March 31, 2009

American Express last week announced a new perk for holders of its consumer charge cards — double Membership Rewards points on gas and grocery purchases for the next year or so. (The program began March 22 and runs through March 15, 2010.) Double points can be earned on up to $1000 of gas and grocery purchases per month.

The increase in rewards is not automatic — American Express consumer charge card holders must either register at www.americanexpress.com/counttwice or call 1-800-794-1308 and use the promotional code 139150001 to receive the extra rewards.

Consumers that sign up for American Express consumer charge cards between April 1, 2009 and June 30, 2009 will get the extra rewards automatically for one year upon approval.

March 6, 2009

In what may be a sign of these tough financial times, Citi has launched a new credit card, the Citi Forward Card, that rewards cardholders for paying on time and staying beneath their credit limits.

Specifically, the Citi Forward offers the opportunity to get a quarter-point reduction in the card’s interest rate every time the cardholder goes three months making on-time payments and staying under the assigned credit line. (Cardholders can get the quarter-point reduction up to eight times, for a total maximum reduction of 2 percentage points. The initial interest rate on the card is 12.24%. (UPDATE: Initial interest rate is now 14.24%.) In addition, the card offers 100 extra Citi ThankYou points each month for these same behaviors.

The Citi Forward’s standard rewards program offers 5 ThankYou Points for every $1 spent on restaurants, books, music and movies, and 1 ThankYou Point for every $1 spent on other purchases.

Concurrent with the launch of the Citi Forward Card came the launch of Citi Forward by MySpace, a card with the same benefits listed above but also rewards its cardholders “for completing socially responsible acts, such as donating to a local food drive, going paperless, switching to energy efficient light bulbs, volunteering and more.”

For more information or to apply, click for the Citi Forward Card or Citi Forward by MySpace.