Developing a secondary strategy for Credit Card Rewards Points

In previous posts about credit rewards strategies, I’ve talked about how to develop a rewards strategy, discussed why I use the Starwoods American Express and Schwab Visa as my primary cards, and talked a little bit about how I’ve earned extra SPG points buyingcoins from the U.S. Mint. Now it’s time to talk about secondary strategies for earning rewards points.

So you understand your goals and spend profile and you’ve picked a card that matches these two things, but you are thinking, “There are so many rewards programs”, you begin to wonder if you can take advantage of a few more programs. The answer is a resounding Yes! Let’s talk about secondary strategies for a minute. The way I view secondary rewards programs where it can either help contribute to an overall goal such as travel or you obtain one time bonus for things like gift cards or cash back. In other words, the credit cards that are part of your secondary strategy should include those cards with sign up bonuses. Let’s discuss a couple of examples.

I recently signed up for the American Express Rewards Plus Gold card and the Business Gold Delta Skymiles card. Both of these cards had sign up bonuses if I spend a certain amount of $ within the first 3 months of getting the card. My intentions are to fulfill the spend requirements for the sign up bonuses by ordering coins from the U.S. Mint. This way I do not have to divert any of my real spending away from my Starwords American Express card to earn those valuable SPG points.

The specific bonuses offered by the two American express cards were 30,000 skymiles and 15,000 membership rewards points. Now, in prior posts, I have alluded to the fact I am in the process of dumping all my NWA/Delta frequent flyer miles due to the massive devaluing of the program. These 30,000 miles will help me get close to having a 120,000 remaining miles to use on award travel. If I am lucky and search diligently enough, I will be able to find a perk saver business class award ticket to Asia.

In regards to the gold card and the reason for getting that, I currently have about 135,000 membership rewards points. Amex membership rewards points are similar to SPG points in that they can be converted to miles in frequent flyer programs. Additionally, if I so choose, I could convert the points to SPG points at a 3 Amex points to 1 SPG point redemption ratio. So with these 15,000 membership rewards points, I have the possibility of another 5,000 SPG points. I’m still in the process of determining if a conversion is the right way to go on this. I’ve also read that converting to Air Canda miles is another step in the right direction because of their generous award ticket policies of 2 stop-overs with one going across the Atlantic Ocean and the other going in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. My decision on which program to convert to will depend on how many SPG points I have at the end when I am trying to book my round-the-world trip and how I decide to book the travel (a bunch of one way award flights or one massive ticket).

If you can not tell, my primary goal for rewards points is travel. These two cards help me towards that goal even though after I fulfill the spend requirements for the bonus points, I will not use them again. In fact, I will probably cancel the Delta Gold Card. Additionally, I will my business Amex gold card. The reason I hold on to an Amex gold card is because I want to keep the membership rewards points and not have to spend them. So on a yearly basis, I find another Amex gold card with a sign up bonus and free annual fee the first year and I can continue to keep my membership rewards points.

Your primary goal may be cash back or you may come across an offer for an amazon giftcard or just a random $250 cashback that may have nothing to do with your primary goal at all! Maybe you have planned a big purchase at Amazon.com and could use that amazon giftcard or cashback. My suggestion is do not shy away from those opportunities. I recently applied for a chase sapphire preferred card. The bonus points being offered was 25,000 after the first purchase. I don’t even have any ties to any chase reward program, but I figured I could make use of those 25,000 points some how! This is what I mean by take advantage the opportunities. Of course if Chase approves me, I will get the bonus points, figure out the best use for them and close the card 3-11 months later. You can do a similar thing with Citi thank you points – apply for those cards that offer thank you point bonuses, cancel them in 3-6 months, apply for a different card with a thank you point bonus, and continue this process. I have even read of people applying for the same card a year or so later and getting the sign up bonus again!

Now, I will add a couple of caveats here. I caution you against applying for a large number of cards if you’re looking to get approved for a loan in the near future. Also, make sure you understand the terms for getting bonus points and if there are any annual fees involved. Typically, it is best to look for cards that are at least fee free the first year. Additionally, you do a need a decent credit score of 720+ to fully execute this strategy. These are just a couple of additional points to keep in mind.

There are many rewards points programs and credit card offers out there. Developing a secondary strategy that is geared towards your primary goal can help you realize your goal even quicker. Additionally, if you find one of those really good offers like $250 cash back or a $250 giftcard, jump on it! Sometimes it doesn’t matter if the offer helps you towards your primary goal or not if it is really good!

Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments for your primary and secondary rewards earning strategies.

• Where have I been?!?! My apologies for the lack of posts and sharing of articles. I haven’t been feeling the greatest the past 4-5 days. The only way I can describe this is that I’ve been really tired when I have returned home from work. I feel alot better tonite and tomorrow I’ll be......
• Its Been Awhile since I've Posted (Sorry for the long Post) Its been awhile since I have posted to tumblr, since then…. 1) the markets crashed to 6500 and subsequently returned to about 8000. Originally, I wanted to buy as much as I could afford with the Dow below 7000. With the Dow at 8000, stocks are still relatively cheap and......
• On Turning 29... I finished this post at 36,000 feet on an American Airlines flight...the joys of in-flight wireless internet. On Monday, November 30th, I turned 29. I spent some time reflecting on turning 29 by mapping out where I am in life, steps I am taking going forward, and some of my......
• News Link - A 15,000 dollar tax credit for buying a house after all?? I saw this link on one of the message boards I frequent. Apparently the Senate wants to increase the home buyer tax credit to 15,000 and remove the income and first time buyer restrictions.  Originally, when the stimulus bill was being considered in Congress, the first time home buyer tax......
• Upcoming Posts and Improvements I recently had been hit over the head with some writers' block. I had lost some of my motivation to post and discuss content. Now that I've recovered from my writer's block I wanted to discuss some of the upcoming posts I have in mind for the site: Upcoming Posts......

• Starting a Baseball Card Collection There are more collectors of baseball cards than there are of any other type of sports card. It makes sense, when you think about the fact that baseball cards have been in production far longer than any other form of sports card. Baseball card collecting is a pastime rich with......
• American Express Launches Premier Rewards Card With 3X Points On Airlines, 2X On Gas & Groceries American Express just launched a new Premier Rewards Gold Card that pays triple Membership Rewards points on airfare purchases, double points on gas and grocery purchases, and one point for all other purchases that you make. Card members can also earn 15,000 bonus points when they spend $30,000 on the......
• 10,000 Ultimate Rewards Points For Chase Sapphire Card Signup. This looks like a pretty good credit card if you are into cards that pay our rewards for usage. The Chase Sapphire card lets you use your reward points however you want - for things like paying yourself back for purchases you make, for travel with no blackout dates, or......
• Use a Credit Card to Boost Retirement Savings Mr. GoTo is not a fan of credit cards in general for two reasons.  First, way too many consumers abuse their cards and get themselves over their head in debt.  Second, card issuers have not treated consumers well, either in not adequately explaining the costs and risks associated with the card......
• Hot Deals: Get a $100 Bonus for Signing Up for the Chase Freedom Credit Card There’s so much competition in the credit card industry right now that banks are offering all sorts of perks and bonuses for signing up for a new account with them. Some banks will offer you a lower interest rate initially, others will provide you with some sort of gift,......

Tags: American Express, Finance, perspective, points, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Credit Card Rewards Points, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.