Wondering how to start and what to do? You're not alone! Two of the most common questions I receive when it comes to points are:
9 times out of 10, if this is someone who has interested in learning about points and/or has opened their first card, my response is going to be the same. Last year I posted my
Top 3 Beginner Cards (of 2025) and due to some rule changes, I'm posting an update to that list.
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| Copenhagen, Aug 2025 |
First and foremost - this "game" is for people who have a steady income and who are able to pay off their credit card statement(s) monthly. The point of this is not to bring you into debt, or farther into debt*; it's to take money that you're already spending for every day life (home utility bills, groceries, car insurance, internet, streaming, childcare (if you're lucky), etc) and spend it more strategically on a credit card in order to earn points that you can them redeem for travel. (*I am not a financial advisor!)
The easiest and quickest way to earn a lot of points is by opening a new credit card and spending the minimum spend amount in the allotted time given (commonly 3 months, up to 6 months), in order to obtain the card's sign up bonus. Sign up bonuses ARE the reason to get a new credit card. Earning a sign up bonus will typically, if not always, outweigh the amount of points you'll earn verse using the same credit card daily for all of your expenses.
This WILL lead to you having more credit cards opened and more management on your end; however, you also don't HAVE to keep getting new credit cards if you don't want to. You can simply start with one new card, get the sign up bonus, and utilize those points and be done. How many cards you want to get (and manage) is up to you and your spend.
Remember, you don't have to keep these cards open forever! You can close cards! While this post talks about closing (and/or downgrading) cards, the most important thing to know is: never close a credit card until you've had it open at least 12 months. Closing a card any sooner than the one year mark will jeopardize your relationship and ability to get future cards with that bank.
Chase 5/24 Rule: If you have no idea what I'm talking about, 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 cards from ANY bank, not just Chase, like Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi Wells Fargo, etc), store cards (Old Navy, Lowes, Nordstrom, you name it), Airlines, Hotels etc. This also includes if you have been added as an authorized user to someone else's credit card**
The majority of the time, the best way to utilize flexible points earned, is to transfer them to Hotel and/or Airline Partners of the bank to book directly. This typically leads to lower points price (compared to using points in a bank travel portal at a fixed rate of 1 point to 1 cent), maximizing the value of your points (saving more points for travel!). Each bank has their own set of travel partner Airlines and Hotels; some overlap across banks, but other Hotel/Airlines are specific to only one bank.
2026 Beginner Card Recommendations
Card 1 - Chase Sapphire
This is the absolute number one card that I recommend to open and for at least one person in each household to hold long term. There are two options for this card:
Sapphire Preferred or
Sapphire Reserve.
These are both personal cards and you can only hold ONE of them at a time. The
Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee and
Sapphire Reserve has a whopping $795 fee (but a lot of additional benefits). Which card is right for you? It depends on your ability to pay higher annual fees and utilize the enhanced benefits to offset the annual fee. Follow the links above to learn more about each card and it's benefits.
Why is the Sapphire my top card?
Chase is the best flexible points to start with because it's travel partners (Hotels and Airlines) for transferring points are good for both domestic and international travel. They are also all likely brands you are familiar with, or at least have heard of.
The second reason is that in order to have the ability to transfer points from Chase to a partner, you must have a "premium" Chase card. This essentially means, a Chase card with an annual fee.
Sapphire Preferred or
Sapphire Reserve are the only two personal cards that have this ability.
Long Term Planning: I will always hold a Sapphire card to maintain the ability to transfer to travel partners (and not my Player-2; as the name on the card must match the name on the loyalty account you are transferring too. I like to have those airline/hotel reservations in my accounts/name as much as possible)
Next Up... Pick Your Path:
Personal Cards vs Business Cards
Depending on your monthly spend, consider if you're willing and able to open Business Cards. They often have a higher minimum spend, but yield a higher amount of points. This blog post talks about what qualifies as a "business" in the bank's eyes for business cards (hint: you can apply with you social security number and I walk you through how to do this). I have helped people get approved for business cards using their facebook "resale" with an estimated annual revenue of under $1K per year.
Business cards are desirable, not only for more points, but also because they don't report to your personal credit, after initial inquiry to apply for the card. Therefore, as mentioned above, business cards don't count in your Chase 5/24; therefore the only "limit" to the amount of business cards you can open is your spending level and waiting at least 30 days between cards (although 90 is more ideal).
Personal Card Route:
Card 2A - Capital One Venture Card
Venture Card is my number 2 due to Capital One rules and approval methods.
First, Capital One is known to be picky about card approval in general. The less recent inquiries you have on your credit (this includes car loans, credit cards, mortgage, etc) the best. Capital One may automatically decline you if you have one or more credit inquiries in the past six months.
One way to try to "trick" the system if you have more than one recent inquiry is to freeze your credit with all 3 credit bureaus (Transunion, Experian, and Equifax) BEFORE you apply, then wait at least a week and unfreeze the two bureaus with the least amount of inquiries.
Ideally, if you are opening the Venture card "early" in your credit card game, you'll have less inquiries and have an easier time being approved.
Secondly, Capital One recently announced a change to qualification for sign up bonuses of the Venture-Series cards (Venture One, Venture, and Venture X). In order to qualify for a sign up bonus, you must open the cards "in order" of lowest tier to highest tier to be eligible for sign up bonuses.
Often the Venture One card is skipped (due to lower sign up bonus/benefits not worth taking on up spot of you 5/24). In essence, it's recommended to open a Venture card BEFORE opening a Venture X card. If you open a VentureX card first, you will not be eligible for a Venture card sign up bonus until 48 months have passed since earning the Venture X sign up bonus.
Long Term Planning: I personally would open the Venture Card first and then the VentureX card. Then after holding the Venture Card for 12 months, I could close Venture Card and keep the Venture X long term.
Learn more about the Venture Card
Card 3A - American Express Gold (Personal)
Amex Gold Personal is one of the cards myself and/or my Player 2 (aka my husband) will always hold. It has a $325 annual fee, but it's benefits offer ways to offset the cost.
The real reason I love this card is that it offers 4x's points for every dollar spent on groceries and dining; which often are top spend budget line items for households.
Long Term Planning: Either myself or my Player 2 will always hold this card moving forward. We don't both need to have it, but it's good for one of us to have for the 4x's dining and groceries when we aren't working on a sign up bonus
ALTERNATIVE PATH - Business Cards:
This alternative path has a Chase Focus. Using this path, you can rack up a ton of Chase points and stay in the same bank/ecosytem if you're not ready to jump into Amex or Capital One. A lot of people, myself included, go this route to keep things simple and learn all of the rules you can with Chase first. Then later on, once you have all of the cards listed here, you can consider expanding to another bank like American Express or Capital One.
I think the most common thought with business cards is, "I don't have a business" so these aren't for me. But what if I told you to rethink what a business is? Do you resell items on FB Marketplace or Craigslist? Babysit? Property Manage? All of these items can count as a small business and qualify you for a business card, even if you don't have an EIN.
This is where the business card application option for sole proprietor comes into play. You don't need an EIN, you simply use you SSN instead! Read more about business cards and follow my step-by-step sole proprietor business card application instructions here!
Let me just say.... business cards can play a pivotal role in earning points. Chase Ink Cash and Chase Ink Unlimited are amazing cards, in that they have no annual fee, often have an elevated sign up bonus, and you can combine your points earned with your Chase Sapphire to then transfer to direct travel partners.
Not only are the sign up bonuses usually great, like 75,000 points for a $6,000 spend in 3 months, but if you are working on points in a two-person mode (ie maybe you and a significant other), then you can also refer one another to cards (this is true for all point earning credit cards), so each card you get is not only the SUB (sign up bonus), but it's also the referral points added in too.
*Note, there are four Chase Ink Cards; but only one of them is a true cash back card. (The rest are marketing, but award a sign up bonus in the form of points). The Ink Premier is cash back and this is not an ideal card to get for earning flexible points.
Card 2B - Chase Ink Business Preferred
This card has a $95 annual fee, but also currently has an elevated sign up bonus of 100,000 points for spending $8K in 3 months (as of Jan 2026).
Long Term Planning: This doesn't have to be a long term card (although it is a Chase Premium card, which allows you to transfer points to air/hotel partners. If you don't have a Sapphire card, this is a great alternative for a long term card, that also earns 3x's points on travel!)
Cards 3C and D - Chase Ink Business Unlimited or Cash
Neither of these cards have an annual fee, which is great! The standard offer is to earn 75,000 points by spending $6,000 in 3 months. The cards have different benefits, that can help you earn more points long term.
Long Term Planning: Because these cards don't have annual fees, there's really no reason not to keep them long term initially (later on you may need to close them in order to free up some credit in order to be approved for more cards. I hit on that in this post)
Summary
There you have it, which cards I would start with if I were just getting into points now! Keep in mind, if you have another adult in your household/life (aka a Player 2) who is willing/able to open credit cards - you can open a card and then use your card to refer Player 2 to the same card. With this, you earn referral points and Player 2 earns a sign up bonus!
If you're interested in going the Business Card route first, I would then circle back and get the personal cards next (Card 2A Capital One Venture and Card 3A American Express Gold Personal).
If you consider opening any of these cards I highlight (or others I have, check My Cards page), I can't thank you enough for using my referral links (all of the cards listed above are clickable referral links). This is completely free to you and provides me with a point kickback so that I can keep traveling on points and sharing the world of points with you! Thank you! ___________________________
Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.
Wondering how I keep all of this information organized? Check out my Points Tracker!
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!
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