May 14th, 2009
During an informal poll of several small-to-mid-level Adwords advertisers, one of the discussions turned to their favorite credit cards. Unsurprisingly, most of the cards we listed as the best credit cards for Adwords made the cut. The Plum Card, one of those we featured, turned up as the overwhelming favorite. Let’s see why.
The Plum Card has two major benefits going for it:
1. It offers a 1.5% rebate for all bills settled within 10 days.
2. If you make just 10% of your payment on time, you can defer the remaining payment for up to 60 days.
Once I read those, everything just made sense. It is, indeed, a tremendous benefit to Adwords advertisers. A lot of Adwords advertisers I know max out their credit cards within a week, some even after five days. As such, they need to pay off all credit charges incurred in the first place. The Plum Card essentially rewards them with a 1.5% rebate for something they’ll be doing in the regular course of business anyway.
The 10% payment makes it convenient if you do run into cashflow trouble, essentially allowing you to float your spending with just a minimum of liquid funds. As a former manager of Adwords campaigns, I can understand the occasional need for this. As long as you don’t make it a habit, it offers plenty of flexibility.
What’s the price of this convenience? Pretty steep, as it turns out. The Plum Card comes with a whopping $185 annual fee, along with pretty stiff penalties. As an Amex Business card, the Plum Card comes with all usual privileges, including discounts at numerous hotels, merchants and car rentals.
It’s a bad idea for a consumer card, but a veritable godsend for PPC advertisers.
April 4th, 2009
If you have a cash-back card but can’t squeeze the most value out of it because most of your purchases are either in non-major categories or you can’t meet the cutoffs, Bank of America’s, American Express-branded Accelerated Cash Rewards Card just might prove a good alternative. There aren’t much perks to it, just standard cash returns on a regular schedule, but that might be all you’re looking for.
Instead of having to shop in set categories to maximize your cash back, this card gives you a flat rate for all purchases. There is no minimum spending to reach a certain quota nor are there are no caps to how much rebates you can earn. In fact, it’s a great card for those who don’t want to be hop through obstacles in order to maximize their credit card’s value. Every time you use it, you get the most that you can from it.
Rebates are given out at a flat 1.25% across all categories. There are no limits to how little or how much you can earn. You can get your cash back in the form of a check, direct into your credit card statement or deposited into your Bank Of America account. APR is average for these types of cards, offering between 8.99% to 18.99%. There’s no annual fee as well.
If there are certain consumer categories that take the bulk of your spending and you find cards that offer better rates than 1.25% for them (without all the hoop-chasing), they will probably be better options. If you think specialty cash back cards like those doesn’t benefit you as much, the Bank Of America Accelerated Cash Rewards Amex Card will probably suit you better.
February 28th, 2009
In what can only be described as a pretty desperate risk management directive, American Express is now offering customers $300 to pay off their balance and close their account by April 30th of this year. You read that right. They want you to pay your debt in full and cut the card. In exchange, you’ll get three a gift card with three Bejamins worth of spending power for your trouble.
With the economic downturn, more and more credit card holders are defaulting on their credit cards. If you carry multiple cards and keep running balances on each one, chances are now pretty good that you’ll end up defaulting on payments at some point. American Express is looking to nip that in the bud, hopefully, while you still have a source of income.
I’m not sure if this happened before but it does create a pretty odd situation. Put simply, they want to drive customers away. However, present circumstances have probably altered the definition of a high-risk customer and with the economy as it is, trying to prevent a disaster before it happens might be most prudent.
American Express appears to be sending the offer to all customers that fall into the above criteria - multiple cards with balances. If you’ve been looking to cut off some credit cards to better manage your finances, this actually sounds like a good offer, allowing you to keep a small amount of cash in the process. It could prove a disaster for your credit score, though. Remember, closing a line of credit can lower your score. Now, imagine closing two or three credit cards before the end of April - you can just imagine the possible repercussion.
February 8th, 2009
As we’ve written about previously, many credit cards offer extended warranties on products you buy which frequently render in-store warranty an unnecessary waste of money. This guide lists the different warranties you can expect, depending on which credit card company you’re working with.
American Express
The company’s Buyer’s Assurance Plan is a feature available on all American Express-branded credit cards. They are generally considered the best warranty offering on any credit card, with a convenient claims procedure and little restrictions in the form of time constraints.
Under this plan, Amex will match the original warranty and extend it (if it is five years or less), depending on certain criteria. If you bought additional warranty from either the store or the manufacturer, you lose eligibility for an Amex warranty if the total coverage you already have exceeds the five year limit.
If you bought a laptop using your Amex card, for instance, with an accompanying one-year warranty from the manufacturer, Amex will cover you for the same period which effectively extends your protection for another year.
Discover
If you’re shopping with a Discover credit card, you’re pretty much out of luck as the company doesn’t provide any warranties for purchases its cardholders make. Personally, I find extended warranties on credit cards an indispensable benefit so I highly suggest shopping for either an Amex, with their Buyer’s Assurance Plan, a Visa or a Mastercard.
We’ll write about Visa and Mastercard’s warranty services tomorrow so make sure you come back if you want to know more.
January 29th, 2009
We’ve already clued you in on the best credit cards for search marketing in general and for MSN’s Adcenter network. As you can see, PPC marketers can get a lot of value simply by picking their credit cards wisely.
If you find yourself using Yahoo’s ad network more so than the others, you will definitely be rewarded by using an American Express credit card. The company’s Open Network Business credit cards give cardholders over 5% in cash back benefits when you use it to buy spots through Yahoo Search Marketing. The special partnership between Yahoo and Amex affords you considerable rebates not only in YSM, but in all of the company’s website-related services which include hosting, domain registration and more.
If you’ve suddenly found the urge to get an Amex card upon learning this, let us suggest the following offers that you may find considerably appealing. All three cards offer the standard Amex Open Network benefits, which include discounts and freebies on hotel reservations, car rentals and plane tickets.
Blue Cash For Business
This card, designed for big spenders, offers a tiered 5% cash back for special categories (gas, groceries and medicines) plus an additional 2% for your PPC expenses and other purchases. All that on top of the 5% rebates available directly from Amex and this is one serious money-saver for YSM advertisers.
Amex Business Gold Rewards
Used properly, this card can net you as much as 25% savings off your business expenses - an incredibly attractive feature you will rarely find in many other offerings. Even better, there are no caps on the amount and duration on the reward points that you accumulate.
Amex Simply Cash For Business
This card gives you 5% cash back on wireless services (internet, cellphone) and office supplies (including computers). It offers 3% rebates on gas and 1% for everything else. With no annual fee and no rewards limit, this is hard to beat for anyone who chooses to do business with YSM.
