Comments on: What is the best Credit Card gimmick offer right now?

Question: What is the best Credit Card gimmick offer right now?

brenton — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:44:19 -0800

In the past I have been paid the following things to sign up for a Credit Card: a slice of pizza, a shirt, a $15 discount, and now at Amazon, a $30 discount. Are there any with a higher value than that?

The reason I ask is because I'm getting a credit card anyway and I want something free. (By the way I pay the full balance every month and I have a credit score of 790.

By: BrandonAbell

BrandonAbell — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:49:56 -0800

I've seen GPS units offered.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:59:01 -0800

Continental was giving away 10,000 miles for their branded Visa card a few months ago. That was at the airport, though.

By: amyms

amyms — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:59:05 -0800

Sears used to offer a $50 gift certificate for signing up for their card (I don't know if they're still doing it).

By: meowzilla

meowzilla — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:04:15 -0800

I defer to the Fatwallet forums for credit-card related questions. Plenty of $100 and $50 coupons.

By: Mike1024

Mike1024 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:05:52 -0800

I've seen store-issued credit cards offering a 10% discount on your first purchase, which on purchases over $300 would be a discount of over $30.

Of course, these are often for stores with a profit margin greater than 10%, so you aren't exactly taking them to the cleaners if you buy $1000 of stuff and get a $100 discount.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:17:30 -0800

Your pursuit of free stuff is admirable. Do watch out for cards with yearly fees — cards with enticing sign-up gifts can be tied to other fees you may not want to pay.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:22:05 -0800

Wal-Mart gives away a two liter of Pepsi for signing up for their credit card.

By: ainsley

ainsley — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:35:35 -0800

Alaska Airlines visa gives 20,000 air miles.

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:37:09 -0800

I got a $125 amazon gift cert from discover.com. Took about 4 weeks after my first discover purchase to get it. Redeemed it the other day.

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:39:04 -0800

BTW my wife found the Discover thing through slickdeals.net and they regularly post good CC signup deals. She got a GPS when she signed up for discover. It's a good place to look because it's a forum, and there are lots of posts where people describe their experiences, so it's easy to tell if it's a legitimate offer or not.

I also got a nice dell for $300 through something posted on slickdeals.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:01:36 -0800

Do watch out for cards with yearly fees — cards with enticing sign-up gifts can be tied to other fees you may not want to pay.

OTOH, these card tend to have the best sign-up bonuses. So if they waive the first year (which is common), and you can remember to cancel before it renews, you come out ahead.

Also, cards that earn points or miles tend to give better bonuses, which can be redeemed for significant value. A few recent deals:

15k Northwest miles (halfway to a free domestic ticket)
5k Amtrak points (1k short of two coach tickets)
15k Citi Thank You points ($125-$150 in giftcards)
10k Starwood points (at least one free night, maybe two)

Often, the deals that are offered directly on the sites are not nearly as good as what's out there, so it's good to do your research. Fatwallet and Flyertalk are full of people researching this stuff.

By: wierdo

wierdo — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:04:59 -0800

The Sony Card (a Sony branded Chase Visa) alternately gives $100 or $150 off the purchase of a new Sony product. I bought a PS3 a year ago with it...when it was at $100 of course.

Citi often has 10,000 Thank You point signup offers, which is worth a $100 gift card to various places.

WaMu was doing 10% cash back on gas purchases for the first 6 months after account opening.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:14:37 -0800

Just got an offer from US Airways for up to 35,000 free miles on their new business credit card. IIRC, it's 20,000 just for signing up and up to 15,000 more if you do certain purchases and balance transfers. That's nearly enough for two domestic round-trip tickets.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:19:48 -0800

REI offers a no-annual-fee Visa with a free $30 gift certificate plus 1% cash back on all purchases and an added discount on stuff you buy at REI.

By: yellowbinder

yellowbinder — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:31:11 -0800

If you're cool with carrying around a Playstation branded card, Sony will give you $150 off a PS3.

By: qvtqht

qvtqht — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:08:22 -0800

http://www.limitedtimerewards.com/woot_rebut/

iPod Shuffle + $25 iTunes gift card

By: doomtop

doomtop — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:18:27 -0800

OTOH, these card tend to have the best sign-up bonuses. So if they waive the first year (which is common), and you can remember to cancel before it renews, you come out ahead.

Opening credit cards to get sign up bonuses and then canceling the account = bad idea

Keep the tradeline open. Closing it can only hurt your credit score.

By: mbd1mbd1

mbd1mbd1 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:35:50 -0800

If you live near an airport served by Southwest, you can get a free roundtrip award by applying for their branded Visa card through the correct link. I'll MefiMail it to you if you are interested. There is a $59 annual fee associated with the card, though.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:56:37 -0800

Closing an account won't hurt your credit score that much (or for very long) -- certainly not enough to pay an annual fee to avoid it.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:25:32 -0800

Yes, usually the advice is more "don't close old cards just because you don't use them", because it's good to have really long-standing credit.

A bigger hit on your credit score is almost surely from opening too many lines of credit in the last 12 or 24 months, so it is wise to limit your cards to the good ones.