Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express

By Doresa Banning

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, this offer expired and is no longer available.

The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express is a rewards card aimed at those who frequently travel and stay at Starwood hotels and resorts. With it, you earn Starpoints, which are redeemable toward nights at more than 1,100 Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) properties and flights on more than 350 airlines with SPG Flights, and there are no blackout dates.

Features:

• Starpoints® bonus: earn up to 25,000 bonus points: 10,000 after your first purchase and another 15,000 after you spend $5,000 within the first 6 months of Cardmembership
• That’s enough for a weekend getaway to a Category 4 Hotel like the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa, or six free nights at a Category 2 Hotel
• Earn up to 5 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases at participating SPG hotels and resorts – that’s 2 Starpoints for using the Card in addition to the Starpoints you earn as an SPG member. Earn 1 Starpoint for all other purchases.
• Free Hotel Nights: redeem Starpoints at over 1,100 hotels in nearly 100 countries worldwide — with no blackout dates
• Free Flights: redeem Starpoints on over 350 airlines with SPG Flights — with no blackout dates
• Get 5,000 bonus Starpoints after you transfer 20,000 Starpoints to a frequent flyer program with more than 30 airlines
• No limits on the number of Starpoints you can earn
• $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65
• Terms and Restrictions apply

Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express

By Doresa Banning

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, this offer expired and is no longer available.

With the AccountNow Prepaid MasterCard, you put money on the card and use it to pay bills and make purchases everywhere MasterCard is accepted, allowing you to avoid interest and debt.

Features:

• $25 bonus with free direct deposit
• $20 for referring a friend to AccountNow
• No credit check
• No minimum balance

Fees:

• No card activation fee
• No bill pay fee
• $9.95 monthly maintenance fee (waived when $2,500 is loaded on the card in the previous 30 days)
• $2.50 ATM transaction fee
• $1 ATM balance inquiry
• $2.95 paper statement fee (online statements are free)
• See card offer for full terms and conditions

AccountNow Prepaid MasterCard

By Doresa Banning

If you want to earn more points with your purchases, consider the Chase Sapphire Card. Rewards are redeemable for travel, gift cards, merchandise, cash back and more, and there is currently an introductory offer for bonus points too.

Chase Sapphire Card

By Doresa Banning

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, this offer expired and is no longer available.

The Citi ThankYou® Premier Card is ideal if you charge a lot to your card and want to earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards, travel rewards, cash, electronics and more.

Features:

• Earn up to 50,000 bonus ThankYou® Points. Bonus points are redeemable for up to $500 in gift cards, up to $625 for airfare or other great rewards
• Earn 20,000 points after $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
• Earn an additional 30,000 points after another $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of your second year of being a cardmember
• Earn 3 ThankYou Points for every $1 spent on purchases for dining at restaurants and entertainment
• Earn 2 ThankYou Points for every $1 spent on purchases for airfare and hotels
• Earn 1 ThankYou Point per $1 spent on other purchases
• Points do not expire and earn unlimited Thank You Points
• Travel with ease and enjoy chip based technology

Fees:

• $125 annual fee; fee waived for the first 12 months*
• See card offer for full terms and conditions

Citi ThankYou Premier Card

By Aaron Crowe

Every year seems to bring new headaches when filing taxes, with some deductions expiring and others being added. The changes help keep accountants employed.

Whether you're hiring a professional or doing your taxes yourself -- either on paper or through a computer program -- it's a good idea to know about the tax code changes so you can claim everything you're entitled to and get your tax refund fast.

The Bush tax cuts, for example, expire at the end of this year, making filing taxes this year relatively easy when compared with all of the changes coming next year. Here are some of the changes to be aware of and how they'll affect your tax filings for the 2011 tax year:

Retirement

The expiration of the Bush tax cuts could lead to higher tax rates next year, so converting an old IRA to a Roth IRA in 2012 could be a smart move if you expect to have a higher tax rate in retirement than you do now. Contributions in pretax dollars to a traditional IRA are deductible now, and withdrawals are taxable. With a Roth, the taxes are paid upfront and you won't owe income taxes on withdrawals when you retire.

Conversions from a traditional IRA to a Roth can lead to a high tax bill, with taxes on 2011 conversions due now. For people who used the special tax break in 2010 that allowed a conversion and the tax payments to be spread over two years, the Read the full article »

By Justin Boyle

Personal finance advisors can suggest all kinds of ways for you to get the debt monkey off your back. Most of these methods use a sort of technological approach to your money struggles, like negotiating zero percent balance transfers between credit cards or making use of budgeting software like QuickBooks and Excel.

A few friends of mine in Austin, the free-spirited and unorthodox capital city of Texas, are taking a considerably low-tech approach to money management that's proving impressively effective. They are, if you can believe it, carrying cash.

The story of the cash renaissance

It might come across as odd that Austin, known in some circles as "Silicon Hills" for its booming tech industry, is serving as an incubator of what seems like a technological step backwards when it comes to personal finance management. According to my Austin friends, though, the decision to switch from plastic to paper came about like a lot of things do in the birthplace of Whole Foods Market: organically.

Austin is home to a thriving culture of street food, served hot and fresh-made out of converted motor homes, trailers and ice cream trucks that aren't all credit-card ready. Additionally, many of the mom-and-pop taquerias in Austin's booming East Cesar Chavez district also subscribe to the policy of cash and cash alone at the register.

As these friends of mine started carrying cash to enhance their access to the world Read the full article »