💳 6 Lessons to Optimize Your Miles & Points

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Note: American Express is a ChrisHutchins.com advertiser

I could talk for days about points and miles. I’ve earned over 12 million of them, have traveled to 60+ countries (mostly for free), and I want to help you do the same. So today, I’m sharing some of the most important lessons and tips I’ve learned to help you optimize your points (and save some money along the way).

Here’s what you can expect to take away today:

• Best two-card combos
• Hitting your minimum spend
• Maximizing points with your partner
• Preventing points from expiring
• Canceling your cards
• Best ways to track points

💳 The best two-card combos

I recently presented all about credit cards to a wealth management firm’s clients, and one of the most interesting takeaways was the impact of certain two-card combos.

During my prep work, I built a model to determine how many points you could get in a year with different card combinations. It also included point valuations so you could see the value of what you earned too.

I played around with many combos but found that these four pairings had the highest ROI (using BLS average household spending data) for each issuer:

• 2.41pts/$: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card
• 2.35pts/$: Citi Strata Premier℠ and Citi® Double Cash Card 
• 1.95pt/$: American Express® Gold Card and American Express® Green Card 
• 1.90pts/$: Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® 

Note: If you'd like to support me when you sign up for your next card, I'd really appreciate you using the links at https://chrishutchins.com/cards​

A few takeaways, but I’ll share a few:

• Having a 2x everything else card adds so much value.
• When I added all of the 10+ cards I have, the earning only jumped to 2.65pts/$, so there might not be THAT much value going past 2-3 cards.
• All of this is very dependent on your own spending patterns, so you can't draw too many conclusions for yourself just from this.
• While I prefer transferring points to airlines, the Chase combo gets you 1.5¢/pt in the portal (while all the others only get 1¢/pt), so if that's how you like to redeem, it quickly takes the #1 spot.

What if you don't stick to one issuer?

While the Capital One combo is very strong, the best two card combo is actually the Capital One Venture X and the American Express® Gold, which would earn 2.49pts/$ by getting (4x dining/groceries, 3x flights, 2x everything else). With my personal spending, the gap widens even more, with this combo jumping to 2.71pts/$.

Where is this credit card optimization tool?

If you want to use the tool I made to model your own spending and card choices, I decided to put it up on this site. I think it’s an incredibly valuable tool that can help you maximize your points, but I'd really love your feedback if you decide to check it out.

$48.00 Card Optimizer Spreadsheet The video below will give you an overview of credit card optimizer spreadsheet. Get it now!

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Or if you're already a member, you can access this tool for free, as well as get all the exclusive member deals we have and a lot more. If you're not a member, you can join here.

♟️ Strategies for hitting the minimum spend

I spend a lot of time talking about the cards I use daily to maximize points, but if you ask me how I get most of them, it’s from welcome bonuses.

I rarely sign up for a new credit card without a big bonus. And when I see a great opportunity, it’s the best time to strike.

The most critical thing to remember is to make sure you meet the minimum spend. I only missed hitting the minimum spend (and thus missed the bonus) once, and I'll never make that mistake again.

So before we get into four strategies you can use to hit your welcome bonus, let me say this:

Please don’t make any purchases you can’t afford to pay for when the statement comes due – points are never worth paying credit card fees and interest. Also, please don’t spend money to buy things you don’t need to meet the bonus – that’s not worth it either.

#1: Open new cards around planned spending

The ideal time to hit your minimum spend is when you have planned upcoming spending, like a wedding, renovation, or large purchase.

Just be sure to double-check with the vendors that they accept credit cards. Some won’t.

#2: Buy gift cards you'll need to spend later

If you know you will spend money in the future, buying gift cards now could make sense to shift your spending forward, particularly for things like groceries or Amazon. You can also consider buying retailer-specific gift cards (e.g., Best Buy, Home Depot, Walgreens) if you know you'll be using them in the future. But remember that when you use gift cards, you don’t get the same purchase protection you would on your credit cards, so I don't like to use gift cards for things like a phone or laptop.

Also, I would avoid gift cards that require a fee to activate, like prepaid Visas and Amex cards. The high fees usually eat into the benefit. Also, spending these cards down to $0 can be tough, so these remaining balances and activation fees are added costs. However, if you do have one already, you can use it to add the remaining balance (down to the cent) to your Amazon account.

#3: Spend money for your friends and get reimbursed

I have often played travel agent for my friend's bachelor/bachelorette parties or other trips. I would book everyone’s flights in hotels, and they would reimburse me.

It was a big benefit to me, but most of my friends thought it was a huge benefit to them since no one wanted to organize all that information. I was putting 10 or 15 flights on a card earning three points per dollar on travel, plus hotels, meals, etc.

I think I won the deal.

#4 Pay your taxes or send money

Even though I usually say it's not worth it to pay fees to use a credit card just to earn points with welcome bonuses, sometimes the math works in your favor.

For example, if you’re at risk of missing an 80,000 welcome bonus because you’re $1,000 short on the minimum spend, paying the $30 in fees is probably worth it for a bonus that's worth over $1,500.

Two ways I've done this before are paying my taxes by credit card and sending money to my wife or a friend on a platform like Paypal or Venmo. Even with fees as low as 1.85%, I think of this option as the last line of defense for making sure you get a bonus and never use it as a way to earn points on spending.

👫 Maximizing points with a Player 2

You can maximize your credit card points game by playing with your partner, who is often called "player 2" in the credit card world.

The strategies for maximizing points can vary depending on your household needs and your partner’s level of engagement. But if you've been playing the game for a few years and feel like you're no longer eligible for some of the bonuses or maybe you're over your 5/24 limit, then adding a Player 2 can be a great option.

Or, if there's a huge welcome bonus, like when Venture X was 100k, Amy and I will both open the same card to take advantage of it. However, over the long term, we try to eliminate having the same card twice unless the perks, credits, and benefits far outweigh the fee.

Aside from welcome offers, there are a few other strategies to consider for earning points/benefits with a partner:

• Complementary programs: you can each choose different loyalty programs to focus on. For example, I have a Marriott card and earn all the Bonvoy points/status, while Amy has a Hilton Aspire and earns all the Hilton points/status.
• Alternate cards: one person has a card open for some time, then closes/downgrades so your partner can open the same one and capitalize on bonuses. I know a lot of people that do this to earn Southwest Companion Pass with their partner constantly.

And once you find yourself with points spread across each person, we generally transfer the points between each other so we don't both need to keep an account in every program open. It's easy with Chase, Citi, Capital One, and most hotel programs, but Amex and most airline programs don't allow transferring between people. So remember that if you earn a big Welcome Bonus on an Amex card, you'll need to keep that card open (and keep paying the annual fee) if you want to keep your points active.

Or if you’re active duty military, annual fees for many credit cards are waived (and for your spouse). So you can get all those free night and travel credit perks with no fees (and you can do it twice with a Player 2.

😵 Preventing points from expiring

Credit card points typically don’t expire, but points in hotel/airline loyalty programs often do when there is no activity for an extended period of time.

The easiest way to have activity is to use an airline/hotel card that earns points in the program or to fly/stay. But if those aren't an option and you want to keep the card open, you can also try these:

• Credit a rental car to the program
• Donate points to charity
• Buy a small number of points
• Buy something through their shopping portal
• Redeem points for a magazine subscription
• Transfer points from a credit card to your airline/hotel account

Any of these activities should qualify as activity in your account and push out the expiration date for your points.

✖️ When/how to cancel a card (and not lose points)

If I'm no longer using a credit card I've signed up for, I have to decide whether I keep it. My rule of thumb is that if it has an annual fee, I only keep paying it if the benefits exceed the fee.

However, because canceling a card results in losing it on your credit report, which can hurt your score. So I prefer not to cancel a card when possible (especially if I've had it for a while). So if I'm not getting any value from a card, I try two things first before canceling:

Retention Offers

First, I'll call the issuer to tell them that the card’s benefits are no longer worth the fees. This usually prompts them to provide retention offers.

We tried this with Amy’s Platinum Card® card recently. We called and said, “Hey, the annual fees are high. We’re not getting as much value out of it.” That was true because I also have a platinum card. They offered that if she could spend around $3,000 in the next 90 days, she’d get a 30,000 bonus (which I value Amex points about 2 cents, so $600). It covers the fee, especially if you factor in all the different credits and perks that come with that card.

Downgrading

If the retention offers aren’t worth it, I’ll see if I can downgrade the card to a no-annual-fee option. Many cards have a downgrade path to no annual fee options. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® cards can downgrade to the Chase Freedom Unlimited® cards. So you might be able to keep the card on your credit report without paying any annual fees. When I do this, I make a note to put at least one purchase a year on the card to keep it open.

However, if there's no good downgrade option or retention offer, I'll cancel the card, but make sure you don't lose points when you cancel.

Prevent losing points after canceling

When you have an airline or a hotel card, all the points you earn are linked to your hotel or airline loyalty account. So if you cancel a credit card, the points are safe, but you still need to have activity in the account to prevent them from expiring (see above).

But it's different with credit card points (e.g., Chase, Amex, etc.).

All these programs require you to have at least one card active in the program. So if all you have is a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card and you cancel it, you’ll lose those Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

But not all cards at the issuer are the same. While Chase Freedom® cards will keep your points balance alive, you'll need a Chase Sapphire Preferred® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Chase Ink Business Preferred® card to be able to transfer your points to airline and hotel programs.

The same is true for Amex; only a handful are eligible for membership rewards. If you are going to cancel a card and you have points, you can make sure you transfer those points out to another airline or hotel partner before you cancel the card.

📊 The best ways to track points

If you have one or two cards (total), it’s pretty easy, but once you get into multiple accounts and factor in airline/hotel programs, not so much.

I’ve used a Google spreadsheet to track all my cards for years. I’ve even shared my template, but I will tell you it’s a completely manual process.

I kept it simple:

• The rows for all the different card programs
• The columns for different people in your household
• For the point values, I defer to The Points Guy’s valuations
• I use colors and notes to identify when things expire or need to act on them soon

Alternatively, you can use AwardWallet or The Point Guy app for a more automated process, but neither of them has complete coverage, so you'll still have to do some manual work. One day maybe I'll have to build a better solution.