Author Topic: CC suggestions? Ink on the way, $10k spend coming up  (Read 1479 times)

JLee

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CC suggestions? Ink on the way, $10k spend coming up
« on: April 24, 2018, 10:41:49 AM »
My rental property needs about $10k in stuff before I put it on the market, so I want to take advantage of it and knock out some bonuses.  I have an Ink Preferred on the way (80k UR points w/$5k spend). I already have Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Sapphire Reserve so I think I'm out of Chase UR cards to get, which is unfortunate because I'm at 2/24 now (3 if Ink counts).

Some Amex business cards have nice bonuses but $450-550 annual fees with many benefits that are redundant with my Reserve, so I'm not sure I can justify those.  Is there anything else out there I should be looking at?

CoffeeAndDonuts

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Re: CC suggestions? Ink on the way, $10k spend coming up
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2018, 11:02:40 AM »
Depends on your objects and aggressiveness. Judging by 2/24, I'm guessing you aren't doing any hard core churning. That said, you're obviously aware of it. My personal bar is that I want to see at least a $800 net value for a personal sign up slot that counts toward chase 5/24. That makes me pretty selective.

Right now, I think the personal card market is relatively quiet. Business cards are the ideal for churning as most don't report to credit reports and thus I can be more free with those. My bar for business cards that don't report is about $500 net sign up value. DoC maintains a nice list of which issuers don't report to your credit report. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/which-business-credit-cards-report/

A few ideas:
* Read up on Chase Marriott and Amex SPG cards. With Marriott and SPG merging and a new program forthcoming, there are some cards which will cease to be available. Amex SPG Personal looks to be one but would count toward 5/24 and a larger bonus is rumored. Marriott business card may not exist in the future and may be a strong candidate for that reason. And it doesn't count toward 5/24.
* You kind of already discounted it but the Amex Bus Platinum may be worth another look if you can get the 75k offer. Discount by two years of travel credits and the net AF is just $50 for a solid 75k offer.
* CitiBusiness AAdvantage (AA) card is a good one at 60k AA on $3k in 3 mos and fee waived first year.
* You've hit chase pretty hard but the Southwest Companion pass is fantastic and the Chase SW Bus card at 60k is at a historic high and gets you a good chunk of the way there. There's a lot to read about the SW companion pass so if 2-for-1 travel on SW appeals to you, I'll suggest you google it.

Those are my basic thoughts. Frequent Miler has a nice page of offers with estimated cash values that I find to be a very good screening tool. Being unsure though what you like, what you're willing to do, and with no screaming deals out there, I'm not sure what to recommend.

I'm in this stuff pretty deep though... Currently executing a slow churn of 5-6 cards that are almost all business cards with targeted offers for myself. And then a round for my wife shortly.

One note on an offer that just got some big noise. 3 UR per dollar for Chase Freedom Unlimited for a year. If you value them at $.015 each, then it's a 4.5% return card. Awesome right... Well, without a sign up bonus (many of which generate 10-20% return on $3k-$15k spend), you really need to spend a lot to make this card work. If you have tons of spend, then that card becomes fantastic.

Lastly, I nearly always plug Merrill Edge with Platinum Honors if you can muster transfer $100k of retirement money over there. That gains you access to the BoA Travel Rewards card yielding 2.625% back on everything and the Cash Rewards card offering 5.25% back on gas, 3.5% back on groceries and sams/costco/bjs. That's our household fall back. Great set up. Never hyped though in the travel blogs.