- While by now we're all familiar with the airlines' frequent flier programs and probably have a credit card that gives us reward points of some kind, I want to tell you about some of my favorite bonus programs. For instance, it hardly seems worth it to me to spend years accumulating enough points in order to save a few hundred dollars on one major purchase. I used to have a GM MasterCard, but when I needed a new car, I decided to buy a Chrysler PT Cruiser, so the points were, well, pointless. Certainly any rewards program is better than nothing, but not if you never get the reward!

- One of my favorite credit card rewards programs is with the Amazon.com VISA card from Bank One. (See the special offer below.) You need only 2,500 points to be able to redeem them for a $25.00 amazon.com gift certificate. Since I'm a huge amazon.com shopper, this is a big bonus for me. Over the course of a single year, by using my amazon.com VISA card for ordinary everyday purchases like groceries, I accumulated and redeemed several hundred dollars in amazon.com gift certificates.

- MBNA offers many choices of credit cards with either rewards programs or other affiliations. You can choose a credit card that will send money to charity or one that will make contributions to a 529 college savings plan. If you love books but aren't an online shopper, MBNA offers a Barnes & Noble VISA card. I have an MBNA VISA card that accumulates points toward LL Bean gift certificates. As soon as you reach 1,000 points, you receive a $10.00 gift certificate . One of the things I especially like about this program is that I get the gift certificates in the mail automatically - I don't have to do anything to redeem the points.

- Find more credit card reward programs by visiting the Quicken personal finance website, where you can search for cash back cards, the best rebate programs, or look for the best deal overall, considering the interest rate and annual fee. Click on the "Credit Card Search" option on the left under the "Tools" heading. The site will link you to many, many credit card issuers and you can research the details for each card.

- For maximum savings, you want to combine a credit card reward program with some other discount. Ebates is one of my favorite ways to get additional savings when you shop online. With this program, you make sure that you first go to the Ebates website, and then follow their link to a participating merchant's website to place your order online. Each merchant has agreed to give you a small rebate on your order when you shop through the Ebates link. Ebates collects these discounts and forwards them to you in a quarterly check. (Yes, I have gotten my checks!) For instance, by clicking on the LL Bean link from the Ebates site, I get $2.00 per order back through Ebates, in addition to the points I earn and the free shipping I get for using my MBNA LL Bean credit card for payment. Many large retailers participate in the Ebates program, including office suppliers (Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples are all there,) electronics stores (Best Buy, Circuit City,) clothing retailers (The Gap, JC Penney,) as well as many smaller stores, from Avon to Yves Rocher for cosmetics or from A Pea In The Pod for maternity and baby gear to Yankee Candle for candles and gifts. You can even get a rebate on a magazine subscription! There are more than 600 stores in all. You can even find out about additional savings offered through coupons and sales through the Ebates site.

- You can make it a discount triple play by adding Upromise to the mix. This program works differently from Ebates in two ways. First, you don't get the cash back directly - it goes into a 529 plan account you set up through Upromise for college savings. Second, if you register your credit cards and grocery ID cards with Upromise, you don't have to do anything else to automatically get the contributions from some of the participating companies. The rebates on any eligible items you buy with a registered card are automatically added to your account. Aside from groceries and online orders there are also some other interesting options. When I needed a mortgage last year, I selected Countrywide as my lender through the Upromise site and got a $400.00 contribution from them into my account. (As well as a great rate on my mortgage.) Having my ADT security system's monthly monitoring fee billed to my credit card puts a dollar in every month. AT&T long distance service, Terminix services, and several auto repair chains all offer contributions. Even better, over 8000 restaurants participate, typically with 10% of your check going into your Upromise account as a contribution. (Contributions may not be offered on weekend dining, however.) Now a dollar or ten a month is not going to add up to enough to pay your kids' college tuition, but when the time to write that big check finally comes, every little bit will help! Even if I have no plans to go back to college, I can transfer the money in my account to my nieces and nephews when they need it to help pay for their books and supplies.

- One possible way to get a QUADRUPLE bonus is to start at Ebates, click on the Staples website to place an order, and use a Upromise registered American Express Business card to pay. I'll get a 2% discount from Ebates, a 2% 529 plan contribution from Upromise, Membership Rewards points from American Express, and as I mentioned last month, Staples will also give me another 2% back for using my American Express card to pay for the order. This is a pretty rare combo, but so much fun to do. :-) And if I were buying a product that came with its own manufacturer's rebate, then I could have a fifth rebate too!