Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card

Fixed rate of 9.99% for the life of the balance on Balance Transfer requests submitted with the application.
Earn up to 17,500 bonus SkyMiles® - 15,000 bonus miles after your first purchase with the Card and 2,500 bonus miles for an Additional Cardmember
Earn at least 1 SkyMile for every eligible dollar you spend
Always Double Miles^® on eligible everyday purchases and all Delta purchases
Your Delta Frequent Flyer number is printed on your Card
Pay with Miles: Pay for all or part of your flight with miles - and put the rest on your Card
Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds.

Sign up for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card and earn at least 1 SkyMile for every eligible dollar that you spend! It's a great deal so sign up and start collecting right away!
Always DOUBLE MILESSM lets you earn free travel faster for the things you buy all the time
Earn one SkyMile® for every eligible dollar spent
Earn SkyMiles for every mile you fly on Delta
Get 10,000 Bonus SkyMiles® with your first purchase
Your frequent flyer number is conveniently printed on your Card.
Shopping security with Purchase Protection3 and Buyer's Assurance.
No blackout dates
SkyMiles never expire
Choose from over 400 Delta award destinations worldwide
$85 Annual Fee
2

DID YOU KNOW?

	As business intelligence moves into the computer age, corporate dashboards are becoming a necessity in business intelligence technology. Although business intelligence has used corporate dashboards for years, their popularity has increased greatly due to the change and advancement in the technology used. However, with the great amount of information available, there are some key design issues to consider if you want to use corporate dashboards for your business intelligence. If you want to design an effective corporate dashboard for your business intelligence technology, you will need to decide on some design goals. You will need to think about the function and look of your corporate dashboard as it relates to the type of business intelligence you are trying to put together. Some corporate dashboards are flashy reports and others are more like strategic scorecards. Other corporate dashboards are used for business intelligence that is more tactical, using relevant and actionable data. Your corporate dashboard will need an efficient design that fits the business intelligence role. There are two essentials to understanding how to build a corporate dashboard for business intelligence, metrics and key performance indicators. Metrics are direct numerical measures to represent certain types of business intelligence in the relationship of at least one dimension. For instance, you could take the metric of gross sales and show it by day or week in the financial quarter. The business intelligence can be shown in your corporate dashboard in both a dynamic and static way to use various types of analysis of the business intelligence. You will also need to consider what key performance indicators the users of the corporate dashboard will be responsible for managing. A key performance indicator is the measure that tells the relative performance in relation to the target goal. Some key performance indicator gives you concrete business intelligence, while others will give you business intelligence in the abstract. Defining the key performance indicators is extremely important to the overall design, because it defines the foundation of the business intelligence that will be visualized in the corporate dashboard. Key performance indicators help show the business intelligence through alert icons, traffic lights, trend icons, progress bards, and gauges. Supporting analytics are also important to designing your corporate dashboard as it relates to your business intelligence. You will need to pick out the information that a user will need to see in order to tell the condition of the key performance indicator. Supporting analytics offer context and diagnostic information to know why a key performance indicator is showing specific information. These supporting analytics, as they relate to business intelligence, come more in the form of traditional charts, graphs, and tables. Designing a corporate dashboard for your business intelligence is dependent on your understanding the metrics, key performance indicators, and supporting analytics. Corporate dashboards are gaining popularity once again in the business intelligence arena, and good design equals better results and analysis. A good design of your corporate dashboard for your business intelligence can mean that your corporate dashboard will be effective and useful to the organization.

I hear it all the time, and you probably do too. On the radio, TV, in the newspaper or online – “Call now to get a 30-year fixed loan at x% with no points or fees!”. I’d like to explain to you why this almost never makes sense.

First, we need to make an assumption – if you’re getting a 30-year fixed loan, you’re planning on keeping the loan for several years. This may seem simple, but so many people get 30-year fixed loans because it’s what they’ve always gotten or because everything else is perceived as risky. If you’re not going to keep your loan for at least 7-10 years, it makes no sense to get a 30-year fixed loan. There are products available called hybrid ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages), which allow you to fix your rate for a set period of years (typically 3, 5, or 7 years). These loans usually have lower rates than 30-year fixed loans. If you’re not going to keep the loan for over 5 or 7 years, you shouldn’t pay more to keep it fixed longer than that.

So, you’ve decided that unlike the majority of people who refinance or sell their home every 3-5 years, you’re going to stay in your home and do not plan to refinance for at least 7-10 years. In this case, it may make sense for you to get a 30-year fixed loan. However, it still doesn’t make sense for you to get a 30-year fixed with no points. In order for you to understand why, I have to explain how loans and interest rates work.

When you go to a lender to get a 30-year fixed loan, they will tell you what interest rate you qualify for. If your loan officer is good, they will explain to you that you can buy down the interest rate by paying 1 or more “points” through the loan (a “point” is simply a lending term that means 1% of the loan amount, so if you have a $300,000 loan then 1 point is $3,000). If your loan officer is REALLY good, he’ll explain why it probably doesn’t make sense to get a 30-year fixed loan without paying any points.

In order for you to see what I’m talking about, let’s assume you’ve got a $300,000 loan amount and you can get a rate of 6.25%. Your monthly payment would be $1,847. However, if you agree to pay one point ($3,000) through the loan your rate will be 6%, which would translate into a monthly payment of $1,798. At this point, it’s useful to do a “break-even” analysis.

Take the amount you pay in points ($3,000) and divide that by the monthly savings ($1,847 – $1,798 = $49), which gives you 61. This is the number of months in which your monthly savings ($49) pay for your point ($3,000). In this case, if you’re planning on keeping the loan for 7-10 years at least then it makes sense to pay the point for the lower rate since you’ll be saving money. In fact you will save $2,900 after 10 years, $8,800 after 20 years, and almost $15,000 over the life of the loan!

Generally speaking, by paying at least 1 point when you get a 30-year fixed loan you’ll find a break-even point of 4-5 years. Since we’ve already made the case that you shouldn’t get a 30-year fixed loan if you’re planning on keeping your mortgage for less than 7-10 years, and the break-even point is generally 4-5 years, it usually doesn’t make sense to get a 30-year fixed loan with no points.

If you’re in a situation where you’re considering getting a 30-year fixed loan, I would suggest you do this analysis yourself. Ask your trusted loan officer for a rate quote at 0 points, 1 points, and 2 points, along with what the payment would look like at each rate. Then divide the amount you’re paying in points by the monthly savings to find your break-even point. If that break-even point is at least a year less than the amount of time you’re planning on keeping the loan, then pay the money and save in the long run!