The new public offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is now available to everyone: 80,000 UR after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. That’s $1,000 that can be used towards travel or to Pay Yourself Back. Offer expires 11/7/20.

The new Pay Yourself Back program lets you redeem your UR points at 1.25x for purchases in these categories: grocery stores and dining at restaurants (including takeout & eligible delivery services), home improvement stores and select charitable organizations.

Get $1,000 to Pay Your Back with the 80k UR Offer

Bonus: you can buy gift cards at grocery stores and Pay Yourself Back for those purchases.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

The New 80k UR/$4k Spend Offer was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One huge benefit of Amex cards, and to a lesser extent Chase and BofA cards, is the spending offers you can get targeted for. These offers are paid out as statement credits, so they stack with all other portals, and discount codes.

But there’s one huge catch: you have to enroll in the offer before your purchase. Amex cards can have dozens of offers on each cars, all which need to be individually activated. And if you have several cards, this becomes tedious.

The good news is, there’s an app that can take activate offers for you automatically, across all your cards: MaxRewards.

They usually take a cut of any money you get back this way but because of coronavirus, it’s free through the end of April.

Plus, you can get more months of fee free deals with my referral.

Another great feature of MaxRewards for travel hackers is their bonus tracker. It looks at your spending history and displays a progress bar for your minimum spend requirements.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

The new public offer for the Chase Ink Preferred business card has been increased to 100k UR but it now requires a whopping $15k spend, putting it out of reach for most of us casual travel hackers. Even with bank account funding, this min spend would be hard to hit.

You can still get the old offer, requiring only $5k spend, using a referral link.

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the application.

After signing up for 4 CIPs (3 self referrals), you will earn 380,000 UR just from the signup bonuses, worth as much as $5,700 when redeemed for travel.

Things to know about the Chase Ink Preferred:

CIP falls under 5/24 but doesn’t add to it.
Chase has a strict application rule referred to as 5/24. Your credit card application will be denied if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 month. (This was recently expanded to 5/48 for Sapphire cards). While you need to be under 5/24 to get a CIP, because it is a business card, it doesn’t add to your 5/24 count. A great way to stay below 5/24 is to focus on business cards.

CIP is a business card. It doesn’t show on your personal credit report. This has some advantages and disadvantages. Using the card doesn’t add to your utilization but getting approved for a high credit limit also will not increase your available credit. This should leave you with a net positive affect on your credit score. Yes, you can apply for business cards.

You can meet your Minimum Spend Requirement (MSR) with credit card funding. Chase cards allow credit card funding to meet your minimum spend. Basically, you open a new bank account and fund it with a credit card. Often you can get a bonus for opening that bank account as well. Complete guide with a $50 referral bonus here.

Referrals earn you 20k UR each, 5 max per year. A single referral covers 2 years of annual fees for CIP, making this the most profitable Chase referral bonus program. You can earn up to 100k UR this way and you don’t need to convince anyone to get your first referral.

If it sounds like this card is right for you, check out my step-by-step guide to applying for this business card. It will walk you through qualification and application requirements.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

The 80k UR/$5k Spend Offer is Dead was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Update: you now get a free Nest if you refer 5 friends in addition to the other referral offers.

Most utility companies charge a fee when you want to pay your bills but a credit card but Arcadia Power lets you pay your energy bill with no fee. Plus, they focus on clean energy, offsetting your local energy use by supporting solar and wind power generation. Depending on your energy usage, this is a great way to add a little manufactured spend to your churning routine.

Get up to $25 off your first bill when you use my referral code.

Have friends what would be interested? Arcadia Power has a referral special going on now. If you get 10 friends to sign up this year, you get $1000 off your electric bill. Official rules:

Earn $1,000 off your utility bills
Refer 10 friends and we’ll apply a $1,000 credit to your account! Normal referral bonuses still apply, so you’ll both receive up to $25 off your next utility bill.

Further reading

• Beginners Guide to Free Travel
• /r/churning

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

New Offer: No Fee Electric Bill Payment with a Credit Card was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Step 1: Application

Apply for the Chase Ink Preferred. This is a business card and will not show on your credit report. To see how you qualify for this card and exact application steps, see this post: You CAN apply for business credit cards.

It will take about a week for approval and to receive the card.

Step 2: Account Setup

In Chase online banking, send a secure message asking for the cash advance limit to be lowered to $100 (the minimum Chase will allow) so credit card funding will not code as a cash advance.

This request will be processed in about 24 hours.

I also recommend setting up autopay for this card. If you do not pay off the balance of your credit card each month, this is not a good hobby for you!

Step 3: Credit Card Funding

Open an account with Premier Members Credit Union and fund it with $1,500 charged to your new credit card. You get a bonus $50 here as well! And this account earns 4% interest.

Credit card funding is the easiest way to meet a minimum spend without any cost — you are not spending any money.

If you have a P2, they can open this account as well.

Look for more accounts in your are that can be funded with a credit card. Example: AgFed in DC can fund 6 separate accounts with $1,500.

Step 4: Pay Your Rent

Use your regular bills to easily meet a minimum spend requirement, even if the companies don’t allow payment via credit card.

Plastiq lets you pay almost any bill with a credit card. You schedule the payment and they send a check out after billing your credit card. There is a 2.5% fee but you can get your first $500 fee free when you use my referral code.

Future Steps

• Refer yourself to a second CIP
• Earn a steady stream of UR
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Get the Chase Sapphire Reserve and increase your stored UR value to 1.5x.

Further reading

• Beginners Guide to Free Travel
• /r/churning
• Doctor of Credit

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

Resolve to Travel for FREE This Year was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The data points are in: you can get 4 CIPs. Don’t forget to self-refer.

Several data points have confirmed that you can get 4 CIPs from Chase. Also, the previous advice about using an EIN and your middle initial were just superstition. Feel free to apply for multiple CIPs with your name and no additional tricks. Best practice is to space out these applications by at lest 3 months.

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the application.

After signing up for 4 CIPs (3 self referrals), you will earn 380,000 UR just from the signup bonuses, worth as much as $5,700 when redeemed for travel.

Things to know about the Chase Ink Preferred:

CIP falls under 5/24 but doesn’t add to it.
Chase has a strict application rule referred to as 5/24. Your credit card application will be denied if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 month. (This was recently expanded to 5/48 for Sapphire cards). While you need to be under 5/24 to get a CIP, because it is a business card, it doesn’t add to your 5/24 count. A great way to stay below 5/24 is to focus on business cards.

CIP is a business card. It doesn’t show on your personal credit report. This has some advantages and disadvantages. Using the card doesn’t add to your utilization but getting approved for a high credit limit also will not increase your available credit. This should leave you with a net positive affect on your credit score. Yes, you can apply for business cards.

You can meet your Minimum Spend Requirement (MSR) with credit card funding. Chase cards allow credit card funding to meet your minimum spend. Basically, you open a new bank account and fund it with a credit card. Often you can get a bonus for opening that bank account as well. Complete guide with a $50 referral bonus here.

Referrals earn you 20k UR each, 5 max per year. A single referral covers 2 years of annual fees for CIP, making this the most profitable Chase referral bonus program. You can earn up to 100k UR this way and you don’t need to convince anyone to get your first referral.

If it sounds like this card is right for you, check out my step-by-step guide to applying for this business card. It will walk you through qualification and application requirements.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Refer yourself to a second CIP
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

Quad CIP — The Best Poker Hand in Churning was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Requirements: Open a new SoFi account and fund the account with $100.

Payouts are instant. You can refer your friends as soon as you account is open and you download the app. Increased referral bonus link is only available from the app. Full details on referral program.

Further reading

• Beginners Guide to Free Travel
• Yes, You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• /r/churning
• Doctor of Credit

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Unlimited
• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

The Easiest $50 You Will Make Today was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Already have this card? Generate your referral code here, then share with your friends. You earn 15k UR for each referral. Your friends earn 50k UR.

The Chase Ink Unlimited (CIU) earns 1.5x UR on every purchase. Just like the Freedom Unlimited but with the advantage that it doesn’t report to your personal credit report, keeping your utilization low. Yes, you can apply for business cards.

The 1.5x earn rate becomes effectively 2.25x if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve which multiplies your point value by 1.5x.

The CIU has been my most frequently used card for years. Glad to see they offer referrals now.

Want the CIU? Get it with my referral link.

Further reading

• Beginners Guide to Free Travel
• Yes, You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• /r/churning
• Doctor of Credit

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Unlimited
• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

Chase Ink Unlimited Referrals — Finally! was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Chase cards are widely known to be the most profitable when your goal is free travel. But they are also the most restrictive, which is why you should always start with Chase. Chase cards work well together because additional cards make your current point hoard more valuable. They work so well together, this is referred to as the Chase Trifecta and consists of:

Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR)

• 50,000 UR Signup Bonus
• 1.5x Redemption Rate

Chase Freedom (CF)

• 15,000 UR Signup Bonus

Chase Ink Preferred (CIP)

• 80,000 UR Signup Bonus
• 1.25x Redemption Rate
• Self Referrals

With these 3 cards alone you would net 145,000 UR, worth $2175 when redeemed through the Chase travel portal. However, you could just as easily earn nearly double that UR haul with only 3 Chase cards, the NEW Chase Trifecta, netting 280,000 UR.

The NEW Chase Trifecta is CIP, CIP, CIP

As noted above, you can refer yourself to the CIP and recent data points have shown that you can now get 3 CIPs. On top of that, each referral is worth 20,000 UR. Worth $3,500 or $4,500 if you also have a CSR.

And yes, you CAN apply for business cards.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Refer yourself to a second CIP
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

The NEW Chase Trifecta was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here is the optimal way to apply for these cards:

1. Apply as a sole proprietor with your name as business name.
2. Apply as a sole proprietor with your name as business name using an EIN.
3. Apply as a sole proprietor with your name (including middle initial) as business name.

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the application.

After signing up for 3 CIPs (2 self referrals), you will earn 280,000 UR, worth as much as $4,200 redeemed for travel.

Things to know about the Chase Ink Preferred:

CIP falls under 5/24 but doesn’t add to it. Chase has a strict application rule referred to as 5/24. Your credit card application will be denied if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 month. (This was recently expanded to 5/48 for Sapphire cards). While you need to be under 5/24 to get a CIP, because it is a business card, it doesn’t add to your 5/24 count. A great way to stay below 5/24 is to focus on business cards.

CIP is a business card. It doesn’t show on your personal credit report. This has some advantages and disadvantages. Using the card doesn’t add to your utilization but getting approved for a high credit limit also will not increase your available credit. This should leave you with a net positive affect on your credit score. Yes, you can apply for business cards.

You can meet your Minimum Spend Requirement (MSR) with credit card funding. Chase cards allow credit card funding to meet your minimum spend. Basically, you open a new bank account and fund it with a credit card. Often you can get a bonus for opening that bank account as well. Complete guide with a $50 referral bonus here.

Referrals earn you 20k UR each, 5 max per year. A single referral covers 2 years of annual fees for CIP, making this the most profitable Chase referral bonus program. You can earn up to 100k UR this way and you don’t need to convince anyone to get your first referral…

You can refer yourself to a 2nd and 3rd CIP. If you applied for your first CIP as a sole proprietor with your SSN, you can refer yourself to a second CIP using a business EIN, netting 100k UR. Full guide here.

If it sounds like this card is right for you, check out my step-by-step guide to applying for this business card. It will walk you through qualification and application requirements.

Further Reading

• You CAN Apply for Business Cards
• Refer yourself to a second CIP
• Take advantage of other Chase business cards
• Beginners Guide to Free Travel

Referral Links

• Chase Ink Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Plastiq
• Personal Capital
• All referral links

Getting Your 3rd CIP was originally published in optimalist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.