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How To Make Money From Balance Transfer Credit Cards


How To Make Money From Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Published 5/1/08  (Modified 3/9/11)

By MoneyBlueBook

As regular readers of my personal finance blog may know, I'm an avid credit card user and like to discuss the strategies and tips I use to maximize the credit card rewards I earn. While it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, adopting a responsible multi-credit card carrying approach has allowed me earn quite a bit of cash back income and frequent flyer airline miles from everything I purchase. Other than purchase rewards, credit cards also offer cardholders another very valuable and functional perk - the ability to make balance transfers and take advantage of balance transfer arbitrage. A key deference to the versatility and value of credit cards is the option to use special 0% balance transfer cards to perform a wide array of financial actions that benefit the cardholder. Such actions include the ability to help pay down debt by shifting high interest credit card loans onto 0% balance transfer offers to weather difficult cash-strapped financial times. Even for those blessed with an otherwise debt free lifestyle, balance transfer cards allow the clever arbitrage profit-seeking card holder to make money by taking advantage of special promotional rates.

Balance Transfers Allow You To Take Advantage Of Interest Free Loans For Debt Reduction and Credit Card Arbitrage Purposes

Balance transfer credit cards are key tools in my money management arsenal. Of course, the benefits are clearly tempered by the inevitable hazards. It's the classic opportunity that necessitates the walking of a fine line to chase higher risk rewards. To successfully navigate and perform a balance transfer

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Get A Free Extended Warranty By Purchasing With A Credit Card

Published 4/29/08  (Modified 9/17/13)

By MoneyBlueBook

I'm not a big believer in buying extended warranties or purchasing extra service contracts, so I usually pass whenever I'm asked. This happens more often at big electronic retailer stores like Best Buy and the now defunct Circuit City, where they put in a concerted effort to convince unwitting customers to buy extra protection - that frequently is unnecessary. These stores stand to make a lot of money from selling unnecessary extended service plans that customers oftentimes end up never using. It doesn't really matter how big or small the item you're purchasing, the sales clerks alway seem to inquire if you'd like to purchase additional warranty.

One time I was at Best Buy to pick up something. The young sales lady rung up my purchase and asked if I would like to buy additional warranty protection for my item - a dinky little $15 Sony handheld FM radio - just in case it ever broke down or ever malfunctioned as she explained. I just stared back with a slightly sarcastic but incredulous look. Special warranty protection upgrade - for a simple $15 radio? Who in their right mind would pay $3 extra to insure a flimsy $15 piece of electronic? If it ever broke down I'd rather go and buy a newer model than get it repaired.

With Some Exceptions, Since Most Products Come With Their Own Warranties, It Usually Doesn't Make Sense To Purchase More Protection

The vast majority of the time you are better off not wasting your money on extended warranty protections. Most

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Credit card debt pay off made easy with right use of your balance transfer credit cards

Published 4/27/08  (Modified 12/19/13)

By MoneyBlueBook

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, these offers have expired and are no longer available.

People utilize balance transfer credit cards for a myriad of reasons such as making money from balance transfer and credit card arbitrage, to paying down and reducing high interest debt by applying for zero percent to low interest credit card offers. While those trying to make money from multiple balance transfers are usually more focused on finding no fee 0% offers that last up to a year long, those trying to pay down credit card debt generally have a much longer time horizon span in mind. My focus here is to provide some practical help to those struggling with high interest credit card debt, and help them find more manageable ways of relieving and resolving this financial burden.

Compared to other forms of loans, credit card debt is particularly hard to handle because it is usually associated with high interest rates in excess of 15-20% or more depending on your credit score and credit report history. The longer the credit card debt remains unpaid, the more interest continues to accrue, and the quicker the balance can balloon out of control. That's why it is important to make a concerted effort towards paying off the debt through regular payment increments. The key to making higher sums of unpaid credit card debt more palatable while you chip away at it is to shift those high interest debts over to accounts that provide lower rates. This can be accomplished either by shifting the card

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How To Get A Free Laptop or Plasma TV Through Gift Reward Websites

Published 4/18/08  (Modified 3/9/11)

By MoneyBlueBook

If you've ever encountered sites on the internet that claimed to offer brand new laptop computers, mp3 players, or even plasma TV's for free, I'm sure most of you jumped to the immediate conclusion that they must all be scams. Well, on some level you may be correct and your initial instincts serve you well. But the misleading deception is not that they don't actually give out laptops, it's that these so-called free laptop offers do require some up front financial commitment and mandatory participation in a few monthly subscription programs. However, if you have a keen eye for seeking out deals that require the least amount of out-of-pocket effort, and know how to manipulate the rules by taking advantage of free trial offers, it's possible to walk away with a brand new laptop for only a fraction of its fair market value.

What I'm about to share may be time consuming and require almost anal, obsessive compulsive organizational skills, but the potential payoff at the end is quite substantial. For those of you who need the laptop or fancy electronic gadget right away, you probably won't have the patience for what this process demands. The procedure takes some time to complete and requires a lot of waiting - up to four months usually from start to finish. To successfully game the system and earn your almost free reward product you will need to be detail-oriented and willing to exercise patience and follow directions to the letter. If you follow these instructions, you should be able

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ING Direct Referral Links For New Savings Account Bonuses

Published 4/16/08  (Modified 3/22/11)

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated and Verified List Of ING Direct Referral Links To Get Your Free $25

Some of the best high interest online banks are well known for offering generous free money promotions when it comes to new account sign ups. ING Direct online bank has always been one of the best when it comes to that. ING Direct referral links are frequently sought after by those who want to grab one of the free $25 bonuses for new ING Direct savings and Orange checking accounts. If you are looking for a referral link to earn some bonus sign up money, you've come to the right place. On this page you will find continuously updated and fresh ING referral codes.

ING Direct Customers Can Offer Their Friends $25 ING Direct Bonuses For New Account Sign Ups

For those of you who want to know how personal finance bloggers are always coming up with a seemingly endless supply of ING Direct referral links for sign-up bonuses, we get them online from our ING Direct bank accounts. Once you are a member and account holder, ING offers you the ability to create referral links that you can hand out to friends and family. You are supposed to email the referral links directly to someone you know, but what many bloggers do is email a whole bunch of them to themselves and manually extract the referral link codes off of each individual referral e-mail and post them together in one self service location. So that's what I've done for you

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The 6 Best Credit Cards According To CNN Money

Published 4/12/08  (Modified 1/7/14)

By MoneyBlueBook

This week, CNN Money posted an article that introduced a short list of what it believed to be the top 6 credit cards. Because the selection of credit cards is somewhat subjective and dependent on individual spending habits and desired balance of rewards and interest rate perks, CNN chose to limit its selection to the top card pick for 6 basic credit categories: the best balance transfer card, the best card for big spenders, the best card for low spenders, the best card for those who travel and fly a lot, the best card to help you save for retirement, and the best card for lazy people perhaps new to credit cards.

Personally I don't think these categories are entirely representative of what consumers tend to apply for, but then again, I usually tend to ignore perks like low interest offers (I pay my entire balance every month) and usually go for more lucrative purchase rebates. I would have added more card categories broken down into particular types of purchase perks, like grocery rewards, dining rewards, and gas rebates. However, it was interesting to see what CNN viewed as the top six in the categories they delineated.

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