I am CC debt free, and I was reading about so many offers and promos that I finally decide to just take the plunge.

I have relocated and after hitting 2M on AA I now found myself in UA land in Houston. So trying to focus on getting UA miles and perks. Too bad I am a bit late to the Lifetime Miles from any source parade.

I got a Presidential Plus with the fee waived for the year, almost a year ago. But the upcoming fee $395 is way too much for what I get out of it. So it got me to looking at other cards.

I have recently got a Ink Bold for my business and should have no problem hitting the 10K spend in 3 months to yield the 50K Total Bonus. I today got a Sapphire Plus today. It has the 40K but after only 2 or 3 K spend in 3 months. Again not an issue to hit that mark.

I also already had a freedom card that I used periodically during 5X windows, but never even considered maximizing that spend by buying cash cards at the oppropriate vendor to hit the max $1500 spend.

I shop online frequently but never really utilized UR shopping mall. So OK I am learning. I made a few purchases I would have made anyway last week.

I should hit Platinum status easily this year, perhaps if I get 1 more overseas biz trip I might even hit 1K. So Perks from the Presidential Plus card are not that enticing anymore.


Couple Qs:

If I have a CSP, Ink Bold and Freedom, which is the best UR portal to use as access to the UR and Mall. I suspect CSP but can someone confirm that.

When you combine UR points is there a better card to combine the points into? Like do you get 7% of all points combined into the CSP?

Can you point me to a few threads that will give me some better direction?

How is this working out for people who do buy gift cards, are you getting the 5X and or bonus via UR Mall or are you seeing new exclusions for Gift Card purchases?


TIA

Welcome! You mentioned being CC debt free. The best way to profit from all of these rewards cards is to remain CC debt free and pay off your balances every month. Rewards cards have very high interest rates. Paying 20% - 30% apr cancels out much of the benefits of the rewards.

Don't know much about UR mall. Lately, it seems I am mainly trying to make minimum spend for points on other cards.

There are some great cards for hotels, too. The Citi Hilton card can be churned. I also have the Marriott card from Chase.

Take care!

An excellent source for UR mall bonus options is HikerT's site (he's here on FT also) http://lakebagger.com/ur/

That should answer question on which card to use for the portal.

Earning 7% on combined points has been inconclusive, definitely YMMV and may not actually work at all. No one will know about this year until Jan or so.

Congrats and good luck.

I also have an AMEX Business Open, so I can also through that into the mix.

I ordered the reloadable AMEX. Will have to go buy some money to load onto it, either online (no UR mall points because CC purchase), but either 10% off with Open, or 5X Bonus with Ink Bold.

Too many options, it is hurting my brian.

Poor brian.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...d-ur-mall.html

Well I had intented at some point early next year, converting my old presidential plus to an Exployer without Club access.

I just applied for a Sapphire about a week ago and had not even received my card. So I knew I would have to wait before churning.

Well someone did me a favor I guess. I got a fraud alert on my PP card, a card which I haven't used much lately as I switched nearly everything over to my Ink to hit my 10K spend.

So I have to close the account. So but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to switch to the Explorer. So I applied for a Explorer, with new bonuses, and now am having my closed PP move to new explorer.

Of course Chase can't complain it is too soon, as their fraud department is the one closing the card.

I do wonder where the fraud came from. I haven't really used the card much at all lately. Strange.

It shouldn't matter which card you use to access the UR portal. They will all take you to the same UR rewards mall.

As far as combining points, again, it doesn't make much of a difference as far as I know. You get 7% bonus on the CSP for all points you earn through that card, but when you combine points to that account, I'm almost positive they aren't taken in to account since you didn't earn them.

To buy the gift cards and get the 5x, you usually have to buy the gift cards at an office supply store that gives 5x on the Ink Bold. Think Office Depot, Staples, etc. Then, you can use those gift cards for any of your everyday spend, therefore earning 5x points on any purchases. As far as I know, buying gift cards through the portal doesn't work for any type of bonus points (although I'd love to be proved wrong on this).

Hope this helps!

Not exactly. The reason we have this thread is that there are differences in the bonuses offered by various versions of the mall. The reward is determined by the mall link, not by the card used for payment.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...ings-card.html

Being debt-free and hopefully with a high FICO score makes you eligible for getting more CC with huge sign up bonuses. I think you need to give your brain some rest and focus on getting cards other than Chase.