free points

How Many Credit Cards Should I Have?

September 20, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

How many credit cards should I have is something we ask ourselves quite often. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the most extensive collection of active credit cards was 1,497. I don’t think any of us need that many.

How many credit cards should I have?

This answer widely depends on multiple factors such as your budget, credit score and what you plan to use them for. If you are Travel Hacking, this question becomes even harder to answer. The easiest way to get miles/points is the use of credit card sign up bonuses and daily use. Unfortunately, it isn’t one card fits all to get the most points. Most have strong categories or items that you purchase for bonus points and a flat point amount for other things. To get the best bang for the buck, I split my spend between four different cards.

Below is the list of credit cards I feel like I need to have, with most of my flights being to Las Vegas, Orlando, and Cancun. Now does this answer the question of “How many credit cards should I have?”. I’m not sure, but I think you will find the information helpful in making your credit card decisions.

Credit Card List

1.) Chase Ink

This card is no longer available in the form we use, but they do offer the Chase Ink Preferred. The version I have allows for 5x Ultimate Rewards points on my cable/cell phone bill along with purchases at office supply stores. I like to pick up gift cards for the 5x Ultimate Rewards points for stores my wife or I go to often such as Starbucks, Lowes or Target. They provide other benefits such as 2x Ultimate Rewards Points on gas. You receive 1 point on all other purchases

The Chase Ink Preferred only does 3x Ultimate Rewards points on cable/cell bill and office supply stores. Another perk we enjoy is the cell phone insurance through their card if you pay for your cellular bill with this card.

2.) Chase Freedom Unlimited card

This is one of the two default cards we usually use. This allows for 1.5x points for all purchases. Worst case, you can cash these out and its a 1.5% cash back card. But since we have the Chase Freedom Unlimited card , we can transfer the Ultimate Rewards Points to that account and converts those into miles giving us about 3% back on all purchases for travel through Southwest, Hyatt, United, and other programs.

3.) MGM Mlife Card through the First Bankcard

This is due to my loyalty to MGM casinos. Each purchase for gas and groceries is 2 points in loyalty and 2 points in credit at one of their casinos. We are fortunate that our Walmart counts as groceries. This is what allows me to maintain my higher than average rewards/loyalty status at MGM and provides better deals through their program for free nights and food comp credits. I only use this card for gas and groceries.

4.) Paypal through Synchrony Bank

This is my other default card. This is a simple and plain 2% cashback card. When all else fails, this cash back covers those items that come up on travel such as taxis and food on the trips. With this being 2% on everything with no annual fee, it will beat most of the cards that offer only one point per dollar.

How Many Credit Cards Should I Have? – Conclusion

Keep in mind; values change for what airline and hotels are worth. As flights get cheaper at times, the number of miles it may take may not. My general rule of thumb is if you do not get at least two percent value per dollar or some ancillary benefit like additional warranty, don’t overlook a simple cash back card at times.

Should I hoard my points or spend as soon as I can?

April 19, 2018 By Jason Kinney Leave a Comment

When should I use my reward points?

One of the most common questions asked by people who have started collecting reward points is if they should hold their miles or spend as soon as they can. I have changed my strategy over the last several years as I used to be a hoarder. I always wanted to get the most out of my miles, but that can be a gamble. By holding on to them they are subject to the whim of the airline or hotel company.

The value per point will change each time the company makes an evaluation and decides they want to increase the cost of the room or flight. Example is when I would stay at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, two years ago would cost 50,000 points through IHG, now its 60,000 points. That is over a 15 percent increase for the exact same room.

Company risk if you hold reward points

Companies get bought and sold, one of the most popular programs is SPG Starwoods points. Recently SPG was bought by Marriott and rumors point to the programs being merged into one program sometime in August. The travel partners you can transfer to with SPG Starwoods are huge and are worth about two cents per point. Marriott points are worth about 4/5th a penny. This is a significant difference and it leaves a lot of uncertainty about if/when they combine into one program. Everyone is waiting to hear what the final transfer rate will be or if they will even maintain the same transfer partners.

It is all up to the whim of the hotel and airline companies. It is their currency. They control the value and can change at no notice. If they want, they can suspend your account and remove the miles at their control.

Earn and Spend

I recommend a “Controlled Hold” or “Earn and Spend”. If you are saving up for a specific destination, such as Hawaii, go ahead and hold them but be fully aware that they can change in value overnight. Don’t plan on them being worth the same amount that they are now, two years from now. Right now, I book out as far as I can locking in before any type of increase occurs. Try to be savvy about how you book. For example, Southwest flights I can rebook if they drop in price. Within the last month though, they have decreased the value of their points meaning you have to use more points to book a specific flight.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

This is the other reason I like to hold points in programs with banks such as Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. Chase Ultimate Rewards on my previous blog article. At worst, there is a cash value that you can redeem for statement credits or an increase level through their travel site. You still have the flexibility to transfer to other programs when you need it. This way you are not locked into United or Southwest if they decide to devalue their points.

Flexibility is the key in managing your reward points. Allowing for flexibility gives you the best option. This allows you can customize your travel and put things more under your control.

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Home Improvements equals Free Travel

April 9, 2018 By Jason Kinney 2 Comments

Joni and I have decided to move into a bigger house. With moving there is always expenses surrounding moving and home improvements that are sure to follow. While Joni is worried if we have enough boxes, I am the one on the computer looking at the best way to get stuff at a discount or the most miles out of every purchase.

Home Improvements = Free Points

We did have one missed opportunity that I did not realize till after. Some airlines such as United, through their shopping portal give 25,000 miles through Quicken Loans if you are looking at them as a mortgage company. Chase at times offers a large amount of points if you get the mortgage through them. Keep in mind, this would not be the best reason to choose a mortgage company, as interest rates will vary. A 1/4 of a point in interest makes up for any miles you would pass up.

Our biggest point savings has been through Lowes, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. All of these are great home improvements stores. We loved having the home automation set up in our old house. The home automation items were left behind so we needed replace that for the new house. Like with most new homes we wanted to make some minor home improvements so we have typical costs for paint, dog gates, vacuum and carpet cleaners.

Travel Points at Home Improvement Stores

Lowes has been one of my favorite home improvement stores. When we did the “change of address” form through the post office, they sent a verification to the new house. Inside of that mailing was a bunch of coupons. The one that caught my eye was 10% of any single purchase at Lowes which we used in conjunction with their “11% back in rebate” sale. After making a list for the biggest purchases, we went to Staples with our Chase Ink (Chase Ink Cash would work also) and bought several hundred dollars in Lowes gift cards. With Staples being a ‘supply store’ that got us 5 points per dollar. We then walked next door and purchased most of our remodeling supplies. Here is the math on our purchases.

$1000 Purchase (hypothetical)

$100 in USPS 10% off
$99 back in rebate after 11% off
$80 value in Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on purchase

This leaves a $1000 purchase that we actually will end up paying $721.00 for. This gave us almost 28% off of purchases we were going to have to make anyway. Keep in mind this is assuming we will use the Lowes (which we will) rebate check and we will redeem our points. A redemption worth about two cents a point through Chase Ultimate Rewards by transferring to Hyatt or 1.7 cents per point through Southwest Airlines.

Other Shopping we did for Home Improvements

Home Depot we used the same Staples run to get gift cards. We then used one of the shopping portals to make the purchases through which gave us the 5 points per dollar through Staples. In addition we got an extra 2 points per dollar through that portal. That gave us about 10-14% off our purchases back in points.

Shopping portals can be your best friend. I highly recommend using a site like www.cashbackmonitor.com to allow you to see all the different portals you can use for a specific store. Portals are usually very easy to use as you just type in the store name. Once that is done it will list the stores and the point totals you can get. Most portals update their lists daily or weekly depending on any ‘deals’ or ‘specials’ that portal may have for bonus points.

Our Wal-Mart in town codes as a grocery store on credit card purchases which made it great for purchasing items for home improvements. We decided at this time to utilize one of my MGM Cards. This card gives 2% back towards some Vegas hotels along with status points on groceries and gas. This will help us reach one of the higher status levels that allow us for upgrades. There are other cards that give bonus points or cash back for grocery stores. Keep this in mind when you hit a larger Wal-Mart or Target and you may receive these bonus points.

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Do You Amazon? Two Options to Free Points

February 18, 2018 By Jason Kinney 1 Comment

Everyone knows Amazon.com and most people do some or like in our case, a lot of their shopping there. We have had the Amazon Prime membership for several years for the free shipping and music streaming benefits. Our purchases have been everything from clothing, electronics, groceries and luggage from Amazon. Actually we get so many packages with the free shipping that our recycling bin overflows every two weeks with the empty cardboard boxes. So that begs the question… How can I get Free Points from shopping on Amazon? There are three great options to Amazon Free Points and these are in addition to the points you can get from your travel credit card.

Amazon Free Points – Option #1 – Shopping Portals

There are many different shopping portals that offer miles or cash back. Unfortunately most of the cash back divide it up by department with lots of exclusions. This is why I usually look at Jet Blue Airlines shopping portal. Jet Blue offers 3 miles per dollar on all purchases.

Jet Blue has a large presence on the West and East Coast and not as much in the Midwest. Right now, I would fly out of Minneapolis or Chicago and be routed most likely through Boston for any flights. But keep in mind, these are free miles just by going through one link before doing your purchases. Just by doing a quick search, I found I could fly from Chicago to Boston (One Way) to see a Boston Red Sox game for as low as 4600 miles. So just by using the link and spending over $1500 over a year on normal purchases could easily get me a ticket out to Boston. The points usually post within a month.

Jet Blue has recently had rumors of being purchased, or purchasing other airlines over the last one to two years. If this happens, the points usually transfer to that carrier also. Additional flight options may be opening up in the future.

Amazon Free Points – Option #2 – Gift Cards and MileaguePlusX App

Some credit cards allow for bonuses on gift card purchases at supply stores. Our older Chase Ink Business Plus (no longer available) and the Chase Ink Cash offer 5 points per dollar. We pick up gift cards for Amazon all the time at Staples or Office Max. This will give me 6.25 to 10% back in free travel on that purchase depending on how I want to do the redemption.

If I forget to stop at Staples, I always hit up my trusty MileagePlusX app on my phone. United Airlines offers an app for your phone where you can purchase gift cards for many businesses and get United Miles for the purchase called MileaguePlusX. One of the best things about this app is you can create your “gift card” for the specific amount you are spending at some vendors. Amazon unfortunately is done in flat amounts. The rates for the gift cards is smaller at 1/2 miles per dollar, but its better than doing nothing.

Some of the better point options with this app that we use quite often are 5 miles per dollar for Bath & Body Works, Panera Bread and Applebees, 4 miles per dollar for IHOP, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Chilis. Joni often reloads her Starbucks account from this app getting 2 miles per dollar. Keep in mind this is above the miles or cash back you would get from your credit card.

Amazon Free Points – Combo Option

When you stack rewards you can get even more points for your purchase. For example, I need to buy something for $100 from Amazon. I pick up the gift card from Staples when I am in town. At 5 miles per dollar this nets me 500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points which I would value at $10.00. I then go home, sign into my Jet Blue Account and use the link to go through their shopping portal for 3 miles per dollar. This is 300 Jet Blue miles which is $5.02. I got this amount by looking at the flight for 4600 miles that costs $77. On this purchase when combining these steps I got $15.02 back towards travel on the $100 purchase. This is just over 15 percent back on something that I would be purchasing anyways, by just adding two simple steps.

Travel hacking doesn’t have to be hard. By doing just a few simple steps before making your normal purchases and you will be surprised how quickly you can use those benefits to travel.

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