re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

Europe fares this week are crazy.

Yesterday booked CHS-CDG for 6 day trip in March for $433 per person. I used CUR though the travel portal bc didn't feel like spending cash. 57K points for 2 tickets.

A strategy for anyone that has the Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire Reserve. I didn't read the whole thread so maybe it has been discussed.

Chase Freedom offers 5x's points every quarter in different categories. Right now it's department stores (Macy's, etc), Wholesale stores (Costco, Sam's, etc.), and drug stores (Walgreens, CVS, etc.)

This is a very easy deal to max out (I think they only allow up to $75 in cash back or 7,500 points per quarter with this deal). If you're a Costco member and use them frequently, simply purchase Costco cash gift cards. Also you can buy gift cards from drug and department stores that you know you'll use like Amazon or even Visa cards (if you buy Visa gift cards make sure they're loadable with your credit card, some don't allow it).

The cool thing if you're a Costco member is you can use the Costco cash gift cards for gas, whereas gas is excluded from the Chase Freedom 5x's promotion if you just used your card. It's basically a loophole.

What really makes this deal though is you can transfer rewards points from one Chase card to another. Why would you do this?

Well, if you just use cash back with the Chase Freedom, the points are worth 1 cent on the dollar. But if you have the CSR card, those ultimate rewards points are potentially worth up to 2.1 cents on the dollar if redeemed for travel. More than double the Freedom card. Therefore, if you rack up points on the Chase Freedom using the 5x's rewards, then transfer them to CSR ultimate rewards, you're getting potentially 10% back if used for travel!!!

For example: Today I purchased a $500 Costco cash gift card online using my Chase Freedom.

Boom, that's 2,500 points. I'll easily use that $500 on gas and groceries.

If I used those 2,500 points for cash back on my Freedom card, they'd be worth $25. Not bad considering I only paid $500 for them, but we can do better.

Next, I'll transfer those 2,500 points over to my CSR ultimate rewards where they'll be worth 2.1 cents on the dollar instead of 1 cent on the dollar. Therefore, my 2,500 points will be worth $52.50, more than double than if I just did cash back.

To recap:
I will have paid $500 for a Costco gift card, and get $52.50 in travel rewards. That's more than 10% back!

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Hey Gene, what are the pros/cons of the Platinum Amex vs The Sapphire Reserve?

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Honestly, for the spend you are doing the benefit differences are negligible.


Technically you'd have a higher value floor for Chase, plus an extra $100 travel credit but you flip that for some fringe benefits for AMEX that you value (E.g. customer service)

For anyone interested I actually got my 100k points on the chase sapphire reserve, used all the points as cash towards my balance and closed my csr to go with my jpm card and Amex instead and bc I did it within 60 days I got all the points and I'm supposedly getting a check next week from chase for my csr annual fee in the full amount of $525 for his and hers cards. I logged in and saw a balance of -525 and called in and that's what I was told, it wasn't an error

Bc I was cancelling the card and was worried they would take them back for whatever reason

I'm new to churning cards. I also have a CSR that I plan to cancel before 1st anniversary. Did you call to cancel. Can it be canceled online? Did they try to talk you into keeping it? I get flashbacks from when I called to cancel AOL years ago. Lol

I see the SW rewards card is now at 40k, does anyone know how often it gets back to 50K? Looking to sign up for both to get the companion pass, but a lot tougher to get with 20K more points to earn with the 40K bonuses.

That sounds about right. With a legit reason to cancel plus JPM reserve member they aren't going to frick with you

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1% reward at purchase and 1% after payment.

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This doesn't seem nearly as good as a travel rewards card.

I finally got my CSR metal card in the mail this week.