The good people at Synovate Mail Monitor spend their working lives tracking and analysing the credit card offers that are mailed to consumers. It’s not a career that would suit everyone, and its hard to imagine that they get many gate-crashers at their Christmas parties, but they do valuable work.

For example, last month they revealed that, during the second quarter of 2010, U.S. households were in receipt of 640.3 million credit card offers, which was 83 percent up on the same time in 2009. During that 2010 quarter, Chase sent out four times as many solicitations as it did during the same period last year, and Citi tripled its mailings between the first and second quarters of this year.

Credit card companies that think you’re a business

Even if you’re retired or an employee, you may have found among the piles of junk mail you’ve received recently a couple of solicitations for business credit cards. That’s odd. Credit card companies are famous for their slick marketing, and it’s not generally like them to buy in the sort of poor quality mailing list that has you down as a business when you’re not.

Well, mystery solved. There’s a good chance that the issuers that sent those business credit card offers knew you weren’t a business. And they wanted you to sign up for those cards in spite of that.

Credit cards for businesses

Why would a card issuer want you, a consumer, to take a card that’s designed for businesses? Simple. Business credit cards were specifically excluded from last year’s Credit CARD Act. So all those extra protections you now have concerning credit card rates, fees, payment cycles and so on won’t apply to the business card that you’re being offered.

Small wonder that Synovate Mail Monitor says that the volume of business credit card mailings jumped 256 percent between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) wrote to the Federal Reserve last Wednesday, asking it to look into these solicitations, and to crack down on card issuers that may be tricking consumers into signing credit card applications for inappropriate corporate products. It was a worthy initiative, but, judging from the Fed’s responses to previous pleas to side with consumers against banks, he might just as well have waited until December, and sent a note to Santa.

Credit cards for businesses can be good

Of course, if you are a businessperson then a corporate credit card can be a valuable tool. Most credit card companies offer some form of business card, but perhaps American Express is most famous for them.

Two products that are worth exploring further are the TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express and one which carries a great deal of prestige, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN.

Students and credit cards

Thank heavens for the Credit CARD Act of 2009. Not only did it stop credit card companies from employing all sorts of dubious marketing practices to lure students into signing up for cards they didn’t need, but it also says that those who are under 21 years old can only get a card if an adult co-signs the agreement–unless, that is, the youngster can prove that he or she has enough independent income to make repayments unaided. Parents across America heaved a collective sigh of relief when that law was passed.

But they sighed too soon. This is credit card regulation. And that means, of course, that no loophole goes unexploited. So it’s no surprise that some card issuers’ armies of lawyers have already circumvented the law.

Credit card regulation fails again

When the act was signed, consumer advocates begged the regulator, the Federal Reserve (who else?), to define what constituted an “independent ability to make required minimum payments.” It refused. And they asked it to force companies to verify whether or not students making credit card applications really had the resources they needed to support the card. It turned down that one too.

So at least one big bank says that it will issue credit cards to students under 21 years old if they have an annual income of…$2,000 or more. And it will count parental contributions, grants, and scholarships when it calculates that income. Oh, and it won’t ask for any proof.

Adam Levin, who used to be director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, told The Washington Post, Friday, that, before the Credit CARD Act: “If you were a student and you could fog a mirror, you could get a credit card.” It looks like nothing has changed.

Student credit cards–some responsible ways forward

Assuming that you’d prefer your beloved offspring not to be lured into a debt trap, your first step is to avoid telling her or him about this loophole. What, you’ve never covered up an uncomfortable truth for a good reason before?

Then act as if the law is working just fine. If your child is financially responsible, you could offer to co-sign a credit card application for a specialist student product, such as the Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card for College Students or the Discover® Mix Tape Student Card.

However, you risk your own credit score taking a ding if the fruit of your loins defaults. So, if you think there’s a real chance of that happening, you could opt for a secured credit card, such as the Public Savings Bank Secured Card. These require a deposit to be paid up front (think of it as a security deposit on an apartment rental), but have the advantage of allowing youngsters to build up their own credit scores while keeping them well away from yours. Just make sure that the card you choose reports to all three of the big credit bureaus.

Of course, the safest route is to opt for a prepaid card. These don’t report activity to anyone, and shouldn’t allow a student to access any credit at all. But some of them have very high fees, so shop around. A good choice for many is The Mango™ MasterCard® Prepaid Card.

Credit card regulation failing?

Did you think that last year’s wave of credit card regulation would finally stop card issuers from gouging their customers? Well, you were half right. Most mainstream credit card companies have stopped their worst excesses. But at the industry’s fringes are players who stay within the law while still allegedly managing to exploit vulnerable customers.

That was the message of an editorial, headlined “The Customer Always Comes Last,” in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times. It accused the credit card companies‘ regulator, the Federal Reserve Board, of coddling the industry, and went on: “Watchdog groups say that companies are already eagerly exploiting gray areas in the law, either by concocting new charges or relabeling old, disallowed charges.”

Credit card companies that walk a fine line

The Times’ editorial picked up on a story in Saturday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which explored credit card deals offered by First Premier Bank of North Dakota. The report, written by Jim Gallagher, made depressing reading.

This blog exposed First Premier’s credit card deals well over a year ago, but it’s worth revisiting them. These subprime products are intended for customers who have poor credit reports, and the bank makes an excellent point when it says that it has to charge high credit card rates and fees in order to balance the risk posed by lending to such individuals. However, some think that its product does these people more harm than good.

Credit card rates and fees designed to exploit?

This morning, the bank’s website clearly lays out (providing you click the right link) what prospective customers are letting themselves in for. It says that its credit card rates for purchases stand at 59 percent APR. And it lists the fees it charges, which include a one-time processing fee of $45, and a $75 annual fee, which, for the first year, is payable on opening the account.

So, someone making a successful credit card application to First Premier who is given a $250 credit limit has an available balance of $130 when the card arrives. And, if they can’t pay that off in one go, they are charged interest at 59 percent on the $120 opening balance–even if they never use the card.

This seems to represent a recent improvement in the bank’s credit card terms. The Post-Dispatch story told of a customer with a $250 limit whose first statement arrived with $179 in fees, leaving her with an available balance of $71.

Alternatives

First Premier describes its product as: “Your second chance for a credit card…”. But is it your best second chance? Jim Gallagher suggests that those with bad credit reports would be better off with secured credit cards. These require you to deposit a sum of money with the bank upfront, rather as you do with a security deposit when you rent a home. You get it back when the account is closed or when the bank migrates you to an unsecured credit card.

The advantage of these cards over prepaid cards is that you get to rebuild your credit score. Just make sure that your card issuer reports to all three of the major credit bureaus. There are many unsecured credit cards out there, and some of them charge high fees and rates, so take care when selecting one.

The Applied Bank® Secured Visa® Credit Card and the New Millennium Bank Secured Gold Visa® or Mastercard® are well worth checking out. And the Public Savings Bank Secured Card seems a particularly fine product.

New Credit Card Rules

This Sunday, August 22, will see the implementation by the Federal Reserve of the latest set of rules to arise from the Credit CARD Act of 2009. Many credit card companies have preempted this deadline by introducing the changes in advance, but here are the new rights that you should be enjoying this time next week.

Credit Card Late Fees

At the moment, you may well be charged up to $39 if you’re late making a payment, regardless of the amount you should have sent as a minimum payment. From Sunday, late payment fees are capped at the amount of the minimum payment and cannot exceed $25 no matter how much was due (so if you should have paid $10, then that’s how much you can be charged as a late fee).

There are two exceptions to this:

• If you’ve already paid late on one or more occasions over the previous six months, the fee cap rises to $35, regardless of the minimum payment due.
• If your credit card company can prove that your lateness has cost it more than the cap (something that seems unlikely, but possible), it is entitled to charge you more.

Other Fees on Credit Cards

Two of Sunday’s other new rules also affect fees:

1. Lack of credit card use is no longer penalized because issuers aren’t able to charge inactivity fees. However, this may not prevent a company cancelling your card if you fail to use it often enough.
2. Issuers can no longer charge more than one fee for a single event or transaction that breaches your credit card terms and conditions.

Credit Card Rates

From Sunday, credit card rates can no longer be hiked without explanation. If your issuer does increase your rate, it must tell you why, and re-evaluate the increase after six months. Unless there is a good reason for it not to do so, it should then reduce the rate within 45 days.

Credit Card Regulation–Good or Bad?

The great debate about credit card regulation divides neatly along ideological lines. Some argue that the government is ill-equipped to interfere in private enterprises, and should leave the market to determine which practices are acceptable and which aren’t. Others say that the market for cards is inherently impure because few consumers can make fully informed choices when they select their cards. They contend that some issuers set out deliberately to confuse those making credit card applications, and then go on to pursue predatory lending policies.

Both sides can make compelling points, but one argument that appears not to be valid is that raised by industry lobbyists when legislators were originally considering the bill. Those lobbyists suggested that the new law might undermine companies’ business models, and force them to cut back on credit card rewards programs.

But the New York Times reported July 30 that banks’ profits from credit cards are again rising. And, a couple of weeks ago, this column quoted Andrew Davidson, a Mintel Comperemedia senior vice president, as saying that rewards have not been watered down.

Credit Card Rewards–Some Top Picks

If you’re on the look out for a particularly good credit card rewards program, these three are highly regarded by many:

• Chase Freedom Card
• Citi ForwardSM Card
• Chase Ink Bold

Credit Card Debt Down–Yet Again

Let’s start with the good news. The Federal Reserve published Friday its latest statistical release about consumer credit. The figures, which relate to June, show that “revolving credit” (nearly all of which is credit card debt) was down again that month, and now stands at $826.5 billion. Out of the last 21 months, according to the Los Angeles Times, this form of debt has fallen 19 times.

Given that the Fed reckons that outstanding revolving credit stood at $958.1 billion in 2008, that means that Americans have paid back about $131.6 billion to credit card companies in two years, right? Wrong. As this column has pointed out previously (and the Philadelphia Inquirer confirmed last month), a large proportion of the reduction is accounted for by “charge offs”, which is what the industry calls debt that it writes off because it’s uncollectible and passes to collection agencies.

In fact, the Inquirer says that, in the first quarter of 2010, about 40 percent of the apparent reductions in credit card balances was actually accounted for by charge offs. And some think that’s a conservative estimate. Still, if you make the assumption (and statisticians are likely to abuse you if you do) that 60 percent of the last two years’ reductions were genuine pay downs, that still means that Americans have paid off their credit cards to the tune of nearly $80 billion.

Credit Reports and Children

At least your young children don’t have to worry about their credit card debt and credit reports, do they? Again, the answer, regrettably, is a qualified Wrong. Because, last week, a number of newspapers covered a story about the growing incidence of people stealing children’s identities, and running up debts in their names.

This grizzly trend is apparently enabled by the current social security number (SSN) system. Apparently, criminal gangs now use a combination of public sources and online trawls to identify SSNs that currently have no credit record attached to them. They can then steal that identity in order to borrow money.

Of course, children’s SSNs generally go unused for at least 16 years, which makes them especially vulnerable to this crime, and the Christian Science Monitor says that seven percent or more of all identity theft cases that are reported affect these youngsters.

If you’re tempted to check your kids’ credit reports, the Monitor cautions that you might be making things even worse. In doing so, you could create a credit file in their names, which may make them even more vulnerable to identity thieves.

Credit Scores and College

What if your son or daughter is off to college, and has a credit card application turned down because of identity theft? Well, the first thing is to report it, and the web sites of both the Identity Theft Resource Center and the Federal Trade Commission provide advice about what to do.

However, it’s likely to take some time to resolve the matter, and during that period, you may have to:

• Issue an authorized card in his or her name on one of your own accounts, which may–depending on the child–involve a leap of faith too far, or
• Find one of the better secured credit cards, which requires a deposit, but could count toward building a credit score while the identity theft is being sorted out, or
• Source a good prepaid credit card, though you need to be careful about high fees with these

Among the best of the last two types of product are:

1. Secured credit cards: Public Savings Bank Secured Card
2. Prepaid cards: The Mango™ MasterCard® Prepaid Card

Credit Card Rewards Remain Robust

Remember when credit card companies were lobbying Congress to water down the bill that eventually became the Credit CARD Act of 2009? One of their arguments was that the legislation would undermine their business models so much that they’d be forced to cut back their rewards programs.

Well, the resulting credit card regulation has largely been in effect for some time now, and guess what? Credit card rewards are booming.

Credit Card Offers Take Off

Mintel, a specialist company that tracks direct marketing activity, said last Thursday that American consumers received 1.1 billion credit card offers in the mail during the second quarter of 2010. That compares with 419 million during the same period last year. And, of those mailed during the later period, 80 percent featured rewards programs.

Andrew Davidson, a Mintel Comperemedia senior vice president, commented:

It wasn’t long ago that we were speculating about the return of annual fees, the disappearance of teaser rates and the watering down of rewards programs, as card issuers attempted to maintain profits in the face of restrictive new regulations. As the dust settles on the CARD Act, we continue to see evidence that this isn’t happening.

Credit Card Rewards–Changing Trends

On Monday, the New York Times pointed out how some credit card companies are re-engineering their rewards programs. In particular, offers for credit cards that provide frequent flier miles are now coming up with some very attractive deals, including access to lounges, free bag check-in, and industrial quantities of introductory bonus miles. These can be great if you travel a lot.

However, the Times suggests that this new generosity may be a response to growing disillusionment among frequent fliers over the difficulties many encounter when redeeming miles on popular routes at busy times. This may be forcing credit card companies and their partner airlines to up their games.

Cash Back Credit Card Deals

The following day’s Times carried another article about credit cards, and this one quoted an industry expert who said that many may be better off with a cash back card than a frequent flier one. His reason? Airlines seem more ready to tinker with their programs. The expert went on to say, “With cash back there’s much less risk of the redemption level changing before you redeem your reward.”

If you’d prefer to take the safer route, here are three cash back credit card deals that are well worth exploring further. None of them has an annual fee.

Blue Cash® from American Express–This could appeal to big spenders because there are no limits on the rewards you can earn. It offers up to five percent cash back at supermarkets, gas stations, and drugstores. And, when you spend more that $6,500 on the card, you can boost your earnings so that you get 1.25 percent for all other purchases.

Chase Freedom Card–Spend $799 in purchases on your card within three months of receiving it, and you can receive a $100 cash back bonus. With normal use, you can get a huge five percent on many popular purchases and one percent on everything else.

Discover® More® Card – $50 Cashback Bonus®–This is a good card if you sometimes carry balances forward. It has a zero percent introductory APR for the first year, and then a competitive rate after that. Like the Chase Freedom card, you get a full five percent cash back on some purchases and one percent on everything else you buy with it.

Credit Score Bad? You’re Not Alone

If your credit report has taken a hit recently, you probably feel bad about it. That’s understandable. But you may find some small consolation in the knowledge that you’re far from alone. Last month, FICO Inc. published figures that show that 25.5 percent of all consumers have a credit score of 599 or below, a level that is likely to prevent them acquiring a mainstream credit card, mortgage, or personal loan. Yep, that’s one in four Americans, a total of almost 43.4 million people.

Of course, there’s more to life than a pristine credit report (health, family, happiness, love…the list is endless), but modern life is tough without the advantages that a good credit score brings. Have you ever tried booking a hotel room or renting a car without a credit card? Worse, some employers now routinely carry out credit checks for new hires and existing employees, so your job could be at stake.

So how do you go about rebuilding your score?

Secured Credit Card–A Useful Credit-Building Tool

Unsecured credit cards are probably the most common form of card. You’re given what amounts to a line of credit and the lender takes a chance on your defaulting. As their name implies, secured credit cards are very different. That’s because there’s no risk to the lender–your credit limit is the amount you deposit in your account–up-front.

Yes, that sounds a lot like a prepaid card, but it is a little different. When Gerri Detweiler, a personal finance advisor, appeared on Fox recently, she explained that the sum you pay up-front is closer to the security deposit you pay a landlord when you move into a rented home. You get it back when you close the account or when the issuer migrates you to a normal credit card.

What’s important about a secured credit card is that the issuer normally reports your account to credit bureaus, so–if you use your account responsibly–you are able to rebuild your credit score.

Choosing a Secured Credit Card

Even though they represent little or no risk to the issuer, many secured credit cards carry high fees. And a few of them appear to be little more than scams designed to fleece the already vulnerable. So take care when choosing one. Here are four golden rules to follow:

1. Make sure you understand all the card’s fees and costs before you commit yourself.
2. Check that the issuer is FDIC insured (it has your money, and you don’t want to take the hit if it goes bust).
3. Choose a reputable lender, and Google it to make sure other customers haven’t been gouged.
4. Ensure that your account will be reported to all three of the big credit bureaus.

Secured Credit Card Use

The best practice rules for secured credit card use are the same as those for ordinary cards–always pay on time and always try to pay off your balance in full each month.

And certainly make sure you don’t find yourself carrying forward a balance that represents a large proportion of your credit limit. The money you’re using may be yours, but the credit bureaus don’t differentiate between secured and unsecured credit limits, and your score can suffer if you use a high proportion of your available credit (it’s called your “credit utilization ratio”). Earlier this year, a Boston Globe money expert recommended avoiding carrying forward a balance that’s greater than 30 percent of your credit limit.

If you’re thinking of applying for a secured card, you could start by exploring these:

• Public Savings Bank Secured Card
• New Millennium Bank Secured Gold Visa® or Mastercard®
• Applied Bank® Secured Visa® Credit Card

Credit Card Regulation to Tighten?

Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate followed the House’s earlier lead when it passed the new financial reform bill. The law now goes to the President for signature, but some are warning that it could be years before credit card users see much benefit.

Certainly, banks and other card issuers were worried that this new round of credit card regulation could hurt them. A New York Times editorial last Thursday reported figures from the Center for Responsive Politics that estimated that $600 million had been spent by the financial sector in attempts to weaken the bill’s provisions. Of course, the law covers a great deal more than just credit cards, and much of that money would probably have been spent lobbying against other measures.

What’s New?

From the point of view of credit card companies and their customers, the key part of the new law is the creation of a new consumer financial protection bureau. The Times thinks this is a great step forward, saying in that editorial:

The new consumer financial protection bureau established in the bill is a milestone, not only for its intent and power to rectify lending abuses, but because it will institutionalize the insight that the safety and soundness of banks cannot–and should not–be measured by profitability alone, but by the impact that bank practices ultimately may have on consumers.

However, others are less optimistic and some say that the new bureau’s effectiveness could depend on the will of those who run it to take the consumers’ side against the banks. Given that many executives are expected be brought in from existing financial regulators that have less than heroic track records when it comes to this, those with credit cards should, perhaps, not hold their collective breath.

Some Specifics

Supporters of the legislation hope for two principal outcomes:

1. Greater clarity across the board–from the credit card application and agreement through to statements and notices of changes.
2. Agility on the part of the regulator to close abusive loopholes (without the need for new legislation) as soon as credit card issuers begin to exploit them.

Critics say that it could eliminate many of the existing differences between credit card offers, thus closing down much of the competition that currently exists between issuers.

Student Credit Cards

This is the time of year when those who are heading off to college for the first time, and who have yet to apply for credit cards, should begin to research the market. The Credit CARD Act of 2009 has added extra protections for young people (see IndexCredit Cards’ news items), but nobody should think that’s a reason to take less seriously the task of finding the right fit between card and kid.

If you’re a parent with offspring who are in this position, you now have much more control over the choices made than you used to. You need to decide whether you think your son or daughter would be better off with a prepaid card, a debit card, cash, an authorized user card on one of your accounts, or a full-blown card of his or her own.

If you decide on the last of those (and do your research before you reach any conclusion), you may find it worthwhile checking out the following four student credit cards, which have been designed to enhance college life:

• Citi ForwardSM Card for College Students
• Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card for College Students
• Discover® Mix Tape Student Card
• Discover Student Open Road

Credit Cards, Debit Cards, and Prepaid

Right from the start, the people who run credit card companies recognized that so-called “prepaid credit cards” were not credit cards at all. That’s obvious. If you’ve already paid for something before you buy it, there’s no credit involved. The phrase is an oxymoron.

What was needed, obviously, was a snappy, consumer-friendly name for the cards that people would instantly love and want to use. So the marketing geniuses in the credit card companies had a long, hard think, and–after much deliberation–came up with…”Network Branded Prepaid Card.” Just trips off the tongue, doesn’t it?

No surprise, then, that so many people still refer to them as prepaid credit cards.

Prepaid Credit Card Use to Triple?

On Monday, MasterCard published a report that it commissioned from the Boston Consulting Group. This forecast that prepaid credit card use would more than triple between 2009–when its dollar value was $120.2 billion–and 2017 when it is predicted to be worth more than $440 billion.

The report’s authors expect the U.S. to retain its global lead in the sector. In fact, they say that, in 2017, America is likely to account for 53 percent of the world’s prepaid credit card use, which represents a bigger share than double the next six biggest national markets put together.

Why the Jump?

Please say it’s not because so many Americans will have terrible credit scores by then and won’t be eligible for mainstream credit cards.

Unfortunately, that may be partly true, but more new research–published yesterday by Mintel–suggests that consumers’ disillusionment with banks could be at least as important a factor as banks’ disillusionment with individual consumers. Mintel’s press release said:

…19% of respondents overall stated that they would be interested in using prepaid cards to pay bills, rather than a banking account. More importantly, 25% of households earning more than $100K per year, the more profitable and desirable customers for banks, agreed that they would be interested in using prepaid cards. Their main motivation was to avoid overdraft and/or other types of banking fees.

Prepaid Credit Card Terms–a Warning

About nine months ago, the New York Times ran a feature that warned about excessive fees contained in the small print of some issuers’ prepaid credit card terms and conditions. It found wide variations between the amounts levied for all charges, including:

• Application fees
• Monthly maintenance fees
• ATM withdrawal fees
• ATM balance enquiry fees
• Inactivity fees
• Purchase fees
• Fees for calls to customer service

In fact, the Times found that at least one card had up to 24 different fees.

Prepaid Credit Card Applications

Before you sign a prepaid credit card application, remember two of the golden rules for choosing all cards:

1. Make sure you understand all the fees and other charges before you commit yourself
2. Pick the card that is cheapest for your particular lifestyle

So, for example, if you make a lot of ATM withdrawals, eliminate cards with high ATM fees.

Pick a Card

Some cards have been tailored to appeal to particular groups of consumers. For example, Current by Discover Teen Prepaid Debit Card could well suit a young person.

The ACE Visa Prepaid Debit Card has a handy option where you can choose to pay a monthly fee of $9.95 instead of an individual transaction fee on each of your PIN and signature purchases. This could appeal if you mainly use your cards to buy things in stores.

Meanwhile, The Mango™ MasterCard® Prepaid Card has very few fees at all (check them out on this website), and even waives its $5 monthly maintenance fee providing you deposit at least $500 a month. For many, this may well be a “best buy.”

Credit Card Rewards that Make You Work

Susan Stellin wrote a heart-felt piece in the New York Times last week. She’d been a loyal user of an airline-branded credit card for some time, but had become increasingly frustrated by the growing number of hoops she was having to jump through in order to redeem her miles. So she changed credit cards.

She wasn’t alone with her problem. Many frequent fliers have found that being tied to their chosen airline has its drawbacks, especially as many fleets practise “capacity control,” which limits the number of “free” seats available on any given flight. This can make booking a trip on a popular route at a convenient time challenging.

Of course, this isn’t to say that everyone should trade in their airline-branded credit cards. If your flying habits mean that your existing card works for you, then by all means stick with it. And remember that many carriers’ cards offer other benefits (access to lounges, upgrades, no-cost insurance, a free checked bag…) that you should factor into the equation.

Credit Scores Can Be Affected

Another reason to think twice before changing a credit card is the impact it could have on your credit score. According to FICO®, the people behind the most widely used credit scoring system, your score could be damaged if you apply for too much new credit or open too many new accounts in quick succession.

Of course, one new credit card application is unlikely to be much of a problem. There’s a second reason to take care when changing cards. Credit scores are sensitive to the proportion of your available credit that you actually use. And, if you trade in a card with a $20,000 limit for one that offers $10,000, your “credit utilization ratio” can suffer.

To be clear, none of this should stop most people from changing cards, and you should only consider not doing so if you’ve recently made a number of other credit applications and/or are using a large proportion of your available credit.

Travel Credit Card Rewards That Really Reward

Susan Stellin’s Times feature mentioned a number of travel related credit card rewards programs that are particularly hot at the moment. Here are a couple of her tips.

The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express has won a number of awards recently, including Flyertalk.com’s “Best Travel Card in the Americas.” And it’s certainly the sort of deal that could suit many people. You can redeem points for free nights at 940+ Starwood hotels and resorts in 93 countries, or for flights on hundreds of airlines. And the card’s website claims that there are no blackout dates. There’s also a corporate version of the card, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN.

The Times also mentions the Chase Sapphire Card. You get a point for every dollar you spend on the card, which you can redeem for travel on any airline–or you can opt for gift cards, merchandise, cash back, and so on. And there’s no annual fee.

It takes a little effort to track down the card that best matches your lifestyle and needs. But failing to do so can cost you dearly–in stress as well as dollars.