BusinessFirst class.
Don’t travel? Redeem the points for a $250 gift card!

What are you waiting for???

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Card Promo Linky

American Express’s fantastic 25,000 point promo for the business gold card ends today-10/15!!!

The card is free for the first year, and is churnable.

The 25,000 points take a while to post-about 10 weeks in my case-but they will post.

25,000 MR points can be transferred into numerous goodies such as 25,000 miles on Continental or Delta Airlines or a $250 Gift Card!

You don’t actually need a bona-fide business with a tax ID number to sign up for a business credit card. Just leave the tax ID field blank and you’ll be fine! And if you’ve ever sold an item on Ebay you’ve got yourself a business already-just give it a name!

AMEX has a number of premium insurances, some of which are actually quite a sweet deal.

Without going too much in depth into each one, here is what they are about, and what AMEX is giving away if you sign up for them!

There is no cost to enroll in any of the plans, only if you actually book a ticket/rent a car.

You can unenroll from the programs at any time.


Premium Baggage Protection:

-Get a free sports bag for enrolling!

-Intended for damaged or delayed luggage.

Consumer Card Promo Signup Linky

Business Card Promo Signup Linky

-Up to $2,000 in coverage for lost, stolen, or damaged luggage

-Up to $500 worth of replacement items if your luggage is delayed by 3 hours.

-$9.95 charge per airline ticket booked.


Travel Delay Protection:

-Get a free weekender bag for enrolling!

-Intended for hotel accommodations, transportation, food, and necessities during flight delays.

Consumer Card Promo Signup Linky

Business Card Promo Signup Linky

-Up to $200 per day for up to 2 days if no alternative flights are arranged by 9pm of the day of the flight.

-Up to $50 per day for up to 2 days if no alternative flights are arranged within 3 hours of the flight.

-Up to $250 per day for up to 2 days if a combination of both or the previous situations occurs,

-$9.95 charge per airline ticket booked.


Flight Insurance:

-Get a free Travel Alarm Clock for enrolling!

Consumer Card Promo Signup Linky

Business Card Promo Signup Linky

-Get up to $2,000,000 of accidental death and dismemberment coverage.

-$4.99 charge per airline ticket booked ($4.50 in NYC)

Premium Car Rental Insurance:

-No free bonus.

Consumer Card Promo Signup Linky

Business Card Promo Signup Linky

-Primary CDW for duration of rental (up to 42 consecutive days)

- Up to $100,000 for theft of or damage to rental car.

- Up to $100,000 for Accidental Death or Dismemberment (up to $10,000 for a Passenger). For California Residents, up to $250,000 for Accidental Death or Dismemberment for the Cardmember and each Passenger.

-Up to $15,000 per person for medical expenses

-Up to $5,000 per person for theft of personal property

-Starts at $19.95/rental period ($15.95 in CA)

The Starwood AMEX personal card annual fee went up from $30 to $45 this past week.

The fee for the first year continues to be waived.

For now, the business card still costs $30 after the first free year.

Because the points earned from the card are automatically transferred into the Starwood program, you can cancel the card without losing any points.

Additionally, because the Starwood AMEX is churnable, you can cancel the card and sign up for the card again to get the signup bonus and another free year!

Alternatively you can try calling up AMEX when you get the annual fee, and ask them to waive it.

Regardless of the fee increase, the card continues to offer an outstanding value:

-$45 is still lower than the $85 charged by the major airlines.

-90 day return privilege not offered on other low-cost AMEX cards.

-20,000 points transfers into 25,000 miles on over 30 airlines, so you get more miles per dollar spent, and you’re not tied to 1 airline.

-Many hotel stay options at any of Starwood’s numerous hotel brands: Unrestricted awards, Cash & Points, Nights & Flights, 5th Night Free, etc.

-20,000 points transfers into 50,000 kilometers on LAN.

-Free Starwood preferred plus status: Free upgrades, 4pm starwood checkouts, and free starpoints transfers to household accounts.

Quarterly reduced mileage awards are one of the benefits of the AA Credit Card.

Related Posts:
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards For July-September 2007 Linky
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards Special Edition For The 20th Anniversary Of The Mileage Credit Card Linky

Q4 Reduced Mileage Awards Linky
Fly to select cities worldwide for 7,500 less miles than American Airlines regularly charges!

Sample Destinations-Valid From Any US48 City:
17,500 Miles:
-Atlanta
-Denver
-Houston
-Washington DC
-Montreal
-Toronto
-Antigua (Off-Peak)
-Curacao (Off-Peak)
-Bermuda (Off-Peak)
-Barbados (Off-Peak)
-Grand Cayman (Off-Peak)
-Dominican Republic (Off-Peak)

32,500 Miles:
-Santiago, Chile (Off-Peak)
-Montevideo, Uruguay (Off-Peak)
-Frankfurt, Germany (Off-Peak)

42,500 Miles:
-Shanghai, China

Point-to-Point Specials:
Chicago-London: 32,500 Miles
JFK-London: 32,500 Miles
Chicago-Tokyo, Japan: 42,500 Miles
JFK-Tokyo, Japan: 42,500 Miles

Update: Links fixed.

Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card

25,000 AMEX MR points can be easily transferred into 25,000 Continental miles.
25,000 Continental miles is enough for a domestic ticket, or churn the card 3 times and use their 70,000 mile coach award ticket to Israel, or save up for the 100,000 mile business-first class ticket to Israel!

There is no fee for one year.

Other card benefits:
-Additional Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can’t go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

American Express occasionally freezes the credit card accounts of individuals with high-risk patterns.

They request lots of personal information, such as IRS returns, that most people are hesitant to fax away in today’s age of security risks.

I personally have a dozen or so AMEX cards, and have never had a financial review, so I don’t speak from my own experience, but here are some important steps you can do to avoid the dreaded financial review:

-Keep your credit lines on each of your AMEX’s below $25,000.
One symptom commonly found among people who have been hit with a review is very high credit lines.

-NEVER utilize over 50% of the credit line of any of your AMEX cards.
If you have a Starwood card with a $10,000 limit, never have a balance of over $4,999, even if you pay it off every month on time.

-Keep your collective credit balances well below your stated annual income.
If you reported an annual income of $200,000, AMEX won’t like it if you have $190,000 of credit available to spend in one month.

What if you do get hit with a financial review?

Immediately call up AMEX and ask to close down every one of your accounts.
If the AMEX financial review bean-counters close your accounts they will say closed by issuer, which is quite bad.
If you pre-emptively close them they will simply say closed at customer request, and will barely hurt your credit.

Suffering from Starwood AMEX withdrawal?
Don’t worry!
Since you pre-emptively closed your accounts, just wait a few months and then you can apply all over again, and you will even get the signup bonus again!

Reminder: Apply for these special signup offers before it’s too late!

Originally posted on 07/08
Related Links:
Google Credit Card Processing Linky
How Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card

Consumer Cards:

Jetblue:
Annual fee=$40
Special Offer:
-Get 50 award points (instead of the regular 25) with your first purchase.
Neat card benefits:
-When you have a Jetblue AMEX you can keep all of your Jetblue Trueblue mileage account points from expiring simply by using your card or flying Jetblue!
-Double points for speding on entertainment, leisure, travel and dining!

Jetblue Amex Linky

Starwood:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $30 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $15,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
Neat card benefits:
-Ability to use Starwood points in so many ways, including transferring to airlines mileage at very favorable rates (20,000 starpoints=50,000 Lanpass Kilometers)
-90 day window to return any purchase up to $300 to AMEX regardless of the store’s return policy.

Starwood AMEX Linky

Hilton:
Annual fee=None.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $5,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
-Earn 2,500 points for each of your fitst 4 stays at a Hilton paid for on your Hilton AMEX.
Neat card benefits:
-Earn 5 points per dollar spent at Hilton, supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, dining, U.S. Postal Service, and for wireless phone bills.
-Earn 3 points per dollar spent elsewhere.

Hilton AMEX Linky

Business Cards:

AMEX Business Gold Rewards:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $125 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Earn 25,000 AMEX Membership rewards points after your first purchase-enough points for a free ticket when you transfer the points into miles on a US carrier!
Neat card benefits:
-Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can’t go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

Related Post:
AAdvantage Credit Card Reduced Mileage Awards For July-September 2007 Linky

These are valid from any US48 city for AA flights between September 7, 2007 and November 14, 2007.
You must be a Citi AAdvantage cardholder to book travel.
Just call 800-882-8880 to claim the award and reference the award code listed next to each destination.

Destinations:
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Coach: 17,500 CBPLMM18
Business/First: 52,500 CBPLMM53

Fort Myers, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38

Tampa, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38

Jacksonville, FL
Coach: 17,500 CBPLM18
Business/First: 37,500 CBPLM38

Honolulu, HI
Coach: 27,500 CBPLM28
Business/First: 67,500 CBPLM68

Kona, HI
Coach: 27,500 CBPLM28
Business/First: 67,500 CBPLM68

Related Post:
Hot AMEX Signup Bonuses For July!

This is really simple, but it may not work for everyone.

I discovered this after activating a few family member’s cards.

When you are activating your card, push “0″ to speak to a live person.
They will run through a whole activation spiel with you.
As part of the spiel they will offer you the ability to add an additional card to your account and get 2,500 bonus starwood points for adding one cardholder, with no annual fee!

Getting an additional card should not affect your credit at all.

You do not have to give the other cardholders social security number, just a birthdate (Tell them that you don’t know their social security number).

If you are not offered the additional card or the 2,500 points, just ask for it!

Good luck, and please post your experiences!

Additionally I was not successful in one try at getting this promo for an existing card, but if anyone is successful, please post that as well!

Related Links:
Google Credit Card Processing Linky
See the knowledgebase for numerous additional articles.

Consumer Cards:

Jetblue:
Annual fee=$40
Special Offer:
-Get 50 award points (instead of the regular 25) with your first purchase.
Neat card benefits:
-When you have a Jetblue AMEX you can keep all of your Jetblue Trueblue mileage account points from expiring simply by using your card or flying Jetblue!
-Double points for speding on entertainment, leisure, travel and dining!

Jetblue Amex Linky

Starwood:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $30 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $15,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
Neat card benefits:
-Ability to use Starwood points in so many ways, including transferring to airlines mileage at very favorable rates (20,000 starpoints=50,000 Lanpass Kilometers)
-90 day window to return any purchase up to $300 to AMEX regardless of the store’s return policy.

Starwood AMEX Linky

Hilton:
Annual fee=None.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $5,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
-Earn 2,500 points for each of your fitst 4 stays at a Hilton paid for on your Hilton AMEX.
Neat card benefits:
-Earn 5 points per dollar spent at Hilton, supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, dining, U.S. Postal Service, and for wireless phone bills.
-Earn 3 points per dollar spent elsewhere.

Hilton AMEX Linky

Business Cards:

AMEX Business Gold Rewards:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $125 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Earn 25,000 AMEX Membership rewards points after your first purchase-enough points for a free ticket when you transfer the points into miles on a US carrier!
Neat card benefits:
-Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can’t go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

Note: Even if you didn’t follow these steps and you signed for the starwood credit card before getting a starwood number, you will still have a starwood number, and possibly multiple numbers if you have more than 1 credit card.
Just call up AMEX to find out what it is, and then register it on www.spg.com
If you have multiple numbers then call Starwood to merge the accounts.

Many people have emailed me and commented that although I am always posting great uses for Starpoints, I do not make the process entirely clear.

Another point of confusion among some people seems to be where the points are stored.

For starters, here’s a point of comparison:
Having points with Starwood is just like having miles on American Airlines(AA)!
-With both AA and Starwood you have a mileage account, in which you collect “miles” (AAdvantage miles with AA or Starpoints with Starwood).
-They both have affiliated credit cards, AA has one issued by Citi and Starwood has one issued by Amex.
-Every month Citi automatically transfers your miles over to your AA account, and every month Amex automatically transfers your points into your Starwood account.
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards have signup bonuses and both cards can be churned (meaning that the signup bonus can be earned multiple times.)
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards come in consumer and business versions.
The business versions generally have more benefits. (AA’s business card earns double miles for AA tickets, and the Starwood business card saves you up to 5% on stuff like Delta or Jetblue tickets and Fedex with Amex Open Savings)

Having said that, here is a step by step process of turning starpoints into free tickets.

Step 1: Go to www.spg.com (SPG stands for Starwood Preferred Guest.)

Step 2: In the middle column it says, “JOIN STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST”
Enter in your Email address and click join!

Step 3: Fill out your personal information, make a spg.com user ID and password, and get a SPG Starpoints number.

Step 4: SAVE YOUR STARPOINTS NUMBER AND YOUR USER ID/PASSWORD IN A SAFE PLACE!

Step 5:Open up a consumer and business starwood amex card to receive 20,000 starpoints for signing up.(Links for the best offers can be found at the top of this site. The consumer version currently has a sweet bonus offer worth up to 25,000 starpoints!)
Be sure to enter in your Starwood number that you just received into the application forms!

Step 6: You will see the points from the starwood credit cards show up into your starwood account within a week of when the statement closes.

Step 7: Decide what you want to do with your starpoints! Read about the options in the knowledgebase!

Let’s say that you want to transfer the 40,000 starpoints you have (because you have churned each of the starwood cards) into 100,000 kilometers on LAN in order to get a ticket from Chicago-Tel Aviv (cost=95,000 kilometers).

Step 8: Go to the knowledgebase and find the link to get 5,000 free kilometers for signing up for a LAN account.

Step 9: Sign up for the LAN account and keep you user ID, password, and LAN number in a safe place.

Step 10: Click on the following link to take you to the transfer points page: Starpoint Transfer Linky

Step 11: Go to Airline transfer, and click on “transfer now.”

Step 12: Login to your starpoints account when prompted.

Step 13: Choose to transfer to LAN Lanpass, at a ratio of 1 starpoints=2 lanpass kilometers. You also get a bonus 10,000 kilometers for every 20,000 starpoints that you transfer, so (contrary to what the starwood site itself may indicate) 40,000 starpoints will net you 100,000 kilometers.

Step 14: When the kilometers show up in your Lanpass account call up LAN to book your mileage ticket to Israel. They should ticket you on British Airways via London.

Some tidbits that you may not know:
-You can transfer starpoints between any starpoint account in your household simply by giving starwood a call!
-You automatically become elite (preferred plus level) when you have the starwood AMEX card! With preferred plus elite status you get a free room upgrade upon check-in and a guaranteed 4pm late checkout at any Starwood brand hotel!
-You can sign up anyone in your family for a Starwood AMEX card and give AMEX your starwood number. All of the points earned will conveniently automatically go into your account!

Related Post:
How To Get A Business Credit Card

Amex Business Gold Rewards 25,000 MR Points Offer Linky
The first year on this card is fee-free!
25,000 Amex MR Points can be transferred into 25,000 miles on many airlines, including Continental, Delta, and Frontier!

-Earn 10,000 starpoints for opening up the card.
-Earn another 30,000 starpoints (15,000 for the 1 point per dollar spent, and a 15,000 point bonus) for spending $15,000 on the card in the first 6 months of having the card!
The Starwood Amex is currently churnable (you can earn the signup bonus multiple times)
Need some help getting to $15,000?
You obviously didn’t read my previous post!
Starwood Signup Offer Linky
HT: Asher O.

I originally posted this deal back in November 2006, but it definitely merits a repost reminder!
You can send an invoice to anyone to pay you with Google checkout.
It wont cost a penny to process-all you need is a bank account!
A word to the wise: Don’t pay yourself or anyone in your household…
Google Checkout Selling Account Signup Linky
Free Credit Card Processing Promo Info Linky

In the recent Starwood post an anonymous commenter asked about the Starwood branded hotels in Israel.
Less than 20 minutes later another anonymous commenter answered,
“Israel is one of the best places to use the starwood points (since they dont categorize them properly) – Le meridien dead sea 2-3000 points and the Herods Eilat which usually costs around 350 Dollars (cat 3) is only 7000 points in America it would be a Cat 6 – The Jerusalem Sheraton is also only 7000 points but not such a great hotel – still a unreal value.”

Now that is how the comments system is supposed to work-other people answering questions that they know about!

Since I have a planned trip to go to Israel in August for the first time since I was an infant, I have been looking into this issue as well!
P.S. If anyone has any other Israel tips (cell phones, car rentals, GPS rentals, etc.) please leave a comment!

There are 13 Starwood hotels in Israel.

Category 1:
Le Méridien Dead Sea
Sheraton Moriah Dead Sea
Le Méridien Haifa

Category 2:
Sheraton Moriah Eilat
Sheraton Moriah Tiberias

Category 3:
Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel
Sheraton City Tower Tel Aviv
Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv
Herods Forum Eilat
Herods Vitalis Spa Eilat
Le Méridien Eilat
Sheraton Herods Palace Hotel Eilat

Category 4:
Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel and Towers

Again, here is the cost in starpoints by category,

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points

Restricted Cash And Points: (Tentative-Launching June 28th.)
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60

Please note: This news has yet to be confirmed from Starwood, but the source is trustworthy enough to make a post about this already.

Good news!
It will soon be cost even less starpoints to stay in great hotels worldwide!

Here’s a brief summary in order to understand what is changing.
There are 6 good uses for starpoints.

Use #1: Unrestricted, No Blackouts/Capacity Controlled Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #2: Restricted Cash And Points Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #3: Hotel Room Upgrades: Starts at 1,000 points.
Use #4: Nights AND Flights: 60,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 3 hotel.
70,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 4 hotel.
Use #5: 5th Night Free: When you book an unrestricted category 3-6 hotel award for 5 nights you only pay for the points of 4 nights.
Use #6: Transferring into Real Airline Miles. 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles on numerous airlines.

Use #2 is what is dramatically improving.
Until now the cash and points option was only available at maybe 50 htoels worldwide.
Now it will become available for all hotels in categories 3-6 and for Asia/Pacific hotels in categories 1-2 as well.

Here is the pricing difference between an unrestricted hotel stay and a restricted cash and points stay.

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points
Category 5: 12,000 points (16,000 in peak season)
Category 6: 20,000 points (25,000 in peak season)

Restricted Cash And Points:
These rates are tentative and not official yet-hopefully they will be confirmed by Starwood by June 28th!
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60
Category 5: 4,800 points + $90
Category 6: 8,000 points + $150