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Paying monthly bills with credit card


Granny_Weatherwax
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Please teach me! I do some things already and have been able to cover domestic trips, but I am always open to other options. I know if I signed up for an instant cash back program and bought gift cards at stores I shop at I could gain more which is awesome, except I do not shop. Those I knew who were doing it and making the most shopped competitively.

 

We are minimalists and I cannot tell you the last time I set foot inside a big box store except to buy dairy products. Even our groceries are not bought through chain grocery stores. Except the dairy, then it is Costco.

 

The fastest way to get points is to open new cards.  Meaning they will get you a bigger stash of points for meeting spends.  

 

What cards do you have? 

 

Could you meet a large spend or do you need something smaller?   meaning meeting a smaller spend

 

I think it helps to to think of what you want to do with where you want to go 

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I put most expenses on my Chase card but I must not be spending that much since we don’t end up with enough rewards to pay for a vacation. Dh uses a different reward card but he spends a lot less than I do since I handle most household expenses. Together we earn about $400 a year.

 

We weren’t ever able to use our credit card for college tuition. One school wouldn’t take it and the other charged 5% to use it so even with rewards it wasn’t cost effective.

 

Dh gets paid every two weeks so I pay the credit card that way too. It works well for me because I am facing my expenses every two weeks instead of only once a month. If I find I’m spending more than I like I can make adjustments then.

 

What do you guys do with your rewards? Dh redeems his on amazon purchases while I just use them to lower my monthly bill every couple of months. I’ve been thinking that maybe I should use them for gift cards for Christmas or something.

 

We don't get a huge amount. We're not willing to open multiple cards for the bonus points; I know that is becoming more common and nothing wrong with it; we just don't want to juggle multiple cards, etc..  

 

We have a Costco VISA; this year's reward was almost $400 which can be used for cashback or Costco purchases, or a combination of the two.  Another card used to get us a few $100 Amazon gift cards each year, but those are no longer on offer so I opt for a statement credit when I get enough points to get the maximum benefit for it. 

 

Kids' community college tuition is payable with no extra fee, so I take advantage of that, and that helps increase the rewards.  But we are not getting enough for air travel, etc.  

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We don't get a huge amount. We're not willing to open multiple cards for the bonus points; I know that is becoming more common and nothing wrong with it; we just don't want to juggle multiple cards, etc..

 

 

I’m not interested in it either. Like you said, nothing wrong with it, it’s just not for me. I might be more interested if we spent more but it seems unlikely that we’d be able to spend enough to reach the sign on bonuses the cards offer.

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I’m not interested in it either. Like you said, nothing wrong with it, it’s just not for me. I might be more interested if we spent more but it seems unlikely that we’d be able to spend enough to reach the sign on bonuses the cards offer.

 

There are lots of cards with low spends.

 

https://home.barclaycardus.com/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard.html

we just got that one when it was 60k 

 

 

All you have to do is pay the AF and put one purchase on it.   

 

 

2 other cards that give you 60k miles after your 1st purhcase

https://millionmilesecrets.com/2018/02/23/2-improved-card-offers-up-to-60000-miles-after-your-first-purchase/

 

 

Some hotel cards are only 1k spends

 

 

I know some chase cards have a spend of only $500

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There are lots of cards with low spends.

 

https://home.barclaycardus.com/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard.html

we just got that one when it was 60k

 

 

All you have to do is pay the AF and put one purchase on it.

 

 

2 other cards that give you 60k miles after your 1st purhcase

https://millionmilesecrets.com/2018/02/23/2-improved-card-offers-up-to-60000-miles-after-your-first-purchase/

 

 

Some hotel cards are only 1k spends

 

 

I know some chase cards have a spend of only $500

Thanks. What I should have said is that I don’t spend enough to make churning worth the effort. I don’t want to keep track of points from multiple cards- it’s not just the initial spending to earn the points but there’s also the work of using those points. I’m also a weirdo whose average open credit card account is 20 years so I clearly don’t like change. G

But thanks for the info- I’m sure it’ll help someone here and I’m passing it on to oldest dd who is interested in doing some churning.

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We do this also. everything that can possible be paid with Amex gets charged. I would LOVE to be able to include the mortgage, but the bank does not allow that. The strangest thing we were able to charge was a down payment on a vehicle. I was giddy with all the extra points. :)

 

We exclusively use our points to purchase Home Depot gift cards. We "pay" for all major home improvements and tool purchases with them. There is nothing better than remodeling/repairing/improving your house for free...free equity!

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DH and I were speaking with another couple about bill paying. No details, just in general. This couple uses their Discover Card to pay for everything all month long. Mortgage, utilities, gas, groceries, incidentals - everything goes on the Discover Card. At the end of the month, they pay off the Discover and begin again. They claim never to carry a balance, not even $1. Neither carry cash nor do they use their debit/check cards. They claim they earn enough in cash back bonuses and rewards to fund their yearly family vacation and Christmas.

 

Does anyone here do something similar? I'm curious to know how common this is and whether or not it would be worth trying for a few months.

 

I do it. I used to get free clothes from my retail card. Now I get free cash back.

 

We definitely get a lot in rewards.

 

I also charged my entire car to my card (cheap car, high limit). Paid off next day, no hit to credit score, which on the contrary looks great.

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We do this with our Chase Visa for every bill possible (not mortgage).  Love it. The card is paid in full each month and every few months I just apply cash back points to the card.  

 

I love that I can easily track all our purchases that way.  Such a time-saver. 

 

 

Never thought to put a vehicle on it, Tsuga!  We may have to consider that for our next purchase.  

 

 

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Yep this is what I do.

 

I don't wait for the end of the month to pay it off though, I make two or three payments a month. I do make sure that the last month's balance is paid off before the deadline, I just prefer not to let it all add up first.

 

I never have cash.

 

This sounds like us.  Everything possible goes on Discover.  I pay the balance every two weeks. Easy, simple, and cash back! 

 

Really seems to help our credit rating too.  We actually once heard from a financial manager upon looking up our credit rating: "I didn't realize it went up that high."  :lol:

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I feel like I've been living under a rock. Some of the language used to describe using credit cards is completely unfamiliar - churn, spend. 

 

I assume AF = activation fee.

 

Like a pp, I wouldn't want to spend the time juggling multiple cards. Even if signing up for a new card gave me 100,000 miles or points, how many are needed to actually get a plane ticket? Would it be worth paying the AF and trying to reach the spend? How long would that take? How much are the AFs and how long does it take to earn enough rewards to justify paying the AF?

 

It seems like there are many types of cards, offered by numerous organizations and companies, that a person could probably find a card that would earn rewards toward something meaningful to that person. I think I"ll pay a bit more attention to some of the offers that come through the mail or email.

 

I am curious about those of you with multiple credit cards. Do you keep them all open indefinitely? Even when you open another account? I could see me standing in line at the grocery store trying to figure out which card needed to be used in order to meet the spend limit or which one needed to be used in order to get the next reward.

 

And my brain is already exhausted...

Edited by The Accidental Coach
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It seems like there are many types of cards, offered by numerous organizations and companies, that a person could probably find a card that would earn rewards toward something meaningful to that person. I think I"ll pay a bit more attention to some of the offers that come through the mail or email.

 

I am curious about those of you with multiple credit cards. Do you keep them all open indefinitely? Even when you open another account? I could see me standing in line at the grocery store trying to figure out which card needed to be used in order to meet the spend limit or which one needed to be used in order to get the next reward.

 

And my brain is already exhausted...

 

I think this is fun and easy for some people. And for others (like me) Its just another place to miss something and get hit with an extra fee I missed.

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I feel like I've been living under a rock. Some of the language used to describe using credit cards is completely unfamiliar - churn, spend. 

 

I assume AF = activation fee.

 

Like a pp, I wouldn't want to spend the time juggling multiple cards. Even if signing up for a new card gave me 100,000 miles or points, how many are needed to actually get a plane ticket? Would it be worth paying the AF and trying to reach the spend? How long would that take? How much are the AFs and how long does it take to earn enough rewards to justify paying the AF?

 

It seems like there are many types of cards, offered by numerous organizations and companies, that a person could probably find a card that would earn rewards toward something meaningful to that person. I think I"ll pay a bit more attention to some of the offers that come through the mail or email.

 

I am curious about those of you with multiple credit cards. Do you keep them all open indefinitely? Even when you open another account? I could see me standing in line at the grocery store trying to figure out which card needed to be used in order to meet the spend limit or which one needed to be used in order to get the next reward.

 

And my brain is already exhausted...

 

 

Well first you need to ask what kind of plane ticket?   Domestic?  Europe?  Asia?  

Different places are different amount of miles and it depends on the airline too. 

 

Example.  Dh and I both got United cards when the bonus was 70k miles. A round trip in coach for US or Canada is 25k miles.   So after getting the those 2 cards we have enough to fly the family of 7 RT to any of those places.  Now those are best spent on places that are expensive or at times when the flight prices are high.  If you do that it could be worth $2100-2800 or so.

Or a coach ticket to Japan is 70k miles.  So we could get two.  I just looked up the prices and they are $2400 -1000 per ticket.   

They also do discounted ticket specials from time to time.  Like right now one of them is Aussie which is normally 80k per round trip coach ticket.  But the special is 64k miles.  

 

 

You do not have to keep credit cards open after you reach the spend as long as the miles are to an airline.  Not like Chase points.  There are some other cards that work like that too.

If you close that card you will lose the points.  But a lot of the cards have so many perks that paying the AF (annual fee) is worth it. 

 

But things like chase points are really valuable because you can use them for hotels, airfare , and more.   Some points you can transfer to different hotels or airlines. 

 

Usually low level hackers just open one card at a time, meet that spend and then open another one.   At least that is what we do.  keeps it very easy. 

 

 

It sounds really hard, but it isn't.   Of course with anything there are levels.  I am at the low level.  Some people do crazy things and reap lots of rewards.   But we don't do that.  But it is worth it and has payed for lots of trips around the world for our family.  

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We pay for most everything with our CC - but not the mortgage nor the utilities because 1. They are automatically drafted from our bank and 2. I never thought of it!

 

We do have a couple of regular bills on our CC (some monthly, some yearly)  and several that are when you reach a certain point (toll tags). It really gets to be a hassle when one of the cards is compromised, and I have to call around to give all those places (which I always forget at least one) and let them know the new number. I probably should keep a list! 

 

One thing to think about regarding multiple credit cards - there is a slight impact on your credit score.  https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/07/credit_score.asp

 

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Going off to Google 'credit card hacks'

 

Edited: well, that was interesting. The Google search led to nothing but credit card fraud, stealing credit card numbers, and identity theft.

 

Here are some great websites to start getting info

 

 

thepointsguy.com

 

https://millionmilesecrets.com/

 

http://mommypoints.boardingarea.com/

 

http://www.pointswithacrew.com/

 

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/

 

 

Oh and they call it travel hacking.   Might get better results. 

Edited by mommyoffive
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  • 1 year later...
On 2/26/2018 at 8:07 AM, mommyoffive said:

 

We pay everything we can on credit cards and never ever carry a balance.   

We travel hack so we are usually trying to meet new spends on credit cards.  

I wish we had done this years and years ago.  I was always worried that we would mess it up some how.   But it works great for us and it is so worth it.   We now always have our airfare paid for.  We just started do this. 

We have hundreds of thousands of miles right now. 

 

We have payed for a 3 international flights for our family of 7 so far.  

And I save so much money when we go to the airport and eat in the free lounges.  

I am resurrecting this thread because this is what I am interested in.  I'm investigating credit cards with airmiles as the reward so my family of 6 can start to travel.  May I ask what is the best card you've found to do this with?
(Do you have a blog where you share your tricks and "travel hack" skills?  Only kind of kidding LOL)

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57 minutes ago, Squiddles said:

I am resurrecting this thread because this is what I am interested in.  I'm investigating credit cards with airmiles as the reward so my family of 6 can start to travel.  May I ask what is the best card you've found to do this with?
(Do you have a blog where you share your tricks and "travel hack" skills?  Only kind of kidding LOL)

 

Ha, I almost did start on blog on that.  There are so many out there already.

You should start with Chase cards.  Where do you want to travel?  International?   Domestic?  What airlines have hubs closest to you? 

Are you focusing first on the airlines or the hotels? 

You used to be able to get  Sapphire Preferred and Reserve at the same time, but you can only have one now.  CSP has 60k points right now after 4k of spending.  CSR has only 50k .  CSP has an annual fee of 95 and the CSR has an annual fee of $450.  But then you get $300 travel credit every year.  

I totally wish we would have started doing this sooner.  As long as you can pay your bill in full every month and end up using the miles or points, it is awesome.   We have saved so much money on our trips.   I am currently stocking up miles and points for our summer travel.   

 

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I think there are blogs that talk about the best ones in terms off how much the points are worth and the costs versus benefits. For me, I like the ease of having the majority of my financial stuff in one place. So we’ve used the US Bank Flex Perks Visa card for almost everything forever. It’s not airline specific and has no blackout dates. We added the Flex Perks Amex when there was a large points offer. Since we prefer to fly Delta when possible, we’ve also each individually done Delta Amex cards at different times when there have been mile promotions (currently 60k plus $50 credit, free companion ticket, and flying perks), but never keep them long enough to actually pay an annual fee. Some places don’t accept Amex, so I always time then when I know we will have some big charges that will quickly satisfy the spend requirements.

I can’t remember the last time we actually paid for an airline ticket. We even flew to Europe on points. But we never stay in hotels in the US, so we only use the points for flights.

Edited by Frances
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Chase preferred or reserve (i would have preferred reserve).

And now I’m sad because I miss all of those old people we don’t see anymore :’(  I like to imagine Laura Corin happily hiking around her little corner of Scotland busting out some random Chinese every once in a while 🙂

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My husband was just talking to someone about this this week.  He just got back from Hawaii with his family of 5, all paid for either points.  He does pay his mortgage by using a website that sends a check for him to the bank.  We are looking into getting started with it. 

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I want to do this but I, too, have several bills that won’t allow it. Instead of splitting where my bills are being paid, I prefer to keep them coming from one account.

All other spending does go on a credit card for cash back. We only do hotel and airline points through dh’s work stuff. Our (family) travel ability is limited, so I prefer to take the 1-5% cash.

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Thank you for resurrecting this thread. I thought about doing so myself in January to update how our year went then I didn't do it.

We began using our CC for everything except those bills which wouldn't allow it (mortgage, some utilities). We used it for everything else - medical bills, college expenses. The first few months were anxiety producing as we were concerned about accidentally carrying a balance; we never did thank goodness. However, our benefits were much less than we thought they would be. When we received the detailed year-end analysis and saw how much we actually spent on the CC, we were astounded. We also were able to see for the first time exactly where the majority of our money goes - but that's a different thread. Overall, we did not earn the $1000s we were told some people did. There wasn't enough Cash Reward money to finance a vacation. It was nice to have a bit of extra cash in January.

We did learn that it is not worth it to put college tuition payments on the credit card. The school charges a percentage fee for use of a credit card; that fee is more than what the card gives back in Rewards.

We thought about buying a used car with the CC but opted not to.  We're just not that brave yet.


We are going to use the CC again this year because we like the ability to track our expenses. We know not to expect a huge bonus at the end but it will help us do something fun next winter.

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16 minutes ago, The Accidental Coach said:

Thank you for resurrecting this thread. I thought about doing so myself in January to update how our year went then I didn't do it.

We began using our CC for everything except those bills which wouldn't allow it (mortgage, some utilities). We used it for everything else - medical bills, college expenses. The first few months were anxiety producing as we were concerned about accidentally carrying a balance; we never did thank goodness. However, our benefits were much less than we thought they would be. When we received the detailed year-end analysis and saw how much we actually spent on the CC, we were astounded. We also were able to see for the first time exactly where the majority of our money goes - but that's a different thread. Overall, we did not earn the $1000s we were told some people did. There wasn't enough Cash Reward money to finance a vacation. It was nice to have a bit of extra cash in January.

We did learn that it is not worth it to put college tuition payments on the credit card. The school charges a percentage fee for use of a credit card; that fee is more than what the card gives back in Rewards.

We thought about buying a used car with the CC but opted not to.  We're just not that brave yet.


We are going to use the CC again this year because we like the ability to track our expenses. We know not to expect a huge bonus at the end but it will help us do something fun next winter.

 

What credit card were you using?  When people talk about getting thousands for travel, mostly they are talking about doing multiple credit cards.  Sure you can get a great bonus and use that to buy a ticket that retails for a lot.  For example the United card at 70k bonus you could use that to fly to Tokyo on ANA.  Depending on the time of year from Chicago that ticket price is $800-$2500. 

But mostly to get a free vacation for a family, you are talking about opening multiple cards and meeting the spends.   Especially if the card you were putting spends on didn't have an into bonus.  Or you already got it.  Unless you are spending tons on your cc every month you are not going to get 1000s on that.   It is opening new cards that have bonus for doing that. 

But you can get a great deal with the Barclay Aviator card right now.  Pay the $95 annual fee and put one purchase could be a buck and get 60k American Airlines miles.   That could be worth a thousand.  You could use that for one RT ticket to Europe in summer high times.   

Edited by mommyoffive
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On Facebook, there is The Points Guy who is one of those travel hacker types, though I confess I never spend one minute of time reading or following his page. I have friends who do follow him regularly, though. 

I do pay for almost everything on my CC and I used my sizeable points accumulation last year for my flights to and from France, as well as four nights of hotel stay in Paris (though I had a debacle with the third and fourth night, so there are things I would do differently in the future). My credit card is Bank of America World Rewards. I also have a Capital One Ventire card which I opened when dd went to France, because they don’t charge fees for transaction in a foreign country. This is also a rewards card, so she built rewards redeemable for travel while traveling! 

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7 hours ago, Chris in VA said:

Is there an impact to your credit score by opening lots of cards to get the points? 

We used to pay bills by cc but my own personal cards were a nightmare for me, so it's not for me. But more power to ya!

It’s my understanding it’s actually a positive because you have more credit relative to your balance. I usually pay off my cards every week, rather than every month, to keep the balances low.

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I’ve ajwats done this. Currently, we pay everything except the mortgage and electric bill this way (those companies require a bank account). I have never carried a balance and only ever, in 19 years, paid 1 late fee when I accidentally tried to pay the credit card with an old bank account that was somehow still saved  in our linked accounts. I used to use the rewards to fund Christmas, but now I use them to buy most of our homeschool curriculum. I don’t like debit cards, personally. I’m much more comfortable with this method. 

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We pay as many bills with it as it makes sense to pay with credit cards and have never carried a balance. We also use different cards for different bills, depending on the rewards. For example, one of our credit cards has free cell phone insurance if we use it to pay our cell phone bill. But yeah, we get tons of rewards by doing it. There are some bills that won't let you or charge a fee, so we don't use it for those. 

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Like Mommyoffive we too use travel cards and will open cards to get the bonus miles. We tend to fly AA/One World. On a flight last year we were offered an Aviator card that came with 50,000 miles after putting $2500 on the card. That's enough for two round trip domestic tickets. I just opened a Citi AA card literally last week to get the same miles (50,000). So now we have 100,000 miles just in bonus rewards. That doesn't include what we put on the card monthly (that we pay off). We will also close cards we no longer use when we open a new one, so it's not like we have 10 travel cards. 

In the past we've used the miles for free trips to Japan, several free trips to Europe and what would have been a very expensive same-day flight back to my hometown when my dad passed unexpectedly last summer. Our family of four is going back to Europe next month (flying RT Charlotte to Venice). We didn't use miles for this trip because we got a great deal on the airfare, but will get miles for the actual trip itself. Hoping to save up all of our miles for a New Zealand trip next year. 

Another bonus to the credit cards, in addition to the free bonus miles, is perks like free checked luggage on domestic flights and being able to board the plane in an earlier group, ahead of general boarding, no foreign transaction fees, extra insurance on car rentals, etc. Our flights to Venice were basic economy seats so we would have to board in the last group, but because I have the credit cards (both Aviator and Citi offer the same perks) we get to board in group 5 . We are traveling carry-on only so this will ensure we have space to stow are carry-ons. 

You can look around for credit cards that suit your needs. Some travel cards come with perks like access to lounges, credits for Global Entry/TSA Pre Check etc. There are cards for hotels (I believe Hilton Honors has one out now that will get you 100,000 bonus points, enough for 20 free stays at lower budget chains). 

I also have the Amazon Prime Chase card which I use for all of my amazon purchases. It's always nice to get those Amazon credits! I have about $40 of them right now. 

Edited by tdbates78
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13 minutes ago, tdbates78 said:

Like Mommyof5 we too use travel cards and will open cards to get the bonus miles. We tend to fly AA/One World. On a flight last year we were offered an Aviator card that came with 50,000 miles after putting $2500 on the card. That's enough for two round trip domestic tickets. I just opened a Citi AA card literally last week to get the same miles (50,000). So now we have 100,000 miles just in bonus rewards. That doesn't include what we put on the card monthly (that we pay off). We will also close cards we no longer use when we open a new one, so it's not like we have 10 travel cards. 

In the past we've used the miles for free trips to Japan, several free trips to Europe and what would have been a very expensive same-day flight back to my hometown when my dad passed unexpectedly last summer. Our family of four is going back to Europe next month (flying RT Charlotte to Venice). We didn't use miles for this trip because we got a great deal on the airfare, but will get miles for the actual trip itself. Hoping to save up all of our miles for a New Zealand trip next year. 

Another bonus to the credit cards, in addition to the free bonus miles, is perks like free checked luggage on domestic flights and being able to board the plane in an earlier group, ahead of general boarding, no foreign transaction fees, extra insurance on car rentals, etc. Our flights to Venice were basic economy seats so we would have to board in the last group, but because I have the credit cards (both Aviator and Citi offer the same perks) we get to board in group 5 . We are traveling carry-on only so this will ensure we have space to stow are carry-ons. 

You can look around for credit cards that suit your needs. Some travel cards come with perks like access to lounges, credits for Global Entry/TSA Pre Check etc. There are cards for hotels (I believe Hilton Honors has one out now that will get you 100,000 bonus points, enough for 20 free stays at lower budget chains). 

I also have the Amazon Prime Chase card which I use for all of my amazon purchases. It's always nice to get those Amazon credits! I have about $40 of them right now. 

 

Just because you talked about AA so I thought I would post this if you want to stock up on AA miles fast. 

https://cards.barclaycardus.com/banking/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard/

 

Did you travel to Japan and Europe on AA miles?    How did you stock up on miles for that? 

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For further encouragement, there is a FB group:  Travel Miles 101.  They have a file (document) that outlines the basics of CC travel hacking and as a group, share what is working/not working for them.  (For full disclosure:  I'm not in a position to handle opening and juggling multiple cards so can't speak from personal experience....)

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9 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Just because you talked about AA so I thought I would post this if you want to stock up on AA miles fast. 

https://cards.barclaycardus.com/banking/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard/

 

Did you travel to Japan and Europe on AA miles?    How did you stock up on miles for that? 

We have that card! 🙂

For Japan, we used a combination of bonus miles and we went through an AA program when we sold and then bought our new house years ago. We just went with an affiliate agent (Coldwell Baker) to sell our house and again to buy our new house and we received a ton of miles. I'm not sure if that program still exists, but it allowed DH and I to go to Japan before we had our kids. Japan is pretty expensive once you are there, so having to not pay airfare made the trip doable. 

ETA: We used Miles for Home https://www.myaffinityservices.com/aa

We've traveled to Europe on miles probably half a dozen times. We typically try to fly during the miles saver dates so miles go further. 

Edited by tdbates78
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12 minutes ago, tdbates78 said:

We have that card! 🙂

For Japan, we used a combination of bonus miles and we went through an AA program when we sold and then bought our new house years ago. We just went with an affiliate agent (Coldwell Baker) to sell our house and again to buy our new house and we received a ton of miles. I'm not sure if that program still exists, but it allowed DH and I to go to Japan before we had our kids. Japan is pretty expensive once you are there, so having to not pay airfare made the trip doable. 

ETA: We used Miles for Home https://www.myaffinityservices.com/aa

We've traveled to Europe on miles probably half a dozen times. We typically try to fly during the miles saver dates so miles go further. 

 

Thanks.  I haven't ever heard of that program.  I know Chase has sent emails to get some points selling or buying.   If we ever do that would be nice. 

 

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On 3/21/2019 at 9:40 AM, mommyoffive said:

 

What credit card were you using? <snip>

Discover - the same one the friend uses who claims to have earned over $1000 in rewards.

As far as using other cards, I don't have the wherewithall to research cards, figure out which ones would be beneficial, justify the yearly fees, or create a spreadsheet tracking the spending and rewards for each one. Maybe it's a personal failure and maybe there are others with more mettle but, for now, I'm simply to naive about the process. I also have never traveled internationally, have panic attacks when going through airport security, and prefer to drive when I travel so looking for air miles wouldn't be my thing.  I was hoping to  generate enough cash to pay for the holidays or buy something necessary for our home (like a new front door). With the card I used, there is no way that is ever going to happen. We don't generate enough income to spend the amounts that would bring in thousands in rewards.

Since Discover is 1-5% depending on the month and spending category (gas, groceries), a person would have to spend $100,000 a year to earn $1000 in rewards; assuming the 1% on all purchases. Even if the 5% could be used, and that is capped at $75 a month, spending $80,000+ a year isn't feasible for most people, esp when mortgage and most utilities cannot be charged on the card. With the 5% on gas/groceries/dining, that's spending $1500 each month in order to earn the maximum reward. We just don't spend that much. I can't imagine spending $1500 a month on restaurants/dining. (Yes, I realize there are people who do; we don't, we can't.)

I'm amazed at how many people are successful juggling the credit card game. To those people I say "Great job! You are awesome." Maybe, one day, I'll look into other reward cards and be able to have an awesome reward too!

Edited by The Accidental Coach
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On 3/22/2019 at 9:40 AM, tdbates78 said:

Like Mommyoffive we too use travel cards and will open cards to get the bonus miles. We tend to fly AA/One World. On a flight last year we were offered an Aviator card that came with 50,000 miles after putting $2500 on the card. That's enough for two round trip domestic tickets. I just opened a Citi AA card literally last week to get the same miles (50,000). So now we have 100,000 miles just in bonus rewards. That doesn't include what we put on the card monthly (that we pay off). We will also close cards we no longer use when we open a new one, so it's not like we have 10 travel cards. 

<snip>

I also have the Amazon Prime Chase card which I use for all of my amazon purchases. It's always nice to get those Amazon credits! I have about $40 of them right now. 

Closing accounts makes sense to me. How does that effect your credit rating?

I opened and Amazon Prime Chase card when we were planning DD's wedding. I have rewards on it. I really should look into what I can do with those.

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On 2/28/2018 at 7:46 AM, The Accidental Coach said:

<snip>

It seems like there are many types of cards, offered by numerous organizations and companies, that a person could probably find a card that would earn rewards toward something meaningful to that person. I think I'll pay a bit more attention to some of the offers that come through the mail or email.

<snip>

LOL - I so did not do this. Shredded or burned without reading them.

 

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