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00:01:34.600 | Hello and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading
00:01:41.880 | your life, money, and travel all while spending less and saving more.
00:01:46.120 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I am excited to have you on my journey to find all the
00:01:50.080 | hacks.
00:01:50.600 | Okay.
00:01:51.560 | You all have amazing questions.
00:01:53.560 | And I thought the Q&A episode from a few months ago was so great.
00:01:56.960 | Well, the questions keep rolling in and I'm excited to do another episode.
00:02:00.600 | In fact, there were so many questions that I don't know if I'm going to be able
00:02:04.080 | to get to all of them.
00:02:04.920 | I tried answering a couple of the crypto questions in my episode with Kevin Rose,
00:02:08.720 | and I may try to answer some of the money and investing ones with Josel Cihay from
00:02:12.560 | stacking Benjamins in a couple of weeks.
00:02:14.320 | But today I'm going to tackle all the points, miles, credit card, and travel
00:02:18.840 | questions.
00:02:19.400 | That includes using points, comparing cards, managing so many cards, finding the
00:02:25.240 | best cards for your spending, rental car hacks, and more, including a reversal on
00:02:30.040 | how I feel about the new Capital One Venture X card.
00:02:32.720 | If you have any other questions, please send them in as I love doing these
00:02:37.120 | episodes.
00:02:37.800 | My email is chris@allthehacks.com, and I would love to help you upgrade your life
00:02:42.560 | too.
00:02:42.920 | Also, one of the ways I earn money on this show is when you sign up for cards
00:02:46.920 | at allthehacks.com/cards.
00:02:49.040 | That definitely doesn't mean you should go sign up for a card you don't need just
00:02:52.960 | to help out.
00:02:53.800 | But if you're already going to sign up, I'd love it if you use the link.
00:02:56.760 | It should have the best signup bonuses, but if not, go wherever you can get the
00:03:01.320 | best bonus.
00:03:02.240 | My priority is you earning the most points you can.
00:03:05.240 | So with that out of the way, let's jump right in.
00:03:07.960 | All right, so let's start with the Capital One Venture X card.
00:03:13.080 | In my newsletter about a month ago, I said it wasn't going to be in my wallet,
00:03:17.080 | and I was wrong.
00:03:18.000 | It's in my wallet right now, and I use it all the time.
00:03:21.440 | And I want to talk about why.
00:03:23.600 | So my default Everything Else card, where I don't have a bonus in a category, has
00:03:28.720 | always been the Freedom Unlimited.
00:03:30.160 | It earns 1.5 points per dollar, and because I also have the Chase Sapphire
00:03:34.640 | Reserve card, those 1.5 points end up being able to be transferred to different
00:03:38.840 | airlines and hotels.
00:03:39.920 | Or I can use them for 1.5 cents towards travel in the portal.
00:03:44.640 | So 1.5 cents times 1.5 points per dollar means that it's an effective 2.25% cash
00:03:52.160 | back, and when I thought about the Venture X card earning 2 points worth 1 cent each,
00:03:57.000 | I thought, "Well, this isn't better than the Freedom Unlimited, because 2.25 is
00:04:01.080 | better than 2."
00:04:01.840 | And I think it's historically that Capital One points weren't able to be
00:04:06.160 | transferred to airlines and hotels that made me think about the comparison on the
00:04:10.160 | effective cash back rates.
00:04:11.680 | However, I totally forgot that you can transfer all these Capital One points to
00:04:16.680 | airlines.
00:04:17.280 | So you're getting 2 transferable points per dollar on the Venture X, and only 1.5
00:04:22.120 | on the Freedom Unlimited.
00:04:23.080 | So apologies for that oversight.
00:04:25.360 | If you're in the game of transferring points to airlines, which is how I use
00:04:28.720 | most of my points, the Capital One Venture X is going to earn 33% more points on
00:04:34.680 | everyday purchases than the Freedom Unlimited.
00:04:36.960 | So I signed up and I got the huge 100,000 point signup bonus they have right now,
00:04:42.560 | which does require spending $10,000 over the next six months, but the points guy
00:04:48.360 | values Capital One points at 1.85 cents per point.
00:04:51.840 | So that means your signup bonus is worth almost $2,000.
00:04:55.600 | And yes, the card does have a $395 annual fee, but you get a $300 travel credit
00:05:02.320 | each year, you get a free Priority Pass membership for lounge access, you get a
00:05:06.920 | $200 credit on vacation rentals your first year, and 10,000 bonus points each
00:05:12.200 | year after that.
00:05:13.000 | But even without all that, you're still getting 2 points per dollar that transfer
00:05:17.160 | to over a dozen airlines.
00:05:18.560 | So I think this is a fantastic card.
00:05:21.200 | It'll probably be in my wallet for a while, at least until there's some new
00:05:24.760 | crazy offer or new amazing card.
00:05:26.760 | I liked it so much my wife actually signed up for it also.
00:05:30.120 | So now we have two in the house.
00:05:31.680 | And yes, that means paying two annual fees.
00:05:33.920 | I'll get to that in the next question.
00:05:35.520 | But that means over the next six months, we'll have racked up over 240,000 Capital
00:05:40.240 | One points if you include the $10,000 we each have to spend to get the signup bonus.
00:05:44.520 | So if you're interested in the card, I'd love it if you use my referral link to
00:05:48.840 | sign up, it's allthehacks.com/venturex.
00:05:52.480 | This is a different link than my normal allthehacks.com/cards link.
00:05:56.960 | And that's because the /cards link right now actually earns nothing for the
00:06:01.920 | Venture X signup, so /venturex is actually my personal referral link.
00:06:07.240 | So after you get the card, you should start using your own referral link to
00:06:11.760 | tell your friends about it.
00:06:12.920 | They'll earn 100,000 points and you can earn some bonus points too.
00:06:17.520 | That's also a great segue to our first listener question from Jenny about why
00:06:21.640 | the Venture cards from Capital One aren't a top pick.
00:06:24.320 | As you can see, things are changing.
00:06:26.240 | But the primary reason I still don't put them at the top of the list is that they
00:06:30.080 | don't offer any big category bonuses on earning.
00:06:32.600 | So you can get a whole lot more points on things like travel, dining, and
00:06:36.280 | groceries with other cards.
00:06:37.960 | That said, I do think the Venture and Venture X cards are good kind of
00:06:41.640 | everything else cards now that you can transfer their points to airlines, and I
00:06:45.520 | will definitely be using them in 2022.
00:06:47.800 | So Sean wrote in with a great question.
00:06:50.840 | He's repeatedly heard from people who travel for free, having 25 or 30 cards
00:06:57.000 | that they track across lots of spreadsheets, and wanted to know if they
00:07:00.040 | all pay annual fees on all these cards, or do they cancel the cards, and is it
00:07:05.080 | all worth it, and what about the credit hits that they have, and do they even
00:07:09.000 | close cards and reopen the same ones later?
00:07:11.920 | So while I've probably opened maybe 25 or 30 cards in my entire life, I probably
00:07:17.400 | have about a dozen right now, but when it comes to opening all these cards in the
00:07:21.760 | first place, I think sometimes the calculus is very different the first
00:07:25.240 | year than it is for ongoing years.
00:07:26.960 | So in the first year, you might get a signup bonus worth a thousand, even $2,000.
00:07:32.320 | And so it might make sense to open up that card, meet the minimum spend
00:07:35.880 | requirements, collect the points, and reevaluate after one year.
00:07:40.040 | And at that one year point, when I get that second annual fee, which you
00:07:43.440 | usually have some time to be able to go back to the issuer and say, "Please,
00:07:46.720 | actually, I don't want to renew this card," and get that annual fee refunded.
00:07:49.720 | I decide if it's worth it on an ongoing basis, and sometimes it is, because you
00:07:55.280 | might be getting, in the case of a Marriott Bonvoy Amex, you might be getting
00:07:58.800 | a free night's stay every year, and an annual fee is $95.
00:08:02.240 | So if the perks make it worth the annual fee, you might keep it.
00:08:05.680 | Or if you spend enough money that the incremental miles or points that you
00:08:11.160 | get from your spend on that card is worth it, then that's another good reason.
00:08:15.400 | So let's take an example of someone who has a Chase Sapphire Reserve
00:08:18.680 | and a Chase Freedom Unlimited.
00:08:20.120 | So they're already getting three points per dollar on travel and dining, and they
00:08:24.200 | get one and a half points on everything else.
00:08:26.560 | Let's say they opened up an Amex Gold to get a big signup bonus, and they're
00:08:30.080 | deciding whether they keep it or not.
00:08:31.760 | Well, with the Amex Gold, they're getting four points per
00:08:34.360 | dollar on dining and groceries.
00:08:35.760 | So that's an extra one point per dollar on dining over the Chase Reserve, and an
00:08:39.120 | extra 2.5 points per dollar over the Freedom Unlimited.
00:08:41.840 | So do they spend enough money each year that one extra point per dollar on
00:08:45.560 | dining and two and a half points per dollar on groceries makes up the annual
00:08:49.040 | fee?
00:08:49.400 | Well, the Amex Gold is $250 per year, but you get $10 a month for Uber
00:08:54.720 | and $10 per month for Grubhub.
00:08:56.400 | Now, if you're really efficient, you could get $240 of value out of that and
00:09:01.000 | make the effective annual fee $10, but let's say we're only able to get $100 of
00:09:05.200 | value here because it's hard to remember to order out from two different places
00:09:08.960 | every single month.
00:09:09.760 | That means the effective annual fee is $150.
00:09:12.800 | Now, I always use the Points Guys valuations, which I'll link to in the
00:09:16.160 | show notes, but they say Amex points are worth two cents.
00:09:19.120 | So $150 divided by 0.02 is 7,500 points.
00:09:24.880 | So with an extra two and a half points on groceries and one point on dining, will
00:09:29.080 | they earn 7,500 points?
00:09:31.280 | Let's say you assume a 50/50 split on groceries and dining spending, then that
00:09:35.440 | means they have to spend about $4,300 per year on dining and groceries for it to be
00:09:40.280 | worth it to keep the card.
00:09:41.400 | So if that makes sense, great.
00:09:43.520 | But another consideration is whether you need to keep the card open to not lose the
00:09:47.720 | points.
00:09:48.280 | And if you're in a situation where you have 150,000 Amex points, but the card is
00:09:52.480 | your only Amex, you might want to keep it just to make sure you don't lose the
00:09:55.800 | points.
00:09:57.160 | Capital One and Chase have ways that you could transfer points to your spouse, but
00:10:00.760 | Amex doesn't.
00:10:01.440 | So if I've ultimately decided a card isn't worth it and I want to cancel it, I
00:10:06.520 | first call the issuer and let them know that given the annual fee and the
00:10:10.280 | benefits, the card just isn't worth it and I want to cancel it.
00:10:13.000 | And sometimes I've been offered bonus points, waived annual fees, and other
00:10:17.720 | perks to keep the card open.
00:10:19.000 | So I might do that.
00:10:20.240 | Other times I get nothing and I just cancel the card.
00:10:23.000 | The only exception to that is when I've had a card for a really long time, I
00:10:27.120 | ask the issuer if there's a free card I can downgrade to.
00:10:29.880 | That way I keep the really long history of that card on my credit history to
00:10:34.040 | balance out the average length of credit history, which helps with your credit
00:10:37.280 | score.
00:10:37.640 | Another pro tip, if you have a few different cards with an issuer like
00:10:41.520 | Chase, you can actually ask Chase to move credit between them.
00:10:44.520 | So if you're going to cancel a card, you could move all but $1,000 of that card's
00:10:48.840 | credit limit to another card and then cancel it.
00:10:51.080 | So to summarize and to make sure I hit all of Sean's questions, yes, I pay all
00:10:56.480 | the annual fees, but in the first year, the signup bonus almost always makes it
00:11:00.680 | worth it.
00:11:01.040 | After that, I only pay for annual fees in subsequent years when the benefits
00:11:05.680 | exceed the fee.
00:11:06.520 | The value's not there, I cancel the card or downgrade it.
00:11:09.960 | And finally, yes, it's absolutely worth it for me because I love traveling the
00:11:14.400 | world for free.
00:11:15.040 | All right, so up next, Dick and Willie, I'm not making this up folks, both had
00:11:19.960 | questions about using points.
00:11:21.920 | Dick asked if I could recommend a company to help people use points more
00:11:26.160 | efficiently.
00:11:26.880 | He has almost half a million points and wants to get way more value than the
00:11:30.240 | portal.
00:11:30.720 | And Willie wants to plan some trips to Mexico and Hawaii and wants the best
00:11:34.840 | deals as well.
00:11:35.600 | So this is a big topic and I'm even thinking of writing a whole guide to help
00:11:40.040 | out.
00:11:40.240 | But until I do, here's my thoughts.
00:11:42.480 | Dick is correct that you get a much better value transferring points than
00:11:46.720 | booking in the portal.
00:11:47.560 | Sometimes it might be 10 or 15% better and sometimes it might even be worse.
00:11:52.240 | But other times it can be three or four times better or more.
00:11:55.160 | For example, a colleague of mine last week was looking to book a nice hotel in
00:11:59.560 | Cabo for a three-day weekend next March.
00:12:01.640 | All of the five-star hotels were over $1,000 a night and the one he really had
00:12:06.400 | his eye on, The Cape, which is an incredible hotel, was $1,600 per night
00:12:11.960 | after taxes.
00:12:13.040 | So booking in the Chase portal would have been about 100,000 points per night
00:12:17.080 | because he had the reserve and he got 1.5 cents per point.
00:12:20.680 | Well, since The Cape is a Hyatt property, he was able to transfer his Chase
00:12:25.120 | points directly to Hyatt and book for just 25,000 points per night.
00:12:29.760 | So he got three nights for 75,000 points, which would have otherwise cost him
00:12:35.480 | either $4,800 in cash or 320,000 points in the portal.
00:12:41.280 | He got a value of 6.4 cents per point, which is amazing.
00:12:46.040 | And in the last Q&A, I mentioned my neighbor who booked four business class
00:12:50.320 | tickets to Europe that would have cost him about $20,000 or $22,000, almost a
00:12:55.600 | million and a half points in the portal for just 440,000 points by transferring
00:13:00.920 | them to Air France and booking with Air France Miles.
00:13:03.720 | He got a value of almost 5 cents per point.
00:13:06.640 | So why isn't this easy?
00:13:08.760 | Well, sometimes it is.
00:13:09.960 | Sometimes you can just go to look at the Airline Transfer Partners websites, look
00:13:14.080 | for flights quickly, and you might just see a great deal for the exact times you
00:13:17.600 | want to fly, and if that's the case, just transfer the points and book it.
00:13:20.920 | The challenge is that Chase, Amex, Capital One, each have over a dozen
00:13:25.680 | transfer partners, so that could be a lot of searching, and one of the
00:13:29.000 | keys is to be flexible on dates.
00:13:30.760 | So each time you search, you might search for different dates
00:13:33.760 | and it can take a long time.
00:13:35.080 | One option is to pay for Point.me, which is a search engine, kind of like Google
00:13:40.280 | Flights, but just for award availability across all the transfer partners of
00:13:45.040 | different points programs like Chase or Amex.
00:13:47.920 | It costs $95 a year or $15 for five days, but it will save you so much time.
00:13:54.120 | I've had a ton of success with it, and a few readers have even written in
00:13:58.040 | saying they've had great success too.
00:13:59.800 | If all that seems like too much work, then you could just use an award booking
00:14:04.080 | service and they'll take care of everything for you.
00:14:06.200 | Point.me calls it their concierge service.
00:14:09.160 | I've heard great things about it.
00:14:10.480 | The points guy mentioned Points Pros in our interview, but there's dozens of
00:14:14.680 | services out there and they all end up costing a few hundred dollars per person.
00:14:18.400 | Now, oftentimes that's contingent on finding something, so you
00:14:22.160 | aren't committed to spend it all.
00:14:23.680 | And while that might seem like a lot, in the case of my neighbor, in the
00:14:28.320 | case of the trip my neighbor took, if he had spent $800 for a family of
00:14:32.640 | four to get $22,000 of flights for just 440,000 chase points, it
00:14:38.480 | would have been totally worth it.
00:14:39.680 | So hopefully that helps.
00:14:42.240 | Of course, I always suggest starting to look at a few of the most obvious
00:14:45.400 | transfer partners first and comparing the number of miles you need to use on
00:14:48.800 | their website with the number of points you'd need to book in the portal
00:14:51.960 | to see if you can find a deal.
00:14:53.160 | In my opinion, anything over two cents per point is good.
00:14:56.960 | Anything over three cents is fantastic.
00:14:59.160 | And if you're regularly getting five or more cents per point, let me know
00:15:02.840 | because you should probably be doing these episodes instead of me.
00:15:05.080 | So when it comes to hotels, it's all a little bit easier.
00:15:09.600 | The only time I've ever transferred points to a hotel
00:15:12.640 | program is from Chase to Hyatt.
00:15:14.760 | Every other deal from Amex, from Capital One, I don't think is worth it.
00:15:19.640 | So if the place you're trying to stay isn't a Hyatt property, then you don't
00:15:23.440 | even have to worry about trying to use your points unless you're trying
00:15:26.360 | to book through the portal.
00:15:27.240 | Hey everybody.
00:15:29.240 | I just want to interrupt because I've partnered with Point.me, my
00:15:32.360 | favorite award search tool, to give you a special offer of only $1 for your
00:15:37.000 | first month of their standard plan if you go to allthehacks.com/pointme
00:15:42.680 | and use the promo code HACKS.
00:15:44.640 | Again, allthehacks.com/P-O-I-N-T-M-E or find the link in the show notes.
00:15:52.120 | So definitely take advantage of that if you're planning a trip with points.
00:15:55.480 | So Sue wrote in with another booking with points questions.
00:16:00.280 | She wants to take her bucket list trip to Italy next year with her two kids and
00:16:04.160 | wants to make sure she has enough points to do it.
00:16:06.520 | Specifically, she asked whether 300,000 points is enough for
00:16:09.880 | four people to get to Europe.
00:16:11.280 | And while she already has some Amex points, she wants to know if it's
00:16:14.400 | better to focus on Amex or Chase and whether signup bonuses should be
00:16:18.200 | the way to boost their balance.
00:16:19.560 | This will also get at Emilio's question about issues with having points spread
00:16:23.520 | out across too many card programs.
00:16:25.360 | First off, these are great questions.
00:16:27.720 | I'll start by saying if you're okay flying in coach, then 300,000 points
00:16:31.800 | should be enough, but if you want to do business, you're going to be short.
00:16:35.640 | Now let's assume she's going to be short and needs to close the gap.
00:16:38.680 | In general, I don't think it makes much sense to start trying to earn
00:16:42.280 | points in multiple programs until you have enough points in one
00:16:45.920 | program to cover everyone.
00:16:47.400 | And that's because they don't all have the same transfer partners.
00:16:50.600 | For example, if you find a flight on Lufthansa, you could book it with
00:16:53.880 | Amex points by transferring to Air Canada, or you could book with Chase
00:16:57.120 | points by transferring to United, but you can't transfer to the same place.
00:17:00.800 | So you'd have to end up booking part of the trip separately.
00:17:04.280 | Now, when you pay for flights or even when you book in the portal, booking
00:17:08.400 | two one-ways is often more expensive than booking a round trip.
00:17:12.120 | However, one of the best things about booking directly with airlines
00:17:16.520 | after you transfer points to them is that it's easy to book one way.
00:17:20.480 | So if you had enough Amex points to book your flight to Europe, you could focus
00:17:24.800 | on collecting Chase points to book your return, so the exact plan might
00:17:29.680 | be different for each person, but either way, I do think that sign up bonuses
00:17:33.920 | are going to be your best bet for closing the gap, and you can find the
00:17:37.320 | top sign up bonuses right now at allthehacks.com/cards.
00:17:41.640 | So Don wrote in with a question about booking in the portal.
00:17:45.880 | He pointed out that so many cards are giving big bonuses
00:17:49.520 | when you book in their portal.
00:17:51.040 | For example, the Chase reserve earned 10x on hotels and 5x on flights
00:17:55.520 | for paid bookings in the portal.
00:17:56.960 | Now that's when you're not using points.
00:17:59.200 | He wanted to know when that makes sense.
00:18:01.720 | So this is a tough one because there's no clear answer.
00:18:04.080 | When you book directly with the airlines and hotels, you might earn less points,
00:18:08.000 | but it is so much easier if things go wrong or need to be changed.
00:18:12.000 | And like I've shared in the past, your odds of getting an upgrade by reaching
00:18:15.680 | out to the hotel is infinitely better when you book direct.
00:18:18.880 | When you book with the portals, you often have to make all your changes
00:18:22.280 | and cancellations through the portal, which can be more difficult.
00:18:25.600 | For me, I already earned 5x on flights booked directly with
00:18:29.400 | the airlines through the Amex Platinum.
00:18:31.240 | So I've never actually thought about booking flights on the portal.
00:18:33.960 | And even if I'm just getting an additional two points per dollar over
00:18:37.840 | the reserves 3x on travel, it'd have to be really, really expensive for me to do it.
00:18:42.760 | On hotels, I guess if the cancellation policy was reasonable and the deal was
00:18:48.040 | comparable or better, I'd probably go for it because I couldn't earn anywhere
00:18:51.920 | close to 10x points booking elsewhere.
00:18:54.120 | That said, assume you're definitely not getting that upgrade or any special
00:18:57.760 | treatment when you check in, but it's probably worth it for all the extra points.
00:19:01.440 | Finally, if you have a card like the Capital One Venture X, where your travel
00:19:05.960 | credit is tied to booking in the portal, then I'd definitely book in the portal
00:19:09.920 | at least enough to earn my full credit.
00:19:11.800 | Now, Jessica had an important follow-up to this.
00:19:14.240 | She asked if the prices are the same in the portal as they are elsewhere online.
00:19:18.000 | And they usually are, but it's always worth double checking quick because
00:19:21.360 | I definitely wouldn't want to pay extra to get a few more points.
00:19:25.040 | And there is one other interesting thing, not all flights
00:19:28.000 | and hotels are in the portal.
00:19:29.440 | So if you have your heart set on a specific flight, you just might not be
00:19:32.320 | able to buy it in the portal, and that's just how it works.
00:19:34.800 | I've tried searching weird, different ways, and I could never get
00:19:37.920 | some of certain flights to show up.
00:19:39.520 | And you can find the top signup bonuses right now at allthehacks.com/cards.
00:19:45.120 | Now, I also got a few questions about direct card comparisons.
00:19:49.360 | Steven has the Chase Freedom and has had it for a while and wanted to know about
00:19:53.280 | switching to the Freedom Unlimited.
00:19:55.040 | Now, I've had both of those cards for the past two or three years, and I use the
00:19:59.000 | Freedom Unlimited almost 10 times more than the Freedom.
00:20:01.760 | For those of you who don't know, the Freedom is a card that earns 5X points
00:20:05.680 | per dollar on a different category each quarter, and since you never know what
00:20:10.480 | it's going to be, it's really hard to make any plans.
00:20:12.520 | There've been multiple quarters in a row where the card's been totally useless.
00:20:16.480 | And then Q4 this year has been PayPal, which I've been able to max out.
00:20:20.960 | So as a compliment to the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, I've always thought
00:20:25.200 | the Unlimited was the best second card.
00:20:27.160 | Now, that gets a little more complicated for me personally, because now I have the
00:20:31.760 | Capital One Venture X, and it's going to be my new everyday spending card.
00:20:35.280 | So I imagine the Unlimited is really only going to be a card I use for drug stores
00:20:39.880 | where it earns more points than any other card, which actually means the Freedom
00:20:43.760 | will get a lot more usage than the Freedom Unlimited.
00:20:45.960 | But for most people who aren't trying to spread their points over lots of
00:20:49.800 | different programs and have lots of different cards, I think the combo of a
00:20:53.480 | Sapphire Preferred or Reserve and the Freedom Unlimited is a better combo
00:20:57.440 | than pairing it with the Freedom.
00:20:58.960 | Now, Jessica had another question.
00:21:01.920 | She wanted my thoughts on comparing the Sapphire Reserve and the Amex Platinum,
00:21:05.680 | asking which one comes out ahead.
00:21:07.360 | Now on the surface, they're both premium travel cards with lounge access, but I
00:21:11.760 | actually think this one's a much easier question.
00:21:13.600 | The only money I really ever put on my Platinum card is Airfare for the 5X points.
00:21:19.360 | It only earns one point per dollar on everything else, and I really view the
00:21:22.880 | Platinum much more as a perks card, with the primary benefit being getting
00:21:26.400 | access to the Centurion Lounge.
00:21:27.920 | And while the annual fee is high, I think if you use the credits they offer, it
00:21:32.120 | can come close to netting out to zero.
00:21:33.960 | The same thing is true on the Sapphire Reserve in terms of cutting the annual
00:21:37.760 | fee down, but you earn bonuses on travel and dining, which is a large portion of
00:21:42.960 | my spend, so I think that one's a much easier decision, and I think the Sapphire
00:21:48.040 | Reserve, for most people, comes out ahead.
00:21:49.920 | I hope that helps you both pick your next card.
00:21:51.880 | All right, so both Sherelle and Scott had questions about having multiple Chase
00:21:55.800 | Sapphire cards, and in both scenarios, they had the Chase Sapphire Preferred
00:21:59.960 | and wanted to get the Reserve.
00:22:01.320 | The issue is, you can't have multiple Chase Sapphire cards.
00:22:05.560 | So my wife and I were in this exact situation, and here's what we did.
00:22:09.000 | We didn't want to lose our points, so we didn't want to just close out our
00:22:12.640 | Preferred cards, so we each downgraded them to no annual fee cards.
00:22:16.880 | I went to the Freedom Unlimited, and she went to the Freedom.
00:22:19.400 | Then, after that was official, we waited a few weeks, though, if you want to play
00:22:23.760 | it safe, you should probably wait 30 days, and we applied for the Reserve.
00:22:27.400 | But there's one other important requirement.
00:22:29.800 | It has to have been 48 months or 4 years from the last Sapphire bonus.
00:22:34.720 | In our case, we had opened the Preferred more than 4 years ago, so it wasn't an
00:22:38.360 | issue, but if the statement closing date, when you got the sign-up bonus from
00:22:43.200 | whichever Sapphire card you opened already was in the last 4 years,
00:22:47.560 | then you're going to have to wait.
00:22:48.720 | There is another option.
00:22:50.560 | You can always upgrade or downgrade from one Sapphire card to the other, but you
00:22:55.000 | won't get a sign-up bonus when you do it.
00:22:56.600 | So if you really want the Chase Reserve card, you could upgrade your Preferred,
00:23:00.520 | but you'll miss out on that opportunity to get those bonus points, and hopefully
00:23:04.960 | that helps you figure out what to do.
00:23:06.200 | Okay, this is a fun one because I've gone through it myself.
00:23:10.720 | David wrote in saying he got married last year, but he and his wife Casey still have
00:23:14.920 | their individual credit cards, including two Chase Sapphire Reserves.
00:23:18.400 | He wanted to know if there was a way to benefit from a rewards perspective by
00:23:22.480 | consolidating, or if he should keep them separate.
00:23:24.600 | First off, congrats to David and Casey.
00:23:26.880 | This is a great question.
00:23:28.200 | So you're probably right that it doesn't make sense to be paying two
00:23:31.120 | annual fees for the Reserve card.
00:23:32.680 | But before you do anything, you'll want to make sure you're
00:23:35.280 | not going to lose any points.
00:23:36.400 | The good news is that Chase will let you transfer Ultimate Rewards points
00:23:40.440 | between members of your household for free.
00:23:42.120 | Sometimes it doesn't work to link the accounts online, so you might have to
00:23:45.760 | call, but it's definitely possible and allowed.
00:23:48.440 | So before you cancel any cards, just make sure you move the
00:23:51.520 | points around so you don't lose them.
00:23:52.840 | Okay, so the obvious answer would be for one of you to cancel your Reserve and get
00:23:57.840 | added as an authorized user to the other one's card.
00:24:00.040 | That's not a bad option, but the downside is that you only have a joint account,
00:24:04.440 | which can be frustrating for some couples, and it also means that the other person
00:24:08.640 | will lose their card from their credit history.
00:24:10.600 | Now, you could downgrade the card to a good no-annual-fee card like the Freedom
00:24:15.080 | Flex or Freedom Unlimited, but unless that cardholder has a Sapphire card
00:24:19.440 | also, you don't actually earn Ultimate Rewards points, so you aren't able to
00:24:23.280 | use your points to transfer to airlines.
00:24:25.120 | So I'll throw out another option.
00:24:26.880 | One of you could downgrade to the Sapphire Preferred.
00:24:30.360 | You'd still earn 3x on Dining, like the Reserve, but you'd
00:24:33.840 | only earn 2x on Travel.
00:24:35.520 | However, most travel purchases are booked online, so you could still use the other
00:24:40.120 | person's Reserve card to book travel and earn 3x points.
00:24:44.120 | This way, you both have separate cards, and you probably won't lose out on that
00:24:48.000 | many points, and you both keep your credit history.
00:24:50.640 | Technically, it's $20 more because the Preferred costs $95 a year and an
00:24:55.680 | authorized cardholder on the Reserve is $75, but both are going to be cheaper
00:24:59.720 | than two Reserve cards.
00:25:00.920 | Another couple downsides to know about.
00:25:03.880 | The Preferred doesn't get you free TSA Pre or Global Entry, though I would say
00:25:08.280 | use that credit before you get rid of your Reserve and it's good for 5 years,
00:25:11.800 | and it doesn't get Priority Pass for Lounge Access, but the Reserve's Priority
00:25:16.560 | Pass allows for two free guests, so it's really only an issue when one
00:25:20.240 | of you is traveling alone.
00:25:21.360 | Okay, if you want the next-level hack version, and it's been 4 years since
00:25:26.200 | you've opened your Reserve card, you could actually just downgrade your
00:25:29.640 | Reserve to a free card, like the Freedom Unlimited, and then open a new
00:25:33.960 | Sapphire Preferred and get the sign-up bonus on that card.
00:25:37.120 | Hopefully, that helps.
00:25:38.680 | It seems like with every business, you get to a certain size, and
00:25:43.560 | the cracks start to emerge.
00:25:45.360 | Things that you used to do in a day are taking a week, and you have too many
00:25:49.480 | manual processes, and there's no one source of truth.
00:25:52.440 | If this is you, you should know these three numbers.
00:25:55.480 | 37,025, 1.
00:25:59.160 | 37,000, that's the number of businesses which have upgraded to NetSuite by
00:26:03.040 | Oracle, and I'm excited to partner with them for this episode.
00:26:06.000 | NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system, streamlining
00:26:09.560 | accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, and more.
00:26:12.840 | 25, NetSuite turns 25 this year.
00:26:16.240 | That's 25 years of helping businesses do more with less, close their books
00:26:20.880 | in days, not weeks, and drive down costs.
00:26:23.800 | And 1, because your business is one-of-a-kind, so you get a customized
00:26:28.720 | solution for all your KPIs in one efficient system with one source of
00:26:33.400 | truth, manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins.
00:26:37.760 | Everything you need to grow all in one place, which I can tell you from all
00:26:42.000 | the companies I've run, makes everything so much better, so right now, download
00:26:46.560 | NetSuite's popular KPI checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent
00:26:51.520 | performance, absolutely free at allthehacks.com/netsuite.
00:26:57.040 | That's allthehacks.com/netsuite to get your own KPI checklist.
00:27:01.480 | allthehacks.com/netsuite, N-E-T-S-U-I-T-E.
00:27:06.920 | You all know I love credit card points, so I'm excited to be partnering with
00:27:12.440 | Card Pointers today, which is one of my favorite tools for travel hacking.
00:27:16.320 | It's a free app that helps you manage all of your credit cards in one place,
00:27:20.320 | and makes it easy to find the right card to maximize your category
00:27:23.920 | bonuses on every purchase.
00:27:26.080 | You can also load it on your partner's phone, so they always
00:27:29.160 | know the best cards to use.
00:27:30.760 | The app automatically tracks every category bonus and recurring
00:27:34.880 | credit from over 5,000 cards.
00:27:37.560 | And they also track and help you use your Amex, Chase, Bank of America, or
00:27:42.640 | Citibank offers to save even more money every day.
00:27:45.960 | And with their browser extension, you can actually activate every single
00:27:50.240 | Amex and Chase offer in just one click.
00:27:53.120 | And because of that massive credit card database, you can do all of this without
00:27:57.360 | having to give up any personal or banking details.
00:28:00.200 | The app is free to download, and many of the features are free as well.
00:28:04.640 | But if you want to try out the pro version, there's a free trial.
00:28:07.680 | And if you decide you want to sign up after the trial, which you probably
00:28:11.560 | will, you can go to allthehacks.com/cardpointers to get 20% off.
00:28:17.960 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/cardpointers.
00:28:23.800 | Okay, changing gears a bit, I want to move over to business credit cards.
00:28:27.360 | Not just because they have some of the best signup bonuses out there, but
00:28:30.880 | because Braxton wrote in asking about the best cards for his newly formed LLC.
00:28:35.280 | Well, the first thing to know is that you don't actually need any official
00:28:39.440 | business registration or entity number to get a business credit card.
00:28:42.720 | In fact, your personal credit is tied to most business credit cards.
00:28:46.640 | That means you can definitely sign up for a business card if you want to take
00:28:50.600 | advantage of some of these big signup bonuses.
00:28:53.360 | If you want some tips, I'll link to a few articles in the show notes.
00:28:56.280 | As for which cards, I'll point out a few things.
00:28:59.040 | First off, you don't actually need to use a business card for business expenses.
00:29:03.840 | It definitely might help you for keeping organized and tracking things.
00:29:07.480 | But even when I ran my own business, I put all my flights on my personal
00:29:11.440 | Platinum Amex because it earned 5x on airfare.
00:29:14.360 | That said, there are a few business cards I think are a great place to start.
00:29:18.520 | I personally really like the Ink Business Preferred the most.
00:29:22.240 | It has 3x on travel, shipping, internet cable and phone
00:29:26.080 | services, and online advertising.
00:29:28.440 | It also pairs nicely with the Ink Business Unlimited, which earns
00:29:32.240 | one and a half points on everything.
00:29:34.040 | And if you have the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, you can link up all your
00:29:39.560 | personal and business cards, combine ultimate rewards balances, and transfer
00:29:44.160 | any and all of those points to airline and hotel partners.
00:29:47.040 | And best of all, the Ink Business Preferred has a massive
00:29:51.040 | 100,000 Chase Point signup bonus right now that you can get
00:29:54.960 | at allthehacks.com/cards.
00:29:56.880 | On the Amex side, I used to have the Business Gold, which
00:30:00.600 | has a really cool feature.
00:30:01.840 | It earns 4 points per dollar on whatever two categories you spend the most on each
00:30:06.400 | month from a list of six categories, which are airfare, advertising, computer
00:30:11.680 | hardware and software, gas, restaurants, and shipping.
00:30:14.760 | One thing to note is that while your personal credit is needed to open a
00:30:19.160 | business card, some issuers like Chase don't actually report the
00:30:22.800 | card to personal credit bureaus.
00:30:24.400 | Okay.
00:30:26.200 | So Cody wrote in saying he listened to the episode about credit card points and
00:30:29.720 | wanted to know what to do to earn the most points for gas.
00:30:32.720 | He does a lot of driving for work and wanted to get the best card.
00:30:36.120 | So the Citi Premier earns 3x points on gas, and the points guy values him at 1.7
00:30:41.880 | cents, so that's about 5.1% cash back on gas.
00:30:46.520 | It's also a good card that gets 3x on air travel, hotels, supermarkets, and
00:30:50.680 | restaurants, and has over a dozen transfer partners.
00:30:53.440 | Now, it does have a $95 annual fee, but you get a $100 hotel credit on a $500 or
00:30:59.200 | more hotel stay, and there's an 80,000 point signup bonus at allthehacks.com/cards.
00:31:04.760 | So that's one option.
00:31:06.080 | Another one is the Blue Cash Preferred, which gets just 3% cash back on gas.
00:31:10.600 | The Costco card gets 4% back, but only on the first $7,000.
00:31:16.000 | And there's also a link I'll put to Doctor of Credit's website that has an
00:31:19.920 | updated list of the best gas credit cards.
00:31:22.400 | I love this next question from Sudarsan.
00:31:25.680 | He said, "I have a lot of cards and I couldn't find an app to figure out what
00:31:29.520 | the best cash back is for a retailer."
00:31:31.600 | He pointed out there used to be this app called Wallaby, but it doesn't exist anymore.
00:31:35.640 | So I think there's two apps worth checking out here.
00:31:38.360 | This is a quick answer.
00:31:39.480 | The new Points Guy app has a feature exactly for this.
00:31:42.840 | You load in all your cards and you can actually pick a retailer, but it only
00:31:46.800 | works by picking something that's in your vicinity with your location on.
00:31:50.720 | And it only works on iOS.
00:31:52.240 | There's another app that I just tried out that I really like called Card Pointers.
00:31:56.680 | Now, you can't say a specific retailer, but once you load in all of your cards,
00:32:02.760 | you can go through each category and it really simply breaks out the best
00:32:06.640 | card in your arsenal for each one.
00:32:08.720 | Now, I had to go in and manually override a few of the
00:32:11.680 | categories, so it's not perfect.
00:32:13.360 | But if I were trying to find an app to do this, those are
00:32:16.160 | the two apps I would check out.
00:32:17.280 | So while we're talking about having all of these points and miles
00:32:20.960 | and different accounts, Alex had a great question.
00:32:23.120 | He said, "I referenced a spreadsheet that I use to track all my rewards and points
00:32:27.360 | for all of my cards and asked if I could share my template."
00:32:29.520 | So first off, yes, if you want to check out the template, it's
00:32:32.760 | allthehacks.com/pointstracker.
00:32:35.520 | However, I will say that it's a completely manual template that's
00:32:39.400 | all tracked in a Google Sheet.
00:32:40.520 | And while it's fun for me to do sometimes, I'm really excited about what
00:32:45.440 | the Points Guy launched with their new app, and I'm really hoping that
00:32:49.080 | that can replace this for me.
00:32:50.360 | Maybe it won't, maybe it'll take some time, but I would love to move off
00:32:54.440 | of this spreadsheet in the future.
00:32:55.720 | Hopefully the whole spreadsheet makes sense.
00:32:57.480 | There's a row for all the different programs.
00:32:59.440 | There's columns for different people in your household.
00:33:02.040 | I even use the Points Guy's points valuations at one point so that I
00:33:05.600 | can track the value of everything.
00:33:07.280 | I also use colors and notes in the spreadsheet to be able to point out
00:33:12.160 | when things expire and whether I need to act on it soon, but hopefully this is
00:33:16.320 | helpful, I just can't wait till someone can build something that actually
00:33:19.320 | works to automate all of this.
00:33:20.600 | Now, this next question might be familiar for a lot of you that
00:33:23.600 | live in a hub for one airline.
00:33:25.280 | Andrew wrote in for Minneapolis, a major Delta hub and his primary airline.
00:33:30.120 | He pointed out that while Amex points can transfer to Delta, he feels
00:33:33.040 | like he can't take advantage of some of the other exciting cards
00:33:35.800 | and signup bonuses he sees.
00:33:37.200 | Now, I know a lot of people in a similar situation, and they feel like they've
00:33:40.920 | committed to one carrier for all their travel.
00:33:43.040 | In fact, I've lived most of my entire life near DC, Denver, and San
00:33:46.680 | Francisco, which are all United hubs.
00:33:48.800 | So you probably accrue a lot of points on your home airline, and if you're
00:33:53.040 | just looking for a card that helps you top up that bonus, then you need
00:33:56.360 | to get a card that supports that.
00:33:58.040 | Delta has Amex, United has Chase, Citi has American, however, if it's really
00:34:03.480 | more about the status you have on that airline, then it doesn't really
00:34:07.080 | matter because that status will apply across all the airline's partners.
00:34:11.800 | So if you have Delta Platinum status, but you have Chase points, you can
00:34:15.440 | always transfer them to another SkyTeam partner like Air France and book
00:34:19.200 | with their miles and still benefit from your status across the whole alliance.
00:34:23.440 | For me, I'm actually always trying to use my miles for international
00:34:27.160 | business, so whether I have status on United or not doesn't matter because
00:34:31.240 | when you book in business class, you already get priority boarding,
00:34:34.280 | faster security, and free check bags.
00:34:36.800 | So we talked so much about using points to fly internationally, but
00:34:42.240 | Jennifer asked if there are ever any deals for business class flights or
00:34:46.800 | whether the only way to do it is points.
00:34:48.680 | Well, the best place I've found to find all the deals for business and
00:34:52.880 | first-class flights is the Premium Fare Deals Forum on Flyertalk, which
00:34:57.040 | I'll link to in the show notes.
00:34:58.280 | I'm looking at it now, and while it's a little tough to filter by your
00:35:01.920 | home airport, I'm seeing some crazy business class deals like SF to Madrid
00:35:06.960 | for $1,800 and LA to Lima in Peru for $850.
00:35:12.440 | I've also seen some good deals by following the points guy or the flight
00:35:16.560 | deal on Twitter, but it doesn't happen that often.
00:35:19.600 | You can also just search with no destination on Google Flights and
00:35:23.960 | switch to business class and see what might exist.
00:35:27.200 | For example, I'm looking right now in the spring for business class
00:35:31.360 | flights under $3,000, and you can go to Berlin, Rome, Istanbul,
00:35:36.480 | Cairo, and so many other places.
00:35:38.880 | Two other sites I've found, but I can't endorse because I've never
00:35:43.320 | tried them, but they could be worth checking out are First Class Flyer.
00:35:47.320 | It's a paid subscription, but it looks like they've got a 14-day trial for $1.
00:35:51.840 | And Mighty Travels also has a paid newsletter that I haven't tried,
00:35:56.480 | but it seems to focus on premium cabins and lets you specify your home airport.
00:36:00.800 | Hopefully that helps, but again, I do think that the cheapest way to
00:36:05.160 | travel internationally is to start hacking the game with points and miles.
00:36:08.960 | All right, so this isn't just going to be about flights and hotels.
00:36:12.160 | Rick emailed in asking for rental car hacks, and I have a few I'd love to share.
00:36:16.880 | So I'll start out when you're searching for a car.
00:36:20.200 | You can use an aggregator like Kayak to find the lowest prices, but
00:36:24.480 | oftentimes the discount codes get the best rates, and you can only put those
00:36:28.920 | in on the rental car company websites.
00:36:30.960 | You'd be surprised to find that you might have access to way more
00:36:34.360 | rental car discounts than you know.
00:36:35.960 | For example, many big employers have great rates.
00:36:39.320 | I know I did at Google, but I also find great prices with
00:36:42.920 | Avis using the Costco discount.
00:36:45.400 | My business fraternity from college somehow offers a really good rate at
00:36:49.680 | Enterprise, and other organizations like AAA or USAA have discounts as well.
00:36:55.040 | That means that you have to go to a few rental car websites to search around,
00:36:58.680 | but I've seen rates drop in half using these discounts.
00:37:01.920 | Also, many premium travel cards like the Platinum or the Chase Reserve come
00:37:07.080 | with status on various rental car companies, so that can save you money.
00:37:11.440 | And if you want to splurge on an Audi with Silver Car, which has been a
00:37:15.640 | fantastic experience every time I've done it, Visa Infinite cards like
00:37:20.480 | the Chase Reserve get 30% off.
00:37:22.680 | Now, if you're looking at an airport and everything is expensive, you might
00:37:27.600 | want to look to rent downtown in the city you're flying into to save money,
00:37:31.480 | and then just take an Uber or a Lyft to get there.
00:37:33.920 | You could also check out sites like Turo, which is like Airbnb for rental cars.
00:37:38.880 | I know a lot of people who've had success there, but I personally hate having to
00:37:42.680 | coordinate with another person after a long flight, and I just prefer
00:37:46.680 | grabbing something at the airport.
00:37:48.040 | During your reservation, if you get the option to save money by prepaying
00:37:52.960 | for your rental car, here's how I think about it.
00:37:55.120 | Because rental car prices fluctuate so much, if I'm booking far in advance
00:38:00.320 | and the rate is high, I usually won't prepay, so I can check back in every
00:38:05.120 | few weeks or months to see if the rates have dropped.
00:38:07.520 | If so, I just rebook and cancel the reservation.
00:38:11.960 | But if I'm closer to travel and the risk of canceling the trip is really low, if
00:38:16.960 | the discount's big enough, I'll take it.
00:38:18.720 | Also, sometimes rates for a full week are significantly cheaper.
00:38:23.000 | So even if you only need the car for five or six days, it might be
00:38:26.640 | cheaper to book for a whole week.
00:38:28.280 | Also, you pay for rental cars on 24-hour periods, so on the off chance you need
00:38:34.280 | a car for a few hours more than some multiple of 24, you're going to have to
00:38:38.480 | pay for a full day for that extra hour or two.
00:38:41.320 | However, if you read the fine print, some companies give you an
00:38:44.920 | hour or two for free if you're late.
00:38:46.800 | So if I needed a car from 10 a.m.
00:38:49.200 | one day to 11 a.m.
00:38:50.520 | another day, I'll actually book it from 10 a.m.
00:38:53.040 | to 10 a.m.
00:38:53.840 | and just drop it off an hour late for free and not pay the extra day.
00:38:57.280 | Now, before you book, I definitely recommend joining the loyalty
00:39:01.760 | program of the rental car company.
00:39:03.200 | Even the free tier often means you can pick up your car without having to
00:39:07.440 | check in at the desk, which sometimes might save you a few minutes, but once
00:39:11.840 | in Salt Lake City, the line was like 15 people long and I just skipped right past it all.
00:39:16.800 | Also, like I mentioned earlier, you might actually have elite status with one of
00:39:21.200 | these rental car companies from your credit card and get free upgrades.
00:39:24.840 | Finally, since most rental car reservations come with no penalty if you
00:39:29.280 | never show up, they plan on a percentage of reservations never getting picked up.
00:39:34.360 | That means that if everyone shows up, they might run out of cars.
00:39:38.120 | So I always like to call the local agency office a few days before arriving,
00:39:43.160 | especially if I land late in the day, to confirm that I will be coming
00:39:47.600 | and I will be picking up the car.
00:39:49.200 | So that's everything before you pick the car up.
00:39:52.440 | Once I'm at the rental office, there's a few things I do.
00:39:55.200 | I skip the insurance and I pay with my Chase Reserve or any other card
00:39:59.720 | that includes rental car coverage.
00:40:01.560 | I never prepay for gas and I always look around the car and take photos of any
00:40:06.640 | dents, cracks in the windshield or anything else, and I point them out before I leave
00:40:11.120 | the lot.
00:40:11.520 | I also once got a car with bald tires, so I always double check the tread.
00:40:16.400 | Okay.
00:40:17.560 | Hopefully that helps you save a bunch on your next rental car.
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00:43:09.520 | Before we get back to the episode, I just want to thank you for listening
00:43:13.920 | to and supporting the show.
00:43:15.280 | Your support of our advertisers is what keeps this show going.
00:43:19.280 | To learn more about all our partners and get links to all their deals, you can go
00:43:23.320 | to allthehacks.com/deals where the URLs, codes, and discounts are all right there.
00:43:29.360 | So please consider supporting those who support us.
00:43:32.560 | Okay, this has been a lot of fun.
00:43:34.040 | For the last question, Yoshiko wrote in asking if I could share some tips for
00:43:38.280 | traveling during COVID, specifically around testing and making sure you
00:43:42.520 | don't get stuck somewhere abroad.
00:43:44.120 | This is a great question, and it's one I've definitely thought about before the
00:43:47.640 | few trips I've taken during the pandemic.
00:43:49.640 | So before you leave, there's really three things that I think about.
00:43:53.200 | First, how serious is the situation in the country you're going to and how has
00:43:57.880 | that changed recently?
00:43:59.080 | And you can usually find that on sites like the CDC or the New York
00:44:03.520 | Times has a map of the world.
00:44:05.200 | I always think it's good to check in on the country you're going to.
00:44:07.920 | Next, whether you want to take any extra insurance or health precautions in case
00:44:13.000 | you end up testing positive abroad.
00:44:15.280 | And third, if you're going to a country that requires testing, making sure you
00:44:19.000 | have that sorted before you leave.
00:44:20.440 | So the fear a lot of travelers have is that they might end up in some remote
00:44:25.680 | destination and need medical care they wish they could get somewhere else, or
00:44:29.800 | even that they want to get back in their home country.
00:44:31.880 | So in the past, I've used World Nomads for travel insurance and had a great
00:44:36.120 | experience, though to be fair, I've only ever had to get a stolen camera and a
00:44:40.400 | non-severe hospital visit reimbursed.
00:44:43.000 | However, the circumstance many travelers fear during COVID is that they'll test
00:44:46.880 | positive and not be able to come home and either be forced to quarantine or worst
00:44:51.600 | case, be hospitalized in a foreign country.
00:44:53.640 | The only company I've found that can help in that circumstance is called COVAC
00:44:58.440 | Global.
00:44:59.000 | To be clear, I haven't used it and I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but
00:45:03.760 | they will pay for and arrange for their members to be repatriated should they
00:45:08.160 | test positive for COVID and they're the only option that doesn't require you to
00:45:12.760 | be hospitalized for that coverage to kick in.
00:45:14.960 | That means they're coordinating private travel for you to get home and they say,
00:45:20.240 | for example, if you test positive in Europe, they can get you back home to the
00:45:24.320 | US in as little as 12 hours.
00:45:26.320 | Now, coverage for one person on a 30-day trip is $995, which isn't cheap, but I
00:45:34.160 | can assure you that chartering a private jet to fly across the ocean would cost
00:45:38.440 | you so much more, not to mention all the coordination they'll have to do to
00:45:43.440 | transport someone who's tested positive.
00:45:45.480 | So, if you want to protect yourself against that circumstance, it's something
00:45:49.160 | you could consider, but know that they require you purchase a policy 14 days in
00:45:53.960 | advance of travel or provide a negative PCR test within seven days of departure.
00:45:58.920 | As for testing before travel, every country is different, so you want to check
00:46:04.200 | on the latest information, usually on the tourism board website, the embassy or
00:46:08.720 | consulate website, or sometimes even on the airline's website.
00:46:11.880 | Now, most pharmacies like CVS or Walgreens do PCR testing and you get
00:46:17.120 | your results in a day or two.
00:46:18.360 | You can also order an at-home kit from someone like Pixel or LabCorp and get
00:46:22.800 | results in a few days also.
00:46:24.120 | Or, if you need results faster than that, there's a bunch of companies with same
00:46:29.160 | day and one day tests, one that I've found is Worksite Labs, which has testing
00:46:34.280 | locations around the country and they'll get your results in as little as one and
00:46:38.360 | a half hours for $250 or within 24 hours for $90.
00:46:42.920 | Also, many international airports have onsite testing, but they're
00:46:47.080 | also really expensive.
00:46:48.440 | For example, at SFO, you can get tested in under an hour, but it's $275.
00:46:56.640 | So, once you're abroad, I really hope you just enjoy your travel and that the
00:47:00.280 | pandemic isn't an issue and you get to have an amazing trip, but you will need
00:47:04.600 | to get tested before you fly home, at least if you're coming back to the States.
00:47:08.560 | So, if you want to get tested before you leave, I have two suggestions.
00:47:12.400 | For me, I always bring the E-Med BinaxNOW tests that come with a video
00:47:17.440 | telehealth visit, which qualifies them for use to fly back into the U.S.
00:47:21.680 | That way you can do the test wherever you are on your own time and know you'll get
00:47:26.160 | the results right away.
00:47:27.360 | You can get one to three tests from Optum.com or six tests at E-Med.com.
00:47:33.720 | And depending on how many you buy, they're $25 to $50 each.
00:47:37.040 | Or if you don't want to deal with bringing your COVID tests with you, I would just
00:47:41.800 | reach out to the hotel concierge and ask them to help you coordinate
00:47:45.320 | getting tested before you leave.
00:47:46.760 | Some resorts have free COVID pre-departure testing and others can just coordinate a
00:47:51.960 | nurse coming to your room for testing.
00:47:54.320 | Okay, so hopefully that helps you have a safe and easy trip.
00:47:56.640 | Wow, I really forgot how much I love doing these episodes, so I'm definitely
00:48:01.160 | going to try to do them more often.
00:48:02.480 | Or I might even try to incorporate a few questions each week or even add a shorter
00:48:07.240 | second episode each week or every other week just focused on Q&A.
00:48:10.680 | So, no matter what I do, please keep the questions coming.
00:48:14.200 | I really love hearing from all of you and I hope this is able to
00:48:17.720 | help you guys upgrade your lives.
00:48:19.720 | If you enjoyed this episode or just enjoy the show, please consider sharing
00:48:24.200 | it with a friend or family member who might like it.
00:48:26.560 | It is really the best way to help me grow the show.
00:48:29.280 | And if you heard planes flying over in the background during this episode,
00:48:33.120 | I am so sorry, I live near SFO and it is raining outside and whenever that
00:48:38.080 | happens, they divert all the flights right over our house.
00:48:40.920 | Thank you so much for listening.
00:48:42.760 | I'll see you next week.
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00:49:59.720 | I want to tell you about another podcast I love that goes deep on all things money.
00:50:03.720 | That means everything from money hacks to wealth building to early retirement.
00:50:07.720 | It's called the Personal Finance Podcast and it's much more about building
00:50:11.720 | generational wealth and spending your money on the things you value than it is
00:50:15.720 | about clipping coupons to save a dollar.
00:50:17.720 | It's hosted by my good friend, Andrew, who truly believes that everyone in this
00:50:21.720 | world can build wealth and his passion and excitement are what make this show so
00:50:25.720 | entertaining.
00:50:26.720 | I know because I was a guest on the show in December 2022, but recently I listened
00:50:31.720 | to an episode where Andrew shared 16 money stats that will blow your mind.
00:50:35.720 | And it was so crazy to learn things like 35% of millennials are not participating
00:50:40.720 | in their employer's retirement plan.
00:50:42.720 | And that's just one of the many fascinating stats he shared.
00:50:46.720 | The Personal Finance Podcast has something for everyone.
00:50:49.720 | It's filled with so many tips and tactics and hacks to help you get better with
00:50:52.720 | your money and grow your wealth.
00:50:54.720 | So I highly recommend you check it out.
00:50:56.720 | Just search for the Personal Finance Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
00:51:00.720 | wherever you listen to podcasts and enjoy.