It's always a thrill to get approved for a card during a good promotion.

But that's not the end of the story.

Once you've met the spending requirements on time and earned all of your new member bonuses, you'll have completed the earning phase of the miles game, which is often referred to as Phase 1.

In our nearly 17 years of running wear sites, we've heard many heartbreaking stories of people missing out on bonuses due to unintentional mistakes.

• If you miscalculate the spending date or
• You may have misunderstood the spending conditions or
• You can count the annual fee as part of your spending or use the
• If you forget to pay your card because you think you're on auto-debit, or if you forget to pay your card because you think you're on

And so on and so forth.

In today's post, we've summarized the top 3 things you should check and set up after you get your Chase card.

1. Check your new member bonus history

If you've just been issued a new card, it's a good idea to make sure that your new member offer is in place.

Chase has a good online presence for this.

However, it's not visible on the computer (PC) website. You'll need to use the phone app.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to find them.

1) First, log in to your Chase app. If you're like me, you'll see your bank account first because I also have a checking/savings account with the bank. Scroll all the way down.

2) You should now see the history of the credit cards you have.

If you're already a Chase member, any new cards you get will automatically be added to your account. If you find the new card you got, tap it.

3) I just applied for and was approved for a new Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

Tap on the card name to see the details of the card. You'll see information like your current balance, due date, and more. Scroll all the way down from here.

4) Then you'll find the "New account bonus" section almost at the bottom.

This is where all the important stuff is written.

• New member bonus breakdown = 100,000 points
• Spending condition = $5,000
• Spending cutoff date = August 6, 2025
• Amount spent to date

You should keep a close eye on these.

Unlike other card companies, Chase doesn't flip-flop, or if they don't approve, they don't play games with new sign-up bonuses.

Still, it's a good idea to check this out just to be sure.

This is the first thing you'll see.

2. Set up direct debit

The second thing you'll need to do is set up direct debit.

If you only have one or two cards, you might be able to keep track of the dates on your calendar and remember to pay as you go, but as the number of cards grows, it's easy to forget to pay.

This will have a devastating effect on your credit score, which is a lifeline for the magicians, not to mention fees and interest.

Therefore, Setting up automatic payments for your magicians isn't an option you can do or not do. It's a requirement you must do.

If you're having trouble with your bills, including credit card spending, it's easier to work with your card company to resolve it after the fact, but it's much harder to fix your credit score once it's been tarnished.

Setting up direct deposit is much easier on a computer website than on a phone app.

Once you're in the card's details page, click the Automatic payments button and turn on the direct debit setting for your bank account.

Addendum: Borcher had another comment about setting up direct deposit, which we're adding to the text because it's a good one. 

"Thanks for the great article. I'm really sorry but I personally don't recommend setting up 2 direct debits at all, especially with Boa, there have always been various issues from the past to the present, such as incorrect direct debits and late fees, and Citi is no different. It's a regular topic on the Frustration Friday thread on Reddit. You may also run out of money in the bank account you forgot to set up, especially with Amex, which is very bad with just one returned payment. If you're a frequent traveler and open and close multiple bank accounts, you can end up getting charged to an account that's already closed. My recommendation is to keep your card charges to one main bank checking account and check it once a week and pay it off manually, which is what I always do."

3. Set up card usage text notifications

The last thing you want to do is set up a text alert for card usage.

If you've used the card in Korea, you'll be familiar with it, and in the US, it's been around for a few years.

With the amount of identity theft these days, and the amount of card information being stolen, I think it's a must.

Nowadays, security technology has gotten better, and card companies often do this automatically, but if you get it wrong, you often don't realize it until your next bill comes, and the damage can snowball.

So, it's safe to say that keeping your notifications on will not only help you feel more secure, but it will also help you avoid financial harm.

To set up notifications for your Chase card.

1) Go to the card details page and press the "More" button.

This will bring up a menu, select "Update settings & preferences" at the bottom.

2) A submenu will appear and you can select "Account alerts" from there.

3) On the next screen, confirm your email address, the phone number from which you received the text, and select all 5 options under "Protection and security".

The most important of these (in my opinion) is the first one you see below, which is to set up automatic emails and texts when you spend more than 10 cents on your card.

You might think that texts are too frequent and annoying, If your card details are stolen and the thief makes a $9,000 purchase, and you don't find out about it until a week later. It's really mental.

I think it's much better than that ;;

Let's wrap up today's post.

We've seen people focus on getting approved for a card and lose sight of more important spending requirements. That's too bad.

As soon as you read this, there are three things you'll want to check and set up immediately.

Featured image: depositphotos (11056336)