Phew! After a month long struggle researching CC’s I chose the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to start my journey into purchasing for perks and points. Second choice would have been the United Explorer card were it not for the $150. annual fee. I’m trying to KISS.
You work at The Points Guy — this is your job. For anyone else, the cognitive overhead is a hidden cost you never account for. Your advice to "start with one card" buried at the end should have been the whole article.
Thx for reading I do talk about having at least one card pretty early on. Agree on starting small. And for many — stay small. Cause small doesn’t stop your rewards from being mighty. 💜
I hover around 40 cards with two player mode and a couple of businesses each.
Recommending one card depends heavily on what ecosystem(s) are best for the individual - typically starting with airline. If United or SW then CSP is a good fit while Delta loyalists need to be in AmEx and AA in Citi.
But Venture X rises to the top for free agents and anyone seeking simplicity for their entire strategy or as their catch all. And I have a hard time recommending Venture Rewards with a $95 annual fee when Venture X's net fee is -$5. Even the recent 75k + $250 bonus, while a good deal in itself, came at the high opportunity cost of waiting ~6 months to possibly be eligible for Venture X.
It really is a solid choice, albeit one in a slightly different fee bracket so mentally not everyone can get there on the first round (tho ofc the math maths on it very easily). I'd also say that the transfer partners there aren't as newcomer-friendly as Chase for many, though you don't even need to use them to still come out ahead with it for sure.
The initial glance at $395 can be a shock, but I show people that it actually works out to be the easiest and cheapest annual fee card. I've recommended it for people for whom an annual fee doesn't make financial sense all the way to those offered the J.P. Morgan Reserve but didn't want to deal with all the details and credits.
I concur that the transfer partners are not as newcomer-friendly, but I consider transfer partners step 2 of the journey anyway - getting people into deliberately earning rewards being step 1. Even redeeming for travel at 1 cpp is a good start when earning 2X on everything (and 10/5X on travel). It is my catch all for earning (when I'm not working on a welcome bonus) and redeeming (for travel that can't be booked with points/miles).
Phew! After a month long struggle researching CC’s I chose the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to start my journey into purchasing for perks and points. Second choice would have been the United Explorer card were it not for the $150. annual fee. I’m trying to KISS.
You made a wise choice!
I would love to see your exact math on how and why this setup works
You work at The Points Guy — this is your job. For anyone else, the cognitive overhead is a hidden cost you never account for. Your advice to "start with one card" buried at the end should have been the whole article.
Thx for reading I do talk about having at least one card pretty early on. Agree on starting small. And for many — stay small. Cause small doesn’t stop your rewards from being mighty. 💜
I hover around 40 cards with two player mode and a couple of businesses each.
Recommending one card depends heavily on what ecosystem(s) are best for the individual - typically starting with airline. If United or SW then CSP is a good fit while Delta loyalists need to be in AmEx and AA in Citi.
But Venture X rises to the top for free agents and anyone seeking simplicity for their entire strategy or as their catch all. And I have a hard time recommending Venture Rewards with a $95 annual fee when Venture X's net fee is -$5. Even the recent 75k + $250 bonus, while a good deal in itself, came at the high opportunity cost of waiting ~6 months to possibly be eligible for Venture X.
It really is a solid choice, albeit one in a slightly different fee bracket so mentally not everyone can get there on the first round (tho ofc the math maths on it very easily). I'd also say that the transfer partners there aren't as newcomer-friendly as Chase for many, though you don't even need to use them to still come out ahead with it for sure.
The initial glance at $395 can be a shock, but I show people that it actually works out to be the easiest and cheapest annual fee card. I've recommended it for people for whom an annual fee doesn't make financial sense all the way to those offered the J.P. Morgan Reserve but didn't want to deal with all the details and credits.
I concur that the transfer partners are not as newcomer-friendly, but I consider transfer partners step 2 of the journey anyway - getting people into deliberately earning rewards being step 1. Even redeeming for travel at 1 cpp is a good start when earning 2X on everything (and 10/5X on travel). It is my catch all for earning (when I'm not working on a welcome bonus) and redeeming (for travel that can't be booked with points/miles).
This is very interesting. A lot of these don't apply to Canadians. Do you have a resource to recommend to Canadians?