Tag Archives: exchange

Capital One No Hassle MILES Rewards vs Capital One No Hassle CASH Rewards

Capital One introduces two reward credit cards that are designed to suit your needs and lifestyle – the Capital One No Hassle Miles (SM) Rewards and the Capital One No Hassle Cash (SM) Rewards. Let’s take a look at what each of these credit card rewards.

Capital One No Hassle Cash (SM) Rewards

This cash-reward credit card from Capital One offers a 1% rebate on purchases and a 25% bonus on the total cash you earned for the previous year. You can earn as much cash back rewards as you can as this credit card does not impose limits, expiration dates or minimum purchases to be eligible for the rewards.

Aside from this cash-reward program, this credit card also comes with privileges that exclusive only to Capital One card holders. Benefits include emergency card replacement, auto rental insurance, and extended warranties for purchases. All card holders are also entitled to exclusive savings from Capital One Saving Zone (SM) on Yahoo! Shopping.

The Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards

Capital One’s travel reward credit card offers its cardholders 1.25 miles points for every spent on the card. Aside from travel points, a 1% cash back is also given on purchases plus a 25% bonus on the total cash earned the previous year. Just like the Capital One No Hassle Cash (SM) Rewards credit card, there are no limits on the rewards you can earn, no minimum charges required and no blackout dates.

The miles points you earn can be redeemed in five ways. You can exchange it for cash, exchange it for merchandise, donate your points to a charity, exchange them for gift certificate rewards or travel free to your choice of destination. To travel for free, you should have at least gathered 15,000 miles points in your account.

This credit card has no annual fee and it comes with a 0% introductory rate on purchases until July 2008. When the introductory period expires, the interest rate on both purchases and balance transfers still remains reasonable.

Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards vs Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards

Certainly both cards are worth choosing but which one should you pick? If you’re the type of card holder who wants to carry balances over to the next billing cycle, the Cash Rewards card can also work for you. If you’re interested in a chance to travel for free or if you’re frequent traveler, then you should definitely take advantage of the Capital One No Hassle Miles (SM) Rewards card.

Don’t forget that Capital One’s No Hassle Miles (SM) Rewards card also awards cash points and bonuses aside from travel points. Also, if you don’t want to go on a travel or if you didn’t gather enough miles points, you can always exchange them for cash-back, merchandise, gift certificate or a charity donation. Check out the complete list of their terms and conditions which can be found in Capital One’s website.

Currency exchange remains a key factor for many expats with UK Pensions plan and QROPS.

complexity for Pension and QROPS and investment strategies also needs continues monitoring of exchange rates.
Continuing our daily look at factors affecting currencies allows some insight into market conditions affecting exchange rates. Cash and income timing for UK Pensions and QROPS should be considered to maximise the Pension, QROPS and investment income and benefits taken.
After a brief lull on Friday, the pound returned to dominant form and as the ongoing Greek debt crisis haunted the euro once again the pound matched its 2010 high against the single currency.
Helping the pound along were recent political opinion polls which appear now to all agree the Conservatives have edged out a small lead over the other two parties and may end up with most seats after next week’s general election.

After last week’s televised political debate, the Liberal Democrats seemed to have lost a little of the momentum gained after Nick Clegg’s popular display the week before. Whilst a hung parliament is still a distinct possibly, popular belief within the markets is that the Tories might just win bringing back an appetite for the riskier currencies such as the pound.

The pound also gained support from a survey by property Data Company Hometrack showing house prices in England and Wales rose by 1.8% in April from this time a year ago, their fastest pace of increase since January 2008.

The euro came under broad selling pressure as growing investor impatience over the implementation and terms of a financial bailout for Greece pushed the spread between Greek and German 10-year yields Bunds to fresh 12-year highs.
The unattractiveness of the troubled euro has helped the pound to match a five month high set back in January of €1.1622 at 4.30pm.

Sterling’s trade weighted index against its main trading partners moved up to 80.1, the highest in two months. The pound’s trade-weighted value is often steered by movements in sterling against the euro, as the single European currency comprises the majority of the currency basket which tracks sterling’s moves versus its trading partners.
The negative appeal of the euro also assisted the pound against the dollar. Since EUR/USD is the most heavily traded currency pair, the fall in euro strength to below $1.33 again helped the pound test the $1.55 mark twice during the session.
Some traders believe the negative sentiment towards the euro could take the pound well up into 1.16’s, however given the last few sterling rallies, there always seems to be something around the corner (Dubai debt crisis, quantitative easing, low GDP etc) that brings it to a halt. Giving the election is next week we could another surprise.

Positioning data for the latest week showed speculators further trimmed bets against sterling, although market positioning in the pound remains excessively short.
A cut in these short positions has helped sterling to recover from a 10-month low of $1.4781 hit last month, and some analysts say the market has become less negative about the pound as it has come to terms with the prospect of the election producing an inconclusive result.

This week is set to be a fairly quiet one in terms of significant data releases in Europe. Today sees the release of UK mortgage approvals and CBI distributive trades survey. Tomorrow however, the FED meet to decide the US interest rates, it is expected they will leave them at 0.25% and Reserve Bank of New Zealand are expected to leave their rates at 2.5% tomorrow night. Friday there is the release of US and Canadian GDP 1st quarter figures.
On another note I read in a report yesterday evening about Bank of England interest rates. The report mentioned with UK inflation higher than is desirable the BoE may start to raise interest rates as soon as August with plan to reach 1.0% by the end of the year. Previously, interest rates were expected to stay at 0.5% until well in to 2011. A rise in interest rate will make the UK more attractive to overseas investors and could bring extra value to the pound.

Currency exchange remains a key factor for many expats with UK Pensions and QROPS. The complexity for Pension and QROPS and investment strategies also needs continues monitoring of exchange rates.