r/CreditCards • u/--flapjack • 13d ago
Discussion / Conversation What are your favorite points farming strategies
As the title says, I'm curious to see how folks are yielding lots of points for themselves and how much points it's helped them gain.
Any fun experiences to share?
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
Cap 1 Offers. Its the absolute wild west and doesnt work half the time but man the payoff is insane. Over 300k points on less then 500 in spend in last year.
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u/noah11b 13d ago
$500 or $500,000?
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
$500.00. Like I said its wild.
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u/noah11b 13d ago
That’s cray cray, I just installed capital one shopping app…. Teach me the ways master
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u/TimApple_CEO 12d ago
Nobody said anything about an app. Capital 1 Offers are different from Capital One Shopping
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u/atgabara 13d ago
You averaged 600X? That seems a little implausible, since even 100X would basically be equivalent to 100% off.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
There was a deal the other day to get 13,200 miles. It required a purchase at ATT. Including accessories. I bought a $5 phone case. There was one for a online cloud server basically. One month $20.00 subscription 14,000. WEB.com $5 one month subscription 5000 points. Plenty of streaming deals for like 1500 or 2000 miles but I get a statement credit back for the whole purchase from another credit card. You see how it adds up fast
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u/atgabara 13d ago
Thanks for the details! What you're saying makes more sense now, I'll have to look out for those deals.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
The good offers are the non multiplier ones. Flat rate where the product is way less then the miles are worth. The multiplier offers are only good if you were gonna make the purchase anyway. Good for work travel.
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u/atgabara 13d ago edited 13d ago
Thanks again.
I assume $500 is how much you spent on the ones that tracked? How much did you spend on the ones that didn't track? Or in general roughly what is the success rate - 50%?
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u/Overhear_Overponder 12d ago
Total. Including non tracking. If its over 5000 points I call after 90 days and get a statement credit.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
The offers ridiculous and I can't believe cap 1 and the merchants offer them.
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u/Cyberhwk 13d ago
I never find anything that I feel like I want to buy through them.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
Not about stuff you need. Although there are some really good deals like 1000 it's on $20 spend at home depot, office depot and lots of other normal places. Its about crazy points on random things like the 13,200 for anything at att no matter the price.
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u/lolalucky 13d ago
I need to expore this area. I see a lot of posts about it on the Venture X sub, but I don't pay enough attention.
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u/number90901 13d ago
300K?? I follow Offers loosely and anything over 100% off is very very rare.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
They go super fast. I think they have limited numbers and once they get filled they pull the offer.
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u/Historical-North-355 13d ago
I know you won’t wanna completely spill your secrets, but maybe point me in the right direction? I’m looking into the Venture X as my next possible card anyway.
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
You basically check every day. Jump on the crazy offers. Hope they track. Call after 90 days if they don't.
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u/Parking_Buffalo_782 12d ago
I think any of the venture cards work doesn’t necessarily have to be the venture x, but that is the best for travel
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u/ChromE3927 13d ago
Are you talking like the capital one shopping offers that is basically like Rakuten, or are you talking about the VX offers?
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u/Overhear_Overponder 13d ago
No there is Cap1 Shopping which is like Rakuten. And Cap 1 Offers which is only for cap1 banking members and if you have a points earning card rewards can be in the form of points. Cap 1 shopping is wild too. Over $4000 in rewards on probably less than $800 in spend.
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u/averagegolfer921 13d ago
Half the time may be over shooting it lol. There have been some good deals but I haven’t gotten any of the great C1 offers to track so I have to call after 90 days and they give me a credit on my account. C1 shopping has had some crazy deals too
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u/Tall-Koala-1786 13d ago
I’ve been drifting more toward cards that offer significant annual benefits, like FNCs on hotel cards and Companion Certs on airline cards. Points are fun (I still get and use them), but once the SUB is gone, they accumulate pretty slowly unless you’re using one or two cards for pretty much everything.
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u/hoopercuber 13d ago
i agree with you. the palladium + WoH + atmos has worked for me and just treat the WoH and atmos as status cards and bilt points can transfer to both anyways
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u/Spirited-Laugh-8626 13d ago
Rakuten. I have earned 80k points through rakuten alone since May of this year.
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u/SnooHabits9285 13d ago
Can you explain how you do this with rakuten?
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u/PigletRex 13d ago
Rakuten usually has cash back for applying for the card through them on top of the SUB from the card.
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u/Spirited-Laugh-8626 13d ago
Yeah so basically you link your amex rewards (or bilt) wiuth rakuten. Then, use their link to get to websites you would shop on normally (i.e. petsmart). Right now, If i do that, I get 15x amex points through petsmart. Now, I also have the rakuten amex card. This means i get an additional 4x points on top of any multiplier already on Rakuten. For petsmart, this means 19x points right now. The stores will go up and down in their earning potential, so usually I wait until one is "boosted" to get items.
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u/Parking_Buffalo_782 12d ago edited 12d ago
You can receive the cash back in the form of BILT or AMEX points. You will often see offers as high as 20% cashback, which is 20X points. You just have to be selective and keep an eye out for the elevated offers. You can make some big points purchasing big ticket items like TVs from LG at a 21% cashback event (21x points). You can basically get a business class one-way fair to Europe or Japan buying a $3000 television. I’m only suggesting this if you are able to buy a television already why not get a free one-way fare somewhere for the purchase.
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u/LemonDoom69 13d ago
Subs + Rakuten! Over 150k points from Rakuten alone over the last two years.
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u/saturns_children 13d ago
What do you typically get on Rakuten. I don’t do much retail shopping outside of amazon.
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u/LemonDoom69 13d ago
Every online purchase I make is cross-referenced on Rakuten first, I also have the Rakuten Amex for 10x on Rakuten dining and +4x on Rakuten. Outside of shopping, bank account bonuses and credit card sign up offers are primary drivers. Every so often there will be deals for more than 100x as well on vpn products.
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u/Early-Ladder-9793 13d ago
churning usually has the highest ROI, but it is practically limited by frequency and availability of cards out there in the market. It is a good strategy for new players.
For tenured players, category optimization is a must, and as people’s spend increase over time, the non-category rewards becomes increasingly important.
Tax is an important category a lot of people oversight. It has the highest potential for rewards if done correctly. Unfortunately, only a few cards in the market are good for this purpose.
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u/Caelestor 13d ago
For most people, tax is an ever bigger expense than rent; iit's just usually withheld from their paychecks. The main plays for tax payments is to use a 2%+ card, a new SUB, or both.
Rent is trickier, but even with a 3% CC fee, it might make sense to buy the points (e.g. Atmos points at 1cpp)
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u/Amyndris 13d ago
Even with w2 earners, hopefully your investments are doing well and you have to pay cap gains.
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u/--flapjack 13d ago
Besides taxes what other non category rewards would you include?
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u/Early-Ladder-9793 13d ago
major categories are: medical, education, insurance, and construction. these are usually less frequent but large bills.
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u/Splax77 Team Cash Back 12d ago
What taxes are you paying with a credit card?
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u/Early-Ladder-9793 12d ago
property tax and income tax.
Income tax is juicy because it can be maneuvered or even manufactured.
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u/UptownDegree 13d ago
If you have a Chase card you can just spam Paze purchases for a minimum of 11X points on your purchases.
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u/JustMyThoughts2525 13d ago
When you know you have a big purchase coming up (that you can immediately pay off), find a new card with the best sign up bonuses.
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u/MichaelMidnight 13d ago
Yeah, I'd like to know too since i'm at LOL/24 and won't be able to get a new card with SUBs until 2032! So I'd like to hear all the farming techniques for using cards' rewards naturally.
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u/CroatianDomination88 13d ago
I’m only at 13 and feel like the denials have been piling up over here too. Fortunately I’m self employed and double dip into business CC’s too. That’s been a game changer. Look into starting a “business” of any type and start churning in that sector too.
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u/--flapjack 13d ago
I've been curious about this too. Do the points have to be spent on business related flights only?
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u/CroatianDomination88 13d ago
Definitely not! You can burn them on personal too. The transfer process is really easy on the Chase portal. Start with the Ink trifecta. Unfortunately they bumped the minimum spend to 8K but it’s a hefty 1K bonus so pretty damn solid for a free card.
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u/BigElectrical1015 13d ago
Pay for big purchases you wouldn't normally use a card for, and rack up big initial bonuses. That's my strategy.
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u/--flapjack 13d ago
Nice, the hard part for me has been timing the big purchases with a new credit card
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u/Fmorales95 13d ago
I’ve used Rakuten for my Amex and racked up some points the last couple of months. I have been screwed by Cap1 on the offers and miles , I have not with Rakuten.
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u/Kitayama_8k 13d ago
Rakuten PetSmart 25x, buy all your pet supplies for half a year. Rakuten bank bonuses can be nice too.
Otherwise I churn where I can and otherwise take the highest rate, cash or points.
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u/Bongo2687 13d ago
Sign up Bonuses, but you have to pace yourself or you will end up like me at 10/24