How to Keep Earning Credit Card Points

Transcript

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Most people assume that if they get really into travel points, they are going to run out of points or run out of easy ways to earn points.

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If you earn a 60,000 point welcome offer on a Sapphire Preferred, it's hard to imagine how you could earn 200,000 or 500,000 or even a million chase points.

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But you can, and today we're going to talk about how you can keep earning ultimate rewards forever.

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Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

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I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family, but I believe that travel isn't just for the rich.

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That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every year.

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If you have been following along with Season 1, you already know I recommend starting with a Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

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For almost everyone getting into travel points.

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This is the card that will make sense.

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There are a lot of reasons that this is a great starter card that will make sense.

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There are a lot of reasons that this is a great starter card If you didn't listen to episode 5, I encourage you to go back and listen to it.

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That's where I discuss strategy tips related to the Chase 524 rule.

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Season 1 focuses on Chase Ultimate Rewards those points that you earn with a Sapphire Preferred card and today I want to go over all the other cards that earn them so you can start to see where you can go after the Sapphire Preferred card.

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We'll also discuss strategies for how to combine these cards together to boost your total earnings, and then we'll talk about how to further boost your earnings if you have a partner or spouse or friend who you can rope into this hobby as well.

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After you earn a welcome offer on a Sapphire card.

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There are many other cards that can help you keep earning ultimate rewards points.

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These cards are segmented into three families and they all have their differences.

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Don't worry, I promise you you can learn this.

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The fact that there are a lot of cards that earn ultimate rewards is really good news.

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It means these points are relatively easy to earn, especially with welcome offers.

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But to keep earning them, you'll want to understand all the nuances of these different options.

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I'm saving the best for last, so be sure to listen to the full episode.

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So first we have the Sapphire family.

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There are three cards in this family.

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It's also the most restrictive family of cards.

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You can only have one card in this Sapphire family and holding any of the Sapphire cards affects your eligibility for earning a welcome offer on any of the others.

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You can only earn a welcome offer on a Sapphire card if you meet the following conditions.

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Number one, you don't currently hold any Sapphire card.

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And number two, you haven't received a bonus on any of the Sapphire cards in the past 48 months.

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The Sapphire family includes the Sapphire Preferred, which we've talked about a lot.

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The Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee.

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You might see this card abbreviated as CSP Online.

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The CSP stands for Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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The Sapphire family also has a no annual fee card that's just called the Sapphire.

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It's not open for new signups but I want to mention it because some of you may have it.

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This is important to emphasize again.

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If you have the no annual fee Sapphire card, you aren't eligible to earn a welcome offer on a Sapphire preferred unless you cancel your Sapphire or ask to change it over to a different card like a Freedom card.

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Generally speaking, if you have this no annual fee Sapphire card, you'll want to downgrade it to a Freedom card.

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This no annual fee Sapphire card you'll want to downgrade it to a Freedom card.

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This would keep your credit history going strong with that same account, but it would allow you to change to a different product, which in turn makes you eligible to open a Sapphire Preferred card and earn a welcome offer.

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So, besides those, the Sapphire family also has a $550 annual fee Sapphire reserve.

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This is often abbreviated as CSR.

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I don't recommend the Sapphire reserve for most beginners.

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That's because it's harder to get the full value out of the $550 annual fee.

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There are some people that this card will make sense for.

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The benefits are a higher level of benefits, as you would expect from a higher annual fee.

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I'll link in the show notes my guide to the Sapphire Preferred, which has a section discussing when you might want to consider the Sapphire Reserve instead.

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So, again within the Sapphire family, there are these three cards the no annual fee Sapphire, the Sapphire Preferred and the Sapphire Reserve.

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The strategy around these cards is fairly straightforward.

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Every person in your household that is opening cards for points should plan to get one of these every 48 months, which is how often you're eligible for a welcome offer 48 months, which is how often you're eligible for a welcome offer.

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After your 48 months come around again.

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If you haven't done this already, you'll want to call Chase and ask to downgrade your Sapphire card to a Freedom card.

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This will allow you to become eligible to earn a Sapphire bonus again.

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A standard offer on the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards is 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in three months.

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Occasionally we do see these offers go up, but overall I wouldn't recommend waiting to get started with points, hoping this offer will go up, because you can't start earning points until you start.

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An extra perk is that the Sapphire cards allow you to refer a friend or family member to get their own Sapphire card.

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Currently, you'll get 10,000 points if you generate a referral link and that person applies and is approved for a card.

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Referrals are a great way to earn more points if you're in what we often refer to as two-player mode, meaning you have two people in your household opening cards for points.

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If you're single and can rope another friend into opening cards for points, you could also refer each other back and forth to cards to get those bonus points.

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In case your mind is churning, I will also mention that any cards that have referrals have a cap each year on how many times you can refer someone and get a kickback of those referral points.

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Usually it's about five referrals per card.

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Also, as a note, sapphire cards have family referrals, which means you can refer a spouse or a friend to either the Sapphire Preferred or the Reserve if you have either one of them.

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So that's the Sapphire family, which is what I recommend most people start with.

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Next we'll talk about the Freedom family.

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Now Chase doesn't clearly advertise that the Freedom cards can work in tandem with the Sapphire card in a powerful way, but they can.

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The Freedom cards all have no annual fees.

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When you see the welcome offers, they are always listed in cash back.

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So the Freedom Unlimited might say earn $200 cash back after you spend $500 in three months.

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In reality, the Freedom cards earn a restrictive type of ultimate rewards that are most easily redeemed for cashback.

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When you earn a welcome offer, it's awarded as these restrictive ultimate rewards points.

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If you earn a $200 cashback bonus, you'll actually be earning 20,000 ultimate rewards points, but these ultimate rewards can only be redeemed for cash back.

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As you know, I'm not opposed to using your points for cash back if that's what you prefer.

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But for many people it is by transferring your points to Chase's airline and hotel partners like Hyatt or Flying Blue or United that you can stretch your points further or upgrade your experience, and while you can't transfer the points you earn on a freedom card to Hyatt or United, there is a big workaround here that is not widely advertised by Chase, and that's this you can move ultimate rewards points between your accounts and then when you move them, they take on the power and the value of whatever account they land in.

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So if you have a Chase Freedom card with 20,000 ultimate rewards points saved up, you can use the combine points feature on the Chase website and you can move those freedom points over to your Sapphire Preferred account.

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At that point you're now able to transfer them to any of the hotel or airline partners.

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You can also combine points within your household.

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So as long as just one person in your household has a Sapphire card, you'll retain the ability to transfer points to airlines and hotels.

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So, as an example, I can transfer points from my Freedom card to my husband's Sapphire card and from there he can transfer those to his Hyatt account, and that ability to combine points across your household and across your own accounts is what really opens up more possibilities.

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So let's go back to the freedom cards and talk about the distinctions.

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There are two freedom cards that I'm going to discuss.

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Unlike the Sapphire family, you can hold both of these.

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You can also earn a welcome offer on both of these.

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Getting a welcome offer on one doesn't prohibit you from getting the welcome offer on the other, but you'll want to tread carefully here, because these are going to add to your 524 account.

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So, while the welcome offers are easy to earn, these may not be the ones you want to focus on.

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Many people may want to use their 524 slots for cards that earn more points.

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I include opening a Freedom card in the one-person version of my three-year plan, but not currently in my two-person version.

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You could add it to the two-person version if you see that you will still be under 524 and it doesn't affect the other cards you might want to get.

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So let's talk about the versions of this card and how they work into an overall strategy.

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The Freedom Unlimited card is one that some people like to use as an everyday card when they aren't working on a signup bonus, especially if you don't want to track which cards earn more on which categories?

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That's because the Freedom Unlimited earns 1.5% cash back or 1.5 points per dollar as a base rate.

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This is the main thing that distinguishes this card.

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I think it's called the Freedom Unlimited because it is unlimited cash back at this slightly higher rate, the 1.5x rate.

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Now the Freedom Flex is a different card.

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It's more adaptable or flexible in how it earns points, hence why it's called the Freedom Flex.

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I don't actually know that for sure, but it makes sense to me and it helps me remember the difference.

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Freedom Flex has rotating categories each quarter that earn at a higher 5x rate.

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But Chase, of course, isn't going to make it super easy for you to earn five points per dollar.

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These categories change every quarter and they make you click a button every quarter to activate this 5x earning.

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And this 5x earning isn't unlimited.

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You can only earn it on $1,500 per quarter.

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But as an example, in quarter one, let's say the 5x earning bonus is for purchases from Amazoncom, is for purchases from amazoncom.

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That means that if I spend $1,500 on Amazon from January 1st to March 31st, I would earn 5x or a total of 7,500 points.

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This can be a good way to earn points throughout the year if you want to do that extra effort of paying attention to those 5x categories.

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As you know, if you listened to episode one, I personally don't pay attention to a lot of these bonus categories for earning because I don't want to devote the headspace to it.

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Instead, I focus on regularly opening new cards so that almost all of my spending is going towards a new card member bonus.

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But if you have the headspace or you have more spending, or if you only want to open a few cards a year and you want to earn extra points, you could get the Freedom Flex and then pay attention to these rotating categories.

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There is also an older Freedom Card that's just called the Chase Freedom that operates almost the same as the Freedom Flex.

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Overall.

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Here are a few things to know about the Freedom Cards.

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Number one they all have no annual fee.

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Number two you could get all of them that offer a welcome bonus if you wanted to.

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Number three, you can refer anyone to any of the Freedom Cards if you have just one of them, same as the Sapphire, it has family referrals and also you'll need to combine the points you earn on a Freedom card with a Sapphire card in order to get the full benefits, the transfer possibilities of the points.

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The Freedom cards are also a great option for college students who are looking to get started with a credit card, and they can be a good secondary card to pair with a Sapphire card.

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But I said I'd save the best for last and I did this.

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Last family of cards is the most powerful as far as earning points, especially from welcome offers, and that's the ink family of cards.

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This is the last family of cards that earns ultimate rewards.

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Ink cards are business cards.

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Before you stop listening, I want to say that almost everyone can qualify for a business card and I'll discuss this in detail in a later episode.

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In the meantime, I will link my article about this in the show notes.

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Ink cards are the secret sauce in earning lots of ultimate rewards points.

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There are three reasons for this.

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First, as business cards, they won't add to your 524 count.

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This is a huge advantage over the freedom cards.

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Next, they have the highest standard bonuses of all of the cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards.

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They typically offer 75,000 to 100,000 points as the welcome offer.

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And last, they have very generous referral bonuses.

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So if you're in a two-person household, you'll earn even more Ultimate Rewards by referring each other back and forth.

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By referring each other back and forth, this is especially true because, like the Freedom and Sapphire families, ink cards enjoy the benefit of having family referrals.

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If I have any of the ink cards, I can refer a friend or family member to any of the other ink cards, not just the one that I have.

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For years the referral bonus was 20,000 points for the ink cards.

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Lately it's been 40,000 points for a referral, but it looks like that is slated to end in September 2024.

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Even at 20,000, that's a lot of referral points.

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Ink cards are the fastest way to earn ultimate rewards and they also have the least impact to your credit score and 524 score, so that's a huge win-win.

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Now, as far as card products, ink cards are kind of a mashup between Freedom cards and the Sapphire cards in some ways, but Chase actually kept this a little easier for us to remember by using some of the same words so we can find the parallel cards.

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The Sapphire Preferred has a parallel business card in the Ink Preferred card.

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Now, these cards aren't identical, but they both have a $95 annual fee and they both allow you to transfer your ultimate rewards to all the Chase Hotel and airline partners.

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So remember when I said if you have a Freedom card, you need a Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve card to transfer points.

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This isn't the whole truth.

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You need one of those or you could also have an Ink Preferred card.

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Ultimately, you need one Chase card that has an annual fee in your household to be able to transfer points to airline and hotel partners.

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There are also no annual fee ink cards.

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The Freedom Unlimited card has a parallel business card in the Ink Unlimited card.

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Like the Freedom Unlimited, the Ink Unlimited has a $0 annual fee.

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The welcome offer will always be listed as cash back and, like a Freedom Unlimited, you'll need to combine your points from an Ink Unlimited with a Sapphire or, yes, an Ink Preferred in order to transfer them to a partner.

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Like a Freedom Unlimited, the Ink Unlimited also earns 1.5% cash back or 1.5x as a default on purchases and there's no cap on this because it is unlimited and ink unlimited is what I use as my default business card.

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Those are the two ink cards with direct parallels the ink preferred, which parallels the Sapphire preferred, and then the ink unlimited, which parallels the Freedom Unlimited.

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I know by this point some of you may be feeling like you can't learn another card name, but there are just two more and then I'm done.

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There is another ink card that sort of parallels the Freedom Flex, but not quite, and this has a different name altogether.

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Chase didn't want it to be that easy for us to understand these things.

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Chase didn't want it to be that easy for us to understand these things.

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This is the ink cash.

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The ink cash has some areas that it earns 5x cash back or points In office supply stores and internet and cable and phone services, but these categories don't rotate and it isn't unlimited.

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These areas do have a cap of $25,000 per year.

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This card is in many ways similar to the Inc Unlimited no-transcript.

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The ink cash, like the Ink Unlimited, has a $0 annual fee and the welcome offer will always be listed as cashback.

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And again, these cashback points that you would earn would need to be combined with a Sapphire or Ink Preferred to get the full value, to get that ability to transfer your points out.

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There's one more ink card that is sneaky and is really just out there on its own.

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That's the Ink Premier card.

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This card is really an anomaly because it has a $199 annual fee, yet it earns the most restrictive points.

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It earns ultimate rewards points that can only be used for cash back and, even worse, it doesn't let you combine the points with a Sapphire or Ink Preferred to transfer to partners.

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So unless you really love cash back, I'd recommend skipping the Ink Premier.

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The first three ink cards I mentioned are my favorites the Ink Preferred, the Ink Unlimited and the Ink Cash.

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And, like I said, these are going to help you earn a lot of points.

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That's because, besides having the highest welcome offers, ink cards also have the most flexible eligibility requirements.

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So these two factors, combined with high referral bonuses, makes them the easiest way to keep earning ultimate rewards.

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So how many ink cards can you get?

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Keep earning ultimate rewards?

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So how many ink cards can you get?

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Well, with the ink cards, you can get one of each of them for the same business and then frequently, people can get the exact same ink card for a different business.

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I will discuss this more when I go into more detail on business cards in a dedicated episode, but we'll link my YouTube video about this as well.

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There aren't currently any terms on the ink offer page or application page that lists restrictions of how long you have to wait after getting an ink card to get another.

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This could change and previously there was a 24-month restriction, but currently, as of June 2024, there isn't.

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If this changes, I will update the show notes to reflect this.

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In addition, everyone wants to keep their total annual fees as low as possible, and the ink cards offer two opportunities for each business.

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You have to get a bunch of points without paying an annual fee.

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Again, almost everyone I know can qualify for a business card.

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I'll put a link in the show notes for more information on why you probably actually qualify.

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So let's review how you can open all these cards to have them work together.

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As I've mentioned, you'll need to have a card with an annual fee to unlock the full potential of your points.

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Chase lets you combine ultimate rewards points from almost all of its cards and put them into one that has an annual fee and has that power to transfer points to airline and hotel partners.

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So you'll want a Sapphire Preferred, a Sapphire Reserve or an Ink Preferred card for that purpose and you'll want to keep that card long term.

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If you're in a two-person household, as I mentioned, chase even lets you combine points across your household.

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So this means you really only need to keep one of these Chase cards with an annual fee in your household.

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You used to be able to link your household accounts online, but now I believe you need to call in to do this the first time.

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After creating the link, the first time you'll be able to transfer points easily online.

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From there on out, you may choose to both keep a Sapphire Preferred open.

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This might be true especially if you don't always travel together and want to be sure that you both are covered by the travel protections.

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Review episode 8, if you missed it on why that's important.

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So you'll need one of the chase cards with an annual fee.

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Here's a few more factors you should take into account regarding your overall strategy with earning ultimate rewards points.

00:22:59.189 --> 00:23:02.837
All of these are taken into account with my three-year plan.

00:23:02.837 --> 00:23:05.433
So if you want to keep it easy, just check it out.

00:23:05.433 --> 00:23:06.790
It's linked in the show notes.

00:23:06.790 --> 00:23:11.776
First, you'll want to space out your applications with Chase.

00:23:11.776 --> 00:23:20.755
Even though the Chase Inc cards don't add to your 524 count, that doesn't mean that you should open one every 30 days.

00:23:20.755 --> 00:23:24.193
Frankly, I think that's much too fast.

00:23:24.193 --> 00:23:29.426
Every 30 days, frankly, I think that's much too fast.

00:23:29.426 --> 00:23:37.730
Overall, I recommend that any person apply for at a maximum four Chase cards in any given 12-month period that breaks down to about every three months or every 90 days.

00:23:37.730 --> 00:23:43.866
That, to me, is a safe distance between card openings, a safe velocity, as we say.

00:23:44.951 --> 00:23:55.035
There are periods when Chase goes through and shuts down accounts that it suspects are fraudulent or who are excessively gaming the system I don't want to scare you.

00:23:55.035 --> 00:24:03.278
Every account or data point I've read through on shutdowns throughout the years has been doing something more extreme than what I recommend.

00:24:03.278 --> 00:24:10.615
It's because I've been in this hobby for more than a decade that I've seen this happen, and I've seen it happen in waves.

00:24:10.615 --> 00:24:23.317
I read the data points and I've created a system that safely accounts for that and it allows you to earn a lot of points without doing what I think is risking shutdown for going against the terms.

00:24:23.317 --> 00:24:28.616
You'll also want to be tracking the total credit limit that Chase has extended to you.

00:24:29.464 --> 00:24:36.152
Chase seems to start denying people if the total credit extended to them by Chase is reaching 50% of their income.

00:24:36.152 --> 00:24:39.252
Now, getting denied isn't the end of the world.

00:24:39.252 --> 00:24:48.009
Many times you can call the reconsideration line and get this overturned, but it is an extra step and it's easier to get auto-approved right.

00:24:48.009 --> 00:25:04.191
So what I try to do if I'm getting close to that point where I add up all of the credit limits on all of my Chase cards and if it is reaching 50% of our household income, I often proactively lower my credit limit on one card before I apply.

00:25:04.191 --> 00:25:05.633
I often proactively lower my credit limit on one card before I apply.

00:25:05.633 --> 00:25:11.941
This seems to help with auto-approval you can just call the number on the back of your card and ask to lower the credit limit.

00:25:11.941 --> 00:25:19.594
I've had other instances where I'm denied and I call in and they're able to move credit over from an existing card.

00:25:19.594 --> 00:25:21.218
So that's possible as well.

00:25:21.218 --> 00:25:24.571
But overall it's good to be aware of this limit.

00:25:24.571 --> 00:25:25.836
That seems to be in place.

00:25:25.836 --> 00:25:30.434
So let's review and then you're lucky because action steps are light.

00:25:30.474 --> 00:25:40.770
Today the easiest way to earn a lot of Chase Ultimate rewards without spending millions of dollars is to earn welcome offers on new cards.

00:25:40.770 --> 00:25:45.920
You'll be able to earn a welcome offer on a Sapphire card every 48 months.

00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:55.674
So with a Sapphire you can expect to earn a 60,000 point bonus every 48 months for every person in your household that's applying for cards.

00:25:55.674 --> 00:26:00.711
You'll be able to earn a welcome offer on both Freedom cards every 24 months.

00:26:00.711 --> 00:26:04.941
But I suggest you focus most of your earning on the ink cards.

00:26:04.941 --> 00:26:10.712
You can earn a welcome offer on all three ink cards for each business you have.

00:26:10.712 --> 00:26:17.513
Those will have the largest bonuses, the biggest referral offers and the lowest impact to your credit score.

00:26:17.513 --> 00:26:19.458
That's why we love them.

00:26:19.458 --> 00:26:36.777
Remember that even if you see a bonus advertised as cash back on a Freedom card or an Ink Cash or Ink Unlimited card, you'll be able to combine those points, those cash back points, with a Sapphire card and then, from there, be able to transfer them to hotel and airline partners.

00:26:36.777 --> 00:26:41.015
And don't forget that you can also combine points across your household.

00:26:42.385 --> 00:26:46.356
Even though we love ink cards again, don't get too excited Again.

00:26:46.356 --> 00:26:52.498
The most I'd recommend applying for is four Chase cards per year For your action steps.

00:26:52.498 --> 00:26:56.955
Today, I recommend you take a minute to take stock of the Chase cards that you already have.

00:26:56.955 --> 00:27:03.967
If you have a Sapphire card, track down when you earned a bonus so you know when you'll become eligible again.

00:27:03.967 --> 00:27:10.719
If you signed up for travel freely to get organized, it should be easy to find this information on each card.

00:27:11.746 --> 00:27:22.199
Go back to episode 7 if you need to review, make a mental plan or, even better, write down in your calendar or in a note when you're eligible to earn these bonuses again.

00:27:22.199 --> 00:27:26.195
This will help you flesh out your longer-term strategy.

00:27:26.195 --> 00:27:41.217
If you already have a Sapphire but haven't opened an ink card yet, I'll have an episode dedicated to business cards coming up later in this season, but in the meantime, you should check out my articles and YouTube videos linked in the show notes.

00:27:41.217 --> 00:27:56.306
As a final action step, I've also linked in the show notes my downloadable PDF guide to Ultimate Rewards, and that gives some screenshots for you on how exactly you can combine points between cards and just a review of all these cards that I've talked about today.

00:27:56.306 --> 00:28:00.115
You can find that in the show notes and just sign up for it in order to download it.

00:28:00.115 --> 00:28:08.155
Thank you so much for being with me today and I look forward to seeing you next time, where we'll continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.

How to Keep Earning Credit Card Points

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How to Keep Earning Credit Card Points

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