Chase Sapphire Preferred Rewards Card: Don't Leave a Point Behind

So you finally have the rewards card you want, or you’re close to making a decision on which one you will get. If you’re like us, you’re looking at the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The reason we like and recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is because you can get 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points, they waive the annual fee for the first year and a lot of other benefits that the Chase Sapphire Rewards card gives you. But, the purpose of this post isn’t to explain every detail of why we like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, it’s to give you a strategy to make sure you get all 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points that you are eligible for when you get your Chase Sapphire Rewards card. So check out CreditSense to get a full rundown on all of the benefits and requirements of the Preferred card and lets get into the strategy.

In these tough economic times most American’s are a lot more conscientious when it comes to any financial decision they are making. The key to maximizing your Ultimate Rewards Points bonus is to have a  solid plan in place for getting their Ultimate Rewards Points once you actually have their Chase Sapphire Preferred card in their wallet. It can be intimidating to know you have to spend $3,000 in the first three months of your Chase Sapphire Preferred card account being opened in order to be awarded the 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points. It doesn’t have to be intimidating though with this one simple strategy. The biggest error in thinking that we encounter with new card holders is that they are trying to figure out how they can safely spend an EXTRA $3,000, on their current budget, with their Chase Sapphire Preferred card to earn the Ultimate Rewards Points. The strategy we recommend is simply to take the word “extra” out of that question, so instead the question is “how can I spend $3,000 to earn my rewards points?”

Here’s how:

Sit down and take an accounting of all of your monthly expenses that you usually pay directly from your checking account or with some form cash payment. Here are a few ideas to get your list started:

• House payment or rent payment
• Groceries
• Electric bill
• Cable bill
• Cell phone bill
• Internet service bill
• Gas bill
• Insurance payment
• Day care
• Fuel expenses
• Entertainment

And the list goes on with anything additional you can think of. So now we have a fairly comprehensive list of monthly expenses you are already spending money on anyway, that you can change your method of payment and use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card for instead. The easiest way you can use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card for all of these payments is to go to the website of the service providers from our list above, and use their one time payment option and pay your monthly bill with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. On the ever so rare occasion that you might have a service provider that doesn’t have a one time pay with card option, it’s not likely this will ever happen, but if it does, you can request checks from Chase that will draw directly from your Chase Sapphire Preferred card account and you send that check to your service provider like you would a check from any other bank.

A couple of additional advantages for you to remember when using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card are the buyer protection that you get on every purchase, and that you don’t have to carry cash with you when you go out to dinner and a movie, or any other place you like to go for your night life. To make this strategy work brilliantly the last item we will cover is critical... You need to make sure you are setting aside the cash that you would usually be using for the payments so you can pay your Chase Sapphire Preferred card bill when you get your monthly statement. I recommend that you write a check from your regular checking account and mail it to Chase every time you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card for one of your regular monthly expenses. By doing this one extra step, you avoid the possibility of running into the problem of setting the money aside and then using it for something else while you are waiting for your monthly statement.

That is all there is to it. You now have a simple and practical strategy for earning your Ultimate Rewards Points on your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.  Spend money you are going to spend every month anyway and you earn your Ultimate Rewards Points on your card, and that makes CreditSense to me.