@CaliforniaGirl09,
Your post shows a lot of careful thought about what you want to do with what you have and gaps to fill with what you might be missing, so I really want to try to reply with the same level of thoughtfulness. I was sort of where you were a year ago, wanting to be more strategic about maximizing the return on our spending so your goal really speaks out to me.
Getting straight to one of your later points, I don’t think a great “everyday” card really exists. I’ve looked. There are lots of cards out there. Some are great for some categories of spend, but not for others. So diversify your wallet, know what the category bonuses are for those cards and what points/miles they earn, and use them accordingly. (And for spouses who are slower to the game, we’ve found putting labels with the bonus categories on each card helps.) A great everyday card in that sense is a card you put spend on when it doesn’t fit a bonus category on any of your other cards, and preferably a new card on which you’re putting that spend towards a bonus, or a card that earns you a high value currency even at 1x (like SPG Starpoints).
So you say you want to build up UR (and secondarily MR) points and maximize return on everyday purchases. You’ll need to shift your spending habits. Instead of putting your everyday spend directly on credit cards, trying to figure out which card gives you the best return when you’re at a grocery store, vs. a movie theater, vs. a restaurant, vs. a clothing store, vs. gas stations, vs.
Amazon; BUY GIFT CARDS to the merchants you were going to spend money at anyway using just two credit cards that specifically earn you 5x on, essentially, gift cards.
I’ll start with what you already have in your wallet. As
@calypso726 already mentioned, the Ink+ is your cash cow. It earns 5x UR at office supply stores and phone, internet, and cable tv services. Staples and Office Depot/Office Max sells a wide variety of gift cards to retailer, restaurants, gas, online services and travel, including I think Amazon and Disney Gift Cards. Go to an office supply store, buy gift cards to merchants you were going to spend money at anyway, and earn 5x UR on every dollar spent. (Another tip in your search for a great everyday card is these office supply stores often run sales or rebates on Visa Gift Cards (“VGCs”), negating the activation fee and even saving you some money on the face value of the VGCs, in addition to the 5x UR earned on the purchase. You can then spend the VGCs where you’d otherwise only earn 1x.) Alternatively, Ink+ (as well as the Chase Ink Cash (“CIC”)) earns 5x UR on e-gift card apps/websites like Gyft and Swych when you checkout using PayPal with Ink+ (or CIC) set as the payment method. Gyft, for example, sells e-gift cards to Amazon, Target, and
Walmart, each at face value, but you earn 5x UR on the purchase. (Other e-gift card platforms like Cashstar also earn 5x UR when using Ink+ and CIC. Gyft, Swych, and Cashstar all earn 3x UR on the Chase Ink Preferred (“CIP”)). This tactic essentially shifts your card’s 5x earning power from office supply stores to almost everything else.
(Note that when you buy something with a gift card vs. your credit card, you are foregoing the consumer protections available on your credit card, e.g., price and purchase protection, extended warranty, charge backs and dispute processes. So consider this when purchasing goods vs. using gift cards to pay for services.)
I believe
@calypso726 uses a mix of this tactic to pay her DVC dues, which are significant, and you should do this instead of direct debit! Buy Disney Gift Cards at an office supply store using Ink+, earning 5x UR; then use those Disney Gift Cards to pay DVC. (There are other ways to get better deals on Disney Gift Cards – there’s an entire thread on the subject – but Ink+ at office supply stores is probably the most direct. You could, alternatively, buy a Walmart e-gift card using one of the apps, then use the Walmart gift card at Sam’s Club (if you’re a member) to buy Disney Gift Cards that are discounted ~4%. Or you could have taken advantage of the recently expired Chase deal that earned 10x UR when you use Chase Pay with the Freedom, CSP and CSR at
Best Buy for purchases – including Disney Gift Cards – up to $300. Chase Pay also had a 10x UR deal at Best Buy and Walmart .com in December 2017).
A different take on the above tactic is using the MileagePlus X (“MPX”) app. I see you have a United MileagePlus card. Great! Connect it to the MPX app to earn a bonus of 25% more United miles on any purchase from the app, whether you charge it with the United MileagePlus card or some other card that earns you better credit card rewards on your MPX purchases. As
@calypso726 pointed out, I have a write up about using MPX with the right card(s) on the /r/DISchurners subreddit, so I won’t repeat it here.
You said you spend a lot on Amazon. You can buy Amazon gift cards on Gyft, Swych, and MPX, and I believe in office supply stores. Load them into your gift card wallet on Amazon and apply them to your purchases. But there’s more! You could be earning 3x TrueBlue miles by shopping on Amazon through JetBlue’s partners portal:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/earn-3-jetblue-points-per-dollar-amazon-purchases/ (I’d note however, that there have been a lot of complaints that TrueBlue points from Amazon shopping take a long time to post or don’t seem to be tracking/posting.)
Relatedly, you can use Amazon gift cards to buy third-party gift cards (excluding Amazon and Visa gift cards). This is useful because I find that office supply stores and the gift card apps don’t tend to sell grocery store gift cards. Amazon sells Whole Foods and Safeway/Albertsons gift cards, which I can easily use here in California. For grocery stores, sometimes I’ll use the VGCs bought from promos offering 5x or more, like I mentioned above.
Moving on. Yes, use shopping portals for all your online shopping! Check cashbackmonitor.com to see if your merchant has a portal and which portal is offering the best rates in cash back, miles, or points.
For United miles, have you considered joining their survey clubs and MileagePlus Dining (where you connect any card – I’d suggest the CSR for 3x UR on dining – and earn United miles on top of your credit card rewards when you use that connected [CSR] card to dine at participating restaurants)?
As for business cards, since you have a legitimate LLC, I would really suggest you consider applying for the CIP, even if it would be your fourth Chase business card. You already know about the big 80k UR bonus. (You should eventually refer DH for his own CIP and another 80k UR signup bonus, with a 20k UR referral for you.) And it won’t add to your */24 count. However, the main reason I’d recommend the CIP is because of Plastiq. Plastiq is a bill payment service that lets you use a credit card to pay almost any kind of bill with a 2.5% fee. Currently, and for some time now, the CIP has been earning 3x UR on what seems like all categories of expenses paid through Plastiq (you may want to make a small test payment to verify). It’s the only card known to do this (this could change at a later date as with anything else in this game). Since you have a business, you likely have bills to pay. You could be earning credit card rewards on those expenses and fee (possibly, 3x UR with the CIP!) and writing off the fee. Plastiq’s CEO did a AMA (Ask Me Anything) Q&A on /r/churning subreddit yesterday and noted:
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/7weuyq/im_eliot_buchanan_ceo_of_plastiq_ama/du02r7y/
Plastiq sends checks and sometimes electronic payments to your payee, but has really been upping their efforts to attract small businesses by offering ACH payments and expedited delivery and tracking expected soon.
You could also pay your taxes with CIP through Plastiq, but you’d have to evaluate whether the (potential) 3x UR earned on CIP with a 2.5% fee through Plastiq outweighs the 50% MR bonus when paying with your Amex Platinum Business with a 1.87% fee through Pay1040 .com.
You can also use Plastiq to pay other expenses like tuition and student loans, utilities, rent, and YMMV with mortgages and car payments (Visa and Amex have imposed restrictions on what categories of payments Plastiq can accept on their cards).
Again, Plastiq charges a 2.5% fee for payments made with credit cards, but the 3x UR (equal to 3¢/$1) earned on the CIP would put you ahead if you decide you want to redeem your UR points (1 point = 1¢) for cash to pay off those fees. Basically you are buying 1 UR point worth 1¢ for 0.83¢. If you decide to keep the points and transfer them to the CSR, they are worth 50% more when redeeming on the UR portal, so 3x effectively becomes 4.5x worth that more than offsets the 2.5% fee. That’s a pretty good deal!
For P2P payments, Venmo earns 3x UR on the CIP. Like Plastiq, you’re negating the 3% fee with 3x UR earned.
I think this covers most of the holes in your spending and optimizes the use of the cards you do have. As for the cards you should really consider getting: the Chase Ink Preferred (signup bonus and ability to refer DH, business and other expenses through Plastiq, won’t add to your */24 count); Amex SPG Business (won’t add to your */24 count with Chase, SPG points are valuable, but current 25k Starpoints signup bonus is a lukewarm offer); and Amex Ameriprise Platinum (see my post in /r/DISchurners, but will add to your */24 count).
Please consider using a DISchurners link to spread some goodwill back to this community whenever you can. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post. We’re here for you!
Good luck!
. Clearly I need to make plans to PC one of these. I’m thinking probably mine since I’m out and about and he rarely leaves the farm. Will I need to wait until the anniversary date to do this? Learning every day
