American Express Membership Rewards Double Points (until Jan 31, 2008)

Check your emails and your snail mail! American Express has a new promotion for double points! That's right you will earn double points, which means you can get 2% on items that usually get you 1% on just about every credit card out there! So this could be huge!

Here are some details from the American Express email:

As a special Cardmember, you have the opportunity to earn double Membership Rewards points on virtually every dollar you spend each month, from November 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008 (up to the maximum allowed). The Membership Rewards program offers exceptional rewards and experiences, and now more of them can be within your reach.

You have to enroll by December 15, 2007, although it's probably a good idea to enroll right away and starting earning 2% where you could have been earning 1%!

And here is some of the fineprint:

Beginning 11/01/2007 and for each calendar month through 1/31/2008, you can earn one point and one bonus point for every eligible dollar of purchases charged during that month to any personal or small business Card linked to your Membership Rewards account. *Total bonus points earned each calendar month are subject to maximum monthly limit of 5,000 points. Corporate Card purchases are excluded. This promotion cannot be combined with any other bonus points offers. Bonus points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account approximately 12–14 weeks after charges appear on your billing statement.

And one more thing, if you are not familiar with the American Express rewards options, be sure to go check them out first. If the items they have there do not itnerest you, then perhaps you are better off using your 1% credit cards for rewards (or cash) that you might be interested in. But the AMEX rewards program is faily flexible, you can get gift cards as well, or even buy stuff online by paying with your points.

And the other cool thing they have, if you already know how many bonus points you are going to get, you don't have to wait for them to post to your account, you can take a Points Advance and get your rewards right away!

The AMEX appointment books are coming back!

You may have seen these for the regular American Express cards, but now they are available in Blue style as well. Blue being the AMEX card that has the name of AMEX Blue.

You can receive the 2008 Blue Appointment Book and 2008 Mini-Scheduler Set free for the first year. Well not totally free through because you pay a shipping and handling charge ($2.79 for the Appointment Book and/or $1.79 for the Mini-Scheduler.

Get two gifts or just one. Enjoy it in style. Stylishly embossed with a hologram, the Appointment Book is 8.5" x 8.5" with silver-edged pages. The Mini-Scheduler has almost the same features and yet at 3.25" x 6.75", it's so small it fits in your pocket.

More details at their website.

Deal round-up (Tue August 21, 2007)

Looking for digital cameras? Check the Camera Deals blog

Intrigued by the value-packed Compaq Presario F572us laptop computer on sale this week at Circuit City for $450 without any rebates? Check the blog-style F572 User Review blog.

If there any items you would like this blog to cover and search for bargains, please let us know by leaving a comment! Thanks!

Some of the latest email offers:

Crutchfield: 50 mp3 songs with purchase of any mp3 player, save up to $200 on GPS, up to $400 on plasma HDTVs, free installation gear and instructions with car stereos priced at $99 and up. Crutchfield has a good reputation for providing buyers with solid installation instructiohs (If only people who wrote user manuals took a page from their instructions (pun intended!))

American Express: Advertising their Travel Delay Protection which provides coverage of up to $250 per day (up to two days) when your flight is delayed, cancelled or overbooked.

Upromise: increase in earnings as Circuit City goes to 3%, and Lands End jumps to 5%. Ver 550 online retailers are participating. Upromise is a good way to earn additional (small) amounts for college for yourself, a family member, a friend or a person in need (without spending additional money by participating in their various cashback promotions on online shopping, grocery and restaurants)

Walmart: Bedding and household items featured in the email, 97c shipping, and $8.88 music cds

Universal Video: Special 2-disc edition of the movie "Serenity" is released, along with a special Flash Gordon (Saviour of the universe) edition featuring art and collectable postcard by Alex Ross and soundtrack by Queen.

OneCall: Coupons for up to 50% off

BestBuy: last week to participate in the Summer of Entertainment MyRewardZone program. You get a $10 certificate for entertainment purhcases for every $100 in entertainment purchases (movies, music, video games). Promo expires 8/25

Overstock: 75% off sale and $1 shipping. Some of the featured items: Barcelona Leather Barstools (Set of 2) for $97, Rendezvous Men's Super 120s Pleated & Cuffed Pants $26, 14k White Gold 1ct TDW Diamond Three-Stone Ring (H-I-J, I1-I2) $1020 (not a typo!), and Swiss Legend Men's Chronograph Watch $150.

FragranceNet.com: 10% off sale expires August 27, spotlighting the colorful "sweet scenes of summer"

Loehmann's: end of summer clearance, 20% off lowest ticketed price on all red sticker clearance items throughout the store. Also promotion for Insider Club Members (check store for promo details)

RoadRunnerSports: Save $25 off 2 pairs of shoes or save $50 off three pairs of shoes. Some of the featured shoes: Mizuno Nirvana Wave 3, Wave Rider 10, Asics GEL-Evolution 3, New Balance 1010 and 1061, and Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 9 (both for men and women)

CameraTown: Daily Camera and Photo deals at the Deals section of their website!

Kohls: Expires today, an extra 15% or 20% or 30% on everything everytime you use your Kohls Charge Card! both in-store and online! You can get some really nice deals if you have (or get) their Charge card! But if you plan to carry the balance, be sure to check the terms and the APR rate! Bonus Buys also continue and expire today.

TheStreet.com: A free webinar on volatile markets. Expect a sales pitch as well :)

Smartsource: New printable coupons including Kotex, Beano, Neosporin LT Lip treatment, Chinet Cut Crystal Cups, and Mighty Milk.

Amazon: Free music video premiere of Annie Lennox's "Dark Road" from her upcoming album "Songs of Mass Destruction".


Staples Online only special deals

HP DV9410US laptop computer $750 after Easy Rebate. Free printer after rebate as well!

Compaq Presario F572 us notebook computer for $480 with free HP printer HP D1341 after two rebates ($30 for the computer, $70 for the printer). User review here

Magellan RoadMate 2000 portable GPS $200

Staples SP9106 19" LCD monitor $190

Bling bling USB flash drive: Transcend 2gb JetFlash V90 (mother of pearl) $20

Nikon Coolpix L12 $160

Canon imageCLASS MF6530 $400 after EasyRebates

Free delivery with orders over $50

Email deals and offers round-up

Ritz Online has a Google Checkout promotion for $10 off a purchase of $60 or more! Promotion ends Sept 4, 2007. Please note that the Ritz/Wolf website is not interoperable with Ritz/Wolf stores!!! They also have a free article on "How to Photograph Landscapes and Kids"

MyPoints BonusMail has an offer for a two year subscription to Remedy Magazine, along with free healthy samples with each subscription. (No credit card required)

New online coupons from RoadRunner Sports: Save $25 with purchase of two (pairs) of running shoes. Save $50 with purchase of three (pairs) of running shoes. Their ad forgot to mention pairs. Some of the featured shoes, available for both women and men: ASICS Gel-Evolution 3, New Balance 1010 and 1061, Mizuno Wave Rider 10 and Wave Nirvana 3, Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 9... Also Road Runner sports has 430 web exclusives, including the entire Asics Fall 2007 line-up of products!

A new wave of offers from Adorama that expire August 24. Some of the spotlighted items: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 2.0 Standard Edition, 19 Filters, Plug-in Software for Macintosh & Windows for $50, Sealife SL321 ECOshot Digital Camera (Rated to 75') for $200, Sealife Mini 0.45x Wide Angle Lens for $50, Photoflex StarFlash 1000 Mercury OctoDome Kit with One StarFlash 1000ws Monolight, 5' OctoDome3, Connector, 8'2" LiteStand & Case with Wheels for $925 with a free 300ws Starflash... Also Zeiss 10 x 30 Diafun, Water Proof Roof Prism Binocular with 5.5 Degree Angle of View, U.S.A. for $300

Currently taking place at Sears: doorbuster sale!

American Express reminds us that you can now redeem points for the new Express Rewards Hotel Card and use it towards your stay or for hotel amenities like room service at participating... If you are a few or more than few points short of your favorite reward, you can get it now: With the Membership Rewards Points Advance feature you can be advanced up to 5,000 points to redeem for a reward. Just replace them later by earning points with your Card. American Express should be applauded for this fair and balanced offer: To repay the "Advance points" you must accrue enough points in your program account to satisfy a Points Advance within 12 months. If you are unable to do so, the unsatisfied amount of the Points Advance will be charged to you at the rate charged for a Points Purchase transaction on the day the Points Advance was initiated.

CoffeeReview.com informs us of their latest discoveries: 97-Point Coffees From Kenya and Panama. Check their website for more details

GiftCertificates.com has a promo that you could win a backpack filled with $600 in gift cards. Check their site for details.

$1 shipping over the weekend at Overstock.com. Also furniture clearance - up to 70% off. A couple of their spotlight items: Pioneer AVIC-S1 GPS Navigation System for $250, Hitachi DZBX35 MiniDVD Digital Camcorder for $230.

Free standard shipping today with orders over $75 at Kohls... Also you can save an additional 15%, 20% or 30% when you use your Kohls charge card both in-store and online! Shop more pay less! (Be sure to check the APR of their charge card if you are not playing to pay off the balance right away!)... Meanwhile the Bonus Buys are good through Tuesday!

Rite Aid is having a "Walk with a pharmacist" campaign to raise funds and awareness for diabetes. A good cause!

Check your email Inbox for the latest off-beat yet cool newsletter from Trader Joe.

Gateway offers the NX860S Notebook for $725 after email coupon. Free shipping but $20 handling charge. It has a 17" Cinematic screen. They also offer a matching notebook backpack, the Gateway Notebook Backpack (for 17" laptops) for $70 after email coupon.

Free samples and offers from a variety of brands advertised in the latest SmartSource email: Crystal Light, Clorox, Planters, Banana Boat, Kraft, Herbal Essences, Special K, Neosporin and more!

Check your inbox for the usual 20% off single item coupon from Borders Rewards! Former best sellers are down to $8 per book. A special Back to school bag is just $5 while supplies last.

Loehmann's advertises the must have of the Fall 2007 season: The cropped jacket, $30 to $40 only! "Why pay $60 to $100 in department stores?" they ask.

Super dooper online-only Saturday sale from CompUSA. Some spotlight items: LG Electronics FLATRON L196WTQ-BF 19" LCD monitor $200, Jabra Corporation BT150 Bluetooth Wireless Headset $18, Casio EXILIM EX-Z75PK $160, Casio EXILIM EX-Z1050SR $240, Seagate Free Agent 250GB Hard Drive $80.

Upromise is now offering student loans: Apply online or by phone in as little as 15 minutes. You can borrow up to $30,000 per year. Receive a check in as few as 5 business days after loan approval. You can even use the loan to pay past due balances.
Smart. And you can also use Upromise rewards to help pay down the loan! You can also ask your friends and family to designate you as the recipient of their Upromise Rewards points! Another way for people to help you without spending any additional money!

The latest email from Raley's, NobHill and Belair is in. This week's coupons: Free Mozzarella Fresca. They also have 11 Heirloom tomato(e) varieties for you to chose from. Next week's specials: Hatch Chiles and free Mexican Shredded Cheese!

BeyondWork.com advertises various back to school specials on technology, including HP PCs starting at $400, Apple Intel Core 2 Duo Mac Mini starting at $600 and more

After ten thousand years of existence on the net Best Buy wakes up, smells the roses and adds customer reviews to their website. What a brilliant idea Best Buy! Let customers review the products they buy! I wonder why no other website thought of that before ;-)

Pepsi informs us that they have Food Lion gift cards.

The summer sale is almost over at HP. Last chance (they say) [last chance until the next one I say] to get some of their computers: HP Pavilion dv6500t starting at $1000 (special white edition), HP Pavilion Slimline s3100y starting at $450, HP Pavilion dv2000t starting at $800, HP xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base at $200, HP Pavilion a6100y starting at $300, HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One starting at $100, and HP Accessory bundle at $100. The HP accessory bundle includes a laptop sports backpack, a Kensington Security Lock cable to lock your laptop down, and an optical travel mouse. Not sure how much these would cost if purchased individually.

Samsung has launched the Mobile Phone Samaritan campaign, where you can nominate people who used their cell phones to lend a help hand, help someone in a difficult situation or even save lives! The winners will get a chance to carry the Olympic Torch in San Francisco on April 9, 2008!

Sports Illustrated for Kids is 58% off at Magazines.com. If you prefer, you can get 8 issues for $10. Meanwhile National Geographic for Kids is just $15 per year for a limited time!

Deals round-up (Tue August 14, 2007)

Free Vista Print t-shirt - you only pay for shpping and processing (do not know how much that is)

New coupons from SmartSource: Energizer, Arm and Hammer, WellPatch, FiberChoice, Spray 'n' Wash, and more. Also you will receive a $5 PetSmart coupon by mail when you buy select items.

Office Max is celebrating HP Week, with up to $200 off HP products... Also if you buy 2 HP toners, you get a free shredder (a $30 value)... Save up to $80 on select LCD monitors... Free shipping with orders over $50

Microcenter is offering a Refurbished IBM NetVista 8303 running XP professional with a 90-day limited warranty for $250. Similarly, more refurbished systems: IBM NetVista 8305 for $350, Dell GX270 Desktop PC $400, IBM ThinkCentre 8183 $440, all running Windows XP Professional... Also Refurbished Compaq Presario SR2173WM running Windows Vista is $350, Compaq Presario SR2180NX $410, HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7760n $700, The Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC for $600, HP Pavilion dv9308nr $700, HP Pavilion dv9260nr $1500. All systems mentioned in this paragraph are refurbished!!!!!

Earn double Membership Rewards points with all purchases made at the American Express Travel website. You can also use "Pay with Points" to pay for your travel purchases (redeeming points)

Bank of American introduces the world to the online World Points Mall, where you earn bonus rewards points with online purchases. For example, Staples, Target and OVerstock.com earn 5% (5 points per dollar), JC Penney 4% and Barnes and Noble 3%. This in addition to your base 1% points. Lots of other retailers featured.

The latest Crutchfield email promotes portable navigators, Polk and MTX subwoofer offers, and satellite radios as low as $30.

Unlimited 11x14 prints are just $2 each at Adorama until August 23, 2007

Midnight Madness online sale tonight at Sears, from 12am to 6am, featuring 10% off clearance items, appliances, tools, power lawn and garden equipment, patios, and grills

July 27 Daily Deal Round up (Friday)

4 pack of FEIT electrics ecoBulbs CFLs for just 99c at some Longs Drugs stores. Great bargain price!

Theragran M nutritional shakes and multi-vitamins have a $10 Register Rewards on-going offer at Walgreens. You pay $12 for two six-packs of Nutritional shakes or multi-vitamin packs, and you receive a $10 Register Rewards coupon when you checkout. The coupon is printed when you pay for the items, so if the cashiers forgets about it, be sure to remind him/her. Then you can use the $10 Register Rewards coupon for Walgreens purchases over $10, although some items are exempt such as gift cards, etc. The usual gift card type of restrictions. This is a great deal as you get 12 nutritional shakes for just $2! That's 16c per bottle!

Adorama email specials: Sandisk Sansa mp3 players sale, the 512mb m230 is only $25 (twenty-five) while the 2gb m250 is $45. Nice prices, eh? ... This Kata GDC Series R-102 Compact Photo RucKsack with TST Protection for Small SLR Systems, Black is $155 with free shipping... LaCie 160 GB, 5400 rpm Mobile Hard Drive with USB 2.0 Interface, for Mac & Windows, F.A. Porsche Design, $100 for one week only... 2gb Sandisk Ultra II 60x speed SD card $30, 1gb Sony MS Duo Pro $20... and much more...

Summer sizzle sale at Sears with discounts on all Kraftsman, free delivery on appliances over $399, 10% discount when you buy two or more appliances, and 20% off Craftsman powered lawn and garden equipment.

American Express members, AMEX will donate $1 to the winning non-profit project on your behalf just by registering at American Express Members Project. AMEX donates $1 dollar — up to $5 million to bring the winning project idea to life. Spread the word!

Super Saturday early bird specials at Kohls!, free shipping with online orders over $75, 60% off entire stock of Croft&Barrow, Sonoma LIFE+style, and Arrow, 60-70% off entire stock of dress and casual sandals, 50-60% entire stock of The Big One bath towels and bath rugs, and a lot more

New discounts from Crutchfield's latest email, up to $200 on high def televisions and Mirage and Infinity home speakers, 10% off Bose Companion speaker systems, and up to $50 off digital cameras

Digital cameras advertised in today's paper by Fry's Electronics at camera deals. Among other things, a $90 Samsung digital camera with 6 megapixels, and 3x optical zoom and 2.5" LCD.

Staples is already promoting their Sunday July 29 circular ad with a back to school theme. The freebie of the week, free after online rebate (EasyRebate),is a five pack of Pentel RSVP ball point pens, black or assorted colors; Acme 5" kids scissors, 50c each; Simply assorted 1/2" and 1" poly binders, 50c each. Check the circular at Staples.com for all the items.

The latest email from Overstock.com has a coupon for 10% off your first order. Also in this email: Echo Home Slinky Brown Throw Pillow Set for $25, Stardust Deluxe Bedding Ensemble $150, 10k White Gold 1/10ct TDW Round Diamond Circle Pendant (I-J, I2-I3) $55, Merbu Wood 5-drawer Jewelry Box (China) $121, Bamboo Tree Shoji Screen (China) $150, Handmade Opium Table (India) $153, Movado Gentry Two-tone Stainless Steel Watch $385, 14k White Gold 3/4ct TDW Round Diamond Stud Earrings (G-H, SI1-I1) $720, Luxury Sateen 820 Thread Count Long Staple Cotton Solid Sheet $80, and a lot more! Visit Overstock.com for all the details.

Magazines.com has a magazine sale on the topics of food, wine, cooking and gourmet. Spotlight magazine is Cooking Light for $18 per year.

The latest Borders Rewards email includes a coupon for 20% off any item, expires July 29, and has the usual Borders restrictions.

Brand new strawberry smoothie at Panera Bread. No coupons but free wifi!

New email coupon for 20% off copy and print purchases at Office Depot. Also discounts on Motorola headsets, and new exclusive chair collections.

American Express enchances their Rewards program

AMEX has refreshed the look and feel of their rewards program. They are also playing with the name, advertising it as "Membership Rewards Express program". Do expect annoying Flash multimedia eating up computer resources while visiting their website.

Remember now you can get a "points advance" to get the reward you want faster. You have to earn the "advanced points" within a period of time, otherwise Amex will simply charge you for the advanced points at the going rate at the time of the advance. This is a fair and balanced way to implement a points advance program. And a clever one too!

Also Amex is running a double points promo on all purchases that runs through August 31, 2007. Check your mail (snail-mail) for postcards/mail with that promo and also your email inbox for similar offers. From a strategy stand-point this is good, because there are a number of items that you can't get more than 1% rewards with other credit cards. So being able to get 2% on everything (even for a limited time) is a nice way to boost your rewards total!

Free Investment guide from American Express

Free Investment guide from American Express entitled "How to Invest Smarter". If you are in their mailing list, you may have received an email inviting you to request it. This is from Ameriprise Financial, so after you receive the guide, also expect to receive invitations to talk to their professional advisors/managers. (Nothing is really free!)

Some of the things included:

The differences between bonds, mutual funds, annuities, stocks, IRAs and cash reserve investments, and some benefits and drawbacks of each

How to determine your personal tolerance for risk

Why you should always "pay yourself first"

How to make taxes work for you

New Amex Blue TV ad: 0% APR for 15 months!

New American Express Blue credit card ad on TV promoting a 0% APR offer for 15 months, and a free rewards program. As always read the fineprint!

Credit Card Rewards Strategy session

This post will be growing organically.

Here are some suggestions on how to maximize your credit cards rewards:

For grocery, drugstore and gas station purchases, Citibank offers 5% rewards, either in a cash-only rewards program or a rewards program (Thank You Network or Thank You Redemptions or something like that). You can have both type of cards. You can't complain with 5%! There is an annual cap on your total rewards per individual credit card.

Chase has a new creative idea for their Chase Freedom card. They have fifteen (15) categories of purchases. Each month, they calculate your top three categories and give you a 3% reward on those purchases. Everything else earns 1%. The categories are computer-calculated for every statement. You have a choice of rewards or cash. You can switch between the two choices once per month

American Express has special mail-in and email offers to receive double points for purchases until August 31, 2007. This means your Amex Blue or Optima purchases earn 2% instead of 1%. Not bad for things that don't qualify for higher rewards in other cards.

Discover's Get More program offers featured rewards that change every quarter (every three months). These earn you a flat 5% reward on those featured purchases regardless of your regular reward percentage status. The 5% reward has a cap per quarterly promotion

As always with all these, make sure you read the fineprint!

AMEX Rewards Point Advance!

American Express boldy goes where no other credit card rewards programs have gone before. Based on your account history, you can now take rewards points advances so you can get your favorite reward faster. If you do not acrue the advanced points within 12 months, then AMEX will charge you the price of the points at the going rate of the advance. Or something like that. This sounds like a brilliant idea if you are close to getting a reward, or you have special promotion points that may be coming up in a couple of months, but can't wait to get your hands on the reward. Brilliant idea American Express!... As always read the fineprint.

Double rewards from American Express

American Express is running a promotion for double points for the next couple of months. You will receive an invitatin to participate and join in this promotion via mail (snail mail) or email. You have to sign up in order to get the double points. The bonus points will show up a couple of months after the statements close or something like that. As always read the fineprint!


And what can you do with your double AMEX points?. You can use them to get one of many available digital cameras as a reward. I have written a review of all the digital camera options at American Express here