By my valuation of points, the two single best credit card sign-up bonuses available at the moment are on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card. Not only do the cards offer huge sign-up bonuses and have reasonable annual fees, but they’re also rewarding for everyday spend, and offer great benefits.
Why the Chase Sapphire Preferred is awesome
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a sign-up bonus of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 within three months, plus an additional 5,000 Ultimate Rewards points when you add an authorized user to the card that makes a purchase within three months. That’s a total of 55,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which I value at 1.7 cents each, or $935.
That’s a massive sign-up bonus, and on top of that the card has the $95 annual fee waived for the first year.
What makes this card so awesome otherwise?
- It offers double points on dining and travel
- It has no foreign transaction fees
- It gives you full access to Ultimate Rewards, meaning you can transfer your points to all the Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners
- It offers primary collision damage waiver coverage on car rentals
To me this is one of the most well rounded cards with an annual fee of under $100 per year.
Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and redeem at the Park Hyatt Maldives
Why the Ink Business Preferred is awesome
The Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card has an even bigger sign-up bonus than the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. It offers a sign-up bonus of 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months. Given my valuation of 1.7 cents per Ultimate Rewards point, that makes the sign-up bonus worth a whopping $1,360.
The card’s annual fee is also $95, though it isn’t waived for the first year
But that’s only the beginning of the value of the card. In terms of the return on spend, the Ink Business Preferred Card offers triple points in the following categories:
- Travel
- Shipping purchases
- Internet, cable and phone services
- Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
You earn triple points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in the above categories each account anniversary year (which means they’re not using a January 1 through December 31 calendar, but rather it’s based on when you signed up).
Since I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, that’s like earning a return of 5.1% on spend in those categories. That’s a massive return on spend.
On top of that:
- It has no foreign transaction fees
- It gives you full access to Ultimate Rewards, meaning you can transfer your points to all the Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel transfer partners
- It offers primary collision damage waiver coverage on car rentals
- It has an amazing cell phone protection plan, which covers you for up to $600 of damage or theft to a cell phone
Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Singapore and redeem for the new Suites
Can you apply for both cards?
A few months ago Chase added restrictions when it comes to being approved for both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve℠ Card.
The good news is that while both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred Card are branded as Chase “Preferred” cards, you’re absolutely eligible for the bonuses on both, given that one is a personal card and one is a business card.
In terms of general things to be aware of when applying for Chase cards:
- Both of these cards are subjected to the 5/24 rule, so you typically won’t be approved if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months
- While there’s not a consistent limit on how many Chase cards you can be approved for in a given period of time, many report having to wait 30 days between approvals, though that’s not consistently the case; if it were me, I’d apply for one card now and then one about a month after the first approval
If you’re eligible, it’s tough to beat earning 135,000+ Ultimate Rewards points after completing minimum spend with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred Card.
Source link
[page_popup id="6"]
No comments:
Post a Comment