one of the best ways to take epic trips fly business class and stay in luxury hotels is through points and miles from credit cards in fact my wife and I once traveled full-time for 6 months thanks in part to a huge stash of points that we earned with over 20 credit cards here's the thing though you don't have to go credit card crazy like we did to travel for free in fact the average person can take one or two free trips every year if they have three specific cards and they know how to properly use them so in this video I'll show you that exact three card setup I'll show you how to turn your everyday spending into free travel and if you stick around till the end I'll also show a couple fun modifiers I use to earn $155,000 worth of travel or more every year like this trip we took last Fall using points that should have cost over $27,000 but first there's something you got to know and getting this right on the front end could be the difference between flying in a CR ramped basic economy seat and an epic LIF flat business class seat it's how to earn an elevated point value on every purchase you make what does that mean well most credit cards out there allow you to earn at least one point per dollar on any purchase you make and that's okay it's better than earning no points but let's be honest you can and should be earning at least 1. 5 times points on everything if not two times three times or more so here are three cards every traveler needs that when used strategically will allow you to do exactly that first you need a well-rounded travel card that earns bonus points on travel purchases and allows you to transfer those points to a number of different airlines and hotels so you're not locked into one program ideally this card also offers other travel perks and benefits like Rental Car Coverage or even lounge access second you need a card that earns extra points in categories where you already do a lot of spending for example groceries or gas or let's say you have a business or a side hustle why not have a card that earns you elevated points on those business expenses card number three is a card that earns extra points on everything else this is commonly called a catchall card and it's very simple you earn an elevated rate of points on everything those are the three types of cards and there's one more crucial element to making all this work you're able to pull the points together this special grouping of three cards that work together is commonly called a trifecta and there's multiple trifecta in the credit card world but one of the best trifectas out there is the chase Trifecta I'll explain some variations at the end but the most common and in my opinion the best for beginners is this one because it allows you to one earn one of the most powerful points currencies out there CH Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred to several different airlines and hotels two it helps you get that elevated point value on every purchase you make and three it only has a total annual fee of $95 per year let's start with the card in this Trifecta that earns you extra points in areas that you probably already spend a lot the Chase Freedom Flex this card is an amazing card because it allows you to earn extra Ultimate Rewards points on specific categories like groceries or gas stations or your gy membership with no annual fee now this card is technically a cash back card and while there's nothing wrong with that cash back is not as helpful in the pursuit of free travel as points and Miles here's where things get fun when paired with one of the other cards in this Trifecta you can convert that cash back into Ultimate Rewards points it's kind of like Alchemy except instead of being burned at the stake you get to fly business class for free so to illustrate this card earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in spending per quarter in rotating categories like GR Gres gas stations and more but when you combine it with that other card that 5% becomes 5 points per dollar which is an amazing rate this card also earns 5% on travel purchased through Chase's travel portal and 3% on drugstores and dining right now when you sign up for this card you'll earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account which is effectively 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points nothing to sneeze at next we need our catchall card that card that earns us extra points on everything this is the Chase Freedom unlimited similar to the freedom Flex this card has no annual fee and it's also technically a cash back card the big perk is you earn 1. 5% back or 1.
5x points on every dollar you spend right now when you sign up for this card Chase is throwing in an extra 1. 5% on everything you buy on up to 20 ,000 spent in the first year so three times points instead of just 1. 5 plus 6.
5 on travel purchase through Chase and 4. 5 on drugstores and dining both this card and the freedom Flex are great by themselves especially given they have no annual fee but they are infinitely more powerful when paired with the final card of this Trifecta the Chase Sapphire preferred this is the travel card of the trifecta and pound-for-pound my top recommended card for travel rewards because it earns those valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points and it comes with a palatable annual fee of only 95 bucks now if that fee bothers you one cool thing is you get an annual $50 statement credit for hotel stays which effectively makes the fee only $45 not to mention it's got all kinds of spending multipliers too you get 5x points on travel book through chase you get 3x on dining and 2x on all other travel purchases and you get a 25% points boost on any travel book through Chase plus a bunch of other travel related perks and protections like primary Rental Car Coverage trip delay and cancellation Insurance baggage delay lost luggage and more at the time of filming this video the current welcome offer for this card is 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening Chase values that at around $750 when you book through Chase travel but you can stretch those points much much further when using Transfer Partners my take is you can get $1,200 or more worth of value simply from achieving the welcome bonus and that's not even including what you earn from your own spend so putting it all in action you could use all three of these cards together like this use the freedom Flex to get 5x points on gas groceries your gym membership Amazon remember this rotates quarterly so it's going to kind of depend by quarter 3x points on dining using any of these cards twox points on travel using the sapphire preferred and 1. 5x points on everything else thanks to that freedom unlimited your dog needs surgery 1.
5x points pay your water bill 1. 5x points and because you've got the sapphire preferred you're able to pull all of these points together as Ultimate Rewards for epic travel bookings through Chase or by transferring them directly to Airlines and hotels all for only $95 a year 45 if you use that hotel Credit Now if you interested in more travel perks you could sub the Chase Sapphire preferred for its older brother the sapphire Reserve I say instead of because you can only have one the Chase Sapphire Reserve does everything the preferred does except it earns three x points on travel it comes with a priority pass membership which gives you access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide and it also comes with a credit to use for TSA pre-check or Global Entry plus you can earn far more points when booking through Chase travel that card has a $550 annual fee but you get a $300 travel credit every year which effectively reduces that fee to 250 bucks I think for most Travelers the Preferred Card makes more sense than this one but if you book a lot through Chase travel or you travel enough to fully utilize all the benefits it could be worth the upgrade okay now here's a very fun modifier that I use to earn hundreds of thousands of Chase Ultimate Rewards points every year Chase's Inc cards if you have a small business or even a side hustle you can most likely qualify for one of Chase's business cards and really take this whole thing to the next level and when I say side hustle I mean it I'm talking walking dogs for money I'm talking buying stuff at garage sales and flipping them on eBay you have a small business leveraging a Chase business card like the Inc business preferred allows you to turn other regular purchases into more Ultimate Rewards points there's a whole Suite of ink cards but my favorite is the ink business preferred which which earns three points per dollar on shipping purchases advertising your internet cable and phone bills and of course all business travel at the time of filming this video it's got an unheard of signup bonus of 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $8,000 worth of spend in the first 3 months and I know I know 8 grand sounds like a lot but the spend requirement has been way higher before for a way smaller bonus so this is actually a fantastic way to to not only unlock new points earning opportunities but also start your journey with a massive stash of Ultimate Rewards points I'm also a big fan of the in business unlimited card which is basically the business equivalent of the Chase Freedom unlimited it earns 1. 5x points on all business expenses so here's what this looks like in practice in my household and exactly how we are currently sitting on a stash of over 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points without recently signing up for any new Chase cards all of our personal travel and goes on The Chase Sapphire Reserve where we get 3x points all of our business expenses including the cost of running this channel go on either the Inc business preferred for 3x points or the ink business unlimited for 1.
5x points and this really just depends by category and all other personal spending our bills daycare everything goes on The Chase Freedom unlimited where we earn 1.
