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Pay off your credit card first and foremost
If you’re looking at me or any other person in this space whipping around the world in business and first class and want to do it too – awesome – you absolutely can. But, should you? Yes, if you pay off your bills every month and don’t carry a balance. NO REWARD POINT is worth carrying a balance.
According to Creditcards.com the average credit card debt ( PER CARD ) is now up to $8195 from $6632 in 2016. That’s over a 23% rise in debt per card. If you’re amongst the many, many, many people who carry credit card debt – start paying it off. The article referenced is tailored to utilizing interest free transfer offers that cards incorporate to help do that. I’ve certainly assisted friends and clients pare down credit card debt with this technique, but it takes discipline to pay it off, rather than increase debt with a new card and limit.
Plain and simple, pay off your cards in full. Don’t carry a balance, and if you do, stop making minimum payments and pay off larger portions until you’re out from the debt. Cards, on average, assess over a 20% fee in the way of interest on the purchases you make. If you’re only making minimum payments, you’ll likely be in debt for the rest of your life, and the rate you’ll pay on future lines of credit: auto, home, etc will be higher because your credit score won’t be as high as it could be.
I could go on and on, but there is no point worth paying interest to get them.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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