Need help maximizing return
May 8, 2011 | 4:07 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1
Need help maximizing return
I'm completely new to mileage cards and need some help choosing one. I make about $50K/yr and my credit score is ~760. I live in L.A. and travel once a year to Japan and Hawaii for vacation, with occasional weekend getaways to places like SF and SEA. I currently have about 20,000 miles with United Milage Plus, I don't prefer any one airline but I usually end up flying UA to Japan because they always seem to have the cheapest rates.
I'm looking for a miles/points cc to use for regular monthly expenditures: gas, food, utilities, etc. in which I would probably spend about $1000/month on. I was looking at the Capital One Venture card, would this be an ideal card for my usage or is there something better out there?
I'm looking for a miles/points cc to use for regular monthly expenditures: gas, food, utilities, etc. in which I would probably spend about $1000/month on. I was looking at the Capital One Venture card, would this be an ideal card for my usage or is there something better out there?
May 8, 2011 | 9:18 pm
#3
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 749
I think it depends on the way you wish to redeem miles/points.
You're talking about $12,000 a year in spending. I am in a similar boat as you, spending that much a year on CCs, for my day to day and any bills I can put on CC.
For me mileage cards gain miles so slowly they almost aren't worth it for day to day. For the huge sign up bonuses sure...apply away. But think about it... you could sign up for the Continental card, receive 50,000 miles, and then it would take you another 4 years to double those miles. Or you could apply for the United card, and almost double those miles in a month.
Not that $1,000 a month is small time spending, but for gaining miles it is very slow... Unless you get aggressive, up your spending in ways like coins, etc:
Capital one would be a nice option, because you could use the points along the way for expenses. It sounds like you already have a nice little travel pattern. You'll never gain enough miles in day to day spending to pay for Hawaii and Japan trips each year with miles. But the Capital one card could knock off $250 or so in travel expenses, maybe a dinner or two, or a night or two at a hotel. Gain miles by flying your usual trips on CO or UA, apply for the CO and UA cards and get a nice big amount of miles fast.
What I do: I use my discover card whenever there are 5% cashback promotions, and my Capital one anywhere else. This has netted me $250+ in cash back this year, and not much from Capital One--yet, but I've only had the card a few months now. Signing up for CC offers along the way is by far the best way to gain big time miles from the large carriers. AA, CO have both hooked me up with enough miles to fly pretty much anywhere around the world, just by applying.
You're talking about $12,000 a year in spending. I am in a similar boat as you, spending that much a year on CCs, for my day to day and any bills I can put on CC.
For me mileage cards gain miles so slowly they almost aren't worth it for day to day. For the huge sign up bonuses sure...apply away. But think about it... you could sign up for the Continental card, receive 50,000 miles, and then it would take you another 4 years to double those miles. Or you could apply for the United card, and almost double those miles in a month.
Not that $1,000 a month is small time spending, but for gaining miles it is very slow... Unless you get aggressive, up your spending in ways like coins, etc:
Capital one would be a nice option, because you could use the points along the way for expenses. It sounds like you already have a nice little travel pattern. You'll never gain enough miles in day to day spending to pay for Hawaii and Japan trips each year with miles. But the Capital one card could knock off $250 or so in travel expenses, maybe a dinner or two, or a night or two at a hotel. Gain miles by flying your usual trips on CO or UA, apply for the CO and UA cards and get a nice big amount of miles fast.
What I do: I use my discover card whenever there are 5% cashback promotions, and my Capital one anywhere else. This has netted me $250+ in cash back this year, and not much from Capital One--yet, but I've only had the card a few months now. Signing up for CC offers along the way is by far the best way to gain big time miles from the large carriers. AA, CO have both hooked me up with enough miles to fly pretty much anywhere around the world, just by applying.
May 9, 2011 | 1:05 pm
#4
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Swamps of Jersey
Programs: US Silver, Club Carlson Gold
Posts: 376
You can increase your mileage yield from CC spending by shopping through the portals, especially with CO and their "Double the Miles" promo. I'm averaging just over 3 miles per dollar on CC spends.
Examples:
Since March I've put around $12k on the card, and netted just under 40k miles.
Examples:
- Petco $13, 10x the miles via Shop Onepass = 143 miles (130+13)
- 1-800-Contacts, $135, 8x the miles = 1215 miles
- Sears, $239, 10x the miles, 2629 miles
- Drugstore.com gift cards, $500, 10x the miles = 5500 miles
- 1-800-Flowers, $75, 50x the miles = 3825 miles
Since March I've put around $12k on the card, and netted just under 40k miles.
May 9, 2011 | 2:00 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 51
I think it depends on the way you wish to redeem miles/points.
You're talking about $12,000 a year in spending. I am in a similar boat as you, spending that much a year on CCs, for my day to day and any bills I can put on CC.
For me mileage cards gain miles so slowly they almost aren't worth it for day to day. For the huge sign up bonuses sure...apply away. But think about it... you could sign up for the Continental card, receive 50,000 miles, and then it would take you another 4 years to double those miles. Or you could apply for the United card, and almost double those miles in a month.
Not that $1,000 a month is small time spending, but for gaining miles it is very slow... Unless you get aggressive, up your spending in ways like coins, etc:
Capital one would be a nice option, because you could use the points along the way for expenses. It sounds like you already have a nice little travel pattern. You'll never gain enough miles in day to day spending to pay for Hawaii and Japan trips each year with miles. But the Capital one card could knock off $250 or so in travel expenses, maybe a dinner or two, or a night or two at a hotel. Gain miles by flying your usual trips on CO or UA, apply for the CO and UA cards and get a nice big amount of miles fast.
What I do: I use my discover card whenever there are 5% cashback promotions, and my Capital one anywhere else. This has netted me $250+ in cash back this year, and not much from Capital One--yet, but I've only had the card a few months now. Signing up for CC offers along the way is by far the best way to gain big time miles from the large carriers. AA, CO have both hooked me up with enough miles to fly pretty much anywhere around the world, just by applying.
You're talking about $12,000 a year in spending. I am in a similar boat as you, spending that much a year on CCs, for my day to day and any bills I can put on CC.
For me mileage cards gain miles so slowly they almost aren't worth it for day to day. For the huge sign up bonuses sure...apply away. But think about it... you could sign up for the Continental card, receive 50,000 miles, and then it would take you another 4 years to double those miles. Or you could apply for the United card, and almost double those miles in a month.
Not that $1,000 a month is small time spending, but for gaining miles it is very slow... Unless you get aggressive, up your spending in ways like coins, etc:
Capital one would be a nice option, because you could use the points along the way for expenses. It sounds like you already have a nice little travel pattern. You'll never gain enough miles in day to day spending to pay for Hawaii and Japan trips each year with miles. But the Capital one card could knock off $250 or so in travel expenses, maybe a dinner or two, or a night or two at a hotel. Gain miles by flying your usual trips on CO or UA, apply for the CO and UA cards and get a nice big amount of miles fast.
What I do: I use my discover card whenever there are 5% cashback promotions, and my Capital one anywhere else. This has netted me $250+ in cash back this year, and not much from Capital One--yet, but I've only had the card a few months now. Signing up for CC offers along the way is by far the best way to gain big time miles from the large carriers. AA, CO have both hooked me up with enough miles to fly pretty much anywhere around the world, just by applying.
There is a very obvious choice here: apply for the Continental Chase card immediately. You can now merge United and Continental points, so you'll immediately have enough points for a round trip economy flight to Japan. Six months after you've received the Continental card from Chase, you can apply for the United card from Chase. At that point they will most likely have a 30k or 50k signup bonus. The Continental card is expected to disappear off the market soon, because of their merger with United. That's why I recommend applying for this card first (and of course their signup bonus of 50k is really good right now).
Capital One cards generally offer much less generous signup bonuses. For someone like you (and also me) who doesn't actually spend much annually, the signup bonuses are the best thing about mileage credit cards, not the miles/$ for spending. So you should try to maximize the former.
In the long run, if you want to earn more miles to do this regularly, you definitely could. I started using credit cards two years ago. Over the course of these two years I opened a total of about 7-8 mileage cards and earned enough points for 6 round-trip economy tickets to Asia. I've used up 2 of those and have planned a bunch of trips for the rest of 2011 and 2012 (including a couple in business class!). So if you want to keep doing this, it is definitely possible!
To give you some idea of how you could do things, here are the cards that I have used for miles over the past 2 years: Chase United; AmEx Delta; Citi American; AmEx Gold Premier Rewards; BankOfAmerica Aeroplan; Chase Continental; AmEx Platinum; Chase British Airways.
I also received some Continental miles from Chase's checking account bonuses (this offer is now permanently gone), from SunTrust's Delta checking account bonus (this may also be permanently gone), and from Citi's American checking account bonuses (this is still available, and you can get as much as 30k miles!)
So to summarize, my advice is the following: get the CO Chase card now and the UA Chase card a few (~6) months from now. Also get Citi's AA checking account bonus. You could also get Citi's AA credit card now (I believe the offer for 75k miles is still available if you call over the phone--check the thread here to see how people are getting this card). If you get these two AA bonuses, you'll have more than 100k miles almost instantly. Since you travel to Hawaii often, you might also benefit from BankOfAmerica's Hawaiian card and BankOfHawaii's Hawaiian card. Each of these gives about 35k points, and you can open both simultaneously. BTW, Chase's current best checking account bonus is for $150, which is also not bad for a checking account.
May 9, 2011 | 2:06 pm
#6
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Swamps of Jersey
Programs: US Silver, Club Carlson Gold
Posts: 376
If you're going the AA route, apply for the personal and business card using the 75,000/$1500 offers. Use your SSN for your business ID - nothing wrong with that. I picked up 150k AA miles in March doing that.