I mentioned in my last post that one of the posts I think would be most beneficial is to share what cards I would start with if I were just getting into this points hobby; with the goal being to use credit card points for travel. Here is that list!
Before I jump into my recommended Basic Travel Cards, I want to remind you of a few things:
Financial Responsibility
All of this is shared with the assumption that you don't carry credit card debit, that you're able to spend a minimum a few thousands dollars on a card credit in under a three month period and most importantly, that you're able to pay it off. (I'm certainly not a financial advisor).
Chase 5/24 Rule
I'm sharing this again, because if you're new to cards, you need to engrain this in your head. Chase will NOT approve you for new credit cards (personal or business cards) if you've got 5 or more personal* credit cards of any time in the last 24 month period. This can include bank cards (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Wells Fargo, etc), store cards (Old Navy, Lowes, Nordstrom, you name it), etc. This also includes if you have been added as an authorized user to someone else's credit card**
(Remember, there are no "joint" cards in this game. To maximize your point earn, each adult in your relationship should have credit cards in their own name; if you have others willing to participate).
*Business cards do not count in your 5/24 count. However, you must be under 5/24 to be able to get approved for a business card.
**If you are an authorized user (AU) on someone's credit card, or if you have authorized users on your credit card; you can call the issuing financial institution and ask to have the AU removed. This should free up a "spot" on your 5/24 account.
Now that that's out of the way, here we go. Remember, there is A LOT to learn, especially starting off. You're not going to know it all and you are going to make mistakes. Take one step at a time, digest, learn, and continue on.
Beginner Basic Travel Credit Cards
1. Chase Sapphire Preferred (or Reserve), CSP/CSR
Without a doubt, this is definitely the best place to start. Chase credit cards allow you to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards (CURs), which are their universal flexible points. While you can use CURs to book travel in the Chase Travel Portal, this is much like booking a trip through a third party service like Expedia. You don't earn any loyalty or benefits.
However, there are only a few Chase credit cards that allow you to transfer your Chase points directly to travel partners (more on the how to transfer in a future post).. CSP/CSR are the only non-business cards that allow this. Now, Chase points are considered highly flexible because they transfer to 3 hotel chains (Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG), and 11 airlines (but keep in mind, airlines work in alliances or partnerships. So while there are 11 airlines with a direct transfer, alliances give you the opportunity to book flights with over a dozen airlines).
This is an old example, but really shows the value of booking direct with a travel partner, instead of using your Chase points within the Chase Travel Portal. Let's say I wanted to book a flight from Denver to Frankfurt. On the left you see that to book this particular flight in the Chase Portal, it would cost $892 cash (which was the same as booking direct on United), but I could use 71,296 CURs to book the flight for $0 out of pocket. It's a lot of points, but hey, you're still flying for $0! However, with the ability to transfer CURs directly to United (which transfer 1:1), I could have booked the same exact flight for only 30,000 points (+ minimal fees)! Less than half of the point cost!! What?!
This is why it's beneficial to transfer points!!
In addition to allowing transfer Chase Travel partners, Chase also allows you to combine your own points within your account and within anyone else account in the same household. So if you already have Chase points, maybe from a Chase Business Card or a Chase Freedom card, you have the ability to combine those points to your CSP/CSR account and then transfer to a third party. Or if your significant other has Chase points, you can call customer service to have your accounts linked so that you can transfer to one another. (This is a huge benefit if you have two adults in your household earning points. You can take turns referring one another to Chase cards and then pool your points together).
CSP/CSR Card Details:
The big difference between these two cards are the annual fees and the benefits that come with them.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred, annual fee $95
- Major Benefits:
- Ability to transfer to travel partners
- $50 annual hotel credit (for hotels booked in the Chase Portal and charged to this card)
- Earn 3X points on dining (including food delivery services)
- Earn 2X points on travel
- Travel insurance protection (for travel charged to this card)
- Chase Sapphire Reserve, annual fee $550
- Major Benefits:
- Ability to transfer to travel partners
- $300 annual travel credit (for travel charged to card, does not have to be booked via Chase Portal)
- Up to $120 credit towards Global Entry, TSA Precheck of NEXUS (charge your application fee to this card and you'll receive a statement credit to be reimbursed)
- Earn 3X points on dining (including food delivery services)
- Earn 3X points on travel
- Airport lounge access to Sapphire Lounges (not at all airports)
- You can only hold one Sapphire card at a time. This means you cannot have both a Chase Sapphire Preferred AND a Chase Sapphire Reserve at the same time. (If you have one and apply for the other, you'll automatically be declined).
- Unlike other cards, the sign up bonus for the CSP/CSR is limited to every 48 months. That means if you get the card and hit the minimum spend for the spend up months, if you wanted to cancel your CSP/CSR at some time to get another sign up bonus, you'd need to make sure it's been 48 months since you received your last sign up bonus. (You could cancel the card before 48 months, but honestly that would be silly to since it's a card you need to hold to be able to transfer points to travel partners).
- $300 annual travel credit, for travel booked in the Capital One (C1) portal. Book any kind of travel, pay with your VX and the $300, if not used, automatically comes off. I used this credit for a car rental, which doesn't really have a great way to cover the cost.
- Annual 10K point bonus. Once you hit your card anniversary, you automatically get 10,000 pts added to your account
- 2X points on all purchases: While you can find higher multipliers (see Amex Gold 3B below), if you want a card you don't have to think about but get more than just one point per dollar spent, this could be a good option for you
- $120 credit for Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck: Charge your application fee to this card and you'll receive a statement credit to be reimbursed.
- Airport Lounge Access
- Another caveat to say we have never been big airport lounge people. With a United Card I hold, we get two annual one-time passes and while it's be fine, it hasn't been a loss not to use honestly (last year I gave them away because I didn't have 4 passes to get us all in). However, Capital One Lounge at Denver is a different story. Not only have we eaten there, but we've also taken snacks to go; which have covered costs for both breakfast and lunch on a travel day.
- C1VX card not only gets you into Capital One lounge's for free, but you also can:
- Use your C1VX to get a free Priority Pass Lounge membership, which has over 1,600 locations world wide
- Traveling with someone else? Not a problem with this card! The cardholder is allowed to bring two guests for free to Capital One lounges and one free guest for Priority Pass lounges. (Keep in mind, these lounges aren't at all airports, so check using the links above to find locations when considering this card).
- You may be thinking... well that's nice, but I have 2 (3 or even 4) kids, so my family of 4 (,5, or 6) can't use this benefit. Friend, I'm happy to tell you that there is a way... and unlike other cards/lounges where you can pay, with C1VX - it's free! All you have to do is add one family member as an authorized user to your C1VX card (which is free to do); then that person will be issued their own C1VX card - valid to get them into lounges and bring guest(s) also.
- For example, I'm a family of 4. My husband is the C1VX cardholder and while he could have made me an authorized user, remember that 5/24 rule... I didn't want this card to take up one of my 5 spaces of a new credit in the past 24 months. Instead, we made our 7 year old an authorized user! ha! Now all 4 of us can get into both C1 and Priority Pass lounges when traveling, for free
- Like Chase, the points earned with Capital One cards can be pooled together and serve as universal points to transfer to partners for direct booking and travel!
- $10/mo Uber credit. Simply load your AmEx as your form of payment and each month, $10 will be deducted from your order cost to utilize this benefit
- $7/mo Dunkin Donuts credit. This one may me laugh! 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
- $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.
- 4X groceries, food delivery, restaurants: Honestly this is why I'm keeping this card. The majority of our expenditures point on credit card fall under this category and earns us a TON of points! Not as many points as sign up bonuses, but if we're in between sign up bonuses, this card often becomes my every day card because of this multipliers. In just eight months of having this card, we racked up over 40K pts with these categories alone.
- Rakuten: I have been using shopping portals for YEARS (I mean, look back at this Ebates post (Rakuten's former name) from 2012! Ha! This will be helpful to read if you're not familiar with shopping portals), however, I love that with Rakuten, you can choose to get your kickback in Member Rewards (MRs, aka AmEx points) or cash. I switched to MRs when I opted my Gold and have earned over 16K pts in about nine months
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