Citi Double Cash Credit Card and Target Redcard from Amex

Earlier last month, Citi started issuing a new type of credit card which has a very good design and offers a 2% cash back effectively. They broke this into the standard 1% cash back on purchases and another 1% cash back once the statement balance is fully paid. It is a slightly clever marketing ploy while encouraging and rewarding those who pay the bills on time. Other banks such as Fidelity Amex or Barclaycard Arrival have long offer similar 2% cash back on all purchases.

The significant advantage that Citi has over all others is as follows:

1. MasterCard Network which has a pretty wide acceptance compared to the Amex network.

2. No annual fee on this card.

We covered some of this card here. It is not too exciting but still something that could be added to your arsenal. I guess if a good chunk of us do not apply for this card, at some point, due to small numbers and marketing targets to be met, the sales team at Citi would be forced to offer at least few thousand bonus points as a way to attract few big spenders.

In all, this seems to be a good deal for those who just want to swipe away without worrying too much of the credit cards as to which one would fetch maximum rewards at a given time. Honestly, there is not much too much difference. At the high-end, you have the Amex preferred with 6% cash back on groceries and this card gives you 2%. If you smartly apply for big bonus cards and divvy up your spend on other 5% cards, there is hardly a difference. In most cases, you could actually even come out ahead in 2% cards. Then there is this obvious psychological ease in not having to think too much about which credit cards to use at which stores.

Citi card link for those who are interested is here. This is a direct link to the citi bank website.

Another update is the Target RedCard. This is similar to the Amex Bluebird or Serve card. Amex used to offer a Target prepaid card while Target had its own Redcard which fetches 5% returns. This is a totally different and brand new prepaid card issued by Amex and the intention is to operate along similar lines as Serve card. So far, the findings with Target Redcard has been that it is reloadable with your credit card in any Target Location. That is a cheap, quick and efficient way to complete minimum spending requirements, though not necessarily to gain points. For those, you still have to rely on drugstores or grocery stores among others. So in all, it is a great addition to the roster of prepaid cards. Will have to wait and watch as to where to fit it in one's overall strategy. For now, I would suggest to hang in tight on one's Bluebird or Serve card while targeting big bonus spend cards that are likely to emerge starting next month till end of holiday season.

 

Eff Paypal

Seriously EFF Paypal. As a company they are not that good .. nor is any of the eBay or PayPal services in general. I have seen lot of reports recently about them cancelling accounts and in many cases keeping the money in the account for 180 days!

..gasp..

180 days!

..gasp..

Seriously, what is wrong with this company? With the talk of it being hived off from eBay, it would have had some sense to continue garnering its revenue. But many many users report that their accounts are being arbitrarily shut down.

Seriously EFF _Paypal_.

How to test the load of Paypal or Serve?

With the constant cycle of loading up Serve or Bluebird as well as PayPal or other prepaid cards such as Netspend or Green Dot or Western Union among others, the head goes into a tail spin as to what is being loaded where, withdrawn how and has the transaction posted yet? So, my computer programming mind, thought about automating or converting a part of this into non-thinkable ( and thus non-taxing to your mind) process.

How to test Bluebird or serve ( since you can have only one or the other ) ?

The questions that top the mind are:

- is there an unused gift card (slang used will be gc from here on) somewhere?
- as gc is used for many other options such as paying rents or mortgages via money orders, is this all accounted for?
- gc main card is say chase - so chase spend = serve credit + rent + mortgage + anything else such as bill pay options (Serve/Bluebird has a neat transaction search and filter feature on their site)
- From August/September, I am just running audits ( ha ha .. corporate style!) that would identify if +/- does not add up
- another option is the chase card such as freedom and then either bill pay chase freedom or just use it for other legit bill pay options so as to not invite scrutiny

Actual Test is:

- The inflow is from credit cards
- The outflow is money order + bill payment to credit card only now
- Test the online account statements of bluebird/serve/banks and bill pays
How to test PayPal?
- is there an unused PayPal card somewhere?
- did PayPal  load correctly into PayPal  site?
- did the money from PayPal  go to my bank account?
- did the money go from bank account back to the credit card account or some other bill payment options?
- main card here is a periodically changing card .. which right now is the chase ba card .. money from here mostly flows to chase cc and other bank accounts
- the main bill pay here is chase ba or other cards

Actual Test is:
- The inflow is from chase card
- The outflow is only bank account withdrawal for now and from there back to chase bill pay card
- The limits are USD 4,000 PayPal  cash card load.
- The place to test is the paypal.com website/ bank website and credit card website

With the closure of Amazon payments as of mid-October only these two primary options remain. It is in a way easier to manage this spend and track them. Like in all fields, the cream rises to the top and only the best of the best will remain and in true capitalism style, the non-competitive cards are going to die their natural deaths. There are of course, immediate emails and alert notifications that come to  me but I just wanted like a website or a dashboard where I could track or monitor all these things as they are automated or mindlessly performed.

Is there any testing or tracking methods that you follow? Please share!