Perkstreet Financial started in 2010 as a plucky internet bank start-up that told us credit cards were dangerous and unethical, and you should use a trusty debit card instead. They offered attractive features like 2% cash back on all purchases and 5% cash back on special categories. But then new laws were enacted that limited debit card merchant fees, and Perkstreet took a hit to their main revenue source. On August 12th, they announced that they were shutting down. Oh, and all that cash back “Perks” that their customers earned? Gone with zero prior notice. *Poof*

Consistent with the terms of our Rewards Program Agreement, we have discontinued our perks program and cancelled all perks balances as of today, August 12, 2013.

Consistent with what terms? Wait, I thought you said you were trustworthy? They meant this part:

The Rewards Program and its benefits are offered at our sole discretion. We reserve the right to cancel, terminate, change or temporarily suspend the Rewards Program and to amend this agreement at any time without notice.

Translation: We can do whatever the %(#& we want. But you can’t.

I never had an account with Perkstreet and didn’t lose anything, but many people did. This is a good opportunity to talk about rewards programs in general. Some thoughts:

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The card_name is a cash back credit card that earns unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases.

• $200 Cash Back after you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. For a limited time, also enjoy a $100 credit to use towards flights, stays and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel during your first cardholder year.
• Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day
• 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months; reg_apr,reg_apr_type APR after that; balance transfer fee applies
• $0 annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.
• Earn unlimited 5% cash back on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
• No rotating categories or sign-ups needed to earn cash rewards; plus, cash back won’t expire for the life of the account and there’s no limit to how much you can earn

Bottom line. The card_name is all about simple cash rewards with no gimmicks. No points, no miles, no travel credit, no rotating categories. No annual fee. You can cash out for any amount, at any time. Your rewards never expire and you can redeem for straight cash via check or statement credit.

The Ink Bold® Business Charge Card is a premium small business being offered by Chase, directly competing with the biz cards from American Express. If you have a small business including freelance or online eBay/Etsy sales, using a business card allows you to separate your personal and business expenses as well as get some nice rewards in the process. Just to get you to try it out, Chase is offering 500 bucks in the form of 50,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months your account is open.

50,000 Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for $500 cash (real money, via statement credit or check) or 25% extra = $625 when used towards airfare, split up however you like into multiple tickets. If your total is more than $625, you simply pay the difference. I’ve used this feature and it’s very easy and flexible to book airfare using their points (system and prices are like Expedia, Travelocity, etc). Here’s an example of combining cash and points:

If you prefer, you can also transfer points to British Airways Avios miles, United Airlines miles, Hyatt hotel points, and Marriott hotel points. 1 Chase point = 1 mile/hotel point for these transfers, so that’s 50,000 miles.

You’ll also earn up to 5 points per $1 spent on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases:

• Earn a total of 2 points for each $1 of net purchases made at merchants that classify themselves the following categories: gas stations and hotels stays booked directly with the hotel. (on the first $50,000 spent annually)
• Earn a total of 5 points for each $1 of net purchases made at merchants that classify themselves the following categories: wireless/telecommunications services (excluding equipment such as phones and fax machines), cable and satellite television services, office supply stores and wholesale distributors of office supplies. (on the first $50,000 spent annually)
• All other purchases will earn 1 point for each $1 of net purchases.

Getting 5X points back at Office Depot, Staples, and Office Max also means that you get 5X points back on the gift cards sold at these office supply stores. This includes places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kmart, Starbucks, TJ Maxx, and more.

There is no annual fee for the first year, $95 after that if you decide to keep it. You also get a free annual membership in Lounge Club, which gets you 2 complimentary visits to participating “first class” airport lounges each year and discounted rates on future visits. After you get the Ink card, register at loungeclub.com/inkcard. The Ink Bold Business Charge Card is a business charge card where you must pay in full each month after a 30-day grace period with no interest.

Jot business receipt management. Chase has now partnered with Jot, so now I can snap a picture of my business receipts with my smartphone and link it to my card purchases. No more shoeboxes or scanning, and it exports into Quickbooks. I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds like a good backup in case the IRS comes knocking.

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 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. You might have gotten a 1099 tax form and filled out a Schedule C. Boom! 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.

In addition, Chase business cards won’t show up on your personal credit report. Now, 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, it won’t affect your credit score otherwise, since it doesn’t change things like your credit limits, average account age, or credit utilization ratio.

• Ink Bold® Business Charge Card Application Link

This card is essentially the small business version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred®Card, a consumer card which offers 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points = $625 in travel) Compare with the other $500+ Bonus credit card promotions currently available.

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“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.”

You may be familiar with Credit Sesame from my popular free credit scores with no trials post, as they offer you a free credit score based on your Experian credit report, updated once a month. They make money by presenting you with credit-related offers like mortgage refinances or auto loans. I’ve been happily getting my updates for years now… I don’t worry about the absolute number as much as the relative change each month to see if anything new has either hurt or boosted my creditworthiness significantly.

Per this press release, Credit Sesame is now offering free daily credit monitoring as well. No tricks, no trials, no credit card required. If you’re already a member, just log in and opt into the new feature. You can also get push alerts via their Android and iPhone apps. Here’s a screenshot with nothing exciting since it’s only been 5 minutes:

As opposed to the free monthly score, monitoring checks your Experian credit report daily and sends you an email alert if any activities have occurred – for example, if there was a credit pull by a lender or a new address added. This can provide early warning of attempted identity theft, reporting errors, or simply am overzealous lender checking your credit without permission. Many providers charge $10-$20 a month for similar monitoring, and while it’s potentially useful I’ve never recommended paying a hundred bucks a year for it. But hey, Credit Sesame already has my info, so I’ll definitely sign up for free.

(Note: You can get also free credit scores and similar monitoring alerts based on your TransUnion credit data at CreditKarma.com.)

From their FAQ, here’s a sample of events on your Experian credit report that may trigger an alert:
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There’s a new 2% flat cash back card in town …although it’s somewhat hidden under some Priceline co-branding and William Shatner doing martial arts.

Here’s how it works. The Priceline Rewards Visa® Card earns 2 points per $1 spent on all purchases, with no limit, no cap, no category restrictions. 100 points = $1 in statement credit, so in other words that’s 2% flat cash back on everything.

Redemption involves “zapping” one of your existing purchases with your points. So let’s say you have 5,000 points ($50 worth). You’ll need to choose a purchase on your card within the last 90 days that’s between $25 and $50 to “zap”. Let’s say you spend $43.33 at the grocery store, and you pick that to zap. You’ll get a $43.33 statement credit and redeem 4,333 points. The remaining 667 points will be saved for the next time. Make sense? Not as nice as 2% back, but it’s not that bad once you understand the system. You can redeem online, there’s no need to call in.

You may redeem your points toward statement credits for any purchase(s) on your Account statement that are $25 or greater.

New cardholders also get a $50 bonus after first purchase (5,000 bonus points after your first purchase). No annual fee.

If you do use Priceline.com, you can redeem your points towards previous “Name Your Own Price” Priceline purchases at a higher rate. Depending on the size of the purchase, you can effectively get between 2.2% to 3% cash back on those purchases. Combine with a 4% or so rebate from a cashback shopping portal for hotels and care rentals, and that’s not a bad total discount.

For those interested, there is also a 0% balance transfer offer that isn’t the best, but definitely above-average. You get 0% introductory APR for the first fifteen billing cycles after the account is opened. The balance transfer fee is either $10 or 3% of each transfer, whichever is greater, during those first fifteen billing cycles. See terms and conditions for details.

In summary, this is a rewards card where you can get a baseline 2% cash back on all your purchases. I recommend combining this with a nice category-specific card like the 5% cash back rotating cards or the 6% back on groceries / 3% back on gas American Express. This card is issued by Barclays Bank which is a relatively new issuer in the US and thus won’t affect your existing Citi/Chase/AmEx relationships if you have other rewards cards.

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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