January 7, 2010
-
2009 Rewards Awards, Pt.4
Off to a good start.D) Best Deal on Intro-Rates:
Between the two top credit card contenders, I have chosen Citi Bank over the choice made by CreditCards.com. Called Citi Platinum Select MasterCard, this is the one I especially like. For ten years I was able to juggle about $6,000 in credit between these zero-percenters and never pay a dime in charges. Of course, that all went away in 2009. It's worth note here that Citi Banc has always been one of the best choices in this area. Some of their other rewards programs are lame but, they generally shine here. Of the 35 or so credit card accounts that I've held in the last 10 years, Citi has always been my choice. When I start feeling guilty, I switch to another credit card provider to mooch off and give Citi a break for a while.
Citi Bank are the only major bank left that still offers a 0% APR for 12 months on credit card purchases and balance transfers for those without a diamond-crusted rating. Although the $75 cap has gone away, at least they've stayed the 3% transfer fees on balance transfers. Three percent has been a standard for a lot of years now and is still a good deal. Note the change, however. You must now hold a very good FICO rating to obtain one of these credit cards.
Beyond that, according to CreditCards.com, PenFed Visa Gold Credit Card wins again. Their terms are simple, no annual fee or any of that stuff. They offer a 4.99% APR on balance transfers for 24 months. Any more, this is pretty aggressive. There's not much competition in the marketplace that can touch this. Their balance transfer fee rate even beats CitiBank. Two and-a-half percent is probably the best you're gonna find anywhere. They even have a cap of $100 for this fee. So, if you want to transfer over $4,000, here's another sweet deal for you.
E) Worst Over-all Rewards Deal: At the onset I wrote that any good credit card rating system should also rate the worst. Well, oddly enough, the choice I've decided on here is also CitiBank. Please choose this link to finish the story: "2009 Rewards Awards, the Worst".