Do you make an annual donation to charitable organizations at the end of the year?
If they will accept a credit card, why not use that opportunity to earn points that you can use for free travel in 2025?
You have 2 options…
1) Pay for your donation with a card you currently hold
This is a good option if it’s a small donation total, say less than $1000.
Sometimes retailers or organizations charge you a credit card fee in order to use a card to pay. If they do, it usually is not worth paying the fee just to use the card if the fee costs more than the value of the points you can earn.
Inside Families Fly Free, my membership program where I teach families my simple system to always use miles and points to fly their whole family for free, I’ve created a video that shows you how to calculate this.
But if there’s no fee, you might as well earn some points toward your 2025 free travel! I recommend using a flexible travel card like the card_name, Capital One Venture X, one of the American Express cards, etc. I don’t recommend using an airline or hotel card, as you limit the points you can earn and the points only work within one system.
2) Open a new card to earn a large points bonus
This is a good option if you make significant donations of $1,000 or more in total to organizations each year. If you can meet a card’s minimum spend (the amount required to trigger a large bonus of points) in full or almost in full with charitable donations, you may want to consider opening a new card.
If they charge a fee to use a card, in this case, it’s almost always worth it to pay the fee to earn the large chunk of points because the value of the points is going to way more than surpass the credit card fee.
Here are some of the cards I recommend you consider in 2024 to earn a large bonus:
To apply for credit cards in this post, please click on Cards in the Main Menu at the top of the page (shown below) to help support my small business. For Southwest and Capital One, you can also use the links within the post. I greatly appreciate it!
For airport lounge access and flexibility to cover most travel purchases…
Capital One Venture X
Bonus: bonus_miles_full
Annual Fee: annual_fees (offset by a $300 annual travel credit in their travel portal + 10,000 miles each year worth $100
This is my favorite card for airport lounge access as it grants you access to the Priority Pass lounge network of more than 1300+ lounges around the world, as well as the Capital One lounges that everyone raves about which are located in Dallas-Fort Worth, Dulles, Denver and Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C. Plus you can use its points to pay for ANY travel purchase at a value of 1 cent per point.
The card_name
Bonus: bonus_miles_full
Annual Fee: annual_fees
This is my favorite flexible travel card because of its low annual fee and its ability to transfer points to travel partners, including 2 of my favorites: Southwest Airlines and Hyatt. Plus, you can use its points to book nearly any travel within the Chase Travel℠ portal at a value of 1.25 cents each. Even better, it comes with great travel insurance and car rental insurance benefits.
The card_name
To earn the largest amount of points possible consider this small business card, which anyone who earns any type of income aside from their regular paycheck (you don’t have to have an LLC or an S Corporation) is eligible to apply for. It currently has the largest bonus available to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. And it comes with a very reasonable annual fee!
Bonus: bonus_miles_full
Annual Fee: annual_fees
Its points can be used to book travel in the Chase Travel℠ portal at a value of 1.25 cents each and can be transferred to many travel partners, including Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Hyatt and Marriott. Plus, it comes with a host of travel insurance and car rental insurance benefits.
So make your charitable a donation a win-win for both the charity AND you! Earn some points for future free travel while you’re also doing a good thing :).
Learn More…
- Why I Love Chase Sapphire Preferred
- PODCAST: All About the Capital One Venture X Card
- PODCAST: Travel Rewards 101
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