I haven’t really had the motivation to post recentlly, despite all the credit card news, as it seems hopeless to blog about important news on credit cards when I know no one will find my writing in the search engines.  I contacted a very well respected search engine link expert named Eric Ward and hope to have the cash to hire him soon.

However, as the credit crunch continues to drag on, its becoming more difficult to buy my way out of this Google penalty.

I sent in my monthly reconsideration request a few days ago and have literally done everything I can to remove the problem links a blackhat SEO company used to get my site rankings.  I even posted on the sites that they are spammers and causing people to get penalized.  Guess what?  None of them took down the links, as I don’t think honest or competent people are running these sites.

Nevertheless, I did my duty as a good web citizen and reported the sites that led to my penalty – even though my links are still there.  This will probably do more harm than good, but I figured it was the right thing to do.

Hopefully, I’ll be back to blogging soon.   Until then, if you happen to stumble on this page and know how to help, please shoot me an email.

The Citi CashReturns (SM) Card is popping up in a number of new commercials.  The commercials focus on the cashback rewards program offered by the card.  Here, we will examine the Citi Cash Returns reward program as well as important interest rate information.

At present, the Citi Cash Returns card is offering a 0% APR on balance transfers for up to 1 year, as well as an APR of 10.24% for purchases(accurate as of 4/18/08).  This APR for purchases is well below average for cash back rewards credit cards, which tend to charge higher APR’s to offset the cost of operating a cash reward rebate program.

Earning cash back with the Citi Cash Returns card is a pretty straightforward process:  you earn 1% on all purchases.  Additionally, at the end of your first year as a cardmember, you receive a 20% bonus, effectively raising the cash back rate to 1.2%.  Cash back rewards are automatically dispersed via check once you have amassed $50.

You can learn more about the Citi Cash Returns card by viewing the online application.

Similar Cash Back Credit Cards

Below is a list of related cash back credit cards:

The Citi Professional Cash Card:  Earn up to 3% cashback

The Discover Open Road Card:  Earn 5% cashback on gas purchases

The Citi Dividend Platinum Card:  Earn 5% cashback at gas stations, supermarkets and drug stores, convenience stores, and utilities including cable for 6 months and 2% thereafter.

You can also view all current cash back credit card offers on our main site.

There are a number of ways to pay taxes with a credit card.  However, there are two expensive consequences of doing this.  Here, we will explore the hidden fees attached to paying taxes with a credit card.  At the end of this article, there will be a list of 0% APR cash advance credit cards that can help you save hundreds of dollars if you choose to pay your taxes with a credit card.

THE PROBLEM:  The most straightforward hidden fee you will incur by paying your taxes by credit card is a 3% cash advance fee.  This fee, which has no dollar limit, will cost you $30 for every $1000 you pay in taxes.  Unfortunately, there is no way around this fee.  All credit cards charge a 3% cash advance fee.  It is, however, important to keep this in mind.

Now, the complicated part.  As someone who has spent way too much of his life reading credit card fine print, I consider myself privvy to all of the nasty tricks credit card companies play.  And the trick I am about to explain is by far the worst.  Here’s the basic deal:  all payments you make to your credit card apply to the balance with the lowest interest rate.  So let’s say you have a $3000 balance on your credit card from purchases being charged a 12% interest rate and you take a $3000 cash advance.  A typical cash advance interest rate is between 22% to 27%.  Therefore, if you send in $3000 to pay your bill, you will pay off the low rate balance and be stuck paying 20% interest on the cash advance you took to pay your taxes.

The Solution:  While the number of these offers is limited, there are a handful of credit cards that offer a 0% interest rate on cash advances.  This rate lasts for up to 1 year.  With a 0% APR cash advance credit card, you can easily save over $600 on interest, plus prevent the headache that comes from using your previous credit card.

If you’ve already used a credit card for a cash advance and are paying astronomical cash advance interest rates, you may want to consider a credit card that offers 0% APR balance transfers.  With one of these credit cards, you can also save hundreds of dollars on interest.  You can compare all balance transfer credit cards in the balance transfers section of Smart Credit Choices.  Also, below is a list of the top three offers:

Getting a 0% APR for 1 year on both purchases and balance transfers is not as easy as it used to be.  In January of 2007, just about every credit card company issued at least one credit card with a 0% APR that applied to both types of transactions.  As of march 14th of this year, the number has dwindled dramatically.  Currently, both Chase and CitiBank issue credit cards that offer 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers.  The remaining issuers either offer a 0% APR on either purchases or balance transfers, or 0% rates that are less than one year. 

Bank of America also issues a number of credit cards that offer a 0% APR on balance transfers and cash advances.  However, they do not offer a card with a 0% APR for 1 year on purchases and balance transfers.

Discover offers a tiered structure of 0% for 1 year on balance transfers and 0% for 6 months on purchases. 

American Express still offers one card with a 0% APR on purchases for 15 months, but no cards with 0% deals on purchases and balance transfers.

Overall, the movement away from offering consumers a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers is a disturbing trend.  Hopefully, the credit card companies won’t strip us of all the good offers.

Over the past two years, the quality of balance transfer deals on the market has declined significantly.  For example, there used to be a number of credit cards that offered no fee balance transfers along with a 0% APR for a year.  Today, very few of these offers exist.  Recently, a number of credit card companies have even removed balance transfer fee limit, rasing the cost of some balance transfers dramatically.

 How Balance Transfer Fees Are Typically Calculated

The majority of credit cards charge a balance transfer fee of 3% with a maximum fee of $75 per transaction.  Every credit card you transfer a balance from counts as a transaction. 

• Example 1:  You have a balance of $2000 split evenly on two cards.  You would pay $30 for each transaction, or 3% of the transaction.  If you had this balance on just one credit card, the fee would be the same. 
• Example 2:  You have a balance of $7000 on one credit card.  You would pay one transaction fee of $75, or about 1% of the transaction. 
• Example 3:  You have a balance of $7000 split evenly on two credit cards.  You would pay $75 for each transaction, or $150.  This is 2% of the transaction.

How Much Would a Card with No Balance Transfer Fee Limits Increase Costs

The short answer is quite dramatically. 

• Example 1:  You have a balance of $7000 on one card.  Your fees would be 3% of the transaction, or, $210.  This is $135 more than you would typically pay.
• Example 2:  You have a balance of $7000 split evenly on two cards.  Your fees would be $210,  or 3%.  This is $60 more than you would pay with a typical card.

At present we are aware of two cards with no limit on balance transfer fees.  They are the Citi Platinum Select and Citi Diamond cards. 

Avoiding Balance Transfer Fees Altogether

As balance transfer fees increased, the number of credit cards offering no fee balance transfers decreased.  Dramatically!  There were more than 10 of these offers available last March.  Today, there are two credit cards that offer a 0% APR on no fee balance transfers.  (Since this list frequently changes, please refer to the balance transfer deals section of Smart Credit Choices to learn about these offers)

The amount of money you can save with these credit cards is substantial.  For example, a $7000 balance transfer would normally cost $75 to $150.  As you can see, with a no transaction fee balance transfer you save quite nicely.