American Express Gift Cards are a popular option for those last-minute or difficult holiday gifts. Here are the highlights:

• Works wherever American Express is accepted.
• No fees after purchase. Other cards may have inactivity fees or transaction fees.
• Funds do not expire. If the date on the card expires, get a new card by calling Customer Service at 1-877-297-4438.
• Replaceable if your card is stolen or lost.
• Note: American Express does not ship Gift Cards to the states of HI and VT.

The standard drawback is that these cards usually have two separate fees: a $3.95 purchase fee and a $5.95 standard or $8.95 expedited shipping fee.

EXPIRED. Until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday 12/4/2016, you can get $0 purchase fee and free expedited shipping with promotion code CYBER16.

Some people also use these gift cards for meeting credit card spending hurdles as you can buy them with any major credit card (AmEx, Visa, Mastercard, or Discover card).

The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN is an upscale-oriented charge card for small businesses where you must pay off the balance each month, but you get the famous AMEX perks like purchase price protection, extended product return protection, and AMEX extended warranty. Here are the highlights:

• The annual fee is $0 for the first year of card membership, and $175 thereafter. This way you can try out the card for a year for free. Get unlimited Additional Gold Cards for an additional annual fee of $50 but this fee is also waived for the first year.
• Triple points on airfare. What makes this card different is that you can now earn triple points on airfare as well as double points on advertising, shipping, and gas purchases on the first $100,000 of eligible purchases in each category each calendar year. Everything else earns 1 point per dollar spent.
• OPEN small business network gives you access to savings at partners like Fedex shipping and OfficeMax supplies.
• Terms and restrictions apply

Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have had a Business Gold Rewards or any other Business Gold, Green or Platinum Card® account within the last 12 months.

Business Credit Card Eligibility

Many people aren’t aware of the fact that they can apply for business credit cards, even if they are not a corporation or LLC. Why? Because any individual can be a small business as well. The business type is called a sole proprietorship. Perhaps you sell items on eBay, Craiglist, or Etsy. Maybe you do some freelancing and/or consulting. If you earned more than $600 from a single client, you probably got a 1099-MISC tax form and filled out a Schedule C. Boom! You have business income, you’re paying self-employment taxes (meaning you’re an employer), and you’re a sole proprietorship. This is the simplest business entity, but it is fully legit and recognized by the IRS. On a business credit card application, you should use your own legal name as the business name, and your Social Security Number as the Tax ID.

Specifically, this card will require you to personally guarantee that you’ll pay them back what you charge on the card, which means they’ll check your personal credit score like any other consumer card. However, the card itself is a business card so it won’t show up on your personal credit report, so it won’t change things like your credit limits, average account age, or credit utilization ratio.

Meeting Minimum Spend Requirements

I acknowledge that the spending requirement amounts to a little over $1.500 per month, which can be tough. Here are some tips readers have suggested. You can try to buy AMEX gift cards to help spread out the purchases over time, buy gas or grocery or Costco gift cards, prepay utility bills or insurance premiums, use the personal version of Amazon Webpay to pay others or send money to family/spouse/friends with no fee ($1,000 per month max), load money on American Express Serve with no fee ($25 bonus, $100 max load per day, $250/500 month max), and I’ve even bought some Forever postage stamps to put me over the top.

As usual, compare this card with other current $500+ credit card bonuses that you can also apply for.

• Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN application link

I’ve already written about the Ink Plus® Business Card (review) previously – which has a great 60,000 point bonus worth $725 towards any travel, good Ultimate Rewards structure and redemption options, and the first year annual fee is waived. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred that’s nearing the end of the first year and you don’t want to renew, you can just open up an Ink card and transfer your Ultimate Rewards points balance over instantly for free. You can even transfer points between spousal (or anyone’s) accounts for free, so it’s easy to keep the balance alive.

An added Ink card benefit on top of all that, buried in the benefits details, is a mention of “complimentary airport lounge access”:

Complimentary airport lounge access to over 350 VIP lounges worldwide. Lounge amenities include internet access, complimentary snacks and beverages, phone, fax, conference rooms and more. ($150 comparable value)*

How exactly do I get this free lounge access? Once you get your Chase Ink Bold or Ink Plus card, you must go to loungeclub.com/inkcard and enter an invitation code which should be mailed to you with your card details. Otherwise, simply call the number on the back of your card and they’ll tell you. (It’s not very creative.) You’ll sign up with your personal info and card number.

Next, Lounge Club will send you a package with your personalized membership card, welcome letter, and informational brochure. You’ll need to present the physical card at the airport lounges to gain access, but you can find a directory of all the available lounges at either LoungeClub.com or via their iPhone/Android smartphone app.

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The Barclaycard NFL Extra Points Credit Card is currently offering 10,000 bonus points after making $500 in purchases over the first 90 days. That’s worth $100 in statement credits which you can use to increase your savings rate, or they have other NFL rewards (is this worth it for certain teams? new Cowboys stadium?). You can personalize the card with your favorite NFL team and there are some other NFL-specific perks like 2 points for every $1 spent at NFLShop.com, team pro-shops, and in-stadium. I think it’s a great gimmick as many NFL fans would love to have their favorite team on their credit card, even if the ongoing card rewards are rather mediocre.

This card is issued by Barclays Bank, so it can be combined with applications with other issuers like Citi, Chase, American Express, and Capital One. It’s always good to spread your new card application across different issuing banks. If you apply for multiple cards on the exact same day, then the credit checks won’t show up on the other issuers’ radars.

The Citi Forward® Card is running a limited-time promotion with Netflix for new cardmembers where they will pay for your Netflix streaming for an entire year if you use the card for payment. At currently prices, that’s $7.99 x 12 = $95.88 + taxes. However, the wording of the fine print suggests that if you have a higher Netflix bill due to DVD rentals, it will rebate up to $10 a month = $120 for the year.

You must register your new Citi Forward Card with Netflix.com as the preferred payment method to pay for your month-to-month Netflix membership. You will receive a statement credit for the total Netflix monthly membership fee (up to $10 per month) on the same statement as the transaction at Netflix.

This actually would work perfectly for us since we are testing out a Netflix + Roku box combo to replace cable TV right now (review upcoming)… but I already have the Citi Forward card.

Basically, if you use Netflix, this is an up to $120 sign-up bonus with no additional spending requirement for what is actually not a bad keeper card with no annual fee. It offers 5x ThankYou points on restaurants (including fast food) and also “entertainment” = bookstores, record stores, movie theaters, and movie rental stores. For many years, the best part of the bookstore classification is that Amazon.com counted for 5x points. Recently there are rumors that Citi is thinking of no longer counting Amazon as a bookstore, although as of the last billing statement Amazon purchases did still work. Perhaps there is some “grandfathering” going on, but FYI. In any case, you still get 100 ThankYou points a month just for paying your bill on time.

• Citi Forward® Card limited-release offer application link

The Virgin America Visa® Signature Card is currently running a limited-time bonus of 20,000 Elevate points after your first purchase of any amount (ends August 31st). I haven’t flown Virgin America before, but they are an airline similar to JetBlue and Southwest in that they are trying to offer very low fares within their specific network of airports. Their frequent flier program uses something called “Elevate Points” where you can book any flight using points blackout dates using variable pricing. So the question is, what can 20,000 Virgin America points get me? More than I thought, actually.

Let’s take the short flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas. A quick search shows me that I could buy a SFO-LAS roundtrip in October for $137.60. If I choose to price out the exact same trip with Elevate points, I see that it costs 5,396 points and a $5 security fee:

In this case, 20,000 points would nearly equate to 4 such short roundtrips. At such a conversion rate, 20,000 bonus points would be worth $491 in Virgin America airfare (2.5 cents per point). What about a long-haul flight? How about a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to New York City:

Here, the LAX-JFK flight came out to either $297.60 or 12,838 points + $5 security fee. This time, 20,000 points would work out to $455 in Virgin America airfare (2.3 cents per point). A similar query for LA to Washington DC yielded similar results. Given that this card does have an annual fee of $49, the net value of the bonus is up in the $400 range, making this a pretty good bonus if you take such flights. In addition, every year (including the first year) you get a discount code good for $150 off a companion ticket.

The rewards system for purchases is 3 points per $1 on Virgin America purchases and 1 point per $1 spent everywhere else. If it were me, I’d manage my spending on this card carefully to earn just enough points to use up all those bonus points. Finally, this card is issued by Barclaycard, which means it should be easier to get approved as compared to Citi or Chase if you’re like me and already have a bunch of cards from the major issuers.

• Virgin America Visa® Signature Card application link

Speaking of credit card rewards optimization, I was thinking about how the algorithm might work for me. I’m curious if others have a similar system. Man, I have a lot of cards…

Tier 1 – Special Rotating or Temporary Promotions (5%+ back)

First up, you’d want to check for cards that offer an exceptional bonus cash back. Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend both offer 5% cash back on rotating categories on up to $1,500 in spending each quarter. That’s a possible $75 extra each quarter for each card. Other cards may offer a temporary bonus as well.

• Chase Freedom® – $150 Bonus – 5% purchases can come from gas stations and local commuter transportation 01.01.2016 – 03.31.2016
• Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card – Earn 5% cash back every quarter in must-have categories.  Right now, on eligible purchases within the Hilton Portfolio, car rental agencies, movie theaters and theme parks from 7/1/14 – 9/30/14. Enrollment each quarter is quick and easy.

Since I don’t buy that much gas, I would only charge restaurants on the Chase Freedom (but not gas) and airline purchases on the Citi Dividend.

Tier – Permanent Category Bonuses (3%+ back)

Some credit cards offer a year-round bonus on things like restaurants, travel, gas, groceries, and more.

Tier 3 – Everything Else (2%+ back)

Here’s your backup catch-all card. Don’t settle for 1% back here, you can do better. 🙂

• Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express® Card – 2% cash back on everything, which transfers to any Fidelity account (non-401k).
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express – Up to 5 Starpoints for every eligible dollar spent at SPG Hotels & Resorts, 1 Starpoint for every eligible dollar spent everywhere else.

If you like airline miles or hotel points, here’s where your personal spending habits may also factor in. I value Starwood points at 2 cents or more per point due to their ability to convert to miles and primarily their value in hotel stays (including Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels) so I actually switch between a 2% cash back card and the Starwood depending on my point balance as I like to keep enough to pay for upcoming hotel stays. My Fidelity cash ends up in a 529 so that’s not as much fun. 😉

American Express cards also offer extended warranty protection that I like for larger purchases as their customer service is always the easiest to deal with when you actually need to file a claim. However, American Express cards aren’t accepted in certain cases (like my auto insurance), so you should have a Visa/Mastercard as a final backup.

All in all, it’s not as crazy as it seems. If the Chase/Citi 5% categories aren’t daily-use categories but things like airfare then I don’t keep them in the wallet (0-3 cards). Out of Tier 2, I only keep the Blue Cash AmEx with me (1 card). Out of Tier 3, I actually have a similar-but-grandfathered Fidelity 2% Mastercard and the Starwood AmEx (2 cards). So the total is really about an average of around 4. I’m thinking of switching to an All-Ett “world’s thinnest wallet” which should cut the thickness in half.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.”  

“The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”

After getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred card $500 in airfare bonus, I developed a taste for Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. You can cash out UR points at a flat 10,000 points = $100. You can also use them towards travel at an Expedia-like portal for 10,000 points = $125 toward airfare, hotel, and car rentals. The prices are not marked up and you can combine cash and points however you like, so I use 1.25 cents per point as a baseline value. Example of combining cash and points:

Finally, you can transfer them to United Airlines, Southwest, British Airways, Korean, Hyatt, and Marriott rewards at a 1:1 ratio. If you use United and British Airways for international and/or business-class flights, you can get closer to 2 cents per point in value.

Therefore, in my last round of application I decided to apply for the Ink Bold® Business Charge Card which was a small business card offering 50,000 bonus points – after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months your account is open. I wouldn’t mind only earning 1 UR point per dollar on most of my business spend, although they do offer 5X points per dollar in select business categories. (More details on the Chase Ink Bold Business Charge Card here.)

Spending $5,000 on a card over three months is not something I usually do and I didn’t have any large business expenses coming up, however, I do have to pay quarterly estimated taxes to Uncle Sam. As a result, I found PayUSATax.com (accepts Visa, Mastercard, and Discover) which had the lowest fee for making tax payments with a credit card at 1.89%. You can verify them as an authorized payment provider here at IRS.gov.

The IRS deadline for quarterly payment was coming up, so I decided to make a $5,000 payment for one quarter now and another $5,000 payment on the next billing statement for the next quarter. This meant I could charge $10,000 ($5,000 x 2) which would earn me 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points ($125 value) and I would be charged a $189 fee ($94.50 x 2). However, this would satisfy the spending requirement and would get me another 25,000 UR points ($312.50 value). Still a nice net win even after taking the fee into account.

As you can see from my statement scans below, the first $5,000 tax payment and $94.50 fee went through separately with no cash advance charges or other issues.

I also received my first 25,000 points on my very first statement:

Another useful perk of Ultimate Rewards points is that you can transfer them over to any other person’s account with no fee. This is handy to transfer between family or household members for pooling points and miles. My small business Ink Bold Business Charge Card UR points are in a different account than my personal Sapphire Preferred points, so I just transferred them over and it showed up instantly.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site may be compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program.  “The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”