Making "Cents" Out of Points for Budget Travelers

Posts in category Chase Credit Cards

Chase Sapphire Preferred to Offer 3x Points on Dining

Apr23rd
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

Chase Sapphire

The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card normally offers 2x Ultimate Rewards points on dining but now, thanks to a partnership with OpenTable, the offer is being bumped up to 3x Ultimate Rewards points on dining. However, there is a catch. The catch is that this offer is only available on the first Friday of each month for the rest of the year. Here are the dates of each Friday for the rest of the year:

  • May 3
  • June 7
  • July 5
  • August 2
  • September 6
  • October 4
  • November 1
  • December 6

As Gary from View From the Wing points out, you’re not required to use OpenTable in order to get the 3x points. You’re free to dine as you normally would.

If you have a Chase Freedom credit card, this triple points offer still doesn’t beat the current 5% cash back second quarter promotion for restaurants. Make sure you register for that if you haven’t already done so.

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Hyatt Visa Cardholders Should Check Points For Converted Hyatt Hotels

Apr16th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

If you’re a Hyatt Visa cardholder who recently stayed at a Hyatt House that was converted from a Hotel Sierra, you should confirm that your points correctly posted to your account.

The name “Hyatt” needs to appear as the merchant on your statement in order to receive the 3 points per dollar benefit. However, the converted hotels may still be showing “Hotel Sierra” as the merchant. So instead of receiving 3 points per dollar spent at what is now technically a Hyatt hotel, you’re only receiving 1 point per dollar.

Contact Chase via secure message in your account to get your missing points.

 

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Hyatt and Chase Kicking the Tires on Possible New Benefits to Hyatt Visa

Apr5th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

Last month, Gary at View From the Wing mentioned that updates are coming to the Chase Hyatt Visa credit card. He shared some of the ideas that were being thrown around.

Last week, Milepoint member Liucoke received a survey asking which types of new perks and benefits would entice them to use the Hyatt Visa more often. Liucoke was kind enough to take some screenshots of the survey questions and share them with the community. Many of the options that Gary mentioned in his original post are here along with some others. Here are the screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

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Maximizing ROI – Multiple Credit Cards vs. One Credit Card

Mar5th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

Milepoint member Dangjr213 asks the question, “What is your primary credit card?” The most popular strategy, according to the responses, is to spread the spend across different cards depending on what the purchase is going to be. I do the same thing. But are we really maximizing our return on investment this way?

Obviously when you spend on the card that offers the most points, you’ll get more overall points. At the same time, spreading the spend means you’re not getting as many points in your preferred program, whether it be points, miles or cash back. So should you continue to spread your spend around or concentrate it on one card? I created two charts to compare the differences. The example credit cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Costco American Express.

Both cards offer 1% cash back on everyday spend and 2% cash back on travel and dining. The only difference is that the Costco card offers 3% cash back on gas. Note that Costco only accepts American Express, debit cards and cash.

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Earn More Chase Ultimate Rewards Points With Multiple Credit Cards

Feb23rd
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

If you have multiple Chase credit cards that earn points into the Ultimate Rewards program, you can reach your goals more quickly. This is because the Ultimate Rewards program gives you the ability to transfer points between accounts. With more than one card, you can strategically decide which card to use based on whichever will give you the greatest reward.

If the Sapphire Preferred is your preferred card (no pun intended) to earn additional points in hotels and airlines, here’s how you can use the Freedom to pad your points:

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Chase Freedom Credit Card Review

Feb21st
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

In addition to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, another notable Chase credit card is the Chase Freedom. Like the Sapphire, the Freedom earns points into the Ultimate Rewards program.

Your everyday spend will earn you 1% cash back without any limits on the amount of cash back you can earn. Each quarter there are also special spending categories that offer 5% cash back on your purchases up to $1,500. This means you can earn up to $75 cash back per quarter on the 5% categories. There is no annual fee for this card.

Here are the 5% categories for 2012 (registration is required to receive 5% cash back):

  • 1st quarter (January – March): Gas stations and Amazon.com
  • 2nd quarter (April – June): Grocery stores and movie theaters
  • 3rd quarter (July – September): Gas stations and restaurants
  • 4th quarter (October – December): Hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s

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Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Hyatt Visa

Feb17th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Ken

There are two credit card options available to anyone looking for an extra way to earn Hyatt Gold Passport points. One is the Hyatt Visa and the other is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Looking only at each card’s potential to earn Gold Passport points,  the edge goes to the Sapphire Preferred.

The Hyatt Visa earns 3 points per dollar on spend at Hyatt hotels and 1 point per dollar on everything else. Co-branded credit cards will always give you the most points when spending at their respective business. Unless you’re practically living at a Hyatt, you’ll want to give more weight to how many points you can earn outside of Hyatt. Without that 2x multiplier to bridge the gap between one and three points, this really hampers your ability to earn additional points.

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