My Most Recent Applications: Why I Chose the Cards I Did

It’s been a while since the last time I applied for credit cards, and with holiday shopping coming up I figured it was a good time to have minimum spending requirements to meet. I applied for four new credit cards, three of which were instantly approved, and one of which is (still) pending. Here are the cards I decided to get and why:

Capital One Spark Cash

For a time, this card was offering a sign-up bonus of $1,000 after spending $10,000 within the first three months of account opening. While this is a high minimum spending requirement, between holiday spending and upcoming tax payments coming up, I knew that the high spending requirement wasn’t going to be too much of an issue. Unfortunately, this card is still pending approval, but I haven’t heard of many successful applications from others I know who applied.

Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express

As of now, this card doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus, but it does offer 2 Membership Rewards per dollar spent on up to $50,000 in purchases per year, making it one of the best credit cards for otherwise non-bonused spend. This card has been on my want list since the second I heard about it. Since it was announced, it has spent most of it’s time without a sign-up bonus, though there have occasionally been 20,000 Membership Reward point sign-up bonuses offered.

JetBlue Plus Card

The JetBlue Plus card currently has a great 60,000 point offer after spending only $1,000 within 90 days of opening the account. This is one of the best offers that has ever been seen for this card, so I figured that now was the time to go for it! The card also offers 5,000 TrueBlue points every account anniversary, which nearly offsets the $99 annual fee. Paired with free checked bags on JetBlue flights and a 10% point rebate on redemptions, this card can easily be a no-brainer.

Bank of America Premium Rewards

I can’t say this is a card that I’ve given much thought before, but 50,000 points after spending $3,000 within 90 days is a pretty good offer. The card has a $95 annual fee, but offers a $100 annual airline incidental credit. Since the card is basically free to keep, it gives me a good option for banking points that work like cash.

Overall, with this new round of approved cards, I’ll net 110,000 points in various different currencies from sign-up bonuses after spending only $4,000 within three months. If the Spark card is also approved, I’ll be able to earn an additional $1,000 for $10,000 more in spend.

Are you applying for a new credit card before starting your holiday shopping?