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All hail the Multi-stack.Yesterday was just that, when multiple stacks aligned with my annual haul of new shoes. For the last few years, I’ve utilized the sales around Black Friday to get a few pair of Nike Free running/walking shoes. I have a bad back, and those, combined with New Balance shoe inserts, seem to be magic for ailment. Unfortunately, the Black Friday discounts Nike usually give, combined with the TopCashBack rebates, didn’t amount to much on Black Friday. Then the magic happened. Yesterday, via Rakuten, an incredible opportunity opened up to earn 5x Chase and 12x Amex.
Yesterday Rakuten offered 12% cash back on many stores for a single day.
I have opted to earn Amex points vs cashback on all purchases made via Rakuten. Meaning, as long as my store was included, I could earn the 12x Amex points on my purchases. If you’re unfamiliar as to how to do that…read this article.
Enter: The Finish Line.
The finish line was not only included, they had my shoes at 50% off, AND they had a special code to get $15 off a $150 purchase
That meant I could get 3 pair of shoes for $135 + tax or…
Did you notice anything about how I paid?
Enter 5x Chase points via Chase Freedom
Because Finish Line allows me to use Paypal, I could take advantage of Chase Freedom’s Quarterly 5% bonus category.
In the end I earned 5x Chase Points + 12x Amex Points, and purchased 3, $100 pair of shoes, for $144.45 including shipping and taxes.
If you value both Chase and Amex at 2 cents – I earned another 34% off the $144.45 or $49 – which puts my net cost for 3 shoes lower than the retail of 1 before taxes.
Don’t have a Rakuten account? You can earn $10 after you spend $25 by signing up with my link
While the 12x isn’t currently on offer, plenty of stores have doubled up.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.
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