Very cool to see the first real story of a whole trip planned around points. It makes me wonder about how often you use your cards / at what rate you're able to rack up points. It seems like you take a fair amount of trips, so it seems like you earn points pretty quickly -- but that may just be because you're very experienced and have been in it a while; I'm sure it's different for us beginners. :)
I do get to travel I'd say a fair amount, but it's not because I'm earning a ton of points on everyday spend. It's because I search for credit cards with outrageous sign up bonuses, which offer a much better ROI than a card I already have. There are tips and tricks I will go over in future newsletters, most of which are specific for American Express cards.
For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card was offering 80,000 points if you open the card and spend $4,000 in 3 months. Let's say I wanted to earn the same number of points using a card I already have by putting my everyday purchases on the card. If the card earns 2x points on every $1 I spend, I would have to spend $40,000 on that card to earn 80,000 points!
That's 10x more I'd have to spend to earn the same number of points as I would get from opening a new card. I'm okay opening several credit cards, because I don't pay interest and I'm okay paying a $95 annual fee for one or two years if it means I'll get back $500-$1000 worth of travel. Not everyone will want to employ the same strategy that I use, and I don't blame them. But that's why I'm hoping that newsletters like this Fourth Edition can show you don't have to open several credit cards for a vacation. Sometimes you can open one card and it will cover a full weekend getaway.
selfie game as strong as your points game
love your newsletters!
Very cool to see the first real story of a whole trip planned around points. It makes me wonder about how often you use your cards / at what rate you're able to rack up points. It seems like you take a fair amount of trips, so it seems like you earn points pretty quickly -- but that may just be because you're very experienced and have been in it a while; I'm sure it's different for us beginners. :)
I do get to travel I'd say a fair amount, but it's not because I'm earning a ton of points on everyday spend. It's because I search for credit cards with outrageous sign up bonuses, which offer a much better ROI than a card I already have. There are tips and tricks I will go over in future newsletters, most of which are specific for American Express cards.
For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card was offering 80,000 points if you open the card and spend $4,000 in 3 months. Let's say I wanted to earn the same number of points using a card I already have by putting my everyday purchases on the card. If the card earns 2x points on every $1 I spend, I would have to spend $40,000 on that card to earn 80,000 points!
That's 10x more I'd have to spend to earn the same number of points as I would get from opening a new card. I'm okay opening several credit cards, because I don't pay interest and I'm okay paying a $95 annual fee for one or two years if it means I'll get back $500-$1000 worth of travel. Not everyone will want to employ the same strategy that I use, and I don't blame them. But that's why I'm hoping that newsletters like this Fourth Edition can show you don't have to open several credit cards for a vacation. Sometimes you can open one card and it will cover a full weekend getaway.
That totally makes sense! Thanks for sharing :)
Every newsletter is filled with great info! When I tried to send the gift link it kept giving me an error.