Credit cards - best rewards programs?

Question

Hello all,

Curious what different folks on BP are finding in terms of good credit cards rewards programs.  What do you look for, and what kind of perks or rewards do you find most beneficial to your business?

My husband and I anticipate a need for travel a few times a year, and so we're thinking the Alaska Airline VISA Signature card might be helpful, since it would accumulate some miles and also has the annual companion ticket.  Not sure how far this would actually go practically - but, since we're going to be wracking up bills in an upcoming rehab effort, we'd like to be able to get a little extra something with the money spent :)

Thanks,

Jared & Jessica

Michael Haas · Answer

@Jess Haas and I also open and close a couple different business and personal cards a year and use them for our flips - with $300-$500 sign up bonuses on many of these higher quality cards we end up putting a couple thousand dollars back in our pocket a year. Spark & Ink for business, Savor and USAA for personal are a few great ones. PM me for the full list, its a long one!

Oh, and if you shop for materials at Lowes definitely get their credit card - 5% back on all purchases adds up!

Jess Haas · Answer

I plan on getting a southwest credit card in January. If you achieve 125,000 points in a calendar year you get a companion pass on every flight. My plan is to open a business credit card and a personal spend the $6k(5 business + 1 personal) to receive the bonus miles(110k combined +6k spend). That means I will be 9k points from the goal which is easily achievable with our flips. What’s nice about the companion fare is that if you achieve it early you get it for the remainder of the year and the next calendar year. So if we hit 125k miles in March we get the rest of 2020 and 2021.
Now I just need a hotel cc for all my travels. Check out the points guy. Also look up the credit card benefits directly so you understand what needs to happen. I hate missing out on bonuses.

Patrick Strain · Answer

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is kind of the badass card right now, but it's $450 per year. That includes a lot of nice benefits, such as Priority Pass, which honestly is worth having if you fly more than two or three times per year. If not, the Chase Business Preferred offers almost all of the benefits of the Sapphire Reserve, but is only $95 per year. In fact, the Business Plus has a better initial bonus point program than the Sapphire Reserve.

Nat Rojas · Answer

At my stage of acquisition, and with money so cheap, I'm taking advantage of and focused with the card benefits:

1. 0% APR for 15+ Months or 18+ Billing Cycles

2. sign on bonus: spend $500 in 3 months and receive $150 back.

3. Cash back 1.5% + on all categories

Parker Eberhard · Answer

@Jared Mathis was going to suggest Alaska Airlines CC (I live in Seattle so it makes sense for me). Alaska is the best airline to fly anyways regardless, and getting that companion fare to Maui isn’t too bad.

I worked for a contractor who let the employees keep the miles from purchases on their company cards..buying $5000+ worth of materials every week really started to add up

Chris S. · Answer

Chase if you are travel hacking. You can rack up a crazy amount of points and cards meeting minimum spending. Business cards/personal are transferable and you and your spouse can each get 2-3 for business etc. My wife and I flew business class from Alaska to Poland, Croatia, Ireland all for free using points we racked up in just a few months. We currently also have a trip to Thailand planned using the same system. It's a lot of work, but seriously worth it.

Eric X. · Answer

Alliant credit card - 2.5% Cash back , 99$ annual fee.  50k credit limit.

If you do a ton of business, this is one of the best cards on the market.

For normal airlines, southwest card is pretty good.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

alaska card as been good to me over the years but no so much last few years when they stopped their milage relationship with AA and Delta

and also cant use your companion ticker for first class i would always do that to hawaii.. and also i get all those free up grades but very very tough to find flights were they are available even for me as a 75k gold.  will have to rethink.. Amex platinum has by far the best airport lounges far better than any domestic airlines lounge so for me that is worth the 400 a year for that card plus getting frequent flyer miles on virtually any airline a few years ago we used it to go first class from Hong kong to Phuket and did not burn a lot of miles.  one of the pro tips though is Alaska partners with Cathay  and for 100k miles you can get business to the Orient.. so have done that multiple times to singapore etc.. but we use our miles for crossing the ponds  not domestic..

Mark Beeson · Answer

I have a Capital VentureOne CC and get 2% back on everything.  Downside is an annual fee of $95.  Based on our spending we make about $600/year.  But the initial perks are attractive as well.  Good Luck!

Keenan Fitzpatrick · Answer

@Jared Mathis

Search Graham Stephan in YouTube. He has a few videos on credit cards that are pretty great I think you’ll end up getting the AK Airlines card and a few others on those videos. He also tells you which ones to stay away from

Credit cards - best rewards programs?

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