Ultimate Giveaway: YOU Decide the Prize!

I crossed the 400 mark in Twitter followers yesterday. Not a huge number compared to some people, but a decent milestone and one that coincides with my impending graduation next Wednesday. To celebrate, I’m going to give away some of my Ultimate Rewards miles, which are easily and instantly transferred to any Ultimate Rewards count or various affiliated frequent flyer accounts if you don’t have one. First the contest details, then the credit card spiel.

PRIZE NUMBER ONE - 4,000 Ultimate Rewards points

I will randomly select one lucky winner next Wednesday, July 25, and contact him or her by the end of Thursday night. The winner will be selected from my Twitter followers. All you have to do to enter is follow me on Twitter. That’s right! You don’t have to share or tweet or anything, but you have to be a follower. This is to thank the readers who have been keeping up with my goings on for the last six months as this blog has grown and also tolerated my intermittent presence as I have worked on my dissertation.

PRIZE NUMBER TWO – ??? Ultimate Rewards points

One prize is boring. I’d rather give away two prizes, and I’m letting my readers decide how many! This prize will ONLY be triggered if I reach 500 Twitter followers by 3 PM Pacific time on Wednesday, July 25 (exactly seven days from now). That’s less than 100 new followers, so tell your friends.

The number of points will be determined by the number of followers x 10. So 500 followers = 5,000 points. 672 followers = 6,720 points. You get the idea? To save myself from unintended consequences, I’m capping this second prize at 10,000 points. And just like with the first prize, I’ll select the second winner on Wednesday and contact him or her on Thursday.

Why Is Ultimate Rewards So Freakin’ Awesome?!

You don’t have to read this part if you don’t want to, but I have all these points to give away because Megan and I have been churning and earning Ultimate Rewards points for over a year now. We each have Sapphire Preferred Visa cards, and I also have an Ink Bold business MasterCard. I’ve convinced everyone in my family to get a Sapphire; for the most part they’re happy, too. The customer service is great, the earnings rate is great, and the rewards are great. I could lose most of my other rewards cards and still be happy with only the Ultimate Rewards products.

With the Sapphire Preferred, earn 2X points on all travel, dining, and catering. Travel is a broad category, including parking meters, hotels, taxis, and airline tickets, which makes this a perfect card for a frequent traveler like me. Plus you get a 7% dividend every year, which means you’re really earning 2.14 points per dollar on bonus categories and 1.07 on everything else.

With the Ink Bold or Ink Plus, earn 5X points on all telecom and office supply purchases plus 2X points on hotels and gas stations. Office supply stores are the kicker. I like to buy pre-paid American Express cards at Office Depot and use them for lots of purchases, including at Costco, to earn 5X on all kinds of purchases that don’t normally earn a bonus.

To round out the Ultimate Rewards trifecta, consider the Chase Freedom. The points are only good for cash by themselves, and the sign-up bonus is smaller, but if you have an Ultimate Rewards account you can transfer them there for more redemption options. There are also rotating quarterly bonus categories that earn 5X and no annual fee.

Using Ultimate Rewards for Almost Anything

Ultimate Rewards points can be converted 1:1 to United, Avios, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, and more, making this a great substitute instead of carrying around lots of other individual travel rewards cards (of course, I still have several of these for their other perks ). For example, if United doesn’t have the award space you need, check if American has it and book a partner award with Avios. If you want, you can even redeem them for a cash credit toward the purchase of a normal revenue ticket on almost any airline.

And they’re a great store of miles for that very flexibility. I’ll occasionally book trips for friends using my United miles, then they’ll repay me with Ultimate Rewards points, which I would rather have because I can replace my United miles or use them for something else. The instant transfers make this easy. Just two weeks ago I wanted to get in on the first class award space on Singapore Airlines through United but was 40K miles short. Less than 60 seconds later, I had them in my account.

If you have a small business, I recommend applying for both Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold cards on the same day. Chase will hem and haw over the business application, but they will do a personal and a business card during the same application cycle. My last round it was only four months from my previous churn, so the six-month rule is definitely a myth. However, good credit is key, so check out my two introductions to churning cards, and feel free to email me with questions. Two personal cards at once is a no-no, so you’ll have to wait on the Freedom.

That is all. Yes, you just read a credit card pitch. But they’re great cards, and they’re making this giveaway possible. I encourage you to give them some thought if you don’t hold them already.