Review of Citi Private Pass Rewards by Citi Card

By MoneyBlueBook

As a big fan of the Citi Thank You rewards program offered by Citibank for its credit card customers, I thought I was pretty well honed on all of the user benefits and purchase rewards that Citi Card had to offer. However, there's a relatively less publicized reward program that current Citi credit card and Citi debit Mastercard members are entitled to that many are not aware of. The reward program is called Citi Private Pass. The Citi PrivatePass program itself is totally free to existing Citi Card customers to the extent that there are no extra monthly membership fees required to join. The only participation cost to you is when you actually decide to purchase reward tickets to desired events via the Citi Private Pass program. The tickets feature heavily discounted prices (or sometimes are even provided free courtesy of Citi Private Pass), but oftentimes you'll still have to pay a small portion out of pocket .

Unlike Citibank's well known and popular Citi ThankYou purchase incentive feature, which tends to focus on more tangible gift card and cash based rewards that you can accrue through daily card purchases, the Citi PrivatePass program is devoted almost exclusively to entertainment and experience based offers - providing its participants special access to free and cheap tickets to unique concerts, dining experiences, and popular sporting events. The Citi Private Pass program is not a separate card, but rather a rewards program already available to existing Citi Card customers.

By MoneyBlueBook

As the economic paddy wagon continues to hee and haw its way through the recessionary mud, once available avenues of emergency funds are steadily drying up. Credit card consumers and account holders across the nation may have noticed that they are receiving fewer credit card junk mail in their mailboxes these days. While this reduction in the volume of paper junk mail received may be counted as a blessing, it's also a sign that the once bountiful availability of lucrative 0% APR credit card offers are slowly coming to an untimely end. Due to the deterioration of the mortgage and credit industries, major credit card issuers such as Citi Card, Chase, Bank of America, American Express, and Discover have significantly pulled back their credit card marketing efforts and drastically reduced the quantity and quality of introductory 0% balance transfers offered.

Currently, the most popular 0% balance transfer card offers that still remain in effect today include the following short list of active promotions. As always, before applying for a balance transfer card, it's important to read the fine print carefully and be fully cognizant of the advertised 0% rate duration, the availability of any balance transfer fees, the regular interest rate after the end of the 0% period, and the availability of any underlying cash back or credit card reward offers.

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated List Of FICO Discounts and Free FICO Score Offers Below!

Welcome to my FICO coupon deals, promotional discounts, and exclusive myFICO.com web bargains page. Here you will find a regularly updated list of myFICO coupons and promo codes to help you save money on genuine FICO score products. To ensure that you get credit for the myFICO promotion offer that you seek, make sure to visit the desired link below and follow the appropriate coupon redemption instructions. Also, it would be of great help to myself and fellow readers if you'd post a comment below about any new myFICO.com coupon codes or special discount offers not already listed, as well as bring to our attention any myFICO promo codes mentioned below that may have already expired.

As we all know, credit scores are numerical representations of credit worthiness, and are one of the most determinative factors that mortgage lenders and major banks base their approval decisions on. While there are several credit score variations out there, the most popular and widely used is the FICO. As American consumers, we each have a total of 3 FICO credit scores - one from each of the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion). While the three FICO scores are derived from the same proprietary formula, differences in credit reporting data often cause the individual scores to differ somewhat from each other. Routinely checking one's credit score (whether via a credit monitoring program or via manual credit score pulls) is a recommended activity in this modern

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated Review Of Ways To Get Your Experian FICO Credit Score Now

For credit report and FICO credit score junkies like myself, I was completed stunned and floored when I heard the official announcement that the Experian credit reporting agency would no longer be making its Experian FICO credit score available to consumers from hereon, effective February 14, 2009 (Valentine's Day no less). However, in an odd marketing twist, the Experian FICO scores would continue to be made available to lenders and businesses - just not to the hapless consumers who are actually concerned about their own personal finances.

For those who work hard at monitoring their credit reports and credit scores, and take diligent steps to ensure the maintenance of perpetually high FICO's, this news release exploded into our midst like a cruel bomb shell. So am I overreacting or is this move by Experian as significant as I'm seemingly making it out to be?

Lack Of Access To Experian FICO Credit Scores Ultimately Favors Lenders and Hurts Consumers

At a time when banks have grown extra stingy when it comes to lending money and it's becoming even more important for consumers like you and I to monitor our credit reports and credit scores regularly, we are now losing yet another option of doing so. Experian is one of the three major credit reporting agencies that maintain massive historical databases of how individuals and businesses handle credit usage responsibilities. Fair Isaac Corporation is the company that developed the popular and widely used FICO credit score,

By Joe Taylor Jr.

That pirate band from the seafood restaurant has changed its tune. For years, singer-songwriter Eric Violette portrayed the harried lead singer of a musical group forced into a series of dead end jobs and sticky situations because they didn't keep close enough watch over their credit reports. When new federal rules prohibited credit bureaus from marketing "free credit reports" in conjunction with subscription services came out these commercials disappeared from the airways.

Since nearly everything today from getting a mortgage, applying for a credit card, and even getting a job depends on your credit score, where can you get free information about your credit?

Not from the government

Free FICO scores aren't included in the government mandated credit reports offered by AnnualCreditReport.com. That's because the contents of your free credit report are facts, while any credit score results from passing those facts through proprietary risk equations. Although lawmakers like to debate over rules that would make credit scores free to consumers, it still costs money to see the same three-digit numbers that banks use to determine creditworthiness.

Even though most free credit score websites don't offer access to "real" FICO scores, the credit models they use closely resemble the scores that lenders would see when reviewing your credit profile.

So where are good places to look to get your credit score?

By MoneyBlueBook

Borrow Money Or Invest In Interest Earning P2P Loans With Lending Club

With the lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve in response to the current economic climate to the lowest levels we have seen in years, the interest rates offered by high yield savings accounts and high interest certificate of deposits are now simply not as attractive as they once were, only a few years ago. With the stock market still suffering from unstable price swings and massive volatility across all sectors, it makes present day sense to look towards alternative investment ideas to make some money.

While I have been a quiet Lending Club member for a few years now since the online company opens its doors to loan investors, I haven't felt the need to review the program until now. Until recently, the top high yield savings account and best CD rates at most banking institutions offered a reliably consistent rate of return on deposits. But with market turmoil ever present and the specter of worsening bank failures looming, I've begun to turn my attention to other investment possibilities in an attempt to diversify my portfolio risk and seek a higher rate of return. The ability to earn a reasonably competitive interest income with the added ability to diversify risk via peer to peer lending networks like Lending Club and Prosper is becoming more and more attractive. At the very least, P2P lending programs offer potential profit seeking investors like myself the ability to play the role of the