Maximizing Points on Spend

Catch All Credit Card

Most banks will have a credit card that offers 1.5% or 2% back on all purchases, with no restrictions. Typically these cards are also no annual fee, so it's free to keep them forever and earn you a baseline of points. Instead of paying for items with cash or your debit card, which net you absolutely zero benefits, paying with a baseline credit card will help accrue points that can be used for statement credit, or free flights and hotels. This first step is the most simple as you can take just one card and run with it for your entire life. 

 Example Cards

• Chase Freedom Unlimited  - 3% on dining and 1.5% on everything else. Current referral bonus also has 5% on gas and groceries

• Capital One Quicksilver - 1.5% on everything. 

• Citi Double Cash - 2% on everything

• American Express Blue Business Cash - 2% on everything

Credit Card Multipliers 

Moving a bit more strategic from step 1, you can use different credit cards for different categories of spend. Various credit cards will give additional bonuses ranging from 3-10% back on categories like groceries, dining, and gas - which are usually most households' highest spending category. There will also be some promotional bonuses, such as Capital One's 10% back on Uber purchases or Chase's 10% back on Tock reservations. Overall, this step incorporates multiple cards and it's up to you to select the right card out of your wallet to use. There's several tools out there to help identify the right card from stickers to apps. 

Example Multi-Card Setup

• American Express Gold for 4% on dining and groceries

• Citi Custom Cash for 5% on gas 

• Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3% on travel

• Chase Ink Business Cash for 5% on internet and phone services

• Capital one Venture X for 2% on everything else. 

Gift Card Hacking

This strategy takes a little bit more efforts, but can be rewarding with the amount of points you get back on spend. By using your card multipliers in step 3, you can also purchase gift cards at stores you normally earn the baseline earn rate. For example, when the Chase Freedom product has 5% on Paypal or Amazon, you can then purchase Airbnb, Sephora, etc. gift cards on those sites to earn 5% back on your purchase. My favorite method is to use the Chase Ink Business Cash card to get 5% back at Staples or Office Depot when they are running activation fee-waived promotions on Visa/Mastercard gift cards. These are super useful at getting 5% on all card purchases rather than being stuck with one vendor. 

New Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

Honestly, card multipliers are just a red herring. In reality, the best bang for your buck is by opening new cards as the sign-on bonus beats any card multiplier.  For example, the no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited offers 20,000 points ($200) after $500 spend. So that first $500 spend is earning you 40% back! Again, the way I was able to accumulate over a million Chase points was by signing up for Chase Business Ink cards for 90,000 points after $6,000 spend. That made  me 15% back on all my purchases. 

So what card is the right step for you? Contact us below to see how you can be earning a ton of points on your every day spend.