At FTU in DC last weekend, I presented “You can still earn 5X everywhere.”  Many of the tips I presented involved reload cards, gift cards, and Bluebird cards, but I also showed how you can earn 5X almost everywhere without gift cards.  In this three part series, I’ll show you how.

The cards shown above on the left earn Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points.  The cards on the right earn Citibank’s Thankyou points.  In this post, I’ll focus on Ultimate Rewards.  The next post will cover the ThankYou cards and I’ll finish up with a post about what to do with charges that don’t fit into the above buckets.

Ultimate Rewards

Ultimate Rewards points are my favorite form of currency.  Really.  All you need is one of Chase’s premium cards (e.g. Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Ink Plus) to unlock Ultimate Rewards full potential.  For a frequent traveler, the points are better than cash.  If you want or need cash, fine.  Ultimate Rewards points can be exchanged for cash with a value of 1 cent per point.  Or, book travel through the Ultimate Rewards website and get 1.25 cents per point value.  Better yet, transfer points to any of numerous partners and you can often get far more value.

Additional transfer partners not shown above include Marriott and Priority Club.

Some of the best redemption options for Ultimate Rewards points are via partners.  Here are a few examples:

• Transfer to United Airlines and redeem for international business or first class travel on Star Alliance flights.  Redemption value varies widely but you can usually expect to get at least 3 cents per point value and often much more (if you find saver level availability).
• Transfer to Southwest Airlines and redeem for “Wanna Getaway” fares.  For these fares, you’ll get 1.67 cents per point value.
• Transfer to Hyatt for luxury stays.  Hyatt’s award chart tops out at only 22,000 points per night for their most expensive properties.  When redeeming for expensive hotel nights (think $500 and up) you can expect to get over 2 cents per point value.
• Transfer to British Airways and redeem for short non-stop flights on BA partner airlines (American, Alaska, Aer Lingus, LAN, etc.).  One great example that I’ve taken advantage of is to use BA Avios to book American Airlines non stop from Detroit to NYC.  Non-stop round-trip flights are usually $700 and up for weekday travel, but I was able to book the same for only 9000 points.  That’s a value of over 7.7 cents per point!
• Transfer to Amtrak and redeem for bedrooms or special routes.  With Amtrak’s special routes, they charge only 1500 points each way.  I’ve used this deal several times to ride the Wolverine train from Ann Arbor to Chicago.  Prices fluctuate widely, but in my experience I usually get over 3.5 cents per point value.  You can also do well by using points to book otherwise very expensive bedrooms for long-haul routes.

Sure, Starwood points are arguably more valuable per-point than Ultimate Rewards, but Ultimate Rewards points are much easier to earn and faster to transfer to partners.

5X almost everywhere

By filling your wallet with the right assortment of cards, you can earn 5 points per dollar almost everywhere you shop day to day.  Here are the Chase Ultimate Rewards cards that will help you get there:

Chase Ink 5X

I’ve said many times that the Chase Ink Bold (and its twin the Ink Plus) is my favorite card.  I even wrote a secure message to Chase to profess my love.  My feelings haven’t changed.

Chase Ink cards offer 5 points per dollar for office supply purchases, cell phone, landline, and cable.  Just by using an Ink card to pay your cell phone, landline, and cable bills you’ll rack up thousands of points.  And, of course, don’t forget to use the card whenever you shop at an office supply store.  Since Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot regularly offer specials that I blog about (such as Free after Rebate items and other lucrative discounts), the Ink card provides many ways to rack up points!

There are multiple versions of Ink cards: Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Cash, and Ink Classic.  The Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards are premium cards with high signup bonuses (50K!) and $95 annual fees that kick in after the first year.  These premium cards award 5X for up to $50K per year of spend.  The Ink Cash and Ink Classic are no-fee cards with smaller sign-up bonuses.  These cards award 5X for up to $25K per year of spend.  For details of how these cards differ, please see “Preparing for Miles“. 

All of the Ink cards are business cards.  Yes, you do need a business to qualify.  If you have a new business (rental property, buy/sell things, consultant, blog author, whatever…) you do not need to lie about your business income, even if your income to-date is zero.  Hopefully you have other income or assets that you can also list to help assure Chase that you’re credit-worthy!  For more information, please see “How to sign up for the Ink Bold (or Ink Plus).”  If you have multiple businesses, you can get multiple Ink cards and you should get the signup bonus for each one (at least, that was my experience).

Chase Sapphire Preferred 4.28X

If you had to settle for just one rewards credit card, for most frequent travelers I recommend the Sapphire Preferred.  While it doesn’t offer any 5X categories, it does offer 2X for all restaurant and travel purchases, and it offers a 7% annual dividend on all points earned.  So, regular earnings are really 1.07X, and 2X earnings are really 2.14X.  With no foreign transaction fees, this is a great card to have in your wallet when dining or travelling (although it does lack a PIN at the time of this writing).  Of course, the card offers a terrific 40K sign-up bonus, so that doesn’t hurt either!

The trick for getting nearly 5X when using the card for travel expenses is to take advantage of the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  By initiating your online shopping through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can earn extra points above and beyond those earned by your credit card.  So, when booking travel, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to a site like Travelocity (which currently offers 2 bonus points per dollar) and pay for your travel with your Sapphire Preferred card.  With 2 bonus points from the Ultimate Rewards Mall and 2X earnings for travel with the Sapphire Preferred, you will earn 4 points per dollar.  Then, if you factor in the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual 7% dividend, you would earn 4.28 points per dollar.  It’s not 5X, but its awfully close!

Chase Freedom 5X to 5.5X

The final piece of the puzzle is the no-fee Chase Freedom card which offers 5X in rotating categories each quarter.  For example, this quarter, from April through June, the Freedom card offers 5X for restaurants, movie theaters, and Lowe’s.  Note that 5X earnings are limited to $1500 in spend each quarter.

If you have a Chase checking account, you will also qualify for a 10% annual bonus on points earned (see “The new king of the Ultimate Rewards Mall“).  This means that regular spend earns 1.1X, and 5X spend becomes 5.5X!

Wrap Up

The cards detailed above give multiple opportunities to earn 5 very valuable Ultimate Rewards points per dollar across many types of transactions: office supplies, cell phone, landline, cable, travel, and rotating categories.  In general, if you have competing cards that earn 5X for the same categories, I’d recommend going with the card that earns Ultimate Rewards points whenever feasible.

In the next post in this series I’ll show how it’s possible to earn 5X ThankYou points across many other categories of spend.  And, I’ll show you how to make the most of those points.

More details about the cards shown above,and signup links for each, can be found on either of these pages:

• Best Credit Card Offers
• Preparing for Miles

Caution

The purpose of this series of posts is to show how it may be possible to earn 5 points per dollar almost everywhere, but that does not mean that you should.  Not everyone can (or should) get all of the cards I’ve listed.  While it is true that between my wife and I we have all of the listed cards, this is not meant to be personalized advice for you.  Is this right for you?  Only you can decide.  And, as always, I do not recommend signing up for rewards credit cards unless you always pay your balance in full every month.  Otherwise the cost of the interest payments will far exceed the benefit of points earned.

This quarter, everyone wants us to shop at Home Improvement stores.  Below are the deals I’ve been offered.  Some are targeted to specific individuals, some are not.  If you qualify, don’t forget to register!

Chase Freedom

This quarter, Chase offers 5% cash back on up to $1500 in spend with the Freedom card at restaurants, movie theaters, and Lowe’s.

If you have a premium Ultimate Rewards card in addition to the Freedom card (such as the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus) you can transfer points to one of those cards and then transfer points to select airline miles or hotel points.  This is a great way to get even more value out of your Freedom card rewards.

Discover

This quarter, Discover offers 5% back at Home Improvement stores for up to $1500 in purchases.

Citi Forward

I received this targeted offer for my Citi Forward card.  Citi is offering me 5X for purchases in the following categories: Clothing, Home Improvement, Home Furnishing, and Department Stores.  I can earn up to 2500 “additional points”.  I interpret this to mean that I get 1X normally, so the additional 4X is counted as the “additional points”.  I think that means I can earn 5X for up to $625 in these categories (625 X 4 = 2500).

Barclays’ US Airways

Barclay’s sent me this targeted offer for one of my two US Airways cards.  They’re offering 5 bonus miles for Restaurant, Gas Station, and Home Improvement store purchases.  Since they are offering 5 bonus miles per dollar, I will still earn the base 1 mile per dollar and get a total of 6 miles per dollar for these purchases.  I can earn up to 2,500 bonus miles, which means I will get 6X on up to $500 in spend in these categories.

Strategy

My Barclays’ US Airways card offers the best miles per dollar offer at 6X, but for only $500 in spend.  This is also the only offer that includes gas station purchases, so I’ll use this card to buy gas and maybe buy gift cards at a gas station.

The Chase Freedom card is possibly the best offer overall because it offers extremely valuable Ultimate Rewards points.  Also, thanks to my Chase checking account, I qualify for a 10% annual bonus on all Freedom card points earned (see “The new king of the Ultimate Rewards Mall“).  So, I’ll earn a total of 5.5 points per dollar within the bonus categories.  This will be my go-to card for restaurants, movie theaters, and Lowe’s this quarter.

I’ll use my Citi Forward card for clothing, home furnishing, and department stores.  And, I’ll continue to use it for bookstores (such as Amazon.com) since it always earns 5X there.  I usually use this card at restaurants and movie theaters for 5X, but I’ll wait until I tap out the Freedom card 5X before I go back to the Forward card for those purchases.

My Discover It card will probably sit in a drawer unless I figure out a great way to manufacture Home Improvement spend.

Maximizing Home Improvement Spend

With so many cards offering bonuses for Home Improvement spend, many people have asked me for tips for maximizing spend in that category.  I’ll present some ideas tomorrow on this topic, but first I’d like to turn the question around.  Do you know of good ideas for maximizing spend at Lowes or other Home Improvement stores?

Here are some potentially helpful nuggets of info (that I believe to be true):

• Credit card bonus points are stackable with shopping portal bonus points.  For example, if you use the Chase Freedom card this quarter and go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Lowe’s, you’ll get 5X from the credit card and another 5X from the shopping portal.

Home Depot

• The AAdvantage eShopping portal is offering 6X for Home Depot this week.
• In past experiments, people did not receive points for buying Home Depot gift cards through online shopping portals.
• In past experiments, people did receive points for using Home Depot gift cards through online shopping portals to buy Home Depot merchandise.
• Home Depot does not sell gift cards to other merchants (neither online nor in store).

Lowe’s

• The Ultimate Rewards Mall currently offers 5X for Lowe’s
• In past experiments, people did receive points for buying Lowe’s physical gift cards through online shopping portals.  I do not expect this to work for e-gift cards since they are not sold directly by Lowes.com (Lowes.com sends you out to another URL when you select e-gift cards).
• In past experiments, people did receive points for using Lowe’s gift cards through online shopping portals to buy Lowe’s merchandise.
• Lowe’s sells a large selection of merchant gift cards in-store.  Dan’s Deals lists the following: AMC Theaters, AT&T GoPhone, Aeropastle, Amazon, Applebees, Barnes & Noble, Bass Pro Shop, Bath & Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond/Buy Buy Baby, Boost Mobile, Build, A, Bear, Cabela’s, Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s, Claire’s, Coldstone Creamery, Cracker Barrel, Darden Restaurants, Fandango, Finish Line, Foot Locker, Game Stop, Gap Inc (Gap, Banana, Old Navy, Athleta, Piperlime), Golfsmith, Ihop, iTunes, JCPenney, Jiffy Lube, Jo, Ann Fabric, Justice, Kohl’s, Lane Bryant, Lowe’s, MLB.com, Macy’s, Marriott, Marshalls, Michael’s, Nascar Superstore, Nike, Nordstrom, OfficeMax, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, PFChang’s, Panera, Petco, Petsmart, Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Red Robin, Regal Cinemas, Ruby Tuesday, Sephora, Shell, Southwest, SpaFinder, Sports Authority, Staples, Starbucks, Subway, TGIFriday, TJMaxx, T, Mobile Prepaid, Tracfone, Verizon Prepaid, Virgin Mobile, Xbox
• I’ve seen additional gas gift cards at Lowe’s besides Shell, so the particular gift cards available at any one Lowe’s store may vary.
• Lowe’s does not allow you to buy gift cards with Lowe’s gift cards.

In order to maximize my point earnings this month for Million Mile Madness, I downgraded my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to the Chase Freedom card.  This way, I could take advantage of the Freedom card’s 5X drugstore earnings this quarter.  Well, last week my new card arrived along with a brochure listing the card’s benefits.  And, in the brochure I found something new:

What I found interesting was the text that said “10% bonus each year.. only for Chase checking customers.  When you have both Chase Freedom and Chase Checking, you can earn an extra 10% on the cash back you’ve already earned each year as a bonus.”  This was interesting and surprising to me because I knew that Chase no longer offered their Chase Exclusives program which used to reward Freedom cardholders & checking account owners with an extra 10 points per transaction and a 10% bonus on base points earned. 

When activating my new card, I asked about this 10% bonus.  I do have a Chase checking account after all.  Is it only on base points earned?  I asked.  No, it is for all points earned on your Freedom card.  What about points earned through the Ultimate Rewards Mall?  Yes, any points earned on the Freedom card count.  I was so skeptical of this that I asked to speak to someone in the rewards department who then answered the same way.  Yes, she said, Ultimate Rewards Mall earnings will count.

Wow.  This is great.  This is very similar to the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual 7% dividend, but it is 3 percentage points better, as long as you have a Chase checking account.  This means that when you earn 10X bonus points through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you will really earn 11X bonus points (in addition to 1.1X base points).  Similarly, when you earn 5X with the Freedom card’s rotating categories, you will now really earn a total of 5.5X when bonus points post at the end of the year.

The Points Guy also recently wrote about this new benefit here: Changes to the Chase Freedom 10% Bonus And What It Means For Your Points Strategy.  He didn’t mention the Ultimate Rewards Mall so I thought it was worth expanding coverage of this new benefit.

Selecting an account when shopping

If you have multiple Chase Ultimate Rewards cards tied to the same online account, you will be asked to pick one when you go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  In the past, there were often different bonus earnings for different cards so it was always best to pick the account with the highest earnings, but recently Chase seems to have kept the point earnings the same across cards.  As long as that holds true, the best account to choose when going to the Ultimate Rewards Mall is now your Freedom account (if you have Chase checking).  Next best is the Sapphire Preferred.

Sapphire Preferred vs. Freedom

If you already have and use a Sapphire Preferred card, its unlikely that the 3 percentage point difference in the annual bonus between the Freedom card and the Sapphire Preferred will make much difference.  For example, suppose you earn 20,000 points in one year.  If those points were earned on the Sapphire Preferred card you would get 1400 bonus points at the end of the year.  If those points were earned on the Freedom card, you would get 2000 bonus points.  The difference isn’t huge.  Of course, if you earn hundreds of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points in a year, then that difference will add up fast!

Also keep in mind that the Freedom card does not earn bonus points for travel and dining, nor does it allow you to transfer points to airline & hotel programs.  I think that the best strategy for most families is to keep one Sapphire Preferred account and one or more Freedom accounts.  Log into the Freedom account for online shopping.  Use the Sapphire Preferred for travel and dining.  Use the Freedom card for all 5X categories (up to $1500 per quarter) and for all non-category spend (in order to get 1.1 points per dollar).  And, of course, if you have a Chase Ink card, use it for all cable, telecom, internet, and office supply purchases (at 5X) and gas (at 2X).

Terms & Conditions

I found the Freedom card’s Ultimate Rewards Rules and Regulations here.  I’ve quoted some of the relevant text and bolded parts that I find interesting:

Earning Rewards:

You will earn 1 base point for each $1 of Net Purchases. You will earn an additional 1 point for each $1 of airfare and hotel accommodation Net Purchases when you book at chase.com/ultimaterewards. You will also earn a 10% Bonus on all new points earned with your Chase Freedom card during billing cycles within the previous Year when you, as the primary cardmember, were the sole or joint owner of an open Chase checking account. Your 10% Bonus is calculated after your billing cycle with a December closing date (“Year” means the twelve billing cycle period beginning the day after your billing cycle with a December closing date through your billing cycle with a December closing date of the next year.) Your Chase checking account must be open, and your Chase Freedom card account must be open and not in default, at the end of the Year. Your 10% Bonus points will appear on your January or February billing statement. You will not earn the 10% Bonus on new account bonus points, previous 10% Bonus points awarded, or points transferred into your account. (“Net Purchases” means purchases of goods and services made by you or any authorized user on your Account minus any returns or refunds.) Point accrual will begin upon the Enrollment Date in the Program. (“Enrollment Date” is the day on which we approve you as a Program member.) No retroactive points will be awarded. You do not earn points on balance transfers, cash advances, cash-like charges such as travelers checks, foreign currency, and money orders, any checks that are used to access your Account, overdraft advances, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, or fees of any kind, including fees for products that protect or insure the balances of your Account. Points will be deducted for any returns or credits made on your Account. Points will appear on your monthly statement.

Notice above that all new points earned on the Freedom card count except those earned from a sign-up bonus or transferred from other accounts.

Three stackable deals for buying Marriott gift cards come to an end on December 31st 2012. 

Sometimes hotel gift cards are better than points.  With gift cards you can take advantage of discount codes and hotel sales (except for prepaid rates).  With gift cards, you can earn points and progress towards elite qualification with each stay.  With gift cards, you never have to worry about seeing that the hotel where you want to stay has no rooms available for point redemptions.  And, gift cards are gift-able. 

Currently, there are three stackable deals that can be used to save money and earn points when buying Marriott gift cards.  In total, you can save over 17%!

Step 1: TopCashBack

Just until the end of this year, TopCashBack is offering 5% cash back when you click through their site to Marriott to buy gift cards.

1. Sign up for TopCashBack (if you use this link, I’ll earn a small referral bonus)
2. Go to TopCashBack.com and search for Marriott
3. Click through the button that says Marriott Gift Card 5% Cashback (as shown below)

Step 2: Amtrak Bonus

Until the end of the year, you can get 10% more value added to any Marriott gift card you buy simply by entering the Amtrak promotion code AMT.  Terms & Conditions can be found here.

1. Select a gift card.  After going through the TopCashBack steps listed above, you will end up at the Marriott gift card site where you can pick out the gift card you want to buy.  For this promotion, gift cards with value between $25 and $1500 are eligible.
2. Check out.  Enter code AMT in the box titled “APPLY PROMOTION CODE“.  Loyalty Lobby shows the steps here.

Step 3: Pay with Freedom or Discover

This quarter’s Chase Freedom 5X category includes “hotels”.  Since the gift card purchase is processed by Marriott.com, it counts towards the 5X category.

If you don’t have the Freedom card, or you’ve already maxed out the category bonus, another great option is to use a Discover card which offers 5% cash back for Online merchants this quarter.

Pay with either of the cards listed above to get 5X points or 5% cash back.  Both cards cap the quarterly bonus at $1500 in spend, so make sure you do not go over that amount.

Add it up

Suppose you buy a $1000 Marriott gift card.  Here is how the costs and rebates add up:

• Cost: $1008.50 (Marriott charges $8.50 for express shipping or $1 for regular shipping with smaller orders).
• TopCashBack rebate: $50
• Freedom / Discover card rebate: $50
  • Note: If you have the Freedom card and an Ultimate Rewards card that allows transfers to loyalty programs then you can transfer the points to the other card and then use those points to transfer to airline miles, hotel points, or Amtrak points, all of which can be more valuable than straight up cash back.  Good examples of cards with this capability include: Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus.
• Amtrak bonus increases card value to: $1100
• Total cost after rebates: $908.50
• Total card value: $1100
• Total discount as % of card value: 17.4%

Additional Points

I went through the steps listed above and was pleased to receive confirmation of pending cash back from TopCashBack within a few hours.  Nice!  Of course, I’m not done earning points, free nights, & cash back from Marriott.  When using Marriott gift cards, you can stack promotions too…

• Make sure to sign up for the latest Marriott promotions.  Marriott regularly runs MegaBonus promotions.  For most people, this means that for every two Marriott stays, you’ll receive a free night certificate for a category 1 through 4 hotel.  Some people get a different offer: after 3 stays, receive a 1 night certificate for a category 1 through 5 hotel.  Either way, make sure to sign up!
• If you plan to stay at several Marriott properties within a few months of each other, consider going for their Gold or Platinum challenge.  See “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott.”  This way you’ll be treated better as an elite and you’ll earn more points with each stay!
• When booking your stay, make sure to start in a point earning or cash back portal.  I use CashBackHolic to find the best option since it consistently delivers the most accurate results (see “Portal finder fight! Round 2“).
• When comparing rates, make sure to look at AAA and other rates you may qualify for.  In my experience, stays booked with AAA discounts do still earn portal points / cash, but stays booked on a government rate do not.  Your mileage may vary.  FYI, thanks to my wife’s job at a public University, we do qualify for government rates. 
• If you have some time on your hands, use Kayak or other aggregators to search for a site that offers a better rate than Marriott does directly.  If you find a price discrepancy, you can take advantage of Marriott’s “Look No Further Room Rate Guarantee” to save 25% off the lower rate.  Loyalty Traveler offers details here.
• When you check-out of your hotel, don’t forget to pay with your Marriott gift card!

Every 3 months, the Chase Freedom card offers 5X on spend within different categories of merchants.  This quarter (October through December), the 5X categories are hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s. 

Here are some terrific ways to spend within those 5X categories:

Buy miles for .8 cents (Wyndham)

Loyalty Traveler summarizes the current bonus opportunities from Wyndham.  The gist is that its possible to book cheap hotel rooms (without showing up to check-in) and earn bonus points, then transfer the points to airline miles.  I really enjoyed this part of Loyalty Traveler’s post:

I found it interesting that Deals We Like linked to View from the Wing today who linked to Deals We Like  August post where she linked Travel by Points and Hack My Trip who linked Travel by Points who in his August post linked Loyalty Traveler for a blog post about the 16,000 points Wyndham Rewards promotion. It is like a genealogy chart of credits.

Maybe now I get get into his next genealogy chart?

Regarding the Freedom card:  Use it to pay for these stays. This way you’ll earn 5 points per dollar while buying miles (or hotel points) very cheaply!  Also, go through BigCrumbs to Wyndham to book your stay for a (possible) additional 2.1% cash back.

UPDATE: According to a post on FlyerTalk, Wyndham may not honor this deal after all.  For details, please see this post from View from the Wing.

Marriott & Southwest

Marriott has a terrific ongoing promotion in which you can earn 12 Southwest points per dollar when buying Marriott gift cards.  Go to www.marriottvacationcardoffer.com/southwest to purchase up to $1000 worth of Marriott gift cards.  If you use those Southwest points for “Wanna Get Away?” fares, then each point is worth 1.67 cents.  In other words, this is like a 20% rebate on Marriott gift cards.  Alternatively, you can trade in those points to get more Marriot gift cards (at a value of 1 cent per point).

Use your Freedom card to buy the Marriott gift cards and you’ll earn 5X on the purchase this quarter!  Thanks goes to Greek2Me who has confirmed that this purchase shows up on the Freedom statement as a hotel 5X purchase.

You can take this further by using your Marriott gift cards to qualify for Marriott’s Megabonus promotion.  Go to Marriott.com to sign up.  Different people are offered different promotions, but most people are offered a free category 1 to 4 night after every two Marriott stays.  You can take it even further by doing a Marriott Platinum Challenge at the same time!  See “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott” for details.

Radisson Buy One Get One

Radisson has been running yet another great promotion (not as good as their incredible point-earning promotions, but still…) where one stay at any Radisson hotel will result in a voucher for a free night at any Radisson in the US, Canada, or Caribbean.  Unlike the Wyndham promotion, you do need to show up and check in.  Read “Hotel Promo Worthy of a Mattress Run: Radisson Buy One Night, Get One Night” for details.  Pay with your Freedom card for 5X!

Kohl’s 25X triple dip

While this has worked for me in the past, there is no guarantee that this will work every time, but it’s worth a shot.  Here’s how to get 25 points per dollar at Kohl’s:

1. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s.  Kohl’s currently offers 10 bonus points per dollar through the mall.  Buy Kohl’s gift cards for yourself.  Pay for the gift cards with your Freedom card.
2. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to Kohl’s to buy merchandise.  Use the Kohl’s gift card to pay.

If points post for all of the above, you should get 25 points per dollar!  To save even more (potentially, a lot more), check out the tips in this old (but still relevant) post: “Fantastic points and savings at Kohl’s.”

UPDATE: A reader has reported that the double-dip did not work.  They got points for using a Kohl’s gift card, but not for buying one.  You can still get 15X simply by going through the UR mall to Kohl’s to buy items and pay with your Freedom card (10X from the Ultimate Rewards Mall + 5X from the Freedom card this quarter)

Best Buy / Kohl’s gift cards

Both Best Buy and Kohl’s sell gift cards to other merchants (in-store only).  Merchant gift cards come with no taxes or fees, so using your Freedom card to buy gift cards to restaurants, department stores, etc. is a great way to max out your $1500 quarterly 5X spend.  At Best Buy, you can get Amazon Kindle gift cards which can be used for all Amazon purchases (but not for the Amazon Payments service).  Best Buy also sells Visa gift cards, but they charge $5.95 for $200 cards.  This amounts to a 3% fee.  If you don’t think you can otherwise max out your Freedom 5X category, this can be worthwhile (since 5X is worth more than 3%), but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.  (Hat Tip to GrahamCC)

Notes

In order to receive 5X for Freedom purchases, you do need to activate the 5X bonus before the end of the quarter. And, don’t forget that the 5X bonus is limited to $1500 of spend per quarter.

A reader contacted me recently asking how he can maximize points earned at semi fast food places like Panera, Chipotle, Subway, etc.  He recognizes that restaurants like these aren’t available through point-earning dining programs, but he’d still like to earn more than 1 or 2 points per dollar.  Overall, he averages about $130 per month at restaurants like these. 

Of course, the first thing to do is to join whatever loyalty program each food place offers.  Beyond that, let’s look at some options…

Simplest approach: Use a credit card that offers extra points for dining

Off the top of my head, here are a couple of good options:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar at restaurants, plus a 7% annual dividend so it really returns 2.14 points per dollar.
• Even better, the Citi Forward card offers 5 ThankYou points per dollar at restaurants (including fast food).  ThankYou points are not generally as valuable as Ultimate Rewards, but with an earning rate over twice as high as the Sapphire Preferred, it’s still worth considering.

With the Citi Forward card, $130 per month will become 7800 points per year.  When you’re ready to redeem points, you can sign up for the Citi ThankYou Premier card to make your ThankYou points even more valuable.  With the Premier card, 7800 points are worth over $103 in airfare.

Better approach: Buy gift cards strategically

Gift cards for places like Panera, Chipotle, and Subway tend to be readily available at grocery stores, drug stores, etc.  Take advantage of your credit card bonus categories to buy gift cards for the places you visit the most.  Here are some examples:

• Use a Hilton HHonors Amex to buy gift cards at a grocery store, drug store, or gas station.  You’ll earn 6 Hilton points per dollar.  If you buy from certain grocery stores, you’ll also earn fuel points for saving money on gas!
• Use a Chase Freedom card within its quarterly bonus categories to buy gift cards.  For example, until December 31st 2012, the Freedom card offers 5 points per dollar at hotels, airlines, Best Buy, and Kohl’s (up to $1500 in spend per quarter).  At Kohl’s you can buy gift cards and earn 5 points per dollar.
• Use a Chase Ink card to buy gift cards at an office supply store such as Staples, OfficeMax, or Office Depot.  You’ll earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.
• Use a Blue Cash Preferred card to buy gift cards at a grocery store. You’ll earn 6% cash back. At certain grocery stores, you’ll also earn fuel points for saving money on gas.

My preference among these options is to earn Ultimate Rewards points with the Chase Chase Freedom or Ink card.  With either card, $130 per month will become 7800 points per year. With the Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Freedom (when paired with one of these Ink cards or with a Sapphire Preferred card), your Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to high value loyalty programs such as Hyatt, United, Amtrak, or British Airways.  With these programs, you can easily get at least 2 cents per point value for travel.  So, those 7800 points could be worth $156 or more in travel.  Note that you can expand this idea well beyond dining options via the “One card to rule them all” trick.

Advanced approach: Buy and upgrade

Every now and then there is an opportunity to buy gift cards at a heavy discount or to get lots of points.  One recent example is when Sears offered 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  Not all stores do so, but Sears is known to award points for gift card purchases.  Here’s how to take advantage of a deal like this:

• Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Sears and order gift cards in order to get 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar (during 10X promotions)
• Pay with the best credit card option.  For example, you could setup the US Bank Cash+ card to give 6.25% back at department stores.  That would be a great way to boost your savings!
• With gift cards in-hand, go to Sears or Kmart and find the gift card racks.  Use your Sears gift card to buy the gift cards you really want.  Note that at Sears it can be very hard to find a gift card rack that sells anything but Sears cards, but once found I’ve never had trouble buying them.  At Kmart, on the other hand, the gift cards are easy to find, but not all cashiers will allow you to buy gift cards with gift cards.  I’d recommend filling up the cart with other stuff (groceries, etc.) to increase your odds for success.

By going through this admittedly convoluted process, $130 per month in semi fast food dining can become 15,600 Ultimate Rewards points and $97.50 cash back!  Of course, that’s contingent upon 1) Sears repeating its 10X promotion; 2) Sears or Kmart carrying the gift cards you need; and 3) Sears or Kmart allowing you to buy gift cards with gift cards…

A variation on this approach is to use an American Express business card with OPEN Savings.  Use that card to buy over $250 worth of OfficeMax gift cards at a time at OfficeMax.com and you’ll automatically get 10% cash back.  Then, go to OfficeMax and use those gift cards to buy the gift cards you really want.  Caution: many OfficeMax stores do not permit buying gift cards with gift cards.

Other ideas?

Do you have other ideas for maximizing points and savings when eating out at places like Panera, Chipotle, and Subway?  Comment below.

Every now and then I’m terribly jealous of Freedom cardholders.  This is one of those times… 

As I reported earlier (see “Ultimate Rewards Mall September Edition”), for the month of September, Chase is offering 10 points per dollar at Sears to Freedom cardholders who shop through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  Last month, they offered the same deal to Ink and Sapphire cardholders.  One of the great things about this is that it’s possible to double-dip with this offer: buy Sears gift cards for 10X, and then go through the mall a second time to use those gift cards for another 10X.  Please see “Sears 10X: Leveraging the Deal” for more details about how to take advantage of this great opportunity (note that that post was written last month for Ink and Sapphire cardholders, but the same tricks apply for the Freedom card).

The waiting game

Historically, when shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall I’ve usually seen points post within about a week (see “Ultimate Rewards Mall: When and where do points post?”).  However, points from Sears for large purchases have been taking much longer lately.  My assumption is that large purchases go through some sore of manual verification process before points are awarded.  In August, I made 6 Sears orders (two were purchases of gift cards and four were purchases using gift cards).  Three of the orders were under $1000 and all three posted within 5 days.  Of the orders larger than $1000, two took about 3 weeks to post, and I’m still waiting for the third order that was placed on August 31.  I’ve heard many similar stories from readers.  Personally, I plan to wait 4 weeks before I worry (too much) about the points.

In case you don’t know how to see whether points post, please read “Ultimate Rewards Mall: When and where do points post?”

Can one really get points when using a gift card?

There are two issues here: whether the merchant awards points for gift card purchases, and whether Chase awards points for purchases made without your Chase card.  In the first case, yes, Sears is known to award points for both purchases of gift cards and purchases made with gift cards.  Not all merchants do the same.  To see which merchants this works with and which it doesn’t, please take a look at the Frequent Miler Laboratory.  As to whether you can get points in the Ultimate Rewards Mall when making a purchase without a Chase card, the answer from experience is unequivocally yes.  The answer most Chase representatives will give you, though, is “no”.  They are wrong.  Trust me.  For more, see “Ultimate Rewards Mall T&C,” and “Ultimate Question.”

Will points really post?

There are many things that can go wrong when using a shopping portal.  Before making large purchases, please read my post “How to ensure your portal points.”  Ultimately, if your points don’t post, you’re at the mercy of Chase’s support team.  If you purchase gift cards using your Freedom card, then you should have no problem getting Chase to credit your points since they will be able to see the transaction on your account.  For purchases made with other cards or with gift cards, you will have more trouble.  Many agents will refuse to help, but you may be lucky enough to find one willing to credit your points.  I’ve known people to call Chase 6 or 7 times before finally getting awarded courtesy points. When this happened to me (months ago), it took me only two calls to get a friendly agent.

Caution

Some readers write in to me in frustration.  They say they’ve followed all of the above advice, but still haven’t received any points (or haven’t received all of the points they are due).  This is a real risk with all shopping portal deals.  Consider this risk before jumping in.

Freedom card

Yes, I plan to get the Freedom card eventually.  There are just so darn many great Chase cards…

How to get 7.04 points per dollar buying fireworks on July 4th (7/04).

Happy Fourth of July!  Today’s post is a silly challenge: how to buy fireworks on July 4th (7/04) and earn 7.04 points per dollar.  This is similar to the Pi day challenge I did in March (see “Pie at 3.14X for Pi day 3/14”), but with an added twist: today we want to use a Chase Freedom card to make the purchase.

On Pi day, I took advantage of the Sapphire Preferred card’s 7% annual dividend to come up with a way to buy a Pie kit for 3.14X.  With the Freedom card, things are a bit more complicated because the Freedom’s reward structure is more complicated….

The Freedom card has two great benefits that I’ll take advantage of here (besides its name).  The first is that the card offers rotating 5X categories each quarter.  This quarter the categories are restaurants and gas stations.  Most gas stations carry firecrackers and the like, so we’ll buy our fireworks there.  The second benefit the card offers is dependent upon having a Chase checking account.  Once you have both the Freedom card and a checking account, you qualify for the Chase Exclusives program.  With Chase Exclusives, your base rate increases from 1 to 1.1 points per dollar AND you get a fixed 10 points per transaction.  Within a 5X bonus category you would earn 5.1 points per dollar plus 10 points.

Algebra

I had to send my brain back to 8th grade algebra to figure this one out:

Given, F = price of fireworks (after tax), our goal is to earn 7.04 points per dollar.  In other words, we want to earn 7.04 x F points.  Our formula then is:

7.04 x F = F x 5.1 + 10, therefore:

7.04 x F – F x 5.1 = 10, therefore:

1.94 x F = 10, therefore:

F = 5.154639

In other words, if we spend $5.154639 to buy fireworks at a gas station, we would earn 7.04 points per dollar.  Unfortunately, most gas stations do not take denominations smaller than a penny, so we need to round down the amount.  When we round down to a payment of $5.15, we see that we earn 36.265 points.  Unfortunately, Chase is likely to round this down to 36 points which completely messes up the math.  After playing with some amounts and accounting for rounding, I found that a payment of $5.11 results in 36 points which comes to 7.045 points per dollar.  Sure, technically this is closer to 7.05X, but I’ll take it.

Buy fireworks for 7.04X

So, there you go.  Simply get a Freedom card and a Chase checking account and register for this quarter’s 5X bonus categories.  Then, go to a gas station that sells fireworks and find some in which the after tax price will come to $5.11.  Easy as pie!

A word to my son

See!  I told you that algebra comes in handy in the real world!  And to think that you doubted me…

On May 1st, I described some great new bonus opportunities in the post “Ultimate Rewards Awesomeness.”  Among other opportunities listed in that post, I wrote:

Sephora at 20X!  Holy cow, that’s a big number.  Someone with a Freedom card, please do a double dip experiment right away!!!

One reader reported that the experiment didn’t work, but another named Matthew reported complete success.  He wrote:

Update: I got an email late last night saying the my UR points for the Sephora purchases has posted. Sure enough, I got 200 pts for a $10 eGift card purchase and then another 200 pts for redemption of that gift card

Great news, right?  This means that Matthew earned 40 points per dollar at Sephora!  Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to me), the 40X deal only lasted until May 8th.  Matthew went on to write the following:

Unfortunately, the email came so late that I was unable to capitalize on the deal bonus before it was reduced to 5x points this morning. It would have been simply amazing to get 10,000 pts for a $250 eGift card purchase and redemption. Well played, Chase. Well played.

Oh well.  Easy come, easy go.

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As I’m sure you’ve read from many other blogs already, the fifth week of Daily Getaways is now viewable.  There are some pretty sweet deals coming too!  With each of these deals, you can save an additional 10% by using an American Express card, but you can do even better!  As long as each deal you want is $500 or less, follow this recipe to maximize points and cash back:

Buy $500 Amex gift cards

Chase Ink

If you have a Chase Ink card, find an Office Depot store that carries $500 prepaid American Express cards and buy however many you need.  Yes, you will be charged a $4.95 fee, but the 5X points you earn in office supply stores way more than makes up for that!

Chase Freedom

If you have a Chase Freedom card, make sure you are registered for this quarter’s 5X grocery bonus.  Then find a grocery store that carries $500 prepaid American Express cards and buy however many you need.

Blue Cash Preferred

If you have a Blue Cash Preferred card, find a grocery store that carries $500 prepaid American Express cards and buy however many you need.  You will get 6% cash back!

Register your Amex gift cards

You won’t be able to use your cards online unless you do this step.  Call Amex at 866-207-7970 to register the cards.

Use your Amex gift cards to pay for Daily Getaways

The hard part is beating out everyone else who competes for the same getaways.  Using your Amex gift card should be the easy part now that they’ve fixed the date issue that stymied me before.  Good luck!

CAUTION: A reader has alerted me to the fact that Daily Getaways adds a $1 extra charge to the Amex gift card.  Presumably this is used to verify the card and will be reversed out later.  However, if you attempt to purchase a Getaway for exactly $500 (or however much is left on your card), the transaction will likely fail because of this additional $1 charge.

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