Paying Taxes with a Credit Card

Whoa, wait - Can you use a credit card to pay Federal taxes?? The answer is yes! A quote direct from IRS website:

 "The IRS uses third party payment processors for payments by debit and credit card. It's safe and secure; your information is used solely to process your payment."

If you're like my household, and often owe Federal Taxes, the silver lining is that you CAN use a credit card to pay! If you have to pay this bill anyways, why not get a free vacation out of it?! you can do this, by sign up for a new credit card, use that credit card to pay for your taxes and other every expenses to hit the minimum spend on the card to earn a sign up bonus. Then use those sign up bonus points to transfer to an airline and/or hotel for free travel! 

New to the idea of free travel thanks to credit card points and miles? I recommend checking these posts Points 101 and Start Here! 

This post will run through: how/who to pay federal taxes with credit card(s), what the fees are, why it may be worth the fees, and cards I would consider opening.

Paying Federal Taxes with Credit Card

Disclaimers: This is not financial advice, as I am not a financial professional. In addition, this post speaks to Federal Income Tax paid once a year. If you pay estimated taxes quarterly, similar knowledge applies.

The silver lining of owing the government a bunch of money is that: 1. They didn't get an interest free "loan" from us and 2. That we use this expense to sign up for a credit card with a higher minimum spend than our normal expenses would cover, which means we're turning our tax bill into points for free travel.

Who to Pay
The IRS has two authorized processors of credit cards for tax payment, Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc. Each processor has various fees, including if you are paying with a personal credit card or with a "commercial or coporate" credit (which business cards can fall into)

Source: IRS

How to Pay

If you're like us and use a third party tax preparation service, when you get to the section of how to pay your taxes, select that you will pay by check or another way. Then, go to one of the two processors listed above, Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc follow their instructions to pay.

Can You Use Business Cards to Pay Personal Taxes?

Again, I'm not a financial professional, but I have used my sole proprietor business cards to pay my personal/joint income tax (more on business cards/types here)

Note: per the fee chart above, you may be charged a higher fee to pay with a business card instead of a personal credit card. Some people have had success adding their business card attached to their Paypal account, and then using Paypal to pay taxes with the vendors above. Adding this step of Paypal can then reduce the fee from commercial/corporate card to personal card (although I will say, I tried this last year and was not successful!)

Can I use More than One Credit Card?

The answer is yes! Each processor allows up to 2 credit cards to be used for one IRS payment. The number of payments that the IRS accepts in a tax year is dependent on the type of tax form being filed. I'm guessing the majority of people file 1040's, my household included; which IRS allows two payments per tax year or if you have an installment agreement; you can pay twice a month.

What this means? Since there are 2 processers and each processor accepts 2 credit cards, this means, if you needed/wanted, you could use a total of 4 credit cards to pay your taxes owed from your filed Form 1040.

Source: IRS

Why Would I want to Pay a Fee?

I get it! People are leery of annual credit card fees, why would you want to spend MORE money on processing fees to use a credit card, when you already owe money in the first place?!

Let's talk through the fee. Let's say your normal month spend is $4,000/mo. With that, you can comfortably open a credit card that has a $12,000 minimum spend in 3 months. 

Credit cards with an $12K minimum spend (or less) include Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, Chase Ink Business Cards (Cash, Unlimited, and Preferred), Venture Card, VentureX, and American Express Personal Gold and Personal Platinum (although American Express gives you 6 months to hit the minimum spend on personal cards!)...The standard sign up offer on most of these credit cards lists is 75,000 to 125,000 points.

Example:

• Let's say you owe $3,000 in taxes. Now your 3-month spend outlook just jumped up from $12,000 to $15,000. 

• A $15,000 spend can get you an Amex Gold Business card. The Amex Gold Business card has a sign up bonus up to 200,000 points. The Amex personal Gold has a sign up bonus up to 100,000 points for a $6,000 spend.

• So in essence, if you opened a Biz Gold instead of a Personal Card, you could earn an additional 100,000 points for the processing fee. 

• From above, the IRS Federal Tax processing fee of 2.89% to use a card credit, for the hypothetical $3000 taxes owed, that means $3,000*2.89% = $86.7. 

In this example, you're paying $87 dollars to earn 100,000 points you otherwise generally couldn't/wouldn't earn!! This is WELL worth it in my book!

In fact, this is exactly what I did for Tax Year 2024 - opened the American Express Gold Business card! This year I opened the Chase Sapphire Reserve Business to use on a combination of our property and federal taxes and general life expenses, because I want all of the Chase points we can get and we otherwise could not hit the high minimum spend on this card!

What Cards Would You Recommend Opening for This?

Here is a list of cards I would consider opening to utilize to pay taxes (and every day expenses), but on current sign up bonuses and ranked by minimum spend (generally in a 3 month time period). Cards listed with an "*" currently have an elevated offer at the time of publishing (2/5/26).

PS - If you're curious about standard sign up offers verse elevated; I have a post here that covers common card offers.

Personal Credit Cards

• Minimum spend $4K: Capital One Venture Card* - More details here
• Minimum spend $5K: Chase Sapphire Preferred - More details here
• Minimum spend $6K: Amex Gold Personal - More details here
• Minimum spend $8K: Amex Platinum Personal

Business Credit Cards

• Minimum spend $6K: Chase Ink Cash or Unlimited - More details here
• Minimum spend $8K: Chase Ink Preferred* - More details here
• Minimum spend $15K: Amex Gold Business 
• Minimum spend $20K: Chase Sapphire Reserve Business - More details here
• Minimum spend $30K: Capital One VentureX Business

Summary

I know not everyone is comfortable opening business cards; in which case you depending the amount of your expenses and taxes owed, you could open one new personal card and your partner could open one new personal card to still take advantage!

I also realize not everyone thinks it's worth it to pay fees to use a credit card. My general rule of thumb is that I ONLY will pay a fee to use a card, *if* we're working on a minimum spend and *if* it's a minimum spend we cannot hit without pay a fee to use a card on.

From our property and income taxes alone, we could use these expenses to open a new card and hit a minimum spend for a sign up bonus; which is what we do! We're not spending more money (well, maybe a couple of hundred in processing fees), but we ARE spending smarter - to earn points/travel from bills we will pay regardless.

While this post focused on federal income taxes, keep in mind that other taxes like State and Property may also be ways to turn required expenses into points for free travel! My county charges 2.25% fee for property taxes, but it's a fee I'm willing to pay if that "extra spend" helps me hit a credit card minimum spend that we otherwise could not hit.

What do you think? Is it worth opening a new card to pay your taxes?

As a reminder - my small business operates on use of my referral links. When you open a credit card using one of my links, it's FREE to you, but the bank gives me a small chunk of points for referring which, which keeps this free content coming! Thank you for supporting me and my business by using my referral links!

__________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

Promotional Companion Pass

It's baaaack!

Right now, Feb 2026, the sign up bonus for ANY Southwest Personal Credit Card will get you a buy one, get one flights; earning a companion pass through 2/28/2027!

Now, there are a few cons to this offer; or at least differences from the “traditional companion pass”, that you should consider before taking this offer. The Cons are covered later on in this post, so that you can know full scope and decide if this offer is right for you. 

Promotional Southwest Companion Pass

There are 3 Southwest personal credit cards with an elevated offer right now, that includes earning Companion Pass, through 2/28/27. Each card's minimum spend, sign up bonus offer, annual fee, and benefits vary. Let's talk through each card!

Rapid Rewards Plus Card

Current Elevated Offer: Spend $3,000 in 3 months; earn 20,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27

Annual Fee: $99

Benefits:

• Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
• Free standard seat selection 48 hours in advance of flights for everyone one your reservation
• 10% Flight Discount
• No foreign transaction fees
• 3,000 anniversary points yearly

Referral Link

Rapid Rewards Premier Card 

Current Elevated Offer: Spend $4,000 in 3 months; earn 30,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27

Annual Fee $149

Benefits:

• Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
• Free Preferred seat selection 48 hours in advance of flights for everyone one your reservation
• 15% Flight Discount
• No foreign transaction fees
• 6,000 anniversary points yearly

Referral Link

Rapid Rewards Priority Card 

Current Elevated Offer: Spend $5,000 in 3 months; earn 50,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27

Annual Fee $229

Benefits:

• Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
• Free Preferred seat selection at time of booking  for everyone one your reservation
• No foreign transaction fees
• 7,600 anniversary points yearly

Referral Link

Comparing All 3 Cards...

Cons for this Elevated Offer

You can only earn a sign up bonus on ANY Southwest Personal card every 24 months. That means, if you open one of the cards listed above now, you will not be eligible to earn a sign up bonus on a Southwest Personal card for 24 months after you hit the Feb 2026 Personal card SUB.

Why does this matter? This promo CP only lasts until 2/28/27. While a year of BOGO flights is great,  the traditional method of earning companion pass lets you earn bogo flights for up to 24 months.

Additionally, with the traditional method of earning CP, you earn 125,000 points that you can then spend to book flights! The offers above only get you 20,000-40,000 points, which may not even be enough for a one-way flight in some cases.

If you have opened a SW Personal card in the past 24 months and earned a sign up bonus, then you are NOT eligible for this offer.

This is a Great Offer For...

1. People who absolutely cannot open a business card. Although, you really should read this post and reconsider!

2. Someone who has big holiday travel planned, especially over Christmas 2026/New Years 2027. Going to Hawaii next winter? SW roundtrip flight to Hawaii around the holidays can easily cost 120,000 points for ONE person, round trip. If you have companion pass, then you're saving ~120,000 points with this offer by itself, which is easily just as good as any other sign up bonus!

Summary

This offer isn't right for everyone, but there are some situations where I think this is a GREAT offer! If you're interested in applying, here is a referral link (you can open any of the SW personal cards with this!)! This is free to you, but gives me a small kick back of points for using my referral. 

___________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

Is this a Good Offer?

Is this a Good Deal?!

This is another common question I receive! This post will run through the standard/typical sign up offers for common cards that I recommend and/or hold. 

Any offer higher than what is shown below is considered to be an "elevated" limited time offer. Elevated offers are not always better than standard offers, but are at least worth a consideration. 

If you're new to the idea of credit card points and how to use them for travel, I recommend starting with these posts: Points 101, New to Points, and Beginner Cards

All of the cards below will be linked with my referral and to more details. Linked details include information such as annual fee and benefits to utilize to offset the annual fee. If you have any questions about these cards - please reach out and ask. I'm here to help! 

If you are considering opening any of these cards, I greatly appreciate you using my referral link. That is, apply through my link - which is free to you, but gives me a small kick back of points, which helps me to continue bringing you free content and support! Thank you!

Standard Sign Up Bonus Offers

Chase

You'll see this list is pretty heavy on Chase cards; that's because Chase is generally the most beginner friendly transferrable/flexible points program of all banks, due to it's vast variety of domestic and international airline and hotel transfer partners. Learn more here on Chase Transfer Partners.

Chase Transferrable Points

Chase Personal Cards

• Freedom Unlimited (learn more here): Spend $500 in 3 months; earn $200/20,000 points
• Freedom Flex (learn more here): Spend $500 in 3 months; earn $200/20,000 points
• Sapphire Preferred* (learn more here): Spend $5,000 in 3 months; earn 75,000 points
• Sapphire Reserve* (learn more here): Spend $5,000 in 3 months; earn 125,000 points

*As of January 2026; you can now hold the Sapphire Preferred AND the Sapphire Reserve at the same time. The previous 48-month rule no longer exists.

Chase Business cards

• Sapphire Reserve Business (learn more here): Spend $20,000 in 3 months; earn 150,000 points
• Ink Business Cash (learn more here): Spend $6,000 in 3 months; earn 75,000 points
• Ink Business Unlimited (learn more here): Spend $6,000 in 3 months; earn 75,000 points
• Ink Business Preferred (learn more here):  Spend $8,000 in 3 months; earn 90,000 points

Chase Airlines and Hotels

Interested in buy one, get one free flights for close to two years? Consider opening Southwest Credit cards to earn companion pass! Learn more about companion pass here.

Keep in mind, with Southwest 2025 changes, all credit card holders get free checked bags as well as option to select seating in advance (when you get to select varies depending on which card(s) you hold. If you fly Southwest a few times a year, the free checked bag benefit can easily cover the cost of the annual fee.

Southwest Personal Cards

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus: Spend $1,000 in 3 months; earn 50,000 points
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier: Spend $1,000 in 3 months; earn 50,000 points
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority: Spend $1,000 in 3 months; earn 50,000 points

These cards all have the same standard sign up bonus, but varying  annual fees and associated benefits - including when you are allowed to select seats for free and how many points you earn upon your cardholder anniversary.

Southwest Business Cards

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business: Spend $3,000 in 3 months; earn 60,000 points
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business: Spend $5,000 in 3 months; earn 80,000 points

Misc Chase Hotel Cards

Hyatt Personal Card: Spend $5,000 in 3 months, earn 60,000 points

There is often an elevated offer to earn up to 5 nights free, BUT it requires you to spend $15,000 in the first 6 months! Personally, I don't think this is worth it. If I have $15K to spend, I'm looking to open a new card with flexible points. The free nights awards are only valid for 1 year and only valid on lower tier, Category 1-4 hotels. I would rather get the 60,000 Hyatt points and have the flexibility to spend them where and when I want!

Marriot Bonvoy Boundless: Spend $3,000 in 3 months; earn 3 free night awards. Each Free Night Award (FNA) is valid up to 50,000 points and valid for 1 year. 

FNAs can be redeemed and "topped" off with additional points up to a maximum of 15,000 points per night; which means if you have extra Marriott points, you can redeem your FNA+points for up to 65,000 points per night.

Capital One

Capital One is known to be rather picky for approvals. If you have one or more inquiries on your credit in the past six months, you may or may not be able to get approved. You can use Capital One's preapproval tool to check your odds. Also, if you freeze your credit (I freeze with all of the bureaus. This is free to do) and unthaw 24 hours before you apply.

This is also because in Nov 2025, Capital One implemented a rule that in order to qualify for sign up bonuses you must open the cards "in order" of lowest tier to highest tier. This is you need to open the cards in this order to earn a sign up bonus on each: Venture One, Venture, and Venture X).

Often the Venture One card is skipped (due to lower sign up bonus/benefits not worth taking on up spot of you 5/24). 

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. 

Capital One Transferable Points

Venture Card (learn more here): Spend $4,000 in 3 months; earn 75,000 points

VentureX Card (learn more here): Spend $4,000 in 3 months; earn 75,000 points

American Express 

Amex Personal Cards

Similar to Capital One rules; Amex also has a rule to open personal cards in "family order". 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.

• Green: Spend $3,000 in 6 months, earn 40,000 points 
• Gold (learn more here): Spend $6,000 in 6 months, earn up to 100,000 points. (Note, the standard offer is 60,000 points, but I wouldn't accept this offer for less than 80,000 points).
• Platinum (on of my favorite benefits here): Spend $8,000 in 6 months, earn up to 175,000 points

Note the 6-month minimum spend on American Express 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. If you don't receive a high offer, decline the offer and wait a day or two and try again!

Amex Business Cards

• Gold: Spend $15,000 in 3 months, earn up to 100,000 points (Note, you can find elevated offers to earn up to 200,000 points, but I wouldn't accept this offer for less than 150,000 points).

• Platinum: Spend $20,000 in 3 months, earn 200,000 points (Note, you can find elevated offers to earn up to 300,000 points, but I wouldn't accept this offer for less than 250,000 points).

• Blue Business Plus: Spend $3,000 in 3 months, earn up to 15,000 points. (However, typically you can find an elevated offer to spend $4K in 4 months and earn 50,000 or even 75,000 points!)

Summary

The above is A LOT of information; but it's also good to know! If I were ready to open a new card and had the spend to do so, I wouldn't NOT get a card just because it doesn't currently have an elevated offer.... but at the same time, I hope the list above is something you can reference so that when you are opening new credit cards, you can use this information to weigh out which card and card offer is best for you at any given time!

As always, I love and appreciate your support! Please consider using my referral links when you open new credit card(s); which is free to you, but supports my small business :)

___________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

Capital One Venture Card

The second credit card I suggest opening on my 2026 Beginner's Card List is the Capital One Venture Card. This is because not only does the card have a low annual fee and great benefits to off set the fee (see below!), but Capital One is known to be rather picky for approvals. If you have one or more inquiries on your credit in the past six months, you may or may not be able to get approved. You can use Capital One's preapproval tool to check your odds. Also, if you freeze your credit (I freeze with all of the bureaus. This is free to do) and unthaw 24 hours before you apply.

This is also because in Nov 2025, Capital One implemented a rule that in order to qualify for sign up bonuses you must open the cards "in order" of lowest tier to highest tier. This is you need to open the cards in this order to earn a sign up bonus on each: Venture One, Venture, and Venture X).

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. 

Capital One Venture Card

Standard Offer: Spend $4,000 in 3 months and earn 75,000 points

Current Elevated Offer (Jan 2026): Spend $4,000 in 3 months and earn 75,000 points + a $250 travel credit (to be used in Capital One Travel portal). This offer is worth a minimum of $1,000 in travel!

Annual Fee: $95 

5/24: This is a personal card, therefore it takes a spot for the Chase 5/24 rule (Chase will only allow you to have 4 personal credit cards from ANY bank/store/airline/hotel/etc in the previous 24 months. If you exceed this limit, Chase likely will automatically not approve you for more cards. Read Item 2 here for more beginner basics)

Card Benefits:

• 2x points on all purchases
• 5x points on travel purchases booked through Capital One Travel (including rental cars)
• No foreign transaction fees
• Up to $120 credit towards TSA PreCheck or Global Entry when you use this card to apply (note, credit is available once every 4 years)

This is a great no-brainer card to use on all of your purchases and to take on international travel, since it's earns 2x's points on all purchases AND doesn't have foreign transaction fees!

Capital One Benefits:

• Ability to combine points with anyone! 
• Ability to transfer points to Capital One Travel partners for direct bookings and to gain larger value from points (compared to Capital One Travel portal, where 1 point equals 1 cent). See Capital One Airline and Hotel Partners, plus other ways to use Capital One Points here.
• Ability to redeem miles for travel-related purchases (as long as the purchase is coded as "Travel"). This can be a great option to use points to cover the cost of items such as rental cars, airbnbs, and even Disneyland tickets (when purchased through a travel agent like Undercover Tourist)

Summary

 If you're interested in applying for a Venture Card, here is a referral link! This is free to you, but gives me a small kick back of points for using my referral. Note that you will likely be directed to Capital One Pre-approval tool from this link. After completing the pre-approval tool, you can accept the Venture Card offer!

Thank you as always for your support! If you already have a Venture Card and want to earn more Capital One Points, I suggest opening the VentureX next. If you already have Venture Miles, here are Capital One's Transfer Partners and ways to use your Venture Miles.

___________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

Good and Bad Chase Changes

The Bad

In recent months Chase seems to be making it harder and harder to earn Ultimate Rewards.

Early October 2025 they changed the referral rules for business cards - in that those referring others to business cards will only earn referral points if the card opener is a "new business". IE, if someone already has an existing Chase business card, then you won't earn referral points if you refer them to a new business card. 

In a 2-player household, this is a huge bummer! We have earned more than 500,000 points over the years, simply by having one of us refer the other person to an Ink Business card when it was time for a new card. This means in addition to the sign up bonus, we were often earning another 20,000 - 40,000 points for referring as well.

Then in November 2025, Chase came out with new language that says "you may not be eligible for a sign up bonus..." if you've previously earned one on the Ink business cards. Essentially the data points show that if you've earned a sign up bonus (SUB) on a no-fee in card (Ink Unlimited or Cash) then you're not likely to be able to earn another sign up on either of these card types. Similarly, if you've earned a SUB an Ink Preferred previously, you're not likely to able to get another SUB on a new Ink Preferred.

In both of these situations, when applying, you will receive a pop up that tells you you aren't eligible for a sign up bonus; if you receive this pop up, decline the application!

The Good

However, starting today (1/25/2026), there is some good news!

You can now hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred AND the Chase Sapphire Reserve at the same time. Prior to this, you could only hold one of these cards at a time. You also had to wait 48 months in between closing or downgrading a Sapphire card in order to apply for a new card for a new SUB. 

Currently, both the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve have "lifetime language". That is, similar to the Inks change above, if you've previously earned a sign up bonus on a Preferred or Reserve, you're unable to earn another SUB on the same card. However, if you're like me and you've only ever held the Preferred - you ARE still eligible for a SUB on a Reserve! And as of today, if you want, you can hold both the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve at the same time.

Summary

In a time that's getting harder and harder to continually earn more Chase points, I found the Sapphire update as welcomed news! Neither my P2 nor I have held CSR previously and it's good to know that for now, we still have a way to earn a nice sign up bonus for each of us! The CSR card is on my radar for both of us in the future!

___________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

How to Transfer Chase Points

Many of my followers have started earning points and the next logical question is what to do I with this points and how?!

While you can redeems your flexible bank points in the bank's travel portal, this generally is at a fixed ratio of 1 points equal to 1 cent (there are exceptions to this, such as "Points Boost" with Chase when you hold a Sapphire card. Sapphire Reserve cards have a higher "Points Boost" than Sapphire Preferred. However, "Points Boost" is only applicable to select flights and hotels - not all.

Often you will find the most value, ie spend the least amount of points, by transferring your flexible bank points to airlines and hotels, to then book directly in the airline/hotels loyalty program. A quick example: Let's say you wanted to come to Vail for a few nights over Spring Break.

Grand Hyatt Vail is 35,000 points per night, when booked directly on Hyatt's website:

Logging into Chase Travel Portal (log into Chase, at the top of your accounts, click "Benefits and Travel" > "Travel". When I search the same dates, on Chase Travel Portal, I see that for one night (the same date as when I searched Hyatt website), Chase would charge 61,257 points; for the same room type, same exact night!

And note, that is the "discounted" points price for holding a Sapphire Preferred card. It's still 75% more points than booking direct with Hyatt!

This is why it's often better to transfer. You can check both the Chase Travel Portal and direct airline/hotel before booking, but odds are transferring will cost you less points.

In order to transfer points, you'll need to have a loyalty account set up with the airline/hotel you are transferring to. In most cases the name on the credit card you are transferring from needs to match the name on the loyalty account. (This is to say, you can't transfer points from your credit to your spouse's United account because he has United status).

This post is intended to show you how to transfer Chase points you've earned to Chase travel partners (which is to say select airlines and hotels that the bank partners with). Keep in mind that while airlines and hotels overlap banks, each bank has a specific set of travel partners.

This understanding is fundamental when considering which credit cards to open and from which bank. The posts linked below lists the airlines and hotels each bank partners each:

• Chase Travel Partners
• Capitol One Travel Partners
• American Express Travel Partners

How to Transfer Points

I'm starting with Chase because I think Chase is the most beginner friendly bank when it comes to points. This is because there are low annual fee cards to earn points and many hotels and airlines that are domestic to the US and popular household names.

However, the caveat to Chase is that you MUST have a premium Chase card in order to be able to transfer points out of the bank to travel partners. Essentially this is a Chase card with an annual fee. The current options for this are: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ink Business Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve Business.

1. Log into your Chase account

2. Locate and click on your premium card (Sapphire or Ink Preferred)

3. Once the card details appear, locate your Ultimate Rewards. Click "Redeem".

4. This will load your Ultimate Rewards. Near the top right of your screen. Click "Travel" and select "Transfer points to partners" from the drop down.

5. This loads the Transfer page, where you can then access all of the travel partners:

6. Find the partner you want to transfer to. Click the ">" arrow and then click Transfer Points. This will direct you to 3-step page:

1. You'll be prompted to enter your account number/log in information for the travel partner. Link your Travel Partner Account to Chase (ie where you input your frequent flyer #; you only need to do this the first time. In the future, your account is already linked). Once your travel partner account is linked, click Next.
2. You'll then be asked how many points to transfer. Points can be transferred in 1,000-point increments. Keep in mind that all points transfers are final! Input the number of points to transfer and click Next

      3. Review transfer details and click Submit! 

Transfers are often instantaneous (like United, Southwest, or Hyatt); if you log out and back into your travel partner account you should see the points. Although I've also seen others say it's taken 24hours - 5 business days to see the points appear (this is also come with other bank). The quicker the transfer, the better; as award bookings are limited availability and can increase in point-price or entirely go away.

I generally DO NOT transfer my points until I'm ready to book travel. This keeps my points flexible.

It's important to verify the booking is available on the travel partner immediately before you transfer points, then book as soon as the points have been deposited to your travel partner.

(Ie, if you have a specific United flight you want to book - log into to United and search for the flight paying with Miles. Once you've confirmed the flight is available with points; immediately log into Chase and follow the steps above to transfer to United. Then log out of your United account, log back in (the points should be there), and book your flight before it's gone!

A few reminders:

• Once universal points are transferred, they are stuck with the travel partner!
• The name on the Travel Partner account you transfer to, MUST MATCH the name on the card you are transferring too.

Have multiple cards and trying to figure out how to pool all of those points together? Want to combine points from your partner to your Chase account? Read this post!

Summary

Hopefully this post provided you with some insight as to why and how to transfer points from Chase to Chase's partner airlines and hotels!

Earning points is fairly easy, but learning how to redeem them can be tricky!

___________________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!

Jan 2026 Elevated Offers

There are SO many good offers right now! I wanted to put together a list for you to view all of the offers in one place to compare and make your decision as to what card to open next!

Can't decide? Fill out my free form or shoot me an email and I'll give my opinion!

January 2026 Elevated Offers

Capital One Venture Card

Current (elevated) offer: Spend $4,000 in 3 months and earn 75,000 points + $250 Travel Credit

Annual Fee: $95

My Thoughts on this Offer: This offer is worth at least a minimum of $1,000 of travel (more if you transfer your points to Capital One Travel Partners (hotels/airlines)! This second is my number 2 recommendation for Beginner Points Credit Cards. You can read more about which cards I recommend if you're just getting started and why here.

Learn more about the Venture Card and it's benefits here. Interested in applying for this card? Here's my referral link!

Chase Sapphire Reserve Business

Current (elevated) offer: Spend $30,000 in 6 months and earn 200,000 points (elevated offer ended January 22nd, 2026 at 9am ET)

Note: as of 1/22/2026, this card is now at it's Standard Offer: Spend $30,000 in 3 months, and earn 150,000 points.

Annual Fee: $795

My Thoughts on this Offer: This card has a huge annual fee; but it's benefits (including $300 travel credit on any purchase) plus 200,000 of the most valuable flexible points there are, really make it worth getting this card for the elevated sign up bonus and keeping it just for a year (then downgrading or closing). 

Uncertain about qualifying or applying for business cards? This post dives in deeper to business cards and includes a step by step application tutorial.

Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve Business and it's benefits here. Interested in applying for this card? Here's my referral link!

Chase Ink Business Preferred

Current (elevated) offer: Spend $8,000 in 3 months and earn 100,000 points

Annual Fee: $95

My Thoughts on this Offer: This is a great offer for a good chunk of flexible Chase points with a low annual fee and lower minimum spend. This is also a "premium" Chase card, so it allows you to transfer points from Chase to partner airlines and hotels. It also do not have a foreign transaction fee, which makes it a great card to grab now and use on a vacation towards your minimum spend!

Uncertain about qualifying or applying for business cards? This post dives in deeper to business cards and includes a step by step application tutorial.

Learn more about the Chase Ink Business Preferred and it's benefits here. Interested in applying for this card? Here's my referral link!

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

Current (elevated) offer: Spend $3,000 in 3 months and earn five one-night award certificates*

*Each one free night award is redeemable for up to 50,000 points per night. In addition, you can "top off", or add/transfer an additional 15,000 points per night (from your Marriott account, or bank partners), to book rooms up to 65,000 points per night.

The 5 free-night-awards can be used individually or all together. Free night awards expire in one year.

Annual Fee: $95

My Thoughts on this Offer: This is a great offer for someone who has a specific trip and hotel in mind to use these points. Because Marriott Point pricing is tied to cash price, the amount of points it costs to stay at any given Marriott can fluctuate greatly. I recommend searching for hotel options to use your five 50,000 point free night awards BEFORE you apply for this card.

I personally don't have this card, as it's a personal card and takes up a 5/24 spot. If you're not familiar with the "5/24 rule", read this post, Rule 2. Because you can only open so many personal cards in any given time period, I currently am focused on earning flexible points from banks with cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve, American Express Gold Personal, and Capital One Venture Card.

Summary

There are always going to be new offers that come and go! Don't feel obligated to sign up for a card if it's not the right moment for you. However, if you have the natural spend - these are some great offers to take advantage of!

I personally plan to open the Sapphire Reserve Business for myself, given upcoming property taxes, federal taxes, 40th birthdays, summer camps, and Europe vacation; on top of our day-to-day expenses, in the next six months!

___________________

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

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

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!