Picking Up Where The Platinum Left Off

During 2020 when the pandemic hit, American Express shifted gears and introduced very useful credits. Since travel was shut down, customers couldn’t use their various travel credits. Instead of just saying “tough luck”, they offered other credits which would keep their customers engaged and content.

The Platinum card offered statement credits on wireless phone service and streaming services. This turned out to some nice savings, further justifying the hefty annual fee. This ended at the end of 2020.

Marriott Business Card To The Rescue

With this offer, you’re able to shift your wireless phone service spending to your Marriott business card. By spending at least $15 per month on wireless phone service, you receive a $15 credit.

This is awesome because my net wireless phone service bill will be $10 per month for the rest of the year since I use Mint Mobile.

While spending on your wireless phone service, you also earn points on this, which is an added bonus. Here are the details to the offer.

Conclusion

Did you get this offer? If so, don’t forget to enroll to take advantage of some useful statement credits. By maxing out this offer, you more than offset the cost of the annual fee for this card. What are you waiting for, enroll now!

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60K Bonus Miles? Yes Please!

Check your emails to see if you’ve been targeted by Barclaycard for an opportunity to earn 60,000 miles. There have been reports of people seeing this email on their Arrival Plus card or their American Airlines Aviator card.. I received it on the Arrival Plus card.

As you can see, you can earn up to 60,000 miles with this targeted offer. That’s the equivalent of their sign up bonus for new card members. What’s nice about this is that you don’t have to apply for this or have a hard pull on your credit report. Pretty sweet huh?

How To Earn 60K Bonus Miles

To earn the 60,000 miles, it’s a two step process. From November 10, 2020 through January 31, 2021, you can earn 10 additional miles per dollar, up to 10,000 miles. The email specifically states that the miles earned are in addition to the miles you normally earn with the card.

For the remaining 50,000 miles, you must spend at least $3,000 between November 10, 2020 to January 31, 2021. This is pretty standard on new card sign up bonuses, so I don’t see this as an issue. Keep in mind that these are fixed value points as discussed in this post.

Questions and Confusion

It’s unclear to me whether one must spend $3,000 to unlock the entire 60K bonus, or if one must spend $4,000 to unlock the bonus. Part of me thinks you can earn the 60,000 miles after spending $3,000.

Yet after reading through the conditions a couple of times, I could see how someone could interpret it differently. Step 1 states that you could earn 10K miles by spending $1,000 (10 miles/dollar X $1,000). Then step 2 states you must spend at least $3,000 on purchases to earn the other 50,000 miles.

Either way, I’ll be completing the necessary spending for this bonus and I will update this post with my results.

Conclusion

It pays to keep an eye out on your email for amazing offers like this. Earning a huge sum of points without applying for a new card is an outstanding offer. Considering the times we’re living in, banks are getting pretty generous in order to retain customers, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see other banks offer generous offers and perks to retain customers.

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MEETING MINIMUM SPENDING REQUIREMENTS – THE RISKS

Sign up bonuses are a great way to boost your points balance and get you closer to that dream vacation.  That’s a fact! But don’t let that blind you from the requirements needed to earn that sign up bonus. Before signing up for a card, make sure that you’re able to COMFORTABLY meet the minimum spending requirements for the sign up bonus.

I want to emphasize this because the point of this hobby is to travel for cheap.  If you get into any unnecessary debt to meet the minimum spending requirements, then that defeats the purpose of this hobby.  Any interest that you pay to earn points negates the value that you get from these points. That is probably the most important rule in this hobby.  Do not get into debt!

HOW TO MEET THE MINIMUM SPENDING REQUIREMENTS

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s discuss how to meet your minimum spending.  For many, spending $3,000 to $5,000 in 90 days can be daunting, especially if you’re frugal with your spending.  This may require you to get creative with your spending in order to earn that sign up bonus. Here are a few ways.

PLAN YOUR NEW CARD AROUND A BIG EXPENSE

So you been saving money for that new kitchen remodel and you have the funds to pay for it cash.  You can plan applying for your new card for when you’ll be paying for your kitchen remodel. Think of other big expenses.  Paying your taxes, tuition or a down payment on your new car could all be ways to help with earning a sign up bonus. This way you can use your new card to pay for this expense and cover most, if not all of your minimum spending requirements in one shot.

SHIFT ALL OF YOUR SPENDING TO YOUR NEW CARD

We’ve discussed a few cards that are ideal for spending at restaurants, supermarkets, airfare, etc.  That’s great for maximizing spending on your current cards that offer bonus spending in certain categories.  Yet when receiving a new card, it’s wise to shift ALL of your spending to this new card in order to meet the minimum spending requirements.  Even if your new card doesn’t earn as many points per dollar as your current one on a certain category, use your new one until you meet the minimum spending requirements and earn that bonus.  It’s only temporary.

GET AHEAD ON YOUR BILLS

Many of your bills will allow you to prepay for their services, and even offer a discount by doing so.  If you’re used to paying your car insurance monthly, consider paying for 6 months or the entire year. Rent, utility bills, cell phone bills and other monthly subscriptions may allow you to prepay.  Do this only if you’re able to cover the costs with cash.

GET OTHERS INVOLVED

Unfortunately, not everyone shares our passion for earning points and miles for free or almost free travel.  If TRUSTED family and friends are not concerned with earning points, miles or other credit card rewards, then ask them to see if they will help you meet your minimum spending requirements.  You can either ar set them up as an authorized user or allow them to use your card for purchases. Just make sure that they will pay you for charges incurred on your card.

TREAT EVERYONE TO DINNER – SORT OF

Following the same guidelines as just mentioned about getting others involved, paying for dinner could work the same way.  If you have a large dinner get together planned for friends and family, you could offer to pick up the entire tab, and everyone could Venmo you later for their part of the bill.

PAY UPFRONT FOR OTHER REIMBURSED ITEMS

Medical expenses come to mind with this category.  If you plan to get reimbursed through your Flexible Spending Account, use your new credit card to pay for the costs.  Also, try to make arrangements to pay for medical costs up front, then have your insurance send you a check for what they were going to cover.

USE PLASTIQ

Many utility bills, landlords and banks don’t allow you to pay with credit cards. There’s a way around that though. By using Plastiq, you can use your credit card to pay these bills for a fee.  I would only use this option to meet minimum spending requirements or if you’re using a promotion for fee free spending using Plastiq.

CONCLUSION

If you think outside of the box just a little bit, you can come up with effortless ways to put more spending on your card WITHOUT going into debt.  By doing this you can plan for your next trip guilt free! How else do you meet minimum spending requirements? Comment down below. Thanks again for watching guys, I really appreciate it. If you haven’t already, like subscribe and got the notification bell. We’ll see you in the next one.

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When involved with the miles and points hobby for a while, no doubt you’ve acquired a few credit cards to take advantage of the nice sign up bonuses.  Since we don’t carry balances, this improves your credit ratio. However, many of these cards come with annual fees. When the annual fee is due, you’re faced with a decision of whether to keep or cancel your credit card.

ANNUAL FEE DECISIONS – KEEP OR CANCEL?

We’ve discussed a number of credit cards to help you hack your next trip, and many of the appealing cards come with an annual fee.  Sometimes that annual fee is waived for the first year of card ownership, while others you have to pay immediately. When you’re approaching that first year of card ownership you have to decide whether the card is worth holding onto long term, or if it was only good for its sign up bonus.  Do you keep or cancel your credit card? You want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth out of the annual fee.

If you decide that the card is not worth the annual fee, you may also consider downgrading the card to a low or no annual fee option when possible.  This can help your continued credit history with the bank and also keep your credit ratio in tact. An example of this would be downgrading your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which comes with an annual fee of $550, to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card which has an annual fee of $95.  This would allow you to continue using your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for travel.

CONSIDER THE SPENDING BONUS CATEGORIES

When deciding whether to keep a card long term, consider how much value you get out of the card.  One way to get value out of a card is taking advantage of the spending bonuses offered by the card.  For example, we recently discussed the spending categories of the American Express Gold card, which comes with a $250 annual fee.  

This card offers 4X points on dining and 4X points at supermarkets.  So let’s say that between these two categories you spend about $1000 a month like we do.  That’s 4,000 points earned each month.  Annualize that to a total of 48,000 points earned in a year (4,000 points X 12 = 48,000).  I value Membership Rewards points at about $.02 per point, so those 48,000 points earned on just those bonus categories is worth $960 (48,000 X $.02 = $960).  This alone outweighs the cost of the annual fee for me, which justifies paying it every year.  Again, these are just examples, so crunch the numbers using your spending habits to do your analysis.

ANNUAL BENEFITS AND PERKS

Some cards don’t offer great spending bonus categories like the American Express Gold card mentioned previously.  In this case you’d have to weigh any annual benefits or perks offered by the card to see if they offset the annual fee.  We recently discussed this scenario with the American Express Platinum card.

Another example of this would be the Hilton Aspire card by American Express.  This card comes with a hefty $450 annual fee, which is a considerable amount of money so you want to make sure you get maximum value out of this card.  This card offers a number of annual perks that far outweigh the annual fee in my opinion. It offers a yearly $250 Hilton resort credit, a yearly $250 airline incidental credit, a free weekend night certificate and many other perks.  By maxing out these credits alone, you already get more than $450 worth out of this card. With the Hilton Aspire card, deciding whether to keep or cancel the credit card is an easy choice for me.

OVERLAPPING BENEFITS

Another thing to keep in mind when deciding whether to keep or cancel a card is if you’re offered similar benefits on another card.  In these cases where you have overlapping benefits amongst 2 or more cards, it can get more difficult to max out the benefits. This makes it more difficult to justify the annual fee.  If you don’t use the benefits, then they’re not worth anything.

We were recently faced with this decision with the Ritz Carlton card from Chase.  This card is no longer available for new sign ups, but it has a $450 annual fee.  It comes with a yearly $300 airline incidental credit, Priority Pass membership, 15 elite night credits and a 50K Bonvoy point annual night certificate.  Because I already have airline incidental credits to use from our Amex Platinum and Hilton Aspire cards, I find it difficult to use $300 more in airline incidental credits.  Also my wife carries the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card by American Express, which offers a yearly $300 Marriott credit which is easier to use for us.  We also get Priority Pass membership from other cards, so the Ritz card doesn’t offer any unique perks that we could use to justify the annual fee.  

Because of this we downgraded it to the much more manageable Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card with a $95 fee.  This card also offers the 15 elite night credit in case you’re working towards elite status with Marriott.  It offers an annual free night worth up to 35K Bonvoy points, which could easily be worth over $95.

BEFORE CANCELING, CALL THE BANK FIRST

Once you’ve analyzed the card to see if it is worth the annual fee and have determined that it is not, don’t cancel or downgrade the card just yet.  Call the bank first to let them know that you’re thinking of canceling the card. Many times banks will counter with some great offers to keep your business.

They may offer a significant points bonus after spending an additional amount on the card.  Sometimes they may waive the annual fee for another year, or reduce the cost of the annual fee.  In other cases they may not offer you anything, but it never hurts to ask. If that’s the case, ask them to see what your downgrade options are and continue with the one that works for you.

CONCLUSION

When you’re faced with whether to keep or cancel your credit card, ask yourself the questions mentioned above to help with your decision. The point of this hobby is to travel for cheap.  Paying annual fees for cards that don’t provide you with value negates any benefits of this hobby.  Staying organized and analyzing your cards will keep you from overspending on cards that you don’t benefit from.  Downgrading those cards to low or no annual fee cards could help preserve your credit history and credit ratio. Are there any cards that you consider to be worth the annual fee?  Comment down below. Feel free to leave your referral links in the comments section. We’ll see you in the next one.

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Are hotel credit cards useful?  Can you really get out sized value from hotel points?  Should I have a preferred hotel loyalty program or should it matter? Out of all the available credit cards and hotel brands, which one should I focus on?  Or should I get them all?

With travel, there are 2 main components of your trip…. How you get to your destination and where you will stay while you’re there.  I recently discussed how we used airline miles to book our flights to the Maldives and hotel points to book our resort stay while there.  Those two components could be the most expensive part of your trip.

THE DIFFERENT HOTEL BRANDS

There are several popular hotel brands out there and each of them offer their own loyalty program and co-branded credit card.  The popular ones are IHG, Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton. There are others, but these are the largest and more popular hotel loyalty programs.  While that’s great and I use them from time to time, I’ll explain why they’re not my favorite. Another thing that I want to mention is that a great way to show your support for this blog is by using my referral links down below, or through the referral links tab.

IHG REWARDS CLUB HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAM

IHG:  This is the parent company of hotel brands that you may know of, such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental.  While they have a large worldwide footprint and great properties, I’m not a big fan of their hotel loyalty program. To qualify for their top status, you need to stay 75 nights a year at their properties.

That’s a lot of stays to earn their best status.  Yet is it worth it? You don’t really get any worthwhile perks for having elite status.  While you do get priority check in, late check out and possible room upgrades, you don’t get free breakfast at their higher end properties, which is a very useful perk that can save you some money.

While you could earn Platinum Elite status just by having their IHG Rewards credit card, again it doesn’t offer any perks that get me excited.  Plus on top of that, they require too many points for their aspirational properties and earning those required points requires a lot of spending on their credit card.  IHG is a transfer partner with Chase and transfer at a 1:1 ratio, however Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth around $.02 per point while IHG points are only worth around $.005 per point.

MARRIOTT BONVOY HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAM

Marriott:  Marriott recently purchased the SPG hotel group and dramatically increased their presence around the world.  Aside from the Marriott brand, they own brands such as Sheraton, St. Regis, Ritz Carlton and many others. Their loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, is very appealing because not only can you use their hotel points for free nights at their properties, BUT you can also transfer those points to over 40 airline partners.  This was a feature that SPG had and that people loved about the program.  Marriott did well to keep that in place.

There are things I don’t like about the loyalty program though.  The first is that it’s difficult to earn elite status. It requires a lot of nights to earn elite status.  Although award stays count towards status and having a Marriott credit card gives you a 15 night boost, it’s still out of reach for us. We don’t have a lot of paid stays per year, so this is out of the question for us. This is more suitable for business travelers, or full-time travelers that have the opportunity and means to earn elite status.

Although earning Platinum Elite status and above is more appealing.  They offer lounge access, breakfast and confirmed suite upgrades. Also with the higher the status, the higher your point earning potential when spending at Marriott properties.  Again, elite status with Marriott is rewarding, but tough to achieve for folks like me. 

EARNING POINTS WITH MARRIOTT 

Another thing that doesn’t appeal to me is that points are difficult to earn.  Aside from big sign up bonuses, there are not a lot of options to earn a lot of points.  With points transferring to airlines at a 3:1 ratio, you need a considerable amount of points to book award flights for you and your family.

Marriott is unique in that it has credit cards from two banks, Chase and American Express.  There are a number of credit cards offered by both banks, from the basic, no annual fee option to the premium, high annual fee option.  We currently have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card from American Express.  We used those points to transfer them to Alaska Airlines for our recent Asia trip.  Another card that doesn’t have as high of an annual fee is the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card.

Marriott is also a transfer partner of Chase and transfers are at a 1:1 ratio.  This isn’t a good deal since Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth $.02 per point while Marriott Bonvoy points are worth $.008 per point.

WORLD OF HYATT HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAM

Hyatt:  The Hyatt loyalty program is a fan favorite for a few reasons.  They offer very nice properties, a great customer experience and points needed for award nights are very reasonable.  Hyatt has some of the swankiest properties around the world that you can stay at with just points. They don’t have as large a worldwide footprint as the other brands mentioned earlier, which is a drawback.  There may not be a Hyatt property available at your chosen destination.

Achieving Hyatt elite status again requires a high number of paid stays.  For their top tier status, you have to have stayed 60 nights at Hyatt properties.  However, notice that I didn’t say they had to be paid stays.

Free night awards count towards earning status with Hyatt, which is awesome.  With your paid stays and Hyatt card credit card spend, you can earn a bunch of points.  Then when you use your points for award nights, those nights count towards your elite status.

EARNING POINTS WITH HYATT

I mentioned the Hyatt credit card to earn points.  Chase offers a co-branded Hyatt credit card that is a good card to use as it offers 4x points for every dollar spent at Hyatt properties, 2x points for every dollar spent at restaurants, airlines, local transit/commuting as well as fitness club and gym memberships.  I mainly use this card while at Hyatt properties and to pay for our monthly gym membership. Hyatt points have a pretty good value of about 1.5-1.7 cents per point and free nights start at 5,000 points per night for their lower end properties.  Hyatt also has some all-inclusive properties that you can stay at for 20,000 points per night! You could also transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio, which could be an excellent option if you get great value out of your award redemption.

HILTON HONORS HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAM

Hilton:  This is my favorite hotel loyalty program!  Much like IHG and Marriott, they have a large footprint worldwide so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a Hilton property to stay at.  

Their properties range from your basic hotels such as the Hampton Inn to the fancy Conrad or Waldorf Astoria.  

Again, like the other properties, it requires a considerable amount of nights or stays to earn their top status, HOWEVER there is another way to get Diamond status without having to pay for 60 nights a year.  I’ll share that with you momentarily.

The Hilton loyalty program is very generous in my opinion because it doesn’t charge you resort fees on award stays while other programs do.  They also offer your 5th night free on award stays. This allows you to save a considerable amount of points as well.  

With elite status, you also earn bonus points on paid stays which will boost your points balance.  Couple this with using the right card for your Hilton stays and you will be much closer to your next award stay in not time!

AUTOMATIC DIAMOND STATUS

Just by owning the Hilton Aspire card by American Express, you have AUTOMATIC Diamond status.  This is amazing as it opens the door to free breakfast, lounge access, room upgrades and more!  Aside from having Diamond status, the card gives you: 

• $250 annual resort credit
• $250 annual airline incidental credit (used the same as the Amex Platinum discussed in this video above)
• Annual free weekend award night
• Priority Pass Membership
• $100 on-property credit with 2 night paid stays at Waldorf Astoria and Conrad
• 14x per dollar spent at Hilton properties
• 7x per dollar spent on flights booked directly with the airline or through amextravel.com
• 7x per dollar spent on car rentals booked directly with the car rental company
• 7x per dollar at US restaurants
• 3x per dollar on everything else
• $450 annual fee

Just by maxing out the $250 annual resort credit and the $250 airline incidental credit, you make a $50 profit vs the annual fee.  This is why I absolutely love this card and prefer to stay at Hilton properties.

AUTOMATIC GOLD STATUS

If you’re still put off by the annual fee, there are other options that don’t require the hefty annual fee.  You can get AUTOMATIC Hilton Gold Status by having the Hilton Honors Surpass Card by American Express.  Gold status is just under Diamond status, yet it still gives you free breakfast and room upgrades.  Hilton Gold is arguably better than elite status from other hotel chains because of these perks, and you get it just by holding this card.  This card comes with a $95 annual fee, which is more more doable than $450.

With the Surpass card, you earn 12x points for every dollar that you spend at Hilton properties.  You also earn 6x points for every dollar spent at US restaurants, US supermarkets and US gas stations.  If you read in a previous article, you could rack up a considerable amount of points at supermarkets.  You can earn 3x points for every other purchase.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, Hilton makes a strong case for why it can be YOUR preferred hotel loyalty program.  By having elite status just for holding either the Hilton Aspire or Hilton Surpass cards, you can enjoy some amazing perks that could be out of reach with other hotel loyalty programs.  What are your thoughts about the Hilton loyalty program? What is your preferred hotel brand? Comment down below! Thanks again for watching guys, I really appreciate it. If you haven’t already, please like, subscribe and hit that notification bell for more travel hacking related content.  We’ll see you in the next one!

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Banks offer cash back credit cards to entice consumers to spend on their cards and earn a percentage of their spending back in cash.  This can be a great option to getting something back for your everyday spending if you’re not interested in travel points and miles. Many popular cashback cards offer up to 5% back on certain rotating spending categories throughout the year.  Other cards offer a fixed percentage of cash back for every dollar that you spend.

Banks use a number of different ways to reel you in to using their products, especially their credit cards.  They do this in hopes of you carrying a large balance and paying huge sums in interest back to the banks. Of course, we’re smarter than that and never carry a balance on our credit cards.  We do however reap all of the rewards offered by those cards.

CHASE FREEDOM

The Chase Freedom card is extremely popular among everyday consumers and travel hackers alike.  This card offers rotating 5% categories every quarter where you can earn a substantial amount of cash back.  The way these rotating categories work is that each quarter, the bank designates which spending categories will earn 5% cash back for every dollar that you spend.  As of this recording, the Chase Freedom is offering 5% cash back at gas stations, internet, cable, phone services and select streaming services on up to $1500 spent.

From January to March, I use my Chase Freedom card at all gas stations and I use it to pay my internet bill, Netflix and Hulu bills.  If you’re curious as to which merchants will trigger the 5% bonus, check out this link.  As you can see, Netflix and Hulu are part of select streaming services.  You also earn 1% cash back on all other categories.

As mentioned, if you max out the $1500 in spending in bonus categories each quarter, you could earn $300 per year.  That’s pretty cool since you’re spending on useful categories and earning cash back. What makes the Chase Freedom so valuable to me is the fact that instead of cash back, you can convert that cash back to Ultimate Rewards points if you also own the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve cards.  Ultimate Rewards is Chase’s travel rewards currency.  Ultimate Rewards points are flexible points that can be transferred to airline and hotel partners.  Since I love to use credit card rewards for “free” travel, this is my preferred option. Those $300 in cash back earned per year ends up being 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

DISCOVER IT CASH BACK

The Discover It credit back card is a fan favorite among cash back enthusiasts.  Much like the Chase Freedom card, it also offers rotating categories every quarter where you can earn 5% on up to $1500 spent.  I use the Discover card and my Freedom card interchangeably each quarter to earn 5% on their respectable bonus categories. As of this recording, the bonus categories are grocery stores, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies.  You also earn 1% on all other categories for that quarter.

I find this category easy to max out since we do regular grocery shopping, plus our grocery store, Walgreens and CVS sell very useful gift cards.  Keep in mind that Walmart Supercenters and Target are excluded from earning 5%.  

Although in practice, my purchases from our Neighborhood Walmart (the smaller, grocery store Walmarts) do code as a grocery store and I earn the 5% per dollar spent.  But, “your mileage may vary” so please test it out in your area before spending a lot on your card.

CITI DOUBLE CASH CARD

The Citi Double Cash credit card doesn’t have rotating 5% categories like the Chase Freedom and Discover It cards, but what makes this card great is that you earn 2% cash back on every purchase.  You earn 1% when spending on the card, and 1% when you pay off your balance. Since we never carry a balance, this makes the card a 2% cash back card. This is great because while the Chase Freedom and Discover It cards only offer 1% on their non-bonus categories, you can use your Citi Double Cash card to earn 2% on those other categories.  This really boosts your cash earning potential.

Much like the Chase Freedom card, the Citi Double Cash card allows you the flexibility to convert your cash back into ThankYou points.  ThankYou points are Citi’s flexible points that can be transferred to several airline partners. This is where I can really maximize the value of those credit card rewards.

SUMMARY

I own the 3 cards mentioned previously and they serve a useful purpose for me.  All 3 of the cards do NOT have an annual fee, which is great so you can keep the card long term to improve your credit score with a longer credit history.

If I had to rank these 3 cards, I would say that the Chase Freedom comes in first place, with the Citi Double Cash coming in second, while the Discover It card comes in third.

CASH BACK CREDIT CARD #1  

The reason for this is because with the Chase Freedom I can earn an easy 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points per year just by maximizing the bonus categories every quarter.  Because the rewards can be converted to Ultimate Rewards points, I can transfer those points to United Airlines or Hyatt and get extreme value from them. I value Ultimate Rewards points at around $.02 per point.  Also, the Chase Freedom card is issued by Visa and is virtually accepted everywhere. However I wouldn’t use this card overseas since it does charge you foreign transaction fees.

CASH BACK CREDIT CARD #2

The Citi Double Cash card earns 2% cash back on everything and also has the option to convert its cash back into a flexible points, but ThankYou points from Citi are slightly less valuable than Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points.  ThankYou points have 15 different airline partners, however about half of them are useful to me. Although I could transfer them to Turkish Airlines and book flights from the US mainland to Hawaii for 7,500 points! The Citi Double cash card is issued by MasterCard which is accepted just about everywhere.  Like the Chase Freedom card though, it does charge you for foreign transaction fees.

CASH BACK CREDIT CARD #3

The Discover It card also has 5% rotating categories like the Chase Freedom card and offers great customer service.  It is an amazing card and highly recommend it, however I’m not able to convert that cash back from the Discover It card to a flexible point where I can get increased value from it.  This is why the other 2 cards edged this one out. Another drawback that I have to mention is that Discover is not as widely accepted as Visa and Mastercard. But, this card does NOT charge you for foreign transaction fees if you’re able to find a foreign merchant that accepts Discover.

CONCLUSION

There are a number of cash back credit cards out there, but these three are the ones I find to be the most valuable.  While there is nothing wrong with using these cards for their cash back earning potential, I choose to get more value out of rewards cards by transferring them to my favorite airline and hotel partners when possible.  Do you currently have any of these cards? What is your preferred use out of them? Let me know in the comments down below! That’s it for me guys. We’ll see you in the next one.

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The best travel DEBIT cards???  Why would you even need a debit card if there’s plenty of attractive credit cards out there?  Isn’t using a debit card while traveling risky?

So the travel hacking hobby involves earning a bunch of points and miles in order to book flights and hotels instead of spending cash.  Where does having a travel debit card fit into the equation? Well sometimes you just need cash while you’re out on vacation. Whether it’s to tip, or if you’re at a market that only accepts cash, you’ll need a convenient and inexpensive way to pull cash.

TYPICAL DEBIT CARDS

More than likely you already have a debit card from your bank.  The problem with using that debit card abroad is that most banks will charge you an out of network fee and a foreign transaction fee.  The out of network fee is where you’re not using an ATM associated with that bank. So let’s say that you have a debit card from Wells Fargo, you’ll be charged for using that debit card at an ATM that doesn’t belong to Wells Fargo.  Good luck trying to find a Wells Fargo ATM in Southeast Asia.  

Now you might be thinking, “I can just take cash from home and exchange it at my destination…” or “I can just buy foreign currency from my bank…”.  While that is true, I wouldn’t advise doing that for a couple of reasons. First, it’s not wise to carry a bunch of cash on you while you’re on vacation.  It could easily get lost or stolen. The second reason is that you get poor exchange rates at your bank or at your destination. You may also get charged an exchange fee on top of that.  If you pull cash from an ATM at your destination, you get top exchange rates from Visa, Mastercard or American Express, depending on who your debit card goes through.

Typical debit cards will also charge you a foreign transaction fee for using the card outside of the US.  Whether it’s at an ATM or making a purchase at a store, you may get hit with these fees and they really add up.  A travel debit card can help you avoid the foreign transaction fees and the out of network fees.

RECOMMENDED TRAVEL DEBIT CARD

These cards aren’t necessarily advertised as travel debit cards, but many people use them while traveling because they don’t charge you foreign transaction fees and you’re reimbursed any ATM fees you incur.

The first one I recommend is the SoFi Money Account.  By using this link, you’ll get $25 by funding your new account with $100.  I get $25 too. You don’t have to use this link, but it’s greatly appreciated if you do.  This cash management account is basically like a checking account and currently earns 1.60% interest.  

I enjoy this account as it’s very convenient and helps save me money when using it abroad.  This isn’t my primary bank account. I use a local bank for my everyday finances. When we’re getting ready for a trip, I transfer cash from my primary account to my SoFi account to use while on vacation.  This way if my SoFi debit card is lost or stolen, thieves don’t have access to my primary funds. You can do the same if you open up an account.

UPDATE: SoFi recently changed their promotion for SoFi Invest. They now require you to fund your account with $5K instead of $1K to earn the bonus.

SoFi also offers other products that are very appealing as well, such as their investing platforms.  They offer active investing and automatic investing with fractional shares. Their SoFi Invest account doesn’t charge you trade commissions when buying stocks and etfs.  If you choose to open an investment account with this link, you’ll get $100 in stock and so will I if you fund your account with $1000.  In my opinion this is a better promotional offer than what is offered by Robinhood or WeBull because you get $100 worth of your favorite stock, as opposed to getting free random stocks.

ANOTHER GREAT OPTION

The other debit card that I recommend is from Charles Schwab.  This account has been around for a while and like the SoFi account, it doesn’t charge you foreign transaction fees and reimburses you ATM fees.  I’ve had this account for years and I’m happy with it, but I’ve been using my SoFi account more lately because it earns 1.60% interest, while Charles Schwab offers only .15% interest.

With Charles Schwab you also have access to a brokerage account for active investing with zero commission trades on stocks and etfs.  Soon they will be offering fractional investing as well.  

Like I said, I’ve used this account for years and have been happy with it.  I give the slight edge to SoFi due to the more favorable interest rates and promotional offers.

CONCLUSION

While you may already have your preferred bank for everyday needs, getting one of these travel debit cards certainly doesn’t hurt.  By transferring your vacation money to either your SoFi or Charles Schwab account, you’ll have fee free access to cash while you’re on vacation.  I’m sure you can find better use for that money instead of paying fees. Do you have a preferred account to use while you travel? If so, post your referral links below. 

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If travel hacking was made easy, would you consider this hobby? If you’re new to this hobby or are looking into it, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the lingo and all of the possibilities you have with points and miles.  Remembering where points can be transferred to, which airlines are partners, what alliance they belong to, who passes on fuel surcharges…. It can get pretty confusing.  Some people don’t want to deal with jumping through all of these hoops to score free travel, which is fine. Yet, these same people may still want to lessen their travel costs by using credit card rewards.  

In this article, we’ll discuss what I think is the best credit card for those type of travel hackers. This card is very easy to use and earns a flat 2x points per dollar on everything. If you use this card at Hotels.com, you earn 10x points per dollar! The card that I am referring to is the Capital One Venture card.

CAPITAL ONE MAKES TRAVEL HACKING EASY

Many of you have seen the commercials where you could earn unlimited 2x miles for every dollar spent on this card.  The miles earned from the Capital One Venture card are very useful. To keep this simple, you can use your miles earned to wipe out any travel related charges at a value of $.01 per mile.  So for example, if you had a $200 hotel charge on your card, you would need 20,000 miles to wipe out that charge. This will come in the form of a statement credit. This is why I say that this card is extremely convenient for those who do not want the hassle involved with this hobby.

However, if you did want to dip your toes into transferring miles to airline partners, the Capital One Venture card allows you to do this as well.  The Venture card has 15 different airline partners, and miles transfer at a 2:1.5 ratio for most airlines. JetBlue, Emirates and Singapore Airlines transfer at a 2:1 ratio.  The airline partners are

• Aeromexico
• Air Canada
• Air France/KLM
• Alitalia
• Avianca
• Emirates
• Finnair
• JetBlue
• Cathay Pacific
• Etihad
• EVA Air
• Hainan
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines

This is great because it gives you options.  However you should always crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense for you to transfer your Venture miles to airlines.

DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO TRANSFER VENTURE MILES

So, just because you can transfer Venture miles to airlines miles, does it make sense to do so?  Well, it depends. You’ll need to do some math to see which how you should use your miles. Let’s use an example with Aeroplan:

Aeroplan is Air Canada’s loyalty program.  According to their award chart, it would take 60,000 Aeroplan miles to fly roundtrip from the US to Western Europe.  If you chose to transfer your Venture miles to Aeroplan, you would need 80,000 Venture miles to have 60,000 Aeroplan miles due to its 2:1.5 transfer ratio.  

So now that we know how many Venture miles you need to cover an award flight with Aeroplan, let’s crunch some numbers.  Those 80,000 Venture miles have a value of $800 if used as a statement credit. This is important to know so that you can determine how to use your miles.  

If the cash value of the award flight you found on Aeroplan is $800 or less, you’re better off using your Venture miles as a statement credit.  

If the cash value is more than $800, you’re better off transferring those Venture miles.  Why is that? Let’s assume the cash value is $1500 for that award flight. To use Venture miles as a statement credit, you would need 150,000 to cover the cost of the flight.  Meanwhile, you could transfer just 80,000 Venture miles to Aeroplan to cover the flight.

TRANSFER PARTNERS:  THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

While the Capital One Venture card has 15 different airline partners, not all of them are particularly useful.  Some programs charge too many miles and don’t really offer a good deal. Others charge hefty fuel surcharges so it negates the value of the award.  In my opinion, the best ones are Aeroplan, Avianca, and Qantas.  

Singapore Airlines is ok, but with a transfer ratio of 2:1, you’d require more miles when transferring to them.  Because of this you definitely want to do some math to make sure the value is there. Flying Blue (the loyalty program for Air France and KLM) can be a good one depending on the fuel surcharges.

With the rest of the airline partners, I wouldn’t even bother transferring miles to them.  They either charge too many miles or there’s a better alternative. For a more detailed look into each of Capital One’s transfer partners, check out this article from Million Mile Secrets.

ANOTHER GOOD OPTION TO MAKE TRAVEL HACKING EASY

Another card that I have to mention is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus credit card.  While you cannot transfer the miles earned on this card to airlines, you can use them to wipe out travel expenses at a value of $.01 per mile, much like the Capital One Venture card.  This is my go to card for use in Europe. Many of the automated kiosks for train tickets, gas pumps, etc require cards with chip + pin capabilities, and this card is perfect for that.

CONCLUSION

While I consider the Capital One Venture card to be the best credit card for casual travel hackers, it also provides you with the flexibility to transfer your Venture miles to airline loyalty programs.  You have the option of using your Venture miles as a statement credit for a value of $.01 each mile or get possibly more value if you find a good award flight deal. What do you think of the Venture card?  Do you currently hold this card? Let me know what you think in the comments down below.

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If I had to pick just ONE card, what would it be???  What is the best travel credit card? Travel hacking has allowed Adriana and I to travel to various parts of the world for pennies on the dollar.  We’ve enjoyed some amazing business class flights and have stayed at several 5 star resorts all booked with points and miles.  The majority of the points and miles earned come from our regular spending with travel reward credit cards and with sign up bonuses.

Friends and family have asked how we have been able to travel and of course we mention our points and miles hobby.  Interested ones will undoubtedly ask, “which is the best credit card out there for travel hacking?”. There is no OSFA card out there, since everyone has different travel goals, but in this post I’ll discuss the one card that I would personally pick. This card fits our travel goals and spending habits like no other.  While we strategically use certain cards for spending on different items to maximize our points earning, there is a card that I find myself using more often than not. So, if I had to pick just one card, that card would be the American Express Gold card.

IF I HAD TO PICK JUST ONE CARD – THE AMEX GOLD CARD

The card comes with a $250 annual fee, yet with its point earning opportunities and useful annual credits, it’s easy to justify.  The main reason I would choose this card is because of our spending habits. This card offers 4x points on dining and groceries, 2 categories that we spend a lot on.  Yet, this allows us to earn 4x points on many other categories as well and I’ll explain shortly.

On average, Adriana and I spend about $400 a month on dining and about $600 a month on groceries.  With these 2 categories alone, we earn 4,000 points a month.

You may be asking, “what about the other spending categories?”. Here’s where I would get creative to maximize our points earnings for other categories. Gift cards are the solution! So, for example, another big spending category for us is gas. Adriana and I will spend roughly $600 a month on gas. Our grocery store offers gift cards to gas stations. By buying gift cards for gas at a grocery store, we indirectly earn 4x on gas since the purchase was made at a grocery store.  This would yield us another 2,400 points earned in a month. 

Another place where we spend money every month is Amazon.  We get a lot of items at good prices through Amazon’s Subscribe & Save option, such as dog food, coffee and other household items. We spend roughly $200 a month at Amazon. Again our grocery store offers Amazon gift cards, allowing us to earn about 800 points a month.  I think you can see what is possible with gift cards from your grocery store.

OTHER REASONS I LIKE THE AMEX GOLD

Aside from being able to earn 4x points on numerous different categories, there are other awesome perks provided by this card. One is that it has no foreign transaction fees. This allows us to use this card abroad at no additional charge.

This card also earns 3x on flights booked through the airline or amextravel.com.  On those occasions where you had to pay for flights, you could earn a considerable amount of points.  Although, you could potentially earn 4x if your grocery store sells gift cards to the airline of your choice.  My local grocery store sells gift cards to Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines.

The Amex Gold offers a $120 Dining credit per year.  Each month you get a $10 credit to use at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed and Shake Shack.  This is an easy credit to max out.

This card also offers a $100 Airline Incidental credit per year.  Similar to the Amex Platinum card, you must select your airline at the beginning of the calendar year to use this credit.  You can use this credit for bag fees, in flight Wi-Fi, snacks, etc.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE POINTS

As you can see, you can earn a considerable amount of points every month with your regular spending.  This is important in determining whether to keep the card for the long run. This one is a keeper for us.  We find Membership Rewards points to be super valuable because they allow us to travel to Europe and South America for cheap in business class.  We can fly on a Star Alliance airline in business class for eighty eight thousand ANA miles roundtrip. ANA is a transfer partner of American Express.

American Express has several airline transfer partners, and many of these are extremely useful.  They are:

• Aer Lingus
• Aeromexico
• Air Canada
• Alitalia
• ANA
• Cathay Pacific
• Avianca
• British Airways
• Delta
• El Al
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Flying Blue
• Iberia
• Hawaiian Airlines
• JetBlue
• Qantas
• Singapore Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

Many of these transfer at a 1:1 ratio and transfer instantly.  This is important when you’re trying to book an award flight!

CONCLUSION

To answer the age old question of “which is the best credit card for travel rewards”, the American Express Gold card is the one for me.  With its endless point earning opportunities and useful perks and credits, this card checks off all of the boxes that we look for in a travel rewards card.  What card would be your one and only? Comment down below!

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Justifying the Amex Platinum annual fee is easy! We talk a lot about earning points and miles to hack your way to your next vacation, but at what expense?  It’s important to weigh out the costs involved with this hobby and to evaluate whether you’re getting your money’s worth.  Many of the cards that are appealing have an annual fee of around $99 a year. Some of the premium cards have a hefty annual fee of $500 or more. With these cards, like the Amex Platinum, it’s important to justify the high annual fee. We’ll discuss which perks Adriana and I use most and how we get more value than what we pay in the annual fee.

The personal American Express Platinum card has an annual fee of $550.  That is definitely a lot of money but since this card offers many useful perks for us, we can get more than what we pay for every year.  Let’s check out all of the card perks and which ones we use to the max.

THE UBER CREDIT

The first one is the annual $200 Uber credit.  You get a $15 Uber credit per month and $35 credit in December, totaling $200 per year.  Obviously when traveling, you can easily use the Uber credit, but what about when you’re at home?  How can you use your credit while at home? This credit is also valid for Uber Eats. Adriana and I use fully use this credit each year.

THE AIRLINE INCIDENTAL CREDIT

The Amex Platinum also offers an annual $200 Airline incidental fee.  At the beginning of the calendar year, you must choose your airline. These are the participating airlines:  Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.  In our case, we usually fly American Airlines more so that’s the airline we choose. While we normally travel light with only a carry on and personal item, coming back from a trip with gifts and other things causes us to have to check in a bag on the way back.  By charging the baggage fee to my Amex Platinum, I’m reimbursed these fees. I’ve also been reimbursed snack/drink and Wi-Fi purchases. Now I must say, using the airline incidental fee can be a bit tricky so I highly suggest checking out the Flyer Talk link to see what works and what doesn’t work.

THE SAKS CREDIT

Another credit that we, or I should say, Adriana gets full use out of is the yearly $100 Saks credit.  The Amex Platinum gives you a $50 credit to use between January and June, and another $50 credit to use between July and December.  Now I know what you’re thinking… what in the world can I buy for $50 at Saks? You can find a number of useful items discounted to $50 and under.  Adriana typically uses this to buy some makeup that she likes.

THE GLOBAL ENTRY CREDIT

This next credit is very easy to use, however you may not use it every year.  I’m referring to the $100 Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit. By using your card to pay for your Global Entry application fee (TSA Precheck is included with this application), you’ll automatically be reimbursed for that charge.  By having TSA Precheck, you could save a lot of time at the security lines at the airport and by having Global Entry, you can take the fast lane when flying back into the country. Those immigration lines can be horrendously long!

THE REST OF THE PERKS

By maximizing these credits alone, you’re getting $600 worth of value.  I consider these credits the easiest for everyone to maximize. The remaining perks are definitely valuable, but the number of times you use them depends on how much you travel and where you travel to.The American Express Centurion Lounge:  Since we usually connect from our hometown to Dallas or Houston, this is an easy win for us.  We always access the lounge before our next flight. It offers amazing food and drinks at no extra charge!  The cardholder and a guest have access to the lounge. All that you have to do is present your Amex Platinum card, your ID and your boarding pass to your next flight. I’d value this at $50/visit.

Fine Hotels & Resorts:

If you’re looking for a paid stay at a swanky hotel or resort, it’s worth your while to search through the Fine Hotels & Resorts website.  You can find great deals and your stays will often include free breakfast and a hotel credit or amenity of some kind. On top of that you’re eligible for room upgrades, noon check-in and 4pm checkout.  These perks are typically only given to those with elite status with that hotel brand, however you’d be given those perks for booking through FHR. For this perk,I’d place a conservative value of $100/use.

Hilton Honors Gold Status: 

Just by having the Amex Platinum, you have Hilton Gold Status.  Just register your Hilton account with the Amex Platinum. This gives you free room upgrades and free breakfast at your Hilton stays. I personally value this at least $20/use just for breakfast alone.

ShopRunner Membership: 

Many online shopping websites offer free 2 day shipping through ShopRunner.  It’s like having Amazon Prime for the rest of the internet! I’ve taken advantage of this a few times at participating stores, yet I wouldn’t assign a value to this perk.

American Express Concierge: 

I never thought we’d get much use out of this but we definitely do.  If I need to set up dinner reservations at a restaurant or get event tickets, this is who I call.  Sometimes getting tickets or dinner reservations while abroad can be tricky, but Amex Concierge makes it easy! I’d value this at least $10/use, since this could save me from tipping the hotel concierge or ticket delivery fees that they may charge.

There are a number of other perks provided by this card, but I haven’t had the chance yet to use them yet.  You may find use out of them in your case. You can check out the rest of the perks here.  With the ones mentioned, we use them often and get more than $550 worth out of the card.

By maxing out the Uber, Airline Incidental, Saks and Global Entry credits, and using the rest of the mentioned perks JUST ONCE, I come out to a value of $780!  If you use the perks more than once, you’ll easily exceed $780 in value, far outweighing the cost of the annual fee. This card is a keeper for us because it makes “cents”.

JUSTIFYING THE AMEX PLATINUM ANNUAL FEE – CONCLUSION

As the old saying goes, you should never judge a book by its cover, the same is true with high annual fee credit cards.  Many people think that the card must be awesome since it demands a high annual fee. Others think it’s a complete waste of money for a credit card.  Depending on your circumstances and travel habits, this card could definitely earn a place in your wallet as it has in ours. What are your thoughts about the Amex Platinum card?  What other premium cards do you think are worth the high annual fee?

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