reward 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.

Want to know more or have ideas for future articles? Contact me or check out these other articles you may be interested in.

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Travel Hacking: Reward Points are NOT all Equal

February 10, 2018 By Jason Kinney Leave a Comment

Trying to understand reward points? If you are just getting started check out our blog titled What is Travel Hacking?

Reward Points

One of the big things to remember when starting out is not all miles/points are created equal. A big key to understanding what you need is understanding where you want to go. To understand why this is important read our blog article Travel Tip: Where do you want to go? Some points are cash back on travel purchases, some are points for a specific hotel brand or airline, and some are points to a travel agency through the credit card company. The best can do all three.

Cash Back Point Cards

The best example of these to give are the Barclays Arrival or Capital One’s Venture card that you probably have seen in their heavily pushed commercial. These are only worth a penny per mile. When they say you are getting two miles per dollar. You are getting two cents back per dollar. Where this can be good, you can get this back from a no annual fee cash back card that does not lock you towards travel. I do have the no annual fee (no longer available) Arrival card and use it towards credit for taxi’s, shuttle buses, or hotels, such as the one we use in Cancun, that does not have a loyalty point program.

Hotel/Airline Specific Points

When you can use their own loyalty points, you can usually get some of the best deals. One of the biggest drawbacks is that the one company owns that ‘currency’. They can change redemption rates on you, sometimes with no notice. So you could be saving for one to two years, just to have them increase the redemption cost right before you are ready to book.

Travel Agency Credits

American Express and Chase have these as an option for some of their cards. This is like a concierge service also. You can redeem points through their travel agency and get 1.25-1.5 cents per dollar. Some of the benefits also at this time is they also can help if there is issues during the trip. It isn’t travel insurance, but they can help with rebooking due to flight cancellations, etc. They also have options to book hotels and flights that do not have loyalty programs.

Hybrid Program (Best of the Bunch)

I will use the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program as the example for the best reward point hybrid. This is my key to my current travel due to the flexibility it offers.

This reward card allows you to use your reward points with a cash back feature. This is great so if you change your mind and do not seeing travel in the future due to a change in plans. Unlike some travel point cards, you do not have to book travel in order to get the cash back.

The second option you have with this reward card is you can transfer to multiple partners. For airlines, you can transfer to Southwest, United and seven other airlines throughout the world. For hotels, you can transfer to Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG (The full family of Holiday Inn brand hotels).

An example where this comes in handy is when I am booking hotels in Milwaukee for flying out on one of my Vegas trips. The cost for a room at the Hyatt, where you can see the airport from your window, is $110 a night or 5,000 Hyatt points. If I redeem through the Chase Travel portal, it would cost me about 8,800 points but if I transfer the points to Hyatt from the same account first, it costs me 5,000 points. That is almost worth $50 in travel redemptions I am saving by doing that. I do not have to decide either until redemption on where I want to transfer those points until I need them. Some transfer partners are immediate, where others could take up to 2 days.

The third option this cards allows is booking through their travel portal. This does give the options for some better options also. One of my friends has been doing more out of country travel due to Taekwondo. She has utilized this option for many of her trips to try to get options for flights through airlines she would not have had the dedicated points for, along with hotel stays that may not have locations in the United States. Also this does give the option, if you don’t have enough in points that allows you to pay the difference. It helps reduce the cost for some of the more expense trips that some people may be looking at taking.

Starting out takes time…

When starting out in travel hacking, it may seem like it will take forever or that we are only talking about pennies. I look at it more like a drop of water from your house gutter on the sidewalk. Over a period of time, that simple water drop will leave a hole even through the hard cement. Travel hacking gets easier over time. Having some of these options to even supplement the cost of your next trip will be beneficial. Stick with it and those small savings items will add up quick. You will be seeing the benefits in no time at all.