The Perks of American Express Credit Cards

American Express credit cards are not be as widely accepted as Visa or Mastercard, which is why this should not be the only card in your wallet just in case you find yourself in a situation where it is not accepted. But owning one can still give you a lot of benefits that you can enjoy. Although some people may choose other cards rather than American Express because of this issue, having this card can put on more weight on your credit card portfolio.

American Express credit cards allow consumers to have an additional of up to five cards which they can share with their family members. You will pay only a one-time fee of $30 and if you need more than that, then they will just charge you an addition al $30 per card and there is no limit to how many you can get. Each card will have the same benefits and restrictions as well, just like the original card. The whole family can enjoy having their own card separately. For instance, if the wife wants to go shopping, the husband does not have to give out his card. There is also the convenience of having to manage only one account for all family members.

There is no preset spending limit with this card, compared with other cards that usually limit each member to a certain amount. American Express credit cards are believed to be for the wealthy, as the limits are based on the person’s financial capabilities and spending style. The spending limit is flexible and on a shifting basis, depending on the person’s ability to pay.

It also has pay features that can be used to pay bills using their online system. They have partnered with over a hundred companies wherein you can just settle your bills using the credit card either on automatic, monthly basis, or even for one-time transactions. The consumer can enjoy the convenience of this service and enjoy earning rewards as well for every payment made using the card.

American Express credit cards earn points once they are used for payments through their Membership Rewards Program. Every time you use the card in dining out, shopping, traveling, and entertainment, it will accumulate points that can be exchanged for gifts and other privileges – thus, the reason why American Express is known to be one of the most generous credit companies. This is all because of the perks they award to their loyal customers.

Four Ways to Get Your Money Back from a Credit Card Purchase

Nix Billing Errors with the Fair Credit Billing Act

In 1986, the Fair Credit Billing Act joined the fray in protecting you rights by making it illegal for credit card companies to charge you for mistakes made by the card issuer or the vendor. This includes:

• Clerical errors resulting in charges in the wrong amount
• Duplicate charges
• Charges for goods never received
• Calculation errors
• Late fees levied because a statement was mailed to the wrong address

The key to getting your money back from a billing error is catching it within 60 days of receiving the statement with the mistake on it. You must send a letter into your credit card company which includes your name, your account number and a written statement notifying them of the error (including the dollar amount in question and the reason for dispute). After that, the credit card company must launch an investigation which must be resolved within 90 days or two billing cycles (whichever comes first). Meanwhile, you can withhold payment for the amount in question – but you still have to make your minimum payment. If you win your dispute, the erroneous amount deducted will be credited to your account.

Get Paid Back for Unauthorized Use

There’s some debate over how much you’ll owe the credit card company if someone nabs your identity and goes on a spending spree, but the range is squarely between $0 and $50, thanks to federal law. For credit cards, you are automatically absolved for any charges that occur after you report the card as lost or stolen. For fraudulent charges made prior to that, you may be liable to pay up to $50, which really ain’t bad. Either way, it’s in your best interest to call that number on the back of your card ASAP. (But wait, if your card’s been stolen, how can you look at the back of the card? I’ve always wondered that. Anyway, the number is on their website or in the phonebook, too.)

Debit cards don’t have the same protections, however. You only have two days to report your card as lost or stolen to protect yourself from liability from fraudulent charges. So, if someone steals your debit card on Monday, goes out and buys $50,000 worth of Bacon Salt on Tuesday and you don’t get on the horn until Friday, then you’re out of luck. Watch those statements closely.

Disputes Over Shoddy Goods

There are numerous reasons to pay with plastic even if you have cash, but here’s one more. If you make a purchase in your home state or within 100 miles of your home address and the quality isn’t as advertised or the product is an obvious sham, you can dispute it through your credit card issuer. How? Call them up and tell them to stop payment. This protection is also part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so the process is much the same. Oftentimes, your credit card company will do a chargeback or cancel the transaction if you win your dispute. They do appreciate it if you try to resolve the issue directly with the merchant first, however, and may even request to see evidence of your efforts. So, next time you’re worried that a product is a ripoff and there’s no moneyback guarantee, get some insurance and pay with your credit card.

Purchase Protection Perks

This last one isn’t a federal protection – it’s actually a perk offered by most credit card issuers. We’ve talked about price protection and extended warranties here at MYC before, but these can’t be overlooked in a rundown of convenient ways to get your money back from your credit card company. As a service, credit card companies will often protect your purchases from theft or damage within 90 days of purchase. They’ll also protect you for a certain amount of time after the manufacturer’s warranty expires in case your gadget goes kaput. In fact, if you buy a nifty gizmo on Tuesday and the price drops on Thursday, you can even file a claim to get the difference back. Not bad.

Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover all have their own online portals for activating this protection, but in most cases, you don’t have to. However, registering your products beforehand will streamline the claims process if something happens.

Upromise Credit Card

As you probably know, Upromise is a savings program that helps parents save for their kids’ college. It’s a great concept, but they do have their critics. Check out this Upromise credit card review to find out the pros and cons:

For starters, here are the two different credit cards they offer:

(1) Upromise MasterCard w/ grocery and dining rewards
This card gives back 1% on all purchases (which are deposited into the 529 savings account) so essentially, it’s like a 1% cash back credit card.

On purchases from Upromise restaurants, the card gives a 10% extra. They do the same thing on participating grocery and drugstore items.

(2) Upromise MasterCard w/ grocery and gas rewards
This Upromise credit card also gives 1% on all purchases.

Like the card above, it also gives the 10% match on eligible grocery and drugstore items.

For gas purchased from Exxon or Mobil stations it does 2%. This is extremely disappointing for three reasons (1) you need to buy 20+ gallons per month (2) it only applies to Exxon and Mobil stations, which tend to cost a lot anyway, and (3) the standard rewards at these stations are only 1 penny per gallon.

Citi used to be involved with Upromise credit cards but Bank of America took over in 2009 and now issues/manages them. This is a turnoff for many people, since we all know B of A isn’t exactly known for stellar service.

Are either of the Upromise cards worth it?
At first glance, the 10% sound exciting. But you have to realize that is only on eligible items. For most people only a small percentage of their shopping would qualify.
For example, let’s say you spent $100 at the grocery store and among that was $5 in eligible Upromise items (and those participating items gave 1%). Your total rewards would break down as follows:

1% back on all credit card purchases = $1
1% back on Upromise items = $0.05
10% extra on Upromise items = $0.50
Total Rewards: $1.55 for spending $100

As you can see the Upromise credit card rewards in actuality aren’t too exciting. Furthermore, since Upromise participating items are usually more expensive name brand items anyway, you almost always would be saving more simply buying a store or generic brand instead.

Is there a better option? (sponsored)
Of course you should use your Upromise account to rake up savings, but the added rewards from the Upromise credit card are far from impressive. A better option would be to get a higher cash back credit card and then deposit that money yourself into your 529 savings plan. But what’s the best card do to this? Check out our review of the new, re-vamped 5% cashback program on the

Card Issuers Find Loop Holes in New Credit Card Legislation

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure act, which passed in May 2009, was supposed to protect the general public from high interest rates and irresponsible acts made within the credit industry - as well as allow the government to better regulate this side of banking.

We have seen many positive things come from the legislation, but only a year later many card issuers have found loop holes to pass their higher costs on to customers, according to an article on the Wall Street Journal.

The main protection the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act provides the public is from credit card companies raising interest rates on existing accounts, and on accounts that are in their first year of being opened.

Some examples of loop holes being used by credit card issuers:

JP Morgan’s Chase raises the minimum payments from 2% to 5% of the balance. The law affects how much they can raise interest rates, but there is no such provision to protect the minimum payments.

First Premier Bank charges $95 dollars for processing fees, before the account is even opened. First Premier Bank offers credit to individuals with less than perfect credit scores and histories.

Citibank increased some of their customers’ interest rates before they made a late payment, and then offered a partial refund of finance charges if the customer paid their bill on time. This gets Citibank around the law of not being able to raise customer’s interest rates due to making late payments.

Another popular ploy is to charge high processing or annual fees when opening a new card. For instance many cards will offer you a $300 spending limit, and a $75 annual fee. Again the law doesn’t specifically protect you from this action, because it does not affect the interest rate. Many banks are using this method to pass some of the costs to you.

In August, it is expected that the Federal Reserve will release a new set of rules affecting the credit card industry that address a provision that would require card penalties to be proportional to a company’s actual costs, as well as require that card companies evaluate interest rates for customers who previous saw interest rate increases every six months.

Debit Card Fees Restricted By the Senate, MasterCard Vowing to Fight it

A bill approved by the U.S. Senate on May 13^th will allow merchants to set minimum and maximum transaction amounts for debit card purchases. Previously, you could buy anything with a debit card, regardless of the amount, and for store owners – if the purchase was small, like a pack of gum, it meant paying more in debit card service fees than the profits made on the purchase. With this bill, merchants will be able to set limits to ensure their profitability on debit card purchases.

MasterCard and Visa have been concerned over credit and debit card regulation for a long time. They are credit and debit card processing networks, and don’t receive all of the interchange fees directly, but their revenues do depend on how much people spend on their cards. If merchants restrict purchases, they fear they will experience large drops in revenues as people will be less likely to use their cards.

MasterCard is determined to fight this bill until it is finalized into law. While the bill isn’t restricting the amount Visa or MasterCard can charge in interchange fees to merchants on credit card purchases, they’re concerned that the regulation on debit transactions will open the door to more regulation in the future.

Reuters reports:

“MasterCard U.S President McWilton said in a speech earlier on Sunday that MasterCard was “very concerned” about the amendment and “working very hard to make sure” that it would not be attached to the final financial regulation bill.”