Accumulating Credit Card

Accumulating Credit Card Points In Exchange For Travel Miles


The convenience of using credit cards for everyday purchases has allowed a lot of people in the US to get the services offered by credit cards. Credit cards these days are used in almost everyday purchases as it offers more security because people won’t have to walk the streets anymore carrying bundles of cash in order for them to go an appliance store to buy a brand new HDTV that may cost thousands of dollars.

Credit cards also allow flexibility and manageability to its users. Also a way of lending money, credit users can buy a brand new PC and thru the use of interest rates, they can borrow money now to buy PC and pay off the balance in installments with the credit card company adding on interest rate charges to finance the purchase.

By proper management of credit card finances, individuals will be able to maximize the use of their credit by being able to buy the necessary things they need now and may able to pay off their balance in the short term.

As credit card users frequently make purchases for their daily activities, credit companies also provide rewards points for their purchases. Awarding of points for these purchases may vary depending on the items they buy, the special features of their credit cards and the reward items that their accumulated points can redeem.

There are credit cards offered in the market today that offers rewards points in the form of air travel miles. As a card user makes regular purchases, equivalent points in the form of travel miles are awarded. Usually, one air travel mile is awarded for every dollar spent on card purchases.

The air travel mile points accumulated over credit use doesn’t necessarily equal actual miles required to make the travel. It usually depends on the destination, the card company offering the travel programs and the airline companies that the credit card companies are working with. This information can be obtained from the credit card company’s hotline numbers, their consumer websites and from the promotional brochures that they send to their customers.

A frequent traveler can benefit lot from the use of his credit card if he opts to redeem his accumulated points into air travel miles. They can use their travel points and redeem them for travel promotions of their card companies and later on use them in a planned vacation in the future.

They’ll just monitor their accumulated points in order for them to determine how many more points they’ll need in order to get that vacation they’ve planned or if they can use the points as additional help in purchasing plane tickets for sudden travel plans.

Stock market losses manageable

KPERS, Security Benefit: Stock market losses manageable
By Michael Hooper
The Capital-Journal


Kansas money managers saw their investments hurt Monday as the stock market suffered its worst daily drop in seven years.

Security Benefit and Kansas Public Employees Retirement System suffered some losses Monday, but leaders at both institutions said the losses were small compared to their large investment portfolios.
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ANDRE PENNER / The Associated Press

The news from Wall Street caused turmoil in markets worldwide. In Brazil, the main index was down 3.3 percent.

MARY ALTAFFER / The Associated Press

Robin Radaetz holds a sign Monday in front of the Lehman Brothers headquarters, reflecting the anxiety invoked by the struggles of several banks. Lehman Brothers' filing and Bank of America's purchase of Merrill Lynch led to the sharp decline in the market.

LOUIS LANZANO / The Associated Press

A man leaves the Lehman Brothers headquarters building Monday in New York. The group filed for bankruptcy.

DAVID KARP / The Associated Press

Elizabeth Rose works her post on the trading floor of the stock exchange. The Dow dropped more than 500 points.
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Stocks fell Monday after Lehman Brothers investment banking firm filed for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America.

American International Group, the largest U.S. insurer, announced the need for additional capital as its shares lost 60 percent of their value on Monday, contributing to the 504.48-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average.

Monday's decline follows last week's turmoil related to the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"We've got some exposure, but it is well less than 1 percent," said Glenn Deck, executive director of KPERS.

On July 31, KPERS had a total of $93 million or 0.72 percent of its total $12.89 billion portfolio, exposed to AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. About $69.3 million of that $93 million was in bonds and $23.4 million was in stocks. Some exposure came through broad index funds invested by money management firms hired by KPERS, Deck said.

"We're a long-term investor," Deck said. "Our goal is to make 8 percent over the long haul, and we've achieved that."

KPERS investment portfolio returned a -4.4 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, while the S&P 500 index returned a -13.1 percent for the same time period.

Security Benefit, which has $32 billion under management, had about $7 million in stock in Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), which lost 94 percent of its value on Monday.

"We have some Lehman Brothers, about $7 million in our $5 billion general account," said Kris Robbins, chairman and CEO of Security Benefit. "That's a relatively small amount."

Robbins said greed contributed to the downfall of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.

"There will be lots of finger pointing, but the root cause is greed and trying to grow and get transactions done, which led to it," Robbins said.

William Greiner, chief investment officer of UMB Asset Management, said the business model for large banking houses like Lehman Brothers no longer works because they take on too much debt.

Greiner said he expects more consolidation in the banking industry.

Nearly every investor with a 401(k) or 403(b) retirement account will feel some impact from Monday's plunge, but money managers encouraged investors to remain calm.

"The worst time to sell is when it's ugly," Robbins said.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 504.48 points or 4.42 percent to 10,917.51, while the Nasdaq fell 3.6 percent to 2,179.91 and the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 4.71 percent to 1,192.

The Dow, which languished with a loss between 200 and 300 points for most of Monday, saw its losses accelerate in the last hour of trading to suffer its worst daily point drop since trading resumed after the 9/11 terror attacks.

All but one — Coca-Cola — of the Dow's 30 components fell. The Federal Reserve on Monday asked Goldman Sachs Group and J.P. Morgan Chase to help make $70-$75 billion in loans available to the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. The insurer has been racing to restructure its business and raise fresh capital to avoid a downgrade of its credit ratings.