Category: Financial

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Aim Ad Hack 5.2

I finally installed Aim Ad Hack 5.2 on my machine at home. I TS into that machine and use AIM as the file transfer utility. However, because AIM has an animated gif for the ad, it really lags when the AIM buddylist is not minimized. So I finally got pissed enough, I decided to give Aim Ad Hack a try. To my surprise, this is an all in one deal. You don’t even need to install AIM 6.0 separately. It’ll even download the correct version of AIM that it supports for you.

Along with ad disabling, there’s also the removal of the other crap like Viewpoint player, AOL Desktop, etc. There’s also these 2 plugins that it comes with. Some location plugin and some facebook plugin. At first it seems somewhat neat, but the fact that I have to login manually into facebook every time I sign onto AIM was rather tedious. Same with the location plugin where it forced you to select a location every time you signed in. The facebook plugin does have its function. Whenever someone updates their profile or when someone writes on their wall, you get this little notification box.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience installing Aim Ad Hack.

Random Crap:

I’d like to apologize beforehand if I credit the incorrect source. I have random crap queued up since Christmas and am barely rolling it out.

Japanese word of the day: 縫いぐるみ or 縫い包み (nuigurumi) – stuffed animal or plush toy. I was watching Kanon and Sayuri got a big stuffed ant-eater for Mai’s birthday. At first I though she said muigurumi or muigumi, but JDIC didn’t have anything that sounded like that. I finally tried searching in the opposite direction and searched for the word ‘plush’ and got nuigurumi instead. Here’s how you say you want a plushy: 縫いぐるみがほしい (nuigurumi ga hoshii). If you haven’t figured out yet, sticking “ga hoshii” after a noun means you want it (i.e. aisu curi-mu ga hoshii = I want ice cream)

Parasite ‘turns women into sex kittens’ (from Digg) – A COMMON parasite can increase a women’s attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says.

Consumerist.com chunk moved to new entry.

I was found UserFriendly comic strip rather funny and wanted to share it.

Q: What do you call someone who blogs a few days and never blogs again, filling the web with dreck?
A: Since the internet is a bunch of tubes, may I suggest the term “clogger”.

PlayStation 3 kiosks freezing up … on purpose! (from Digg) – I love this response:

“So dude over there,” I said pointing to the busy clerk, “says he keeps the kiosk off because it keeps freezing up.”
“Nope. No it doesn’t.”
“Well, actually, yeah. It does. I’ve seen it happen myself.”
“No. It doesn’t. We did that on purpose,” he said.
“You make the entire console lock up on purpose because … why?”
“We do that so that people won’t play it all day long,” he explained. “Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot.“

A real Christmas story – A Hong Kong schoolboy who died in a traffic accident has brought festive hope to at least seven other patients through the rare mass donation of a large number of his vital organs. Fourteen-year-old Miu Chi-ho died from brain injuries after being hit by a bus several days ago, but doctors were able to save the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, skin, bones and corneas of the healthy and athletic teen-ager. “There were at least seven recipients of the organs,” said a spokeswoman with Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority.

Prizes for prostitute-free New Year – The South Korean government is handing out gifts for office workers who promise not to visit brothels this holiday season.

A tale of two cities for confused tourist – A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site. Ouch!

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Random Crap

100 things we didn’t know this time last year (from Digg) – some interesting ones include [my comments are in brackets]:

  • While it’s an offence to drop litter on the pavement, it’s not an offence to throw it over someone’s garden wall. [neat!]
  • Nicole Kidman is scared of butterflies. “I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don’t like the feel of butterflies’ bodies,” she says.
  • Until the 1940s rhubarb was considered a vegetable. It became a fruit when US customs officials, baffled by the foreign food, decided it should be classified according to the way it was eaten. [sort of like the anti-tomato]
  • It’s possible for a human to blow up balloons via the ear. A 55-year-old factory worker from China reportedly discovered 20 years ago that air leaked from his ears, and he can now inflate balloons and blow out candles.
  • Lionesses like their males to be deep brunettes.
  • The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.
  • “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.
  • The name Lego came from two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It also means “I put together” in Latin.
  • Tactically, the best Monopoly properties to buy are the orange ones: Vine Street, Marlborough Street and Bow Street.
  • It takes less energy to import a tomato from Spain than to grow them in this country because of the artificial heat needed, according to Defra. [this country referring to UK]
  • Giant squid eat each other – especially during sex.
  • First-born children are less creative but more stable, while last-born are more promiscuous, says US research. [what if you were first AND last born (only child)? uncreative, stable, and promiscuous!]
  • A towel doesn’t legally reserve a sun lounger – and there is nothing in German or Spanish law to stop other holidaymakers removing those left on vacant seats. [and there’s no law against me throwing food in your face, but it’s just common courtesy that I don’t.]
  • One in six children think that broccoli is a baby tree. [awwwwww]
  • One in 18 people has a third nipple.
  • Spanish Flu, the epidemic that killed 50 million people in 1918/9, was known as French Flu in Spain. [it’s not from us, it’s from them!]
  • The first traffic cones were used in building Preston bypass in the late 1950s, replacing red lantern paraffin burners.

Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers (from Digg) – A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company’s work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico. Talk about irony…

How long in the freezer does it take to chill a Coke from 89F to 35F? (from Digg) –

That would be about 20-25 minutes in a freezer. If you put it in a bucket of ice, that would halve that time. If you put water in that ice, it’d be cold (+- 5c) enough to drink in about 4-6 minutes, if you put salt in that water, you’d reduce the chill time to just over 2 minutes. Agitating the can in the water, rolling it around, reduces the chill time even more.

The fastest possible way is to grab a CO2 fire extinguisher and unload that sucker on the can.

Whatever you do, do NOT bury the can in sand, pour gasoline on the sand and set the sand on fire. That won’t do anything.

This is all empirically gained evidence, not third party.

SNL – Digital Short – A Special Christmas Box *Uncensored Version* (from RayAlome) – (NOT SAFE FOR WORK!) *Uncensored Version* Something special f *Uncensored Version* Something special for your girlfriend this Christmas Another hilarious song skit from SNL. This time it’s “Dick in the Box”.

GRANDMA’S BOY GAME DEMONIK BEING MADE (from Digg) – They’re actually going to make that game shown on Grandma’s Boy: Demonik into a real Xbox 360 game! I wonder which came first…

Collector pays $2.3M for $1,000 bill – An art collector has paid about $2.3 million for a $1,000 bill printed in 1890, according to the auction house that brokered the transaction between two anonymous private collectors.
$1000 bill

Imagining the Tenth Dimension – A Book by Rob Bryanton (from RayAlome) – If the site is down, you can try the mirror. A very intriguing video of the 10 different dimensions that can be perceived by humans which ultimately leads up to string theory. I don’t agree with the author’s usage of the word dimension 100%, but he does give an easy view of understanding this concept. If you’re interested, you can purchase the book from Amazon.com.

Don’t Forget To Declare Bribes On Your Taxes – When filling out the “other income” section on your taxes this year, there’s a few things you might forget to declare. Like your income from selling drugs. AllFinancialMatters spotted this while cruising the this years IRS FAQ.

Bribes. If you receive a bribe, include it in your income.

Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.

Kickbacks. You must include kickbacks, side commissions, push money, or similar payments you receive in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040), if from your self-employment activity.

Illegal income. Illegal income, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.

Empty-Stomach Intelligence (from Digg) – Hunger makes the best sauce, goes the maxim. According to researchers at Yale Medical School, it may make quadratic equations and Kant’s categorical imperative go down easier too. The stimulation of hunger, the researchers announced in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience, causes mice to take in information more quickly, and to retain it better — basically, it makes them smarter. And that’s very likely to be true for humans as well. And I always thought it was just food coma that make me lazy. It’s because hunger makes me smarter.

AppleGeeks Lite 081 – What if babies were like video games?

Dolphins saved by arm wrestling – The world’s tallest man has saved the lives of two dying dolphins in China by reaching deep into their stomachs to pull out pieces of plastic, official Chinese media reported on Thursday. … In an operation shown on local television, a dozen men held the dolphins down while Bao slid his 1.06 metre (42 inch) long arm down their throats to grab the plastic. The dolphins are now recovering well, Xinhua said. His arm is over 3ft long! Interestingly enough, I would’ve thought one of those mechanical arms with clampers would have worked, but they had to request this guy all the way from Mongolia to come. Do check out the gallery of photos.

THREAD (from Digg) – an interesting short animation using just thread to create images and movement. You can see more on his homepage: ARNO SALTERS.

Pray for Coal – The 10 most dangerous play things of all time (from Digg) – In the last year alone, some eight million units of toys were recalled in the U.S., according to W.A.T.C.H., a toy-safety advocacy group. But Kool Toys and Polly Pockets are kids’ stuff compared to the hazardous baubles of yesteryear. In the spirit of the holidays, Radar presents the 10 most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, we excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars, and anything else actually intended to inflict harm. Below, our toy box from hell. These toys are awesome!

Kid Gets Burned By Fire (from Digg) – This dude is insane. I am not sure what he thought would happen by soaking his jeans in gasoline and then running through a fire. I bet this kid has some serious burns after this. Didn’t someone teach him about STOP! DROP! AND ROLL!?

I was reading one of the strips from The Joy of Tech and found this question: Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off? My initial instinct was yes, but after I thought more about it, I decided it was no and RayAlome confirms that answer. The thing that is missing is the air flow. Even when your engine is in full power, there’s no air pushing your wings up, which is a natural process when the plane is moving forward. RayAlome suggested putting a giant hair blower in front of it.

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What Buy.com should do with Google Checkout

Seeing at how many deals this past month has to do with Buy.com and Google Checkout, you’d think Buy.com would take advantage of this. I personally have accumulated over $140 in rebates in MMAR (make money after rebate) deals by combining it with Google Checkout. Plus the fact that I sold a couple items (making additional money) already.

Google Checkout is giving $10 off $30 and $20 off $50 for most purchases up until I forget when, but well into this holiday shopping season.

I was thinking… if Buy.com was smart, they’d increase every $10 item to $30 with a $20 rebate and every $20 item to $50 with a $30 rebate. Make it some really easy rebate too, one that’s pretty much guaranteed. Right after you place your order, you go and submit your rebate which would give you the option of mailing it to a different address or even including the rebate within your order. That way, you get the item for FREE (after rebate) and Buy.com makes the amount they were suppose to make. Only Google is out the $10 or $20 they discounted from the price to promote Google Checkout.

I thought it was a neat idea… though I doubt Buy.com would ever followed through with it.

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Special one-time federal excise tax credit in 2006 rebates tax overpayment on phone bills.

From SD:

SPECIAL ONE TIME TAX CREDIT ON YOUR 2006 TAX RETURN

When it comes time to prepare and file your 2006 tax return, make sure you don’t overlook the “federal excise tax refund credit.” You claim the credit on line 71 of your form 1040. A similar line will be available if you file the short form 1040A. If you have family or friends who no longer file a tax return AND they have their own land phone in their home and have been paying a phone bill for years, make sure they know about this form 1040EZ-T.

What is this all about? Well the federal excise tax has been charged to you on your phone bill for years. It is an old tax that was assessed on your toll calls based on how far the call was being made and how much time you talked on that call. When phone companies began to offer flat fee phone service, challenges to the excise tax ended up in federal courts in several districts of the country. The challenges pointed out that flat fee/rate phone service had nothing to do with the distance and the length of the phone call. Therefore, the excise tax should/could not be assessed.

The IRS has now conceded this argument. Phone companies have been given notice to stop assessing the federal excise tax as of Aug 30, 2006. You will most likely see the tax on your September cutoff statement, but it should NOT be on your October bill.

But the challengers of the old law also demanded restitution. So the IRS has announced that a one time credit will be available when you and I file our 2006 tax return as I explained above. However, the IRS also established limits on how BIG a credit you can get. Here ‘s how it works.

If you file your return as a single person with just you as a dependent, you get to claim a $30 credit on line 71 of your 1040.

If you file with a child or a parent as your dependent, you claim $40.

If you file your return as a married couple with no children, you claim $40.

If you file as married with children, you claim $50 if one child, $60 if two children.

In all cases, the most you get to claim is $60 – UNLESS you have all your phone bills starting AFTER Feb 28, 2003 through July 31, 2006 (do not use any bills starting Aug 1, 2006.), then you can add up the ACTUAL TAX AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR BILLS AND CLAIM THAT FOR A CREDIT.

Now if you have your actual phone bills and come up with an ACTUAL TAX AMOUNT, you cannot use line 71 on your tax return. You have to complete a special form number 8913 and attach it to your tax return.

Individuals using the special from 1040EZ-T will have to attach this form 8913 also.

One final point – this credit is a refundable credit. That means you get this money, no matter how your tax return works out. If you would end up owing the IRS a balance, the refund will reduce that balance you owe. If you end up getting a refund, the credit will be added and you get a bigger refund by that $30 to $60, depending on how many dependents are on your return.

Feel free to pass this on or make copies for family and friends who don’t have computers.

Even Snopes is saying its true and not just a random internet chain mail: Special one-time federal excise tax credit in 2006 rebates tax overpayment on phone bills.

You can find more information on the IRS website:
Telephone Excise Tax
Telephone Tax Refund Questions and Answers

At first when reading the chain letter, it sounded like you need to be currently subscribed to a long distance service through the phone company, but according to the Q&A: Who is eligible to request the telephone tax refund? In general, any individual, business or nonprofit organization that paid long-distance tax for service billed after Feb 28, 2003 and before Aug 1, 2006 is eligible to request the refund. I’ve definitely paid for long-distance service between 2003 and 2006. Looks like I’m eligible for $40 too!

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HD Movies

So I watched 2 HD movies this weekend, both involving the Wachowski brothers.

The 1st one is my all time favorite movie: The Matrix
Followed by another awesome movie: V for Vendetta

I’m part of the Xbox 360 beta program where we get to test new things before they’re push down onto everyone and in a week or two, they’re about to unveil their TV and movie downloads in the marketplace. For more information, please read about it at Movies and TV on Your Xbox!

To celebrate its first birthday on November 22, Xbox 360™ becomes the first and only gaming console to provide HD and standard-definition TV shows and movies direct to you.

After an intense game of Gears of War®, turn on Peter Jackson’s King Kong on HD DVD, play PAC-MAN on Xbox Live® Arcade, or even watch an episode of CSI: Miami that you downloaded earlier.

Xbox Live Marketplace is the place to download your favorite movies and TV, and remember to check back on Xbox.com to see what’s new!

Most TV shows come with both SD and HD version. SD costs 240 points and HD costs 320 points. That translates to about $3 and $4 respectively. $4 for an HD version vs $2 on iTMS for a 320×240 version. I’d definitely go for the extra resolution and pay the extra $2. Or I could *cough* *cough*. Anyway, the biggest problem right now is the small hard drive. With only 20gigs and a movie like V for Vendetta being 6GB, it’s obviously not enough. The initial line up isn’t bad either, though it’s far from being great. Unfortunately, movies could only rented at the moment. You must watch within 14 days and once you start playing the movie, you have 24 hours to complete or rewatch as many as possible. It’d be nice if I could keep an HD version of these great movies.

The servers aren’t extremely fast, though I guess 6GB in a few hours is reasonable, considering I’ve also been downloading on my main computer. I’ve also download a couple episodes of Numb3rs as Liam has recommended that series to me, so I guess I can check this series out while testing this new marketplace.

The picture quality is amazing. I can’t even describe how pretty they were. I was mesmerized by the beauty. I’ve started to dislike the quality of DVDs as I’ve been spoiled by HDTV episodes and now HD movies. Even many animes nowadays come in HD resolution. I’m thinking of buying one of those HD-DVD drives that was just released for the Xbox 360 and then I remember, I don’t have an HDTV yet. Been eyeing a few, but it still seems rather expensive. The cost is between $2000-$2500 for a 56″ – 62″ DLP rear projection TV. My minimum requirement is that it supports 1080p.

Oh well, maybe it’ll be a Christmas present for myself. Maybe a deal will pop up around Black Friday (god forbid that I’ll actually go shopping on Black Friday this year). It’s what I decided to get for myself with my bonus money this year, which has been just sitting around accumulating interest at 5.05% at HSBCDirect. Speaking of which, Krrk told me about E-LOAN awhile back and they’re doing 5.50% savings. However, the minimum they need is $5000 (which I do have), but not enough that I wouldn’t pull from this. Plus HSBC has been treating me well and not like how INGDirect screwed their current customers in favor of new customers.

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Discover Card

So I recently applied for Discover credit card: Discover Card: Cashback Bonus

So I’ve had a little history with Discover Card. They’re basically the only credit card that ever rejected me not once, but TWICE. Once in freshman year of college and once again in junior year. Not sure why. Maybe they don’t like college students, so I had actually decided to never apply for another Discover Card again, but I’ve passed up too many good deals they’ve offered and finally decided to try again. Guess what, I was approved pretty much on the spot (no telling me to wait for approval while they process my application).

Anyway, the reason I wanted to share this credit card with you folks was the 5% Cashback Bonus. This changes quarterly it appears. Currently, the promotion is for restaurants, movies, and at the following retailers:

  • AMAZON.COM
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Borders®
  • Circuit City
  • Crutchfield®
  • Napster®
  • Waldenbooks®

This even beats Amazon’s own credit card I think, which gives you 3pts for every $1 you spend there equating to only ~3%.

Anyway, everything else you purchase on the card, you get 1%, which probably isn’t useful anymore.

The hardest thing about a Discover card is that hardly anyone accepts it. Though I have found a couple restaurants.

Anyway, when I was activating the card, the guy mentioned about a special bonus from date 1 to date 2. I didn’t really follow and thought he was trying to sell me some credit protection plan, so I just ignored him and just said declined any offers.

Today I received in the mail about the full details regarding this promotion and here it is verbatim:

Thank you for calling to activate your Discover Card. Now you can start building your Cashback Bonus. To get you started, get $1 Cashback Bonus on your first 20 purchases between 09/12/06 and 10/10/06.*

* Earn up to 1% on purchases. In addition, get $1 Cashback Bonus on each purcahse between 09/12/06 and 10/10/06 up to a maximum Cashback Bonus of $20. We are not responsible for merchant delays in processing transactions. Please allow eight weeks for this special reward to be added to your Cashback Bonus Account. If your Account ins closed or deliquent, you will not receive this special reward.

Pretty neat. If I guess the inevitable comes and I still haven’t made 20 purchase by 10/3/06, I’ll probably go to a supermarket and just purchase how many more $1 bonuses I can get in sticks of gum.

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FREE Equifax Credit Alerts

Sign up for FREE Equifax Credit Alerts (from SD). To sign up, you don’t need to have a PayPal account, but to read the FAQ, you’ll have to log in. I know, it’s weird.

What is Equifax Credit Alerts for PayPal?

Equifax Credit Alerts is a program that helps you protect yourself from identity theft. By signing up to receive Equifax Credit Alerts, you are notified when someone opens a financial account in your name or when a significant change occurs on one of your existing financial/credit accounts. Please note that this program provides you with alerts for financial and credit accounts that you hold outside of PayPal (for example, bank account, credit card account).

This program also provides you with a free Identity Protection hotline if you believe your identity has been stolen.

How does Equifax know if someone is opening an account in my name?

Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus that financial institutions check with before approving a new financial or credit account. Since these credit bureaus maintain financial information, many companies look to Equifax for an indication of overall creditworthiness before approving a new account or a line of credit. Therefore, when someone tries to open an account in your name, Equifax is in a unique position to give you an early warning, enabling you to protect yourself.

Why is it important to sign up for the Equifax Credit Alerts program?

Millions of people have their identity stolen every year, costing time and money for the victim.

Data shows that the longer a fraudster has an account open in your name, the more financial damage is done and the longer it takes you to repair your identity.

The Equifax Credit Alerts program provides you with an early warning alert to prevent damage.

Is there a cost associated with signing up for Equifax Credit Alerts?

This service is free to PayPal users.

How will Equifax inform me if someone has opened an account in my name?

You will receive alerts by email.

You will also receive a monthly email notifying you of no activity.

To help you protect yourself from phishing emails, the Equifax Credit Alerts emails do not contain links. If you receive an alert email that contains links or asks for your personal or financial information, the email is fraudulent. We strongly recommend deleting it. You can also report it to us by forwarding the email to spoof@paypal.com

Does Equifax offer additional identity protection services?

Yes, Equifax’s Credit Watch product features ongoing credit monitoring and alerts from all the major credit bureaus.

Where do I sign up for the program? Where can I set my preferences?

You can sign up for the program and set your preferences on the Equifax site.

Once I sign up, how long will I receive the Equifax Credit Alerts for PayPal Users program?

This program benefit is the result of a partnership between PayPal and Equifax. While there is no planned end date to the program, Equifax and PayPal reserve the right to terminate the program at any time. If this program is terminated, PayPal users will still receive the program benefits for a minimum of 180 days.

From their control panel, it seems you can also set to receive alerts when a charge card balance increases over by $x or y%. The defaults are $200 and 25%, but I’m not exactly sure if that means it’s $200 over your normal usage? or a $200 purchase would trigger that. Same with the %. If my current balance is $0, does that mean any transaction would trigger the 25%?

It’s also neat that you can receive alerts on your mobile phone.

Oh yah, don’t forget to get your free annual credit reports too!

Also note, that PayPal is giving random prizes if you activate PayPal Mobile. Initial response said everyone was getting at least $5 ($5-$1000 prizes), but I guess that was to lure people to activate their PayPal Mobile. The later group (including myself) didn’t win anything. The also have a list of supported mobile service providers. Unfortunately Cingular isn’t one of them, but who cares about Cingular right, when you have T-Mobile.

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Capital One – No Foreign Exchange Fee

So there was a thread going and they were saying what was the best credit card to use overseas, and someone suggested that the Capital One was the best for foreign exchange because they didn’t charge any fees and they’ll even cover the 1-2% that VISA/Mastercard charges. I found that shocking since, Capital One was the biggest postal mail spammer when I was in high school. I actually had a Capital One card back in the day. I think it had a $300 credit limit (or was it $500). Anyway, today I have a credit card with $12,500 credit limit, so credit limits are no longer really much of a worry for me. But I still found it shocking that Capital One is actually doing something good for the customers.

From this article, Overseas, the Shock of the Surcharge:

Many banks, including large ones like MBNA, now charge an additional 2 percent for foreign transactions on top of the 1 percent charge by Visa or MasterCard. Capital One, however, is traveler-friendly. Not only does Capital One not charge an additional foreign exchange fee, but it also does not even pass along the 1 percent currency conversion charge that Visa and MasterCard charge for all purchases made abroad.

I wonder if Capital One has any rewards cards… Would be nice to get 1-2% on top of that in foreign countries.

So the advice is, next time you travel, bring along your Capital One card. I’ll have to try to dig mine out of the gutter somewhere. I think I still have it back in LA.

Do note, not all countries are credit card friendly. Italy was very anti-credit cards and was pretty much cash based society. So is Japan. But France and England liked credit cards a lot. France liked credits so much that subway ticket machines would only accept credit cards with a smartcard chip in it. For us Americans that don’t have the smartcard/PIN protection on our credit cards, we had to go up to the counter and get our tickets the old fashion way through the teller. Transactions in the England subway station happened really quickly. You select your ticket on the screen, stick in your credit card, and immediately it spits your card back out along with your ticket. Either the transcation occured really fast, or the just took down your information, trusted you, and would process the transaction later. I mean they lose out maybe £5, but if they find out that the card is fake or stolen, they can just blacklist you next time.

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Advanta Platinum BusinessCard

So my dad emails me today telling me about this new credit card that gives 5% off computers and electronics and tons of other stuff that my current credit cards don’t give any discount on. I had him email me the details and I did some research online.

Indeed it was true and it seems that Advanta had upgraded its rewards program sometime last summer. The last time I remember looking at this card, it was a tiered rewards program starting at 0.5% cash back and only up to 2% cash back. So the updated rewards programs is as follows: Automatically earn 5% Cash Back on gasoline, office supplies, utilities, computer equipment, cell phones and Internet services, and 1% on all other purchases. For people like me that spend most of my money on computers and electronics (besides rent), I’d use my other credit cards to pay for gasoline, since that’s the only overlapping area. Other interesting aspects include no annual fee (although I don’t think I’d ever sign up for one with an annual fee) and 0% APR for 15 months, but I won’t be using that either.

Here are the full details of their cash back rewards program:

CASH BACK REWARDS PROGRAM RULES

  1. Cash Back rewards earned for the current month are shown on account billing statements.
  2. Cash Back rewards are earned on Net Purchases only, which means purchases of goods and services made for business purposes with the Advanta BusinessCard while the account is in good standing by the Signing Individual or any authorized user of the account, net of any returns and credits. Net Purchases does not include, and rewards are not earned on, cash advances, balance transfers, convenience checks, fees, finance charges, adjustments, or any other transactions or charges.
  3. Cash Back rewards are paid by check (to the order of the Signing Individual) and are generated and mailed following any billing cycle in which unpaid earned rewards reach $50. Rewards are not available in the form of reductions in the amount of any account payments due.

    4. Cash Back rewards of 5% are earned on all qualifying purchases of “gasoline and diesel fuel”, “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies” and “utilities and telecommunications” items.

  4. Qualifying purchases are Net Purchases that 1) are made at retail establishments which for “gasoline and diesel fuel” are classified as gas stations that process the transactions as fuel purchases; for “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies” are classified as computer, computer peripheral equipment and software distributors, electronics stores, computer software stores, or office supply stores; for “utilities and telecommunications” are classified as utility or computer network service providers; and 2) are communicated by merchants to Advanta using appropriate merchant category and transaction codes. Important Note: Mail, telephone, catalog, and some Internet purchases, and purchases made indirectly through intermediaries, may not qualify; merchants may classify these transactions differently. — Cash Back rewards of 1% are earned on all other Net Purchases. — A maximum of $300 in Cash Back rewards may be earned on this account in any enrollment year, with a maximum of $25 in Cash Back rewards earned in any billing cycle.
  5. To earn and receive Cash Back rewards, an account must be open and in good standing. No rewards are earned on transactions made during any billing cycle for which the monthly payment is not paid as agreed or in which the account is over its credit limit. If the account is voluntarily or involuntarily closed, no disbursement is made of any earned rewards. If the account status is never returned to good standing, any earned rewards are forfeited.
  6. Advanta assumes no tax liability for Cash Back rewards earned or paid on any account; consult your tax advisor.
  7. Cash Back rewards earned on additional/supplemental card transactions are credited to the Signing Individual’s account and paid to the Signing Individual.
  8. These Advanta Cash Back program rules and features are not provisions of any Advanta BusinessCard Account Agreement, and Advanta reserves the right to change or discontinue this Advanta Cash Back program or any of its features, or to change any of these Cash Back program rules, at any time without notice. The Advanta Cash Back program is void where prohibited by law.

There is one caveat. This credit card is intended for Businesses only and you have to provide a “Company Name” and “Annual Sales” to it in order to qualify. My application was approved within a minute, so hopefully I’ll be getting the card soon. So my arsenal now contains:

  • Citi Dividends – 5% on gasoline, groceries, and drugstores; 1% everything else
  • Chase Rewards – 5% on gasoline, groceries, and drugstores; 1% everything else
  • Advanta Platinum – 5% on gasoline, electronics, office supplies, and utilities; 1% everything else
  • Amex Costco – 3% on restaurants; 2% on travel; 1% everything else

You may want to see my previous post on Credit Cards.

Click here for more information or to apply.

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Credit Cards

If you don’t already have the Citi Dividend or Chase Cash Plus Rewards credit card, GO APPLY! Both have a full 5% cash back on purchases at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations, plus 1% on all other purchases. You don’t need to care about the 1% since most cards already offer that. The catch is both are limited to $300 cash back per year, so get both and now that restriction goes up to $600 per year. Currently Chase is holding a promotion: $100 bonus cash back check when you sign up (from FW)!!! I only had a $50 bonus when I signed up. The offer code is 94B and expires 4/30/2006.

For those who eat out a lot or travel a lot, might also went to invest in a Costco American Express card. That gives you 3% at restaurants (including bars) and 2% on all travel. I think they count movie theaters as “restaurants”, but don’t quote me on that because I recall seeing it listed under that category once on my bill. There’s a catch though. The cash back on the Amex is in the form of a gift certificate you can use at Costco and comes once a year (every February).