Here’s How To Earn More Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase Ultimate Rewards

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UPDATE: The Offer(s) mentioned in this post have now expired

Recently I took at look the transfer partners of the four major transferable loyalty currencies – Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood’s Starpoints. All are currencies I value highly and all a currencies I prefer to individual airline miles or hotel points.

As a follow up to those articles I’m taking a look at the best ways to earn the four transferable loyalty currencies and hopefully giving you some idea of what you can do to earn more points and to boost your balances quickly and/or frequently.

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards

1. Credit Card Welcome Bonuses (Some Offers Now Expired)

Chase has a number of different personal and business credit cards that offer Chase Ultimate Rewards points as a sign-up bonus. These welcome bonuses vary from month to month but if you’re looking for a quick boost to your Ultimate Rewards balance then these are very good options.

Chase Ultimate Rewards Credit Cards – Personal

The signup bonuses below are correct at the time of writing but will change over time

Bonus shorthand used below: Number of points/amount of spend required/time in which to meet the spend requirement.

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred – 50,000 points/$4,000/3 months (Offer Expired)
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve – 50,000 points/$4,000/3 month (Offer Expired)
  • Chase Freedom – $150/ $500/3 months ($150 can be converted to 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if moved over to a Chase Sapphire or Ink Business account (Offer Expired)
  • Chase Freedom Unlimited – $150/ $500/3 months ($150 can be converted to 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if moved over to a Chase Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred account (Offer Expired)

Chase Ultimate Rewards Credit Cards – Business

a close up of a credit card

  • Ink Business Preferred credit card – 80,000 points/$5,000/3 month (Offer Expired)
  • Ink Business Cash credit card – $300/ $3,000/3 months ($300 can be converted to 30,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if moved over to a Chase Sapphire or Ink Business account (Offer Expired)

Successfully applying for any of the cards above and then meeting the minimum spend criteria will see you boot your Ultimate Rewards balance quicker than you can boost it in any other way.

2. Credit Card Spending – Category Bonuses

All of the credit cards mentioned above offer you Ultimate Rewards in return for spending on the cards (the Freedom cards and the Ink Cash card offer cash back which can be converted to Ultimate Rewards points if you hold another Ultimate Rewards card) and, while you’re guaranteed at least 1 point per dollar you spend, most of these cards also come with category spending bonuses where you earn yet more.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus Categories

  • 2 points per dollar spent on travel purchases
  • 2 points per dollar spent on dining

Chase Sapphire Reserve Bonus Categories

  • 3 points per dollar spent on travel purchases
  • 3 points per dollar spent on dining

Chase Freedom Bonus Categories

  • These vary from quarter to quarter and cardholders can earn 5 points per dollar on the first $1,500 spend in any of the quarterly categories.

a screenshot of a phone

Chase Freedom Unlimited Bonus Categories

  • The Chase Freedom Unlimited doesn’t offer bonus categories but it does offer 1.5% cash back on all purchases which can translate to 1.5 Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent.

Ink Business Preferred Bonus Categories

  • 3 points per dollar spent on travel purchases
  • 3 points per dollar spent on shipping
  • 3 points per dollar spent on phone/cable services
  • 3 points per dollar spent on advertising with select providers

Ink Business Cash Bonus Categories (earned as convertible cash back)

  • 5 points per dollar spent at office supply stores
  • 5 points per dollar spent on phone/cable service
  • 2 points per dollar spent on gas
  • 2 points per dollar spent on dining

The Ink Business Cash is a great card to help you boost your Ultimate Rewards points balance as you can really make the 5 points/dollar spent at office supply stores work for you.

Office supply stores sell all kinds of gift cards on which you’ll earn 5 points/dollar and you can then use these cards (Amazon Gift Cards, Verizon/T-Mobile/AT&T gift cards, any number of restaurant gift cards etc…) to pay for everyday spend on which you wouldn’t have earned so many points.

3. Chase Shopping Portal

Just like the major airlines Chase too has its own shopping portal (if you have a Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card you can log in here)

a screenshot of a cell phone

This mall offers just about every major retailer you can think of (with the exception of Amazon) and clicking through this mall before shopping online won’t see you paying any more but it will see you earning bonus Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar you spend as you shop.

4. Refer Your Friends & Get A Bonus

UPDATE: The Offer(s) mentioned in this post may have now expired

Chase offers referral bonuses on a number of its credit cards and they’re relatively simple to pick up.

You can use Chase’s dedicated Refer-A-Friend website to see which cards you can refer your friends for.

a screenshot of a computer

When I added the last 4 digits of my Chase Ink credit card this is what came up (Offer Expired):

a screenshot of a card

That’s a lot of points for pointing friends and family at what is a credit card to hold.

Other referral bonuses that I’ve spotted recently include:

  • Chase Freedom & Chase Freedom Unlimited  – $100 (equivalent to 10,000 points) per successful referral up to $500 (50,000 points) per year (Offer Expired)
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve – 10,000 points per successful referral up to 50,000 points per year
  •  (Offer Expired)
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred – 10,000 points per successful referral up to 50,000 points per year (Offer Expired)

These referral bonuses aren’t always available but they’re around often enough to make this a potentially easy way to earn some quick points.

Bottom Line

If you make sure you sign up for the Ultimate Rewards credit cards when the sign-up bonuses are high and you make a concerted effort to use your cards for spend in categories which earn bonus points then you’re off to a good start.

Making sure you click through to the Chase shopping portal when you’re shopping online is an easy way to earn points while not spending any more than you were planning to anyway and referring friends every now and again will boost your balance nicely.

It’s not hard to keep the Ultimate Rewards points rolling in…you just have to put a little thought in to make sure you’re using the right credit card at the right time and not leaving points on the table.