Credit Card Solution

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.

Most popular / best credit cards according to IndexCreditCards.com visitors:

1. 1. Discover® More Card – 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months & 6 months on purchases, 5% cashback bonus in popular categories, up to 1% cashback bonus on all other purchases
   
2. 2. Chase Freedom Card – 0% Intro APR and no Annual Fee, 5% bonus cash back in popular categories , 1% cash bank on everything else
   
3. 3. Citi^® Platinum Select^® MasterCard^® – 0% on purchases & balance transfers for Up to 18 months, APR as low as 9.99% variable. $30 statement credit.
   
4. 4. Blue Cash^® from American Express – Earn up to 5% cash back on gas, groceries and drug store purchases, and up to 1.5% back on all other purchases, no annual fee, fast approval under 60 seconds
   
5. 5. Slate ^SM from Chase – 0% Intro APR, Now with Blueprint, patented fraud protection
   
6. 6. American Express® Gold Card – 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards bonus points when you use the card for at least $500 in purchases within the first 3 months.
   
7. 7. TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco & American Express – 4% cash back for annual gas purchases up to $6,000, 3% restaurants, 2% travel, 1% everywhere else, 0% APR on purchases for first 6 months
   

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