Make your credit cards work for you! I personally use each of these credit cards. We have two of these credit cards per household—you can apply for a credit card under one adult’s name, then use your referral code to apply in another adult’s name, and score both the opening bonus for the 2nd card and the referral bonus for the original card.
All credit card bonus offers and referral bonuses updated as of July, 2024.
Bottom Line credit card bonus offers and referral offers (scroll down for details):
- American Express Blue Cash Preferred: $300 opening bonus and $75 referral bonus, up to $1,000 per year.
- Disney Visa $300 statement credit opening bonus and $100 referral bonus, up to $500 per year.
- Southwest Visa 50,000 Rapid Rewards points bonus and 20,000 referral Rapid Rewards points, up to 100,000 Rapid Rewards points per year.
- IHG Visa 4 free nights opening bonus and 20,000 IHG points per referral, up to 100,000 IHG points per year.
- Capital One Small Business Spark Cash Select with $750 bonus and $100 per referral, up to $500 per year.
American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card: $300 opening bonus and $75 Referral Bonus:
You apply for a new American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card, and you get $300 as a statement credit when you spend $3000 on the card in the first 6 months.
THEN
You refer a friend, and you get $75 for each friend who gets the card, up to $1,000 in referral cashback per calendar year.
Best cashback categories on the American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card:
- 6% cashback on groceries [I buy gift cards for fuel points at Fry’s (Kroger) to get maximum cashback.]
- 3% cashback on gas
No annual fee the first year, then $95 annual fee. You can collect your $300 opening bonus and up to $1,000 referral cashback, in addition to cashing out all the cashback your card earns in the first year before the anniversary date, if you want to cancel the card before the annual fee kicks in on year two.
Earn a $300 statement credit when you spend $3,000 in 6 months on a new American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card: Apply for an American Express Card for the $300 bonus with my link here. Amex Blue Cash Preferred gives you 6% cashback at the grocery store, and 3% cashback on gas.
Disney Visa with $300 bonus, and $100 Referral Bonus:
You apply for a new Chase Disney Visa card, and you get a $300 statement credit for the Disney Premier Visa when you spend $1,000 in 3 months ($49 annual fee), or a $150 statement credit for the No Annual Fee Disney Visa when you spend $500 in 3 months. (CH, 7/2024)
THEN
You refer a friend and you get $100 Disney Dollars for each friend who gets the card, up to $500 in Disney Dollars per year.
Best cashback categories for the Disney Premier Visa (the No Annual Fee Visa only gets 1% cashback on everything):
- 5% in Disney Rewards Dollars on card purchases made directly at DisneyPlus.com, HULU.com, or ESPNPlus.com.
- 2% on card purchases at grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations and most Disney locations.
Hi! I’m inviting you to get any Disney® Visa® Card. You can earn a new Cardmember bonus after qualifying purchases, and I can get a bonus if you apply here and are approved for the card. Terms apply. Apply for the Disney Visa Card for the $300 bonus with my link here.
Southwest Visa with 50,000 Rapid Rewards points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months, and 20,000 Rapid Rewards Points Referral Bonus:
You apply for a new Chase Southwest Visa credit card, and you get 50,000 Rapid Rewards points when you spen $1,000 in 3 months.
THEN
You refer a friend and you get 20,000 Rapid Rewards points per referral (that’s a free round trip US flight if you time your points right).
- The Southwest “Priority” credit card is the best value even though the annual fee is $149. You get:
- Four A-List upgrades per year (I scored $200 instant credit in 2024 with four A-list upgrades).
- $75 Southwest travel credit per year ($75 of my Southwest purchase was instantly credited to my Southwest Priority credit card).
- The $75 Southwest credit automatically makes the Southwest “Priority” card the best value: $149 annual fee-$75 Southwest credit=$74 net annual fee. Compare to Southwest “Premier” card, which has no $75 credit, but has an annual fee of $99. And only people who never fly would choose the Southwest “Plus” card, which still nets you a hefty credit card opening bonus, even when you never fly Southwest.
- 10,000 Companion Pass boost per year; great if you’re trying to achieve Companion Pass status.
- 25% cashback on in-flight purchases. That’s basically upgraded wifi or alcoholic drinks.
- 7,500 anniversary points—you can often find flights for around 8,200 points per leg even without one of the famous Southwest $59 sales, so it’s basically a free one-way flight each year as a Southwest “Priority” credit card perk.
- Even if you don’t fly, your Rapid Rewards bonus points of 50,000 at “The Points Guy” value of 1.4 cents per Rapid Rewards point, is a value of $700 in gift cards. If you’re only applying to a Southwest Visa for the gift card redemption value of the 50,000 points bonus, it’s best to get the Southwest Rapid Rewards “Plus” card with $69 annual fee, and you’ll get a gift card value of $714 when you hit the minimum $1,000 spend. 50, 000 bonus points plus 1,000 points when you spend $1,000 (if you only hit one point per dollar purchases) = 51,000 points. Multiplied by 0.014 (1.4 cents), the value is $714. Subtract the $69 annual fee, and if you don’t even use the Southwest “Plus” Visa for Southwest flights, you’ll net $645 in gift card cashback.
Chase IHG Hotels Visa credit card: Earn 4 free nights when you spend $3,000 in 3 months, 20,000 IHG points per referral.
You apply for a Chase IHG Hotels Visa to get an opening bonus of 4 free nights when you spend $3,000 in 3 months.
THEN
You refer a friend to get 20,000 IHG points per referral. That’s a night’s stay at a hotel in a city that’s not a vacation destination, like Phoenix, or half a night’s stay at a premium vacation destination, like Anaheim.
IHG Hotels includes brands frugal families love, like Holiday Inn Express (there’s a Holiday Inn Express within walking distance to Disneyland Resort), Holiday Inn, AVID hotels, Hotel Indigo (there’s a Hotel Indigo within walking distance to Disneyland Resort). Staybridge Suites (1.2 mile walk from Disneyland) and Candlewood Suites (1 mile walk from Disneyland) are also good IHG hotels near Disneyland, but they’re not within walking distance when your kids are tired after a full Disneyland day.
- The best perk of an IHG credit card is that you get the 4th night free with any stay booked with points. And, you can multiply this perk. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Southern California for 8 nights, and only used points for 6 nights. This was only using our opening bonus rewards points, and we still had enough points left over to book 2 nights at a Phoenix resort hotel.
- IHG hotels are the only hotels that actually make good on their room upgrades when you have elite status. When you have the Chase IHG Visa, you get AUTOMATIC Platinum Elite Status. Every single time we’ve stayed at an IHG hotel booking with our IHG credit card (paid or points), we’ve received a room upgrade, even though points rooms are supposed to be basic, 2 queens rooms. That includes Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, AVID hotels, and boutique hotels in Phoenix under the IHG brand. We NEVER NOT ONCE received a room upgrade with our top-tier hotel status at Best Western or Marriott or Hilton.
- One great perk of the IHG Visa credit card: you get a free night every year. This more than pays for the $99 annual fee, because not only is your one night stay FREE, you’ll also likely get a room upgrade, and you won’t have to pay any taxes on your stay (taxes usually run around 18% of room rate).
- Apply for the Chase Visa IHG credit card to earn 4 free nights and more.
Capital One Small Business Spark Cash Select credit card: $750 bonus when you spend $6,000 in 3 months, $100 per referral.
You apply for the Capital One Small Business Spark Cash Select credit card and get a $750 bonus when you spend $6,000 in 3 months.
THEN
You refer a friend to get $100 per referral, up to $500 per year.
The Capital One Spark Cash Select is a fantastic small business card:
- No annual fee.
- 1.5% cashback on everything.
- Starts with a high credit limit.
- Capital One gives you a virtual credit card number immediately so you can start hitting that $6,000 minimum spending requirement to get the $750 bonus.
- Capital One automatically linked my credit card to my Capital One bank accounts. (Unlike Chase, which makes me have a different login for business and personal credit cards and accounts.)
Recap of credit card bonus offers and referral offers:
- American Express Blue Cash Preferred: $300 opening bonus and $75 referral bonus, up to $1,000 per year.
- Disney Visa $300 statement credit opening bonus and $100 referral bonus, up to $500 per year.
- Southwest Visa 50,000 Rapid Rewards points bonus and 20,000 referral Rapid Rewards points, up to 100,000 Rapid Rewards points per year.
- IHG Visa 4 free nights opening bonus and 20,000 IHG points per referral, up to 100,000 IHG points per year.
- Capital One Small Business Spark Cash Select with $750 bonus and $100 per referral, up to $500 per year.
