ATHLLC3805434191
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Happy New Year and welcome to another episode
00:00:05.040 | of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life,
00:00:07.580 | money, and travel.
00:00:08.820 | I'm Chris Hutchins and I'm excited you're here
00:00:10.760 | for the first episode of 2023.
00:00:13.280 | I also hope you're feeling better than I am
00:00:15.360 | because somehow everyone in our house
00:00:17.320 | has gotten a cold or flu twice
00:00:19.700 | in the past two and a half weeks.
00:00:21.460 | But sick or not, I am excited to kick off the new year
00:00:24.800 | with another listener question episode.
00:00:27.060 | We're gonna cover paying down your mortgage,
00:00:28.740 | where to put cash savings,
00:00:30.400 | managing credit cards with your partner,
00:00:32.320 | booking hotels direct versus the portal,
00:00:35.040 | what to do when you're short on points,
00:00:37.000 | how to save money on data while traveling, and more.
00:00:39.920 | I'm also gonna share some of the listener hacks
00:00:41.900 | that you all sent me.
00:00:43.160 | So let's get right into it after this.
00:00:45.960 | (upbeat music)
00:00:47.880 | Okay, to get started,
00:00:49.520 | I just wanna share a few amazing listener wins
00:00:52.280 | that you guys have sent in.
00:00:53.760 | It makes me so happy to hear these stories,
00:00:55.840 | so keep them coming.
00:00:57.440 | First, I wanna talk about Chad's story.
00:00:59.760 | He and his wife hadn't opened a card in over 15 years
00:01:03.000 | before listening to the show,
00:01:04.440 | and they've now amassed almost 400,000 points.
00:01:08.200 | And use some of those points for five nights in Ontario,
00:01:11.400 | a free Marriott stay,
00:01:12.880 | flights for the whole family to Florida.
00:01:15.400 | And Chad's estimate is that they've not only saved $2,000
00:01:18.760 | in travel already,
00:01:19.960 | but they still have 300,000 points to use.
00:01:22.960 | He also said that as part of this,
00:01:24.380 | he and his wife's credit scores
00:01:25.600 | have both jumped 20 to 40 points.
00:01:28.080 | That is awesome, Chad.
00:01:29.360 | I love hearing that story.
00:01:31.200 | Similarly, Prema was able to rack up 100,000 points
00:01:34.120 | from a signup bonus and used it to fly her little sister
00:01:36.920 | to the States from India for 45,000 miles,
00:01:40.320 | which saved her almost $1,200.
00:01:43.120 | She said she got this taste of points and miles,
00:01:45.240 | and now she wants more.
00:01:46.360 | So I hope 2023 brings you even more points.
00:01:49.960 | After talking about unclaimed money,
00:01:51.480 | I got a message from a listener who looked and found $93,
00:01:55.280 | which was cool,
00:01:56.520 | but he got obsessed and started checking out
00:01:58.480 | all of his friends and family
00:02:00.160 | and ended up finding over $1,000 for everyone.
00:02:03.640 | One of his friends actually had $500 owed just to him.
00:02:08.160 | He'd never even heard of it before and is so excited.
00:02:11.160 | If you're listening to this
00:02:12.000 | and haven't already checked for unclaimed money yourself,
00:02:14.320 | search for unclaimed money and the name of your state
00:02:16.920 | and go to that site and see what you're owed.
00:02:19.320 | I got another email from Amy,
00:02:21.240 | who said she emailed a hotel,
00:02:22.960 | just like we've talked about on the show a lot,
00:02:24.960 | and told them she was excited for her upcoming stay.
00:02:27.480 | And when they arrived, she got upgraded to a corner suite.
00:02:30.600 | They had a cool present for her kid
00:02:32.560 | and a fancy box of chocolates for the adults.
00:02:35.360 | And they comped their parking, which was $70 a day.
00:02:39.320 | So if you're listening and you're not booking hotels direct
00:02:42.040 | and sending a note, you definitely should,
00:02:44.080 | because you never know if you're gonna get hooked up
00:02:46.120 | like Amy did.
00:02:47.640 | And finally, Michael heard my story on the London episode
00:02:50.600 | about saving money on Airbnbs.
00:02:52.520 | And so he messaged the host of a property
00:02:54.520 | that was a little out of his price range
00:02:56.280 | and was able to get 15% off and booked it immediately.
00:02:59.680 | And he said that since this is all the hacks,
00:03:02.480 | he went and bought a $500 Airbnb gift card on Amazon
00:03:06.120 | with his Chase Amazon card to get 5% cash back
00:03:09.520 | before booking the rest on his Sapphire Reserve
00:03:11.880 | for three X points.
00:03:13.760 | Awesome job, Michael.
00:03:15.160 | I hope everyone that's booking Airbnbs
00:03:17.120 | is doing their best to negotiate a better deal.
00:03:19.680 | So those are just a few of the wins
00:03:21.440 | I've gotten from you all.
00:03:22.440 | Please send them in.
00:03:23.440 | I love hearing stories like that.
00:03:25.800 | But I also wanna share some of the great deals
00:03:28.560 | and hacks that you guys have sent in as well.
00:03:30.880 | So first off, Skylar wrote in and listened
00:03:33.080 | to a few episodes where I've said that really
00:03:35.040 | some of the only great deals for points on hotels is Hyatt.
00:03:38.600 | And he wanted to point out that that's not always the case.
00:03:41.840 | If you have Citi or Capital One points,
00:03:44.120 | he's been able to transfer them to Wyndham
00:03:46.320 | and get a really good deal using them
00:03:48.880 | with the Vacasa program.
00:03:50.720 | And when I say good deal,
00:03:51.800 | he's been getting two to four cents per point,
00:03:54.760 | including a nice place he just booked
00:03:57.400 | for a winter weekend in Tahoe.
00:03:59.560 | He also said there's some good deals
00:04:01.040 | transferring from Citi to Choice
00:04:03.280 | when you get a one to two ratio,
00:04:05.120 | and especially when you're traveling in Scandinavia,
00:04:08.160 | or if you're using the points
00:04:09.360 | to book their preferred resorts and hotels,
00:04:11.720 | though he's never done the latter
00:04:12.920 | because as good of a deal as it is,
00:04:14.440 | it can kind of be a headache to book.
00:04:16.360 | So if you're thinking about how you could use your points
00:04:19.360 | for hotels, definitely consider checking out
00:04:22.480 | the Wyndham Vacasa program or some of the Choice hotels
00:04:25.760 | and see if you can get as a good deal as Skyler.
00:04:28.040 | Thank you so much for sending that in.
00:04:29.800 | Also, Manny sent in a great hack
00:04:31.480 | for transportation to the airport
00:04:32.920 | on your last day in the city.
00:04:34.600 | It turns out that sometimes it's actually cheaper
00:04:37.200 | to do a one-way car rental from the city to the airport
00:04:40.280 | than it is to pay for a Lyft or Uber to get there.
00:04:43.060 | But if you have a late flight and an early checkout,
00:04:46.000 | it can actually be even better
00:04:47.760 | because you can rent a car in the morning,
00:04:50.200 | go and tour the city, go stop off, go see interesting stuff,
00:04:53.720 | and then drop it off at the airport
00:04:55.360 | and not have to pay to shuttle yourself around,
00:04:57.680 | have a place to store your bags,
00:04:59.400 | and it makes everything easier and you can save money.
00:05:02.480 | That's an awesome suggestion.
00:05:03.800 | I hope some people can get some good value there.
00:05:06.520 | Finally, Nirav wanted to recommend
00:05:08.280 | that people check out
00:05:09.120 | the Cashback Comparison browser extension
00:05:11.640 | because it compares the cashback rates
00:05:13.480 | from all kinds of sites like Rakuten and Top Cashback.
00:05:17.400 | I know in the past I've suggested Cashback Monitor,
00:05:20.120 | but just having something on the browser
00:05:21.840 | saves you even more time,
00:05:22.960 | so Nirav, thanks for that suggestion.
00:05:24.800 | All right, those are some great hacks.
00:05:26.760 | I really hope you guys keep sending them in
00:05:28.720 | and I'll keep sharing them
00:05:30.160 | because I know everyone listening
00:05:31.640 | loves hearing new ways to save.
00:05:33.600 | So let's jump into questions.
00:05:35.160 | First, I wanna tackle two questions
00:05:36.680 | that are very similar from Gavin and Matt.
00:05:39.280 | Both of them had a rough question
00:05:40.800 | about paying down your mortgage
00:05:42.640 | to reduce your monthly payments.
00:05:45.040 | One of the questions was about
00:05:46.180 | whether it makes sense to pay it down
00:05:48.080 | or to invest that money
00:05:49.400 | and take the growth and income from those investments
00:05:51.720 | to make your mortgage payments.
00:05:53.280 | And the other was about whether it makes sense
00:05:54.800 | to withdraw money from a retirement account
00:05:56.920 | like a Roth IRA or a brokerage account
00:05:58.840 | to pay down your mortgage
00:06:00.480 | so you can lower your monthly payments.
00:06:02.680 | So I know I've talked about this in the past,
00:06:04.420 | but mortgage rates were 2% or 3% back then,
00:06:07.160 | so I think it's worth bringing this up again
00:06:08.840 | now that mortgage rates are in the high single digits.
00:06:12.580 | However, I wanna point out a few things.
00:06:14.360 | So one, mortgage interest in the US
00:06:16.840 | for a mortgage up to $750,000,
00:06:19.640 | if you itemize on your taxes, is tax deductible.
00:06:22.920 | So even if you're paying 7%,
00:06:25.480 | if you itemize your taxes,
00:06:27.160 | that 7% is probably reduced
00:06:29.800 | by anywhere from a third to half,
00:06:32.760 | depending on what state you're in
00:06:34.120 | and what your tax bracket's in.
00:06:35.720 | So if you look at the average long-term return
00:06:38.720 | of a portfolio, anywhere from the 5% to 8%,
00:06:43.120 | I'm guessing that after your tax deductibility
00:06:46.160 | of your mortgage interest,
00:06:47.360 | you're at about break-even.
00:06:49.280 | However, there's one important thing to consider,
00:06:52.000 | and that's that your mortgage can be refinanced.
00:06:55.140 | So just because your mortgage today is at 5% or 8%
00:06:59.240 | doesn't mean that interest rates might not drop
00:07:01.760 | and you might be able to refinance
00:07:03.040 | at 3% or 4% in a few years.
00:07:05.520 | So for me, even at high interest rates today,
00:07:09.200 | I still don't like the option of paying down your mortgage,
00:07:12.560 | especially if it means taking money
00:07:14.620 | out of a tax-advantaged account,
00:07:16.520 | and even more so if it means paying penalties or fees.
00:07:20.080 | All that said, this is much more of an emotional
00:07:23.320 | than a rational decision,
00:07:24.520 | and there's no one-size-fits-all answer.
00:07:27.060 | There are a lot of people out there
00:07:28.200 | that I know are so stressed out every day and week
00:07:31.520 | just thinking about the fact that they have debt,
00:07:33.920 | and knowing that they could live in their home
00:07:35.400 | with no mortgage payment in the future
00:07:37.640 | is something that could bring them
00:07:38.880 | such satisfaction and emotional comfort
00:07:41.640 | that even if it's not the perfect optimal thing to do,
00:07:44.880 | it might still be the right thing for them to do.
00:07:47.680 | So like I said, there's no perfect answer,
00:07:49.440 | but in general, if you can deduct the interest
00:07:52.320 | on your mortgage, I think at rates today,
00:07:54.840 | I would still rather put the money in the market
00:07:57.720 | for the long-term and make my regular mortgage payments,
00:08:01.200 | and if and when rates go down,
00:08:03.000 | refinance to lock in a lower rate.
00:08:04.960 | Next, I got a question from Chelsea
00:08:07.140 | about where to put money that they're saving
00:08:10.040 | for a big trip to Europe in three years.
00:08:12.400 | She asked whether it makes sense to put it in savings,
00:08:14.880 | in index funds, in the market, or what makes sense,
00:08:17.520 | because she doesn't wanna be too risky,
00:08:19.480 | but she also doesn't want it to just sit and not grow.
00:08:22.480 | A few years ago, this might have been a harder question
00:08:24.600 | because the interest rates were so low on savings accounts
00:08:28.880 | that it really made it tough to leave your money in cash
00:08:32.040 | earning 0.1 or 0.2%, but my general rule of thumb
00:08:35.940 | has been that for anything you need in the next five years,
00:08:39.840 | don't put it in the market, and the reason is simple.
00:08:43.080 | The stock market is volatile enough
00:08:44.840 | that at any given point in time,
00:08:46.840 | you could see your portfolio,
00:08:48.360 | depending on how risky your portfolio is,
00:08:50.320 | down 10, 20, 30%, and in years past,
00:08:54.360 | those things have lasted multiple years.
00:08:56.800 | If you look at the market right now,
00:08:58.080 | for at least a year, your portfolio's probably been down,
00:09:01.080 | and if this is money that you need
00:09:03.360 | in a specific period of time that's less than five years,
00:09:06.480 | you don't wanna be in a situation
00:09:08.360 | where the market's down and you don't have
00:09:10.240 | the money you need, and this goes for a down payment
00:09:13.120 | in a few years, a trip, any kind of major purchase
00:09:16.240 | or investment, or maybe you wanna quit your job
00:09:18.600 | to start a company or do something on your own
00:09:20.640 | or take a year off, so my advice here
00:09:23.600 | is to keep the money in cash, and fortunately, right now,
00:09:27.500 | there are a lot of great options
00:09:29.520 | for where you can put money in cash and earn high yield.
00:09:32.400 | If you already have all the money you need right now,
00:09:35.280 | then a great option might be to use
00:09:37.240 | one of the brokered CD options from Schwab,
00:09:40.280 | Vanguard, or Fidelity, which currently are up to 4.9%
00:09:45.160 | for durations of anywhere from 10 to 24 months.
00:09:49.440 | However, you have to actually have the money now,
00:09:51.720 | so if this is a trip that you wanna take
00:09:53.520 | and you're gonna be saving for it over the next three years,
00:09:56.640 | then a CD might not be the best option
00:09:58.280 | 'cause you don't have the money now,
00:10:00.160 | and instead, I would open up a cash account
00:10:02.040 | where you can earn high yield on your cash
00:10:04.760 | while everything is FDIC-insured
00:10:06.600 | and you're not taking any risk in the market.
00:10:09.720 | For me, I have mine at Wealthfront where I'm getting 3.8%.
00:10:14.260 | I know that there are some options out there
00:10:16.160 | that are at 4%, 4.05, 4.1,
00:10:19.800 | but one of the things I learned at Wealthfront,
00:10:21.480 | and we actually wrote a blog post about this,
00:10:23.680 | is that if you're always chasing the best rates
00:10:26.200 | and moving your money between different accounts,
00:10:28.640 | you actually lose out a lot by having your money in transit
00:10:32.280 | because you're not earning interest when it's in transit.
00:10:35.160 | So let's pretend that you decide
00:10:36.360 | you always wanna get the best rate,
00:10:38.360 | and once a quarter, you're gonna transfer your money
00:10:40.320 | from one bank to the next bank,
00:10:42.000 | and those ACH transfers take a week each time.
00:10:45.000 | So you're gonna miss out on four weeks of interest
00:10:47.760 | over the course of the year,
00:10:49.080 | which is about 7.5% of the year.
00:10:53.000 | So if you're saying that the average rate
00:10:54.920 | for a super-optimized account is 4.1%
00:10:58.720 | and you miss out on 7.5% of the year,
00:11:02.360 | you're effectively gonna earn 3.79% for the year anyways.
00:11:06.200 | So for me, I have watched how Wealthfront operates.
00:11:09.400 | I've seen the rates they've had.
00:11:11.120 | They're always consistently raising when the Fed raises.
00:11:13.840 | So for me, it's just easier to keep it in one place
00:11:16.520 | that I'm confident will go up as rates rise.
00:11:19.360 | There are other banks and institutions you could check out
00:11:21.520 | that might do the same thing,
00:11:23.040 | but I'll link to the show notes,
00:11:24.520 | the article about rate chasing.
00:11:26.360 | But I just don't think it's always the best
00:11:28.600 | to go pick a random bank that has a high APY right now,
00:11:32.400 | because if you're constantly having to move around,
00:11:34.480 | you actually lose out more in the long run.
00:11:36.480 | So in general, for short-term savings less than five years,
00:11:39.720 | especially right now with high interest rates,
00:11:42.260 | I would go high-yield cash or high-yield savings
00:11:46.120 | for anything that I'm contributing to regularly.
00:11:49.240 | And if it's money that I've already saved
00:11:50.880 | and I just wanna hold onto it,
00:11:52.200 | I'd be looking at some of these brokered CDs
00:11:54.280 | that are a little bit higher yield,
00:11:55.960 | but you have to lock your money up
00:11:57.480 | for anywhere from 10 to 24 months.
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00:14:24.440 | Okay, so I wanna move on to some travel and points stuff.
00:14:27.000 | And Scott wrote in saying he's getting married next year,
00:14:29.440 | so congrats, and he's wondering what he should do
00:14:31.920 | to get the most out of points with his partner.
00:14:34.260 | He asked if he should add her to his platinum card,
00:14:36.680 | or if he should refer her to get her own.
00:14:38.800 | And this becomes an interesting question,
00:14:40.880 | so I'll talk a little bit about how we do it.
00:14:43.760 | In general, there's two ways to approach this,
00:14:45.800 | and you can kind of combine them.
00:14:47.400 | One is around sign-up bonuses.
00:14:49.080 | And if there's a card with a really big sign-up bonus,
00:14:51.720 | then for us, we try to get it twice
00:14:54.320 | so we can maximize the points that we can earn.
00:14:56.840 | But when it comes to keeping the card over the long-term,
00:14:59.680 | we try not to have two of the same card,
00:15:02.320 | unless for some reason, the rare case that there's a card
00:15:05.600 | where the perks and credits and benefits of that card
00:15:09.040 | far outweigh the annual fee,
00:15:11.200 | and it actually makes sense to have two of them.
00:15:13.600 | That's usually not the case.
00:15:15.200 | So in general, we try to make sure
00:15:17.400 | that we just have each card once.
00:15:19.940 | But if there's a huge sign-up bonus,
00:15:21.480 | we might both open it to get the bonus.
00:15:24.260 | Now, with Chase, Citi, and Capital One,
00:15:27.240 | it's really easy to transfer your points
00:15:29.800 | between your partner.
00:15:31.240 | So if you both were to open up a Capital One card,
00:15:33.640 | and let's take the Venture or the Venture X card
00:15:35.840 | and get 75,000 points right now,
00:15:38.160 | you could actually transfer those 75
00:15:40.640 | plus whatever points you earn on the card
00:15:42.640 | as you meet the minimum spend into one account,
00:15:45.640 | and then either keep that card open or downgrade it.
00:15:49.040 | Obviously, I would always recommend
00:15:50.560 | waiting till the end of the year
00:15:52.080 | to talk about downgrading and canceling.
00:15:54.280 | You don't want any of the card issuers to look at you
00:15:57.760 | and say, oh, you're the person that opened the card,
00:15:59.560 | got the bonus, and shut it down right away.
00:16:01.600 | So reminder, you can go back to listen
00:16:04.240 | to some old Q&A episodes where I've talked exactly
00:16:07.160 | about how I think about when to close cards.
00:16:09.800 | But in general, if you open up the same two cards
00:16:12.800 | to get the bonus, there's no point
00:16:14.440 | in keeping both of them active unless the rare case
00:16:17.560 | that the annual fee is lower
00:16:19.880 | than the value you get from the card.
00:16:21.720 | I think the big exception to this
00:16:23.040 | is if you're in the military
00:16:24.120 | and all of your annual fees are waived,
00:16:25.880 | then by all means, having both cards for both spouses
00:16:29.120 | might make a lot of sense because you're able
00:16:31.720 | to take all the perks and all the benefits
00:16:34.040 | without paying the annual fees.
00:16:35.600 | I will say that with Amex, there is no way
00:16:38.520 | to transfer points to another person.
00:16:40.600 | So just know that if you and your partner
00:16:42.760 | both open up an Amex, unless you use the points,
00:16:46.000 | you're not gonna be able to combine those points
00:16:47.720 | in a one account if you keep only one card open.
00:16:50.120 | Next, I wanna address a question from Olivia
00:16:51.920 | about opening up airline accounts.
00:16:54.200 | So she asked if she should open up a frequent flyer account
00:16:56.920 | for every airline that she can transfer points to
00:16:59.280 | from her credit card.
00:17:00.440 | So before I answer, I wanna draw an important distinction
00:17:03.280 | between opening up the accounts
00:17:05.560 | and actually moving points into them.
00:17:07.620 | So I definitely don't think you should move any points
00:17:10.520 | out of your Amex, Chase, Cap One, Citi, Balances,
00:17:13.680 | to other airlines until you're ready to book.
00:17:16.620 | But there are a few airlines where you can't transfer points
00:17:20.980 | to them unless the account has been active for 24 hours
00:17:25.040 | or three days or one week, different rules like that.
00:17:28.180 | So I would say that maybe it doesn't have to be right away,
00:17:31.640 | but as soon as you start thinking about planning a trip,
00:17:34.760 | at some point I would go and open up a frequent flyer account
00:17:37.820 | for at least the airlines you're considering booking through.
00:17:41.140 | At a minimum, I think depending on which credit card
00:17:43.560 | you have, airlines like Air France, United, British Airways,
00:17:48.560 | even maybe Avios are all airlines
00:17:51.500 | that I've opened up accounts at even before I needed them
00:17:54.460 | just so that I had them ready to go.
00:17:56.260 | It also helps that when you open up those accounts,
00:17:58.620 | you're able to search for flights on their websites.
00:18:01.140 | Some airlines will let you do without being logged in,
00:18:03.660 | but most need you to be logged in.
00:18:05.560 | So because it's easy, because it doesn't cost anything,
00:18:08.700 | I've gone ahead for myself and opened up accounts
00:18:11.260 | at most of the major airlines I think I'd use
00:18:13.740 | just to have on hand.
00:18:14.960 | Now Charles asked a similar question,
00:18:16.540 | which was whether it makes sense to go open up
00:18:18.480 | frequent flyer accounts for all of your children
00:18:20.580 | or whether it's not worth it.
00:18:22.740 | So every time we're flying on a flight
00:18:25.340 | that we bought seats on, because you don't earn points
00:18:27.820 | when you're booking your flight with miles
00:18:29.860 | through the airline, but if you're using your points
00:18:32.460 | to book in the portal, you will.
00:18:34.300 | So if I'm booking in the portal or if I'm paying cash
00:18:38.280 | for any seats for a child, not a lap infant,
00:18:41.060 | but actual seats, I'm gonna go in
00:18:43.220 | and I'm gonna create a frequent flyer account for my kids.
00:18:46.640 | And I know that the miles aren't that big
00:18:48.900 | and they're obviously not earning extra bonuses
00:18:51.000 | from credit cards and that kind of stuff,
00:18:53.060 | but I think over the next 15 or 20 years,
00:18:55.620 | it'll add up to something.
00:18:57.620 | While it might not be enough right away for a free flight,
00:19:00.880 | you can at some point add them as an authorized cardholder
00:19:04.300 | to your Chase or Amex account,
00:19:06.740 | and that'll let you transfer points into their accounts.
00:19:10.220 | So let's say you need 50,000 United Miles
00:19:12.300 | for a round trip ticket that you're taking somewhere
00:19:14.900 | and your kid has racked up 5,000.
00:19:17.300 | Well, now you're only gonna need to transfer 45,000
00:19:19.740 | of their account instead of the full 50,000.
00:19:22.300 | So for me, I've created accounts for our two-year-old.
00:19:25.460 | I haven't yet created one for our six-month-old
00:19:27.620 | because we haven't bought her a seat on a flight.
00:19:29.820 | It's always been a lap infant.
00:19:31.500 | But in the future, I will,
00:19:33.180 | and hopefully we'll rack up enough points
00:19:35.360 | that maybe by the time they get to college,
00:19:37.020 | they've got a few free flights they can take.
00:19:39.020 | And I know I mentioned a little bit
00:19:40.640 | about booking on the portal versus not.
00:19:43.500 | So I'm gonna answer a question
00:19:44.580 | that I've probably answered before,
00:19:46.460 | but Carl, Tontesh, and Jessica all wrote in questions
00:19:49.580 | about booking hotels
00:19:51.100 | and whether it makes sense to do it in the portal.
00:19:53.340 | And I think the big confusion here
00:19:55.620 | is that many of the cards and travel portals
00:19:58.140 | offer huge bonuses for booking hotels
00:20:00.940 | and sometimes flights in their portal.
00:20:03.020 | So you can get as many as 10 points per dollar
00:20:05.380 | booking a hotel in different portals
00:20:07.940 | depending on the card you have.
00:20:09.620 | So I wanna clarify when it makes sense and when it doesn't
00:20:12.260 | because it can be a little bit confusing.
00:20:14.780 | So your chances of getting an upgrade
00:20:16.780 | if you book in the portal are almost zero.
00:20:19.740 | Hotels and hotel chains really don't love bookings
00:20:22.980 | that come through a lot of these portals.
00:20:24.700 | And so they're not gonna treat you
00:20:26.220 | anywhere nearly as well as they would
00:20:28.620 | if you booked directly with the hotel
00:20:31.100 | and especially if you created an account
00:20:33.100 | in their loyalty program.
00:20:34.840 | Also, depending on the hotel chain,
00:20:37.500 | you might not actually earn any points
00:20:39.540 | or elite night status when you book through the portal.
00:20:42.820 | So if those are important to you,
00:20:44.560 | you don't wanna book in the portal.
00:20:46.540 | Also, sometimes the rates that you get
00:20:48.860 | on a website for a hotel,
00:20:50.420 | especially if you're logged in
00:20:51.660 | as one of their members might be better.
00:20:53.660 | So in general, I would say,
00:20:55.060 | I would never try to book on a portal website
00:20:58.180 | to get 10x points if I'm gonna pay a rate that's 20% more.
00:21:01.900 | Finally, in the portal, you're subject to
00:21:05.100 | dealing with chase or whatever travel portal you book in
00:21:09.500 | when it comes to changing and cancellations,
00:21:12.060 | which can be more strict.
00:21:13.500 | Sometimes dealing directly with the hotel
00:21:15.600 | is gonna get you a little bit further
00:21:17.780 | if something goes wrong in the last minute
00:21:19.660 | or you need to make a change.
00:21:20.880 | And finally, some travel portals do charge a service fee.
00:21:24.340 | Amex used to do this a lot.
00:21:25.860 | I can't remember if they still do,
00:21:27.780 | but obviously keep in mind
00:21:29.020 | whether there's a fee to do anything.
00:21:31.340 | All that said, if the price is the same
00:21:34.620 | and you're booking at a hotel
00:21:36.420 | where you don't really earn points
00:21:37.980 | or you don't care about status and the rate is the same,
00:21:40.900 | and you're pretty confident
00:21:42.000 | that you're not gonna need to cancel or change it,
00:21:44.260 | and you can earn 10 points per dollar
00:21:45.940 | booking in the chase portal
00:21:47.260 | or earn nothing on the hotel website, I'm all for it.
00:21:50.480 | So especially if it's boutique hotels
00:21:52.700 | or the kinds of hotels where they're not part of Marriott
00:21:55.940 | or Hyatt and you're earning points or status,
00:21:58.560 | those could be good opportunities.
00:22:00.540 | But again, you're not gonna be able to email the hotel
00:22:03.100 | and ask for an upgrade like Amy did
00:22:05.020 | at the beginning of this episode.
00:22:06.520 | So it really depends what's more important to you.
00:22:09.020 | Is it earning a few more points or is it getting upgraded?
00:22:12.000 | When I'm traveling for a conference by myself,
00:22:13.900 | I don't care if I have a big room.
00:22:15.600 | I just need a bed to sleep in.
00:22:17.220 | And so that would be a good example of the kind of stay
00:22:19.900 | where I don't really need the upgrade.
00:22:21.900 | And if the closest hotel is not part of a chain,
00:22:25.040 | I might book in the portal to earn 10X points.
00:22:27.580 | It's much more the exception than the norm.
00:22:29.720 | On the topic of transfers, Olivia had a follow-up,
00:22:32.580 | which was if more than one of her credit card programs
00:22:36.020 | transfer to the same airline,
00:22:38.020 | for example, Bilt and Capital One,
00:22:39.900 | and actually almost everyone
00:22:41.260 | is a transfer partner of Flying Blue,
00:22:43.580 | can she transfer 50,000 Bilt points
00:22:45.820 | and 50,000 Capital One points
00:22:47.260 | to the same Flying Blue account and make it 100,000?
00:22:50.380 | And the answer is absolutely,
00:22:52.300 | which is actually one of the reasons I love Flying Blue,
00:22:55.340 | because they are a transfer partner
00:22:57.580 | of almost every credit card.
00:22:59.340 | So if you've earned some Capital One points
00:23:01.240 | and some Chase points,
00:23:02.340 | and you're trying to figure out how you can book,
00:23:04.740 | one option, which I always say is,
00:23:06.460 | well, you don't have to book the round trip
00:23:08.100 | from any specific program.
00:23:09.660 | So if you have points and the best deal
00:23:11.640 | is to transfer your Chase points to United,
00:23:14.220 | you could transfer to United to book one way
00:23:16.180 | and then use your Amex points,
00:23:17.600 | which don't transfer to United,
00:23:19.280 | to transfer to another airline to book the return.
00:23:22.080 | But with Flying Blue,
00:23:23.020 | because they're a transfer partner
00:23:24.380 | of almost every credit card program,
00:23:26.340 | you can transfer points from all the programs
00:23:28.520 | into the same account and be able to book from there.
00:23:31.180 | So yes, Olivia, you can do that.
00:23:33.140 | It's something I've done in the past.
00:23:35.100 | And I think it's a great way to take advantage
00:23:37.100 | of having miles across different accounts.
00:23:39.540 | And it's especially something to consider
00:23:41.620 | even if you have like a small balance somewhere.
00:23:44.100 | So if you have a card
00:23:45.140 | where maybe you only have 10,000 Amex points from a card
00:23:47.980 | and you're booking something,
00:23:49.260 | even though you might have all the points you need
00:23:51.860 | in your Chase account to transfer to Flying Blue,
00:23:54.500 | it might be a good opportunity to transfer out that balance
00:23:57.420 | and then top it up with whatever you need
00:23:59.180 | from your Chase account
00:24:00.380 | so that you can clear out the small balances.
00:24:02.760 | Because sometimes I've talked to people
00:24:04.920 | who have a card open and they've got five, 10, 15,
00:24:08.160 | 20,000 points and they don't know
00:24:09.620 | how they're gonna use them,
00:24:10.760 | but they don't wanna lose them.
00:24:12.140 | So they keep that account open forever.
00:24:14.140 | And when it comes time to book,
00:24:15.740 | if they need 50,000 points,
00:24:17.840 | they always think, "Oh, well I can't use the points
00:24:19.540 | "from that card because it's not enough."
00:24:21.680 | But for a program like Flying Blue and British Airways
00:24:24.320 | and a few other airlines that are transfer partners
00:24:26.500 | of a lot of different credit cards,
00:24:28.460 | that's a great opportunity to use them.
00:24:30.420 | Did you know that someone new gets impacted
00:24:33.540 | by identity theft every two seconds?
00:24:36.260 | It makes sense when there's so much
00:24:38.100 | of our personal information getting shared online
00:24:40.700 | without our consent.
00:24:42.220 | I found a listing for my dad
00:24:44.020 | on a site called Family Tree Now
00:24:46.180 | that had his name, age, address, phone number,
00:24:49.300 | email, past addresses, and the names of his relatives.
00:24:52.980 | And that was just one of the 69 listings
00:24:56.060 | that had his info.
00:24:57.540 | Fortunately, instead of spending hours
00:24:59.700 | finding all the sites with his info
00:25:01.500 | and submitting the request to take it down,
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00:25:49.540 | I don't know about you, but I'm using the new year
00:25:52.420 | as an excuse to get fitness back in my routine,
00:25:55.220 | and if you're gonna work out,
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00:26:12.660 | you will wanna wear it all the time.
00:26:14.520 | Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's more comfortable
00:26:16.500 | than whatever you're wearing right now,
00:26:18.500 | unless it's Viore, in which case you know what I mean.
00:26:20.940 | And it's not just for men.
00:26:22.420 | My wife Amy is just as obsessed with Viore as I am.
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00:26:46.340 | or their Meta Pants can even work for a night out.
00:26:49.180 | Honestly, I think Viore is an investment in your happiness,
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00:27:10.620 | and get yourself some of the most comfortable
00:27:13.240 | and versatile clothing on the planet.
00:27:15.340 | I just wanna thank you, Quick,
00:27:18.080 | for listening to and supporting the show.
00:27:20.360 | Your support is what keeps this show going.
00:27:23.200 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,
00:27:25.920 | and discounts from our partners,
00:27:27.680 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals,
00:27:31.240 | so please consider supporting those who support us.
00:27:34.520 | Now, sometimes you're actually short on miles,
00:27:37.060 | and Candy wrote in asking what to do
00:27:39.520 | because she wants to plan a trip to Spain in April,
00:27:42.500 | and she's 10,000 points shy of the round-trip fare for two.
00:27:46.500 | She knows she'll have the points by the time she goes,
00:27:49.220 | but she doesn't have them now,
00:27:50.900 | and she doesn't wanna necessarily wait.
00:27:53.100 | So what is the workaround?
00:27:55.620 | Now, I don't know what airlines we're talking about
00:27:58.620 | or how many points she needs in total,
00:28:00.920 | but there are a few options depending on those things.
00:28:03.700 | So one is you could just buy the points.
00:28:06.860 | So let's say her trip is gonna be 150,000 points
00:28:10.460 | and she's 10,000 shy.
00:28:12.140 | She could go and buy the extra 10,000 points
00:28:14.880 | on whatever airline it is.
00:28:16.660 | Now, that's not always gonna be the best deal.
00:28:19.740 | On United, for example, buying 10,000 miles
00:28:22.460 | would cost you $350 plus tax,
00:28:25.180 | but if that entire trip is going to be the kind of trip
00:28:28.900 | where you're gonna save two, three, four, five,
00:28:31.500 | or maybe it's in business class
00:28:32.620 | and you're gonna save 10 or $20,000,
00:28:35.020 | well, maybe the $350 to make it happen now
00:28:38.420 | without having to wait is worth it.
00:28:40.180 | Another option is if you can find someone
00:28:41.780 | that can let you borrow the points.
00:28:43.300 | Now, transferring points to people can sometimes cost money,
00:28:47.100 | usually never as much as buying the points directly,
00:28:49.920 | but can also sometimes be free.
00:28:51.940 | So if you need an extra 10,000 Capital One points,
00:28:54.260 | you can actually transfer Capital One points
00:28:56.020 | from any cardholder to any other cardholder,
00:28:58.460 | whether they're related or not.
00:29:00.340 | So if you're shy 10,000 Capital One points
00:29:02.140 | and you know someone that has them,
00:29:03.740 | you might be able to do that.
00:29:04.980 | To keep to the United example,
00:29:06.500 | transferring 10,000 miles to another person
00:29:09.220 | costs 150 instead of 350 to buy them,
00:29:12.380 | so that might be a better deal.
00:29:13.960 | So one option that might not work for everyone,
00:29:16.180 | but if you had the cashflow to be able to pre-buy things,
00:29:19.980 | so let's say you need an extra 10,000 points
00:29:22.300 | and you have an Amex Gold card,
00:29:24.260 | could you go to the grocery store
00:29:25.900 | and buy five $500 gift cards
00:29:30.160 | for retailers that you use regularly,
00:29:32.920 | whether it's Amazon, gas, groceries,
00:29:35.880 | anything that you know you're gonna spend.
00:29:37.580 | I'm not recommending you buy gift cards that you don't need,
00:29:40.900 | but if you're able to buy five $500 gift cards,
00:29:43.760 | that's $2,500, you're getting four X points
00:29:46.760 | at the grocery store so you'd earn 10,000 points.
00:29:49.440 | Similarly, for example, if you had a card
00:29:52.040 | like the Capital One Venture X card
00:29:54.000 | and you were to put a payment to the IRS on,
00:29:57.120 | the fee that they often charge is a little under 2%,
00:30:01.280 | so for $10,000, you'd be paying a fee of about $200
00:30:06.240 | to be able to put that purchase on your card
00:30:09.160 | and you would earn those 10,000 points.
00:30:11.160 | So it really depends on which card
00:30:14.160 | and which way you wanna generate points,
00:30:16.480 | but those are a few of the options that you have right now.
00:30:20.640 | Last one on the points side is,
00:30:22.880 | I got an email from Sandra asking
00:30:24.440 | if I could review the PNC Points card
00:30:27.640 | and she was excited because it said
00:30:29.320 | it gives four points per dollar,
00:30:30.720 | which seems higher than every card,
00:30:32.400 | and wanted to know what I thought.
00:30:34.140 | Well, I'll give the award to the PNC Points card
00:30:37.000 | for the most deceptive marketing
00:30:39.100 | because they say four points per dollar, which is great.
00:30:41.900 | In the average card, four points per dollar
00:30:44.140 | is an awesome return.
00:30:45.720 | However, when you look at the value of those points,
00:30:49.440 | they're anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3 cents per point,
00:30:53.380 | which on average, you're getting
00:30:55.000 | about 0.25 cents per point.
00:30:57.120 | So you're earning four points per dollar,
00:30:59.300 | but those points are worth 25 cents,
00:31:02.040 | so you're earning about an average of 1% return.
00:31:05.240 | They do have some bonuses,
00:31:06.560 | depending on what kind of PNC account you have
00:31:09.000 | and how much money's in it,
00:31:10.400 | but at a maximum, you're gonna be earning
00:31:12.920 | effectively 1.75% back.
00:31:15.880 | So for me, I'd much rather, at a minimum,
00:31:17.880 | use a 2% cash back card like the Citi Double Cash,
00:31:21.260 | or more realistically, I'd rather earn points,
00:31:24.080 | and a card like the Venture or the Venture X card
00:31:26.520 | is gonna earn you 2X points on everything,
00:31:28.880 | which means that at a minimum,
00:31:30.680 | it's effectively a 2% cash back card,
00:31:32.800 | so better than the PNC Points card.
00:31:34.960 | But if you look at, for example,
00:31:36.520 | the Points guy values Capital One points at 1.85 cents.
00:31:40.660 | So if you're getting two points at 1.85 cents,
00:31:43.540 | you're effectively getting 3.7% cash back.
00:31:46.560 | So I'm a much bigger fan of almost every other card
00:31:50.240 | than this card, so don't fall prey to their marketing
00:31:53.600 | making you think you're getting
00:31:54.580 | four valuable points per dollar,
00:31:56.360 | because unfortunately, you are not.
00:31:58.580 | And I've said this before, but I'll say it again,
00:32:00.720 | because I really appreciate all the support you guys give.
00:32:03.240 | If you're signing up for new cards
00:32:05.240 | and wanna support the show and me,
00:32:07.200 | go to allthehacks.com/cards and sign up for your card there.
00:32:11.580 | It really helps us out.
00:32:13.340 | That said, if you find a better bonus
00:32:15.320 | or your friend can refer you and you can get a better deal,
00:32:17.780 | I want you to have the most points possible,
00:32:19.960 | so do that instead, but if all deals are the same,
00:32:23.860 | allthehacks.com/cards would be greatly appreciated.
00:32:27.000 | Now, moving on to a couple travel questions
00:32:29.120 | before we wrap up.
00:32:30.400 | The biggest one was from Diane and Drew,
00:32:33.480 | both trying to figure out how they can save money
00:32:36.040 | while they're traveling on data.
00:32:38.420 | So I'll give you guys a few options that I think are great.
00:32:41.440 | So one, there are a few carriers in the US,
00:32:43.920 | Google Fi and T-Mobile being the primary two,
00:32:46.880 | that actually include free international data.
00:32:50.040 | So I believe Google Fi's data internationally
00:32:53.000 | is a little bit faster.
00:32:54.320 | I have a T-Mobile plan,
00:32:55.760 | and while the data's free internationally,
00:32:57.640 | it's a little bit slow, but keep in mind,
00:33:00.200 | I don't have a fancy T-Mobile plan.
00:33:02.260 | It's like a $20 a month, two gigabyte plan.
00:33:05.240 | I think if you have a fancier, unlimited plan,
00:33:07.560 | you'll probably get higher speed data while traveling.
00:33:09.680 | So that's one option,
00:33:10.840 | but not everyone wants to switch their carrier.
00:33:13.040 | One of the things we do is we're on a Verizon family plan,
00:33:17.000 | and we're on the 5G Do More plan.
00:33:19.800 | And the thing I love about that plan
00:33:21.400 | is that every month, you get one free travel pass day
00:33:25.380 | on your Verizon account.
00:33:26.800 | You can accrue up to 12.
00:33:28.360 | At 12, it caps off, but when we recently went to London,
00:33:31.520 | we each had accrued 12, and so fortunately,
00:33:34.560 | when we were in Paris and London for exactly 12 days,
00:33:37.520 | we just used our 12 travel pass days,
00:33:40.560 | so we were able to use our phones,
00:33:42.000 | we were able to do high speed data,
00:33:44.000 | and we didn't have to pay for anything.
00:33:46.000 | Now, if you're gonna be traveling more than 12 days a year,
00:33:48.480 | it's not a great option
00:33:49.860 | because you'll run out of travel pass days.
00:33:52.720 | So on a trip to Europe last year,
00:33:54.560 | we actually searched on Amazon,
00:33:56.400 | and there's an orange SIM card you can buy
00:33:59.680 | that includes, I think it was 10 gigabytes of data
00:34:02.360 | and some texts and some phone calls for $38
00:34:05.840 | and worked all over Europe.
00:34:07.720 | And right now, I'm looking,
00:34:09.000 | and it looks like it actually includes 20 gigabytes
00:34:11.240 | right now, so you can get 20 gigs for $40.
00:34:15.880 | So that's one option that I think was great.
00:34:17.880 | The other is to use an eSIM.
00:34:20.040 | And I know that Diana actually tried this
00:34:22.840 | and had some struggles, so I reached out and asked people
00:34:26.160 | where the best eSIM store was.
00:34:28.760 | And shout out to Paul Stamatow, a friend of mine,
00:34:30.960 | @stami on Twitter, who shared
00:34:33.120 | that the Arilow eSIM store was fantastic.
00:34:36.080 | So in his case, he actually got a 10 gig eSIM for Europe
00:34:39.760 | for only $16, and it worked great.
00:34:43.560 | So I'll put a link to that in the show notes,
00:34:45.640 | but the way it works is you used to have to buy a SIM card
00:34:48.400 | and actually physically put it in your phone.
00:34:50.720 | And the orange SIMs I mentioned for Europe
00:34:52.780 | that you can buy on Amazon are that.
00:34:54.480 | It's a physical SIM card you have to put in.
00:34:56.760 | But with eSIMs, for a phone that supports it,
00:35:00.240 | you can actually add the SIM card to your phone
00:35:02.680 | without having to put anything in it.
00:35:05.320 | So at any of these websites,
00:35:07.200 | you can actually sign up for a new carrier
00:35:09.040 | and get an eSIM and add it to your account
00:35:11.680 | and actually run it simultaneously
00:35:13.720 | alongside your main carrier.
00:35:16.580 | In fact, one thing I did just to give me the most option
00:35:20.000 | was I actually transferred my Verizon account
00:35:22.880 | from a physical SIM card to an eSIM.
00:35:25.440 | And I did this actually last year
00:35:27.200 | because I bought this SIM card
00:35:29.080 | for going to Europe on Amazon.
00:35:30.840 | I wanted to be able to put it in my phone,
00:35:32.420 | but still have my Verizon account active,
00:35:34.840 | even though I'd turned data roaming off.
00:35:37.160 | So I definitely recommend if you want the most flexibility
00:35:40.500 | to transfer your domestic carrier
00:35:43.200 | onto your phone as an eSIM
00:35:45.400 | so you can free up the SIM card spot
00:35:47.200 | just in case you need it while you're traveling.
00:35:49.660 | But now that it's so easy to get eSIMs around the world,
00:35:53.560 | especially at a marketplace like AeroLow,
00:35:56.160 | that would be my option.
00:35:57.520 | And that's probably what we'll do going forward
00:35:59.720 | if we're traveling any more
00:36:01.680 | than the 12 days we get for free each year with Verizon.
00:36:05.280 | Finally, I wanna talk about storing photos
00:36:08.280 | because Jordan asked what I do
00:36:10.700 | to organize, store, and manage your photos.
00:36:12.880 | And frankly, I'll share what I do,
00:36:14.760 | but I would also love anyone who has a better suggestion
00:36:17.660 | because there are a few problems with the solution we have.
00:36:21.140 | So our current option, and we all have iPhones,
00:36:24.880 | is that we just have the two terabyte iCloud plan
00:36:28.800 | and we take all our photos,
00:36:30.580 | we store them all on our phone, and that's it.
00:36:33.520 | It's super straightforward.
00:36:35.040 | Before that, I used Flickr
00:36:36.440 | and it was just a lot of hassle to manage
00:36:38.280 | because you have to get all your photos up there,
00:36:39.860 | you have to upload them.
00:36:41.120 | I felt like some of the data was getting lost,
00:36:43.160 | whether it was live photos or videos or the location data.
00:36:47.280 | I haven't really tried Google Photos for a long time,
00:36:50.360 | so maybe this is the answer.
00:36:52.040 | But let me explain the biggest benefits and problems
00:36:54.800 | with the iCloud option.
00:36:56.760 | So the greatest thing
00:36:57.600 | is that everything's just super seamless.
00:36:59.360 | I take all my photos, it's great.
00:37:01.380 | We actually travel sometimes with a physical camera,
00:37:03.780 | I throw the SD card in,
00:37:05.140 | I import them to Apple Photos on my Mac,
00:37:08.340 | and all the photos show up there as well.
00:37:10.640 | It's super simple.
00:37:12.140 | The one thing that's really frustrating,
00:37:13.960 | and I don't think I have a great solution,
00:37:16.340 | is that Amy, my wife, is always asking for my photos.
00:37:21.260 | And I wish there was some way
00:37:22.700 | that I could just give her access to the entire library
00:37:26.380 | so that I don't have to create a shared album every time
00:37:28.980 | and upload all the photos,
00:37:30.140 | and I don't think there's any easy way to do that.
00:37:32.620 | So that is my one gripe.
00:37:34.440 | If there were a solution that made that easier,
00:37:36.900 | I would absolutely switch,
00:37:38.340 | because just recently we went to London and Paris,
00:37:41.540 | and Amy's asking me, "Where are all the photos?"
00:37:44.280 | And it seems so silly to create a shared album
00:37:46.560 | and transfer basically hundreds of photos
00:37:49.020 | into that shared album,
00:37:50.660 | but I don't think it necessarily uses extra space,
00:37:53.340 | so maybe that's just the answer.
00:37:55.100 | But it's the best thing we've found so far,
00:37:57.600 | and it's what we're doing.
00:37:59.040 | Okay, I know there are a few other questions.
00:38:02.660 | If you emailed in and I haven't gotten to them,
00:38:04.820 | I will try to get to them in the future.
00:38:06.900 | If it's been more than a few months, please reach back out.
00:38:09.600 | I might have lost the email, I might have forgot,
00:38:11.820 | but I really do try hard to respond
00:38:13.740 | to every single one of the questions you guys write in.
00:38:16.260 | Finally, before we wrap,
00:38:17.940 | if anyone has a Chase Freedom card,
00:38:19.340 | don't forget that it's Q1,
00:38:21.100 | and you can go activate 5X points.
00:38:23.780 | This quarter, it's grocery stores, fitness clubs,
00:38:26.220 | gym memberships, and Target,
00:38:28.020 | so just a friendly reminder there.
00:38:30.860 | That's all for this week.
00:38:32.060 | See you next week.
00:38:32.960 | (upbeat music)
00:38:35.540 | (upbeat music)
00:38:38.120 | (upbeat music)
00:38:40.700 | (upbeat music)
00:38:43.280 | [BLANK_AUDIO]