My Everyday Cards

In points and miles, the "easier" way to make point earning sustainable is the ongoing opening of new credit cards to earn sign up bonuses. This strategy really is how you continue to earn enough points (without significant spending) to book travel and to keep replenishing your points inventory.

BUT....for some people, it's too much. It's too much to manage and too much to think about. When you're wondering:

What Card do You Use Everyday?

This post will cover cards which cards we use for every day costs based on type of spend. Keep in mind, 90% of the time, my household is working on a minimum spend on a new card to earn a sign up bonus, but there are times we aren't working on a new card spend. 

Everyday Spend Categories

Which Cards I use and Why

1. Groceries
Likely like many of you, groceries are a frequent purchase and a large portion of our budget. My first choice card for groceries is Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times points per dollar spent for online groceries. 

This is great if you do online grocery orders for pick up (or Instacart), but if you shop in store, you won't automatically get 3x's points. This also excludes Target, Walmart and Wholesale Clubs.

One work around for in store shopping, is that if you shop at Kroger owned stores (in Colorado, that's King Soopers or City Market), you can add your CSP as your form of payment to in your Kroger Wallet. Then when you check out in store, open your King Soopers app, go to My Account > Wallet > and click "Kroger Pay" at the bottom. A screen will appear for you to select "Use at the register" and a QR code will appear for you to scan and pay. This method earns 3x's points on your grocery spend, even though you're shopping in person!

Grocery Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Now, Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on groceries (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for groceries when I can get the 3x's points.

But, there are some stores where the pay via app wallet hack doesn't work, and/or there are times when we have plenty of Chase points so I'll use the Amex Gold instead to work on building up our Amex point start.

Costco Tip: Costco doesn't accept Amex directly.... but you can order Costco through Instacart (even without a Costco membership! Although if you do have a Costco membership, enter it in Instacart for better pricing) and you can use an Amex card for Instacart!

I don't do this on the regular, but when I'm working on an Amex minimum spend to hit a signup bonus, I feel its worth both the spend and the 4x's points. Don't forget, Instacart is also on Rakuten, so you can earn even more points (or cash back!). Several credit cards offer Instacart membership, which gets your free delivery and reduced fees. Some cards (like Chase Ink Cash or Unlimited), even come with $20mo Instacart credit!

2. Dining 
This is another common expense in our household. When dining out or ordering directly from a restaurant, similar to above, my first preference is to use Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times per dollar spent on dining and maximizes our Chase point earn. 

Dining Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on dining (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred per dollar spent); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for for dining when I can get the 3x's points.

The Caveat: 3rd Party Delivery Services

This would be orders from Uber Eats, Door Dash etc. These services also earn 3x's points for CSP or 4x's points for Amex Gold. We have several credit cards that offer monthly credits as a benefit as well as "membership" for free delivery and lower fees. This includes:

• Amex Gold Personal: $10/mo Uber credit
• Amex Platinum Personal: $15/mo Uber credit + UberOne membership (free delivery/lower fees)
• These 2 Amex Card benefits stack, so we get $25/mo Uber credits and free delivery. I pay the remaining UberEats amount owed with Amex Gold to earn 4X's points
• Chase Sapphire (Preferred, Reserve, and Reserve for Business) all come with annual DashPass, which is free delivery/reduced fees for DoorDash. The Reserve cards come with $5 restaurant monthly credit. Even though this is minimal, I generally pair this with a door dash giftcard to order once or twice a month and use this benefit. Note, the Reserve for Business does NOT earn extra points on restaurants/dining.

3. Travel
It isn't as common for us to be spending cash on travel since we primarily book flights and hotels on points; but for the times we do elect to pay cash, I want to maximize our point earn.

Generally, my go-to card for this is the Ink Business Preferred (which currently has an elevated offer! details here). The Ink Preferred earns 3x's points on travel and does not have foreign transaction fees. IMO, this is a GREAT low-fee card to keep in your wallet, especially for international travel!

*An example of using these benefits: I opened this card for my P2 before we went to the Maldives; because we knew we would have a hefty bill for food and drinks at the hotel. Not only did we use the bill towards the minimum spend to earn a sign up bonus; but we also earn 3x's points on our bill because hotels code as travel!

Tip: When staying at hotels, I always try to charge any purchases at the hotel (coffee shop, bar, restaurant, poolside, etc) to our room. That way, when we check out of the hotel, all of our charges as charged by the hotel and we earn the points multiplier (3x with Ink Preferred or 4x points with Sapphire Reserve Business)

Travel Runner Up Card: Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business (learn more here)

This card earns 4x's points for direct purchase/booking on hotels and flights. This is a little bit better than Ink Preferred, but is also limited to hotels and flights; whereas Ink Preferred "Travel" costs can include airlines, hotels, rental cars, trains, third party travel services (like tours booked through Viator), etc.

4. Everything Else

This one is a no brainer for me; it's Capital One Venture Card (learn more here) or Venture X (learn more here). Both of these cards earn 2x's points on ALL purchases and have no foreign transaction fees.

Keep in mind, Capital One introduced "family rules" at the end of 2025, that they want you to open the cards "in order" to earn sign up bonuses on each card. That means, you'll want to open a Venture Card before the VentureX, so that in a 48-month time period, you're eligible to earn sign up bonuses on both.

(If you open VentureX before Venture Card, you will not earn a sign up bonus on the Venture Card until 48mo have passed from the VentureX sign up bonus)

At the time of publishing this post (Feb 2026); the Venture Card has an elevated offer! Learn more here.

Bonus Categories

Chase Travel Portal: When shopping for flights and hotels, it almost always costs less points to book travel by transferring points out of the bank to book directly with airline and hotel partners.

However, there are times that it IS cheap to book in Chase Travel Portal. For these bookings, I use Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, which earns 8x's points on portal bookings.

Chase Freedom Quarterly Bonus: This post covers Chase Freedom cards and mentions that Freedom and Freedom Flex cards have quarterly bonus categories to earn 5x's points on purchases, up to a $1.500 purchase limit. I try to utilize the quarterly bonus as much as I can.

(Reminder: Chase Freedom is a no annual fee card that you can downgrade a Sapphire card to!)

Summary

So, while we generally are working on a minimum spend for a sign up bonus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold Personal, Ink Business Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business and Capital One Venture Card (or VentureX if you already have a Venture and want more Capital One points) are always in my wallet and my go-to "back-up" cards!

Because of their extra point earn, the majority of these cards are "keeper" cards for me - meaning that myself or my Player2 (husband) will always have one open! (Just not the Reserve Business due to the annual fee). This post talks about when and why to close or downgrade cards.

If you want to open one of these cards, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

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 in business cards, but want more information, as well as directions how to apply for them; read here!

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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 suggestions.

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

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 (in 6 months): Amex Gold Personal - More details here
• Minimum spend $12K (in 6 months): 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!

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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. 

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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 $12,000 in 6 months, earn up to 175,000 points (the minimum spend updated to $12,000 from $8,000 on 2/5/26)

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.

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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!