I would recommend Amex PRG or Platinum as the most likely means of pushing that amount through a single card, but I'm leary of that instant hit, along side a ~700 score, throwing a FR and not authorizing. Amex seems to be a bit skittish lately from the talk on the boards here.
With that said, I would second sticking with Cap One and giving Venture a shot for the same reasons as mentioned above.
Ideally I'd say if your purchase was non-categorized, I would get a Chase Freedom Unlimited and roll the UR points into CSP or CSR.
Another option would be NavyFed CU, as they seem to be quite generous with starting limits. I know they have rewards cards, but I don't have their terms memorized.
@Anonymous wrote:I did the Hawaiian Airlines credit card through Barclays. Earned enough points from the sign on bonus to get a free roundtrip from the west coast to Hawaii. You also get an annual companion ticket so for the $95 annual fee I got an $800 benefit (haven't used a companion ticket yet)
An annual companion ticket? Looking at the current sign on terms, you can get a 50% discount companion ticket as one of the bonus items, then annually $100 off a companion ticket. Is there another offer with an annual free companion ticket?
@nachoslibres wrote:
@Skymogul wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:Not sure I understand this distinction. If I use the CSP, I get the bonus, and, if I wish to, I can use that as statement credit to partially pay of the trip, in exactly the same way as the Venture, with the multiple added advantage that I could use the credit for anything (not just travel), or, as you say on future trips, could transfer or use the Chase portal. Plus avoiding a triple pull (but maybe a double).
If this is a once off travel, you might also consider the Discover IT Miles, to get 3% back (1.5% now, 1.5% after a year) but not sure if a 700 score is good enough for that
Yes, but you'll be redeeming less. You'll have only earned 2x miles on transactions actually coded as travel, like airfare, hotel, etc. For other trip-related expenses like dining, excursions and so forth, you're only going to earn 1x miles. On Venture, *everything* earns 2x as long as it's *redeemed* toward transactions coded as travel. This makes Venture the better card for redeeming retroactively. Sapphire makes this up with the 1.25x bonus when booking through Chase and the miles transfers to partner rewards programs. That makes it the better card for using rewards toward your *next* trip. It's a subtle but important distinction.
It depends on your spending patterns. If the bulk of your spend is on non-travel coded transactions (and I think that's the case for most people), Venture is the better card. If you have frequent/large travel-coded spend, Sapphire will work out better.
If you are going to recommend the Venture why wouldn't you just recommend the Citi Double Cash? It earns 2% on everything, no annual fee, and you don't have to redeem your rewards against travel charges to get the full 2%, you just cut yourself a check (or deposit in your bank account if you have a checking/savings account with Citi).
OP, if you have a business of some sort and can somehow find another $5k to spend within your first 3 months of account opening I would recommend getting the Amex Business Platinum. It currently has an offer of 75k MR points - 50k MR points for the first $10k in spend and another 25k points for the second $10k spend on the card in the first 3 months. Those points are currently valued at $0.02/per point so that's roughly $1,500 worth of travel if you redeem them right (and honestly worth even more if you utilize the airfare redemption perk on the business card correctly). It does have an annual fee of $450, but it comes with a lot of perks like mid tier status with several hotels (Hilton, Hyatt, SPG/Marriott/Ritz), Centurion (I wish I had this) and PP airport lounge access, Global Entry/TSA Precheck, etc. I'd carry this card myself if the Chase Sapphire Reserve didn't have so many overlapping benefits.
I personally use the Amex SPG card for most of my spending these days - as each SPG point is valued around $0.027. It gives me free Sheraton Club lounge access (business version), I can get Gold status with $30k spend a year, and I plan on getting a lot more value out of my points by utilizing the Nights and Flights - which gives you 5 nights and 50,000 airline miles for 60k or 70k SPG points, depending upon what level SPG property you want to stay at.
I also utilize the Chase Trifecta (or in reality Superfecta) of the Chase Sapphire Reserve / Chase Ink Cash / Chase Freedom / Chase Freedom Unlimited. This allows me to earn 2%, 3%, 5% cash back on most of the purchases put on these cards (except the FU which earns 1.5%) and I can then convert those points to miles at mileage partners which typically doubles and sometime quadruples my original rate of return, depending upon which travel partner I transfer to and how well I maximize the points. This means I'm earning at least 3% base (for the FU) all the way up to 20% back (5% back and then getting $0.04/UR by maximizing those points) yet for some people this seems like work but IMO once you get the hang of it it becomes pretty easy. If you wanted to start doing this I would recommend getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve (or Preferred the you can't justify the $450 annual fee - which is really $150 once you put $300 worth of travel on it a year due to the $300 statement credit).
So, as you can see, you have a lot of options, and there are lots more not mentioned, so it really depends on what you want to do. If I was starting out and could only choose one travel card it would be a toss up between the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Amex SPG, but I would probably have to go for the CSR since it offers 3x points on all travel and dining and comes with great airport lounge access perk and outstanding trip insurance coverage. If you are looking for strictly travel perks then I would go with the Amex Platinum.
Double cash does not offer an initial spend bonus. It would take almost 7 years before the Double Cash would be a better choice than a Venture once you account for initial spend bonus compared with AF. In 7 years, I think you could churn 3-4 Venture bonuses, which means it would take like 30 years for the Double Cash to catch up.
A lot of the advice in this thread is really questionable.
There's one very important question to answer that can guide your decision, is the 15k spend all in one transaction? It sound like it might be, but that's the first thing you should think about.
If the 15k is not all in one transaction, without a doubt the best way to maximize the value you get is with several different cards with big initial spend bonuses. For example, if you could get 5 Ventures and spend 3k on each, you'd end up with $2000 in cash rewards that you can use for travel. It is in fact possible to get 5 Ventures, and you can in fact repeat the sign-on bonus. If you don't want to go that route, there are lot of choices with 3-5k spend requirements. Some mix of these would net you the max value for your 15k spend.
If your spend all has to be one one transaction, one of the high AF cards is probably where you'll get the most value. Depending on how you value the points and how you like to travel, the best value will come from an Amex Platinum, Chase CSR, Citi Prestige or something in that neighborhood. A 700 score should be enough to get approved depending on your past relationship with these lenders (especially if any of it was negative), however your limit will also factor in your experience with big limits as well as your income. If you don't have a few cards with 15k+ limits already, I'd say your chances of getting a card at that limit are not good (Venture might be your best bet in that case).
@Skymogul wrote:
@happypill wrote:A lot of the advice in this thread is really questionable.
If the 15k is not all in one transaction, without a doubt the best way to maximize the value you get is with several different cards with big initial spend bonuses. For example, if you could get 5 Ventures and spend 3k on each, you'd end up with $2000 in cash rewards that you can use for travel. It is in fact possible to get 5 Ventures, and you can in fact repeat the sign-on bonus. If you don't want to go that route, there are lot of choices with 3-5k spend requirements. Some mix of these would net you the max value for your 15k spend.
Wow, and you say other peoples' advice is questionable? No disrespect, but you just sunk the OP's credit score. Too many hard pulls, destroyed his average age of account, balances on too many different accounts, utilization too high, the list goes on.
Actually no. He said he had the ability to pay the 15k right away so what difference does it make to utilization if it's on one card or several? Utilization will be zero in any case right? I would go further and argue that $2k in additional rewards could have a beneficial impact on utilization because it's actuall free money that could be used to pay bills or whatever.
Balances on different accounts, as far as I know, only applies to mortgage scoring. And in any case, OP said he's go the money to pay it off so again, why would there be any impact? He's not going to have any more balances on any new accounts and if anything, any existing balances will be minimized with additional accounts.
Inquiries are an overrated and minor factor (look at the scoring model). Plenty of people with scores in the high 700s-800s with 30, 40, 50+ inquiries. Another 3-5 inquiries would have an estremely minimal effect if any (most likely will not show up in score), especially is spread across the 3 bureaus with 1-2 each.
AAoA could be a factor in the short term, but he'd also be adding significant additional credit lines. Impact might be a few points in the near term, and depending on where he currently stands with account age and number of accounts, will become a positive factor as they age together. Most likely, this type of activity will have an impact of 5 points or less in the near term, and neutral to positive within 6 months. Trust me, I've added 30 accounts in the past 24 months in groups of about 5 at a time and haven't seen any noticeable negative movement in my scores (I monitor constantly and am currently in the mid-700s).
Besides, OP asked for the best strategy to maximize rewards, not score. I answered his question rather than spread FUD. If OP wanted to maximize score I would have said to open 3 card accounts along with an installment loan, maintain 1% utilzation and garden forever. But that's not what he asked, and providing that as the answer would be asinine.