Just before Brooke and I got married, I was having a conversation with a friend, who was telling me about a hotel stay in Paris they had just paid for with credit card points. Growing up, I had never been introduced to credit cards - my understanding of them was that all they were good for was ruining your life. I didn’t really know why...or how...but I just knew that credit cards were bad.
And that’s when I dove in. I started with a simple Google search around how to earn credit card points, which got us off to the races. Now, less than five years later, we’ve earned over 1 million points across multiple programs, which has helped enable our traveling in such a massive way!
First, we owe a ton to 10xTravel. There are a number of great resources out there, and they happened to be the one I clicked on. What started as an intro PDF is now a full blown free course that they offer, and their Facebook group provides a wealth of knowledge and a great community for talking travel plans and researching points questions. Not only did I learn a ton about travel from them, but they helped give a holistic picture of how credit and your credit score functions, and really helped change the way I think about credit cards.
As we hit our five year wedding anniversary, I thought, “Hey, I should try and count up how many points we’ve earned since we started doing this.” Currently, across all programs, we’re sitting on about 650K points. It’s kinda wild to think about! Especially after a year of Covid, where we’ve been saving instead of spending, this is definitely the highest our balances have ever been. Across all our traveling, we’ve spent about 400K, and I really couldn’t believe that we had passed the million point mark! So, with all that said, let’s get into some basics!
This seems to be the root of all the, “Credit cards will make you broke” euphemisms.
The point of travel hacking is not to modify your spending habits in pursuit of some fleeting luxurious travel dreams. The goal is to maximize the return you get on the money you’re already spending.
I don’t think I can emphasize this enough.
If you think you’ll be tempted to overspend because you can, “Pay for it later,” or, “Worry about it another time,” take the precautions beforehand to prevent this from happening. You can put spending limits on accounts, or ask for a smaller credit line, so that exorbitant spending isn’t even an option. If travel hacking is putting you in debt, stop, and talk to someone. We’re happy to help point you in the right direction.
Do you have somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit, but it feels too expensive to get there? Or maybe you just want the flexibility to go somewhere at the drop of a hat without having to worry about if you can afford it? Either way, set some goals, and that’ll give you a good idea of where to start travel hacking!
For us, we knew we just wanted the flexibility that booking travel with points offers. So, we started by knocking out cards with the most valuable and flexible sign up bonuses.
It can seem like a lot of information to keep up with, right? What day did you open your new card? How much do you have to spend to earn the sign-up bonus, and when do you have to spend it by? How much is the annual fee, and when do you have to pay it? What categories get me extra points on each card? What’s my Marriott number again?
Maintaining a spreadsheet with all this information is really easy, and super valuable, especially the further you get into travel hacking. I keep a note with all of our program membership numbers, so that it’s super convenient whether I’m on my phone or computer to find that information any time I need it.
Here’s the basic information I keep in a travel hacking spreadsheet:
-Card Name
-Date Opened
-Monthly Payment Due Date
-Annual Fee
-Month Annual Fee is Billed
-Sign Up Bonus
-Sign Up Bonus Minimum Spend (amount you have to spend to earn bonus)
-Extra Perks (spending categories that earn extra points, airport club passes, free luggage, upgraded boarding, etc)
Date opened is important to keep track of! I'll dive more into this another time, but Chase operates on an unwritten rule called 5/24. Long story short, if you've applied for more than 5 cards in a 24 month period, you're almost certainly set for automatic denial by Chase. So, you've gotta know when you're outside your 5/24 window before applying for another Chase card. There's more to know, but not for now!
This is really for when you’re getting started. Knowing your accurate credit score will help in making sure you start out applying for cards that you have the best chance of getting. There are a number of free online tools, but Discover Scorecard is a free one that I’ve found to consistently have accurate information.
Once you get going, you’ll probably see fluctuations in your credit score as you open/close/spend on cards. This is normal, and nothing to worry about, as long as you don’t see any inaccurate information on your report (cards you haven’t applied for, etc).
The best reward bonuses often come from cards that require a credit score of 700+. I am not a financial expert, so please take this advice with a grain of salt. Only you know the situation you’re in, and if you feel the need, consulting with a financial expert is your best way to get help. If you find yourself needing to rehab your credit or start building credit, Discover offers a number of great cards without annual fees that are great for getting started. The rewards on these cards usually aren't great, so it may delay your ability to get started travel hacking, but they’re a great place to start. The same goes for a kid who you’re looking to help build credit alongside!
I could spend hours and hours writing about travel hacking, but my goal here was to just start laying the foundation. Using these building blocks, we can start to ask the questions, “What card should I get first,” “What programs transfer points to each other,” “Is this card worth the annual fee,” and so many more.
But, it’s so important to understand the basics. If you’re reading this wondering if you can make this work, let me tell you point blank: You. Can.
