I love credit cards so much!

[Psychodisney]

Can anyone tell me how long it took to see the points post to their SW RR account after they made the spend? I received a SM indicating approximately 8 weeks. Wasn't sure if that was truly the standard timeline or their cya timeline. It looks like the tickets I was hoping to use the points for will be available for purchase on May 18. Even if I purchased Disney GCs tomorrow that cover the entire spend requirement it doesn't look like I will be able to make the window open date.Plus, my intent was to apply for the United targeted offer I received (expires 4/30). Should I immediately pay off the balance on the two SW cards before the statement closes to put the United application in a better position or as long as the utilization % is below the acceptable standard will I be ok? I'm sure this is a convoluted post - sorry! Just hate to have to pay cash for all of the tickets when my planning for them is so close to fruition. Plus I don't want to jeopardize getting approved for United. I wanted to apply for United and Ink on the same day but I think moving the United up to 4/30 will be too aggressive to get approved for both, even though I am only 2/24 (unless they count the SW business then I would be 3/24). The 2/30 will be up 4/19. Thanks

I was in a hurry for my points to post earlier this year. Had 2 cards ( 1 biz, 1 personal) with 2 different experiences. I hit the business spend just a day or two before the statement period ended. Paid the bill on the day it closed. The bonus points did not post until about 5 days after the following cycle ended. On the personal card, I hit the spend prior to the closing date and went ahead and paid the bill. The bonus points hit shortly thereafter.
I would go ahead and pay the bill. Don't wait for it to close. Hopefully the points will hit your account before you need them.
On opening day, the fares might be the best they will be....and they might not. I would get an estimate of how many of the tickets you think you can cover with the points and hold off on paying cash for those!

 

[calypso726]

Yikes that was tough for me to follow. I thought I was getting the concept before I read the article but maybe not so much . I did enjoy the comments after the article though, lol. I'll give it another whirl in the morning, maybe I'm just tired... Thanks for posting it though.

I know! Me too. I almost get it. I understand it enough to be able to stop and think of each option before using points. But it doesn't always come down to the monetary valuation for us. Factors will always include, how much are we projecting to be OOP on the trip. Will we get a better experience using points to pay or using points to transfer. How easy/difficult will it be to replenish the points I am using. Do we need those points for something more important or costly on the horizon. I am far too lazy to calculate opportunity cost to the extent that these guys do. I appreciate that they do it and explain it simply because it does give me my own foundation on how I value my points.

A recent example was the flights to Iceland that we booked for Thanksgiving week this year. I wanted to be able to say we flew to Iceland for $99 each way on WOW air. DH wanted lie flat seats to fly to Iceland because the flight is longer than 3 hours I lost this argument. DH and I had each picked up a Delta Biz and personal card when they were at 70k each simply because the Delta cards had never been offered with such a high bonus and Amex apps are a one time deal. Delta has lie flats seats to Iceland so I figured that we'd use our Sky Pesos for that flight. The flights were going to cost 350,000 Delta miles per person. 700,000 Sky miles or $2900 per person OOP. This was supposed to be a fun cheap getaway and paying $5800 for flights is totally out of the question. Wrong again and I'm 0 for 2.

We both have enough Amex MR and SPG points that we could have transferred to our Delta accounts and come up with the 700,000 miles. Had I not read so many articles from the bloggers about point valuation, I may have done just that,
even though I don't put a high value on Delta Sky Pesos since I am not near a Delta hub. But thinking about the point valuation made me pause. Despite the earn and burn mantra touted by the more experienced travel hackers, I have no problem letting my Delta points sit and wait for a better use at some point down the line. They don't expire. I don't use the Delta cards for spend so there is really no great opportunity to replenish the miles and any survey and shopping portal miles earned are slated for American Airlines since I'm near a hub. SPG points are super valuable to me and there is no bonus categories for spend other than an SPG stay. Amex MR rewards are more valuable to me when there is a bonus transfer and I don't use my Amex cards a whole lot. I mostly use them to trigger an Amex offer. So not a ton of opportunity to pay with MR points which would ave been 580,000 MR points. That left the Chase UR points. I simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the potential complexities of transferring to Korean and finding availability. So, I wished to avoid that particular headache. Chase UR points are easy for us to earn through spend with our various cards and their various bonus categories. So even though I have no opportunity to acquire UR points with a Chase app ever again, I value UR points way more than Delta Sky miles and Amex MR, I used UR points to pay for the flight.

 

[AmyAnne]

However, if you have had the CSP for longer than 1 year, another move you can make is to product change it to the Freedom Unlimited. There's no reason to have both CSR and CSP at the same time. You won't get the sign up bonus, but you get 1.5x points for anything you don't want to put on the other cards. There's no reason to put spend on the CSR or CSP for just 1 point.

I know this has been covered before, but this reminded me that I am not sure whether to keep the CSP or CSR. CSP "wins" on annual fee, $95 to $450 (but $300 in travel credits, so really only a $55 difference). According the the points guy, "if you spend at least $2,619.05 on travel and dining purchases in a year, you’re better off going with the Sapphire Reserve." This is just based on the difference of 2x points for CSP and 3x points for CSR. The points guy then lost me when he considered the redemption of points through CSR.

At this point, it seems essential to keep either the CSP or CSR. We probably spend close to $2600 on dining and travel, so maybe I should just stop there and consider the better redemption value a bonus.

Anyone care to share which you've decided to keep, CSP or CSR, and how you decided?

 

[calypso726]

I know this has been covered before, but this reminded me that I am not sure whether to keep the CSP or CSR. CSP "wins" on annual fee, $95 to $450 (but $300 in travel credits, so really only a $55 difference). According the the points guy, "if you spend at least $2,619.05 on travel and dining purchases in a year, you’re better off going with the Sapphire Reserve." This is just based on the difference of 2x points for CSP and 3x points for CSR. The points guy then lost me when he considered the redemption of points through CSR.

At this point, it seems essential to keep either the CSP or CSR. We probably spend close to $2600 on dining and travel, so maybe I should just stop there and consider the better redemption value a bonus.

Anyone care to share which you've decided to keep, CSP or CSR, and how you decided?

Keep in mind that TPG values UR points higher 2.2 than every other blogger. Lucky at OMaaT puts values them closer to 1.7. His break even on bonus category spend is $3200. I'd say if you are in between $2,600 - $3200 in dining and travel then it makes better sense to keep the CSR. We used $3200 as our basis and product changed our CSP cards. CSR will be a keeper card for us. You may have travel spend that you don't realize is travel too. Tolls code as travel on the CSR with the Sunpass here in Florida. Just for work alone I will accumulate $600 - $1000 a year in tolls.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I know! Me too. I almost get it. I understand it enough to be able to stop and think of each option before using points. But it doesn't always come down to the monetary valuation for us. Factors will always include, how much are we projecting to be OOP on the trip. Will we get a better experience using points to pay or using points to transfer. How easy/difficult will it be to replenish the points I am using. Do we need those points for something more important or costly on the horizon. I am far too lazy to calculate opportunity cost to the extent that these guys do. I appreciate that they do it and explain it simply because it does give me my own foundation on how I value my points.

A recent example was the flights to Iceland that we booked for Thanksgiving week this year. I wanted to be able to say we flew to Iceland for $99 each way on WOW air. DH wanted lie flat seats to fly to Iceland because the flight is longer than 3 hours I lost this argument. DH and I had each picked up a Delta Biz and personal card when they were at 70k each simply because the Delta cards had never been offered with such a high bonus and Amex apps are a one time deal. Delta has lie flats seats to Iceland so I figured that we'd use our Sky Pesos for that flight. The flights were going to cost 350,000 Delta miles per person. 700,000 Sky miles or $2900 per person OOP. This was supposed to be a fun cheap getaway and paying $5800 for flights is totally out of the question. Wrong again and I'm 0 for 2.

We both have enough Amex MR and SPG points that we could have transferred to our Delta accounts and come up with the 700,000 miles. Had I not read so many articles from the bloggers about point valuation, I may have done just that,
even though I don't put a high value on Delta Sky Pesos since I am not near a Delta hub. But thinking about the point valuation made me pause. Despite the earn and burn mantra touted by the more experienced travel hackers, I have no problem letting my Delta points sit and wait for a better use at some point down the line. They don't expire. I don't use the Delta cards for spend so there is really no great opportunity to replenish the miles and any survey and shopping portal miles earned are slated for American Airlines since I'm near a hub. SPG points are super valuable to me and there is no bonus categories for spend other than an SPG stay. Amex MR rewards are more valuable to me when there is a bonus transfer and I don't use my Amex cards a whole lot. I mostly use them to trigger an Amex offer. So not a ton of opportunity to pay with MR points which would ave been 580,000 MR points. That left the Chase UR points. I simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the potential complexities of transferring to Korean and finding availability. So, I wished to avoid that particular headache. Chase UR points are easy for us to earn through spend with our various cards and their various bonus categories. So even though I have no opportunity to acquire UR points with a Chase app ever again, I value UR points way more than Delta Sky miles and Amex MR, I used UR points to pay for the flight.

I could never spend 700,000 Delta points on a single round trip flight for two. That could be the equivalent of DH and I taking 14 round trip domestic flights. I personally would value the ability to travel more way over the chance to fly first class. This is why I find everyone's perspectives so interesting. I am looking to maximize how much I can travel and so for me, this wouldn't make sense. I would take the $99 WoW flights.

 

[Albort]

A recent example was the flights to Iceland that we booked for Thanksgiving week this year. I wanted to be able to say we flew to Iceland for $99 each way on WOW air. DH wanted lie flat seats to fly to Iceland because the flight is longer than 3 hours I lost this argument. DH and I had each picked up a Delta Biz and personal card when they were at 70k each simply because the Delta cards had never been offered with such a high bonus and Amex apps are a one time deal. Delta has lie flats seats to Iceland so I figured that we'd use our Sky Pesos for that flight. The flights were going to cost 350,000 Delta miles per person. 700,000 Sky miles or $2900 per person OOP. This was supposed to be a fun cheap getaway and paying $5800 for flights is totally out of the question. Wrong again and I'm 0 for 2.

i am glad you are not taking WOW air. My dad in Feb was really pushing me for an iceland trip using WOW air. I convienced him otherwise after seeing that the flights fly out every other day are so, so if something were to happen, we would be stuck in iceland for awhile. We ended up flying to alaska. a month later, my friend flew with WOW air, her flight got cancelled and she missed her meeting. I just read on reddit that some guy missed his convention because of WOW air and he is angry.

I know this has been covered before, but this reminded me that I am not sure whether to keep the CSP or CSR. CSP "wins" on annual fee, $95 to $450 (but $300 in travel credits, so really only a $55 difference). According the the points guy, "if you spend at least $2,619.05 on travel and dining purchases in a year, you’re better off going with the Sapphire Reserve." This is just based on the difference of 2x points for CSP and 3x points for CSR. The points guy then lost me when he considered the redemption of points through CSR.

At this point, it seems essential to keep either the CSP or CSR. We probably spend close to $2600 on dining and travel, so maybe I should just stop there and consider the better redemption value a bonus.

Anyone care to share which you've decided to keep, CSP or CSR, and how you decided?

CSR is def a keeper for me. im not sure how he does his math but i did the math and u need around $5000 to make it worthwhile(15000 pts to cover your annual fee). Its like $4750 for the CSP. so it isnt that far off. You also should consider the value of Priority Pass which is is a $200 value. and also the 1.5 redemption rate vs the 1.25 redemption rate. so lets say a $1500 flight... CSR would cost u 10k points. CSP would cost us 12k points. do this often, it might save u at the end of the year.

 

[havaneselover]

I know this has been covered before, but this reminded me that I am not sure whether to keep the CSP or CSR. CSP "wins" on annual fee, $95 to $450 (but $300 in travel credits, so really only a $55 difference). According the the points guy, "if you spend at least $2,619.05 on travel and dining purchases in a year, you’re better off going with the Sapphire Reserve." This is just based on the difference of 2x points for CSP and 3x points for CSR. The points guy then lost me when he considered the redemption of points through CSR.

At this point, it seems essential to keep either the CSP or CSR. We probably spend close to $2600 on dining and travel, so maybe I should just stop there and consider the better redemption value a bonus.

Anyone care to share which you've decided to keep, CSP or CSR, and how you decided?

I'm keeping csr because it makes my CF and cfu (when I get it) more valuable. That alone should cover the difference in net annual fee between csr and CSP. With $4,400 in bonus category spending on cf/year, you get $55 more using the ur portal with csr than csp. Plus visa infinite has great travel insurance.

 

[AmyAnne]

Keep in mind that TPG values UR points higher 2.2 than every other blogger. Lucky at OMaaT puts values them closer to 1.7. His break even on bonus category spend is $3200. I'd say if you are in between $2,600 - $3200 in dining and travel then it makes better sense to keep the CSR. We used $3200 as our basis and product changed our CSP cards. CSR will be a keeper card for us. You may have travel spend that you don't realize is travel too. Tolls code as travel on the CSR with the Sunpass here in Florida. Just for work alone I will accumulate $600 - $1000 a year in tolls.

I definitely need to take a close look at the CSR categories and benefits. Also factoring in is the possibility that I will keep the AmEx Platinum. This year, I have already used MR points to book two fights on American, our selected airline for the 50% bonus. One flight was about 30,000 points and the other about 40,000, but with the 50% bonus I ended up getting half of those points back. If I'm calculating correctly, that's about a $350 benefit so far. On the other hand, I believe the annual fee will be $550 and I'm not sure what benefits AmEx is purportedly offering for the extra $100.

 

[AmyAnne]

I'm keeping csr because it makes my CF and cfu (when I get it) more valuable. That alone should cover the difference in net annual fee between csr and CSP. With $4,400 in bonus category spending on cf/year, you get $55 more using the ur portal with csr than csp. Plus visa infinite has great travel insurance.

Do you mean the redemption difference of 1.5 cents per point with CSR and 1.25 with CSP? I guess if you redeem 100,000 points, you would make up $50.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I definitely need to take a close look at the CSR categories and benefits. Also factoring in is the possibility that I will keep the AmEx Platinum. This year, I have already used MR points to book two fights on American, our selected airline for the 50% bonus. One flight was about 30,000 points and the other about 40,000, but with the 50% bonus I ended up getting half of those points back. If I'm calculating correctly, that's about a $350 benefit so far. On the other hand, I believe the annual fee will be $550 and I'm not sure what benefits AmEx is purportedly offering for the extra $100.

You get a $200 airline incidentals credit, which you can use for checked baggage fees or food on the flight. Some airlines also credit if you buy gift cards from them. Once I am done with Chase cards, I am eyeing the Platinum, since it gives greater lounge access plus SPG gold each year. The 50% points back benefit is very attractive to use with my existing MR points.

 

[havaneselover]

Do you mean the redemption difference of 1.5 cents per point with CSR and 1.25 with CSP? I guess if you redeem 100,000 points, you would make up $50.

Yes, because of redemption rates. If you redeem 100k points it's a $250 difference. If you have cfu or cf, that difference in redemption rate may be more than enough to offset the higher AF. Then throw in priority pass, global entry or tsa precheck, and the visa infinite benefits which trump visa signature and it's a great value relative to CSP.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Yes, because of redemption rates. If you redeem 100k points it's a $250 difference. If you have cfu or cf, that difference in redemption rate may be more than enough to offset the higher AF. Then throw in priority pass, global entry or tsa precheck, and the visa infinite benefits which trump visa signature and it's a great value relative to CSP.

The travel insurance is a big incentive for me to keep the card. It can cost a decent amount of money to get trip insurance. Knowing that I am saving a few hundred on trip insurance per person on my upcoming cruises makes it totally worth keeping.

 

[AmyAnne]

You get a $200 airline incidentals credit, which you can use for checked baggage fees or food on the flight. Some airlines also credit if you buy gift cards from them. Once I am done with Chase cards, I am eyeing the Platinum, since it gives greater lounge access plus SPG gold each year. The 50% points back benefit is very attractive to use with my existing MR points.

I believe that the $200 credit was offered with the $450 annual fee. My understanding is that AmEx said that there were some increased benefits to go along with the increased, $550 annual fee, but I could be wrong about that.

I am thinking that one of the SPG cards should be my next card, to cover a hotel in London in the fall so I can go to the Harry Potter exhibit at the British Library. DH thinks I'm totally nuts (which could be true) but he's willing to go along. He mentioned purchasing new bookcases for his office last night and the first thing I thought was "minimum spend!"

 

[havaneselover]

The travel insurance is a big incentive for me to keep the card. It can cost a decent amount of money to get trip insurance. Knowing that I am saving a few hundred on trip insurance per person on my upcoming cruises makes it totally worth keeping.

Same here! We're doing an AK cruise next summer with my mom who will be 73 (so expensive to insure). I was going to spend about $250 for travel guard insurance through Costco to cover us until I learned you only had to pay a small potion on csr to have the coverage.

 

[BruinEd03]

Keep in mind that TPG values UR points higher 2.2 than every other blogger. Lucky at OMaaT puts values them closer to 1.7. His break even on bonus category spend is $3200. I'd say if you are in between $2,600 - $3200 in dining and travel then it makes better sense to keep the CSR. We used $3200 as our basis and product changed our CSP cards. CSR will be a keeper card for us. You may have travel spend that you don't realize is travel too. Tolls code as travel on the CSR with the Sunpass here in Florida. Just for work alone I will accumulate $600 - $1000 a year in tolls.

TPG values their points at 2.1 cents, but I don't think you don't even need to take his valuation into account to make CSR worth it at $2600. Here's my math on this based on AmyAnne's situation with $2600 spend on dining/travel assuming a single authorized user (just my informal thought, so I could be wrong).

Difference in Annual Fees = $55. CSR = $450 - 300 (travel is a pretty broad category) = $150. CSP = $95. $150 - $95 = $55.
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 2600 x 3 = 7800 points. 7800 x 1.5 (redemption bonus factor) = 11,700 points. At 1 cent/point, that's $117.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 2600 x 2 = 5200 points. 5200 x 1.2 (redemption bonus factor) = 6,240 points. At 1 cent/point, that's $62.40.

$117 - $62.40 = $54.60. So Chase Sapphire Preferred would end up costing 40 cents less than Chase Sapphire Reserve at that point.

That's not taking into account the 1.5 v. 1.2 points redemption bonus factor for any other ultimate rewards point use. If you add an authorized user, the break-even point goes up, but again you're not taking into account the 1.5 v. 1.2 points redemption bonus factor for any other ultimate rewards points use.

 

[Ngwira]

What about the $200 airline fee credit?

There are a lot of DPs that you can receive the credit when buying certain airlines' gift cards in $100 or less transactions. I believe this works for AA. I used the credit for two purchases of $100 Hawaiian Airlines gift certificates.

Or Hilton and SPG Gold status?

I was able to get $200 southwest gift cards... but not sure what else I would use it for..

 

[calypso726]

I could never spend 700,000 Delta points on a single round trip flight for two. That could be the equivalent of DH and I taking 14 round trip domestic flights. I personally would value the ability to travel more way over the chance to fly first class. This is why I find everyone's perspectives so interesting. I am looking to maximize how much I can travel and so for me, this wouldn't make sense. I would take the $99 WoW flights.

Me neither. But when I was just starting out I might have due to not knowing any better. We started off with the idea of flying in economy on that trip to Scotland. But when I saw how quickly we were able to accumulate points and miles we decided to try first class. It would be a new experience. That spoiled DH right there and he decided no more economy for flights over 3 hours. Sigh ... So now I look at this points and miles game as allowing us to travel in a manner we would never be able to otherwise.

i am glad you are not taking WOW air. My dad in Feb was really pushing me for an iceland trip using WOW air. I convienced him otherwise after seeing that the flights fly out every other day are so, so if something were to happen, we would be stuck in iceland for awhile. We ended up flying to alaska. a month later, my friend flew with WOW air, her flight got cancelled and she missed her meeting. I just read on reddit that some guy missed his convention because of WOW air and he is angry.

Good to know! As much as I would have liked the bragging rights on flying to Iceland for $99 I'm not going to complain about being on Delta in a lie flat seat. Looks like we may have dodged a bullet there though. Whew!

I definitely need to take a close look at the CSR categories and benefits. Also factoring in is the possibility that I will keep the AmEx Platinum. This year, I have already used MR points to book two fights on American, our selected airline for the 50% bonus. One flight was about 30,000 points and the other about 40,000, but with the 50% bonus I ended up getting half of those points back. If I'm calculating correctly, that's about a $350 benefit so far. On the other hand, I believe the annual fee will be $550 and I'm not sure what benefits AmEx is purportedly offering for the extra $100.

I'm also keeping the Amex Platinum business card which is still at $450. I think the extra benefits on the personal card were $200 in Uber credits spread out throughout the year. My reasons for keeping it are the 50% miles back, 10 GoGo in flight credits, $200 airline credit, Hilton and SPG gold which means Marriott gold too. I also love the Fine Resorts and Hotels benefit. We've used it in Vegas twice and it was a really nice perk to have and made up for the rest of the AF!

TPG values their points at 2.1 cents, but I don't think you don't even need to take his valuation into account to make CSR worth it at $2600. Here's my math on this based on AmyAnne's situation with $2600 spend on dining/travel assuming a single authorized user (just my informal thought, so I could be wrong).

Difference in Annual Fees = $55. CSR = $450 - 300 (travel is a pretty broad category) = $150. CSP = $95. $150 - $95 = $55.
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 2600 x 3 = 7800 points. 7800 x 1.5 (redemption bonus factor) = 11,700 points. At 1 cent/point, that's $117.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 2600 x 2 = 5200 points. 5200 x 1.2 (redemption bonus factor) = 6,240 points. At 1 cent/point, that's $62.40.

$117 - $62.40 = $54.60. So Chase Sapphire Preferred would end up costing 40 cents less than Chase Sapphire Reserve at that point.

That's not taking into account the 1.5 v. 1.2 points redemption bonus factor for any other ultimate rewards point use. If you add an authorized user, the break-even point goes up, but again you're not taking into account the 1.5 v. 1.2 points redemption bonus factor for any other ultimate rewards points use.

As of this month TPG values UR points at 2.2 https://thepointsguy.com/2017/04/april-2017-monthly-valuations

I found another example of the spend to get the break even on a different blog. This one seemed even more compelling than some of the others I've read.

... to break even on the $95 fee for Chase Sapphire Preferred, you would need to spend $3,800 on restaurants and travel.

9,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points = $95 (annual fee)

Since points are worth 1.25 more with Chase Sapphire Preferred, you would only actually need 7,600 points.

7,600 points x 1.25 bonus = 9,500 points

To get 7,600 points, you could spend $3,800 on restaurants and travel which earns 2 points per dollar spent.

$3,800 x 2 = 7,600 points

For Chase Sapphire Reserve, the break-even point to cover the annual fee is about $3,333 spent on restaurants and travel.

15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points = $150 ($450 annual fee – $300 travel credit)

Since points are worth 1.5 more with Chase Sapphire Reserve, you would actually only need 10,000 points.

10,000 points x 1.5 bonus = 15,000 points

To get 15,000 points, you could spend $3,333 on restaurants and travel which earns 3 points per dollar spent.

$3,333.33 x 3 = ~10,000 points

In this example, you actually have to spend less than you would with Chase Sapphire Preferred to make up the larger fee for Chase Sapphire Reserve.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Need to make sure I'm not missing anything. DH and I just started this churning last week. He has just received his INK business Preferred and has met MS and shoukd be getting his CSR in the mail any day. I should be getting my CSP any day as well. Now, I have to buy around $1000 in Disney gift cards for a trip later this month. We do not need this charge to meet MS on the CSR and CSP so my plan is to just buy the gift cards at a grocery store with my Amex for the 6% cash back. I just want to make sure I'm not missing a better deal with the new Chase cards.

 

[AmyAnne]

. . . the Amex Platinum business card which is still at $450 . . .

I totally missed this! Thank you for pointing it out. I have the Business Platinum so for now it looks like the annual fee will stay at "only" $450.

I'm sure the $200 Uber credit is very appealing to some people, although I have never even thought about using Uber.

 

[calypso726]

Need to make sure I'm not missing anything. DH and I just started this churning last week. He has just received his INK business Preferred and has met MS and shoukd be getting his CSR in the mail any day. I should be getting my CSP any day as well. Now, I have to buy around $1000 in Disney gift cards for a trip later this month. We do not need this charge to meet MS on the CSR and CSP so my plan is to just buy the gift cards at a grocery store with my Amex for the 6% cash back. I just want to make sure I'm not missing a better deal with the new Chase cards.

MS usually refers to manufactured spending but looking at this in context I am guessing you mean minimum spend. Correct me if I'm wrong. If not, then my question would be do you have a Freedom card? If so, groceries are 5x UR points this quarter. Given a choice between 6% cash back and 5% UR points, I would go for the UR. However, I also tend to value variable miles higher than cash back due to the way I redeem. If you value your UR points the same as a cash back point and you don't need the gift cards to make the required bonus spend, then definitely go for the 6% cash back.