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The most lucrative thing you can do to earns points is sign up for credit cards and earn the signup bonuses. That s great as far as it goes, and I do quite a bit of it myself (4-6 cards quarterly most of the time). But even I don t do it all the time, right now I m in the midst of refinancing property and until that closes I m hands-off. There are plenty of people who aren t going to sign up for cards as aggressively as I will.
There s a simple answer for most people. The best generic, all-purpose credit card advice that I have is to get two cards: the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa and the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express .
One Starpoint is worth more than 1 point of any other currency. They re great to redeem for hotel stays, and they transfer to the largest number of airline frequent flyer programs. Those transfers are 1-to-1, and when you move Starpoints into 20,000 miles you earn a 5,000 mile bonus. That s like earning 1.25 miles per dollar in most airline frequent flyer programs, you get to decide which program you want points in later, and he $65 annual fee (waived dollar rent a car in san diego the first year) is even lower than most airline mile card fees.
The card offers 10,000 Starpoints dollar rent a car in san diego after first purchase and an additional 15,000 points when you spend $5,000 dollar rent a car in san diego within 6 months. This is also the best card for purchasing appliances and electronics thanks to the strong purchase protections .
That card should be supplemented dollar rent a car in san diego by the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa which offers 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining and a 7% annual bonus on all spending points earned. I need a Visa, there are plenty of merchants still that don t take American Express. And I travel outside the U.S. so I want a card that has no foreign currency transaction fees.
Chase Ultimate Rewards is the other major currency with the greatest value, points transfer to several airlines (United, dollar rent a car in san diego British Airways, Korean, Southwest) and hotels (Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Priority Club) as well as Amtrak.
dollar rent a car in san diego The true answer to which card is best for spending? (when that spending isn t being used to meet the requirements of a signup bonus) is it depends . It depends on your personal circumstance and what you spend the most money on. So while the advice above probably works best for 99% of consumers, I wanted dollar rent a car in san diego to address some specific cases that alter the advice for the other 1%.
If you are willing to buy American Express Prepaid cards and add value to them via reloadable cards purchased at Office Supply Stores : Chase Ink Bold Charge Card and Chase Ink Plus Credit Card because you can leverage the 5 points per dollar on office dollar rent a car in san diego supply store purchases that these cards offer into 5 points per dollar on all purchases. For folks willing to go through the steps for this , the Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards are the very most lucrative cards overall.
If you purchase $30,000 or more in airfare or groceries : American Express Premier Rewards Gold offers 3 points per dollar on airfare purchases and 2 points per dollar on gas and groceries. When you spend $30,000 on the card in a year you earn 15,000 bonus points. I have this card, I hit the $30,000 spend on airfare, so it plays a key role in my wallet. The reason I say this card makes sense if you re going to hit $30,000 in a year in spend is that while the annual fee is waived the first year, it s $175 after that. A great card for year one, afterwards it really dollar rent a car in san diego only makes sense if you re using it heavily as the threshold spending bonus is worth well more than the annual fee. (And as an aside, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred offers dollar rent a car in san diego 6% back on groceries get the card before November so that you have a full year in which your 6% cash back is uncapped . )
If all you want is domestic coach travel : Citi Thank You Premier offers 2 points per dollar for 2 years. They match your spending points with flight points. So you earn about a 4% rebate on all of your spend, easily besting cash back cards. dollar rent a car in san diego So certainly the most rewarding if you aren t looking to spend your points for premium cabin international travel .
If you spend a lot eating out : Citi Forward dollar rent a car in san diego Card earns 5 points per dollar on restaurant dollar rent a car in san diego spend. Dining spend is one of my major categories, and I don t actually have this card even though dollar rent a car in san diego I recognize I probably should, I put my restaurant spend on my Chase Sapphire dollar rent a car in san diego Preferred which earns double points.
If you rent a lot of cars : While the Sapphire Preferred offers double points on travel, including car rentals, if you rent a lot then I like the primary collision damage waiver offered by the Diners Club card (which I use, but is not currently open for new applications) and the United Explorer card. That protects you against the expenses of damaging a rental dollar rent a car in san diego vehicle, but is not liability coverage it doesn t cover what you hit ..
If you book a lot of revenue airline tickets online : Travelocity American Express can earn up to 10% cash back on purchases made at Travelocity.com. Me, I m just not a huge fan of using Travelocity so I don t go that route.
If you spend a lot on telecommunications cable TV, cell phones, internet access: The Chase Ink Bold Charge Card and Chase Ink Plus Credit Card earn 5 points per dollar on those categories of spending.
dollar rent a car in san diego If you make a lot of small purchases in unbonused categories dollar rent a car in san diego : The Chase Freedom earns 1 point per dollar (more in bonused categories which change each quarter) plus a 10% bonus and an extra 10 points per transaction if you also have a Chase checking account. (A $1 purchase earns 12 points.) And if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus card you can transfer the points earned over to those card programs and the points become transferrable to airline miles and hotel points.
If one of the above if you exceptions applies to you, then a specific strategy will suit you best. But for the 99% of folks, the one-two punch of Chase Sapphire Preferred and Starwood American Express is a hard to beat combination.
Note that many of the cards on the list above do offer me referral credit if you use the links provided. As always I only offer the best offers I m aware of. And I do very much appreciate it when you use these links, so thank you in advance.
Gary, it s strange as to how the Freedom + checking account works. I closed my Chase checking account in July but I m still getting dollar rent a car in san diego the 10% bonus and the 10 points per transaction bonus. still good when it lasts!
The Vanilla reload cards seems to be disappearing from Office dollar rent a car in san diego Depot, dollar rent a car in san diego at least in North Carolina. There s no mention of them on the Office Depot website. Could it be that OD has pulled the plug on these. Note: AMEX prepaid cards still readily available.
Very nice and concise analysis except I would disagree on one point. Although Starwood amex is an excellant card for all the reasons you mentioned above but I favor million mile secrets opinion that it is not a keeper. You apply personal card and after a year replace this with the business card and keep this cycle. This way you take advantage of the sign on bonus and avoid the annual fee which is due next year. I beleive this card is churnable every year.
@gman hard to get in some places, easy in others, lots of great reports dollar rent a car in san diego in Texas and Oklahoma It just varies by place, don t know what the future holds or if they are just out given the very heavy demand
@Joel very cool, I imagine they just code the account dollar rent a car in san diego a certain way rather than sweeping it monthly, don t know if they run it at regular intervals (yearly?) or not, will be interesting to see how long you keep that bonus!
Is there a reason to recommend the CSP VISA as opposed to the MC? Or VISA is just the default? The MC has the same offer, and MC hopefully will have some nice bonuses again this holiday season. I d guess that many of us have multiple Visa Signature cards, so one more doesn t add to those perks. (Also, getting the MC allows for potentially getting the VISA sign on bonus later, or vice-versa )
@Mikes you can get the card as either. When I ve seen the Mastercard it has been out of standard credit card material with raised numbers, that could be a plus or a minus. Mastercard insurance coverages are slightly different. And occasionally dollar rent a car in san diego there are visa-specific bonuses and Mastercard-specific bonuses. There are folks with both cards. Sapphire s standard is a Visa but it s not exclusively so.
@Nicole I found it amusing, but perhaps my sense of humor is off Maybe I should take a lesson from my own chiding over the Ritz-Carlton Charlotte for using the Occupy movement in its marketing. In my case I thought I was being ironic, at least
Nice CC article! I d like to add one more thing about the Forward Card: that s my first every credit card that I grabbed as a college student. It s one of the few that you can apply to easily and get approved for if you re just starting out and if someone is new to the credit dollar rent a car in san diego card game this card should be meant for them. Especially due to the food bonus. It s sad that they don t have the sign up bonus that I had back then they gave away at least 15000 points at sign up w/ first purchase.
Hi Gary your comment dollar rent a car in san diego about the car rental coverage piqued my interest. Are you saying that the collision damage waiver (whether primary or secondary) only covers damage to the rental car? In other words, if you accidentally hit another car (or object), then you are fully responsible for the damage to that car or object (hopefully covered by your personal insurance). dollar rent a car in san diego Is that right? Is there a card that covers everything?
@Erik that s right, Collision Damage Waiver takes care of the costs associated with damage to the renta
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