Membership DOES have it's priviledges

We use the Starwood American Express card for our own personal expenditures and love it. It's the most flexible and valuable loyalty program on the market that we've found.

For example, you can export points on a 1-to-1 basis to about 30 different airlines, making it the most flexible airline miles card you can carry. What's more, Amex will give you a BONUS 5,000 miles free whenever you export 20,000 miles to any airline -- each and every time.

There's a bunch of other neat benefits of this American Express credit card.

But recently, we've thought about applying for another card - either a Platinum Amex or a Business Gold American Express card because of their unique benefits -- for example, membership in various airline airport clubs for free, or free upgrades or free concierge services.

One of the BIG DRAWS of the Platinum Card is their FREE Companion Airfare program - Just purchase a full-fare First-Class or Business-Class International Airline ticket through Platinum Travel Service and you'll receive one complimentary ticket with the same itinerary as your own. Travel as often as you like between now and December 31, 2008 — there's no limit to the number of times you can receive a complimentary ticket. With the Domestic Companion Airfare Program, you can bring a companion with you on U.S. flights-anywhere in the U.S., on six major U.S. carriers. Purchase a domestic coach airfare for yourself from $299 with your Platinum Card^® on Delta, Continental, JetBlue, SouthWest or Frontier Airlines and your companion receives complimentary airfare. You can request up to four complimentary companion airfares per year.

The fact that you basically get a free round-trip ticket in the first year with the promotion and then free airline tickets for each and every other ticket you buy domestic or internationally, makes up for the annual fee. . .

*Earn 25,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points when you spend $1,000 - Redeemable for one free round-trip domestic airline ticket! * No Pre-set Spending Limit * 24-hour access to Concierge service for the finest experiences in dining, entertainment, and luxury *Fine Hotels & Resorts Program — exclusive amenities at boutique, resort, and luxury hotels around the world *By Invitation Only® Events — access to exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime events * Complimentary Airport Club Access

? Earn up to 40,000 bonus points in one year - enough for one domestic round-trip airline ticket plus other business supplies. ? Points have no expiration date ? No limit to the number of Membership Rewards® points you can earn ? No annual fee for the first year - a savings of $125 ? Save 3-25% on business purchases at companies like FedEx®, Delta®, Hertz®, and more. ? Redeem points for top-tier rewards including travel, merchandise, office equipment, and gift cards for you or your employees

Stop Thinking Airline Miles

Every once in a while - which is becoming more than once in awhile, friends ask about which credit cards I'm using to gain points, etc.

They all seem to have been trained to think that "airline miles" are the best credit cards to carry in their wallet. Someone will whip out their Delta Skymiles card for example.


I beg to differ and beg them to switch right now. What's even more painful is to see friends use credit cards that accrue absolutely nothing (plain vanilla mastcard or visa for example). If they own their own business or are doctors, dentists, etc, they have tons of expenses they are charging and get nuttin out of it!

Here's the card I use and recommend: American Express Starwood Card.



There's several benefits which clearly make this better than the plain old miles cards:

• You can redeem miles on most major airlines - not tied to just one airline
• When you redeem 20,000 miles, American Express will give you a bonus 5,000 miles free
• You can redeem miles for tons of other stuff like gift certificates to Sharper Image and other stores.
• Starwood Preferred Guest points are awesome because you can stay at a broad range of hotels from FourPoints to Sheraton to Westin to St. Regis hotels.
• There are NO blackout dates for Starwood hotels. If they have a room available to sell for cash, you can use your points to book that night.
• They have Starwood points package discounts which give you a MUCH better ROI on your points to make it worth % or more of your spending. For example, if you pay $25,000 on your airline miles card, you get 25,000 points, right? That's worth a domestic ticket which is say, $380 (average domestic ticket price according to Associate Press). That's 1.5% value of the $25k you spent. But with Starwood, you can easily get rewards worth 4% or more through their system.

Do You Drive Further To Save a Couple of Cents on Gas?

Do you just hate it when you pull out of a gas station to find a cheaper gas station just a block or two away that's $0.05/gallon cheaper?

Or do you drive just a little out of your way to get that extra cheap gas price for you SUV?

If so, then this is one tip you should not ignore. Get a Gas Rebate credit card that gives you cash back on gas and auto purchases - most are 1% of 2% cash back. But some like the new Discover Open Road Card gives a full 5% back with no ceilings on how much rebates you can get (this is great for Hummer and Suburban SUV drivers!). It also means you should get an extra card for each family member that drives since you can get unlimited 5% back.

And don't forget that you get 5% cash back with this credit card on car maintenance -- meaning oil changes, transmission fluid flushes, brake jobs, etc.

The trick is to find a gas rebate credit card with no annual fee, so that you can use it SOLEY for gas and not for anything else. The Discover Open Road Card is one of them. The Chase Perfect Card offers no annual fee, but has a lower cash-back rate for gas of only 3%. Citibank has a Platinum Select Mastercard that offers 2% back with no annual fee too. Basically, Discover is the best bet right now, with the highest permanent gas rebate percentage and no annual fee.

For everything else, you should be using the American Express card that I recommend - the Starwood card. But that's another story for another day.


The internet makes everything easy these days. You can apply only instantly for the Discover Open Road Card, making it just that much quicker for you to saving 5% cash at the pump.

ATM's are the Enemy. Get Free Stuff Just for Paying.

It amazes me sometimes when I stand in line at the cashier and someone in front of me pulls out a wad of cash to pay for their purchase. Sometimes the total on the register is $400-500 or even more like the last time I was in Home Depot. The guy in front of me had a big fat wallet with a bunch of credit cards, but instead, he hands over five $100 bills to pay for the Weber Grill.

If he manages his cashflow like this, he must be paying for tons of stuff in cold cash. That's a big no-no!

If you have the cash flow, you should really get a credit card that gives you point and also gives you a float for 30 days till payment is due. What's more, if you choose your credit cards wisely, you'll get extra benefits like breakage & theft protection, warranties will be extended -- sometimes even doubled in length, all for free.

One of my favorite cards in my wallet is the Starwood American Express. It gives you tons of points which turns out to be more than 4-5% value if you use them right. And just off the bat, if you cash in 20,000 points, you can convert it into a free 25,000 point airline ticket on any major airline -- that's 5,000 points free. There's other bonus type scenarios in the Starwood program that really makes it worthwhile. Not to mention the standard array of American Express benefits like rental car insurance coverage, accidental breakage protection (great if you have kids!), and more.

You also have the ability to get extra cards on your account so you can separate out different categories of spending or by person. The end-of-year statement which is broken down in different ways on paper is great for taxes -- just hand it over to the accountant and they have details of your tax-deductible items.

For me, it's definitely a card worth carrying in the wallet. I bet that guy at home depot in line in front of me could get this card, not change his current spending habits at all other than paying with his American Express card and get at least week's worth of free hotels every year after year. And he wouldn't be hitting that ATM machine all the time as he must be doing. You certainly don't want the ATM to be your friend.