My Cards

Here is a list of the cards myself and/or my player2 (aka Ben) hold and our associated referral links. I've included a little blurb as to why we currently hold these cards.

As a reminder, I'm not paid for ANY of the content I share - I've just found such a passion for points travel and strategy that I want to share that with the world and help you get more out of your every day life expenses like we have.

Because of this, I would love if you would utilize my referrals when opening a new card! This gives me a little points kick back and keeps me motivated to keep spending my time to share and educate. Thank you in advance!

(Please make sure if you follow a referral link that you open the application in an external web browser - this helps protect your data and it helps ensure that I get credit for the referral)

Chase

We've banked with Chase for years and naturally opened their credit cards first. However, even aside from our longstanding relationship, I really find them to be the easiest bank to understand transfer partners and how to stretch your points farther (rather than booking in the Chase Travel Portal). 

• Sapphire Preferred: my top recommendation of cards to hold and a great card as an introduction to earning points and transferring to travel partners. You can read all about it and it's benefits here.

• Freedom: I wouldn't necessarily recommend opening this card because of the 5/24 rule - however, it's a great card to earn points and  has no annual fee (this is also the card you can downgrade a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve to. I actually hold two different Freedom cards).

Note, I have the "original" Freedom, which is no longer available to apply for outright. However there are a few great Freedom options, all of which you can apply for through the link above:

• Freedom Unlimited: Standard offer of $200/20,000 points when you open and spend $500 in the first 3 months. This card gives you 1.5x points back on all purchases, plus 3x points on dining/delivery, and 3X points on Drugstores
• Freedom Flex: Standard offer of $200/20,000 points when you open and spend $500 in the first 3 months. This card gives you 1x points back on all purchases plus has the quarterly 5x points categories, for purchase total up to $1,5000 ($1,500 * 5% is the potential to earn an extra 7,500 points quarterly), plus 3x points on dining/delivery and 3X points on Drugstore purchases

• United Mileage Explorer: I've had this card forever! It was one of our first points redemptions - I signed up for this card when we were redoing our mudroom and used the sign up bonus points for us to fly to Hawaii for our 30th birthdays! Now I debate keeping the card, but it does offer Saver Awards (cheaper points flights) just for having the card, as well as free checked bags for the cardholder and a guest. (Note - you can use my referral to apply for ANY of the United card offerings, personal or business)

• Southwest Personal and Southwest Business: These card were opened as part of our Southwest Companion Pass process and when Southwest announced their changes and said that cardholder will still get free checked bags, we decided to each keep one card open for now. (Note - you can use my referral to apply for ANY of the Southwest card offerings, personal or business)

• Ink Business Unlimited: This card has no annual fee and earns 1.5x on all purchases (I've been keeping this card open as a "catch-all" for when we want to earn Chase points that don't fit into a category spend)

• Ink Business Preferred: This card had a record high sign up bonus of 120,000 points early fall 2024 with an $8K spend in 3 months. It does have an annual fee of $95 but it's one of three cards that allow you to transfer points from Chase to Travel Partners (remember, only "premium" aka annual fee cards allow this). It also offers 3x points on internet, cable, and phone charges, travel (outside of Chase Travel portal) and shipping purchases.

(Note, we will close the Ink Preferred after the one year mark of having it open. There's no need to pay this annual fee because Ben also has the Sapphire Preferred. He really got this card just to take advantage of the high sign up bonus).

• Ink Business Cash: This card has no annual fee and offers 5x points for office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services. It also earns 2x points at gas stations and restaurants.

A lot of you are going to think this sounds nuts, but, the benefit of 5x points for office supply stores is gift cards! You can use this card to buy a gift card at Office Max or Staples, and then instead of getting 1x point on that spend, you get 5x points. 

Some examples: Home Depot really doesn't have any cards that offer a direct benefit or extra points for shopping there.... BUT, you could go buy a $100 Home Depot gift card at Office Max, and suddenly your $100 Home Depot purchase turns into 500 points (for 5 x $100).

Now, I don't use this benefit a ton, but when I have used it is when we want to book an airbnb instead of a hotel. When we went to Portugal, we spent over $3,000 on airbnbs; but I turned that into 15,000 points by buying Airbnb gift cards at Staples and then using those gift card to book our stays.

Is it extra work and mental load? Maybe. Can it be worth it? Yes, pending on the purchase/cost/frequency.

 

American Express

To be honest, I was intimidated by American Express cards for a long time. They have much higher annual fees than Chase cards and it seemed complicated to open cards with another bank beyond Chase. However, I needed a Chase break and found myself considering the Gold Personal card. AmEx has a rule with their personal cards that you have to open them in "tiered" order or you won't be eligible for a "lower" card sign up bonus in the future. 

Basically what this means is don't start with the AmEx platinum card or you won't be eligible to get the Gold card sign up bonus in the future. (There is also a Green card, but the sign up bonus is generally so low that many people, myself included, skip getting the green card and go right for the gold. Again, keep in mind the 5/24 rule).

Note, this "family order" of cards doesn't apply to AmEx business cards; only personal. The personal card minimum spend period is typically six months long, instead of the standard three months; which is nicer for some higher minimum spend limits!

It's also worth mentioning that American Express is WEIRD with sign up bonus offers. They constantly change for individuals. One link may show you a 80,000 pt offer one day and if you open the same link in incognito browser mode, you may receive an entirely different offer. If you're interested in opening any of the Amex cards, I recommend googling the card's name + best offer, to see what kind of offers are out there and how to find them, before blindly clicking and applying through a referral link.

• Gold Personal This card has a $325 annual fee, but it can be offset by benefits (scroll down here in this post for more details); but it's also a keeper for us as it earns 4x points on dining out, delivery, and grocery shopping (a good majority of our routine spend)
• Platinum Personal If you think a $325 annual fee is high.... then ignore this card because the annual fee is $695! Oof! I opened this card earlier this year because I was still on my Chase break but we had some big spend and I wanted to take advantage to earn another sign up bonus because I had depleted our points earlier this year when booking Costa Rica. I'm still working on ensuring maximizing the benefits to help "reduce" the annual fee. One easy option for us is the $20/mo Uber/Uber Eats credit as well as $20/mo for Disney+ streaming credit. Those two items alone are already routine spending for us and offsets the annual fee by $480/year. (For reference, in Jan 2025 I found an offer for 125,000 points with a $8K spend to open)

Not only did a want the sign up bonus points, but this card also comes with Hilton and Marriott Gold Status. This was part of my strategy in opening this card - that I had a Hilton stay I wanted to book and with Hilton, if you book 4 nights, you get the 5th night free when you have status! 

• Gold Business This is my most recent card I opened, as my offer had a $15K spend in 3 months for 175,000 points  (March 2025) and I knew between taxes, summer camp, and life, we could hit that spend. The annual fee is $395, but the card offers benefits like $20/mo credit at office stores (again, gift cards!), 4X points on your top two spend categories each month, Walmart+ monthly membership, etc

American Express also partners with Rakuten shopping portal, which is another easy way to rack up Membership Reward points. You can read all about Rakuten here.

Capital One

Last but not least! Capital One is another great option when it comes to the world of flexible points. Capital One is known to be credit inquiry sensitive (ie how many credit pulls/applications you've had in the last six months). We have waited until we've only had 1-2 credit pulls in a six month period before applying for Capital One cards. However, I'd seen a lot of people post success with having more credit inquiries, freezing their credit for a week+ and then unfreezing right before applying for Capital One cards.

• Venture X: This card has a $395 annual fee, but also automatically comes with a $300 travel credit, which can be used in their travel portal and earns 2x points on all purchases. It also comes with Capital One Airport Lounge access AND Priority Pass Lounge access. I used to not believe in airport lounges, but now that we've used them, I don't think I could go back! (The card comes with access for the cardholder and two free guests, but there's a work around to get a family of 4+ in for free. More info to come on that!). More details as "Card 2" in this post.
• Venture: Venture is the little sister card to Venture X. It has a $95 annual fee and also earns 2x points on all purchases (but doesn't have the lounge access). You can learn more about Venture card and Capital One Travel Partners here.

In Summary

You'll see that we hold several cards, but very few co-branded cards. That's because bank points don't expire, and all of the bank points I mentioned are flexible, which means they can be transferred to any travel partner hotel or airline and you're not locked in to just one company; which provides ultimate freedom for redemeption.