Which Card Should I Open First?

You already understand the basics in Points and Miles 101. Now comes the question everyone asks me as soon as they find out I’m a points and miles nerd: “Which card should I get first?”

Almost every points and miles creator answers this the same way: get the Chase Sapphire Preferred. And I get it, it’s a great card. My husband and I each have one! But I think a really underrated option is Gold Amex especially if you have a bunch of kids and/or teenagers you’re trying to feed (which we know is a never ending and major budget consuming endeavor.)

So instead of picking a one-size-fits-all, let’s look at what each card is actually good at, and you can decide which one matches how your family spends.

Chase Sapphire Preferred: The easy starter card

This is the card most beginners land on, and for good reason. It’s a $95 annual fee, it earns well across a wide range of categories, and the points (Chase Ultimate Rewards) transfer to a long list of airline and hotel partners, which is where the real value of points and miles lives.

What it earns:

• 5x on travel booked through Chase Travel
• 3x on dining, including takeout and delivery
• 3x on online groceries (this excludes Walmart, Target, and wholesale clubs, so it won’t cover most of your actual grocery run)
• 3x on gas and EV charging
• 3x on vacation home rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo (new, and GREAT!)
• 2x on all other travel
• 1x on everything else

It also comes with some real annual value baked in: two $50 hotel credits through Chase Travel, a credit toward TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years, and a complimentary DashPass membership. None of that requires you to jump through hoops to use it.

Chase Sapphire Preferred
BEST FOR
Families who aren’t sure yet how deep they want to go, want the simplest possible starting point, or whose spending leans more toward dining out and travel than grocery runs.

Amex Gold: Best for feeding a family

This is the one I think doesn’t get talked about enough for large families specifically. It’s a real hero in the grocery and dining departments. This card earns more than any other personal card on groceries AND dining. Depending on your monthly food budget, that extra point earned per dollar spent on food can add up quickly. In our family of 6, food is a BIG portion of our budget. This is the only card I use for feeding our crew. 

What it earns:

• 4x on restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in spending per year
• 4x on U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in spending per year
• 5x on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel
• 3x on flights booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel
• 1x on everything else

The Amex Gold also has a lot of credits available to help offset the annual fee. $120 in Uber Cash ($10 a month), a $120 dining credit ($10 a month at Grubhub, Five Guys, Cheesecake Factory, and other partners), $100 at Resy ($50 twice a year), and $84 at Dunkin’ ($7 a month). You need to enroll inside your Amex app for these credits and then use your Amex Gold when you checkout at these places.

Here’s another reason I recommend this card for families. Amex has a better transfer rate (1:2) to Hilton than Chase does (1:1). That means your points go TWICE as far at Hilton when you use Amex points than when you use Chase points. AND… Hilton historically has transfer bonus from Amex a couple times a year. This makes your points stretch even farther at Hilton hotels and resorts. These transfer bonuses have been between 20%-30%, making some Hilton hotels as affordable as their Hyatt counterparts. Hyatt is the hero hotel partner for Chase. Both Hilton and Hyatt have brands that regularly sleep six in one room. With the latest devaluations from Hyatt, this makes Hilton (and therefore Amex) even more attractive option for our big family.

The downside: The annual fee is a lot higher than the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It’s $325 and while it does have some decent credits, it is more to manage. AND not all of the credits are things I actually use. With that said, the Amex Gold is my workhorse for earning tons of points on food spend  And that alone has a large value above and beyond the credits generally used to offset the annual fee. 

Amex Gold
BEST FOR
Families with a lot of mouths to feed and who have large “grocery and eating out” spend categories who are ready to jump in with both feet to points and miles! Also a great second card for families that have mastered another points card and want a food-spend workhorse.

Due to the extra effort to use the monthly credits with this card,  I would rate this card as slightly more advanced. BUT if you’re like me – that’s part of the fun! 

Let’s Compare

So which one should YOU get?

If you want the simplest first card that earns well across the board and doesn’t ask much of you to get value out of it, start with the Sapphire Preferred.

If your family’s spending is dominated by the grocery store and eating out, and you’re up for the fun/challenge of using monthly credit, go with the the Amex Gold. It may earn you more actual value in year one than the Sapphire Preferred would, even with the higher fee.

And if you’re wondering whether you should just get both eventually. The answer to that is probably yes 🙂 But if you’re new to points and miles let’s start with one. You can’t go wrong with either of these cards.