Preparing for Miles

I regularly post schemes for earning points and miles. Often, these schemes require certain credit cards to make them work. It’s also the case that opportunities come and go quickly so you need to be prepared to take advantage of them when they appear. My recommendation is to arm yourself, in advance, with the credit cards that are most likely to be needed for these opportunities.

Best Credit Cards for Earning Points

Someday this may change, but for now the best opportunities come from Chase. Not only does Chase offer some of the best sign-up bonuses, but they have some of the best opportunities for earning points and miles once you have the cards. All of the cards listed below will give you access to the very lucrative Ultimate Rewards Mall. The Sapphire Preferred card will give you an annual 7% dividend bonus for all points earned. And, the Ink cards will give you, among other benefits, 5 points per dollar for office supply purchases. Since big chain office supply stores like Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot carry gift cards, it is easy to turn this benefit into 5 points per dollar for virtually all of your spending!

Note: you will get the most value from the Freedom, Ink Classic, and Sapphire if paired with either the Ink Bold or the Sapphire Preferred. By transferring points to either of those cards, you will be able to redeem the points for 20% off travel or (better yet) transfer the points to one of several airline or hotel programs.

Best Credit Cards for Earning Points and Elite Status

Several American Express credit cards will help you earn airline and hotel elite status in addition to earning points. The business versions of these cards can also save you money through the American Express OPEN Savings program. See the chart below for more information.

NOTE: For each of the Delta cards described above, there is a corresponding business version of the same card. The business versions usually have identical annual fees and benefits with the one addition of American Express OPEN Savings which gives you 5% rebates for certain business purchases. The great thing about the business cards is that American Express will allow you to hold both a personal card and a business card and therefore you can earn signup bonuses and MQMs for each of them! In order to get to the business applications, start by clicking through to the personal application. When you see “Are you a small business owner? Click Here to find out about the Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card,” follow the “click here” link.

Best Credit Cards for Saving Money

• Amex OPEN Savings: Most American Express cards have a version geared towards small businesses. These cards come with a program called American Express OPEN Savings which automatically gives you cash back for purchases at various merchants. In this way, you can earn points and cash back at the same time!

• Blue Cash Preferred: The American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is a dedicated cash back card which gives a whopping 6% cash back for grocery store purchases! One great thing about this is that many grocery stores carry gift cards so you can automatically get 6% cash back for nearly any type of spend by buying gift cards first. And, if your grocery store has its own rewards program you can double-dip!

• Discover: The Discover More card is special not just because of its rotating 5% cash back categories, but because of its very lucrative ShopDiscover portal. By shopping through ShopDiscover, you can easily earn 10% to 20% rebates on almost anything you buy online.
• Chase: The same Chase cards that are great for earning points are great for cash back as well since Ultimate Rewards points can be converted directly to cash! It’s important to note, though, that you can get much more than 1 cent per point value if the points are used for travel with the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold cards.
• PerkStreet: The PerkStreet FinancialSM Debit MasterCard® gives 1% back on all purchases, 2% back at Walmart and Amazon, and 5% back in rotating categories.  The interesting thing here is that it is a debit card which sometimes has lower fees (for paying taxes, for example).

Disclosure: For most of the cards listed above, I will get a referral fee if you signup. I would never recommend a card, however, if I didn’t truly believe it was a great deal. I always strive to put in the best sign-up links even if it means that I will not receive credit for the application. If you know of a sign-up link with a better offer than any listed here, please let me know and I’ll update the link.

Frequent Miler has financial relationships with some of the cards mentioned here, and may be compensated if consumers choose to apply for these links in the content, and ultimately sign up for them.

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.