This is a quick reference to much of what I cover in detail in the featured posts of this blog. I will grow this over time as I get feedback from readers of the blog.
Earning free travel through normal, everyday spend. Through various loyalty programs, you earn points and airline miles on nearly every purchase you make and redeem those points for travel. You are essentially being given a rebate on most everyday purchases in the form of travel redemptions.
1. Good to excellent credit so you can be approved for most of the recommended credit cards.
2. The ability to pay your monthly credit card statement balances in full every month by the due date to avoid paying interest.
By earning free travel through normal, everyday spend while managing your credit responsibly.
Don’t overspend. Pay off your credit card statement balances in full every month to avoid paying interest.
You lose the game when you pay interest on your credit card balances.
No. If you normally spend $12,ooo annually on everyday purchases and pay your statement balances in full and on time every month, you can earn a lot of free travel.
Credit card sign up bonuses. Once you meet the requirements to earn the bonus on one card, move on to the next remembering not to overspend trying to meet the spend requirements.
Try to time opening up a new credit card when you have a big purchase upcoming. One easy way to speed up meeting the spend requirement is to pay your auto insurance premiums in full. You’ll save money for paying the policy in full while knocking off a large chunk of the spend requirement at the same time.
Only do this if you can still pay your statement balance in full. You NEVER want to be paying credit card interest.
Your first 5 cards should be with Chase. This is due to Chase’s 5/24 rule. One of the first cards you should get is either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve because it allows you to transfer Ultimate Reward points to partner airlines.
After that, target cards from Capital One, AMEX, and CITI that allow you to transfer points to partner airlines. This gives you the most flexibility when booking award flights.
Good question. I don’t know why they sometime differ, but they often do. Sometimes my referral links will give you a better offer than the public offer and vice versa. While I appreciate you applying for cards through my referral links, always take the better offer.
This is a massive subject with plenty of resources already written about it in depth online. Google is your friend here.
Some general tips are:
No. Points redeemed for airfare are almost always worth more than if they were redeemed for cash back. Use the money you save on flights and hotels to spend on your vacation.
Many of the cards I recommend require a FICO score above 740.
You’re score may drop a few points after applying for a new card. New credit makes up 10% of your FICO score. Just 10%. Payment history and utilization combine for 65%. If you are paying all of your statement balances in full each month, your FICO is going to go up regardless of how many cards you open – within reason, of course.
The would be cash price of a points redemption minus any fees paid is the amount of free travel you earn.
The large sign up bonuses credit cards offer almost always make the first year’s annual fee worth paying. The sign up bonus on most $100 annual fee cards can almost always get you hundreds or thousands of dollars of travel. You can always cancel or downgrade before the card anniversary if you don’t feel the card is worth the annual fee after the first year.
But keep in mind that the annual fees often pay for themselves, especially on the premium cards. You might find the you are just paying up front for things you normally spend money on when you pay the annual fee.
I’m not a tax expert so do your own research on this. A quick Google search will provide you with plenty of information on this topic.
My experience is that you will not be required to pay taxes on points earned through sign up bonuses and normal credit card transactions. These rewards require you to spend money to earn and are essentially a post purchase rebate.
Credit card referrals, such as the ones I hope to receive from you 😉 are different. I don’t have to spend any money to earn those, so they can be viewed as income.
Again, I’m not a tax expert, so consult one or do your own research before making any decisions.
