Originally Posted by
Chirpchirp
Hi again, I would love to put 600-800 a month on the card, maybe more. Do you know if I put my bills (such as cable, cell phone, etc) would those count too towards points with the Cap One or Chase Sapphire cards ? If so, I would probably up the total to 800-1000 per month. Thanks.
On the Chase Sapphire Preferred card you would earn a minimum of one ultimate reward (UR) point for every dollar charged on the card. So if you are able to charge your cable and cell phone bills to it, you will earn UR points for them. UR points can be transferred to several air and hotel partners if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Sign-up bonuses are your key to free travel. Let's say you apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The current sign-up bonus is 40,000 UR points if you spend at least $3000 on it within the first 3 months of being approved for the card. It has an annual fee, but it is waived for the first year. So if you can put $1000 per month on the card, then you will earn a minimum of 43,000 UR points in 3 months (I say "a minimum" because certain categories like restaurants earn 2 UR points per $ spend).
91 days after applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you could apply for the Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer you. This gives you 30,000 bonus United Airlines miles after $1000 spend on the card in the first 3 months after being approved for the card. It too has an annual fee, but it is waived for the first year. So if you put one month's normal monthly spend of $1000 on it, you will earn the 30,000 United Airlines miles from the sign-up bonus, plus 1000 miles for the $1000 spend on it for a total of 31,000 United miles.
The 43,000 UR points can be converted to United Airlines miles in a 1:1 rate as long as you have your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
So within 4 months you could have a total of 74,000 United Airlines miles. United has a good website for checking and booking award travel on United Airlines and Star Alliance partners. A round-trip coach saver award from US to Europe is only 60,000 miles. So with these two cards you have enough for a ticket to Europe.
I do not recommend putting more on your card than you can comfortably pay off at the end of the month. And do your own research. This is just an example of how sign-up bonuses can help you earn travel just using your normal monthly spend.