^^^^^ That’s great! I have a friend who’s really good at it, too.
What are the real-world trade offs? I dabbled with it and my credit score plunged, due to opening new accounts.
It started to seem like w*rk to keep up with all the promotions and then using various points programs to pay for things with various card travel programs.
Some of the cards have large fees, which seemed like defeating the purpose. I have kept the Chase Sapphire card, because it has the best car rental insurance I’ve found.
It seemed difficult to accumulate the millions of points, as you have quickly, off household income and without a significant personal business to charge everything to. Am I wrong?
In the end, I decided for myself to use the Wells Fargo 2% cash back card, which produces about $2K/year for us, and call it a day.
I started following a FB group called Travel on Points. I used to get cash back for all my purchases thinking that I can afford to travel so why do I need to bother with points.
I have opened a lot of credit cards since October for both me and my spouse. And, it is a lot of work. My credit score took a hit but my husband's is fine. We have a paid off house and will never take a loan for a car so I guess I really don't care about my credit score. I know it affects other costs but since my score is still over 720 and will go up, I don't care.
An example of why it is better to take points instead of cash - Chase Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to Hyatt hotels 1:1. Low end Hyatt Hotels can be rented for as low as 5,000 points. With the current Chase Sapphire Preferred Sub, you could rent 16 nights of a 5k point hotel room which is worth way more than $95.
The cards with the high annual fees have a lot of bonuses that help make up for the fees. The Amex Platinum Business is $695 a year. But, it also has a $200 Dell credit (2 per year) and a $200 airline fee credit, plus the points...we bought presents with the $200 Dell credits and used the $200 airline credit to buy United Travelbank credits.
We don't have a business that charges a lot but we are bookkeepers and I do buy gifts for clients to give to vendors and charge them to my credit card which helped get us started. I learned that I can charge my property taxes without paying a fee through Paypal Bill Pay (along with my gas & electric). Never knew that before. I also charge our estimated income taxes which I would never have done before but I've decided it is worth it for points (the fees are less than 2%).
With our points, we can travel around the world for free and probably pay for almost all our hotels for free on that trip. We can stay at a Hyatt for free anywhere we go. We also have status with Avis, Hertz, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt through the cards so get upgrades, etc.
It is a lot of work though to keep everything straight. I don't always pay with the best credit card to get points (i.e., groceries to get the most points on a certain card) because it is the SUBs that pay the most. I have a whole spreadsheet that I got from the FB page and have modified it to what I need. It keeps track of opening dates, fees, closing dates, bonuses, due dates, etc.
Credit card points are my new hobby!