Earning Credit Card Points 101
- toddcrab58
- Jan 13
- 3 min read
The number one question I’m often asked is “How do I earn all of these points?” And while it may seem like a difficult and daunting task, it is pretty straight forward. There are a few main ways that people earn points and I’ll look to explain those.
The first and arguably the best way to earn credit card points is by taking advantage of the sign up bonus. All credit cards are willing to give you an additional reward by signing up for their credit card and hitting some kind of minimum spend. As I personally view Chase Ultimate Rewards as the most valuable points, we’ll break down this process using their most popular card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Currently, this card has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. By no means is this a small amount of money, but if you are strategic when you open the card (ie, wedding, school, or any large purchase), you can reap the rewards for a fraction of the price. For example, if you need to purchase a new laptop for your household, it would be wise to open a new card to put the purchase on. In today’s world, that would get you at least ⅓ of the spend required! These 60,000 points are worth up to $600 cashback, but when redeemed for travel can be at least 2x that. I’ve redeemed fewer points than this for a $6,400 business class flight (more to come there soon), so the options are endless.
The next fastest way to earn points is through a similar path known as referral bonuses. When you open an account with the bank, you will be provided with a link in which you can refer your friends or family to use in order to get a kick back yourself! These are often super beneficial within a family that is trying to build up points and miles. I’ll get into what is called “2 Player Mode” more in the future but the premise is straight forward. Say the husband signs up for the Sapphire card and receives his 60,000 points. He can then refer his wife to the same card in which he would get an additional 10,000 points and she would still receive her 60,000 points. Combining these to ultimately get over 130,000 points sounds like one great adventure ahead.
The last way to earn credit card points is the most common and straightforward: daily spending. Now by no means do you want to go out and spend money just for the sake of credit card points, but if you are spending money already, why not get rewarded for doing so? I’ll re-emphasize something from another post and that is if you cannot afford to responsibly pay off your credit card every month, you should not be using a credit card for anything. Assuming you can pay it off this is a great way to get some additional points throughout the year! While you will not earn hundreds of thousands of points in this way, if you spend $1,000/month on the right card you can earn over an additional 24,000 points/year no problem. Once you start to build up a set of cards you’d like to use its imperative to understand the earnings on each card in order to make sure you are getting every ounce of value out of your spending; there’s some tricks for that too! Instead of 2x your points a month, certain categories can get you up to 10 points per dollar. 24,000 points/year is only the beginning!
Nevertheless, the methods in which you earn points can look a variety of different ways but that is the beauty of it, there's a method for everyone! If you like to understand the process more or have any questions, leave me a message! If you want to help me out and sign up for the aforementioned card, use the link here to earn 60,000 points:
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