This might be the best credit card out there, at least in terms of earning points. Of course, anything this good is going to have a catch. Let’s discuss the basics first. The card has a sign up bonus of 75,000 points after spending $6,000 in 3 months. That right there is going to keep a few people away from this card but it really shouldn’t. There are ways to meet that sign up bonus. I can discuss those with you in the Facebook group. As far as earning goes, it earns 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year. It also gets 2% back for grocery and gas stations. While there are better gas and grocery cards out there, if you don’t have those, this is pretty good for gas and grocery. The other really nice thing about this card is that there is no annual fee.
On the surface, the card doesn’t look too amazing if you don’t own a business. I don’t go to office supply stores and my phone and cable bill aren’t that high that I want a separate card to keep track of. Valid concern, but there’s more to this. Office supply stores, basically Staples and Office Max/Office Depot, sell gift cards. You can buy gift cards for tons of stores and you will get 5x on all of those purchases. But it gets even better. You can buy Visa and Mastercard gift cards and use those just about anywhere credit cards and debit cards are accepted.
But wait, there’s yet another catch. These gift cards have fees associated with them that make them a little less desirable. No matter what amount you get, you’ll be charged either $6.95 or $7.95 depending on the gift card. The good news is that Staples and Office Max/Office Depot regularly have sales that bring these fees down to zero or even less than zero. So you could buy $400 worth of gift cards for about $399.
In 2023, these sales seem to be every single week but they rotate. I’m not sure how all of this is coordinated but it is. Week 1 will be $15 off $300 worth of Visa gift cards at Office Max/Office Depot. You can actually buy two $200 gift cards for the same discount. So $200 x 2 plus $6.95 x 2 will net out to under $400. Week 2 might be the same thing but with Mastercard gift cards. Week 3 might be fee free Visa gift cards at Staples with a limit of 8. So you can buy $1600 worth of Visa gift card for no fee in one transaction. Week 4 might be back to Office Depot/Office Max or it’ll be Staples again. Either way, it seems to be every week but only one store at a time.
So like I said, there’s a catch and the catch is that this is all a bit of a pain. It’s not for the average person. But for the serious travel hacker, it is the number one way that you earn points when you are not going after a sign up bonus. I know of no other way to get 5x on just about every single thing that you buy. Even better is that you are getting 5x Ultimate Rewards just like your other Chase cards. Most of your other cards will not be used as a result.
Making this whole situation even more difficult is that Chase will usually give you a very small credit limit for this card. Why? I have no idea but your credit score could be perfect and you probably won’t get over $4,000 although the average seems to be $3,000. For a lot of you, this won’t be too much of a problem but for some of you, it will make things a little difficult in the beginning. You might want to go crazy and buy a ton of gift cards but you’ll be limited by the credit limit. You could charge up $3000, pay it all off right away and then charge some more but that is called credit cycling. Chase will not be happy with that at all and they could shut down your card. Your best bet is to take it slow. Wait until your statement closes and then pay off most of it. You should have 0% APR for at least a year so you don’t have to pay off the whole thing. You can pay off the remaining $1000 on your due date. You’ll have 3 months to hit $6,000 so you’ll be able to do this in 2 and a half months if you do it this way.
If you max out this card (by spending $25,000 in 5x categories), you’ll get 75,000 points for the sign up bonus and 125,000 points for the 5x. I suggest you use it for all of your cable and internet bills as well. That’s 200,000 points for the first year and 125,000 points each year after that. Obviously not everyone can max out a card like that but even if you just spend $5,000 on the card, you’re still getting 25,000 points every year. That’s a hell of a lot better than just getting 10,000.
Not everyone has the mental capacity to juggle these gift cards all the time but if you do, you’ll take your game to the next level and you’ll see a big increase in your points over time. Awesome vacations will not be more in reach instead of a once in a lifetime type of thing. So if you want to put the time and effort it, you’ll definitely be rewarded.
How to apply
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Still need help?
We know that this can be a lot to handle and we want to help you every step of the way. To do this, we set up a Facebook group called Simple Travel Hacks where you can get free help on everything to do with points and miles. You can also help other people with their questions. It’s a great community and we’d be happy to have you join us.
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