How to play the credit card game (spin off)

[Anonymous]

This is a spin off from the "is this the new normal" thread.

Can someone explain to me (in great detail!) or point me to a resource for how you all maximize traveling on points? We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really do anything with it other than use it as a normal credit card. We've got some points but not the way people on here seem to have. How do we maximize points? Tell me the tricks!

[Anonymous]

This person seems to have dedicated his life to this:

https://thepointsguy.com/

[Anonymous]

There is a free self-paced online course at 10x Travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This person seems to have dedicated his life to this:

Dear God no that site is awful. Just a shill for credit card companies at this point.

Good summary here.

https://frequentmiler.com/start-here/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the "is this the new normal" thread.

Can someone explain to me (in great detail!) or point me to a resource for how you all maximize traveling on points? We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really do anything with it other than use it as a normal credit card. We've got some points but not the way people on here seem to have. How do we maximize points? Tell me the tricks!

If you don't have big personal and/or business expenses it's hard to get the kind of points people on here have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the "is this the new normal" thread.

Can someone explain to me (in great detail!) or point me to a resource for how you all maximize traveling on points? We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really do anything with it other than use it as a normal credit card. We've got some points but not the way people on here seem to have. How do we maximize points? Tell me the tricks!

If you don't have big personal and/or business expenses it's hard to get the kind of points people on here have.

Disagree. I don't have big personal/business expenses are I fly on point a lot. The key is rotating through different cards and getting the big sign on bonuses. After the initial bonus, there isn't a ton of difference in benefit among cards. My husband and I both have multiple cards (referral credit for each of us signing up), and we regularly close them out and get new ones, esp. when we have a big purchased to make (a new appliance or whatever).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the "is this the new normal" thread.

Can someone explain to me (in great detail!) or point me to a resource for how you all maximize traveling on points? We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really do anything with it other than use it as a normal credit card. We've got some points but not the way people on here seem to have. How do we maximize points? Tell me the tricks!

If you don't have big personal and/or business expenses it's hard to get the kind of points people on here have.

Disagree. I don't have big personal/business expenses are I fly on point a lot. The key is rotating through different cards and getting the big sign on bonuses. After the initial bonus, there isn't a ton of difference in benefit among cards. My husband and I both have multiple cards (referral credit for each of us signing up), and we regularly close them out and get new ones, esp. when we have a big purchased to make (a new appliance or whatever).

This!! We get different card deals all the time. Use them for 3 months and put all the bills on them. Get the perks and close them out. We travel on mostly points

[Anonymous]

Doesn't that tank your credit? I've heard to try to keep your cards open long and close infrequently.

[Anonymous]

If you don't have big expenses but still want points for airline travel, I recommend the Southwest Airlines visa. No it does not offer many of the perks of other cards, and you can only use it for flights (and only where Southwest flies, so mostly just North America and a few locations in the Caribbean). But you can rack up points pretty quickly without huge spending -- we mostly just put our regular expenses on it plus use it to pay for travel expenses (you can get double points if you book stuff like rental cars and hotels through them) and we rack up a lot of free flights that way. We almost never pay for flights when we travel domestically as a result.

When I used to travel for business I had an AmEx and got to keep my travel points and that was the best -- I stored up a lot of airline points and hotel points that way. But that was years ago and we burned through them all a long time ago, sadly. It's truly the only thing I miss about that job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't that tank your credit? I've heard to try to keep your cards open long and close infrequently.

No, not as long as do it the right way. Good to maintain a couple of older no fee cards so you have long credit history from them. The additional credit lines from the new cards balance out the minor score loss from new inquiries.
This is one of the major fallacies from people who don't understand the nuances of how credit scores are calculated.

https://onemileatatime.com/guides/applying-credit-cards-hurt-credit-score/

[Anonymous]

Picking one credit card and sticking with it gives you some points, but the people getting lots of free travel are doing it with sign up bonuses. You need to sign up for a new card or two each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't that tank your credit? I've heard to try to keep your cards open long and close infrequently.

No, not as long as do it the right way. Good to maintain a couple of older no fee cards so you have long credit history from them. The additional credit lines from the new cards balance out the minor score loss from new inquiries.
This is one of the major fallacies from people who don't understand the nuances of how credit scores are calculated.

https://onemileatatime.com/guides/applying-credit-cards-hurt-credit-score/

Thank you for this link. Hoping to buy a house in about a year so trying to be very careful with my credit score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Picking one credit card and sticking with it gives you some points, but the people getting lots of free travel are doing it with sign up bonuses. You need to sign up for a new card or two each year.

Now that VISA and Mastercard have settled the anti trust case, you can expect interchange fees to come down and the value of points to collapse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Picking one credit card and sticking with it gives you some points, but the people getting lots of free travel are doing it with sign up bonuses. You need to sign up for a new card or two each year.

Now that VISA and Mastercard have settled the anti trust case, you can expect interchange fees to come down and the value of points to collapse

The details of the settlement are important, and show that the actual fee deductions are going to be minimal. Visa and MasterCard did this to try and prevent legislation similar to other countries, which is the thing that would really significantly impact interchange fees.

"Swipe fees typically include small fixed fees plus a percentage of total sale amounts, and average about 1.5% to 3.5% per transaction according to Bankrate.com.

Under the settlement, Visa and Mastercard would reduce swipe rates by at least four basis points - 0.04 percentage points - for three years, and ensure an average rate that is seven basis points below the current average for five years."

[Anonymous]

OP you missed the boat for this by about 10 years.