If you have a good credit score and the discipline not to get into consumer debt, you can profit from your responsibility by participating in various credit card promos where their ad dollars go into your pocket. There have been some exceptionally nice deals lately to choose from, one of which expires soon. Here’s a brief summary:

$500 in Gift Cards or $500 towards Student Loans, your Mortgage, Airfare or Hotel

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card is competing with a 50,000 ThankYou Point bonus. You get 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $2,500 in purchases within 3 months of account opening. 50,000 points is worth $500 in gift cards, airfare, or a check towards your student loan or mortgage. No annual fee. See this post for details.

$500 in Cash or $625 towards Airfare or Hotel

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is a rewards credit card offering new cardholders 50,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. 50,000 points can be redeemed for $500 cash or two airplane tickets worth up to $312.50 each since they offer a 25% boost towards airfare and hotels. No annual fee for the first year, $95 in future years. They also offer 2 points per dollar spent on dining & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. Additional details here.

(This card is the “big brother” of the regular Chase Sapphire Card, where you can get 25,000 points ($250 cash) after you spend $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months, and there is no annual fee in the first year or subsequent years.

This is their new travel-oriented card, with no foreign transaction fee on purchases and you can also earn points based on the amount of miles you actually fly. The annual fee is free the first year, $125 in later years if you keep it. Alternatively, if you want a card with no annual fee period, the Citi ThankYou^SM Preferred Card is offering 25,000 bonus points after $2,000 in purchases within 4 months.

This is a follow-up on the previously mentioned 50,000 bonus points offer (converts to $625 in travel) for the getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Thanks to readers Paolo and AT, they shared a way to get double those points, even if you’ve already applied.

Apparently, some people were recently mailed targeted offers for the same card, but with 100,000 points (converts to $1,000) instead. The problem was, you needed a special invitation code so there was no public application link. However, some clever folks who already applied for the 50k offer asked nicely for Chase to match with the offer code S6V, and many success stories have been reported on FW.

I was just able to successfully get 50K applied to mine and my wife’s accounts (just applied this past Sat. night in fact) and it was really painless, took 5 minutes. 200,000 total!

So the plan of attack would be:

1) Apply for the 50k offer. That’s the best available offer, and even by itself is a great offer worth $625 in travel. If you’ve already applied, skip ahead to:

2) Ask politely for a match of the new 100k offer. After getting your card, use the Chase website to send an online secure message requesting a match of the new, improved offer. There are no guarantees on this – you should be prepared to be happy with the $625 bonus – but it’s definitely worth a shot and I’d do it sooner than later. Use this helpful script from Paolo:

Dear Chase Representative,

I just this past weekend applied for my new Chase Sapphire Preferred card with a 50,000 sign up bonus of 50,000 points after spending $4,000.

Today, I learned of a new offer S6V which promises 100,000 bonus points. I would be very grateful if you would extend the 100,000 bonus point offer S6V to me as well since I just applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

I have been a long time customer of Chase, and have had my primary checking and credit card accounts with Chase for many years and hope to maintain them for many more years to come!

Kind Regards,

[Your Name]

I would customize this to your personal situation, mentioning your length or size of relationship with Chase if applicable. Update: Some people are reported that this window of opportunity has been closed.

“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.”

Previously, I posted about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which is currently offering 40,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. This is quite a good deal, as 50,000 points can be redeemed for $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards™ (you can buy a more expensive ticket from any website and simply pay the difference). The Preferred card has no annual fee for the first year, but is $95 in future years. See the original post for more details.

If you don’t want to deal having to remember to cancel your card, the regular non-Preferred Chase Sapphire® Card is now offering 10,000 points worth $100 in travel rewards when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards, after you spend $500 in purchases within the first 3 months, and an additional 2,500 bonus points after you add the first authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. There is no annual fee in the first year or subsequent years. The non-preferred used to give out their bonus with no minimum purchase requirement, so personally I’d rather take the extra $500 travel bonus via the Preferred.

Ideas for reaching the purchase limit without spending more money that you would otherwise include: prepaying any monthly bills like utilities and let the credit go down over time, pay your 6-month auto insurance or home insurance bills via lump sum, buy American Express gift cards that don’t expire and then spend them gradually, purchase gift cards at a discount from places you will shop at eventually through PlasticJungle or similar (Home Depot, Target, etc.), buying $1 coins from the US Mint (you’re basically buying cash), or buying grocery store gift cards (Safeway cards at Safeway). Basically just shift your usual expenses.

“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.”

Update: This card offer is now expired.

A final reminder that this offer is scheduled to end on Friday actually more specifically on Thursday night 5/5/11 at 11:59PM EST. It is not being extended.

This is the highest credit card mileage bonus I have ever seen. The Chase British Airways Visa Signature card (expired) is offering 50,000 British Airways (BA) Executive Club miles for new cardmembers with first purchase, and another 50,000 BA miles after spending $2,500 within 3 months of opening, for a total of 100,000 miles. There is an annual fee of $95, but you should be able to easily get $1,000 worth of value from this deal, if not more. We took advantage of the last time this deal was around, and ended up flying to Europe in business class with fully lie-flat seats across the Atlantic Ocean, on tickets that retailed for over $8,000 each.

To quickly recap, for those of you that primarily travel within the US, you can redeem British Airlines miles on American Airlines. You can get 4 roundtrip coach tickets within the continental US for 100,000 miles, or 3 round-trips to Hawaii for 105,000 miles. For those of you that like to travel internationally, in addition to British Airways destinations in Europe, you can redeem your miles on Cathay Pacific to Asia, or redeem on LAN to South America. 100,000 BA miles could get you a roundtrip, business class ticket to these destinations. More details in previous post here.

Via a specific banner ad, the Chase AARP Visa has a introductory promo of 5% cash back on all purchases for the first 6 months (specifically, 6 billing cycles). There appears to be no limit to their cashback awards and their reported credit limits are about the same as other Chase cards, so if you have the ability to charge a lot of money on your card within the next 6 months, this card is for you. Selected fine print:

For the first 6 billing cycles from your enrollment date in the program, you will earn 4 bonus points in addition to your 1 base point (total 5 points) for each $1 of net purchases. You do not earn points on balance transfers, cash advances, cash-like charges such as travelers checks, foreign currency, and money orders, any checks that are used to access your account, overdraft advances, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, or fees of any kind, including fees for products that protect or insure the balances of your account. There is no maximum number of points that you can accumulate in the program.

Doing the math, if you can charge $2,000 total, you’ll get $100 back. Up that to $20,000, and you’ll get $1,000 back. The usual ideas include charging any medical bills, homeowners/car/life insurance, travel expenses, or large home improvement purchases. Some people even prepay their utility bills. If you haven’t already, you could also pay any income taxes owed on the card, and you’d still come out slightly ahead after their usual ~2.5% fees.

Catches? Well, you’ll have to be a member of AARP first. That costs $16 a year and is actually open to those under 50, and although you won’t get full benefits, reportedly it will let you get this card. Otherwise, just avoid doing any funny business that will close your card before you cash out your rewards.

When you charge something on your credit card, the merchant usually pays about 2-3% in transaction fees for the convenience and benefit of accepting these cards. To get your business, issuers often rebate part of these fees in the form of % cashback rewards or frequent flier miles. Credit cards also offer handy conveniences like easily tracking spending, fraud chargeback protection, and extended warranties, but who doesn’t like cash? Extreme users treat them like Swiss army knives to maximize rewards. New customers also get incentives of up to $100.

Here’s an update for the offers during the second quarter of 2011. It’s spring! So it’s all about home improvement stores. Be sure to spread your purchases around if you have multiple cards. For Home Depot and Lowe’s, you can often find a 10% off coupon online if you’ve moved recently or in the moving packets at the post office. (They also match each others coupons.) Stack ’em! You can usually also see the rewards for the rest of the year on the applications.

Chase Freedom Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back
Reward categories change quarterly.

From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

• Gas Stations
• Amazon.com

From October 1 to December 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

• Dining
• Department Stores
• Movie Theaters
• Charitable Organizations

You must enroll at ChaseBonus.com. All other purchases do earn a standard 1%, with no tiers or expiration of rewards. Currently, the Chase Freedom Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back has a promotion offering a $100 check if you sign up and make $799 in purchases in your first three months.

Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From from 1/1/13 through 3/31/13, you can earn 5% cash back from Citi on eligible purchases at:

• Zappos.com,
• Fitness Clubs
• Drugstores

After you get your card, you must enroll by logging into your account online or calling 1-800-231-0891. There is no cap on the 5% back and all other purchases do earn a full 1% cash back on all other purchases and eligible cash advances, and rewards do not expire as long as you have activity once every 12 months. Also, 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers and Purchases for 12 months. After that, the APR will be 12.99%-22.99% variable based on your creditworthiness*.

Discover More Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From April 1 to June 30, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $400 spent in the following categories:

• Home Improvement
• Department stores
• Clothing stores

In addition, throughout June, cardmembers get 5% cash back on up to $200 in purchases at grocery stores and drug stores.

You must enroll online to activate the rewards each quarter. Discover card has a tiered cashback rate (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.).

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a rewards credit card offering new cardholders 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. 50,000 points can be redeemed for $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards™ since they offer a 25% boost towards airfare and hotels. Earn 5,000 additional bonus points after you add the first authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. No annual fee for the first year, $95 in future years. Additional details here.

New: Earn 2 points per dollar spent on dining & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.

(This card is the “big brother” of the regular Chase Sapphire® Card, where you can get 10,000 points after you spend $500 in purchases within the first 3 months, and an additional 2,500 bonus points after you add the first authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. There is no annual fee in the first year or subsequent years.)

“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.”

A reminder that this offer is scheduled to end on February 28th, 2011.

The Discover More Card is available with no balance transfer fee through this online offer link, offering both 0% intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 12 months.

The fact that this card has no balance transfer fee is significant, as other recent offers have had fees of 3% or higher (although they are also up to 24 months). You can literally borrow money for free and pay it back in 12 months (keeping in mind you’ll still need to satisfy the minimum payment each month until then).

When you see the application, be sure to scroll down to the Terms & Conditions and verify that you are getting 0% for 12 months and no balance transfer fee. You should see the following text at the top under “Interest Rates and Interest Charges”:

APR for Balance Transfers: 0.00% introductory APR for 12 months after the first transaction posts to your account under this offer.

And then the following a bit lower under “Fees”:

Transaction Fees * Balance Transfer – 0% of the amount of each transfer made under this offer and with this application; otherwise, either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.

Application Quick Tips
In order to get the highest credit limit possible, be sure to maximize your reported “household income” as much as you can legitimately by including everything like the income of everyone living with you, alimony, child support, interest income, dividend income, etc.

If you wish to get cash from this balance transfer offer without it being classified as a “cash advance”, one trick is to request money to be transferred to other non-Discover credit cards that you have. This will create a negative balance, after which you request a refund check be sent to you. Citibank and American Express are recommended for this because they have automatic features on their websites to request a credit balance refund.

Finally, it is important to note that Discover has a new policy that you can only have one open Discover card at any time. If you want this 0% for 12 months with no balance transfer fee and you already have a Discover card, you must cancel that card first, and then come back and apply for this new card. You can’t convert your current Discover and still get this promotion. That will avoid any problems.