Kate's on a Plane

The Chase Sapphire cards are arguably the most popular credit cards on the market. The Sapphire Preferred is almost universally recommended as the starter travel card, and more frequent travelers often rely on the Sapphire Reserve for lounge access and travel insurance. (Though there’s another card that provides both of these things with better value, in my opinion.) 

My Player 2 and I both have the Sapphire Preferred, and though we were happy to earn the welcome bonus on these cards, there’s another Chase card in my wallet that gets a lot more use: the Chase Ink Business Cash. 

(Let me pause here to say that if you think you don’t have a business, think again.)

On its face, the Ink Cash doesn’t seem to have much to recommend it for everyday use. It earns 2x on gas, restaurants, and internet/phone/cable, and 5x at office supply stores. So unless you’re buying scads of post-it notes and staplers, what’s the big deal?

This bonus category is actually the Ink Cash’s hidden superpower. This is because one of the many things office supply stores sell is gift cards. Spend a lot on Amazon? Buy Amazon gift cards, and voila! Amazon is now a 5x category for you. Starbucks? Buy a gift card. Target? You guessed it—buy a gift card at Office Depot or Staples, and you’re suddenly earning 5x on that Target purchase. 

There’s an even more advanced play here: Office Depot and Staples regularly run promotions where you can buy $200 Visa or MasterCard gift cards without paying the $7.95 activation fee. This, effectively, allows you to transform almost any transaction under $200 into a 5x bonus category. I’ve used this trick to earn 5x on the following purchases:

• Doctor visit copays
• Gym membership dues
• Groceries
• Dining
• Utilities 
• Gymnastics tuition

I use this approach to earn 5x on as much of my spend as possible when I’m not working on earning the welcome bonus on a new card. I don’t typically focus on optimizing bonus categories on my credit cards, because spending at 2x or 3x is just so much less effective than earning a welcome bonus, where the return is 10x, 11x, or more per dollar.

However, 5x is a rate high enough to measurably move the needle–especially when we’re talking about Ultimate Rewards, arguably the most valuable transferrable points currency out there. In the seven months that I’ve had this card, I have earned 70,000 points by leveraging the 5x category. I’ve combined this with gift card reselling with great success by using Visa and MasterCard gift cards to buy gift cards that are on promotion at grocery stores. 

There are some caveats:

• These promotions are popular, and sometimes it’s hard to find these gift cards n stock when you want them.
• These $200 gift cards don’t work for larger purchases unless you can split tender. (Even when you can, it can be kind of pain; I once read out numbers from seven different Visa gift cards over the phone to a beleaguered YMCA staffer to pay for my son’s summer camp.)
• You must be willing to keep track of the balances on these gift cards, and be diligent about draining them when they have small remainders. (Grocery stores are good places to do this.)
• Fraud is a concern with these gift cards. When you buy them, make sure there are no signs of tampering on the envelopes. If you register them for use online, be careful to enter the registration URL exactly as it’s shown on the package. There are fake websites with very similar URLs that harvest the gift card numbers and then drain the cards. I bookmark these sites so that I don’t risk entering the URL incorrectly. 
• Keep in mind that if you return anything you bought on a Visa gift card, the refund will likely go back on the gift card. Don’t throw the physical card away until you’re certain you won’t be making any returns.
• You will only earn 5x on up to $25,000 of office supply store spend each year.

So, should you ditch your Sapphire? Probably not. Remember, you’ll still need either a Sapphire card or an Ink Business Preferred to be able to transfer points out to airlines and hotel loyalty programs. But if your Sapphire is your go-to card, an Ink Cash might serve you better for everyday spending.

If you’re ready to start Cashing in, here’s my referral link!