Common advice in points & miles circles is to always use new credit cards with big welcome bonuses for your everyday spend. Most card offers require thousands of dollars of spend in order to earn big welcome bonuses. So, the idea is to apply for a new card, use it for all spend until you reach the minimum spend requirement for that card’s welcome bonus and then apply for a new card. Rinse and repeat. This approach is a great way to earn hundreds of thousands of points each year. I’ve been known to give this advice myself. But it’s not what I do. New cards hardly ever make it into my wallet for everyday spend.
Earn 10x to 20x everywhere
By putting all of your spend on new credit cards with big welcome bonuses, it’s possible to average 10x to 20x rewards for all of your spend. Here are a few examples based on welcome offers available at the time of writing (click through each card to see current welcome offers):
- Citi Premier Card: 60K points after $4K spend in 3 months.
- If you put all of the $4,000 minimum spend on non-bonused categories (where you’ll earn only 1 point per dollar), then you’ll earn a total of 64,000 points (4K from spend + 60K from the welcome bonus). 64K / $4K = 16 points per dollar.
- If you put all of the $4,000 minimum spend on 3x bonus categories, then you’ll earn a total of 72,000 points (12K from spend + 60K from the welcome bonus). 72K / $4K = 18 points per dollar.
- The Platinum Card from American Express: 150K points after $8K spend in 6 months.
- If you put all of the $8,000 minimum spend on non-bonused categories (where you’ll earn only 1 point per dollar), then you’ll earn a total of 158,000 points (8K from spend + 150K from the welcome bonus). 158K / $8K = 19.75 points per dollar.
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: 75k miles after $4k spend within first 3 months.
- This card earns 2 “Miles” per dollar for all spend and so you’ll earn 8K Miles from the $4K minimum spend. You’ll earn a total of 83,000 points (8K from spend + 75K from the welcome bonus). 83K / $4K = 20.75 Miles per dollar.
- Capital One Venture X Business Card: 150K miles after $20K spend in the first 3 months and an additional 150K miles after $100K spend in first 6 months. Like the consumer Venture X, this card earns 2X “Miles” for all spend.
- For the first $20K spend: You’ll earn 40K Miles from $20K spend plus 150K Miles from the welcome bonus for a total of 190K Miles. 190K / $20K = 9.5 Miles per dollar.
- For the extra $80K spend towards a total of $100K: You’ll earn 160K Miles from $80K spend plus 150K Miles from the welcome bonus for a total of 310K Miles for this second half of the offer. 310K / $80K = 3.875 Miles per dollar. Since the earning rate is so low for the second part of this offer, most people would be better off stopping at $20K spend and moving on to other new cards after that.
This approach of serially applying for new cards in order to earn 10x to 20x everywhere is a great way to earn rewards. And, despite what you may have heard, it won’t hurt your credit score if you manage your credit well (see: How new credit cards can impact your credit score).
If you’re new to this and interested in getting started, here are some recommendations:
- Sign up for Travel Freely to keep track of your credit cards and to walk you through the process.
- Sign up for Award Wallet to keep track of your points & miles balances.
- Find the best credit card offers on our Best Credit Card Offers page or go with my favorites found in my Greg’s Top Picks page. If you get an offer in the mail, though, compare it to our Best Offers page. Sometimes targeted offers are better than anything else publicly available.
- Read more:
- The games we play (a big picture overview of the points & miles ‘game’)
- The tools we use (a list of useful tools for earning and using points & miles)
My Alternate Approach
Just like others in the points & miles game, I apply for new credit cards over and over. The difference is that I don’t usually put those new cards in my wallet. They usually never leave home. Instead, to meet minimum spend requirements, I pay bills and make microloans, and I often incur fees for this spend.
There are several reasons I do this:
- It drastically simplifies tracking minimum spend. I maintain a spreadsheet where I add all new spend to a running total until it meets or exceeds the minimum spend required for a welcome offer. Since all of my spend is from home and usually only on large purchases, it’s easy to do this.
- I never go over the minimum spend. This approach lets me fine tune my spend so that I spend exactly the amount needed for the welcome bonus without going over (OK, yes, I often go a few dollars over, but you get the idea). This reduces the chance of inadvertently earning only 1x on spend after the minimum spend is done.
- It maximizes category bonus rewards. By using my usual wallet full of cards when I’m out and about, I can always earn the most rewards for any given situation (e.g. 8x gas, 5x grocery, etc.).
- The net cost for paying for spend rather than using the card for everyday spend is approximately zero. This is going to require extra explanation, so please read on…
In the 2024 edition of “What’s in my wallet?” I showed how I earn excellent rewards for all my spend: 8X gas, 5X to 6X restaurants, 5X grocery, 3X Travel, 3X Apple Pay, and 2.62% everywhere else. I don’t know for certain, but I’d guess that I average well over 3.5% back on all “out and about” spend.
Often, I don’t pay fees since many bills can be paid from home with a credit card without incurring fees. However, I do happily incur fees in order to greatly increase my ability to handle big minimum spend requirements. Here are some ways in which I pay for spend:
- Pay Taxes (including estimated taxes): ~2% fee
- Pay Bills: ~3% fee
- Buy and sell things: I don’t do a lot of this, but I’ve had great luck with Aligned Incentives lately. I only do deals where the net cost to me is less than 3%.
- Kiva microloans: There are no fees to make Kiva microloans with a credit card, but there is a risk of not getting all of your money back and there’s the cost of money until your loans are repaid. The actual cost of all this is very hard to measure and varies greatly over time. For the sake of argument, let’s say that Kiva loans cost me 5% (even though I think that it is less).
As you can see above, the techniques I use for paying for spend cost me anywhere from 2% to 5%. Let’s now assume that, on average, I pay 3%. Earlier I asserted that I earn at least 3.5% from cards in my wallet for everyday spend. So, you can see that I come out at least a half percent ahead by doing what I do.
I’ll walk you through a scenario to try to make this clear…
$8K Spend Scenario
Imagine I sign up for a Platinum card while it offers 150K points after $8K spend in six months. Now imagine that my day to day spend adds up to $8,000 in six months or less.
Many people would use the Platinum card for everyday spend until they completed the $8K spend requirement. There’s nothing wrong with that! Assuming most of that spend earned only 1 point per dollar, they would earn a total of 158K points and it wouldn’t cost them anything. They wouldn’t have to pay any fees for spend. Cool.
In my case, though, I would use my usual cards for that $8K of everyday spend, and I’d separately pay for spend to meet the $8K spend requirement for the Platinum card. Let’s assume that I average earning 3.5% from my everyday spend and that the cost of the spend on my Platinum card was 3% (perhaps I paid big bills through Melio, for example). Then we can see that I come out slightly ahead:
- Traditional way: $8K spend = 158K points. Done
- My way: $16K total spend
- $8K spend on everyday stuff at ~3.5% cash back = $280 in rewards.
- $8K spend from home on Platinum card = 3% in fees ($240) + 158K points
- I would earn the same number of points (158K) plus I would come out $40 ahead ($280 earned minus $240 in fees = $40)
This was just an example to prove a point. In real life, there isn’t an exact one-to-one correspondence between the amount I spend on everyday stuff and how much I spend to earn new credit card bonuses. The latter is usually much higher. Also, there are scenarios where using a new card for everyday spend would earn many more points than using the card to pay bills. For example, the Citi Premier card offers numerous 3x categories. If I got that card and met the minimum spend by paying bills, I’d only earn 1x. If I used it instead for everyday spend, I might average close to 3x. That said, in my wallet now I’d usually earn 5x for those same categories where the Premier card earns 3x and so I’d still come out ahead with my approach. That said, even if I came out slightly behind by doing what I do, I’d still do it. Most welcome bonuses are so large that I find it worth it to lose some money in order to easily meet minimum spend requirements.
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What I love in this post is the comparison of the 4 cards in regards to “X points per dollar” spent. To me this is how we should be looking to sign up for credit cards instead of this card has 50,000 signup points and that one 100,000 points so the 100,000 points offer must be better. It would be fascinating to see a post where all these “X points per dollar” spent where compared via ranges. $0-$500 best cards for “X points per dollar”, $500-$2,000 best cards for “X points per dollar”, $2,000-$5,000…etc. I think must people would be surprised usually signing up for 3 $5,000 minimum spend would result in a much better result than 1 card with a $15,000 spend etc. Yes, keeping track of 3 cards is more difficult, but just as this article points out you don’t to carry those cards around in your wallet.
What would be even better is the take the “X points per dollar” and then multiply by their “RRVs” and rank signup up values that way. Nirvana!
That’s a great idea! In fact, that’s what we do on our Best Offers page. 🙂
Each card has a “first year value” on the card display. That value is reached by taking the SUB, multiplying it by RRV, adding a below-face estimated value for any credits, then subtracting the annual fee and the opportunity cost of the minimum spend when compared to a 3% cashback card (just to be conservative). Those values are then used to rank the best consumer and business card offers.
By adding those values together, you could essentially get to the comparison that you’re looking for.
Og course, you can always play around with your own RRVs, opportunity costs, etc, which would allow you to tailor things more towards your own situation. But starting with the first year values would be a good rough estimate.
I think you are close. I agree “first year value” is a good starting point It’s just hard to compare cards as each has its own minimum spend requirement. Two $900 “first year value” cards are not equal. The one with the minimum spend of $15,000 versus the one with $5,000 are vastly different. What I think needs to be added is a “first year yield” or “first year rebate”. In this case one would be 6% and the other would be 18%. I’d sign up for 3 of the 18% rebates any day before signing up for 1 of the 6% rebates.
Even if you didn’t add that metric permanently to the Best Offers Page (& make it sortable), I would find a periodic post on the rankings very helpful!
Appreciate all you guys do.
Ah, I see what you mean. I thought that you were just wanting to be able to figure out that “yield,” in which case you just divide the first year value by the minimum spend.
It would be interesting to do a top ten “return/dollar spend” ranking. We’ll noodle on that.
I like the points per dollar metric as well. With there being a wide points and miles audience what can sometimes get missed is that not everyone will MS, and with a lower organic spending limit the return per dollar becomes a more relevant consideration. The high SUB Venture X Business offer is an obvious outlier but there are others like the Business Platinum or Ink Preferred where they make sense to get repeatedly if you’ve got $100K+ of business (or MS) spend per year but may not be worth your time with the high MSR if your household is going to do $50K organic for the year on credit cards and that’s it.
With this metric, the entry level cards with the spend $500, get $200-300 offers would be far and away the best. But unfortunately, you can’t get 100 of these a year so you can get more total value by focusing on the Inks and Platinums and the like.
If you’re doing mostly MS, then you can just consider the bonus value minus the cost of meeting the spend. For example meeting the Biz Platinum MSR costs me ~$450 to get over $2000 in value, which is way more than getting 40-60% back on $500 spend.
Right. This would have to be broken down in bonus “bands” so you’re comparing apples to apples.
How does Amex treat SUB spend for Kiva?
No one has any idea?
It’s treated as a regular purchase
Appreciate the follow up Greg! You an MVP combing the comments section of a story from a month ago. All the best
What is not being said is that Frequent Miler and other blogs need to promote the 3x/5x category bonuses that are the credit cards main selling points for ongoing spend.
If FM went hard on churning sign up bonuses they would lose their affiliate links which are their bread and butter.
I don’t blame them. FM does a great job of walking the line between playing ball with the credit card companies and giving us good tips and tricks on maximization. I owe you all a lot of thanks!
Meanwhile, I will stick to churning my inks for 75% back based on the 4c/pt Hyatt redemptions I’ve been averaging.
It’s interesting that you’re leaving this comment on a post where Greg repeatedly says that most people will be better off by churning SUBs.
To answer your kind of unasked question, there’s no affiliate that requires us to not write about churning SUBs, nor is there any content that we do write because we’re required to by affiliates. It’s rule #1 and we don’t deal with affiliates that do require sponsored content.
Greg’s simply laying out what he does and why he does it. There’s nothing that’s being left unsaid. A recent example of how Greg integrates the SUB that you’re referring to is this post where he wrote about opening three household Ink cards while being over 5/24.
Fair enough Tim. I can see how the calculation changes when you’re working with a six or seven figure annual spend that exceeds what can be done with sign up bonuses alone. Greg does say that most people will be better off focusing on sign up bonuses.
Like I said I’m truly appreciative of the FM team!
Um… Greg is not doing what you’re suggesting. His example uses signing up for only one card (Amex Platinum); its spending requirement is enough for multiple cards, and aggressive churners would open multiple cards.
People signing up for multiple cards via affiliate links would be more financially beneficial to FM than signing up for the example’s one Platinum card, which isn’t even an affiliate link at the moment because FM posts the best available known SUB, even if they don’t get paid.
Maybe this is better saved for an “Ask Us Anything”, but I’m interested in an update of your Kiva delinquency loss, currency loss, and default rates since your last article about it. Mine seem to be way lower than what you wrote.
I’m assuming that Greg is factoring in opportunity cost when he states that Kiva loans may cost him somewhere in the 5% range. This would be the money lost that he could have earned if he invested the same money instead of lending though Kiva.
I’ve been lending on Kiva since 2017. I always set my filters to only lend short and safe loans. Over the years I’ve lent about $384K. My currency loss rate is 0.07% and my default rate is 0.16%. I add these two numbers together to give my total loss rate of 0.23%. I mostly take VGCs purchased at office supply stores during a sale and lend them through Kiva. $384K spend has given me about 1.92 million URs. At a value of 2 cents per UR, I’ve gained $38,400 worth of points at a cost of about $885 plus whatever opportunity cost I’ve had for having my money tied up in Kiva loans.
This is great, thanks for sharing. After about 7 months, my numbers are closer to yours. 0% default, 0.08% delinquency. Just wondering if I’m missing something
Well I guess if you have unlimited MS capability then why not. Me, I only pass on using MSR card for organic spend where I have a 5x option, like chase freedom, where I need some card benefits, or where there is chance I might need to return/refund purchase… don’t want a clawback!
I don’t MS. But, I pay taxes. There’s a whole range of bills one can pay.
I’m talking about GC, BG and other MS that is tedious and not without risk. I also overpay taxes and use Plastiq for rent, as this increases how many SUBs I can earn, but I also put otherwise unbonused organic spend towards SUBs, as it accomplishes the same without fees.
Credit card companies have been increasingly generous with spend promos since Covid, I now put the majority of my spend on those. True not 10x but a lot easier & less risk to earn .075 on a new BA promo that showed up today than opening/closing accounts.
.075?
25,000 Avios (5k from spend + 20k promo bonus points) / $5k spend = 5x/point x .015 Avios redemption value = .075
You make it sound like the difference is between 10% and 7.5%, but it’s much, much bigger. Greg gave the example of the Citi Premier bonus providing 16x, while your example is 5x.
I enjoy a good SUB, too. But only when they are extraordinary enough to warrant all the hassle + the risk of probing eyes on my banking relationship. I think Greg is saying a mix of spend & SUBs are optimal for him (& they are for our family, too!).
Regarding the everyday spend:
I’m surprise that you and the rest of the crew didn’t do the CFU deal. I am getting about 4 chase points per dollar on spending. I put all my spending on it except for subs, Hyatts and flights. Seems like a better deal than anything else available and super easy for a P2 as well
Yep that was an awesome deal. I came close to applying for it, but I simply had too many other things going on at the time and never got around to it.
Same for me, along with the same spend exceptions including any spend promos on existing cards that exceed .045 + spend at Marriott/Hilton + Ink Cash spend at 5x + 5x quarterly CF spend. 6x dining for an entire year makes the card worth it for us by itself!
I’m applying for my first Amex. Would you do it through a hotel, airline or just plain Amex?
If you’re interested in points & miles then go for a card that earns Membership Rewards points which transfer to many airline and some hotel programs. A card like the Amex Gold can be a great choice for many: https://frequentmiler.com/amxgoldcard/
What is the Frequent Miler card in your wallet?
It’s just a business card (not a credit card — this is the type of old fashioned card that people used to hand out when they met others)
“type of old fashioned card” lol. I feel so old.
Charitable donations are also a great way to hit minimum spend on cards. Most charities takes cards for donations and occasionally charge a fee but not always.
That’s true. See this post for more on this topic: https://frequentmiler.com/rewards-for-charitable-giving/
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the volume of credit card spend that Greg, Nick, and the rest of the FM team can achieve simply by paying taxes, bills and kiva microloans. For example, I recall some posts from a few years ago where Greg disclosed that he would spend $100k+/yr (or was it $250k+/yr) on a single Delta card to qualify for Diamond status. Add to that all the spend requirements on new cards to qualify for SUBs and that’s easily several hundred thousand dollars of credit card spend per year. I’ve been in this points and miles game for several years, and that spend volume still seems unreachable, at least for me.
Not sure about Greg, but Nick has writted several posts, including the one where he tells the story of how he got into this game and eventually ended up at FM. He has been into reselling business for quite some time, and I think he also participates in Buying Group activities. The last one is especially a monster. I started my BG journey about 10 months ago, and despite a slow and cautious start, I have resold products worht 150k easily in the past 10 months (and I have a full time job to take care of, so its not like I am doing this 24×7). Imagine what Nick will be able to achieve with his experience. I am part of some BG discord group where people generate 10/20k spend a day and make real profits that replace their actual income from other jobs. So, for a serious player, it isn’t difficult to generate million in annual spend. The real question is – how do you avoid Financial Reviews or other majors from your CC companies because you are spending millions of $$ but told them your income was only a few hundred thousand $$. I have had my share of AMEX FRs that limit my ability to spend more.
How do you get your orders to go through? I tried BG’s a few months ago, and 90% of my orders were canceled.
Okay… Comparing the spending of $8k in 3 months vs. $160k is not fair or equivalent when one scenario’s spending is twice the other. If you’ll spend $16k in 3 months, of course you can (and should) optimize while remembering to spend $8k on the SUB card.
However, if you can spend only $8k in 3 months, you should accept the lost opportunity cost of not using the 4x to 8x cards you already have while spending on the SUB card. Or, if you can spend $16k, you can open multiple cards for their SUBs, instead of only one card. (I personally wouldn’t sign up for 3 or 4 credit cards in a month.)
If you can spend basically what the median US salary is, sure, optimize. Signing up for new cards is a fast way to amass points, but when you spend a LOT of money, the game changes because you can amass a LOT of points quickly anyway without dealing with SUBs and gazillion credit cards. Instead, you can just pick a few cards that get the most points with your spending category habits, then charge a lot as a big spender.
Greg said that for most people, meeting a SUB with everyday spending is most likely the way to go. For a range of reasons, Greg’s situation is different. Nonetheless, Greg wanted to share an alternative view. Maybe it might spur someone to ask “What if . . . ?”
Greg has bills that are otherwise not payable with a credit card but for services such as Melio, Plastiq, and tax payment services. Greg uses those bills and those services to meet MSRs for SUBs. And, maybe a reader realizes that they do have some odd bill that can’t (normally) be paid with a credit card . . . but can be via Plastic.
Greg’s simply is trying to expand the awareness of the readers. I think it’s great.
I don’t remember the disclaimer when I first read it, so the post might’ve been updated. But, of course when Greg or anyone else writes is about what they do, it’s what works for them, not necessarily for others – that’s the nature of blogs.
The post is essentially about maximizing category spending, regardless of spending amount or SUBs because he has enough spending, but that comparison isn’t relevant. A fairer one would be if the traditional way also started with $16k spend, instead of half of the amount.
I assume the lesson is to always optimize category spending DESPITE the shininess of a SUB. If people get ideas about how to charge more on credit cards because they don’t spend enough, great! Like most mere mortals, he also uses methods that require paying fees, hah.
This is what I love about this site, it caters to all levels in this game, not just circles and arrows to get as many newbie eyes here as possible.
it’s like the University of Mileage and points. This would be more of a graduate level article for those advanced in this discipline.
Love this comment.
This is interesting – and I’ll grant I do feel some annoyance at spending on a SUB at the expense of a category bonus. But I’m doubtful this actually stands up to logic.
So let’s go with your estimate that you average 3.5% in points on your category spend. To keep the math simple, let’s say you’re earning URs. Using your RRVs, 3.5% = 2.3333UR. So you would trade 3% cash money for 2.3333 UR, meaning you would purchase URs at 1.28cpp. That certainly could make sense if you had a particular use for those points – though on average, only Hyatt would pay off.
But – you are Greg, the Frequent Miler! Don’t you already have points coming out the wazoo, and/or can’t you get more? You wouldn’t buy UA miles at 1.28, you wouldn’t by avios at 1.28, you wouldn’t buy Aeroplan at 1.28 – amiright? I suppose you might buy Hyatt points at 1.28, but doesn’t that suck away the helium from the Joy of Free bubble? Your free Hyatt points aren’t free if you’re trading cash for them.
I admit that if you use your SUB cards for everyday spend, there is some time-cost in calculating how much you’ve spent on your cards to determine how much more until you reach the SUB. But even for cards without a bonus tracker, you could just stop after 45 days, add up what you spent, and then do the rest in bills and Kiva if you’re worried about min spend.
I think of course the answer is that you generate much more spend than you could effectively put on SUBs – certainly your Delta escapades suggest as much. But you’re putting this forth as if it makes sense for everyone – and I just highly, highly doubt that.
I think the point is, in your example, Greg is willing to buy those URs for 1.28c each because he knows he’ll get at least that much value out of them and doing so allows him to more quickly and efficiently complete required spend, and perhaps even more SUBs. He wouldn’t buy URs in bulk at that price, but a few here and there for the sake of knocking off SUBs in one charge is worth it. I do this myself – I will never put SUB spend on a card where I can use my Altitude Reserve since I’m earning 4.5% cash back on AR mobile wallet payments. If you trade AR spend for unbonused SUB spend that earns rewards at ~ 1.5%, you are in effect paying 3% cost to achieve the SUB. In the case of taxes you can often pay fees of 1.87-2.35%. Just easier to knock out SUB with one big charge. That said, I do put unbonused spend like homeowners insurance on SUB cards.
Meh – I do love my Altitude Reserve but it’s kind of limited. I think I would rather have 3% cash than 4.5% AltRes points – but to each his own
The Altitude Reserve will let you cash out points for a statement credit at a penny per point, even without a qualifying travel transaction to redeem against. There is a $25 minimum redemption amount, but at least on my end it’ll let you do penny increments above the $25 minimum. That means mobile wallet is effectively 3% cash, or 4.5% with RTR.
A couple of points…
Some don’t have the ability to see the things you see and they are quibbling over the numbers. You’ve presented a concept for people to consider and each person will need to do their own math.
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