Citibank launches "Guaranteed to Win" campaign

Citibank Bhd has launched the "Guaranteed to Win" campaign, to be held from Nov 1 to Jan 31, 2007, to reward its credit card holders with up to 500 million reward points.

In a statement on Oct 30, Citibank said by charging a minimum of RM50 on a single receipt on eight different occasions in a month, customers would be rewarded with eight times reward points on the average amount charged.

It said customers could obtain 20 times or up to 50 times reward points when they use the card 20 times or 50 times in a month, respectively.

The same applies to customers with the Citibank Cash Back cards, where they will earn between eight and 50 times the cash back rate on average amount charged.

The bank said the campaign was aimed at encouraging its customers to consolidate all their purchases on their Citibank credit cards, as well as to reward its existing loyal customers.

"The Guaranteed to Win campaign is part of Citibank's goal to enhance and strengthen the relationship with our loyal customers by offering them practical and real rewards.

"We understand that customers want to be certain that they are getting the best deals out of their credit cards, especially in an environment where they are given the opportunity to choose from the wide variety of cards available," said Citibank cards business director Vipin Agrawal.

The campaign is open to all Citibank Platinum, Gold, Clear, Silver, Cash Back, CitiBusiness, Choice and Celcom credit card customers, and is applicable to all retail purchases, excluding One Bill/Autopay, Easy Payment Plan, Flexi Payment Plan, Balance Transfer, Cash Advance and Loan On Phone transactions.

“No cheap option” for credit card payment protection

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) for credit cards is costing consumers hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds each year, according to MoneyExpert.com. The independent financial comparison website says that even a relatively modest balance of £3,000 would attract an average annual fee of £270, or as much as £540 with the most expensive provider.

Payment Protection Insurance covers your monthly repayments in the case of unemployment, accident, sickness or death and is typically used in unsecured loans and credit card borrowing. The Office of Fair Trading recently called the schemes "overly complex" and recommended that it be investigated by the Competition Commission.

MoneyExpert.com analysis has revealed that the average cost of PPI on a balance of £2,000 could add up to £180 per year, or a hefty 75p for every £100 the customer owes. It warns that on the same balance PPI can cost double the average at £360 a year, and that even the cheapest providers would charge over £141.

According to MoneyExpert.com, only two out of 61 providers – Saga and Bank of Ireland – charge under 70p per £100. The typical charge is 72p and just under half of the 213 credit cards on the market charge over the average monthly fee of 75p per £100.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, said: “Many people don’t realise that they can purchase PPI with any major insurance broker – it doesn’t have to be an expensive add-on to their credit card. What’s more, there are often exclusions in the policies which are not made clear to consumers when they sign up.

“PPI can be useful if you are concerned about your borrowing and want peace of mind. The key to PPI is to consider specialist cover as an alternative to the scheme offered by your credit card provider. As things stand you’re very likely to get a better deal elsewhere.”

MoneyExpert.com offers payment protection insurance to cover your mortgage, income and personal loans. Its recommended mortgage payment protection insurance topped the Which? 'Best buy survey' for mortgage PPI.

MoneyExpert.com offers a unique service which enables people to find the financial products which best meet their specific needs, and which they are more likely to be successful in being accepted for. It includes exclusive research conducted by MORI, which reveals providers’ service levels. This information is married up with a financial database which lists the products suited to the customer. For the first time, people can review a product’s price, features and also the level of service offered by the provider to enable them to make a more informed choice.

MoneyExpert.com aims to demystify the complex world of personal finance, and to help inform customers of the choices available. The service can be found at moneyexpert.com.

Credit Card Chargeback's A Thing Of The Past?

The 41st Parameter, a company that creates some of the industry's most advanced Internet fraud prevention solutions, is now saying that the credit card fraudsters have created such an advanced scheme that they are coordinating attacks against online merchants by using personal, digital and financial data which all appears legitimate to the typical online detection systems.

The sneaky cardsters, as predicted, have greatly improved their techniques. These criminals now match key parameters like local IPs, the card address, billing and shipping address changes plus other technical items which at the time of the sale seem to actually be the legitimate home customer ordering merchandise. The (fraudulent) online sales appear genuine and unfortunately wiz through most of the current fraud detection systems.

The 41st Parameter is one of the top group of specialist in fraud prevention and they have some outstanding proprietary products such the FraudNet™ solution and patent-pending TimeDiff Linking™ technology. In just the first year of implementing their technologies they have successfully reduced a major e-commerce customer's chargeback's by more than 60%.

These - not so new factors - created by the active 'fraudsters' and now identified, have also caused a whole new series of consumer and merchant problems such as the growing costs for online merchants with escalating chargeback rates. Finally its a shame but this type of fraud eventually erodes consumer confidence in online shopping.

Of course there are online digital commerce methods that are not effected by credit card fraud or chargeback's.

Visa Card Offer

Visa credit card is offering gas rewards. You must have very good credit to quality for this gas reward card.

This gas reward credit card has both the best annual fee and the best introductory interest rate anywhere - zero. The introductory period is six months long. The rate of interest on the balance after the introductory period is 13.74 percent - not the best, but still a reasonable rate. The rate for cash advances, however, is quite high (though this is commonly the case). That rate is 23.74 percent, although it varies.

Another perk that makes this one of the best gas reward credit cards is its excellent reporting system for stolen or lost cards, its insurance offer for auto rentals, its travel accident insurance with a hefty ceiling and the fact that the card holders is not held liable for unauthorized transactions.

The one disadvantage of this card, which, depending on your spending and payment habits may or may not matter to you, is that its finance charge method is called a two-cycle average daily balance method. This is more costly than that used by most issuers of credit cards - the method of determining finance charges by the average daily balance.