Chase - United Mileage Plus Platinum Review

The Chase Mileage Plus Platinum Business Visa just became my sixth Visa from JP Morgan Chase.  It has no annual fee for the first year, and a $75 fee thereafter, but the second year also comes with 6,000 aditional miles.  I earn 2 miles for every dollar spent on United Airlines and 1 mile/dollar spent on everything else.  With my first charge I got a 21,000 mile bonus credit to my United Airlines Mileage Plus Account.  I used to figure the Mileage Plus miles to be worth about $0.02 each based on a ticket to my timeshare in Hawaii being $700 or 35,000 miles.  With higher fuel prices driving ticket prices higher, those same 35,000 miles now save me about $1800 in air fare, so the 21,000 miles credit are worth about $0.05 each, making the initail bonus worth over $1,000 in real money.  Combined with the 15,000 miles Chase gave me for opening a home equity line last fall, I am going to  Hawaii for free on Chase.

(My home equity line balance is zero, so it costs me nothing.  If I decide to write a check against my line or access it online, the interest rate is now 5.4%, and may go down tomorrow when the Federal Reserve Board Open Market Committee meets.  It is also tax deductible.)

My business is a very small home based operation, but it qualified for this card.  You do need to have excellent credit for this offer, but my motto is, "If the banks are throwing money at you, try to catch some of it."