Money Blue Book

Special Bonus Offer: Citi Forward Credit Card’s Up to 8,500 Bonus Points

As part of my ongoing hobby of applying for free credit card rewards and pocketing introductory bonuses that make themselves available, I recently applied for Citibank’s new Citi Forward Card. Simply for signing up, I earned sufficient credit card bonus points to swap for a free $100 gift reward card to the retailer of my choice (I picked Best Buy). Although I have not yet tried, I would imagine that if one were a college or graduate student, one could also simultaneously apply for the nearly identical Citi Forward Student card as well, and receive another free $100 gift card upon sign up – for a total windfall jackpot of $200.

The Citi Forward – Marketed As A Reward Credit Card That Promotes Responsible Credit Use

This new Citi Forward Visa credit card that Citibank is introducing is marketed as an enlightened approach to the promotion of responsible credit card use. Along with its offerings of a 0% balance transfer rate and credit card reward earning potential, the card also touts a litany of lower interest rate opportunities for card members who can demonstrate mature credit use with timely payments.

However, as always when it comes to new credit card offers, I urge interested individuals to tread carefully. Credit card companies aren’t being naturally generous or altruistic when they offer lucrative cash back credit card reward opportunities such as this. Just because they offer a card that features great cash back reward opportunities and no annual fees that highly favors savvy card users doesn’t mean the card issuers aren’t still motivated by ulterior motives. Remember, their driven purpose in the market is to profit from the credit card interest charges and late payment fees that they hope you will rack up. If you’re a shopaholic, compulsive addict, or an irresponsible credit abuser, my advice is to stay away from credit cards altogether. However, if you’re a responsible credit user with a high FICO credit score, you can most definitely beat them at their game and profit greatly from the generous sign up bonuses, introductory 0% APR periods, and free money opportunities that they dangle in front of you. If you can handle the card usage responsibilities and not succumb to late payments or maxed out balances, good credit score consumers will benefit greatly from the Citi Forward’s extra bonus features that reward smart credit use.

Citi Forward Credit Card’s Up to 8,500 Bonus Points

For credit card sign up reward seekers, the new Citi Forward card offers up to 8,500 bonus points after you sign up for paperless statements and make $250 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening..

Upon card registration, new cardmembers receive 8,500 Citi ThankYou bonus points after making at least $250 in card purchases within three months of receiving the account and agreeing to forgo paper monthly statements in favor of electronic credit card billing statements within 3 months of account opening. The instant Citi ThankYou points you reap simply by signing up for the Citi Forward card can be exchanged promptly for a gift card or swapped for a much more versatile prepaid Visa Card (as good as cash).

Get 5% Rewards On Credit Card Purchases Via ThankYou Points

The Citi Forward card is a very high earning reward card with a 5x reward earning rate at special category vendors. With the Citi Forward, you earn 5 ThankYou points for every $1 you spend on restaurants and entertainment, and 1 reward point for every $1 you spend on other purchases. Big cashback reward card fans will notice that the reward structure is remarkably similar to the highly touted Citi mtvU, one of the best student credit cards out there. However, unlike the Citi mtvU card, the Citi Forward is available to all applicants, and not just college students. However, like the popular Citi mtvU student card, the Citi Forward, with its high reward rate for restaurant visits, dining out, and coffee shop purchases – the card is one of the best card offers out there at the present time for those who eat out often (as I frequently do).

Another very important aspect of the Citi Forward’s reward program is that the reward rate on books also includes popular online retailer Amazon.com (interestingly treated as a bookstore for Citi credit card reward purposes). Want to buy a simple personal finance book or even purchase something more expensive like a desktop computer via Amazon.com? You can earn 5 reward points per $1 spent by utilizing your Citi Forward Card. Frequent Amazon.com users like myself will benefit greatly from this high reward earning loophole.

Citi credit cards run their card rewards off of the Citi ThankYou network. Those of you who want to know more about the steps that I take to maximize my ThankYou network points to get the best point to cash, and point to gift card redemption rate should read my Citi ThankYou point article. While it’s not easy to get a perfect 1:1 conversion rate for reward redemption when it comes to gift cards and pre-paid debit offers, it is possible to get incredibly close to the mark via higher denominational value retail store gift certificates.

Get Extra Low Interest Rates For Paying Your Credit Card Bills On Time

One of the novel features of the Citi Forward card is its promotion of special bonuses for those who adopt good card usage behaviors. Designed to encourage good credit usage among consumers, the card offers a unique reduction of your purchase interest rate whenever you pay out your bills on time and responsibly stay within your maximum account spending limit. According to the specifics of the Citi Forward program for good credit behavior, you get an extra 100 bonus ThankYou points every billing period and a 0.25% interest rate reduction every time you manage to stay under your credit line and pay on time for 3 months in a row (for a maximum limit of 8 times, for a total 2% APR reduction). While it’s something that you ought be doing anyway regardless of reward incentives, it’s always nice to get a little something extra for your efforts.

Along with the responsible credit usage incentives, there is also an intro 0% APR offer on purchases for 7 months and a 0% balance transfer deal for up to 12 months – features that may interest the zero percent fee card seekers out there. As some have noted, while there is no annual fee for the card, there is a 3% charge for balance transfers however.

Bonus Promotion Code: $150 Offer For New TradeKing Account Transfers

The first thing you’ll notice right away with online discount broker TradeKing is that the company has received quite a number of accolades and praises over the recent years for various high performing aspects of their popular investment brokerage business. In fact, when it comes to acknowledging the awards, the company is definitely not bashful about flaunting the coveted certificate of merits, and proudly name drops them whenever they can.

A quick visit of their website reveals numerous mentions and displays of graphical award banners from popular sources of financial critique and reviews. The Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney Magazine voted TradeKing the #1 Discount Broker in 2006 and 2007, and the #1 Customer Service broker with 5 stars in 2008. Kiplinger’s Finance voted TradeKing as having the best Top-Rated Customer Service in 2008. Even Barron’s, in its annual surveys of the Best Web Browser-Based Online Brokers awarded TradeKing 4 stars for its outstanding investment tools, customer service, social media offerings, usability, and cost factors in 2007 and 2008 – and further tabbed it as the Best For Options Traders in 2008 and 2009.

I suppose when you’ve developed a quality product that’s getting attention and praise from the critics and product reviewers, there’s no sense being overly modest about a good thing. After having used online brokerage TradeKing for more than a year now as one of my major discount brokerages for cheap stock trading, I personally have to agree with the majority sentiment – TradeKing’s a recommended keeper. The online brokerage firm isn’t perfect in all respects, but it packs a pretty good punch as top discount brokers go. Beginners new to stock market investing and trading really can’t go wrong with TradeKing – as it’s one of the best brokers out there in terms of overall quality and value.

Also, one of the very attractive practices of discount broker TradeKing is its well known propensity for offering lucrative promotional deals and offers to first time customers – frequently rolling out new account bonuses of $50, $100, and even $150, to lure customers of competing online brokers to the TradeKing platform. If this is your first introduction to online stock and mutual fund investing, you may be curious as to what the hubub with TradeKing’s all about. For your benefit, I’ve provided a summary overview of the pros and cons of TradeKing below.

TradeKing’s Best Online Brokerage Features: Low Fees & Commissions and Great Customer Service

Discount broker TradeKing has numerous standout features – but the two that get the most press and attention are its low fees for stock trades, and the highly touted quality of its customer service. While I think we can all pretty much unanimously agree that low trading cost is very important, some may disagree on the importance of having great customer service. Those readers who downplay the importance of customer service reputation, and focus solely on the online trading tools and investment options of the online brokerage – are rather short sighted. As a long time stock market investor and user of web-based trading tools, there have been countless number of times when I’ve had to contact customer service for account related issues – whether they be problems related to account set up, complicated investment fee structure questions, or technical issues related to website troubles. Sometimes, I’m just too lazy to look up an answer to my detailed trading or account question from TradeKing’s self help pages and prefer to fire off a time saving direct question to one of Trade King’s customer service reps for the definitive answer.

The fact is – trading and account problems do routinely arise and it’s good to know that with a brokerage like TradeKing, their customer service response is one of their best features. TradeKing’s online representatives communicate with customers via real time live chat, phone calls, email messages, and through the online TradeKing website community. If you want access to full service branches and live banking offices, you may want to look elsewhere, but just remember, you’ll likely pay commissions that are twice or three times as high as that offered by TradeKing.

TradeKing offers cheap $4.95 stock trades for all equity transactions, whether they be market or limit trades, stocks or bonds, or whether they be online or broker assisted – each investment trade is only a flat $4.95. The TradeKing commission rate structures are not tiered so all accounts get this standard fair rate regardless of account balance or trading activity. Option trades are also priced very low, at just $0.65 per contract. Mutual fund trades are priced higher at $14.95, but this seems to be in line with what other discount brokers are charging for fund transactions as well. If your investment goal is to purchase mutual funds from one particular type of brokerage company, like a Vanguard or Fidelity fund, I’d recommend going through them directly rather than buying them from TradeKing due to the higher cost of mutual fund transactions at TradeKing. But those looking to engage primarily in individual stock and index fund trading will do quite well with TradeKing, from a commissions fee standpoint.

While TradeKing’s low $4.95 stock and bond trades are not as comparatively low as some of the new offerings coming from deep discount brokers like Zecco, which is currently offering free Zecco trades, it is still substantially cheaper than the fees and rates demanded at other popular brokerages like TD Ameritrade, E-Trade, Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab.

On top of the already low cost commissions and fees for TradeKing, there is also no minimum deposit required to open an account, no hidden maintenance fees, no hidden inactivity fees, and no limits on minimum balances – ideal traits for new investors and those seeking a truly hassle free investing experience. Those desiring to open up a retirement fund and start maxing out their IRA contribution limits will also be pleased to know that TradeKing imposes no extraneous fees or maintenance costs for such tax deferred accounts.

Review Of TradeKing’s Online Investment Tools and Community Self Help Forum For Simple and Complex Investing

Don’t be fooled by TradeKing’s cheap stock trading prices and get the impression that the deep discount broker scrimps on investment features and trading options – TradeKing is a fully stocked investment juggernaut. Okay, calling it a juggernaut’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the broker comes complete with all of the fancy bells, whistles, and widgets you would expect from most full service premium brokerages.

For starters, TradeKing offers all the basic investment choices including stocks, options, index funds, ETF’s, and mutual funds. The broker also offers access to various bond products such as corporate, agency, municipal, strips & zero coupons, and new issue fixed-income securities. Certificates of deposits (CD’s) with a whole range of maturity dates are also available to brokerage account holders. In terms of account types, new TradeKing customers have plenty of options to choose from. They can open an individual account for ordinary trading purposes, open up a Roth IRA or traditional IRA account for their retirement needs, or even set up a tax deferred college fund for their children. In terms of investment mechanics, customers can choose to invest manually, or opt for automatic investment by taking advantage of TradeKing’s auto trading tool which automatically places trades for you based on your pre-set parameters at no extra charge. Those looking to automatically reinvest their stock and mutual fund dividends will be happy to know that TradeKing offers free automatic dividend reinvestment, with the ability to purchase fractional shares as well.

In terms of investment tools, stock fund research, and trading interface, TradeKing provides a wide selection of practical tools to enable any trader or investor to carry out his or her desired investing strategy. These tools include financial calculators, automatic alerts, advanced stock charts and graphs, as well as streaming news. The discount broker also offers a useful free TradeKing Maxit Tax Manager service that serves as a tax reporting tool and online tracker of one’s gains, losses, and cost basis statistics. The Maxit Tax Manager program helps customers stay better informed about any potential losses or gains in their portfolio with major tax implications.

But overall, one of the aspects I really like about TradeKing’s website is its intuitive and streamlined setup. While some of the other brokers require you to jump through multiple hoops and clicks before accomplishing your trading objective, TradeKing speeds certain transactions up by letting you perform multiple transactions via the same page. One example would be in the case of writing a covered call option. Rather than require you to go out and buy the stock and then execute a request to sell the call manually, TradeKing provides you a very handy and efficient Options Trading menu where you can seamlessly execute a variety of fancy option trades on the fly, such as covered calls, protective puts, and even butterfly options.

If you are a beginner investor or someone who needs a wealth of educational handholding, TradeKing provides a tremendous library of free investment and financial education materials for your learning pleasure, including how-to videos, demo tutorials, expert articles, and audio lesson seminars. More self help trading tips and investment advice can also be further gleaned from TradeKing’s community group forum called the Trader Network, which encourages the sharing and exchange of personal financial advice among TradeKing customers. The whole social media and community aspect of investing is a feature that seems to distinguish online brokerages like TradeKing from other sites, as not many other broker services offer or facilitate a similar forum based sharing of ideas, except perhaps low cost discounter Zecco.

Opening A Trade King Account – Bonus Promo Offers For New Customers

Opening a TradeKing account literally only takes few minutes, even with a close read of all of the associated terms and conditions. You’ll need to provide the standard registration information required by all brokerages such as your name, address, social security number, employer information, and indication of your level of investing expertise.

Like most brokerages, Tradeking allows customers to link a bank account to TradeKing to deposit and withdraw money via free electronic ACH transfers. Unfortunately, at the present time, TradeKing only allows you to link up a single bank account to your broker for ACH transfer purposes. For most people however (myself included), this isn’t that big of a deal since most individuals utilize only a single primary bank account, but it can be a mild nuisance for some multiple bank account holders. The other slight knock on TradeKing concerns the mandatory trading hold of 5 business days before recently deposited funds can be used for trading purposes, and the 10 day freeze before deposited funds can be withdrawn. As these account limitations are quite prevalent among most online brokerages I’ve come across, they’re more minor nuisances to be aware of than anything else.

Those looking to sign up for a new TradeKing account really ought to take advantage of the various TradeKing promotions available. For account customers of other brokerages, TradeKing offers a very attractive, no-expiration date – $150 account transfer bonus to reimburse new customers who switch to TradeKing and incur transfer fees with their former broker. If you are unable to locate a current working $50, $100, or $150 bonus offer, you may want to try calling or initiating a live chat session with them and asking if there are current promotions available. Simply visit the main TradeKing.com website and access “Live Chat” at the top (in tiny print).

Thoughts and complaints about your TradeKing experience are always welcomed! Please share your comments below.