American Express Gold (Personal)

In the summer when Chase rolled out their revamped Sapphire Reserve (Personal Card) and their new Sapphire Reserve Business Card, I did a write up for each, which outlined the sign up offer as well as the card benefits to help outweigh the annual fee.

Similarly, this post is going to highlight one of my top 3 cards to always have and why.

American Express Gold

Annual Fee: $325

Current (Elevated) Sign up Offer: Spend $6,000 in 6 months, earn up to 100,000 points*

Note the 6-month minimum spend on the personal cards instead of the usual 3-month duration! I know this really helps out low spenders.

*Amex is weird with sign up bonuses. The same link may produce a 75K offer on your phone and 100K offer on your computer. It's always best to check the link in a few different browser and devices (clear your cookies, incognito mode, on your phone), before you apply and accept - to ensure that you're getting the highest offer)

5/24 Status: This IS a personal card, therefore it will take one of your 5/24 spots. (If you're not familiar with what 5/24 Rule is, visit this post New to Points, Rule 2)

Why I LOVE this card:

1. This card offers 4 points for every dollar spent on Groceries, Food Delivery, and Restaurants, which are my family's two highest routine spend categories, and one points per dollar on everything else. This is often my go-to card when we aren't working on a new card's sign up bonus. 

2. Rakuten: aka an online shopping portal where you earn Amex Membership Rewards points instead of cash back. Those points can really add up. In August I received 65,000 MRs from my quarterly Rakuten earnings and used those to book a 70K point one-way business class flight to Europe (with a cash value of $4,700). If you aren't familiar with shopping portals and/or Rakuten, this post will tell me you and also show you how to select points instead of cash back.

These two items are why I keep this card!

Off-Setting the Annual Fee

The signup offer and the benefits of this card can make it easy to offset the $325 annual, depending which of these you use. Card Benefits:

• $7/mo Dunkin Donuts credit

This is a bit annoying, as I rarely go to Dunkin, but what I did realize, was that instead of going to Dunkin monthly, I can simply buy a $7 Dunkin gift card monthly and then add that to a Dunkin account; which adds up to $84 a year. If you don't have a need for this, then you could still build up the credits and then be a nice person and bring a dozen donuts into work or school a couple of times a year

        Your Dunkin Card can also be used at Basket Robbins (hello ice cream birthday cake!) 

• $100 Resy annual credit: Twice a year (Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec), simply dine at a Resy restaurant and pay with your gold card to receive a $50 statement credit. (I've used this credit not even meaning to! lol)

• $10/mo Uber Cash: This can be used for rides of for Uber eats. Simply pay with this card

• $10/mo Dining: Use your card at Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com and Five Guys to be reimbursed $10/mo.

• Earn 3X's points on flights: Booked directly with airlines
• $100 credit towards Hotel Collections stay: Book 2-nights or more with Amex Hotel Selection properties and receive $100 credit. (Note, these hotels tend to be expensive, so I never use this credit)

American Express Family Rule

Another important item to know about Amex is it's "Family Rule" for personal cards. The Family Rule dictates that you need to get Amex personal cards in tiered "order", otherwise, you aren't eligible for future sign up bonuses of lower tier cards.

Basically, Amex has Green, Gold, and Platinum personal cards. If you get a Platinum card as your first Amex Personal card, then you are not eligible to get the sign up bonus for the Green or Gold cards in the future.

I personally don't think the Green card offer is worth a 5/24 spot, so I recommend starting off getting Amex Gold Personal before an Amex Platinum Personal.

Summary

Since we earn a lot of non-sign up bonus points with my Amex Gold card between 4x points on restaurants/groceries and Rakuten; I will make sure that one of us always has an Amex Gold Personal card in our wallet!

As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

______________________________________

> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Using SW Elevated Offer for Companion Pass

My last post covered what Southwest Companion Pass is, how you can earn it through credit card sign up bonuses, how long it's good for AND the criticality of timing when your points hit, and traditional methods of earning. If you missed the basics, you can read them here.

However, with the current elevated Southwest personal cards having a sign up bonus of 100,000 points with a $4,000 spend in a 5-month time period; I've received SO many questions about how to use this offer to earn companion pass that I'm doing another post - focused on strategy with this offer.

Keep in mind, this 100,000 point offer will end 9/17/25!

If you already have a SW personal card and it's been at least 24 months since you opened the card and received a sign up bonus, you are eligible for this offer. First close your current SW personal card and wait a week. Then apply for this offer.

Companion Pass Basics

• What: Buy one, get one free flights for a designated companion. Pay only taxes and fees for the companion. Flights for primary flier can be purchased with cash or with points.;
• How: To earn a companion pass, you need to earn 135,000 points in a calendar year, Jan-Dec (CP earning points reset to zero every year, 1/1)
• Timing: Once you hit 135,000 points, you earn companion pass after that statement close. The companion pass is good for the remainder of that calendar year and the ENTIRE calendar year following.

How to use the 100,000 Personal Card Offer towards Companion Pass

Critical questions to think about before opening this card:

1. When do you want the Companion Pass to be valid for? 

A: Remainder of 2025 and all of 2026

B: Most of 2026 and all of 2027 

I will come back to this, but your answer to this question will determine your timeline for hitting your minimum spend. (Keep in mind, the strategies I'm sharing are based on current companion pass requirements, which may change in time).

2. Do you already have Companion Pass earning points?

If you're flown Southwest at all in 2025, then you may already have earned some points towards a companion pass! If you have at least 20,000 points here, then you simply only need to open the 100,000 point SW Personal Credit Card and don't need to worry about Question 3.

To check your status:

• Log into your Southwest Rapid Rewards account
• Click "My Account"
• Locate "My Rapid Rewards" 

As shown here, this person already have 43,905 of the 135,000
 points needed to qualify for Companion Pass this year

3. Do you have someone you can refer to a Southwest card?

The easier way to get a big chunk of points, in addition to a sign up bonus, is to refer someone to a Southwest card. Standard Southwest referrals are worth 20,000 points with a limit of 5 referrals per card per year.

Here's Your Plan and Timeline

If you want 2025/2026 Companion Pass

If your response is to Question 1 was  "A - Remainder of 2025 and all of 2026", then you are going to open the 100K Southwest Personal card offer before 9/17 and spend spend spend (within your means). 

Again, open this card ASAP!

Ideally, you would also refer someone else to the 100K point offer before 9/17 so that they can take advantage as well. However, any referral before December should have referral points hit in 2025 to count towards your goal of 135,000 points in 2025.

With this, once you hit the $4K minimum spend and refer someone, within the next statement close, you should receive your sign up bonus (100,000 points) + points for you minimum spend (a minimum of 4,000 points at 1 point per $1 spent, but more points if you are spending directly with Southwest, or 2 points per $1 spent if you are using for groceries and/or dining out) + 10,000 point boost* for holding a Southwest card + 20,000 points (for someone using your referral link. They do not have to hit the minimum spend in order for you to get your referral bonus).

*Southwest gives each Rapid Rewards member who holds any credit card a 10,000 point boost towards Companion Pass annually. Note this is per account and not per Southwest credit card held. So if you hold a SW Business and a SW Personal card, you will only receive 10,000 point boost; not 20,000.

All of the numbers above add up to 134,000 points (100,000 + 4,000 + 10,000 + 20,0000); hitting in 2025. Hopefully of that $4,000 minimum spend, $1,000 of it was spent at groceries/restaurant and then you would earn an additional 1,000 points; which puts you at the 135,000 threshold!

If you want 2026/2027 Companion Pass

If your response is to Question 1 was  "B - Most of 2026 and all of 2027", then you are going to open the 100K Southwest Personal card offer before 9/17 and slooooooooow roll.

Again, open this card ASAP!

Ideally, you want to wait until mid-December to start spending on this card. That way, any spend you put on the card, will be included in your January 2026 statement and therefore, have the points awarded in 2026. Remember, each January 1st, companion qualifying points will reset to zero.

So, for you, my friend - open the card before 9/17 and put it in a sock drawer.

December 15th start spending. Spend up to $3,500 on the card before January 1st and then STOP! Put the card away again and don't pull it out until January 1s.... just to be safe! 

After January 1st, spend the remaining amount of the $4,000 minimum spend on the card (note: the longer you can wait to spend on this card until 1/1, the better/more conservative; but I know it's hard with the holidays! But this helps guarantee your points earned per dollar spent hit in 2026)

Also, come January 1st, refer someone else to any Southwest credit card.

With this, once you hit the $4K minimum spend and refer someone, within the next statement close, you should receive your sign up bonus (100,000 points) + points for you minimum spend (a minimum of 4,000 points at 1 point per $1 spent, but more points if you are spending directly with Southwest, or 2 points per $1 spent if you are using for groceries and/or dining out) + 10,000 point boost for holding a Southwest card + 20,000 points (for someone using your referral link. They do not have to hit the minimum spend in order for you to get your referral bonus).

All of the numbers above add up to 134,000 points (100,000 + 4,000 + 10,000 + 20,0000), hitting in 2026. Hopefully of that $4,000 minimum spend, $1,000 of it was spent at groceries/restaurant and then you would earn an additional 1,000 points; which puts you at the 135,000 threshold!

What if We Need Two Companion Passes?

If you're similar to me, and a family of 4, wanting two companion passes for most of 2026 and all of 2027, it's likely going to take you 3 cards between the two of you to get there. Here's how:

Player 1 opens Southwest Personal card 100,000 offer before 9/17. Again, open this card ASAP!

9/17 - 12/15: do not use the card

12/15: Similar to above, December 15th start spending. Spend up to $3,500 on the card before January 1st and then STOP! Put the card away again and don't pull it out until January 1s.... just to be safe! 

After January 1st: spend the remaining amount of the $4,000 minimum spend on the card (note: the longer you can wait to spend on this card until 1/1, the better/more conservative; but I know it's hard with the holidays!)

Also, after January 1st, Player 1 refers Player 2 to any Southwest Business Card (it's recommend to open between cards before Personal cards to ensure that you can get approved and the strategy will work)

After 30 days OR after hitting Player 2's minimum spend (whichever is longer, you need a minimum of 30 days between credit card applications for the same bank): Player 1 refers Player 2 to Player 2's second Southwest card. This card can be another Southwest Business card or a Southwest Personal Card.

Player 2 should have accumulated enough points with two sign up bonuses, minimum spends, and 10,000 point boost to hit the 135,000 point threshold to earn their companion pass!

In Summary

There are many ways to strategically utilize Southwest credit card sign up bonuses and referrals to earn companion passes without flying Southwest 100 fights a year or spend $135,000 on the same Southwest card you've had forever!

Utilizing my referral links help me keep my content free for you! If you're going to open a Southwest Credit card, I appreciate you using my referral link here!

I hope this helps, but as always if you have any questions, feel free to reach out! justcallmehaha@gmail.com

this 100,000 pointmy referral link here

Southwest Companion Pass (+ Elevated Offer)

 Southwest has announced and begun to implement a lot of changes this year. 

As of May 28th, Southwest no longer allows free bags for all passengers and starting at the end of January 2026, Southwest will also start having assigned seats on flights. These changes have ruffled a lot of feathers; but I continue to be a loyal Southwest flyer and there's one reason why...

Southwest Companion Pass

What is Companion Pass? 

Southwest Companion Pass (often referred to as SW CP) is an earned benefit that allows you (as SW CP-holder) to add one guest to any booked flight for only the cost of taxes/fees (in the US this is $5.60 per one-way flight; international travel will vary).

You assign someone in your SW account as a companion and have the ability to change companions up to three times in a calendar year.

Your flight can be booked with cash, credits, or points. Once you book your flight, you can add your companion:

A companion pass is valid for the remainder of the year you qualify AND the entire year following. I'll hit more on this later, want you to understand that there is a timing component to getting the SW CP from a strategy standpoint.

For a family of four, like myself, this means that if both my husband and myself have our own companion passes, then our two kids fly free. We have used this to our advantage in the past year and a half we've had our SW CPs!

How to Earn Companion Pass?

There are a two ways to earn Companion Pass:

1. Fly 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year.

2. Earn 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year.

We're going to focus on earning 135,000 points; because thanks to credit card sign up bonuses - this is TOTALLY achievable! What's even better, is that you get to use those points then to book free flights!!

Note: points transferred to Southwest, like your Chase points, do NOT count as qualifying points towards CP.

Traditional Two-Card Method

The "traditional" method of earning 135,000 points in a calendar year is to open one Southwest Business card and one Southwest Personal card and earn the sign up bonus for both cards within the same calendar year. There are several versions of the cards (for both personal and business). You CAN hold multiple business cards at the same time, but you CANNOT hold more than one personal SW hard at a time. 

Southwest automatically gives you an annual 10,000 points boost towards Companion Pass when you are a cardholder. Note: regardless of how many cards you hold, you only get one 10,000 points boost. Also, the 10,000 points boost only counts towards CP. It does not allow you to use these 10,000 points to book travel.

In addition, Southwest personal cards have a rule that you cannot earn a new sign up bonus on a personal card until it's been 24 months since your last SW Personal card sign up bonus. (This is important to keep in mind for long term strategy and repeat companion passes).

How to earn 135,000 points: 

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Personal card (lowest annual fee/lowest benefits) standard offer is to earn 50,000 points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months 
• Southwest Performance Business Card (highest annual fee/highest benefits) standard offer is 80,000 points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months.

From above, you would earn: 50,000pts + 1,000pts (for 1 point per dollar spent to hit the minimum spend) on the Personal Card and 80,000pts + 5,000pts (for 1 point per dollar spent to hit the minimum spend) on the Business Card, plus the 10,000 point boost for holding SW Cards. 

Adding these numbers up: 50,000 + 1,000 + 80,000 + 5,000 + 10,000 puts you at 146,000 points, which surpasses the 135,000 points needed to earn companion pass!

Keep in mind, that with Chase cards, when you hit a minimum spend, the sign up bonus points typically do not hit your account immediately. They hit at statement close. So if you hit a spend on the first of the month, but your statement closes on the 20th of the month, then you won't actually have those points in your account until at least the 20th of the month.

Timing of Earning Points

I mentioned above, that once your account hits 135,000 points, you earn a companion pass that is valid for the remainder of the year you qualify AND the entire year following. Therefore, it is CRITICAL to understand timing of when your points will hit, because it could make a difference of prolonging your SW CP.

So let's say you signed up for a SW card today and hit the minimum spent two months from now (September for the sake of this discussion). Immediately after you hit that signup bonus, you open a second SW card and hit that card's sign up bonus a month later (October in this example). That means that in October or November of this year, your SW account would have at least 135,000 points and earn you a Companion Pass for the remainder of 2025 AND all of 2026.

Pretty cool, right?

Buuuuuuut; if you had waited a few months, and strategically timed the opening of your cards and when you hit the minimum spend, you could have had all of the points hit your account in January 2026; and then you'd have earned SW CP for almost all of 2026 AND all of 2027! This is where timing and understanding when your points will hit is CRITICAL.

When we earned our SW CP's for 2024 and 2025; we starting opening SW cards in late October 2023. I very very carefully monitored the spending on those cards and once we were within $400 of the minimum spend we STOPPED using the card. Then I waited until January 2024, finished the remainder of the minimum spend requirement and boom, earned the CP, valid for almost two full years!

2-Person/3-Card Method

If your head is spinning from above, I'm going to warn you, this is even more advanced. However, the benefit is that if you need to earn two SW CPs, you can utilize the 3-Card Method so that you're opening one less card total (compared to above, where each person who wants a CP needs to open 2 cards).

The 3-card method utilizes referral points, which also count towards the needed 135K points for a Companion Pass. The easiest timing for all of this for the points to hit so that both people (player 1 and player 2) have companion passes is to start in January; but it technically can be done any time of year.

To use this method you need to pay attention to referral and sign up bonus offers, as both can and will change periodically!

Step 1: Player-1 needs to open a SW business card with an 80,000 pt sign up bonus minimum offer. Note, this is the SW Business Performance standard offer. Taking advantage of an elevated offer, such as 85K points would be more ideal.

Player-1 Point Status: from opening this card, Player 1 will earn: 80,000pts + 5,000 (from minimum spend) + 10,000pts (SW boost), putting them at 100,000 points. Which is 40,000 points short of a CP.

Step 2: Player-1 then refers Player-2 to a SW card. The referral bonus needs to be 20,000 points or higher, unless Player-1 opened an elevated 85K+ point card. (note: at the time of writing this post, the referral offer is 20,000 points, which is standard; but can drop).

Player-1 Point Status: 20,000pts from referral + 100,000 points from Step-1, putting Player 1 at 120,000 points (still shy of 135,000 required points)

Step 3: Player 2 hits the sign up bonus for their first card. Let's say it was the cheaper of the business card options, Premier Business, which has a standard offer of 60,000pts for $3,000 spend in 3 months.

Player-2 Point Status: 60,000pts + 3,000 (from the spend) + 10,000 point boost. Player-2 is at 73,000 points. Which is 62,000 points short of 135,000 needed.

Step 4: Player-1 refers Player-2 to a second SW card. Since Player-2 optioned a business card for their first card, this time Player 2 will open a personal card. Because Player-2 still needs 62,000 points, the standard offer for the lower tier personal card, Rapid Rewards Plus, isn't going to be enough. Player-2 will need to open a personal (or business card) that has a 60,000 point or greater sign up bonus. 

From this move, Player 2 would then have earned over 135,000 points to get their SW CP.

AND

Player 1, would earn another 20,000 points in referral, which gets them to 140,000 points, enough for them to also earn a companion pass!!

What about the current elevated Personal Card Offer??

Today, 7/24, Southwest announced an elevated 100,000 sign up bonus offer for all three of the personal cards. Earn 100,000 points by spending $4,000 in 5 months. This offer is valid through September 17, 2025.

This is a longer minimum spend period than normal, which is pretty great! However, if you're wanting to earn a companion pass with this offer and maximize how long you have the CP; I would wait until September to apply. That way your 5-month period to hit the minimum spend will end in Jan/Feb 2026. As long as you wait until then to complete the $4,000 minimum spend - then you'll earn:

100,000pt sign up bonus + 4,000pt spend + 10,000pt boost; which puts you at 114K points; just 21,000 points short of the 135,000k points needed for companion pass.

To find the additional 21K points needed, you could:

• Pay cash for Southwest flights; you'll earn miles for your flight distance and bonus points for shopping on Southwest with your SW card.
• Refer a friend/family member to the card
• You can refer from any southwest card to any other type of southwest card. The person opening a card from your referral doesn't have to open the same exact card as you!
• Earn additional points through Southwest Shopping Portal
• Earn additional points through strategic spend; here are the differences between the card options and ways your can earn more points by spending category!

The SW Rapid Rewards Plus Card has a $99 annual fee and similar additional points as SW Rapid Rewards Premier Card which has a $149 annual fee, but gets you (and up to 8 passengers on your reservation) a free checked bag, puts you in Group 5 boarding, allows you to select a seat within 48 hours of departure

• For additional points earn, this card gets:
• 3x points for every dollar spent on Southwest
• 2x points for every dollar spent at grocery stores and restaurants (up to $8K in a year)
• For the remainder of 2025:
• 2x points on Rapid Rewards hotels and car rental partners
• 2x points for local transit and rideshare
• 2x points for internet, cable, phone and streaming.
• 1x point on everything else

The SW Rapid Rewards Priority Card has a $229 annual fee, but gets you (and up to 8 passengers on your reservation) a free checked bag, puts you in Group 5 boarding, allows you to select a seat at booking

• For additional points earn, this card gets:
• 4x points for every dollar spent on Southwest
• 2x points for every dollar spent at grocery stores and restaurants
• For the remainder of 2025:
• 2x points on Rapid Rewards hotels and car rental partners
• 2x points for local transit and rideshare
• 2x points for internet, cable, phone and streaming.
• 1x point on everything else

I think this approach is worthwhile to consider getting this card while the offer is elevated if you want to earn a companion pass IF you have someone to refer to and it's definitely worth trying if you are unable to open a business card (you may qualify for a business and business card! Read here).

And if you don't care about the companion pass and just like flying Southwest, I still think this offer is a great one to take advantage of; especially with the recent changes like charged checked bags and assigned seats. Having a Southwest card could more than pay for it's self with those two benefits alone!

Remember, in order to earn a sign up bonus for a Southwest Personal card, it has to have been more then 24 months since you last earned a sign up bonus. If you already have a Southwest personal card and it's been more than 24 months, you could close your current card (read here on closing cards), wait 30 days, and apply for a new one to take advantage of this elevated offer!

Summary

That is A LOT!!! What do you think? Will you try for a companion pass?!

For any of the methods that require someone to open to cards, it's advised to open the business card first. This is to ensure that you can get approved for the business card and that your overall plan will succeed!

You can use the same link to apply for any of the Southwest cards! As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

______________________________________

> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Revamped Chase Sapphire Reserve

 Yesterday I shared about Chase Sapphire Reserve's new big brother, or maybe we should say cousin since one is a personal card and one is a business card; the new Chase Sapphire Reserve Business. I can understand why that card isn't for a lot of people with such a high minimum spend AND high annual fee; but I do think the CSR is worth considering for a personal card if you don't currently have a Sapphire.

Today I'm going to break down the newly revamped CSR and it's benefits.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Annual Fee: $795 (I know, this is super high, I'll speak to this below!)

Current Offer (elevated, meaning it's not the standard offer): Spend $5k in 3 months and earn 100,000 points plus $500 Chase Travel credit

Why I'd Consider This Card

Chase is the easiest bank to figure out credit card points and how you transfer them to partners to book free travel. Chase is the only bank that you can direct transfer points to Southwest AND United (no other banks directly transfer to either! Although there are creative ways to book United flights with other banks, through partner airlines (like Air Canada who is in the same air alliance)

You also need to hold a Chase "premium" card, in order to have the ability to transfer your points to travel partners. A "premium" card for Chase is basically a Chase card that has an annual fee. So having some type of Sapphire card is a must!

Off-Setting the Annual Fee

The signup offer and the benefits of this card can make it easy to offset the $795 annual, depending which of these you use. 

Note, the annual fee is typically charged within a month of you opening the card. It does not count towards the minimum spend for the sign up bonus.

• $500 Chase Travel Credit: this is part of the sign up bonus and gives you $500 to spend in Chase Travel portal. You can use this to book hotels, rental car, flights, etc.
• $300 ANNUAL travel credit: this doesn't have to be utilized in Chase travel portal; just charge anything travel related to your card and you'll get a credit on your next statement. (This benefit renews annually)

These two benefits above automatically have you break even with the annual fee cost. But here are additional benefits that help you get more value out of Sapphire Reserve card:

• Global Entry/TSA Precheck: $120 credit every 4 years; charge this card for your application and receive a statement credit
• Airport Lounge access for Sapphire Lounges and Priority Pass (good for you and 2 guests to get in free; you can pay for additional guests)
• Free Apple TV and Apple Music ($250 value if you use these)
• Doordash benefits: honestly these are kind of annoying to use; but you can get DashPass, which gives you $0 deliveries
• $300 in Stubhub credits annually; $150 every 6mo
• Earn 3x points on restaurants
• Earn 4x points on direct book hotels and flights

Summary

Honestly - I would take advantage of getting this card with it's elevated sign up offer now now and use the above benefits to offset the annual fee; then next year, once you've hit your year mark with the Sapphire Reserve, you can call the bank and request to downgrade from the Sapphire Reserve to the Preferred (read here about downgrading and closing cards). 

The Preferred only has a $95 Annual Fee and still allows you to keep your points and credit history, as well as allows you to transfer your points to travel partners. If you're charged the annual fee with Chase (like next summer), you have 30-40 days to call and downgrade and they'll refund you the fee!

If you can't accommodate a $795 fee right now, then I would go ahead and apply for the little sister card, which is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I have several posts about why CSP is a great beginner card. Read here! 

You can use the same link to apply for either card! As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

______________________________________

> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

The New Blue: Chase Sapphire Reserve Business Card

 I will admit, I totally blew the Sapphire Reserve Business card off when I first saw it come out on June 23, 2025. Sure, 200,000 points sounds AMAZING!!!!, but a $795 annual fee, then $30,000 spend to get them?! Ouch! No thanks!

The immediate thought I had was "why put $30K into one card's sign up bonus when that amount of money could be used to hit multiple new card's sign up bonuses?!"

This what where I started; but then when I started to consider which and how many cards we could get, I realized that there wasn't a guarantee of approval for all of those cards, nor a guarantee that their current sign up bonuses would still be available by the time we were ready to open the next card.

On top of that, obviously opening and managing just one card is a lot less work than trying to strategize and line out the opening of maybe 4-6 new cards. In fact, I realized that going for this offer could be beneficial in our long term strategy because it would allow us to take a break from needing/wanting to open multiple new cards, given that we'd have to put ALL of our spend on this card for several months to hit the minimum spend. 

The more I thought about, the more it actually did kind of make sense for us to get. YIKES! 

Unlike other Chase Sapphire or Business cards, the minimum spend on the current sign up offer is six months, not three. Really, that's the saving grace and reason why we got this card and can hit a $30K spend. Averaging that out, at $5k/month, our budget doesn't have us spending even that much money. However, going back to my post about knowing your routine spend AND planning ahead for bigger expenses, I knew that some of our large upcoming expenses (ski passes, a dental procedure (to be paid back with HSA funds), a sauna (a what?! Yes, my husband has been researching and saving for months and was finally ready to order. I told him, not without a new card first! ha), and our fall anniversary Singapore/Maldives trip), would definitely get us over the minimum spend when combined with our monthly expenses.

I also assumed that *now* is the highest offer the card is ever going to have and since we could, we should take advantage. Honestly, if this were an American Express offer, I don't know if I would have felt so strongly; but I will take ALL of the Chase points we can get since Chase is the only bank that partners with Hyatt. We LOVE Hyatt as a travel partners for their standard award pricing, ways to earn awards like free nights, and the ability to be gifted temporary elite status (with Guest of Honor awards).

So know you know, obviously, I just had to go for it!

Let's talk through the card and it's benefits to see if it may be a good fit for you.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Business Card

Annual Fee: $795 (I know - this is super high! I'll speak to this below)

Current (Elevated) Sign up Offer: 200,000pts for $30k spend in 6 months (I know, this is also super high. I spoke above why this works for our family right now).

Off-Setting the Annual Fee

The signup offer and the benefits of this card can make it easy to offset the $795 annual, depending which of these you use. The annual fee is typically charged within a month of you opening the card. It does not count towards the minimum spend for the sign up bonus.

Note these aren't all of the benefits, but these are what I personally assume are most universally useful:

• $300 ANNUAL travel credit: this doesn't have to be utilized in Chase travel portal; just charge anything travel related to your card and you'll get a credit on your next statement. (This benefit renews annually)
• Global Entry/TSA Precheck: $120 credit every 4 years; charge this card for your application and receive a credit
• Airport Lounge access for Sapphire Lounges and Priority Pass (good for you and 2 guests to get in free; you can pay for additional guests)
• Doordash benefits <honestly these are kind of annoying to use though; but you can get DashPass, which gives you free deliveries (valued at $120/yr), and then there's monthly benefits like $5 restaurant credit and (2) $10 non-restaurant credits
• $100 to Giftcards.com ($50 Jan-Jun and $50 Jul-Dec)
• Earn 4x points on directly booked hotels and flights

Offer Benefits that Some May Find Useful:

• $10/mo Lyft Credit and earn 4+x points on Lyft spend
• $200 Google Workspace
• $400 Ziprecruiter
• $500/yr (split $250 per Jan-Jun and $250 Jul-Dec) credit for The Edit: note this requires a 2-night stay and gives you complimentary benefits like free breakfast for 2, upgrades, $100 hotel credit; but from my searches so far, these tend to be REALLY expensive hotels, like $1,000/nt, which I will never be willing to pay cash for.

Why am I  even Suggesting this Card?

Honestly - I would (and did!) take advantage of getting this card with it's high elevated sign up offer now and use the above benefits to offset the annual fee. Then next year, once you've had the card for 12 months, I would plan to downgrade or close the account (assuming you can downgrade to an Ink, I'm not sure if we know right now). This is my own personal plan; I opened the card for the massive sign up bonus, but don't plan to hold this card long term.  

I figure, even if we only utilize the $300 travel credit, $5 doordash food credit/dash pass, $100 Gift card credit, and Lounges on the few occasions just my husband and I are flying (since we have two kids; or I pay for one kids as an extra guest); that's still valued at least $450 to help offset the $795 annual fee. I'll pay ~$345 net fee to get 200K Chase points!!! Mostly because I know for my family and our travel goals, how valuable Chase points are and how they can be hard to come by!

As a reminder: never close a card before you've held it for at least 12 months to keep in good-standing with the bank. If you're charged the annual fee, with Chase (like next summer after you've held the card for 12 mo), you have 30-40 days to call and downgrade and they'll refund you the fee!

So what do you think? Am I crazy, or did I make the right choice for us? I will say we've had the card close to a month and already made a big dent with our major one-time expenses!

I know this card isn't for everyone and definitely not everyone has a spend this high. But if you're like me and actually think you can make the card work for your household, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral link to open the card (reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit). If you're interested, but want more information on business cards as well as how to apply for them first, read here!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

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> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

When to say Goodbye: Closing or Downgrading

This is a question I had asked A LOT! "So if you're continually opening new cards, do you just have a bazillion credit cards open?!" and the answer, generally, is a handful, but the real answer is no.

For as much thought as I put into the strategy of which cards myself (or my P2) should open; there's often an equal amount of strategy in which cards we should keep open and which are ready to be closed. This post will outline my thought process of determining when I close a card (or downgrade) and why.

Perhaps the most important rule to know about closing a credit card is that you should not close a credit card before you've held it for at least 12 months. Closing a card before the year mark, can put your relationship with the issuing bank in jeopardy AND you risk the bank taking back the points that you've earned. 

When to Close (or Downgrade) a Card

Here are the primary considerations I keep in mind when reviewing what cards "we" (myself or my husband/P2) are holding:

1. If the card has an annual fee; do the card's benefits that you're utilizing outweigh the cost of the annual fee?

Look at each card and confirm what the annual fee is. What benefits does that card offer you and which of those benefits have you actually used in the past year? How often do you use the card in general? If you were to add up the value of each benefit, how does that compare to the annual fee to hold the card?

Currently I have credit cards open that have annual fees ranging from $0 to $795 a year,  I already know that the $795 fee card, the new Sapphire Reserve Business, will NOT be kept in my wallet longer than it has too. Essentially I got the card to take advantage of a high sign up bonus, knowing that I won't benefit from holding this card long term.

However, there are other cards in my wallet, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, with a $95 annual fee (that can be offset with an annual $50 hotel credit and $10/mo doordash credit), that I will always hold. Even if I don't utilize those benefits, paying $95/year allows me to transfer points out of Chase to book directly with travel partners (instead of booking in the Chase portal); which is well worth the $95 when it comes to the savings I have to be able to book free travel with points.

My United Mileage Explorer card has a $95 annual fee (currently), but one of the primary benefits it offers is free checked bag for myself and one person on my reservation. With this benefit, if we fly roundtrip United once a year and check two bags; this card pays for itself. Not to mention, it also comes with 2 United Club passes.

Similarly, now with Southwest policy changes doing away with free checked bags, cardholders now get free checked bag for themselves, their companion (if applicable) and up to 8 people on their reservation. The cheapest Southwest card has a $69 annual fee - so if you fly SW solo, at least one round trip or 2-single flights a year, this card pays for itself! I just helped someone get this card because they specifically wanted a card to get free checked bags domestically. Remember... spend smarter, not more ;)

2. You want to get a sign up bonus for a card you already have.... and you can't hold two of the same card

This may be a little more intermediate... but there will be times when a great sign up offer comes out and you may already hold the exact same card. Sometimes you can get around this by closing (or downgrading - more below) your card just to turn around and open the same card. Example of this is the Chase Sapphire.

3. You're starting to get declined from banks with the message that you've been extended too much credit

Yep, this happens. It's happened to both Ben and I. Most specifically with Chase business cards. Once we started getting declined, I started closing out Chase business cards that we (one of us) held for more than 12 months, closing them 30 days apart so as not to arise suspicion. 

4. You're not using it

Why add more to your backburner mental than you need? If you have a card that's older than 12 months and you're not using it, even if it doesn't have an annual fee - there's no reason to keep it open! Keep in mind the smaller convenience benefits, like the free checked bags mentioned above, before deciding to close. 

5. Do you need to keep this card open to transfer points outside of the bank?

This really is geared to having a premium card open with Chase. For Chase, you need to have one of the following cards in order to have the ability to transfer your Chase points to travel partners:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Chase Business Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve Business

Remember, transferring points to travel partners and booking travel directly (NOT in the portal), may often give you the best value/lowest point cost travel.

6. Should You keep this card open for referrals?

Referrals can be an easy way to earn a chunk of points without opening a new card. Sometimes it's worth keeping a card open if you have friends/family/significant other who plan to open that card.

What Next? 

Close vs Downgrade

Several cards, especially those with annual fees, may have the option to downgrade to a lower tier card. Lower tier cards often have lower (or no) annua fee, but also lower (or no) useful benefits.

So why would you even downgrade then?!

Downgrading a card is may be the ideal option instead of closing because:

• It lets you keep your points!
• Often times, when you close a card, if you don't have another card or means to move the points; you'll lose them
• If it's a co-branded card (like a Chase Southwest Card or a Hilton American Express; ie a bank/hotel or airline card) you will not lose your points.
• If it's a bank card (like a Chase Sapphire Preferred or an American Express Gold card): if you're closing a card, you have the option to move your points to another card you may already hold from the same bank OR if you downgrade a card, the points will stay with the new downgraded version
• Credit Score
• Remember from this post, Credit History (or average length of credit) makes up 15% of your credit score. If you close your oldest credit card, then depending on what other cards you hold and when you opened them; closing may impact your credit score
• Also from the same post, Credit Utilization accounts for 30% of your credit score. If you're considering closing a credit card that has a large limit, this will then lower your total amount of credit extended, which could in turn, impact your credit score.

Downgrade Options

Okay, so you're intrigued to consider downgrading, but how do you even know if that's an option?!

For one, you can call the bank and ask. I would call and say something along the lines of: "I've realized I'm not longer using this card's benefits fully and I'm wondering if there's a lower tier/lower annual fee card that I could downgrade to instead?"

Here are some common downgrades for popular cards:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve > downgrade to Chase Sapphire Preferred: this allows you to keep your points and your ability to transfer points out of Chase to travel partners, but also lowers the annual fee from $795 (previously $550 prior to June 2025), down to $95/year.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred > downgrade to Chase Freedom that earns ultimate rewards ($0 annual fee). *Remember* you need a Chase premium card to transfer points. BUT on reason you may want to downgrade you CSP, is from Item 2 above. You can potentially get rid of your Sapphire card, wait 30 days, and apply for a new Sapphire card to take advantage of a sign up bonus.
• Chase United Mileage Explorer > downgrade to United Gateway. I'm personally considering this move because the Mileage Explorer annual fee is increasing from $95/year to $150/year. Currently we generally only fly United once a year with having our Southwest Companion Passes. I would choose to downgrade this card to save on the annual fee, but to keep my credit history, since I've held this card since 2016.
• American Express Gold (Personal or Business) > while you can't downgrade to a card without an annual fee, there are lower-tier/lower annual fee cards you can downgrade to, being Green Card or the Business Green Rewards Card. 

Closing a Card

It's okay to close cards too! I personally prefer to close cards via the bank's secure messaging or chat feature; that way 1. I don't have to talk on the phone to anyone and have them try to convince me otherwise. 2. I have written record of the date the card is closed.

Timing of Closing a Card

The most ideal time of closing a card with an annual fee is within 30 days of the annual fee hitting your account (as long as you've had the card open 12 months). This way, you (hopefully) utilized the entire year of benefits that you paid for. If you close within 30 days of the annual fee hitting, generally the bank will credit your account back the annual fee charge once you close.

You can close any card, any time of year (as long as it's been open 12 months), but you won't necessarily get back the annual fee, in which case it may be worth hanging on to the card and trying to utilize some benefits before next year's annual fee.

Summary

Okay, this post is WAY longer than I anticipated, but there's so much information to consider and know before closing a card. I hope this helps!

Remember the most important rule to know about closing a credit card is that you should not close a credit card before you've held it for at least 12 months. Closing a card before the year mark, can put your relationship with the issuing bank in jeopardy AND you risk the bank taking back the points that you've earned. 

If you still have questions or are uncertain about what to do with credit cards you currently hold; feel free to email or instant message and ask for another option!

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> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

To-Do Checklist after Receiving a New Card

A common question I get asked is how to keep it all straight. A lot of people hate the idea of having to manage multiple credit cards and get stressed about updating billing across multiple accounts on autopay. In this post, I'll share which expenses I update (and why), when we get a new card, in order to achieve the minimum spend quicker to earn that sign up bonus (hint: I don't update everything)

This is REALLY going to vary from household to household, depending what card you opened, what the minimum spend on the card is and how it aligns with your spending habits. My goal of this post is that it:

1. Helps break down the mental load and documents it so that it's not as overwhelming. 
2. Helps you consider your own budget, expenses, and consider how much of your time you actually need to put into updating autopayments in order to hit your next minimum spend.

So far this year I have opened one large (to us) minimum spend card and my P2 just opened the next large (to us) minimum spend card, where I really needed to be conscious about our spend strategy to hit the minimum spend in the time alloted. If you refer back to my last beginner post, I talk about knowing your budget and spending habits. From the list provided there, these are some of our common/reoccurring expenses as well as upcoming one-time costs:

Common Monthly Expenses: Childcare (including after-school care), groceries, internet, gas/electric utility, car insurance, dining out, sports/activities, beer/alcohol, prescriptions, cell phone streaming services (Spotify, Netflix, Disney, etc), Nuuly rental, coffee subscription, gas (for driving), therapy, etc

One-time/Less Frequent Expenses: These are costs you don't necessarily have every month, but are worth considering when looking ahead the next few months prior to opening a credit card, that may help you hit a minimum spend easier or quicker. Some of my households considerations are items like: Summer camp, taxes, car repair, home repair, large item purchase, medical/dental costs, car down payment, HOA, ski passes, travel, concert/sports tickets, birthdays, holidays, etc

To-Do Checklist after Receiving a New Card

When one of us opens a new card, this is the general list of accounts I update payment information on (ie add the new card to the account and set as default form of payment) to ensure we are putting our expenses on the relevant credit card that we are trying to hit the minimum spend on to earn a sign up bonus.

Re-occurring Costs:

• Apple Pay: I rarely carry a wallet anymore and typically use Tap to Pay on my phone
• Google Pay: I used to NEVER store my credit card info; however in the past year I've realized how convenient this is and how much easier it makes using the "right" card, so I've converted)
• Grocery Account: We primarily do online pick-up through Kroger for groceries; so I make sure I add the card as default since groceries are a common spend item that add up!
• Instacart: We use Instacart for Costco delivery; which typically is just once a month, but is another expense that adds up
• Amazon: I REALLY try to limit how much money we "give" to Amazon, but inevitably there are enough purchases in a months' time that this adds up also
• Childcare: Enough said - school or summer; these costs occur year-round and generally are a heavy hit.
• Xcel: Our electrical/gas utility (Typically I do NOT put this on autopay because we usually get a new card every few months so I manually pay. However, our current card we are working on the sign up bonus for is the new Sapphire Reserve Business card, which allows 6 months to hit the minimum spend. In this case, I added the card and set up autopay)
• Auto Insurance: Similar to above, I generally do not put auto insurance on autopay - I simply do manual pay monthly to remember to utilize whatever card we're working on a sign up bonus for. However, with our current card having a high spend but six months to achieve, I enrolled in autopay with that card.
  
• Nuuly (clothing rental subscription): Usually I leave this on autopay with one of my Chase business cards to have reoccurring charges and keep in good standing; however with our current card having a high spend but six months to achieve, I enrolled in autopay with that card.

Upcoming One-Time Costs:

• Epic Ski account: we signed up to renew our ski passes in April, but only paid $49 down at the time because I wanted to put the price of the pass (close to $2K for our family. Ouch! but so worth it.) on a new credit card to work towards a sign up bonus. This charge will hit in August, with whatever card is saved on file. Updating the account billing as soon as I received the new card makes it so I don't have to think about when the charge hits, if it's on the "right" card.  
• HOA: our HOA isn't terribly expensive, but it's paid once a year, so the timing was right to charge it to the new card we're working on the minimum spend for.

There ya have it! Above are some of our families major re-occurring and one-time expenses for the next 6 months. Of course, there's also a lot of beer purchased, Target runs, and dining out/carry-out that happen too. Those costs are all directly charged to whatever card we are working on the sign up bonus for (yep, I no longer use my 5% back Target debit card. In the long run, Target purchases spent towards a credit card's minimum spend to earn a sign up bonus are much more valuable to me than 5% cash back). When one of us gets a new credit card, I literally pull ALL of the other cards out of my husband's wallet to ensure he uses that card we need him to ;)

There are other reoccurring costs we have that I don't update the billing for; generally because the spend is smaller, we don't "need" those costs in order to meet a minimum spend, and I don't want to put in extra effort for a small return.

For example Spotify charges monthly to a Chase Ink Cash card for extra points, as does our internet. Disney+ is charged to my American Express Platinum to take advantage of the $20 monthly streaming credit. Etc. You can find a list of Common Charges and Benefits on my Points Tracker Spreadsheet on the "Card Benefits and Cards" tab, as well as a simple spreadsheet method for tracking monthly benefits (like $10/mo Uber/UberEats credit for Amex Gold Personal card).

I hope you found this post helpful and something you can refer back to, until you find your own groove with each credit card you open!

> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!