That is the next step…I have to figure out the business cards. I have no side hustles except for the occasional Facebook marketplace sale.
ETA: thanks for your insight on those too!
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Here’s a nice opportunity for Southwest flyers who have Costco memberships: Costco has the $500 Southwest Gift card marked an extra $20 off their usual discount - now $429.99.
If you also are a Chase Unlimited Rewards junkie and have an Ink Cash card - starting Sunday you can buy fee-free $200 Visa gift cards at Staples and get 5x points because of the office supply category on that card. Then you can use the Visa GCs to pay for the Southwest GCs at Costco.
If you, say, bought $400 in Visa GCs at Staples you’d earn 2,000 Chase UR, and at a basic valuation of 1.5 cents per point they’d be worth $30. so you’d be getting the $500 SW card at an actual net cost of $399.
But, there are many opportunities to transfer points to a partner (like Hyatt) and get something like 3 cents or more per point, which would greatly increase the value of those UR points.
Downside: If you have a ton of Southwest points because you earned a Companion Pass by getting their credit cards, having $ credits on your account isn’t that enticing. But, if playing the long game - a really nice savings!
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I was just about to say the discount is really cool but I still have 100k worth of points to use and points are more flexible than gift cards.
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I just wanted to thank you all again for this thread. I got my CSP a month ago and we’ve already hit SUB thanks to a vacation rental and regular spending, so I referred my hubby for CSP and his arrives expedited tomorrow. That should give us 135,000 Ultimate Rewards points in less than 3 months (plus points from spending).
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Woohoo!
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So I just churned and burned the chase sapphire card. We got the 70K rewards points and used them to credit our flights from this summer.
I’m looking for a new card to open.
Currently I have Disney visa (my primary)
Capital one venture (2% for everything)
And my jet blue card (since that’s what we primarily fly)
Any suggestions?
Bjs has been tempting me with a Mastercard but I’m trying to figure the best way to use it… ($ off gas and 5% back for bj purchases seem appealing)
Another option would be a delta card. Which I could obviously use for flights next year.
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I have a good mix going but I generally do not get flight points because we mostly fly SW and I don’t like the offer from SW CC’s. My Sam’s card give me 5% back on gas (but not Sam’s gas?). My Citi Custom Cash gives me 5% cash back on highest spending category so I use it for groceries. There is a cap but I still get 1 or 2% after that so I just use it for that. My Chase card gives me 3% on dining, pharmacy and travel. And my Disney gives me 1% on the rest (there really isn’t too much left after those). I do use department store cards to get 5% off or back (Target and Kohls mainly).
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I pretty much just use my jet blue card for when I book flights because it’s 6x the points, and every year they give you 5000 points on your anniversary. Other than that it’s not the greatest of benefits.
This past year I’ve worked my Disney visa hard enough to pay our meals this past trip. I’m currently working my capital one for certain things, as the travel reimbursement includes Uber, which I use from the airport to Disney.
I am thinking about using it for my primary card for a while, to build up enough to pay for some flights, since they are so much money and don’t seem to be coming down.
Delta has an offer right now for 70K points on one of their cards. We prefer Jet blue but delta is also acceptable as well.
I have some homework to do before I decide what to do. I think the BJs card is out though, it seems the rewards can only be used at Bjs. Too limiting.
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SW flies heavily out of New Orleans so we tend to fly them. I am trying to get my Disney Dollars up but my 3% and 5% back can also be used for our big Disney trip in December. I just don’t use the balance of the rewards until I purchase or when I check out at Disney. Ill tell them put x amount on each card. Some people feel weird about this but not me. Ill pay for Disney with 5 different cards if that’s where my Disney ear marked spending funds are, lol.
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Actually, I’m new to Disney Visa. How does that work. I don’t have the Premier. How do I redeem my rewards? To pay a balance? I’ve seen mention of a gift card? How can I use that? And do the reward dollars expire?
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Go into your chase account and request a redemption card - Disney will pull all of your reward dollars and send you a card in the mail. You need at least $20 reward dollars to get a card and you cannot reload unless you have $10 in rewards.
It works just like a gift card at the parks!
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With a Disney gift card I can put it in as a payment for my tixs or trip. Can these cards be used like that too? I’m well over $20 and have through October-ish. Would love to drop it on a park tickets to lessen that sting a little. Renting DVC so only other thing would be to charge to room and then go to GS and have them apply to my charges night before check out, right?
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I used mine for dining - so I will let others weigh in here.
I assume you can apply it to G+ and other things too!
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I’ve talked to so many people about credit card stuff lately I can’t recall, did we talk about Ink cards above in this thread? Those are terrific ultimate rewards generators, starting with the Ink Cash which gets 5x at office supply (Gift cards).
In any case, transferable points like UR or Amex MR etc are going to be much more valuable if using them for travel etc. than cash back cards.
For example, I’m looking into the Hyatt Regency in Maui: about 250k Chase UR points for a week split between ocean view club level queen room and a Deluxe ocean suite with 3 lanais.
If I cashed out that amount of points with my Sapphire I’d have $3,125 to spend. (1.25 cents per point.)
But for same points I’m getting rooms with a Cash price over $12,000, so getting about 4.8 cents per point!
Rather than get a Costco or BJs cash back card, I get fee free Visa gift cards with my Ink Cash to rack up 5x points, then use the gift cards to pay at Costco.
10xtravel.com has a good sorted list of cards for strategizing next cards.
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Yes you can. As long as you buy your tix through Disney and not third party. I also use mine to pay the balance on my room.
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The Disney Visa Rewards redemption card can be used exactly like a Disney Gift card. Before you travel you can use it for payments on your trip made to the Walt Disney Travel Company (or travel agent who books directly in WDTC system) and use it on things like your room/tickets/event or party tickets/advanced memory maker, etc. When on site you can use it for room charges, food, souvenirs, Genie+, Individual Lightning lane, etc.
If you use the redemption card to pay for merchandise in the parks or shopdisney web site, you are also entitled to the 10% off $50 or more like you would get using your Disney visa card at check out. You are also eligible for the food discounts at select restaurants.
The Disney Visa card, or redemption card is needed at time of purchase for the discounts, so if you charge to your room using MagicBand, then pay off your room charges with your Disney Visa or Redemption card, you wont get the Disney Visa discounts. BUT you will still earn points/reward dollars on those purchases.
Just don’t lose the redemption card. Once the reward dollars are on it, they can not be transferred to another card. i.e. drop the redemption card in the park and you’ve lost all rewards still on it, or forget it at home and you’ll have to wait until the next trip to use the rewards. Because of this, we often use all points on the redemption card any any pre-arrival Disney charges (room and tickets), before using other payment methods.
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Thank you for that explanation! 
Do most of the Disney in park shops offer a Discount for using Disney Visa card? I love the convenience of tapping a MB but will definitely pull out my card to save 10%.
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The Chase Sapphire Preferred has a pretty good intro bonus right now: 60k UR points, worth at least $600, in exchange for a $95 annual fee and $4k of spend in the first 3 months of cardownership. That’s not too hard if you have some trip expenses coming up.
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They do have the discount, but you have to spend a minimum amount at each location for it to kick in. It almost always turns out we each buy souvenirs in different locations and never get the 10%.
Probably better off buying gift cards at a discount and use those, then every thing is on sale! 
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Don’t tempt me 
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