MarkM,

"end of the month" came on the paper accompanying my card, if I recall correctly. I believe taylor confirmed this.

I must have missed xoneinax's questions...did he still have ones pending? I didn't see any in this thread, but might have missed it.

The reason for the beginning of the month for bond flippers is only if you want to carry a balance month-to-month. In that case, you want to have the bonds post on your NEXT cycle, then pay all but a little bit of them off. If you don't want to mess with this, than one should follow the same instructions as with FBB: cycle date around the 25-27th.

I got instant approval, but didn't get the option to make purchases before the card came.

Hope that helps, lmk if I missed anthing.

MarkM, I was confused by your indicating a discrepency between my post and taylor's. Look at the paragraph in my original post:

"-6 months 0% teaser rate for purchases. More precisely, this rate ends at the END of the 6th month of card membership, according to Amex reps. Were this true, you’d get the teaser rate through the end of February if you were approved today (August.). BUT, UPDATE: check the “Supplement to the Cardmember Agreement,” which is contained on the sheet of paper to which your primary card was attached. Here mine reads, : “intro APR in effect through billing periods expiring 01/03.” Looks to me like that doesn’t mean through the end of that full month, just the end of the cycle that month."

I knew taylor confirmed my written interp (at 8/5 9:22 am), I just forgot what it was before rereading the above, and assumed you'd read me correctly. Perhaps I need to update again--I generally avoid doing this without good reason, as it creates more confusion...?

You're more than welcome on the FAQ--thanks to you and all who've contributed! Anyone please feel free to suggest additions, clarifications, deletions too.

MarkM and DH: This may be obvious, but the difference in times that each of you see on my post has to do with your timezone. FW is smart enough to make everything appear in your timezone, so using the time stamp to identify messages can be hazzardous. For the record, I posted at 11:22am CDT.

I think I was confirming DH's 11:11am CDT editing of his original post. (That the end of the 6 month billing cycle is the end of the 0% APR.)

In regard to applying and purchasing, my experience was the same as DH's. I applied but could not purchase until I received the card, although it did come fairly quickly. (I believe I applied on 7-28-02 and made my first purchase on 8-4-02.)

To answer you question MarkM, I think DH recommends early in the month for those who plan to flip bonds and keep a balance even after the 0% goes away. That way they can purchase bonds at the end of the month which also happens to be near the end of the billing cycle, so the CC interest they pay is less than if they purchased at the beginning of the billing cycle.

On my webpage I suggest applying in the middle of the month. This assumes that you plan to buy bonds on the first billing cycle and sell them to pay off the CC balance before the end of the sixth billing cycle.

If you plan to wait until the second billing cycle to buy bonds, I think you are best off applying near the end of the month. I didn't know all of this stuff when I applied, but my application date is very nice for this strategy. My billing cycle begins on the 28th of the month so I plan to buy bonds on 8-28.

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably go with the apply in the middle of the month because I still think (although it appears to be an unpopular opinion) that there is some chance that the 0.5% bonus would apply to first billing cycle purchases (see my earlier discussions on this for more details).

The nice thing about having a billing cycle that starts on the 28th is that after the 0% APR is over, I do not intend to carry a balance and I'll get the maximum 0 interest grace period since my bond purchases will be at the beginning of my billing cycles.

I've started to ramble here, so while I'm at it I'll go a bit off topic. FWIW, DH's reasoning about the cost to the government associated with bond flipping have caused me to reconsider my initial enthusiasm for bond flipping. While I currently don't have a problem with allowing any CCC to reward me generously if they see fit, I'm not as comfortable with the implications to the Fed. Therefore, my current strategy is to use bonds as a replacement for a "rainy day fund" mutual fund and only flip when I need to bump my CC into the highest tier at the beginning of each "rewards year".

thanks taylor, everything you say makes sense to me, especially the aspect of doing this if you want to carry a balance. All I was trying to say to Dave was that it seems like everyone (I think Dave too?) agrees that this sentence from the strategy section of his FAQ that I quoted is wrong: "First, you get a longer 0% period, since it’s end of the month when the 6th billing cycle ends."

Wwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhheeeeeeeewwwwww! (wiping my brow)

Did any of you use this card yet? I just want to know which gas stations qualify for 3% rebate. Can I just buy from arco and get 3% or I have to buy from expensive gas stations like shell?

I've used the card (at a gas station even), but I haven't figured out how to tell if it is an Everyday spend merchant or not. I'm waiting for my first statement which should categories all of the merchants. I'll post my results when I can.

Hey Guys ! First and foremost - great job on the posts in this thread. Hopefully this is going to be very useful.

I just received my AMEX Cash rebate card in the mail. Makes sense to get the bonds right away since I'll earn interest for the whole of August.

A very basic question I have is :
If I buy 2.5K worth of bonds ( and say my credit limit is 2,500 ) today. After a month when my statement arrives, I pay off the minimum balance. After that ( in month 2 ), does my credit limit get back to 2,500 or is it just $(2,500 - the minimum babalnce I paid )?

Can I keep doing this ( buying bonds every month & paying only the min. balance ) for the next 5-6 months ( until the 0% APR expires ) ?

Thanks !!

You guys talk a lot about buying bonds every month....may someone please explain what are these bonds that is being talked about? ..

Thanks!

jinju said:

<< You guys talk a lot about buying bonds every month....may someone please explain what are these bonds that is being talked about? ..

Thanks! >>

search the forum for "bonds" there are a half a dozen threads on the topic. it's kinda off topic for this thread