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00:01:34.680 | Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading

00:01:41.680 | your life, money, and travel.

00:01:43.360 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I am so excited you're here for another episode where I

00:01:47.400 | get to answer all the questions you've sent in.

00:01:49.640 | And first off, thank you so much for taking the time to share them.

00:01:53.160 | I've gotten so many great questions and I'm excited to dive in and answer them.

00:01:56.800 | As I mentioned in my last mailbag episode, I'm going to start splitting

00:02:00.320 | these into three different categories, points and miles, money, and life.

00:02:04.920 | The last one was all about money.

00:02:06.520 | So this one's going to be all about credit cards, points, and miles.

00:02:09.480 | And specifically, we're going to focus on a few things.

00:02:12.280 | First, credit cards, the best ones right now, including some of my favorite two

00:02:17.240 | card combos, my favorite cards for families, businesses, and more, and I'll

00:02:22.040 | also cover some nuance around how authorized users work, especially when it

00:02:25.840 | comes to helping others build credit.

00:02:27.360 | Next, I'll focus on racking up points and ways to earn more of them on a small

00:02:32.000 | budget and meet the minimum spends for these big signup bonuses.

00:02:35.560 | I'll address whether it ever makes sense to buy points or

00:02:38.600 | pay fees to use a credit card.

00:02:40.520 | I'll help you figure out where to earn points when flying on foreign airlines,

00:02:44.880 | and I'll address some questions about how it's possible to actually accrue hundreds

00:02:49.360 | of thousands or even millions of points.

00:02:52.040 | Then, now that you're ready to earn more points, I'm going to talk about how to

00:02:55.640 | prevent them from expiring and answer a question about what happens to your

00:02:59.280 | points when you die, and finally, I'll jump into redeeming and talk about my

00:03:04.360 | favorite transfer partners, how to redeem for large groups, my points stack, as one

00:03:09.440 | listener asked, meaning what tools and services I use for points, and finally,

00:03:13.880 | how far in advance you should be looking to book flights with points and miles.

00:03:18.440 | It makes me so happy to have all of these questions to cover, so let's get started.

00:03:23.360 | Actually, before we do a few things, first, if you aren't subscribed to the

00:03:27.400 | All The Hacks newsletter, you definitely should do that for a few reasons.

00:03:30.720 | First, every two weeks, I show the top deals I've found.

00:03:34.320 | I'll include an example of what that looks like at the end of this episode,

00:03:37.720 | but so many subscribers have been using those deals to save money,

00:03:41.000 | and I don't want you to miss out.

00:03:42.440 | Also, I'm trying to take some of the best learnings and tactics from the

00:03:46.440 | podcast and write them up in the newsletter so you have some notes to reference.

00:03:50.600 | It won't cover everything, but it will cover a lot, so head on over to

00:03:54.120 | allthehacks.com/email to sign up.

00:03:57.000 | Also, the next listener question episode will be all about everything

00:04:01.280 | other than money and points, so whether you have a question about life, non-points

00:04:05.400 | related travel, relationships, raising kids, your career, productivity, or really

00:04:10.240 | anything, please send them in, even if it's a quick and easy question.

00:04:14.120 | I'd love to hear from you.

00:04:16.080 | Okay, let's get started.

00:04:17.760 | I'm going to start with cards because I've gotten so many questions from you

00:04:22.320 | guys asking what are the best cards right now with a lot of different caveats and

00:04:26.560 | questions, so we're going to get into all of it.

00:04:28.000 | I'll just start this by saying, if you're going to sign up for any card, please head

00:04:31.840 | on over to allthehacks.com/cards and use the links there.

00:04:35.360 | It really supports the show and me and everything I'm doing, and obviously, if

00:04:39.960 | there's a better deal somewhere else, use that.

00:04:42.120 | I want you to get the most points possible, but for almost every card, I

00:04:45.840 | think the best deals out there are there, and so obviously, thank you so much in

00:04:49.480 | advance for using those links.

00:04:51.080 | Let's get in.

00:04:52.160 | I thought it might make sense to just start with what some of my favorite cards

00:04:56.920 | are just broadly.

00:04:57.960 | Forget sign-up bonuses right now, just if you're looking to get one or maybe pair it

00:05:02.360 | with two cards, let me share some of my favorites.

00:05:05.080 | Now, in a bunch of past episodes, I've talked about why I like transferable

00:05:09.600 | points, so I'm not going to go too deep on that other than to say, when you get a

00:05:14.160 | card with Citi, Chase, Amex, Cap One, those points can transfer to lots of

00:05:19.120 | different airlines.

00:05:20.120 | You can book travel in their portal.

00:05:22.000 | You can even redeem those points for gift cards and cash back, and so I love the

00:05:26.280 | flexibility of having cards in those programs, so those are usually what I'm

00:05:30.280 | going to recommend and suggest for everyone as their primary cards.

00:05:34.040 | I'm actually going to go through each of them and talk about what I think are the

00:05:38.320 | best combos of cards within those different financial institutions.

00:05:42.760 | I'll start with Chase because it's what I know a lot of people started with, the

00:05:46.680 | Chase Preferred or the Chase Reserve, and I think those are both great cards,

00:05:50.320 | earning three points on dining, two points on travel with the Preferred, three

00:05:54.600 | points on travel with the Reserve.

00:05:56.160 | A lot of people listening I know spend money on travel and dining, so those are

00:05:59.720 | great cards.

00:06:00.560 | Chase's points are super flexible.

00:06:03.040 | Lately, the Reserve card has been really cranking up the annual fee.

00:06:06.920 | It's up to $550 now.

00:06:09.520 | I will caveat that the first $300 you spend on travel every year gets credited

00:06:14.440 | on your account, so that's really easy to use up.

00:06:17.240 | So really, the annual fee is about $250, but you've got to ask yourself, do you

00:06:22.080 | spend enough on travel that getting one extra point is worth a $250 annual fee?

00:06:28.240 | Yes, you also get access to lounges.

00:06:30.400 | Yes, you get a couple of extra perks like DoorDash, DashPass, but you have to ask

00:06:35.720 | yourself that question.

00:06:36.800 | Also, if you redeem your points in the Portal, which we've talked about in the

00:06:40.800 | past, you do get more value out of them.

00:06:43.320 | You get 1.5 cents for those points if you're using the Reserve card.

00:06:46.760 | So if I'm looking at Chase, I think the Preferred or the Reserve are great

00:06:50.880 | options, and if I was going to pair it with one other card in the Chase

00:06:54.520 | ecosystem, it would be the Freedom Unlimited.

00:06:56.520 | And that's because you earn one and a half points on everything.

00:06:59.880 | It doesn't matter the category.

00:07:01.440 | You also get three points on dining, which is the same as the Sapphire cards, three

00:07:05.800 | points on drugstores, which I'm guessing you don't spend that much, but if you do,

00:07:09.280 | great.

00:07:09.640 | And right now, if you sign up for the Freedom Unlimited, which has no annual

00:07:13.240 | fee, you get an extra one and a half percent on everything for the first year,

00:07:18.200 | up to $20,000 to spend.

00:07:20.080 | And you've heard me kind of go between saying one and a half points, one and a

00:07:23.080 | half percent.

00:07:23.720 | That's because the Freedom Unlimited is marketed as a cashback card, which

00:07:27.560 | actually you'll hear common amongst a lot of the cards I'm going to talk about.

00:07:31.480 | But when you pair it with a Chase Preferred or Reserve, that cashback can be

00:07:36.160 | converted to points.

00:07:37.200 | So if you only had a Freedom Unlimited, yes, it's a one and a half percent

00:07:40.800 | cashback card that in the first year earns 3% cashback.

00:07:44.360 | But if you pair it with the Preferred or the Reserve, you earn points instead of

00:07:48.800 | cashback.

00:07:49.680 | And as we've talked about a lot, transferring those points gets you much

00:07:54.000 | better value, which is why sites like the Points Guy put the value of Capital One,

00:07:59.200 | Chase, Amex, and Citi Points at anywhere from like 1.7 to 2 cents.

00:08:04.360 | So you're getting a lot more out of the Freedom Unlimited if you pair it with the

00:08:07.520 | Chase Preferred or Reserve.

00:08:08.960 | So at Chase, my favorite two card combo, Chase Preferred or Chase Reserve paired

00:08:14.080 | with the Freedom Unlimited.

00:08:14.960 | At Citi, the Citi Premier right now has the biggest sign up bonus it's ever had

00:08:19.600 | at 80,000 points.

00:08:20.920 | It's a low annual fee card of $95 and you get three points per dollar on gas,

00:08:25.720 | groceries, dining, airfare, and hotels.

00:08:28.160 | I think it's a great travel card.

00:08:30.440 | It's a great everything card because of all those things.

00:08:33.320 | And it pairs so well with the Citi Double Cash.

00:08:36.520 | So just like the Freedom Unlimited, Citi Double Cash is marketed as a cashback

00:08:40.800 | card, but when you have both, you can use that cashback and convert it to thank

00:08:45.640 | you points and earn two points per dollar on everything you spend.

00:08:49.480 | So you're getting two points on everything, three X on gas, groceries,

00:08:53.280 | dining, airfare, and hotels.

00:08:54.840 | I think that's a great combo at Citi.

00:08:57.080 | With Capital One, I've talked a lot about the Venture X card recently because they

00:09:00.920 | had a huge sign up bonus and it's just a great two X on everything card.

00:09:05.000 | Capital One's been adding a ton of transfer partners lately.

00:09:08.520 | So I think they have a really great opportunity for you to use those points

00:09:11.960 | to transfer to airlines and get great redemptions on flights, especially

00:09:16.160 | international, business class, all of that.

00:09:18.160 | There's two cards.

00:09:19.520 | There's the Venture and the Venture X.

00:09:20.840 | And it's similar to the Preferred and the Reserve.

00:09:22.640 | The Venture has a $95 annual fee.

00:09:24.840 | The Venture X has a $395 annual fee, but they both offer 75,000 points sign up

00:09:30.160 | bonus.

00:09:30.680 | The main difference is that with the Venture X you're paying an extra $300

00:09:34.640 | annual fee, but you're also getting $300 towards travel as long as it's booked in

00:09:39.320 | the portal every year, plus 10,000 miles on your anniversary every year.

00:09:43.520 | You can also go to the Capital One lounges with the Venture X card, but

00:09:46.760 | there's only a couple of them.

00:09:47.920 | So depending on where you live, it might not matter.

00:09:50.080 | But if you have a Venture or a Venture X card, I think it pairs so well with

00:09:54.760 | the Capital One Saver card.

00:09:56.120 | Cheryl actually wrote in and said, "Do you know if you can combine all of these

00:09:59.360 | Capital One card points and cashbacks with each other?"

00:10:02.560 | And the answer is, when you have a Capital One card that earns miles, like

00:10:06.200 | the Venture, the Venture X, or the Spark miles, if you also have a cashback card,

00:10:10.920 | you can convert that cashback to miles.

00:10:13.520 | So the Saver card earns 4x miles on dining, entertainment, and streaming,

00:10:18.760 | and 3x miles on groceries.

00:10:21.000 | And it's only a $95 annual fee.

00:10:23.680 | It doesn't have a huge bonus like the Venture and the Venture X card.

00:10:26.560 | It's only 30,000 points right now, or marketed as $300.

00:10:30.240 | But if you combine those two cards, you're earning 4x on dining,

00:10:35.280 | entertainment, streaming, groceries, and 2x on everything else.

00:10:39.800 | It's a great combo.

00:10:41.280 | The only thing it's really missing is the travel category.

00:10:44.400 | So if travel is a bulk of your spend, it might not be the best combo, but

00:10:48.880 | I think it's a really solid combo.

00:10:50.640 | Last is Amex.

00:10:52.560 | Amex Gold card is one of my favorites.

00:10:54.800 | It earns four points on dining and groceries.

00:10:57.120 | It's got a 70,000 point signup bonus.

00:10:59.440 | Amex has a ton of great transfer partners.

00:11:02.280 | And in fact, I'll talk more in the deal section, but right now there's transfer

00:11:06.360 | bonuses of 15 to 30% on 12 different partners.

00:11:10.160 | So Amex points are really great.

00:11:12.440 | I'm so glad I have a bunch of them.

00:11:14.160 | But when it comes to pairing with the Gold, a lot of people ask me, "Oh, do

00:11:17.760 | you pair it with the Platinum card?"

00:11:19.080 | I'll get to that later, but I don't think the Platinum card is the best

00:11:22.400 | earning card.

00:11:23.200 | In fact, the Amex Green card is kind of underlooked because it usually

00:11:27.680 | doesn't have a huge signup bonus, but it does offer 3x on travel and restaurants.

00:11:32.400 | Obviously, if you're pairing it with the Gold card, you don't need the 3x on

00:11:36.360 | restaurants because you get 4x on dining with Gold, but 3x on travel makes the

00:11:41.480 | Amex combo really compelling.

00:11:43.560 | You get 4x on dining, 4x on groceries, 3x on travel if you've got the green and the

00:11:47.920 | Gold.

00:11:48.360 | So if you're all in on Amex, I think that's a great combo.

00:11:52.000 | And the reason I brought up the combos is because I think when you're just

00:11:55.960 | getting started, before you're kind of really crazy deep in the points game,

00:11:59.600 | it's way easier when all of your points are in one place.

00:12:03.040 | So I would say until you have maybe 100 or 200,000 points in one place, I would

00:12:09.240 | really encourage you to maybe not necessarily spread your points too thin

00:12:13.680 | across too many programs because it can be tough to redeem things when you're

00:12:17.440 | having to use points from one program on part of the trip and another for the

00:12:20.800 | rest of the trip.

00:12:22.080 | That said, there are certain transfer partners like Air France where you can

00:12:27.440 | transfer to Chase, Citi, Amex, and Capital One points to them.

00:12:30.960 | So it's not impossible if you've got points across different programs.

00:12:34.360 | It just sometimes makes it a little harder.

00:12:36.280 | So those are my favorite combos.

00:12:39.160 | If you want to look within each institution, what's the one or two card

00:12:42.960 | combo that I love?

00:12:44.440 | But a lot of the people that wrote me in weren't asking about the best card to

00:12:48.240 | use.

00:12:48.720 | They were asking about some of the best bonuses right now.

00:12:51.080 | And when it comes to the best bonuses, some of the cards with the best bonuses

00:12:55.240 | right now are in that list too.

00:12:56.720 | So the Venture Venture X at 75,000 miles, the Amex Gold at 70,000, and the Citi

00:13:02.680 | Premier at 80,000 are really great bonuses.

00:13:06.240 | If you value those points at anywhere from 1.7 to 2 points, that means that at a

00:13:11.080 | bare minimum, you're getting anywhere from $1,200 to $1,600 worth of value from

00:13:16.760 | just the signup bonus.

00:13:18.720 | As I mentioned, I didn't include the Amex Platinum in that list because the only

00:13:22.920 | bonus category it has is 5X on airfare.

00:13:25.440 | So look, if you book a ton of flights, it can be a really valuable card.

00:13:29.800 | Other than that, it's really more of a perks card and a signup bonus card.

00:13:34.440 | Right now you can get a hundred thousand points for signing up.

00:13:36.960 | That's amazing.

00:13:37.960 | But unless you have another Amex card, you've got to keep the card open so that

00:13:42.280 | those points don't expire.

00:13:43.600 | And we'll talk about expiring points later, but it really comes down to whether

00:13:47.240 | you can justify the $695 annual fee.

00:13:50.200 | You're getting $300 towards Equinox, $240 towards different streaming services,

00:13:54.960 | another $200 towards airline incidentals, but only with one airline, $200 on Uber,

00:14:00.360 | but only $15 a month, $189 towards Clear, $50 every six months towards Saks, $200

00:14:07.640 | towards hotels, but only if they're booked on their platform and they're

00:14:11.040 | only a certain set of them.

00:14:12.280 | The question is like, are you actually going to get enough value out of there?

00:14:15.720 | Because that's $695 could go to a lot of other places.

00:14:20.000 | So it's really something to consider.

00:14:22.280 | Obviously, if you're getting it for one year and you're just going for a

00:14:25.160 | hundred thousand points, it's probably worth it.

00:14:27.440 | I'd say for me, I'm probably usually able to get somewhere around

00:14:31.360 | $500 of value out of that $695.

00:14:34.080 | So if I'm booking a lot of flights, yeah, it's still worth it to have it.

00:14:37.280 | Otherwise it's not though.

00:14:39.040 | Fun fact, if you have a business and you're using your cards for business and

00:14:42.880 | I'm not a CPA, but I believe the annual fees on your credit card are eligible

00:14:47.080 | business expenses, so maybe that saves you some money and also thanks to Brandy

00:14:51.600 | and Zach for writing in to remind me that Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, and

00:14:56.600 | US Bank will all waive credit card annual fees for active duty military and

00:15:01.240 | their spouses and Zach would know because between he and his wife, they have 20

00:15:05.760 | different cards with $8,700 of annual fees getting waived, which fun fact is

00:15:11.720 | actually more than he even makes in a year being in the National Guard.

00:15:15.440 | So maybe there's a hack, join the National Guard, open up all the high fee

00:15:19.320 | cards, coming back to the platinum.

00:15:21.160 | Obviously, if you're in the military, it's a no brainer as are any of these

00:15:24.360 | high fee cards that have big perks like travel credits and annual free night

00:15:28.080 | certificates.

00:15:28.880 | Two other cards that I think are worth addressing just because they have huge

00:15:32.280 | signup bonuses right now in terms of sheer numbers.

00:15:35.200 | It's the two Hilton cards, both have six figure signup bonuses.

00:15:39.680 | The base one is a zero annual fee card with 100,000 points.

00:15:43.280 | The surpass is a $95 annual fee, but it's waived the first year and it's 130,000

00:15:48.720 | points.

00:15:49.200 | I think they're great cards for the points.

00:15:51.760 | I think they're great cards if you spend a lot of money at Hilton's because you

00:15:55.200 | earn something like seven to 12 Hilton points per dollar using the card, but I

00:15:59.800 | will flag that in general, Hilton points are worth a lot less than points like

00:16:04.880 | Chase or Capital One.

00:16:06.120 | If you look at the points guy, Hilton points are worth 0.6 cents versus Chase

00:16:09.880 | points at two cents.

00:16:11.200 | So you really should be thinking of getting 100,000 Hilton points is almost

00:16:14.880 | like 30,000 Chase points.

00:16:16.320 | So while the bonuses look really big and if you have plans for Hilton, they can be

00:16:20.640 | really valuable.

00:16:21.600 | It's not nearly apples to apples when looking at 100,000 Hilton points at 100,000

00:16:26.480 | Chase points.

00:16:27.160 | The other one is the IHG card.

00:16:29.360 | It's 140,000 points signup bonus plus a free night every year.

00:16:33.680 | Plus when you're spending money at IHG, you get another 16 points per dollar just

00:16:39.160 | using the card.

00:16:40.120 | It's a 99 annual fee card.

00:16:42.240 | So if you're staying a lot of IHG properties, this is great.

00:16:44.840 | If you just need a big boost in IHG points to make a redemption, it can be

00:16:48.800 | great.

00:16:49.240 | But again, IHG points are valued around half a cent a point.

00:16:52.960 | So if you're comparing this to Chase, 140,000 points might only be equal to like

00:16:58.120 | 35,000 Chase points.

00:16:59.600 | That's not to say there's not a way to make it worth a lot more.

00:17:02.600 | I look at these hotel cards and I see these huge six-figure signup bonuses, and

00:17:06.720 | I just want to put it in perspective that the reason why is the same reason I don't

00:17:11.600 | love transferring most credit card points to hotels because the redemption value for

00:17:16.760 | hotel points is anywhere from half to a third or a quarter of the value of

00:17:21.840 | redeeming with airlines.

00:17:22.920 | Hyatt being the notable exception.

00:17:25.120 | I'm a big fan of transferring Chase and Bilt points to Hyatt.

00:17:28.000 | The last card I'll mention is Bilt.

00:17:30.080 | The Bilt rewards card earns three points on travel and dining and one on everything

00:17:35.160 | else.

00:17:35.560 | But the real magic with the Bilt card is if you have rent because you earn up to

00:17:39.640 | 50,000 points a year paying your rent with the credit card and there's no fees.

00:17:43.920 | So if you're a renter, the Bilt card is a no brainer, but that's a great card for

00:17:48.440 | earning points on rent and it's a great card for earning points on travel and

00:17:51.840 | dining and their points are super flexible.

00:17:54.520 | Maybe the best points of all of these programs, but just the hardest to get

00:17:58.560 | because there aren't multiple cards with signup bonuses.

00:18:01.000 | There aren't multiple cards for different categories, but the points you do have

00:18:05.120 | are great because they go to Hyatt, which is my favorite hotel partner.

00:18:08.400 | They go to American, which isn't a transfer partner of any other card.

00:18:12.160 | They go to United and they go to KLM and a lot of other airlines.

00:18:15.880 | I think it's a great card, but it's just really hard to get points if you don't

00:18:18.880 | pay rent because there's just one Bilt card.

00:18:21.280 | So I am quite comfortable right now, which is actually true almost every day.

00:18:26.760 | And that's thanks to Viore and I'm excited to be partnering

00:18:29.480 | with them for this episode.

00:18:30.720 | They make performance apparel.

00:18:32.440 | That's incredibly versatile.

00:18:34.040 | Everything is designed to work out in, but it doesn't look or feel like it at all.

00:18:38.400 | And it's so freaking comfortable.

00:18:40.120 | You will want to wear it all the time.

00:18:41.920 | Seriously, I am pretty sure it's more comfortable than whatever you're wearing

00:18:45.320 | right now, unless you're wearing Viore, in which case you already know what I mean.

00:18:48.960 | And it's not just for men.

00:18:50.800 | My wife is as obsessed with Viore as I am.

00:18:53.520 | My favorite is the Sunday performance joggers.

00:18:56.400 | I think I have three pairs and they are probably the most

00:18:59.160 | comfortable pants I've ever owned.

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00:19:04.120 | it's running, training, or yoga.

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00:19:11.240 | Honestly, I think Viore is an investment in your happiness.

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00:19:30.840 | Again, go to allthehacks.com/v-u-o-r-i and get yourself some of the most comfortable

00:19:39.360 | and versatile clothing on the planet.

00:19:41.280 | I want to tell you all about the most amazing way to buy a second home.

00:19:46.520 | And I know because we actually bought one for 1/8th the cost.

00:19:50.320 | And don't worry, I'm not talking timeshares.

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00:19:56.520 | So how does it work?

00:19:57.560 | Picasso buys amazing luxury homes in over 40 world-class destinations,

00:20:02.320 | creates an LLC for each home, and you can buy as little as 1/8th of the property.

00:20:07.280 | But it doesn't stop there.

00:20:08.720 | Picasso also professionally manages the home, handling design, cleaning, bills,

00:20:14.320 | repairs, taxes, and more, and the scheduling system makes it fair and

00:20:19.240 | equitable for everyone to enjoy their home.

00:20:22.040 | When we found Picasso, it felt like it was made just for us.

00:20:25.480 | That same week we found the perfect place in Napa, we toured it,

00:20:29.600 | and the next week we were closing.

00:20:31.360 | Since then, it's truly become our second home and it's been so amazing.

00:20:35.720 | And it's true real estate ownership.

00:20:37.920 | Owners can sell at any time, set their own price, and tap into Picasso's

00:20:43.000 | active marketplace of buyers.

00:20:44.560 | In fact, on average, Picasso listings resell in 12 days with a 12% annualized

00:20:50.760 | gain. For a modern way to buy and own a second home, go to allthehacks.com/picaso

00:20:57.520 | where our listeners will get a free Picasso access account, which means you

00:21:01.840 | can see new listings before they go on the website and get up to $10,000 in

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00:21:08.520 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/picasopacaso.

00:21:15.120 | So I'll transition a little bit to talk about a few of the questions I got.

00:21:19.600 | So Judy asked if I had any suggestions because her daughter's just started

00:21:23.360 | college and she's across the country and they're going to be traveling.

00:21:26.320 | She asked about the American Airlines card with a 60,000 point bonus.

00:21:29.920 | Normally I would say you'd be much better off with any of these other cards.

00:21:34.320 | But if you are only flying American and you really want American miles other

00:21:38.920 | than the built card, there isn't a great card to get to earn American miles.

00:21:42.920 | However, it's important to know that every single one of these programs,

00:21:46.960 | Capital One, Chase, Amex, they all have transfer partners that

00:21:51.040 | are in the One World Alliance.

00:21:52.560 | And that means that you can use British Airways, Avios points or other One World

00:21:57.600 | Airline points to book flights on American.

00:22:00.480 | So Judy, if the reason you asked about American was because that's who you need

00:22:04.120 | to fly, you can book American flights with BA miles, which you can get from

00:22:09.400 | any of these other programs.

00:22:10.560 | So I personally would rather have a card like the venture card with 75,000 points

00:22:15.560 | signup or city with 80,000 points signup than an American card with 60,000 points.

00:22:20.360 | Not just because the signup is better, but because most airline cards are only

00:22:24.960 | going to give you big bonuses on spending with the airlines.

00:22:27.880 | For example, you actually earn more United points because Chase can transfer

00:22:32.560 | to United using the Chase Sapphire reserve card, booking even a United

00:22:37.160 | flight than you do with the United card.

00:22:39.200 | So I think the airline cards are great for the perks, whether it's free check

00:22:43.240 | bags or lounge access, great for signup bonuses, but when it comes to the best

00:22:48.200 | cards to get, to start trying to plan for free trips across the country.

00:22:51.560 | I think the ones I mentioned earlier are a lot better.

00:22:54.200 | And one other question, kind of similar one from both Chase and Laura were

00:22:58.200 | about upcoming big spending.

00:23:00.200 | So for Chase, it was a destination wedding for Laura.

00:23:03.840 | It was a bunch of home improvements and they both asked what cards to use.

00:23:07.560 | Now, one thing I'll point out is that when it comes to weddings and home

00:23:10.200 | improvements, they might be really big expenditures, but most of the expenses

00:23:14.280 | associated with them, you can't use a credit card on.

00:23:17.000 | So as much as they might be big expenses, it might not be possible.

00:23:20.960 | Chase did mention it's a destination wedding, so he probably has a lot of

00:23:24.120 | travel, so there's a lot of opportunity there, but I know for our renovation,

00:23:28.600 | I don't think there was more than $500 I could put on a credit card because our

00:23:32.560 | contractors didn't take credit cards.

00:23:34.520 | And a lot of the people we bought supplies from didn't either.

00:23:36.800 | So I think about it in three ways.

00:23:40.360 | One is on signup bonuses.

00:23:41.720 | So there's a bunch of cards with anywhere from, I'd say that the floor I like to

00:23:46.640 | look at is 70,000 and more points for signing up.

00:23:49.800 | So if you have a lot of expenses coming up, it'll make it really easy to hit those

00:23:53.640 | minimum spends in order to get those bonus points.

00:23:56.440 | It can be anywhere from five to $50,000 of spend and anywhere from three to six

00:24:01.720 | months.

00:24:02.200 | So, you know, if you have a bunch of big expenses, I think it's a great opportunity

00:24:06.080 | to open up a card with big signup bonuses, or maybe even a few.

00:24:09.520 | If that spend is in a certain category, let's say for example, Chase, if your

00:24:13.720 | destination wedding means you're going to be buying 20 plane tickets for family

00:24:17.840 | members and booking 20 hotel rooms, then I would absolutely also consider what

00:24:22.800 | category you're going to be spending on and make sure you have a card that earns

00:24:25.880 | the most points in that category.

00:24:27.440 | So for destination wedding, if it's travel, it's a card like the City Premier or the

00:24:32.760 | Chase Reserve or the Amex Green that are going to earn three points per dollar on

00:24:37.920 | travel.

00:24:38.920 | The last category, and it's a little bit of a weird one, but it's about using

00:24:43.200 | those cards to get perks or status.

00:24:45.360 | So with the American, Delta and Hyatt cards, you can actually spend enough

00:24:49.960 | money to earn status.

00:24:51.600 | In many cases, it's well over $100,000, but if you really valued the status on any

00:24:56.840 | of those airlines or hotel groups, you could spend your way to that status.

00:25:00.560 | Or if you have a Southwest card and you want to spend over $120,000, you can earn

00:25:05.840 | your way to Companion Pass, which would let your companion travel for free for the

00:25:10.000 | rest of the year you earn it and the next year.

00:25:12.400 | So just to recap, if you have a big set of expenses coming up, think about what kind

00:25:17.000 | of signup bonuses you can earn.

00:25:18.280 | If those expenses are in a category you can get bonuses on, make sure you've got a

00:25:21.760 | card that hits those bonuses.

00:25:23.440 | And if you care about it, you could use a lot of spending to boost your status on

00:25:28.440 | airlines like American or Delta, hotels like Hyatt, or to earn Companion Pass with

00:25:32.800 | Southwest.

00:25:33.920 | Okay, Neelam wrote in asking the best card for a family of six that does a lot of

00:25:38.080 | grocery shopping.

00:25:39.080 | So there was a lot of nuance to the question, but I'll focus on the grocery part

00:25:43.040 | because it's an interesting category.

00:25:44.880 | The Blue Cash Preferred card markets itself as 6% back on groceries, but it's only

00:25:49.760 | $6,000 a year.

00:25:51.160 | So my favorite grocery cards in Amex, it's the Gold, it's 4x points on groceries.

00:25:56.760 | It's capped at $25,000 a year, but I think that's enough for groceries for the year.

00:26:01.800 | The Capital One Saver card is 3x on groceries and the City Premier is 3x on

00:26:05.560 | groceries.

00:26:06.160 | So those are my favorites for groceries.

00:26:08.600 | Last question on cards is from Jonathan and he asked about business cards.

00:26:12.640 | So one interesting thing to note about business cards is that you don't actually

00:26:17.600 | need a legally registered business to get a business card.

00:26:21.280 | Technically what you need is to have some sort of business that could be

00:26:25.360 | self-employment.

00:26:26.240 | It could be freelancing, it could be consulting.

00:26:28.800 | There are lots of things that apply and you can do that all under your own social

00:26:32.840 | security number.

00:26:33.440 | You don't even need an EIN from a LLC or a corporation.

00:26:37.080 | So the reason why business cards are super interesting is because they often have

00:26:41.760 | really big signup bonuses.

00:26:43.200 | So it's definitely something that I would say, take a look at some of the best

00:26:47.560 | signup bonuses right now.

00:26:49.000 | Chase Inc Preferred is 100,000 points for a $95 annual fee card.

00:26:54.400 | The Chase Inc Cash and Unlimited are 75,000 points.

00:26:58.880 | The Amex Business Gold is 70,000.

00:27:01.480 | The United Business Card, while I don't think it's going to be a great card to

00:27:05.480 | spend on, has 150,000 United Point bonus for a $99 annual fee card.

00:27:10.960 | The Amex Business Platinum is 120,000 points.

00:27:14.400 | It still has a high annual fee.

00:27:16.360 | And then Capital One has a bunch of business cards that I think are great for

00:27:21.400 | everyday use.

00:27:22.720 | The Spark Cash and the Spark Miles card are two points per dollar or 2% back.

00:27:27.520 | They both have 50 to 100,000 point signup bonuses.

00:27:30.920 | And Capital One is supposedly releasing a new card.

00:27:34.120 | It's not available to sign up for now, but it'll be like the business version of

00:27:38.200 | the Venture X card.

00:27:39.280 | It'll have a $395 annual fee, but the signup bonus is rumored to be 250,000

00:27:45.520 | points.

00:27:46.000 | So if you don't have a Capital One business card and you're thinking about it, I

00:27:50.280 | would maybe wait a month or two to see if that really does come out and you can sign

00:27:53.760 | up for it because a 250,000 point signup bonus is really massive and something I

00:27:59.040 | know I'm going to see if I'm eligible for.

00:28:01.240 | OK, that covers all the questions about new cards and card recommendations.

00:28:06.520 | But I do want to touch on one thing, which is authorized users.

00:28:09.680 | So Alexis wrote in asking a ton of great questions about adding an authorized user

00:28:13.440 | to help build credit, whether it disqualifies you from fees.

00:28:16.640 | So let's jump into them.

00:28:18.120 | So first off, when you add an authorized user to your credit card, they don't get a

00:28:21.440 | credit check.

00:28:22.200 | So that's great.

00:28:22.920 | They don't have that impact on their credit report.

00:28:24.680 | It's not a hard inquiry, but that card usually shows up on their credit report.

00:28:28.960 | Now, depending on the bank, they may or may not backdate all the history of that

00:28:33.640 | card on this other person's credit.

00:28:35.840 | So I know Amex doesn't do it, but the reports I've seen say that Capital One,

00:28:40.400 | Chase, Bank of America, Synchrony, and U.S.

00:28:42.680 | Bank do, which means that someone who maybe only has one or two years of credit

00:28:46.440 | history, if they become an authorized user of a card with Chase, for example,

00:28:50.680 | that has 10 years of history, all of a sudden they're going to have 10 years of

00:28:54.280 | history on their credit report.

00:28:55.880 | So that can be really impactful for their credit score.

00:28:58.920 | Obviously, if you add a card that is delinquent and has problems, it's probably

00:29:02.720 | not going to help their credit score, but if it has a lot of history or a high

00:29:05.920 | credit limit, it can have a big impact.

00:29:07.600 | But I will say it does not disqualify them from getting the cards.

00:29:11.600 | So I've added my wife to my Amex Gold, but if I were to take her off of that, she

00:29:16.960 | could actually go apply for the Amex Gold and still get the signup bonus.

00:29:20.040 | One thing to know is that I believe Chase does factor authorized user accounts into

00:29:25.800 | their 5/24 calculation, meaning that Chase doesn't approve you for a new card if

00:29:30.160 | you've opened up five cards in the last 24 months.

00:29:32.600 | But in this situation, if you do cancel the authorized user card, you can call the

00:29:36.960 | credit bureaus and ask them to remove the authorized user card from your report.

00:29:41.400 | And that'll maybe make you eligible to open a new Chase card.

00:29:44.120 | Let's now talk a bit about accruing.

00:29:46.200 | I got an email from someone whose name I'll leave off, but they said, I just got

00:29:49.840 | the Amex Gold and Platinum cards and I have to do $25,000 of spend to get my

00:29:54.360 | bonuses, but I don't think I can get there.

00:29:56.600 | And maybe I bit off a bit more than I could chew.

00:29:58.560 | So obviously I'm not a big fan of spending money you don't need to spend, but here's

00:30:01.840 | some things you might want to consider.

00:30:03.040 | One, buying gift cards for things that you'll need to spend money on later.

00:30:06.800 | Can you buy grocery store gift cards, Amazon gift cards, anything that you know

00:30:11.360 | you're going to need to spend money on in the future, you could offset spending

00:30:15.120 | money on your groceries by buying the gift cards.

00:30:17.080 | Now, another one is asking friends.

00:30:19.480 | If you could help book their travel, you could even offer them like a 1% discount.

00:30:23.480 | If you're getting three or four X points on your card, become a travel agent for a

00:30:27.120 | few weeks, depending on what card it is and how many points you're earning, you

00:30:30.600 | could end up paying your taxes for 1.87%.

00:30:34.440 | You're probably gonna need to wait a few months or even a year for your refund

00:30:37.920 | check to come back if you're overpaying.

00:30:39.720 | But if you're not going to get a hundred thousand point signup bonus on the Amex

00:30:43.280 | platinum card, because you're $4,000 short and paying $75 in fees to pay your taxes

00:30:51.840 | on your credit card is going to get you there.

00:30:53.400 | I'd pay $75 for a hundred thousand Amex points any day because a hundred thousand

00:30:58.080 | Amex points is probably worth close to $2,000.

00:31:00.800 | Finally, if that doesn't work, or if you want to make sure you have the money

00:31:03.760 | sooner, you could just send money to someone you trust on PayPal or Venmo and

00:31:08.400 | pay the 2.9 or 3% fee again, if it's $5,000, that fee might cost you $150, but

00:31:15.240 | if you get $2,000 worth of points because of it, I think it's worth it.

00:31:18.720 | So I hope one of those works out because there's a lot of points on the line.

00:31:21.720 | Landon wrote in with a really similar question, asking about how people who

00:31:26.600 | don't spend that much money are able to get these offers where they need to

00:31:29.880 | spend $5,000 in three months.

00:31:31.720 | So first off a few of the strategies that I just talked about could be a

00:31:35.440 | way to meet those minimum spends, but the other option is to just wait until

00:31:39.880 | maybe there's a time of year, whether it's the holidays or whether there's

00:31:43.520 | a annual trip you take and timing the signup bonuses with that spend.

00:31:48.080 | I know I got another email from a listener named Scott just yesterday

00:31:51.640 | that said he's got a $4,000 purchase he has to make and wanted to know if now

00:31:54.840 | is a good time to do a signup bonus.

00:31:56.320 | So my advice is if you don't spend enough money to qualify for these signup bonuses,

00:32:01.040 | try to time them during points in the year where maybe you're spending a little

00:32:04.200 | bit more and pair them with some of the strategies I just mentioned, and maybe

00:32:07.680 | putting all that together can make it a bit more reasonable to spend, you

00:32:11.400 | know, $4,000 in three months.

00:32:13.440 | Liam wrote in about a trip that he and his fiance booked to her homeland in New

00:32:17.960 | Zealand, and they ended up spending a ton of money on expensive flights on Korean

00:32:23.120 | Air, and they were trying to figure out what to do with Korean Air's loyalty

00:32:26.360 | program, and so the last thing you need is a bunch of random points in an airline

00:32:30.960 | like Korean Air, which used to be a transfer partner of Chase, but no longer

00:32:34.400 | is, so what are you going to do with those points?

00:32:36.760 | Whenever I'm flying on a foreign airline and I'm using dollars to pay for the

00:32:41.160 | ticket, because if you're flying on a free ticket, you usually don't earn any

00:32:44.440 | miles, I always try to earn those points on an airline that I do use points in.

00:32:49.320 | So if it were me and I was flying Korean Air, I'd probably credit all those

00:32:53.200 | points to either Air France or Delta, because Korean Air is part of Sky Team.

00:32:58.320 | The same thing goes if I'm flying in Europe on Lufthansa, I'll credit those

00:33:01.920 | points to United, or if I'm flying on any of the One World Airlines, I'll credit

00:33:05.800 | those points to American or British Airways, because those are the two

00:33:09.240 | programs that I use the most.

00:33:10.760 | So if you're flying on a foreign airline, you don't have to earn their miles,

00:33:15.160 | especially if they have partners, which even airlines that aren't in alliances

00:33:18.960 | often have partners, so make sure you tell the airline where you want to credit

00:33:22.920 | those points, and if they don't let you do it easily online, you can usually do

00:33:26.360 | it at the desk in the airport.

00:33:28.400 | So Chad wrote in with a question, which was basically how do you accrue so many

00:33:32.400 | points that you're able to take all of these trips, just putting $2,000 to $3,000

00:33:37.120 | a month on credit cards doesn't seem to make this possible, asked if I was getting

00:33:41.040 | a lot of these points through referrals or influencer stuff, so I've unfortunately

00:33:45.720 | never been paid in points for influencer anything, so that one's off the table.

00:33:50.160 | I have made a few referrals, I've referred on my venture card to get some bonus

00:33:54.360 | points, but they cap that out at four referrals a year, so it hasn't been that

00:33:58.760 | many, most of the points I have are coming from signup bonuses, my wife and I both

00:34:03.400 | signed up for a venture X card, so there's $200,000 with two cards there, you needed

00:34:08.080 | to spend $4,000, so if you're spending $2,000 or $3,000 a month in two months,

00:34:13.200 | that's 200,000 points, so I don't necessarily sign up for a card every

00:34:18.000 | single month or every single quarter, but if between you or you and a partner,

00:34:22.920 | you're signing up for let's say four or five cards a year and being able to meet

00:34:27.280 | those minimum spends and each one of those bonuses is let's say at least 75,000

00:34:32.640 | points, that's 300,000 points a year and that should be more than enough to take

00:34:37.480 | one nice trip every year, so that's generally how I operate and that doesn't

00:34:42.760 | include all the points I'm getting from putting my monthly expenses on my card

00:34:46.560 | and optimizing that, one other thing I did do to earn a lot of points, it's been

00:34:51.920 | quite a few years, but definitely worth trying out if any of you are at this

00:34:55.840 | stage in life, is whenever I was invited on any group trip, whether it was a

00:34:59.920 | bachelor party or my wife was invited on a bachelorette party or just a friend's

00:35:03.320 | trip, I would always offer to play travel agent for the group and book everyone's

00:35:07.280 | flights and hotels, most of my friends all thought it was a huge benefit because

00:35:12.520 | no one wants to organize all that information, but in return if we were

00:35:16.360 | taking a trip with 10 or 15 people, I was putting 10 or 15 flights on a card that

00:35:20.800 | earns three points per dollar on travel, I was putting hotel rooms or a rental on

00:35:25.440 | Airbnb on a card that earns three points on travel, so I did get pretty creative

00:35:29.880 | there for a period of time and when I was running a startup, I had some

00:35:33.520 | expenses I could put on a credit card, but not that many, I think signup bonuses

00:35:37.840 | are the bulk of the points I've earned and probably will be going forward and

00:35:41.800 | finally, I'll just share that I've gotten a few emails from listeners who've also

00:35:45.360 | done this, so I know it's possible, Alexis wrote in saying that in five months of

00:35:50.040 | getting into the points game, she's accumulated over 140,000 points and

00:35:53.920 | Marco said he's already earned 450,000 points from signup bonuses in 2022, so I

00:36:00.720 | know it takes work and I actually think I'm gonna do an episode about how many

00:36:04.400 | cards you can open at once, how long to wait before applications and everything

00:36:08.080 | like that, but until then I hope you guys can all start earning a lot more points,

00:36:12.240 | so that's a lot about how to accrue points, but I want to talk about Jason

00:36:16.360 | and Jeff's questions about expiring miles and how to make sure you keep them

00:36:19.800 | active, so most credit card companies, your points aren't gonna expire and a

00:36:23.960 | lot of airlines are starting to adopt policies where your airline miles don't

00:36:28.040 | expire, I know Delta is one of them, I think JetBlue also, but there are still

00:36:31.960 | some airlines like American where your miles do expire over time and so the

00:36:36.640 | easiest way to keep them active is to just make sure you have some activity

00:36:40.360 | every year or two, depending on the program, I in a spreadsheet, I track

00:36:44.080 | everything, actually have a comment that says when my points are expiring, for

00:36:48.800 | most of them the easiest way to do it is to either use a few miles, buy a few

00:36:53.400 | miles or find some way to earn a few miles, so if it's buying I usually go in

00:36:58.320 | and maybe I'll redeem a hundred or five hundred or a thousand miles for a

00:37:01.520 | magazine subscription or I'll go in and buy a hundred miles for a few dollars or

00:37:06.080 | I'll transfer some miles from Amex or Chase to that airline just so there's

00:37:11.400 | some activity to keep them going. There's a couple airlines that are really

00:37:15.000 | obscure that I think you need some activity, I want to say there was like

00:37:18.800 | Aegean Air needed some activity in the account that was based on flying so I

00:37:23.720 | credited a really short United trip I took from like San Francisco to LA, I put

00:37:28.640 | in my Aegean number instead of my United number, but for the most part you should

00:37:32.640 | be able to go to the ways to redeem your miles and look whether there's you know

00:37:37.360 | sending a hundred miles to charity or getting a magazine subscription or

00:37:41.260 | something like that or buying a couple miles are pretty good options. You all

00:37:46.360 | know I love credit card points so I'm excited to be partnering with Card

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00:38:55.160 | off. Again that's allthehacks.com/cardpointers.

00:39:02.240 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be. I get it, life comes at

00:39:07.080 | you fast but trust me your friends are probably desperate for a good hang. So

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00:39:54.240 | were hosting family last week, not only could I get an Italian Amaro delivered

00:39:58.320 | in less than an hour, but I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store. So

00:40:03.200 | whatever the occasion, download the Drizzly app or go to drizzly.com. That's

00:40:08.120 | D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today. Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations. I just

00:40:17.400 | want to thank you quick for listening to and supporting the show. Your support is

00:40:21.520 | what keeps this show going. To get all of the URLs, codes, deals, and discounts from

00:40:27.080 | our partners, you can go to allthehacks.com/deals. So please consider

00:40:32.680 | supporting those who support us. Another one is about whether you lose your

00:40:36.680 | points if you cancel a card. Tontesh wrote in and said he has 60,000 Southwest

00:40:41.000 | points but wants to cancel his Southwest card and doesn't want to lose his points.

00:40:44.440 | So when you have an airline or a hotel card, all the points you earn are linked

00:40:49.560 | to your hotel or airline loyalty account. So if you cancel the Southwest card, the

00:40:53.520 | United card, the Hilton card, all of your Hilton Southwest and United miles are

00:40:57.760 | safe. Obviously the card was generating points regularly, so it was keeping those

00:41:02.960 | points active in their program. So you will still need to make sure those

00:41:06.360 | points don't expire. But canceling those cards will not lose your points. But

00:41:10.960 | before you do cancel those cards, there are a few things to consider anytime

00:41:14.760 | you're canceling a card. One is if this is a card that you've had for a long

00:41:18.560 | time or has a lot of credit, you might want to see if you can downgrade it to a

00:41:22.040 | card without an annual fee so you can call or send a secure message. You can

00:41:26.480 | also call in and see if there's any retention bonuses. I got an email from

00:41:29.600 | Ben saying he wanted to cancel his platinum card because he doesn't really

00:41:33.360 | need to travel for work anymore. And I suggested he call Amex and see if

00:41:37.200 | there's offers. Ben actually said that Amex gave him two offers. One was a

00:41:41.040 | $150 credit to keep the card open or $400 credit if he spends $3,000 in three

00:41:47.280 | months. He figured that the $400 credit was a way better deal, so he took that

00:41:50.880 | offer and that reduced the annual fee down significantly. So definitely call.

00:41:55.320 | The last option is if you decide you do want to cancel the card, if you have

00:42:00.080 | other cards with that financial institution, at least this works at Chase

00:42:03.520 | because I've done it, you can move credit around. So if you have a card with a

00:42:07.360 | $20,000 limit and you're gonna cancel it, you could reduce the limit to a

00:42:10.960 | $1,000, transfer $19,000 of that credit to another Chase card, and then cancel the

00:42:16.120 | card. One thing I will note is if you do that, when you apply for a future card,

00:42:20.560 | you might not get immediately approved because Chase doesn't want to extend

00:42:24.480 | any more credit, but you can call the reconsideration line and you can say,

00:42:28.000 | "Hey, could I move credit from this other card back to this new card?" And that's a

00:42:32.560 | way to get approved for a card that you might not always get approved for. Always

00:42:36.720 | call the reconsideration line if I don't get instantly approved for a card. And

00:42:41.120 | with Chase, I now have enough Chase cards that I'm almost never getting approved

00:42:44.680 | because they've already given me as much credit as they will give. But to get back

00:42:48.400 | to the question about losing points when you cancel a card, it is different with

00:42:51.840 | Chase points, Amex points, Citi points. Any of those programs require you to have

00:42:57.760 | one card active in the program. So if all you have is a Chase Reserve card and you

00:43:02.000 | cancel your card, you're going to lose those Chase points. The same is true with

00:43:05.960 | Amex. You're gonna lose your Amex points. So what I always say is if you can get

00:43:10.560 | one card in the program, even if it's a less expensive card, that'll keep your

00:43:14.520 | points alive. So if you don't want the Chase Reserve card, could you downgrade

00:43:18.080 | it to the Chase Preferred card? You could downgrade it to the Chase Freedom card,

00:43:21.920 | but without having a Sapphire card, you're actually not able to use those

00:43:26.160 | points to transfer to airlines. So Amex, for example, has lots of Amex cards, but

00:43:31.040 | only a handful of them are eligible for membership rewards, but you could

00:43:34.440 | downgrade your Platinum to a Gold or a Green card. So if you are going to cancel

00:43:40.080 | a card and you have points, the one thing you can do is make sure you transfer

00:43:44.440 | those points out to another airline or hotel partner before you cancel the card.

00:43:48.560 | So if you've got 50,000 Amex points and you don't want that Platinum card

00:43:52.440 | because you don't want to pay the annual fee and you don't want to downgrade it,

00:43:55.840 | maybe transfer those 50,000 points to Aeroplan or British Airways or Air

00:44:00.520 | France, whatever airline you think you're most likely to use for your future trip,

00:44:04.200 | and then you can have those points somewhere where they're not gonna expire

00:44:07.320 | right away. Also speaking of points, and maybe a little morbid or sad, is Matthew

00:44:13.440 | asked whether I had a plan in place to cover what happens to all of our points

00:44:17.000 | and miles if we die. He did the math, and if he looked at the value of his points,

00:44:20.920 | it was thousands of dollars, and so he felt like that was something meaningful

00:44:23.760 | that he didn't want to just go to waste. So I went and actually looked at the

00:44:27.240 | rules because I didn't know how this worked. I have a 1Password account. All of

00:44:30.720 | my Frequent Flyer accounts are there. I have a spreadsheet that I link to in our

00:44:34.880 | Trustworthy account, so if someone has access there, they can see where all of

00:44:38.480 | our Frequent Flyer programs are and how many miles are in each balance. But what

00:44:42.880 | I wanted to know is not just where they were so that if something happened to us,

00:44:47.080 | one of our family members could find those points and figure out what to do

00:44:51.160 | with them, but what the rules were. So I looked into this, and thank you to a

00:44:56.200 | bunch of blogs online, The Points Guy and others, that have done some research here.

00:44:59.860 | Most of the major airlines, Alaska, American, Southwest, and United, will

00:45:05.520 | actually let you transfer the points if you provide them with a death

00:45:09.200 | certificate to a beneficiary. American supposedly will do it to even multiple

00:45:13.720 | beneficiaries if you want to split them across people. The only one that looks

00:45:17.160 | like they didn't was Delta, but Delta did say you can keep using them from the

00:45:22.220 | deceased's account for I think it was two years. Another option though is to just

00:45:27.560 | keep using the accounts. If you have the login and you're able to log in, you can

00:45:30.760 | still book flights for other people with your miles. I do it all the time for my

00:45:34.560 | wife and our kids. So you could just keep the accounts active, but it does look

00:45:39.000 | like for most airlines except Delta, you could actually transfer them to someone,

00:45:42.800 | which I was surprised about. Hotels on the other hand, you actually can transfer

00:45:46.880 | points between people, usually for free with no challenge. Although Hyatt, I'm in

00:45:51.480 | the middle of doing this now, and you literally have to email them a PDF, and

00:45:54.680 | it takes up to four weeks to transfer points. But given that they let you

00:45:58.680 | transfer things easily already, in this circumstance they also would let you

00:46:02.240 | transfer things. It gets a little less interesting when it comes to credit card

00:46:06.800 | points. So Amex's rule is that when it happens, you can make a one-time

00:46:10.560 | redemption. So if you had a million Amex points, you can make a one-time redemption

00:46:14.320 | transferring those 1 million Amex points to somewhere, whether it's an airline or

00:46:18.400 | a hotel group or redeeming for cash. Capital One says they automatically

00:46:22.440 | redeem all of your points towards statement credits, which is only gonna

00:46:26.360 | value them at half a cent. And Chase and Citi both say they auto-redeem those

00:46:30.600 | points for cash right away. Obviously those are not great options, but those

00:46:36.400 | things only kick in if Amex, Chase, or Capital One learn of the death of the person.

00:46:42.320 | So I would encourage you, until Chase knows that, yes, if Chase finds that out,

00:46:47.520 | they're gonna redeem them for cash. Until they find that out, you can always log in

00:46:51.000 | and you can go transfer those to family members accounts. Or you can just redeem

00:46:55.560 | them in the portal, or find some way to use them before they get auto-redeemed

00:46:59.480 | for cash at a lower value. So Matthew, I really appreciate you sending this

00:47:03.480 | question in, because as much as I had thought I was a little bit prepared, I

00:47:06.800 | don't think the information of what to do with all these points is documented

00:47:10.440 | anywhere. So I'm actually gonna write up a little thing. I'm gonna upload it to

00:47:13.720 | our trustworthy account so someone has it in case something happens, and someone

00:47:17.600 | knows what actions they need to do with our points to make sure they're not

00:47:20.960 | redeemed at half a cent, and hopefully people can take crazy, amazing vacations.

00:47:25.160 | Kevin wrote in asking about planning a trip to Hawaii with a family of six and

00:47:29.760 | his wife's parents. So it sounds like eight people, and wanted to know how to

00:47:33.360 | utilize points for a large group, whether it was best to focus on flights or

00:47:37.040 | hotels. And honestly, when I first saw his question, I had one instinct. And then a

00:47:41.560 | couple days later, I started trying to book a trip for our family, which was

00:47:45.520 | gonna require four tickets. And I realized how much different the game is

00:47:49.920 | when you're booking four tickets. You know, we're used to trying to use our

00:47:53.240 | points to fly internationally in business class, and we couldn't find a

00:47:57.160 | single place to go on short notice. Not last-minute notice, but maybe two or

00:48:01.960 | three months out, where we could find four business class tickets. I wouldn't

00:48:06.040 | say I tried too hard, but the basic things I looked at were pretty hard. So I

00:48:10.440 | asked a few friends, and we came to a couple thoughts. One, we just decided that

00:48:15.440 | maybe we don't want to travel business class with our kids. Maybe we don't want

00:48:18.960 | to expose them to those luxuries right away. And that just means that we'll sit

00:48:24.360 | in coach also, and it'll be less relaxing and enjoyable for us, but it'll be

00:48:29.080 | better for them. And we'll actually be able to find availability, because we

00:48:32.840 | have been able to find easier availability for coach seats for a lot

00:48:37.800 | of people than we have business class. So that's just one thought. Hotels, if you

00:48:42.600 | have a family of six and in-laws, that might be eight flights, but it also might

00:48:47.440 | only be three hotel rooms. And I've had a lot more success looking for hotel

00:48:51.040 | rooms. So Kevin mentioned he has chase points. I definitely look at whether you

00:48:54.640 | could use those chase points at Hyatt. But the other thing I'll point out is

00:48:57.960 | that Hawaii, depending on when you're going, can be so cheap that it might not

00:49:01.960 | even be worth using your miles, or it might be worth using your points in the

00:49:05.160 | portal if you really don't want to spend the money right now. We're going to

00:49:08.360 | Hawaii next month in October, and the round-trip tickets were like $250. But

00:49:13.120 | when I looked at the miles, it was so much more that it wasn't actually a good

00:49:16.520 | deal. So if I'm okay spending money, that's an option. If I'm not, then I would

00:49:21.600 | just book in the portal. And I know it's not the best points per mile, but if I

00:49:25.600 | was in a circumstance where I didn't have the money to take the trip and I

00:49:28.100 | wanted to take the trip, I'm a bigger fan of traveling than maximizing your

00:49:31.800 | points. So I would want to do that. So Kevin, good luck. I will keep everyone

00:49:35.720 | here also updated as I figure out how we navigate the waters of booking travel

00:49:40.380 | with miles for big groups. Four doesn't seem that big, but compared to two

00:49:44.440 | people, it seems like a lot more. Another option I'll plug is check out the

00:49:47.800 | Straight to the Points newsletter. I'll link it in the show notes. It's a great

00:49:51.560 | newsletter that shares when there's lots of seats available for different award

00:49:56.400 | flights. And so I've gotten a couple alerts there. And as long as you're

00:49:59.560 | flexible with where you go, it's a great option to be able to find lots of seats

00:50:03.360 | for award travel. Adam wrote in asking, "What are the best Capital One partners

00:50:08.360 | to transfer points for a trip across the ocean?" And I thought about it. My favorite

00:50:14.160 | three Capital One transfer partners for long flights are British Airways, booking

00:50:19.080 | anything on One World, which doesn't mean you have to fly British Airways. You

00:50:22.240 | could fly Air France, lots of great deals, especially right now. And then Air

00:50:26.880 | Canada, I think is a great transfer partner of Capital One to book on United,

00:50:30.840 | Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swiss Air. There's a lot of carriers that cross the ocean

00:50:34.880 | in Star Alliance. So those are my three favorites for booking international

00:50:38.600 | travel with Capital One points. And to be honest, booking domestic travel as well.

00:50:42.080 | I actually have a transfer partner spreadsheet that I'll link to in the

00:50:45.240 | show notes, and I'll put it up at allthehacks.com/tp for transfer

00:50:50.240 | partners. And it lists out all the transfer partners of all the major

00:50:53.680 | credit card programs. It lists out how long it usually takes for those

00:50:57.120 | transfers to go through, what alliance they're in, and then I put a little

00:51:00.120 | asterisk next to the ones that are my favorites. So hopefully that's helpful if

00:51:04.000 | you have a similar question, but instead of Capital One, you're thinking Chase or

00:51:07.240 | Citi or Built or American Express. Now, Noam wrote in asking what my stack was

00:51:14.480 | for websites and services to make the most out of my points. So I thought I'd

00:51:19.360 | talk about it, both the stack of services and then just some quick tips. So when it

00:51:23.760 | comes to tracking, I'm aware of three services that help you track how many

00:51:28.640 | miles and points you have in different places. Award Wallet is one, the Points

00:51:32.920 | Guy app is one, and to no surprise, a Spreadsheet is another. I've struggled

00:51:37.920 | with Award Wallet because it's like partially automated and partially

00:51:42.240 | manual. And then the Points Guy, it's fully automated, but it doesn't support

00:51:47.120 | everything. For example, I have some Chase business cards and some Chase personal

00:51:50.960 | cards, and I couldn't figure out how to make that work. I couldn't link multiple

00:51:54.440 | accounts from different airlines to pull in my wife's points. So honestly, Google

00:51:59.460 | Spreadsheets is the way I track my points and miles. I know it's old school.

00:52:03.120 | It's not ideal, but you know, it does the trick. When it comes to searching for

00:52:08.080 | flights, before you actually go and sign up and use a service, first thing that

00:52:12.760 | I'd recommend doing is looking at three websites. And not because you necessarily

00:52:17.920 | have points in these programs, but because I think they're the best for

00:52:21.060 | searching the three alliances. So Air France for searching SkyTeam flights,

00:52:26.340 | British Airways for searching One World flights, or American if you already have

00:52:30.240 | an account there and you're familiar, and Aeroplan for searching Star Alliance or

00:52:35.120 | United if you have an account there. So whenever I'm looking to book an

00:52:38.460 | international flight, if I don't want to go use a tool like Point.me, and I'll get

00:52:42.600 | to that, I'll just go through those three websites and say, "If I want to go

00:52:46.080 | to from San Francisco to Paris, go to Aeroplan. Is there anything there? Go to

00:52:50.360 | British Airways. Is there anything there? Go to Air France. Is there anything there?"

00:52:53.480 | That's like a quick, free version. Now there are a bunch of tools out there

00:52:57.640 | that are paid services that help you do this easier. Point.me is one I really

00:53:02.920 | like. And you can still go to allthehacks.com/pointme and use the

00:53:07.880 | promo code "allthehacks" at the checkout on a monthly plan to get the

00:53:11.800 | monthly plan down to $1. It's great because you can search across tons of

00:53:16.240 | airlines and they'll tell you how to transfer your points to the airlines to

00:53:19.720 | find availability. It kind of takes all of that work out. There's another tool I

00:53:23.600 | use called ExpertFlyer, but it supports a fewer number of airlines. So I don't

00:53:28.600 | necessarily recommend it for that use case, but it is really great for alerts.

00:53:33.600 | You can set alerts for when things open up, when seats open up. So I use it for

00:53:38.400 | that a lot. There are two tools that I haven't used much of, but could be worth

00:53:42.320 | checking out. One's called AwardLogic and one's called AwardNexus. I think

00:53:47.120 | they're both kind of competitors to Point.me. I think I used AwardNexus a

00:53:50.800 | while ago, but I haven't used AwardLogic ever. And last is a tool that is going

00:53:55.040 | to make you feel like you're going back in time. And it's called KVS tool. And

00:53:59.640 | it's a Windows application that I think has the most versatile search across all

00:54:04.960 | airlines and all programs. But it is absolutely the most clunky tool to use.

00:54:09.960 | And you have to search the airlines individually. It's not a simple thing,

00:54:14.320 | but I would say it is the most feature rich tool in terms of being able to find

00:54:19.640 | the most availability on the most airlines. It's just an experience. So I

00:54:24.120 | definitely throw that out there. I ended up having to install an emulator on my

00:54:27.680 | computer when I've used it in the past, but it's almost so much work that I

00:54:31.560 | don't think I've used it for two or three years.

00:54:33.560 | The one tool that I think is also in my stack, which I'm so sad that it is no

00:54:37.760 | longer getting updated, but it's still about 70% correct, is a website called

00:54:42.520 | award mapper. And it's just award mapper.com. And it's a directory of all

00:54:46.600 | the hotels across all the different loyalty programs around the world.

00:54:50.480 | Unfortunately, it's not updated. So there are hotels there that are no longer

00:54:53.920 | around or hotels that are new that aren't there or the categories have

00:54:57.640 | changed. So it's not perfect, but it's something and I'm hoping someone will

00:55:00.920 | replace it or update it in the future. Last question is another one from gnome

00:55:05.160 | who asked if he wants to plan for a special occasion, what's the best timing

00:55:09.000 | to ensure he gets the best deal? Meaning how far in advance do you want to book

00:55:12.600 | with your points? So there's really three options here. One is as soon as

00:55:18.280 | the schedule opens up. And there's a link in the show notes to an article on

00:55:22.000 | upgraded points about when do airlines release award seats. And it varies, but

00:55:27.280 | it's all around the one year mark. But there are some interesting hacks here

00:55:31.520 | where certain airlines release their schedule to certain other partners 365

00:55:37.120 | days instead of 330 days out. So you might get a better chance booking those

00:55:41.480 | awards if you're booking them from certain partner programs. That article

00:55:45.680 | details a lot of that. So I'll leave that there. So if you know far in

00:55:48.640 | advance more than a year out, I would say get ready, figure out the day those

00:55:52.960 | days are going to open up and book them at that one year out mark and even go as

00:55:56.840 | far as to book to one ways. So if the schedule opens up, book the outbound and

00:56:01.120 | then wait two weeks until you can book the return. If it's a two week trip,

00:56:04.480 | most award seats now can be canceled and redeposited. So if it's a really

00:56:08.320 | important trip, I would do that. The second option is wait until the last

00:56:12.600 | minute. And this could be really daunting for a lot of people. My wife

00:56:16.840 | falls into that category at times, but we've taken a handful of trips where

00:56:20.200 | we've said this is the week or two we're going to block off. We're going to

00:56:22.960 | start looking for flights now. But if we don't find something we're really

00:56:26.280 | excited about, we're going to check again. And we've changed where we're

00:56:30.160 | going as late as at the airport, you know, a few hours before taking off

00:56:34.480 | because availability just opens up like crazy. Now, you don't really have to

00:56:38.760 | wait until the day of the flight. Usually it's within the last two weeks

00:56:42.840 | when airlines start to open up a lot of their award inventory. And so I would

00:56:47.120 | say maybe you could book one inconvenient routing or to a place

00:56:51.520 | you're excited to go to, but maybe you have a backup place you'd really like

00:56:54.600 | to go to more. And then two weeks out, if that other thing is available, you

00:56:58.640 | can change your plans or switch from the flight that has two stops and coach

00:57:02.760 | to the nonstop in business or something like that. The other option is just

00:57:07.040 | whenever you can. Look, if you have flexibility on your side, whether that's

00:57:10.840 | where you go or when you go, I think you can find flights to just about

00:57:15.520 | anywhere, anytime, whether it's six months out, nine months out, three

00:57:19.120 | months out. If it's during the holidays, it's going to be harder, but

00:57:22.360 | generally I think it's not impossible. And then the last one is just whenever

00:57:26.520 | you see a deal. So I mentioned the straight to the points newsletter

00:57:29.560 | earlier, great place where you'll get an email that says, Hey, right now

00:57:33.240 | there's an amazing deal going on with award availability to X or Y. A few

00:57:38.280 | weeks ago, there was amazing availability on Fiji airways in business

00:57:42.720 | to fly from the West coast to New Zealand or Fiji or Australia. So that

00:57:47.880 | was something that we actually almost jumped on, but it didn't quite work

00:57:51.040 | with our schedule. So that would be the other. So it's as soon as it opens

00:57:54.600 | up last minute or whenever you see a deal are the optimal times, but I

00:57:59.160 | wouldn't let that discourage you. I haven't really ever booked right when

00:58:02.960 | the schedule opened up and I've booked lots of things, not last minute when

00:58:06.240 | there wasn't a deal. So I wouldn't say anything else is bad. I would just

00:58:10.160 | say those are the best times to book. So I also want to share some of the

00:58:13.200 | latest deals I've seen in the past few weeks, but first thank you so much

00:58:17.200 | to everyone who sent in questions. I love doing these episodes. Like I

00:58:20.840 | mentioned earlier, the next one is going to be on everything else, life,

00:58:24.520 | non points, travel, relationships, kids, career, productivity, really

00:58:28.440 | anything. So I would love to include your questions in the next episode.

00:58:32.120 | Please send me an email or maybe one day one of you will go to the website

00:58:36.200 | and use the voicemail feature and I'll play your question live in the next

00:58:39.600 | episode. As for deals, first off, if you want to get these deals as soon

00:58:43.760 | as they come out, I send a newsletter every two weeks and I always put the

00:58:47.440 | best deals I find in them. So please subscribe all the hacks.com/email.

00:58:51.760 | Let's run through what's happening right now. The biggest one is for any

00:58:56.120 | of you with an Amex card. Right now there are 15 to 30% bonuses on

00:59:01.160 | transfers to 12 different Amex transfer partners. That's nine different

00:59:06.040 | airlines, including a few I love like Aeroplan, British Airways and Air

00:59:09.760 | France, but a bunch of others as well. So if you're thinking about booking a

00:59:13.640 | trip using any Amex points now would be one of the best times to do it

00:59:17.880 | because there is a bonus on almost every transfer you could want to do.

00:59:21.560 | Also, if you have the built rewards card, you can now earn three X points

00:59:25.920 | on gas or EV charging until October 31st, which is awesome. If you don't

00:59:30.560 | have the built card, I talked about it earlier. Amex is running a bonus for

00:59:34.520 | business checking accounts where you get 30,000 free Amex points for

00:59:38.320 | depositing $5,000 in an account and making a few transactions. Chase has

00:59:43.240 | just turned on referring a friend for the Sapphire Reserve card. So if

00:59:48.280 | you're looking to earn some extra points and you have a Sapphire Reserve

00:59:51.640 | or a Sapphire Preferred card, you can get 10 to 15,000 chase points for

00:59:55.840 | referring your friend. And finally, there's a deal where you can get

00:59:59.640 | 2,500 free Wyndham points from BACT. It's a new app. All of these deals are

01:00:04.880 | in my most recent newsletter, which I will link to in the show notes. There

01:00:08.840 | are also two deals that expired, but I figured I'll share them here just so

01:00:12.240 | you get a sense of what's in the newsletter. Last Saturday was National

01:00:15.640 | Cinema Day, so there were $3 tickets at movie theaters nationwide. And

01:00:19.920 | Southwest had 25% off flights to all beach destinations, Hawaii, Mexico,

01:00:25.760 | Caribbean, and Central America. So that's the kind of stuff you'll see in

01:00:29.280 | the newsletter. I hope you subscribe and I hope you enjoy it. And please,

01:00:33.080 | feedback is always welcome. All right. I know we hit on a ton of questions.

01:00:38.040 | Thank you so much for joining for this episode. These are some of my

01:00:41.160 | favorites. Do send questions for the next one and I will do my best to

01:00:45.160 | answer them in a future episode. That is it for this week. I will see you

01:00:49.360 | next week.

01:00:50.000 | Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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