Citi ThankYou Premier 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 MoneyBlueBook

by Gary Foreman

This article comes from Gary Foreman at The Dollar Stretcher.

Using the right tools for the job

This is the time of year when many people look at their debt situation and shudder. They dream of what it would be like to be out of debt. And, if they're brave, they begin to plan a strategy to reduce the amount of debt they carry.

They'll begin with high hopes, but many of them will quit before reaching their goal. They’re disappointed, discouraged, and defeated.

 Is there something that they could have done differently that would have given them a better chance at success? I think so. If you watch people long enough, you'll see some patterns and learn some lessons. Let's examine some of those lessons.

 You can find all kinds of advice about how to get out of debt. The web is full of the stuff. But, when you boil it all down, there are three things that form a foundation for a get-out-of-debt effort.

 It’s a marathon, not a sprint

First, don't expect immediate results. You won't be getting out of debt in a matter of days or weeks. The only way to eliminate your debts quickly is to inherit a large sum of money, win the lottery, or declare bankruptcy. The first two are unlikely. The third may remove debts quickly, but you'll suffer with a lower credit score for years to come.

 Recognize that it will probably take about as long to get out of debt as it took you 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 »

By Doresa Banning

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

Editor's Note: This offer expired and is no longer available. The Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card, issued by Citibank, is offering a 0 percent APR on both purchases and balance transfers for 18 months. To qualify, any balance transfer must be made within 4 months of opening your account. With this interest-free promotion, you can pay down or off existing debt on one or more credit cards or make and pay off large purchases -- over the 18-month period. Another plus is no annual fee.

Other information:

• See the Citibank online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and features.

Citi Diamond Preferred Card

By Megg Mueller

While it might appear obvious, one of the things I do for a living is research and write about credit cards. And yet, I've been sitting here with a credit card offer in my hands for about 10 days now, and I'm no closer to deciding if I should accept it than I was when I ripped open the envelope.

The offer is to upgrade my Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa, a card I have never used nor do I recall asking for, but got when I opened other B of A accounts. So for about four years, I've had this card I've never used, and all of a sudden I am being offered a Bank of America Cash Rewards Signature Visa. But I don't know if I want it. I can't tell, and that's just sad.

I got four credit card offers in the mail last week, and two via email. TransUnion, the credit scoring agency, reported last week that the number of new cards issued in 2011 rose by 14 percent, according to a story by Eileen AJ Connelly of the Associated Press. Now call me crazy, but that might have something to do with the fact that the Boston Globe reported that 4 billion credit card offers were mailed out last year. The adage "if you throw enough stuff at the wall, something is bound to stick" springs to mind.

Anyway, when I wrote about this for CardRatings.com, the thinking at the time was that banks were loosening their Read the full article »