10,000 lotto tickets.

Get the new Ink Bold. You'll get 50,000 for hitting the $10,000 minimum spend plus at least an extra 10,000 for the spend itself (assuming all your spend is 1x).

If you decide to get a little creative and crazy, you can buy some gift cards at Office Depot (which will get you 5x points) and easily rack up an extra 15,000-20,000 UR points.

You're looking at a minimum of 60,000 Chase points if you get the new Ink Bold and maximum of over 80,000.

I'd definitely take the 60,000 Chase points over the 85,000 Amex points.

Just as a data point, I got the old Ink Bold in early Nov. 2011 and got the new Ink Bold in April 2012. They are considered two different cards, so you will be able to get the new one, even if you keep the old one open.

Clarification?
 

This may seem like a basic question... but do I understand this correctly.

What you can do sometimes, is go to a store and purchase a prepaid card. This is a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express card which is basically used just one time. You pay $5.95 (usually) for the card, plus the amount that you load onto it, and then use it like a regular credit card until it's used up. These cards usually have a $500 loadable maximum. The advantage is that you (a) can time-shift purchases to meet spending requirements and (b) can often purchase the prepaid card at a store which falls into a bonus category. For example, if you had an Ink Bold or a Chase Freedom with groceries as a bonus category, you could purchase the prepaid card at an office supply or grocery store respectively, and get 5x points. Then you use the prepaid card as you would any credit card.

Am I understanding this right?

Also, are these cards reloadable? This would be useful if you wanted to register the card for some kind of recurring use, or just not deal frequently with a small balance.

Already have it.

What does this have to do with this thread?

This thread is about how to maximize benefits from certain credit card spending.

Two posts up or so someone mentions buying gift cards at OfficeMax.

Yep, you are understanding that right. Some cards you can get are reloadable, others aren't. Just depends which ones you want to get.

But yes, your understanding about how to use the Ink Bold or Freedom to buy gift cards is spot on.

That's correct, at least for prepaid gift card. In addition, there are people (or school of thoughts) that refer to AMEX prepaid reloadable cards: e.g., get permanent prepaid from AMEX and buy reloads from office supply stores then add the amount to the permanent prepaid AMEX - the tipping factor is the option to withdraw cash from these so called permanent prepaid cards although there is a limit for the amount you can withdraw each month. See details here http://boardingarea.com/blogs/freque...rule-them-all/

No.. this thread is about geting the best points bang for your buck when I have to spend $10,000. What card will get me the most benefits from spending the 10 grand. Certainly not about how to buy gift cards.

How about 135,000 American Airlines miles by using the two browser trick to get both the Visa and the Amex personal cards (50K each), and then, probably later, getting the business card (35K). Total spend $7,500, giving you another 7,500 miles, for a total of 142,500 miles.

Details on my website below in the Credit Cards > Annual Fee Cards page (though that fee is waived for the first year).