A friend of mine is a small business owner and he approached me today asking for advice on an iMac. It sounds like the computer is an excellent fit for what he wants to do. Since he only has an AMEX Blue Cash and a Bank of America, I suggested he open one of Chase’s Ink cards.
Originally, I was thinking he should open one of the NFL cards from Barclay’s for $400 back after $1000 spend. Low spend and high percentage back, if you keep it close to $1000. Then I thought about the Discover card with $200 back + 5% online purchases for this quarter + shop discover portal. Finally, I decided for him, his best move is the Chase Ink, Bold or Plus. Here’s why:
- Small business owner!
- Higher potential of future earnings
- Ultimate Rewards (UR)
- 5x Ultimate Rewards “everyday”
He gives up a little flexibility for the lower spend on the Discover and Barclay’s, $1500 and $1000, respectively, but has much to gain.
On November 11, Chase will lower the spend limit on the Ink Bold and Ink Plus to $5,000 from $10,000. Assuming my friend is not going to use the 50,000 sign up bonus for travel and redeems each point for a penny that will be $500 and the iMac costs $2000.
Now on to the money saving tactics (as of now, I can confirm the following works, I am awaiting confirmation for Office Depot on purchasing gift cards through the UR Mall ):
- Order through UR mall at Staples with the current offering of 2x extra points
- $2000 (20 x $102) worth of Staples cards which comes out to be $2040
- Get 14,280 UR points for above Staples purchase
- These Staple gift cards will be converted to use at Apple (not the iTunes gift cards)
There’s now a balance of $3,000 to spend. How would he do it?
- Cable TV/internet bill
- Cell Phone bill
Let’s assume the cable and cell service are $100 each per month and in 2 months we will buy the iMac. That’s $400 and 5x rewards, he’s got himself 2,000 extra UR points when we go buy it.
We’re now looking at $2,600 left and one month left to hit the spend, we’ll go to any office supply store, Office Depot/Max or Staples and we’ll buy five $500 Visa gift cards, and the fees if I recall correctly at Staples at 5.95. Total spend there would be $2529.75. UR points comes out to be 12,649. The rest, is a drop in the bucket, $69.25. Dinner? Groceries? Whatever it is, he’d hit the $5,000 spend limit in three months.
Tally the UR points:
- 50,000 sign up bonus
- 14,280 from Staples gift cards to turn into Apple
- 2,000 from communication services
- 12,649 from Visa gift cards
- Total points is 78929
That just shaved off nearly $800 from a $2,000 iMac. I will go with him to purchase the iMac at store and tell the salesperson at Apple to use my corporate discount and that’ll save my friend some more money.
Readers, what would you do? NFL card route for lower spend and $400 back, then toss this credit card in a drawer? Grab a Discover?
