Author Topic: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards  (Read 2089 times)

nereo

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"best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« on: April 26, 2017, 09:39:14 AM »
Situation:  I'm starting a project where I'll be charging $10k-15k on a credit card over the next four months (paid in full monthly), and I want a dedicated card for those purchases. Purchases will be from dozens of vendors.  Once the project ends I'll either cancel the cards or let them go dormant (if there's no annual fee).

I want to earn rewards on these purchases - cash is preferable but airline miles could be ok if they don't come with tons of restrictions. 3rd preference would be rewards at Home Depot or Lowes.

NOT interested in opening/closing/churning multiple cards for maximum rewards here - I just want 1 or 2 cards maximum.
 
Suggestions?

FLBiker

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Re: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2017, 10:16:41 AM »
I'm sure other folks will have some good ideas re: cash back, but I tend to focus on miles.  One thing you could do (if Southwest is useful for you) is get a Companion Pass, which lets someone travel free with you on Southwest for the rest of one year and all of the next (even when booking with miles).  You could get that with $10K in spending.

To do this, you'd open a personal and a business card (both with 50K signing bonuses).  Once you hit 110K (which you would after spending $10K split between the two cards) you'd get a Companion Pass which, combined with the 110K miles, would get you a bunch of free flights.  The annual fee would be $168 ($69 for personal, $99 for business) and you might need a referral to get the 50K bonus on the personal card (I did).

Proud Foot

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Re: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 11:31:35 AM »
Here is a good list for you to look at. I would look for the one with the best signup bonus and then the best per dollar spent reward.

catccc

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Re: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2017, 08:47:24 AM »
I'm sure other folks will have some good ideas re: cash back, but I tend to focus on miles.  One thing you could do (if Southwest is useful for you) is get a Companion Pass, which lets someone travel free with you on Southwest for the rest of one year and all of the next (even when booking with miles).  You could get that with $10K in spending.

To do this, you'd open a personal and a business card (both with 50K signing bonuses).  Once you hit 110K (which you would after spending $10K split between the two cards) you'd get a Companion Pass which, combined with the 110K miles, would get you a bunch of free flights.  The annual fee would be $168 ($69 for personal, $99 for business) and you might need a referral to get the 50K bonus on the personal card (I did).

I thought that SW doesn't allow the transferred points to count towards the companion pass anymore?  Am I wrong?  (I'd love to be...)

FLBiker

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Re: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 09:21:45 AM »
I'm sure other folks will have some good ideas re: cash back, but I tend to focus on miles.  One thing you could do (if Southwest is useful for you) is get a Companion Pass, which lets someone travel free with you on Southwest for the rest of one year and all of the next (even when booking with miles).  You could get that with $10K in spending.

To do this, you'd open a personal and a business card (both with 50K signing bonuses).  Once you hit 110K (which you would after spending $10K split between the two cards) you'd get a Companion Pass which, combined with the 110K miles, would get you a bunch of free flights.  The annual fee would be $168 ($69 for personal, $99 for business) and you might need a referral to get the 50K bonus on the personal card (I did).

I thought that SW doesn't allow the transferred points to count towards the companion pass anymore?  Am I wrong?  (I'd love to be...)

I did this last spring, but the way it worked is that miles earned on a SW card (including the signup bonus) counted toward the Companion Pass, but transferred in miles (like Ultimate Rewards) didn't count.  In looking at the T's and C's on their site, I don't believe this has changed: "Companion Pass qualifying points are earned from revenue flights booked through Southwest Airlines, points earned on Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cards, and base points earned from Rapid Rewards Partners."

I'm planning to do this again next spring, in DW's name.

catccc

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Re: "best" short-term CC in US for earning rewards
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2017, 11:36:13 AM »
great, thanks for the info!  We are busy right now wrapping up min. spend on DH's ink card, but I'll keep SW in the back of my mind for future travel hacking!