I've been eyeing the Chase Freedom credit card for some time, and saw that they had a limited time offer for a $200 sign-up bonus, which is really a 20,000 UR bonus if you have an UR-earning card. As you will read, now I'm down to one UR-earning card: an Ink Plus. However, as long as you have one UR-earning card, your "Cash Back" cards can transfer their "Cash" on a 1-for-1 basis to an UR-earning card as Ultimate Rewards. I certainly value an UR point at more than 1 cent, and I use 2 cents as my metric. That's a long story for another post.
As I wrote in my previous post, I just downgraded my Sapphire Preferred (UR-earning) to a plain old Sapphire (not UR-earning), because I didn't want to pay the $125 annual fee (yours might be $95- it varies depending on the sign-up bonus).
I was in a no-annual fee mood, having just signed up for the whopping $450 Amex Platinum (again see my previous post for my logic).
The reason I signed up for the Freedom is the 5X on Grocery Stores and Restaurants in Q2 and Q3, respectively. I really can leverage those. The Sapphires (both Preferred and regular) earn 2X, on Restaurants, so that 5X is pretty attractive. I don't have a card that earns a bonus on Grocery Stores. I know there is an Amex card that does, but I just haven't seen enough value to do it given it has anannual fee.
I signed up online, and received the "we'll let you know" page, so I called the reconsideration line and used my standard "I don't need any more credit, and I'm willing to close another card to get the the new card because it has terrific spending categories". I had two Ink Plus cards, one for each rental property. I don't really need two and had only been using one. So closed one of the Inks, and effectively moved the credit line from the Ink Plus to the Freedom. This is my standard play with Chase- they don't like to give more credit, but they are fine with giving out new cards every quarter or so.
20K UR points for only $500 spend- that's a good value!
Nit: As you've read, I do open and close credit cards, and it's annoying to have to remove the card from my home page, but it still is in my account somewhere. But Barclays is the worst- I can't remove a closed card from my home page. I wonder what my home page will look like in a few years. ;-)
As I wrote in my previous post, I just downgraded my Sapphire Preferred (UR-earning) to a plain old Sapphire (not UR-earning), because I didn't want to pay the $125 annual fee (yours might be $95- it varies depending on the sign-up bonus).
I was in a no-annual fee mood, having just signed up for the whopping $450 Amex Platinum (again see my previous post for my logic).
The reason I signed up for the Freedom is the 5X on Grocery Stores and Restaurants in Q2 and Q3, respectively. I really can leverage those. The Sapphires (both Preferred and regular) earn 2X, on Restaurants, so that 5X is pretty attractive. I don't have a card that earns a bonus on Grocery Stores. I know there is an Amex card that does, but I just haven't seen enough value to do it given it has anannual fee.
I signed up online, and received the "we'll let you know" page, so I called the reconsideration line and used my standard "I don't need any more credit, and I'm willing to close another card to get the the new card because it has terrific spending categories". I had two Ink Plus cards, one for each rental property. I don't really need two and had only been using one. So closed one of the Inks, and effectively moved the credit line from the Ink Plus to the Freedom. This is my standard play with Chase- they don't like to give more credit, but they are fine with giving out new cards every quarter or so.
20K UR points for only $500 spend- that's a good value!
Nit: As you've read, I do open and close credit cards, and it's annoying to have to remove the card from my home page, but it still is in my account somewhere. But Barclays is the worst- I can't remove a closed card from my home page. I wonder what my home page will look like in a few years. ;-)
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