This week, I’m sharing my favorite accounts with you.

• Yesterday: The best checking account
• Today: The best credit card
• Thursday: The best savings account

Let’s get to it.

When my book was published in 2009, I named names. This is why some banks will never, ever partner with me. Oh well!!

Anyway, in the first chapter on credit cards, I shared the details of my favorite credit card at the time: the Citi PremierPass card. In fact, I had used it as my primary credit card for several years and recommended it to hundreds of thousands of people.

That’s changed now.

In 2010, Citi tightened up on its credit-card lineup, dropping several of their most compelling rewards. This was highlighted in a devastating column in the New York Times.

Hilariously, Citi actually mailed out a note to cardholders trying to spin the reduction of benefits into something like ‘exciting new features’ — but it was obvious to anyone with a pulse that the most compelling rewards were being removed.

And so I began an exhaustive search for a new credit card. Because I spend a significant amount on my credit card, I expect significant rewards. Also, I consider it a fun game to find the 99.99999th percentile best card in the world. This is why women find me irresistible.

Today, I’ll share my new favorite credit card. I consider it the best card on the market — even better than my Citi card — and in addition to using it myself, it’s the  card I’m recommending to my readers.

First, 5 rules about credit cards

1. Use a rewards card. The vast majority of people should use a rewards card. If you’re already spending money, you should be rewarded for it. Exceptions are people who can’t qualify, who should instead use a secured credit card.
2. Interest rate doesn’t matter if you don’t carry a balance. The interest rate is irrelevant as long as you’re paying off your entire balance each month. Don’t be a dumbass and keep a balance, please
3. I prefer travel cards over cash back. Most people would benefit more from travel rewards than from cash-back. I describe the details of why in my book. For some reason, people get really mad when I make this recommendation, but I don’t care.
4. I prefer general rewards cards, not airline-specific cards. Unless you fly a majority of flights on the SAME airline, I prefer a general travel card instead of an airline-specific card (like a United card). For example, I fly Jetblue and Virgin a lot, so I want a travel card that I can redeem on multiple airlines, not just one.
5. Annual fees are not Satan’s spawn. I know it may be blasphemy to personal-finance “experts,” but I’m willing to pay an annual fee! OMG! This is why you can call me RTR: Ramit The Rebel. In some cases, there are no-fee versions of the card, so you should always calculate if you spend enough to justify it. Still, $65/year is just not that significant to my financial situation any more.

BONUS RULE: I am merciless about using my credit card perks, which can easily be worth $1,000/year. DO THIS.

What I want in a credit card

My bottom line is I want to get free flights and free hotels. For example, when I go on vacation, travel for friends’ weddings, or travel between NYC and SF.

Alternatively, I want to upgrade to business class when I travel abroad.

And I don’t want to be nickel-and-dimed for idiotic things like blackout dates, penalties, and fees.

So with that in mind, here is…

The best credit card I’ve found

It’s the Starwood American Express card.

When I first discovered this card, I actually wasn’t sure how many places accept AMEX. But  after using the card for nearly a year, I’m happy to report that I use my AMEX 95% of the time. (I always carry a Mastercard or VISA backup, just in case.)

This is the best travel card on the market. Here’s why:

4 Starwood perks that matter most

1. Flights + hotel points: Whenever you spend money, you earn points, which you can redeem for flights (on virtually airline) and hotels (in the Starwood program)
2. Flights: The Magical 25% bonus. Let’s say you redeem 20,000 Starwood points to your American Airlines frequent-flier program. Starwood will give you a 25% bonus — that’s 5,000 points — which is a HUGE bonus to get free flights faster. This is worth a ton in free flights.
3. Hotels: You can stay at hotels for just 2,000 points, which is great if you just need a basic place to stay. But if you want ultra-luxury, Starwood has top-of-the-line properties (including the St. Regis and even higher-end resorts) that will accept your Starwood points. Here are the cheapest hotels and most expensive.
4. Customer service: I fanatically test the customer service of companies I work with. My goal is for them to call me a diva in writing. I opened a second Starwood card (biz + personal) and somehow, they didn’t connect the card to my Starwood account. That meant that I had lost something like 15,000 points over the last few months. I sent them an email and a few hours later, they said, “We’ve retroactively applied your points.” Done. I love it.

Other perks:

• 25,000 free points when you open an account (10K with your first purchase, 15K upon spending 5K in 6 months). That is, as they put it, “enough for 2 free nights at a Category 5 Hotel like the W San Francisco or the Westin New York at Times Square.”
• Annual fee waived first year
• Purchase protection: If you break/lose something, AMEX will reimburse
• Exclusive invitations to events and reservations you can’t get elsewhere (via concierge)
• Points good for free stays at over 1,000 hotels/resorts in nearly 100 countries
• Free flights on over 350 airlines with NO blackout dates
• No annoying blackout periods (as they put it, “Ability to redeem points on any day of the year (holidays included”))
• Ability to transfer points to more than 30 airline frequent flier programs (often on a one-to-one basis, e.g.,, you don’t lose points by transferring)
• Built-in rental car coverage (reject the rental company’s pricey collision waiver with peace of mind)
• Medical, legal, financial and travel assistance when traveling over 100 miles from home
• Instant access to cash from over 500,000 ATMs worldwide
• Exclusive savings on hot tickets (including Broadway)
• Easy charge disputing, extended warranty coverage and fraud protection (AMEX is renowned for being the best at this)

My final test was this: The world’s best consumers of credit cards are management consultants at firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. That’s because basically the only thing these consultants care about is points. Many of my friends have over a million points and are anal — even more than I am — about their choice of cards.

They love their credit cards more than their girlfriends! True.

I know a bunch of friends who work at these places, and every one uses this card. DONE!

Downsides:

Few things here.

One negative thing is that AMEX isn’t always accepted (it is about 95% of the time in NYC, less so elsewhere), so I have to carry a backup Mastercard/VISA.

Second, not everyone qualifies for AMEX. They are stringent about who they accept so you may be rejected.

Third, they give you a RIDICULOUSLY low credit limit. You can request a credit-limit increase in 60 days, then 6 months later, so if you do get this card, set your Google calendar reminders. (How I got around this: I paid it off multiple times/month so I could spend what I needed to.)

Places to read about this Starwood card

You should always do your own research. Here are 2 places to see what others have said, as well as understand the perks/rewards in great detail.

• AMEX site: Starwood AMEX
• FatWallet forums – Discussion about Starwood AMEX

Other cards I recommend

If you are a weirdo and hate traveling, (1) get a life, and (2) the best cashback card is the Fidelity 1.5% cashback card. I have one of these, but only use it as a backup. Starwood is my primary.

Should you keep your old card?

My recommendation: If you’re looking for a good credit card, apply for this and if you get accepted, KEEP YOUR OLD CARD (don’t close it, which will negatively affect your credit). But start transitioning your auto-pays to this card and start accumulating miles.

Your goal should be to get at least 3 free hotel stays this year, but most of you will be able to do much more than that.

NEXT STEPS: If you decide to get this card

If you’re interested in getting this card, here’s a link to instantly see if you’re approved (affiliate).

Depending on their offer, you can usually get 10,000-30,000 points upon signup.

Example: Up to 25,000 Starpoints (use, e.g., for 2 free nights at a Category 5 Hotel like the Westin Maui Resort & Spa or Le Parker Méridien New York).

P.S. I have a few special, obscure tools I use with my credit card to optimize the experience. I’ll write about those in the future.

Tomorrow, my favorite savings account.

I’ll make this quick.

I was watching Oprah one day, because I am basically a middle-aged woman, and realized that she does something fascinating.

She recommends SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS to her audience’s problems.

Compare this to most “experts,” who hate naming specific products because they’re afraid of being seen as biased. (Or, worse, they won’t use their platform to promote products unless they have some kind of revenue-share deal secured.)

Total BS. Maybe 3% of my readers actually want to wade through page after page of credit-card offers to pick the best one. Most people just want someone knowledgeable to tell them the best account.  And my readers know that if I use an account, I probably spent months researching it because I’m a huge weirdo.

This is one of the reasons why you see me naming names in my book, or on TV/radio. I’m totally comfortable telling you which accounts are the best — and worst — so you can just go with my recommendation and get on with your life.

In the last month, I’ve gotten more emails than ever asking which accounts I use. When I respond, “Have you read my book?” many of them ask if I’ve updated my recommendations since the 2009 pub date.

And actually, I have updated my favorite accounts since then. For example, I stopped using a certain account because it started sucking, and I replaced it with another one.

So, this week I’ll be writing a few blog posts of my favorite accounts.

These are important because you can get immense rewards from your checking account, savings account, and (especially) credit card.

I tested these with about 50,000 members of my Insiders’ List and they told me these were some of the best emails I’ve sent all year.

Here’s what’s coming your way:

• Tomorrow – Best checking account
• Wednesday – Best credit card
• Thursday – Best savings account

What Insider Members said

“Awesome Awesome Newsletter!  I got caught up in the XXX bullshit as well.  Loved that card and racked up a ton of miles!  Will be grabbing the XXX as soon as you shoot me your link.”
- Adam B.

This week’s blogs are saving me a LOT of time.  I needed to change my accounts and you did all the research for me!  Thank you!
- Steve

“Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your insightful — and witty — e-mails. You’re without a doubt my favorite personal finance guru (to the point where I force my family and friends to sit down and listen to passages from your book/e-mails).”
- Kristen M.

“This week’s emails are saving me a LOT of time.  I needed to change my accounts and you did all the research for me!  I opened a XXX checking account yesterday and today I will apply for a credit card.”
- Steve S.

Thanks Ramit! I just got the application form from XXX. (I just graduated college, so I was planning on switching banks and checking accounts anyway – I just didn’t know to what.)”
- Michael C.

Invite your friends
One of my favorite things to do is to show how IWT differs from other sites. The best way is to have you introduce the site to your friends. You’ll know their skepticism, their barriers, their challenges…and you can guide them through how to use this site.

This week’s material is perfect for friends who want to get started with money…for people who complain about money and say, “Yeah, I really should do something”…and for people who want to get started, but aren’t sure where.

If you enjoy the material, please Tweet the links to your friends this week.

 

]]>

Yesterday, I ran a small survey: How long until you’re out of debt?

Yes, it’s a self-selected audience

I’ve long suspected that most people in debt don’t even know how much they owe. I’m trying to dig up data on this, but from talking to tons of people about this, I feel comfortable saying “most” people in moderate to significant debt have no idea how much they actually owe.

When you internalize this, you start to see why debt is far more emotional than mathematical. This is why throwing a personal-finance book at someone in debt, or showing them some stupid compound-interest calculator, produces virtually no behavioral change.

Because if you’re too afraid to even open the envelopes that will tell you how much your total debt is, “information” is not what you need.

This is also why you see people in debt doing curious behaviors. For example, they’ll buy things with their debit card, instead of their credit card, because (1) they don’t want to tack on additional payments to their already overloaded cards and (2) they don’t trust themselves to pay off their CC debt.

I’m running a small test on my Insider’s List to help people in debt. I’ll let you know how it goes.

For now, understand that if you have a friend or relative in debt, showing them the math of paying off their debt is one of the least persuasive things you can do.

But there are things you can do to help. If you’ve helped a friend/relative with their debt, let us know how you did it — share your story below.

Read more iwillteachyoutoberich posts about debt.

]]>

When I ran a guest post in 2009 called “How to travel full-time for $14,000,” it was one of this site’s most popular posts ever.

So I’ll be sharing more tips about traveling. Today, techniques to use airline miles to fly business class…even when you don’t fly that often.

Enter Matthew Kepnes, who has been traveling around the world for the past four years — and often getting people to pay him to travel. He runs the award-winning budget travel site, Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site.

His guest post shows how to use the airlines rewards against them to fly business class, without even having to step foot on a plane.

[Here's Matt]

Business class. The dream of all who fly. With its flat beds, delicious food, wide seats, and pampered service, it seems the part of the plane reserved only for frequent fliers or those with deep pockets. At least, that’s what I used to think. Now I fly business class on all my long haul flights and I’m neither a rich man nor that much of a frequent flier (I don’t even fly enough each year for get elite status). So how do I get into business class then? I use the airline’s rewards system against them.

Airlines offer so many ways to get frequent flier points that it’s relatively easy to accrue enough miles to fly business (or first) class. And the best part? You don’t even need to fly to get the points! Whether you sign up for credit card, take their surveys, or shop through their website, earning miles doesn’t mean you actually have to fly any. I currently have over 80,000 miles in my American Airlines account, of which only 8,400 are flight miles:

I just flew first class from Europe on miles I never earned by flying. So how many miles does it take to get a business class ticket? Here’s the breakdown:

American Airlines:

United Airlines

A round trip business class ticket to Europe then costs about 100,000 miles. So how do we get those miles without flying? Here’s how:

Sign up for a branded credit card. Whether you love Delta, fly United and the Star Alliance, live and breath Jetblue, or are hooked on Oneworld, all U.S. carriers have a branded credit card that gives you a 25,000-30,000 points when you sign up and make one purchase.

Delta AMEX card: You earn 25,000 miles when you sign up.

United Visa: Earn 30,000 miles when you sign up.

Citi AAdvantage: Earn 30,000 miles on sign up.

These cards have annual fees of $95 dollars but most wave the fee the first year and if you don’t want the card, just cancel. [NOTE FROM RAMIT: Be careful about this. I would rather have you choose 1-2 good cards and stick with them instead of churning card after card.]

Watch out for deals. I sign up for all the airline mailing lists. I always watch out for special 2 for 1 miles deal. Or when they have special card offers to get extra miles. Last year, British Airways offered a card that gave 100,000 miles for signing up. That was a first class ticket home. American Airlines just gave me 1,000 miles for watching a demo on their new shopping toolbar. I got 5,000 AA miles by opening a Citi checking account. I got triple miles by buying some clothes from Gap just by seeing it in their mailing list. That doesn’t even utilize all the special bonus offers airlines have on cars, restaurants, and hotels. Make sure you sign up for airline (and credit card) newsletters so you can stay informed about these deals.

Sign up for an unbranded credit card. Sign up for the Starwood Express card and get 10,000 sign up points. When you convert 20, 000 points into miles, you get a 5,000 bonus:

The new AMEX Hilton Honors Surpass card gives you 40,000 points for signing up and 20,000 more after you stay at a Hilton property can also be converted into airline points. Even better, that card also gives you Gold VIP status for a year and a Priority Pass card (discount access to over 400 airport lounges). Hilton’s reward ratio isn’t the greatest:

But you are getting at least 4,000 miles. If you max out the full value of the card, that is 9,000 miles.

Shop at their member stores. All airlines have special offers with all the big stores- Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Target, etc. Shopping at those preferred stores will earn you 2 to 4 miles per dollar spent- sometimes even more. If you spend 1,000 dollars a month, you can earn up to 3,000 miles just by going through their websites. The products don’t cost extra. I do all my shopping through the airline malls simply for the extra miles.

An example from United Airlines’ Mall:

I just signed up for Netflix. Why?

It got me 1,500 more miles on American. Airlines offer ridiculous deals when you sign up with their preferred partners.

Take the challenge. If you are taking a long trip, go with American Airlines. By paying 300 dollars you can take the 10,000 mile challenge. If you accumulate 10,000 miles by flying that many miles in 3 months, you get 1 year platinum status which gives you get automatic upgrades into business class as well as lounge access. They do not advertise this on their website. You must call customer service and ask to take the challenge.

Fly Crazy. When airlines get into price wars or offer new routes, they often launch ridiculous double or triple mile offers. Often times you can take a quick and cheap flight and gain triple miles. This is a frequent tactic that frequent fliers use to accrue lots of miles really quickly. Though, it is time intensive.

Put everything on the card! I pay nothing in cash. I put everything on my card- from Starbucks to phone bills. My total monthly spending is about $2,500 per month. That’s more miles for me. Everything I do is to benefit my mileage account.

So signing up for a branded credit card (30,000 miles), 2 unbranded credit cards (19,000 miles), my monthly expenses ($2,500 x 12 = 30,000 miles), 7,500 miles in “deals,” and watching for double rewards (est. 4,000 miles) gets me 90,500 miles in 1 year without ever setting foot on an airplane. Plus, this low balls the amount of miles I would probably accrue. I probably spend more money, sign up for more bonuses, and do some added shopping in a given year.

The point is that it doesn’t take a lot to get to the 100,000 miles mark. And if I never fly, sign up for another bonus, or do other shopping, where would the other 9,500 miles come from? Well, I could buy them from the airlines or use my existing miles to get an upgrade from your coach ticket:

On American:

On United:

By even utilizing a fraction of these tips, you can accrue enough miles to take a business class flight at very little (or no) cost to you. Signing up for a credit card, do some shopping, and you’ll be flying in luxury no time. Take a flight to Asia on American and now you are platinum status for a year giving you automatic upgrades. So often we think about earning miles as difficult and requiring a lot of flying. However, if you focus on using their reward system against them, you’ll find your mileage account jumping by leaps and bounds each month and putting you in business class on your next flight.

Matthew Kepnes has been traveling around the world for the past four years. He runs the award winning budget travel site, Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site and has been featured in The New York Times and Yahoo! Finance. He currently writes for AOL Travel and The Huffington Post.

]]>

“I had more spending money in college when I was a student working a part-time job.”
–A friend who earns over $100,000/year.

How does this happen?

Factor in the following:

• Urban living, including going out frequently
• Expensive apartment
• Credit card debt from spending on things like going out frequently, shopping, travel
• Student loans

It’s a combination of high fixed costs (think $1k+/month in student loans) plus poor spending habits.

But it’s too easy to simply scoff and point fingers.

In social psychology, there’s a phenomenon called pluralistic ignorance. The prototypical example is of college students, who almost uniformly believe that their peers drink and have sex more often than they actually do. This causes all kinds of odd attitudinal and behavioral responses, like increased risk taking.

The same is true of people, especially high-earners, in credit card debt. After all, if you’re earning six figures in your 20s, you’re “supposed” to know how to manage your money, right? And since you work so hard, don’t you deserve to spend a little on yourself?

These are classic scripts employed by high earners in debt.

To be blunt, nobody would be surprised by someone making $35,000 who has some credit card debt. But it’s difficult to understand when someone earns over $100,000 (especially when I’ve written that a high income solves most problems). Spending matters, of course.

I have a lot of friends who earn this kind of money in their 20s, and a surprising number of them are in credit card debt. Yes, spending matters. But there are intensely important psychological factors at work for high earners in debt. Since nobody talks about it, none of my friends suspect that some of their other high-income friends are in debt.

It’s a terribly secretive and taboo situation.

Join my FREE Private List on overcoming psychological barriers and living a rich life

Hardly anyone in the personal finance space talks about the psychology of money (barriers, invisible scripts, etc.) Yet, as you can see, these are some of the most powerful forces behind our decisions. If you want more tips like these, I’d love if you joined my FREE Private List.

Each week, I’ll send you:

• Ways to overcome psychological barriers that hold you back
• How to use systems and automation to grow your money on a schedule
• Ways to earn more money using skills you already have
• Much, much more

You can join for free by signing up below:

(Can’t see the above form? Click here.)

This post is part of a series on the Psychology of Money. For more articles on the psychology of money and investor psychology, go to the index page, or follow the links below.

« Why do delusional people think their spending will be different than other people’s?

Psychology of Money

The psychology of making huge career jumps »

]]>

Here are early results from Week 1 (credit cards) of my ongoing Boot Camp.

Last month, I launched the 6-week I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp, which is currently happening on a private site.

I was tired of people reading and reading but not actually taking DOING the necessary steps to dominate their finances, so I put together a six-week Boot Camp to power through the logistics and help people start of 2010 with a fully automated system.

It doesn’t matter how many blogs or books or magazines you read — ultimately, results matter.

A few hundred people decided to invest in themselves to take action.

Let’s see what some of them have done in the first week alone.

She saved $75,000+ on her mortgage

“Refinanced my mortgage from a 5/1 interest only ARM at 6.375% to a 30 year fixed at 5.25%. This will cost me ~$100 more a month, but I am paying ~$120/mo on equity in my house instead of it ALL being interest to the bank. Assuming that my ARM interest rate would have stayed the same (almost certainly would rise with inflationary pressures I see coming) at 6.25%, refinancing to a fixed @ 5.25% will save me $75,106.47 over the life of the loan. This is a CONSERVATIVE estimate!

Thanks, Ramit, for the bootcamp. It made me take ACTION!”
–T. Munroe

Raised credit score

“With a single phone call, I raised my credit limit from $9,000 to $15,300 (even though I asked for $11,000).”
–E. Yee

Uncovered $200 in free gift cards

“I checked my rewards points on my credit card and found out I could redeem $200 dollars worth of gift cards, which could’ve gone without notice.”
–S. Shin

Saved $600/year on car payments

“OK, good one. I refinanced my car to both lower the interest and the monthly. Now I will own the car and have $53 less per month to pay. I can use this to ‘snowball’ the payments on my credit cards. yes!”
–E. Friedman

Started paying off debt

“I have 3 credit cards with 5K spread across them. This week I have finally paid off one credit card (1K) off after having had a balance on it for 3 years. I was grinning with glee as I paid it off on Thursday!! 1 down two more to go. I plan to use the snowball effect to get the next one paid off in the next 6 weeks, making payments every two weeks. This will increase my credit utilization ratio and increase my Fico score. This will help me leaps in bounds as I have learned that my Fico score can save me thousands in interest rates as I prepare to take out student loans to go back to school!! Talk about big picture savings. Andy’s chart really struck home.”
–C. Dewey

This week’s material included:

• A live mini-talk from me on productivity & time-management tactics — with tactics I’ve never released
• A private webcast from ex-MyFico executive Andy Jolls of videocreditscore.com

The Boot Camp is closed, but if you want to get notified when the next one launches in 2010, click here.

]]>

On November 3rd — 7 days from today — I’m launching the first I Will Teach You To Be Rich boot camp, a step-by-step online program to automate and optimize your finances before the end of 2009.

To skip the entire explanation below: Get a preview and new bonuses I’ve never released on entrepreneurship, negotiation, and personal finance at http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/bootcamp

Last week, I asked I Will Teach You To Be Rich readers what you want to do before the end of 2009. Look at the #1 result:

Taking ACTION. Aww yeah…

• One of my readers, Paul, cut 30% off his 30-year mortgage, saving $5,000/year
• Another reader saved $1,455 with two phone calls
• And in a personal example, I took my friend’s advice exactly one year ago and implemented it in a month. Since then, it’s generated tens of thousands of dollars for me

The key is not just learning more, it’s IMPLEMENTING the tips you’ve read about.

So in 7 days, I’m launching the first official I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp to help people invest in themselves — to stop reading and start taking ACTION with their finances.

What’s an online bootcamp?

You’re reading this site, so you’re already dedicated to saving money by focusing on the Big Wins. But there’s more than just saving money — there’s picking the right accounts, earning more, optimizing your spending (including automation).

I’ve put together an online 6-week boot camp that will take you through my entire automation system, including picking the right accounts, creating a plan to pay off debt, opening and funding the right investment accounts, and automating your money.

You want to know how to turn your idea into a business? Have a specific question about your finances or want to get input on a marketing plan? Yep, we’ll cover that.

The bootcamp includes:

• Weekly live classes from me where I’ll kick your ass to take action implementing an advanced automation system, and answer your specific questions (new topics)
• Expert guest speakers on entrepreneurship, finding dream jobs, earning more, and advanced topics — every week (new)
• Curriculum with detailed action steps on saving, earning more, automation, and entrepreneurship — which will let you start 2010 off fresh (some new material)
• Private community with hundreds of other members who are going through the same thing as you (and are dedicated to taking ACTION)

I’m sick of people reading blogs and books and websites and doing nothing. The point is not reading, it’s automating your money, starting to invest, and using conscious spending to live a Rich Life!

Why a bootcamp?

Because there are 2 months left in 2009, and I want to show you how you can make life changes in just 6 weeks. I have tons and tons of examples of people who’ve taken action and gotten out of thousands of debt, started earning more, etc.

I’ve spent months developing the curriculum and building a system that will help you take action on your finances. After all, if you’re going to spend time learning about personal finance, you might as well go the extra step and apply it to your OWN life.

By the end of the bootcamp, I guarantee you’ll have saved money, automated your finances…and stopped worrying about your day-to-day finances.

What you should do

I’ve put together a pre-launch list with tons of bonuses, including a video on how I spilled coffee on my brand-new laptop (and still got over $1,000 reimbursed to me for my mistake), an extremely detailed video on how I helped my friend Susan negotiate $8,000 in a salary negotiation, and MANY other bonuses.

Everyone who signs up for the pre-launch list will get a discount to the bootcamp when it launches on November 3rd.

Sign up instantly for the pre-list here and get 7 days of unreleased bonuses (videos, case studies, and surprises):

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/bootcamp

]]>

My buddy Alan sent me an email with some interesting credit hacks:

“1) If you have a short credit history (like me), get your parents/grandparents to add you as a authorized user on their oldest credit card (you inherit their credit history length)
2) If you have any blemishes in the past (like a single missed payment when you first got your credit card in high school) dispute it right before making a car/house transaction because while that blemish is investigated, it is not counted against you for 30 days (while they investigate it); if the investigation does not get back to you within 30 days, the blemish is gone permanently”

I wanted to check for sure, so I asked another friend, Andy Jolls at videocreditscore.com, who is a former MyFico exec. His reply:

“These are things we called score gaming at myFICO.

FICO ’08 closed the loophole around authorized users to an extent. People were using his method number one to add users to anyone with a strong credit history to get the score boost. FICO ’08 now checks the likelihood it’s an honest auth. user [parent/grand parent, etc. ] and will let the scores intertwine. Yes, it can happen pretty quickly.

http://www.videocreditscore.com/fico-08/

Number 2 is not true, company has to remove it in 30 days if it can’t verify it, but it does count against you while they investigate. Said another way, you send in your dispute on August 1, the company doesn’t need to update your score immediately when they get the dispute. They have 30 days to investigate and respond.

Also, it’s not gone permanently. this is what credit repair shops tout but that’s not right. Scenario: Aug 1, you mail the dispute, Sept 1, they remove the item because they haven’t heard back. Sept 16th, they get verification of the account, so they add it back in. Make sense? Sometimes, it is removed permanently because they never hear back.”

http://www.videocreditscore.com/build-credit-score/

Learn more: Read more about the hidden perks of credit cards.

What credit hacks do you know about?

]]>

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you’re carrying a balance on your credit card, the first thing you should do is call your credit card and negotiate your APR down. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, you can save a ton of money.

I include a call script in Chapters 1 and 2 of my book to do this.

Aaron T. writes:

I was fortunate enough to come out of school with no student loans, but do have $4364.11 in credit card debt over 2 cards. One is $999.03 and the other is 3,365.08. I just started reading your book yesterday, today I called the card with the higher balance to lower my APR from 19.99%. I have had this card for almost 4 years. My Mom had been paying the minimum for a year or so, but since I became full time I took over any other bills my parents were paying. I have paid $200 the last 3 months and my minimum payment is around $89.

Anyways, I just called and asked, (I had to do no negotiating really, I just followed the script you have in your book) and I got my APR lowered from 19.99% to 14.24%, effective immediately.

Basically, the $13.95 my girlfriend paid for your book will more than pay for itself by the time I get my next bill.

See for yourself with full-chapter excerpts of my book.

Then get the book at Amazon or B&N.

This post is part of a series on Credit Card Perks. For more articles on getting value out of your credit cards, go to the index page, or follow the links below.

« More credit card perks you didn’t know about

Credit Card Perks

Get your credit card’s annual fee waived »