Credit Card Bonus Offers: $1300 Worth of Deals!
Tip It!Check it out… $1300 worth of credit cards offers!
It’s been awhile since I’ve put together a list of credit card signup bonuses, so I thought I’d spend a little time compiling the best offers for best rewards credit cards for 2012 out there. While some of these cards have an annual fee, all are free for at least the first year. Note: given changes in offers, the total amount has dropped considerably below $1,300. If you see any new offers appear, please list them in the comments.
Now, without further ado, here are the offers…
» Chase Freedom Visa $100 Bonus Cashback
Signup bonus: $100 through this offer
When: After $500 in purchases w/in first 3 months
Annual fee: None
Benefits: 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in rotating categories like gas & groceries.
» Citi Forward Card
Signup bonus: 10,000 points
Redeem for: $100 in gift cards
When: After you make $650 in purchases and sign up for paperless statements within the first three months
Annual fee: None
» AmEx Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
Signup bonus: 25,000 points
Redeem for: Redeem Starpoints at over 1,000 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 countries and for flights on more than 350 airlines
When: Earn 10K with your first purchase and another 15K when you spend $5,000 within 6 months
Annual fee: None for first year, $65 thereafter
» AmEx Preferred Rewards Gold Card
Bonus: 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points
Redeem for: $100 in select gift cards
When: After you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership
Annual fee: None for first year, $125 thereafter
Published on April 7th, 2008 - 15 Comments
Filed under: Carnivals, Credit Cards
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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15 Responses to “Credit Card Bonus Offers: $1300 Worth of Deals!”
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Top Cards by Category
Earn $200 Bonus Cash Back after you make $500 in purchases in your first 3 months. 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter.
Earn 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first three months of Card membership.
Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel when you spend $500 on the Card in the first three months from account opening. Receive double miles on Delta purchases.
Enjoy a 0% introductory rate for 18 months on Balance Transfers and 6 months on Purchases. Earn up to 5% cash back in categories that change.
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
For a limited time earn 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) points by spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. Enjoy amenities for you and your business, like: complimentary airport club access to 600 partner lounges, 24/7 concierge service and dedicated business consultants.
5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*. Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on everything else. No annual fee
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Reports to 3 major credit bureaus monthly and acceptance at millions of locations worldwide, including website purchases and reservations.
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April 7th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I love free money. Thanks for sharing this with us
April 7th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I’m on a credit card diet right now so I’ll pass, but dang! That’s a lot of cash!
It must have taken a while to write this post with all those pics! Wow!
April 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Wow those are some great deals: I wonder how many/at what point the hurt on your credit score outweighs the monetary benefits…
April 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
i already have the starwood prefered business card and got the amazon goft card. am i able to get the regular starwood prefered card too and get another amazon card?
April 7th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Thanks for that list but yikes! I already feel like I have too many credit cards. I’m with Ron @TheWisdomJournal. I’ll pass this time, but will keep it in mind once we get our stupid debt paid off.
Hopefully there’ll be even better deals by then (of course, we may also all be driving flying cars and have robot maids by then
May 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Looks like a lot of the major issuers are moving towards higher purchase requirements, where you’ll only receive the bonus after $600 or $1000 in purchases.
It makes it a little more difficult to take advantage of multiple offers, as you really have to plan to spend that amount of money, unless you can spend that much on the cards through bill payments and necessities alone, but that’s still difficult if you’re trying to take advantage of 3 or 4 cash bonus offers at once.
I guess too many people were getting the cards, making a $0.50 purchase to get the bonus, and then never using the cards again, so they hope to get you into a spending pattern.
They’re still great offers though, but it’s probably only reasonable to apply for 1 or 2, unless you just feel like going spend-crazy on your credit cards.
Thanks for the information, Max
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I fear that the Discover Business $100 bonus offer may be no more. I applied and got approved, but the rep didn’t know anything about the bonus. Also, I don’t see it mentioned anywhere on Discover’s site. Just a warning. Let’s hope I’m mistaken, otherwise I’ll have a useless card…
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 am
Can I get 1 $100 gift card form Starwood Business, and a 2nd $100 gift card for the regular Starwood cad?
Also can i get 1 $50 card for Amex Preferred Rewards Green Card and then get a $50 card for the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express.
A rep said no, but has anyone got actual experience?
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 am
Joe: I just tried to reply by e-mail, but the message was returned as undeliverable. In short, you should qualify as long as you can get approved for all of the cards. Your best bet is to apply for them all in rapid succession, and to do so online as opposed to talking to a rep.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Nickel, one more quick question, what would be my best bet for a new credit card with no annual fee, (I’ve no credit history as yet), kindly advice. Thanks for your anticipated response.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
A clarification on the Citi Forward card with the 6K + 5K signup bonus: the enrolling link shows that the bonus is after $250 in purchases within the first 3 months, NOT $50 as listed on this site (still love this site though
).
If anyone sees anything different, please post. Thx!
July 21st, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Winwin: thanks for your clarification…the offer has been updated.
Dinesh: it depends on how you plan to use the card. You should try to avoid carrying a balance in which case you could go for a no annual fee rewards card which allows you to earn points or cash back on purchases you’d otherwise make anyway. You can see the list of best credit card offers here.
March 30th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
I’ve been doing this for years.. right now I have about $750.00 worth of dining cards waiting to be used. U gotta love it. Sure it bumps your rating down a bit but it always comes back up in a few months . Several years ago when they were offering the balance transfers at 0 % interest with no fees for 12 to 18 months at a time, I used my wife and my name to get over $100,000 worth of money. I put it in C.D.’s paying 4.25 % and made about $3000.00.. Always making the paymwents on time and watching it very carefully. It’s a hobby of mine.
July 9th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Joe I’ve been taking advantage of credit card bonuses for a few years also, I avoid the balance transfer offers because of the 3% fee. the days of getting 4% on a C.D. You’re right the credit score only takes a temporary hit.
You mean you got $1000.00 in bonus money
October 7th, 2011 at 11:53 am
NOT BONUS money! I carried over $100,000 of credit card debt for one year while the money was in a C.D. and when the C.D. matured I cashed in for over $4000.00. However because a few of the cards were at a low rate of 1.9% most of them were 0%. I only profitted $3000.00 Those days are over though. The banks got smart and attached a 3% fee to all balance transfers. Now I just go for the bonuses. To date in 2011, I have accumulated about $6000.00 in bonuses using my wife card and mine and also business cards in each of our names. There are some really really good offers out there, especially if you own a business and can use a card to pay for you bills or inventory with. I have so many points built up on the spg card and the marriot card I doubt I’ll use them even by next year. I’ll have to force myself to go on vacation just so I use the points before the annual fee is due. This is a hoot.
good luck, Joe