Today's Mail 3/24/06

I got some mail today:

Capital One would like me to take on their No Hassle Miles Ultra MasterCard. They say I can use the miles on over 100 airlines, fly with no blackout dates, get a free ticket with as little as 15,000 miles, redeem the miles for cash if I don't want to fly, all for no annual fee. According to their chart, this compares very favorable to the United Mileage Plus Signature Card, the American Express Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card and the Citi Premier Pass Elite Level card.

The letter says this is "for professionals" -- the card may be intended for business owners, which I used to be before hooking up with this outfit that pays me to blog about my mail. (If I'd been a better business owner, I'd be phoning this in from my vacation retreat in Tahiti. Or, better yet, not doing it at all.)

They're not offering any special introductory offers or balance transfer offers, but they will give me a 7.9% APR on purchases, which beats the pants off the 14.15% rate (plus $39 annual fee) I see on their Web site today. I also get 10,000 bonus miles after I use the card for the first time. On the rotten side of the apple, my offer says 1.25 miles per dollar, versus the 2 miles per dollar that I see online.

American Express and Costco want me to get their TrueEarnings Card. As they acknowledge I'm already an American Express Cardmember, but why stop at one, right? This card is only for Costco members, which I am not, although I have been in their store, and I could be convinced. They had a big video game machine I could've bought for something like $1888 the time I visited, and I wouldn't have bought it, but it made me feel special somehow just to think about buying it. I'm sorry, I don't mean to get mushy.

Let's see what I get -- 3% cash back at restaurants, 2% cash back for "traveling", 1% any other place, including Costco, which is a place. Every February I'd get a certificate for my earnings. Not sure what the certificate is, I prefer the word "check". I'd also get a 0% APR on purchases for 3 months (whoopdy-do) and a 1.9% on balance transfers for 6 months. APR: 16.49%. All for the cost of my Costco membership, which I can't seem to find a price for. As far as I can tell, I'm not very special to them -- any old consumer can get the same deal online.

That's it for the new card offers. I also got:

• Some promotional balance transfer checks from Chase. Two of the checks will give me 6 months at 0%, the other three will give me a 4.99% APR for the life of any balance I transfer -- my choice, or I can do them all, if I really had that many balances to move around.
• JB Dollar Stretcher magazine, the midwest's premier result driven direct mail magazine, according to the JB Web site. What that means to me is coupons from local places. I usually toss this, along with all this other stuff, but thanks to my new gig here, I'm actually going to check it out. First thing is for Friendly's Super Melts, but I only go there for ice cream-related items, so not interested. What else? Lots of pizza coupons, kitchen remodeling, siding, carpet, HVAC and satellite dish come-ons. I see one for donuts, which I like. Maybe I'll clip that one.
• Gas bill, thankfully lower than last month, but still high as all H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Just think if this had been a cold winter. Criminy.
• Cell phone bills. I don't know why I even have a cell phone, but my wife insists I have one for emergencies, even though I never remember to bring it along and it's never charged. Plus I refuse to upgrade so I look like a frigging Dan Tanna on the rare occasions when I pull it out.
• Bank statement. Things look good.

I'll get more mail tomorrow, I'm sure, but if they think I'm blogging on the weekends, they're out of their minds.

Enjoy your weekend, get off the Internet for Pete's sake. See you Monday.