http://time.com/money/4461137/chase-sapphire-reserve-rewards-credit-card/

I'm tempted to apply for this. I don't have any cards with an annual fee, and this one is hefty. $450 per year.

But the rewards make it seem pretty worthwhile if you travel.
First you get a sign up bonus of 100,000 points if you spend $4000 in the first three months. That 100,000 points is apparently equal to $1500 worth of travel.

And each year you get a $300 travel credit (refunded flight or hotel expenses). It also comes with access to airport lounges (ballin!), no foreign transaction fees, and some other stuff.

My only hesitation is whether I spend enough to make it worth it. I'm over here wondering how could I spend $4000 in 3 months so I don't fail trying to get the sign up bonus

I need to do some quick math lol.

Any rewards cards you rock with that you recommend? *waits for someone to stunt with their black card*

First, if the reward program is hard to understand it's because they purposely do it. VlauePenguin has a page on this program:
http://www.valuepenguin.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-credit-card

You can compare it to other programs and see if it's for you. Buy paying $450 to get $1500 seems pretty good - for the first year at least.

--
My mother has a Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa.

It had a threshold too - but I find that if you just charge everything possible to the card you'll do it easily.

Groceries, gas, restaurants, snow tires, Target runs - put it all on the card and pay the card off each month. I've used the card to buy a computer with and just gave her the cash.

She's spent enough on it to have "companion status" now where she gets to take a person free on any flight.


The annual fee is $99.

http://www.valuepenguin.com/southwest-airlines-credit-cards

You're spending $4500 in 4 months to make $1800.

doesnt make any gotdamn sense.

>doesnt make any gotdamn sense.

Then it does. But only for the first year with the bonuses.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

if you were already gonna spend 3k+ in the next 3 months, then it might be worth it to get to 4k to get that bonus. but if your normal spending habits would have you at 1.5-2k don't add on another 2k of spending just to get the bonus. now if you know you have to buy something big in the next few months like a bunch of furniture, jewelry, computer, etc. then it could also make sense. if not, then just find a card that has like a 30k point bonus with 1k spending requirement and waived fee...or 50k points with 3k spending and waived fee. also, don't keep the card after the first year - either cancel it or downgrade it to a non-fee card if you can in order to increase your average length of credit and also decrease credit utilization



tl;dr:
- don't increase your spending significantly to get cc bonuses
- just apply for cc bonuses that mostly line up with your normal spending
- make sure you either cancel or downgrade all of these cards before you get charged the 2nd year fee

$100 annually. Think I'll stick to that one.

My wife and I were just discussing getting one credit card devoted solely to vacations.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"