Starting Out in Points and Miles, Step One: Get Organized

Tom, here. Melissa and I have been excited about sharing information about points travel and what we have learned in the last couple of years. One way that we are going to do that is to write a series of posts that we are calling – If We Were Starting Out in Points Today. We are going to approach this “game” as if we were just starting today, 3/22/23, without any travel rewards cards, which is where we were in April of 2021. As we go forward, we will be targeting current available offers at the time of writing each post. Could you do something different? Sure. Is this perfect? No, but I think its a good start. 

So, here’s where I’d start: organization. I know it's kind of boring, but as we have scaled up it has made it manageable to have many accounts. I would find a program that allows you to aggregate and see all of your accounts in close to real time. I’m sure that there are multiple programs that do this but the one that I have experience with is YNAB (You Need a Budget). This is software we have used for budgeting for years. In our new hobby, It has helped us use credit cards, budgeting only the money we have and tracking spending in one place across multiple cards. It has a fee, but it has been worth it to us.  If you want to try in you can sign up for a free one-month trial (https://ynab.com/referral/?ref=6HXYMFtYmmDUa0Yq I appreciate you using my link if you decide to try it).

Once you get your budget organized, I think the best place to start is with a Chase Ultimate Rewards Card that can be transferred to partners. To begin, I would take a look at what cards you already have and determine 5/24 Status of you and your player 2, if you have one. Your player 2 is either a spouse, partner, family member, or friend with whom you plan to earn points. Just look at your credit reports and the dates of anything that is a credit card. You can find this for free on sites like Credit Karma. This is what Melissa and I looked like before we started pursuing travel cards (dates have been adjusted to pretend we are starting now rather than back in 2021).  

Card	Date open	Account owner	Authorized user
PSECU VISA	11/4/2008	Joint	Joint
CITI Costco	5/21/14	Melissa	Tom
Amazon Card	8/15/15	Tom	NA
Home Depot Card	7/11/21	Tom	NA
Gap VISA	11/23/21	Melissa	Tom
Wells fargo Project Loan	7/9/22	Joint	Joint

5/24 Status 

Tom	Fall off date	Melissa	Fall off date
Home Depot Card	7/23	Gap Card	7/23
Gap Card (maybe)	11/23	Wells Fargo Project	7/24
Wells Fargo Project	7/24

So, Tom is 3/24 and Melissa is 2/24 in the Chase computer approval algorithm. Currently, authorized user cards may not count with Chase, but I would have to call the reconsideration line and depending on the agent and what Chase happens to be caring about in underwriting, they may not count the authorized user account. Currently if you are over 5/24 and call in they are excluding AU accounts. Melissa and I ran into this in 2022, but they were not excluding AU accounts and we lost out on bonuses that we had hoped to get. Another thing that I noticed when I looked at our credit reports is that the loan we took out with WF for no fee financing when our AC unit broke was not a loan but a credit card. If I were to finance a new AC today, I’d definitely open a points card with the same no-fee terms and get a bonus.

Tracking data is important, especially when you pay an annual fee for a card (or 7), or when you are pursuing a bonus. It would be really disappointing to miss a bonus deadline by a couple of days or dollars and miss out on your precious points. I have attached a spreadsheet that I use to track data Credit Card Tracking   I track every month when I get a card statement how many points I got,  any extra credits(like with Uber Eats or other extra credits that certain cards come with), any annual fees that came due,  and how much I spend on the card in each month. I want to be able to track the earnings for the year so I can figure out if a card was worth it when the next fee comes around. This is the data from our 2022 points take. 

2022 Points and Cash Back Totals

By tracking what we spend on each card each month I can determine if we could shift spend and meet a new bonus on a new card (some are as high as 15K). By doing this every month when I get a statement, the task does not build up terribly and is not as onerous and overwhelming. The other thing I track is when a card was opened and when the bonus was received. In the long game I want to be able to eventually get the same bonus again, and this info is important to know for eligibility purposes. Now that we have some order, I am ready to go after my first card! 

I would start collecting points with an Ultimate Reward card, and if I didn’t already have a Sapphire Card, I would definitely start there with the Sapphire Preferred. First because it only has a 95-dollar annual fee and his a very high in branch welcome bonus. For a while as we begin playing this game, it will be the only fee I will pay. It gives me the ability to transfer to many partners. Southwest and Hyatt is where I would start living in Pittsburgh. You also could book travel in the Chase portal (like Expedia) for a min of 1.25 cents per point,  and if you decide this is not fun and confusing, you could cash out for 1 cent per point. Another reason to hold this card is if you book airfare with it you get some trip delay insurance, even if you just pay the taxes for a flight. Melissa and I had to stay in Orlando in 2022 for 2 extra nights because our flight was canceled - if we had booked our airfare taxes and fees with the Sapphire card, we could have been reimbursed for our hotel and food for up to $500 per ticket! Lesson learned! You can also get primary car rental insurance with this card and save some money if you rent a car when you travel. Finally,  it is easy to downgrade this card after a year if you do not want to pay a fee. 

I would call a Chase branch to make an appointment (I called the Shadyside Chase on 3/23 and confirmed they have the 90K points after 6K in spend offer) and open the Sapphire Preferred Card. This is where I would start.  This post has gone long, so I’ll pick up next time with strategies for meeting the minimum spends, and why the bonuses really move the needle.