ATHLLC8649429517

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:01.600 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:04.480 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.300 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I'm so excited you're here today

00:00:09.640 | for another Mailbag episode.

00:00:11.620 | Yet again, this episode is packed

00:00:13.660 | with a ton of amazing hacks, questions,

00:00:16.160 | and wins you've all sent in.

00:00:17.960 | There is a ton of stuff related to travel hacks,

00:00:20.360 | points, and miles, but I'm also gonna share my take

00:00:22.960 | on United's massive devaluation, what that means for you,

00:00:26.560 | Amex's increased bonus on the green card.

00:00:29.240 | I'll share some of my top two card combos,

00:00:31.840 | talk about some major travel hacks I learned

00:00:34.000 | from personal experience on my past two trips,

00:00:37.200 | and I'll cover a few other great hacks related to health,

00:00:40.200 | money, cell phones, and more.

00:00:42.540 | So thank you all so much for sending in such great hacks,

00:00:45.280 | deals, wins, questions.

00:00:47.400 | I get amazing feedback from you all

00:00:49.640 | about how much you love hearing

00:00:51.360 | from the broader All The Hacks community

00:00:53.080 | through these episodes, so please keep those coming

00:00:55.640 | 'cause there is another Mailbag episode coming soon.

00:00:58.720 | But there is a lot to cover today,

00:01:00.720 | so let's jump in right after this.

00:01:02.980 | If you've been listening to this podcast for a while,

00:01:06.560 | you know that I'm a huge fan of Daffy,

00:01:08.680 | a fast-growing modern platform and app

00:01:11.000 | for charitable giving that I am so excited

00:01:12.980 | to partner with for this episode.

00:01:14.760 | Daffy allows you to give to any charity across the U.S.

00:01:17.780 | with just a few taps, but it's so much more than that

00:01:20.800 | because they do it all by helping you set up

00:01:22.880 | a donor-advised fund, or DAF,

00:01:25.080 | which is a tax-advantaged account

00:01:26.680 | that lets you contribute cash, stocks, or crypto

00:01:29.760 | on a one-time or recurring basis,

00:01:31.780 | take the tax deduction at the time of the contribution,

00:01:34.800 | and then distribute that money

00:01:36.160 | to over 1 1/2 million charities, schools,

00:01:38.800 | and faith-based organizations whenever you want to.

00:01:42.280 | Amy and I love Daffy because it's our one-stop shop

00:01:45.060 | for all our charitable giving

00:01:46.680 | and helps us be more intentional with giving.

00:01:49.120 | We've already set up donations

00:01:50.360 | to so many charities that we care about,

00:01:52.380 | like Zero the End of Prostate Cancer and Charity Water.

00:01:55.800 | And Daffy stores all our donation history for us,

00:01:59.080 | so we have a single summary for tax time

00:02:01.440 | and can evaluate and adjust our giving

00:02:03.360 | whenever we want in one place.

00:02:05.640 | But best of all, they have a mission

00:02:07.400 | I think we can all get behind,

00:02:09.360 | helping people be more generous more often.

00:02:12.400 | So if you want a better system for your giving,

00:02:14.660 | head on over to allthehacks.com/daffy,

00:02:17.920 | and for a limited time, if you visit that link,

00:02:20.100 | you can get a free $25 to give to the charity of your choice.

00:02:24.200 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/daffy, D-A-F-F-Y.

00:02:29.200 | So first I'll start with a few great wins.

00:02:34.120 | This one's from Chris about a trip to Europe.

00:02:36.680 | He said he's learned a ton from listening to the podcast

00:02:38.840 | and he just booked a trip to Europe

00:02:40.660 | with friends this summer using Miles,

00:02:42.780 | and he managed to get four business class tickets

00:02:45.280 | from DC to Istanbul for 45,000 points per person,

00:02:49.400 | and two business class tickets back from Prague to DC

00:02:53.040 | for 61,000 miles a person

00:02:55.360 | with only about a $1,500 out of pocket total.

00:02:58.960 | He said that point.me had the value of all six tickets

00:03:01.920 | at over $27,000.

00:03:04.280 | So if you subtract out $1,500 from fees,

00:03:07.080 | you'd take 25,500 divided by the 302,000 points Chris used.

00:03:12.080 | That's a value of over eight cents per point,

00:03:15.000 | which is amazing, awesome redemption.

00:03:17.960 | Hope this trip is amazing for you.

00:03:20.440 | He said before this, he was one of those people

00:03:22.120 | that would always just use the portal to book

00:03:23.840 | and this is a major upgrade.

00:03:25.720 | He's very excited for the trip and I'm also excited too.

00:03:28.680 | So hopefully that can inspire other people

00:03:30.440 | to find similar trips.

00:03:32.680 | RJ wrote in that he just got 100,000 points

00:03:35.120 | deposited to his account, I assume from a signup bonus,

00:03:38.560 | which is gonna help him take his family

00:03:40.160 | to Kauai next summer.

00:03:41.640 | Ashley wrote in saying that she's been listening for a year.

00:03:43.920 | She had no credit cards and very little debt,

00:03:46.400 | and she wasn't taking advantage of all these rewards.

00:03:48.560 | And since then, she's got two cards with signup bonuses,

00:03:51.480 | met the requirements, gotten the bonuses,

00:03:53.720 | paid off everything in full,

00:03:55.560 | and took a trip to Granada with her husband

00:03:57.760 | that saved her over $1,500.

00:04:00.520 | So awesome, I hope that trip is amazing.

00:04:03.360 | Last, I wanna share an awesome win from James,

00:04:05.600 | which is maybe a little different than others.

00:04:08.040 | So he recently went to Fiji and got a great deal from LA

00:04:11.520 | for $800 a person round trip.

00:04:13.920 | So he paid out of pocket and used points to get to LA

00:04:17.200 | from where he lives in Bend.

00:04:18.600 | Then for hotels, he booked at Overwater Villa

00:04:21.720 | at the Marriott Momi Bay

00:04:23.120 | and burned through some serious points.

00:04:25.480 | What I loved was that he said,

00:04:26.600 | "Did I optimize 100%?

00:04:28.160 | "Probably not.

00:04:29.160 | "But did we get things done and locked in

00:04:31.780 | "and he could further worry about optimizing down the road?

00:04:34.380 | "Yes."

00:04:35.200 | And I love hearing that because yes,

00:04:37.200 | sometimes I can get stuck in that mode

00:04:39.360 | of trying to optimize the perfect, perfect,

00:04:41.440 | this getting the best deal.

00:04:42.960 | But at the same time,

00:04:44.000 | I look back to my episode with Bill Perkins

00:04:46.500 | about optimizing for net fulfillment.

00:04:48.240 | Sometimes it's really just about having the trip you want.

00:04:50.680 | So awesome job, James.

00:04:52.360 | I'm gonna congratulate you,

00:04:53.700 | not necessarily for getting the best deal,

00:04:55.360 | but for hopefully having the best trip.

00:04:57.280 | So I wanna jump in and talk a little bit

00:04:58.560 | about some unfortunate news from United Airlines,

00:05:01.620 | which is a massive devaluation on the points front.

00:05:05.320 | So if you look at a lot of international trips,

00:05:07.720 | both economy and business,

00:05:09.960 | you're gonna find now

00:05:11.200 | that those trips are a lot more expensive.

00:05:13.760 | So trips that used to cost 30,000 in economy

00:05:16.200 | look like they're now costing about 40 to 44,000 points,

00:05:19.920 | depending on whether it's on United or on partners.

00:05:23.140 | Trips in business that used to cost 60,000 or 70,000

00:05:27.000 | are now costing anywhere from 80 to 100,000.

00:05:30.440 | Overall across the board,

00:05:31.880 | it looks like depending whether it's on United or partners,

00:05:34.480 | it's anywhere from like a 30 to in some cases,

00:05:36.960 | 50% increase in the number of points

00:05:39.200 | that you need for these flights.

00:05:41.220 | So obviously if you're earning points

00:05:42.760 | directly on United or United credit cards,

00:05:45.120 | there's not much you can do here.

00:05:47.120 | But this is just one example

00:05:49.200 | of why I love flexible points from credit cards

00:05:51.960 | over earning directly in the airline itself.

00:05:54.680 | Delta is an example of an airline

00:05:56.280 | that kind of took a path like this and went even further.

00:05:59.280 | And now it's not unusual

00:06:01.120 | to find international business class flights on Delta

00:06:04.760 | costing three, four, 500,000 miles each way.

00:06:09.240 | So United's not quite there yet,

00:06:11.240 | but seeing this kind of a change

00:06:13.120 | is definitely unfortunate for lots of us.

00:06:16.000 | And reminds me why you don't wanna just sit

00:06:18.040 | on massive numbers of points.

00:06:19.560 | The industry kind of calls it points deflation,

00:06:21.380 | which is over time, you're gonna see these devaluations

00:06:23.960 | and it's just a part of the game.

00:06:25.520 | So using your points,

00:06:27.600 | definitely a way to avoid any future devaluation

00:06:30.440 | of your points.

00:06:31.680 | Also earning points in these flexible currencies.

00:06:34.120 | So if you're looking to fly flights

00:06:36.440 | on United or Star Alliance,

00:06:38.000 | I think right now you should absolutely be looking

00:06:40.600 | at programs like Air Canada's Aeroplan,

00:06:43.200 | where you can transfer from Chase, Amex, Bilt,

00:06:45.320 | Cap One, pretty much everywhere but Citi,

00:06:48.000 | and Avianca Life Miles,

00:06:49.400 | where you can transfer from Amex,

00:06:51.600 | you can transfer from Cap One and Citi,

00:06:53.400 | but not Chase or Bilt.

00:06:54.840 | I think you're gonna get a much better deal

00:06:56.840 | using those points to book on Star Alliance flights

00:06:59.820 | and United.

00:07:00.920 | And honestly, I don't see a lot of use cases going forward

00:07:04.120 | for transferring Chase points to United,

00:07:05.940 | unless you're looking to book a flight in business

00:07:08.660 | or economy, and it's just so expensive,

00:07:11.280 | you don't have the cash, you need to take that flight.

00:07:14.280 | And even though transferring to United

00:07:16.080 | is gonna be a lot of points,

00:07:17.120 | it's a better deal than the portal,

00:07:18.480 | and that's your only other option.

00:07:20.360 | Otherwise, other options for Star Alliance

00:07:23.120 | that you should be focused on,

00:07:24.640 | and unfortunate for people,

00:07:26.480 | especially myself who have put a lot

00:07:28.400 | into the United program,

00:07:29.600 | I've earned a ton of miles,

00:07:31.280 | and have a few hundred thousand United points

00:07:33.160 | that are gonna get me a lot less further.

00:07:35.380 | So that's one piece of news.

00:07:36.800 | Speaking of United,

00:07:37.640 | I recently had a couple trips,

00:07:39.400 | both of which ended up being on United,

00:07:41.340 | neither of which were intentionally on United,

00:07:43.560 | and I learned a few things along the way.

00:07:45.720 | So one was a very quick trip to New York

00:07:48.000 | where I went to record the episodes with Gary and Sahil.

00:07:51.020 | I had booked flights on British Airways using points,

00:07:54.400 | and I learned a few things that I wanna share.

00:07:56.880 | So one, British Airways, as much as I love it

00:08:00.000 | as an option for redeeming miles

00:08:01.920 | to book flights on American,

00:08:03.720 | I learned a rule that was very hard to find.

00:08:06.360 | In fact, I still can't find it on their website,

00:08:08.440 | and am arguing with British Airways about it,

00:08:11.040 | but if you're booking flights with British Airways points,

00:08:14.280 | you are unable to get anything back

00:08:17.320 | if you cancel those flights within 24 hours of departure.

00:08:21.740 | So two things.

00:08:22.580 | One, keep that in mind.

00:08:24.000 | What ended up happening with me

00:08:25.160 | was I didn't know this rule.

00:08:26.300 | I couldn't find it online.

00:08:28.080 | On almost every airline,

00:08:29.520 | if you cancel a flight booked with points before departure,

00:08:32.640 | you can get those points back,

00:08:34.160 | maybe with a fee, maybe not.

00:08:36.440 | So it turns out I wrapped up things in New York

00:08:38.860 | about eight hours earlier than I thought,

00:08:41.040 | and I saw a flight on United

00:08:42.440 | for about the exact same number of points

00:08:44.200 | I had paid with British Airways,

00:08:45.920 | so I ended up canceling the British Airways flight online,

00:08:48.520 | booking the United flight, and taking it home.

00:08:50.720 | Well, it turns out I got nothing back from British Airways

00:08:53.160 | and burned through almost 50,000 points,

00:08:56.180 | which is really frustrating.

00:08:58.000 | One hack here I learned is

00:08:59.280 | if you need to write letters to airlines

00:09:01.320 | to try to get them to give you refunds or something,

00:09:04.440 | I suggest using an AI-based tool

00:09:06.320 | to help you write those messages.

00:09:08.000 | I wrote one in Notion AI.

00:09:09.600 | You could probably also use ChatGPT,

00:09:11.800 | but that was super helpful for writing those notes.

00:09:14.260 | But British Airways.

00:09:15.640 | So the one trick,

00:09:16.800 | obviously don't cancel within 24 hours

00:09:18.680 | or you'll get nothing back.

00:09:19.760 | To be clear, I was using British Airways points

00:09:21.560 | to book an American Airlines flight.

00:09:23.840 | The other, which dovetails into this next one,

00:09:26.560 | if you book two one-ways,

00:09:27.680 | it's almost always the exact same number of points.

00:09:30.680 | But if you cancel,

00:09:32.360 | the cancellation rules are based

00:09:34.120 | on the first flight departure.

00:09:36.320 | So I'd always recommend booking two one-ways

00:09:39.680 | because in this particular instance,

00:09:41.220 | you would have been able to get

00:09:42.060 | your British Airways points back

00:09:43.720 | if you had canceled more than 24 hours before departure,

00:09:46.680 | but after the first flight.

00:09:48.480 | Whereas if you book it as a round trip, you wouldn't.

00:09:50.800 | British Airways did nothing.

00:09:51.900 | Their responses in email were terrible.

00:09:53.720 | I'm quite frustrated with them.

00:09:55.880 | Meanwhile, United, my flight was a few hours late,

00:09:58.720 | and they ended up sending me a $75 certificate.

00:10:01.120 | So that was great.

00:10:01.960 | Thank you, United.

00:10:02.920 | Unfortunately, your points aren't worth as much,

00:10:04.520 | but now I've got $75.

00:10:06.440 | But the second trip was a trip to Cabo

00:10:08.560 | for a friend of mine's bachelor party.

00:10:10.440 | And we showed up at the airport

00:10:12.120 | and there were seven of us waiting for an Alaska flight

00:10:15.360 | that just kept getting delayed.

00:10:17.140 | 20 minutes, 45 minutes, one hour.

00:10:19.700 | And then we asked them what was going on.

00:10:21.600 | They told us they need to replace the plane.

00:10:23.300 | They were gonna place it with a plane from LA

00:10:25.320 | that hadn't left yet.

00:10:26.640 | And we decided this just doesn't seem promising.

00:10:29.680 | And it turns out that United had a flight to Cabo

00:10:32.120 | leaving an hour later,

00:10:33.520 | and it was the exact same price

00:10:35.320 | almost all of us had paid for Alaska.

00:10:37.520 | So we said, let's cancel.

00:10:39.280 | Let's go book the United flight.

00:10:40.920 | Well, there were a bunch of situations

00:10:43.120 | that different people were in

00:10:44.380 | who'd booked that Alaska flight

00:10:46.000 | that made it much harder for them to cancel their flights

00:10:49.280 | and get their money back.

00:10:50.240 | So I just wanna share some tips.

00:10:51.640 | So I had booked a one-way flight on Alaska

00:10:54.400 | directly with Alaska, and it was so easy.

00:10:57.360 | The gate agent was actually able to cancel it,

00:10:59.320 | refund everything, no problem.

00:11:01.600 | A couple other people had booked round-trip flights

00:11:03.880 | on Alaska, and for them,

00:11:05.920 | they said if they canceled their outbound flight,

00:11:08.020 | they were gonna have to cancel their return flight as well,

00:11:10.360 | and they were gonna have to rebook it.

00:11:12.100 | They said, if you call up,

00:11:13.600 | you might be able to get someone

00:11:14.760 | who can separate them and cancel them,

00:11:16.840 | but because they were all priced together,

00:11:19.000 | it's not clear how much you'll get back.

00:11:21.000 | And so again, another really important reason

00:11:23.540 | to not book round trips

00:11:24.960 | unless you're gonna save a lot of money,

00:11:26.600 | because if something happens,

00:11:28.240 | you often get in a situation like this.

00:11:31.160 | But the worst was for someone who booked through Amex Travel.

00:11:33.880 | Amex Travel told them to call Alaska,

00:11:35.640 | Alaska told them to call Amex,

00:11:37.480 | and they couldn't figure out how to get this flight canceled

00:11:40.680 | because no one knew what was going on,

00:11:43.120 | and so they were on hold all the way up

00:11:45.240 | until about two minutes before departure.

00:11:47.560 | I do think they figured it out,

00:11:49.540 | but what took me five minutes of talking to a gate agent

00:11:52.720 | took them at least an hour on hold.

00:11:55.200 | And so my general advice is,

00:11:57.280 | I'm all for booking in the portal if you have credits to use

00:11:59.880 | and they're gonna make your flights a whole lot cheaper,

00:12:02.200 | but unless that's the case,

00:12:03.960 | I would always book directly with the airline.

00:12:06.200 | I'd always book one-ways if it's the same price,

00:12:08.820 | because whenever something comes up,

00:12:10.320 | it is so much easier to deal directly with the airline

00:12:13.360 | and deal with one-way flights.

00:12:15.000 | So those are two things I learned.

00:12:16.720 | One other quick thing,

00:12:17.760 | I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail,

00:12:19.200 | but I will share a link to a couple posts or videos,

00:12:22.440 | but I just keep seeing great examples

00:12:24.440 | of people using their Capital One Points

00:12:26.680 | to transfer to Wyndham to book Vacasas.

00:12:29.520 | And now that my in-laws have a Vacasa in Belize,

00:12:33.360 | I've started learning a bit more about the platform.

00:12:35.960 | I'll even link theirs in the show notes

00:12:37.480 | if you guys wanna go to Belize,

00:12:39.060 | but definitely something to look at

00:12:41.360 | if you have Cap One Points

00:12:42.880 | and you're looking to book lodging somewhere.

00:12:45.360 | It just seems like it's a great use of points

00:12:47.160 | that I've heard a lot from.

00:12:48.400 | A few more.

00:12:49.240 | So I talked about the APEC Business Travel Card

00:12:52.280 | a little bit ago,

00:12:53.480 | and it's this awesome thing you can add on to Global Entry

00:12:57.400 | that gives you access to the crew diplomat lanes,

00:13:00.320 | but it's not really talked about that much.

00:13:02.160 | And technically, it's only for people

00:13:04.840 | who are doing international business travel

00:13:07.400 | in the APEC region.

00:13:09.080 | But Danny, thank you for reaching out

00:13:10.760 | and letting me know about your experience.

00:13:12.520 | He's used it in Singapore, Australia, Korea, Malaysia,

00:13:15.120 | Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, China,

00:13:17.200 | and he's been able to go through the crew line on his own,

00:13:20.160 | and he's even been lucky in Thailand and Vietnam.

00:13:22.800 | It's not supposed to let your whole family come through,

00:13:25.200 | but he's had success there.

00:13:27.240 | He said the card was amazing and so helpful.

00:13:30.000 | And even in some countries,

00:13:31.400 | they have an APEC lane for departing

00:13:33.160 | that lets you skip the line on the way out.

00:13:35.600 | So definitely something to look into.

00:13:37.960 | However, I ended up trying to add this feature to my account.

00:13:41.680 | I paid the $70.

00:13:43.400 | I went in for my interview at SFO and got denied.

00:13:46.440 | And best I can explain for why I was denied

00:13:49.860 | was that I have done business travel to the region,

00:13:53.840 | but the company that I now work for

00:13:56.080 | has not yet done international business travel to the region.

00:13:59.400 | So even though in past roles,

00:14:01.640 | I've had business travel to the region,

00:14:04.020 | in my current role,

00:14:05.520 | even though All The Hacks is actually currently planning

00:14:08.160 | a trip to Japan and doing some work with partners

00:14:11.000 | that are in foreign countries in the APEC region,

00:14:13.880 | I haven't actually taken trips

00:14:16.040 | since running All The Hacks to the region,

00:14:18.880 | mostly because of the pandemic.

00:14:20.380 | And so for that reason, they said they denied it.

00:14:22.980 | So I would say your mileage may vary.

00:14:25.260 | I've heard other people walk in

00:14:26.600 | and just get a green light right away and no interview.

00:14:29.300 | At SFO, that wasn't the case for me.

00:14:31.580 | So I'm gonna reapply once I actually have

00:14:34.060 | some established business travel for my current business,

00:14:37.380 | but it sounds like an awesome thing to add

00:14:38.980 | if you're eligible and definitely worth looking into.

00:14:41.580 | My fitness routine this year had a few rocky starts,

00:14:46.340 | but I am back into it now.

00:14:47.980 | And honestly, one of the things that helped me get back

00:14:50.440 | is that I just added some new workout gear.

00:14:52.680 | And if I'm gonna buy more,

00:14:53.960 | why not have the best performance apparel out there,

00:14:56.340 | which I think is Viore,

00:14:57.960 | and I am excited to be partnering with them

00:14:59.760 | for this episode.

00:15:01.000 | Viore makes performance apparel that's incredibly versatile.

00:15:04.200 | Everything's designed to work out in,

00:15:06.040 | but it doesn't look or feel like it at all.

00:15:08.320 | And it is so freaking comfortable,

00:15:09.940 | you will wanna wear it all the time.

00:15:11.880 | But it's not just for men.

00:15:13.000 | My wife is obsessed with Viore as much as I am.

00:15:16.220 | While my personal favorite will probably always be

00:15:18.380 | the Sunday Performance Joggers,

00:15:19.780 | I have at least three pairs.

00:15:21.300 | I just got a few pairs of the Core Shorts

00:15:23.680 | and three or four Strato Tech Tees, and I'm loving them.

00:15:26.760 | Honestly, I can't think of the last time

00:15:28.560 | I went on a run, bike ride, or walk in anything else.

00:15:31.680 | Their products are so versatile,

00:15:33.160 | you can use them for just about any activity,

00:15:35.420 | whether it's running, training, or yoga,

00:15:37.560 | but they're also great for lounging, running around town,

00:15:40.400 | or they even have a few things

00:15:41.700 | you can wear for a night out.

00:15:43.380 | Honestly, I think Viore is an investment in your happiness,

00:15:46.200 | and for All The Hacks listeners,

00:15:47.520 | they're offering 20% off your first purchase,

00:15:50.380 | as well as free shipping and returns on US orders over $75.

00:15:54.880 | So you should definitely check them out

00:15:56.400 | at allthehacks.com/viore.

00:15:58.720 | Again, go to allthehacks.com/v-u-o-r-i,

00:16:03.440 | and get yourself some of the most comfortable

00:16:05.420 | and versatile clothing on the planet.

00:16:07.420 | You all know I love credit card points,

00:16:11.220 | so I'm excited to be partnering with Card Pointers today,

00:16:14.140 | which is one of my favorite tools for travel hacking.

00:16:16.780 | It's a free app that helps you manage

00:16:18.540 | all of your credit cards in one place,

00:16:20.700 | and makes it easy to find the right card

00:16:22.820 | to maximize your category bonuses on every purchase.

00:16:26.440 | You can also load it on your partner's phone,

00:16:28.660 | so they always know the best cards to use.

00:16:31.640 | The app automatically tracks every category bonus

00:16:34.620 | and recurring credit from over 5,000 cards,

00:16:38.020 | and they also track and help you use your Amex, Chase,

00:16:41.900 | Bank of America, or Citibank offers

00:16:44.260 | to save even more money every day.

00:16:46.740 | And with their browser extension,

00:16:48.260 | you can actually activate every single Amex and Chase offer

00:16:51.860 | in just one click.

00:16:53.460 | And because of that massive credit card database,

00:16:55.940 | you can do all of this without having to give up

00:16:58.440 | any personal or banking details.

00:17:00.980 | The app is free to download,

00:17:02.760 | and many of the features are free as well,

00:17:05.180 | but if you wanna try out the pro version,

00:17:06.940 | there's a free trial.

00:17:08.260 | And if you decide you wanna sign up after the trial,

00:17:11.060 | which you probably will,

00:17:12.700 | you can go to allthehacks.com/cardpointers

00:17:16.660 | to get 20% off.

00:17:18.380 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/cardpointers.

00:17:23.380 | Then another shout out to Ise

00:17:25.380 | for sending in a great reminder

00:17:27.800 | that actually really helped someone out that I know.

00:17:31.120 | If you signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred

00:17:33.860 | when the bonus was 60,000 points,

00:17:36.260 | and then it bumped up to 80,000 points,

00:17:38.780 | they are honoring that if you write in.

00:17:41.300 | So funny enough, our au pair's boyfriend

00:17:43.140 | actually signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred

00:17:45.500 | for the 60K link.

00:17:47.460 | Once it bumped up to 80,

00:17:48.860 | I felt so bad that he didn't wait,

00:17:50.940 | but I shared this tip with him.

00:17:52.380 | He called up, got their customer line,

00:17:54.900 | asked if they could do the extra points,

00:17:56.820 | and they said that they would note it in his account,

00:17:58.960 | and he ended up getting the 80,000 points.

00:18:00.820 | So if you signed up during the 60K window,

00:18:03.480 | you might have luck calling into Chase

00:18:05.680 | and asking them to match the 80K that everyone else got.

00:18:08.900 | I don't know if it'll still work

00:18:10.140 | because the 80K public offer's not there anymore,

00:18:12.540 | but it's definitely worth trying,

00:18:14.420 | and you can reference it.

00:18:15.340 | At least two people you know have had this success

00:18:18.140 | because that's the case.

00:18:19.660 | But speaking of card bonuses and card signups,

00:18:22.380 | I wanna talk a little bit

00:18:23.220 | about the American Express Green Card.

00:18:25.400 | It's kind of a silent card.

00:18:26.860 | People don't talk about it that much for a lot of reasons,

00:18:29.660 | one of which is that they haven't really had

00:18:31.200 | a compelling signup bonus.

00:18:32.920 | Another is that Amex hasn't really ever worked

00:18:35.540 | with partners on the Green Card, which they're now doing,

00:18:38.500 | but right now the elevated welcome bonus

00:18:41.060 | is 60,000 membership rewards points

00:18:43.280 | after you spend $3,000 in the first six months,

00:18:46.340 | plus you get 20% back on travel and transit purchases

00:18:50.380 | made in those six months up to $200

00:18:52.660 | in the form of a statement credit.

00:18:54.460 | The card does have $150 annual fee,

00:18:56.900 | but you get three points on all travel,

00:18:59.420 | three points on all transit purchases,

00:19:01.820 | and three points on restaurants worldwide,

00:19:03.980 | including takeout and delivery in the US,

00:19:06.100 | and then one point per dollar on everything else.

00:19:08.900 | So it's a pretty comparable card

00:19:11.060 | to a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve.

00:19:13.500 | The annual fee is $150,

00:19:15.180 | but you do get a credit for up to $189 for Clear

00:19:18.860 | and $100 towards Lounge Buddy.

00:19:21.000 | So it's a pretty compelling offer

00:19:23.420 | that I think is comparable

00:19:25.240 | to the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve

00:19:27.300 | in terms of getting dining and travel covered.

00:19:30.180 | I don't totally understand Amex's strategy here

00:19:32.620 | because there's a lot of overlap.

00:19:34.500 | So you're getting 3X on travel.

00:19:36.140 | You know, you get 5X on airfare with the platinum.

00:19:38.700 | You get 3X on restaurants,

00:19:40.420 | but you get 4X on dining with the gold.

00:19:43.220 | So it's not necessarily a perfect pairing card

00:19:45.860 | with other Amex cards,

00:19:47.420 | but it definitely is a great one-stop Amex card,

00:19:50.700 | especially if you're thinking about the gold,

00:19:53.020 | but you don't spend a lot on groceries.

00:19:55.100 | Here's one where you get travel and dining covered

00:19:57.260 | at 3X across the board at a lower annual fee.

00:20:00.220 | So despite the fact

00:20:01.700 | that I've got all of these categories covered,

00:20:03.980 | I do think it's an interesting card.

00:20:05.780 | So if you wanna learn more and check out the 60,000 point,

00:20:08.180 | welcome bonus, you can go to allthehacks.com/amexgreen.

00:20:12.300 | Speaking of how cards fit in together,

00:20:14.100 | I just wanted to share the result

00:20:15.640 | of a little bit of research I did

00:20:17.380 | for a presentation recently

00:20:19.260 | that I gave to a wealth management firm's clients

00:20:21.580 | all about credit cards.

00:20:23.140 | And so also, if you happen to be in any industry

00:20:25.420 | where you think it'd be interesting to hire me

00:20:26.800 | to come give a talk like that, let me know.

00:20:29.360 | But the specific thing I wanted to cover now

00:20:32.060 | is around two-card combos.

00:20:34.460 | So if you search around about cards on the internet a lot,

00:20:37.240 | you'll hear people talk about trifectas,

00:20:39.300 | the Chase trifecta, the Citi trifecta,

00:20:41.460 | and I'm definitely going to do an episode in the future

00:20:44.260 | diving deeper into all of those.

00:20:46.340 | But as part of the research for this talk,

00:20:49.580 | I built out a model

00:20:51.100 | where it basically looked at all the cards you have

00:20:54.500 | and you could add on new cards

00:20:56.120 | and see how that would affect

00:20:57.380 | your overall earnings for the year,

00:20:59.500 | either using point valuations

00:21:01.340 | or just raw number of points earned.

00:21:03.740 | And the delineation there is that

00:21:05.660 | I'd rather earn an Amex point than a Marriott point,

00:21:08.860 | so you can look at it either way.

00:21:10.780 | And it was really cool

00:21:12.020 | because I could tag all the cards that I have

00:21:14.420 | and then I could tag a new card and say,

00:21:16.300 | "Well, if I added an Amex green, what would that do?"

00:21:18.780 | And in my case, since I already have 4X dining on the gold

00:21:22.220 | and I already have 3X travel on the Chase Reserve

00:21:25.400 | and 5X on airlines or the Amex Platinum,

00:21:27.420 | it actually did nothing other than add on an annual fee,

00:21:30.340 | so it was actually not a net positive for me

00:21:32.580 | and the cards I have.

00:21:33.980 | I'm actually gonna take that model, I think,

00:21:35.960 | and I'm gonna share that with All The Hacks members.

00:21:38.220 | So as I think about the future

00:21:40.220 | of the All The Hacks membership,

00:21:41.380 | one of the things I'm actually thinking about

00:21:42.880 | is taking a lot of these little mini research reports

00:21:45.380 | I've written and making them available to members.

00:21:48.000 | So that's something to keep in mind.

00:21:50.000 | You can check out the membership

00:21:51.120 | at allthehacks.com/join.

00:21:53.380 | But I do wanna just share here

00:21:55.080 | the result of some of that research

00:21:57.020 | when it comes to two-card combos.

00:21:59.280 | And so the way I did this was

00:22:00.960 | I took the Bureau of Labor Statistics data

00:22:03.600 | for the average spending of a household

00:22:06.040 | that makes over $200,000

00:22:08.220 | and I just spread that across

00:22:10.000 | all of the different card categories

00:22:11.600 | so I got a sense of what the average person would earn

00:22:14.200 | in all of these cards.

00:22:15.980 | And the card combos that I pulled together

00:22:18.940 | that I thought were the most interesting

00:22:21.000 | weren't necessarily ones I think everyone's considered.

00:22:23.160 | So one was the Chase Sapphire Reserve

00:22:24.960 | and the Freedom Unlimited,

00:22:26.280 | which I think is a good combo

00:22:27.560 | that'll end up getting you 3X on travel,

00:22:29.640 | dining, and 1.5X on everything else.

00:22:32.660 | On City, I looked at comparing

00:22:34.720 | the City Premier and the Double Cash.

00:22:36.800 | So with the Premier, you get 3X on dining,

00:22:38.680 | grocery, flights, hotels, gas, and 2X on everything else.

00:22:42.160 | And then with Capital One,

00:22:43.600 | I paired the Venture X and the Saver,

00:22:46.040 | which gets you 4X on dining, 3X on groceries,

00:22:48.880 | 2X on everything else.

00:22:50.680 | And then on Amex, I looked at the Gold and the Green,

00:22:53.400 | which would get you 4X on dining, grocery,

00:22:55.280 | 3X on travel, transit, and 1X on everything else.

00:22:58.280 | So the interesting thing I learned

00:22:59.840 | applying the average spending to this

00:23:02.200 | is that one, having a 2X everything else card

00:23:06.660 | adds so much value.

00:23:08.440 | So for example, Capital One,

00:23:10.680 | if you take the average spending

00:23:12.280 | and apply those points earnings,

00:23:14.280 | the average earning is 2.41 points per dollar spent.

00:23:19.360 | So across all your spending,

00:23:20.640 | you'd earn 2.41 points per dollar.

00:23:23.080 | If you take the City combo, you'd earn 2.35.

00:23:26.680 | But if you take the Chase combo, it goes down to 1.9X.

00:23:30.200 | And if you take the Amex combo, it goes to 1.95X.

00:23:33.880 | Now, in all the portals except Chase,

00:23:37.340 | you're gonna only be getting one point per dollar.

00:23:39.640 | But if you are using portals as the way you book,

00:23:42.300 | getting one and a half cents per point

00:23:44.440 | with the Chase Reserve makes that combo slightly better

00:23:47.480 | if you wanna book in the portal.

00:23:48.880 | But for the sake of just earning,

00:23:51.160 | that was the learning I have.

00:23:52.640 | So my takeaway here is that those are kind of

00:23:54.560 | the best two-card combos.

00:23:56.200 | That's just within one platform.

00:23:58.400 | But if you took that Amex Gold and Green

00:24:00.300 | and you swapped out the Green for the Venture X,

00:24:03.040 | getting two points per dollar,

00:24:04.720 | or if you're eligible, Amex has the Blue Business Plus card,

00:24:07.400 | which earns two points on everything up to $50,000.

00:24:11.120 | That bumps the average earning on that combo

00:24:13.840 | of Amex Gold plus Venture X

00:24:15.600 | to an average of 2.49 points per dollar,

00:24:18.620 | which is the best combo.

00:24:19.840 | So my takeaway from this at the end,

00:24:22.360 | and this got really technical,

00:24:24.000 | it was almost 75 of 80 slides,

00:24:26.920 | but I summarized it at the end and said,

00:24:29.360 | if you wanna stick within one program

00:24:31.880 | and you already have either a Capital One or a Chase card,

00:24:34.800 | the Chase Sapphire Reserve

00:24:35.880 | and the Freedom Unlimited is great,

00:24:37.520 | has a slight edge if you're redeeming in the portal

00:24:40.160 | over all these others,

00:24:41.320 | and then the Capital One Venture X and the Saver card

00:24:44.240 | are awesome if you wanna stick in Cap One.

00:24:46.800 | But the best two-card combo,

00:24:48.740 | if you're good earning points across two programs,

00:24:51.420 | was the Amex Gold and the Venture X.

00:24:53.900 | And that was based just on my spending.

00:24:55.860 | In this spreadsheet tool

00:24:57.020 | that I'm gonna make available to members,

00:24:58.560 | you can go in and you can actually model out

00:25:01.060 | your cards and your spending and see how this'll change.

00:25:04.220 | So stay tuned on that.

00:25:05.760 | But those are the best two-card combos.

00:25:07.620 | I think if I had to add one more,

00:25:09.220 | it would be the Citi Premier and the Citi Double Cash.

00:25:11.760 | But at the end of the day,

00:25:12.620 | I think I have a slight edge for earning Cap One,

00:25:15.340 | Amex, or Chase points over Citi points.

00:25:17.800 | And so I'd put those three combos slightly above there.

00:25:20.980 | Obviously, if you pay rent,

00:25:22.440 | adding a built card is a no-brainer

00:25:24.640 | that I would absolutely be doing to these combos,

00:25:26.880 | but just thought I'd share that.

00:25:28.800 | That presentation was actually really fun to put together.

00:25:31.600 | It actually seems like it might be the framework

00:25:34.040 | for a course that I build out.

00:25:35.760 | There's a whole part three on earning more points

00:25:38.600 | and a part four on maximizing your redemptions,

00:25:41.600 | and then another thing on card benefits.

00:25:43.540 | So there's really gonna be a lot there,

00:25:45.100 | and I'm excited to find some way to share that.

00:25:47.680 | In fact, there were a bunch of questions you guys wrote in

00:25:50.220 | that I think tie into that presentation

00:25:52.740 | that I'm gonna give some quick answers to

00:25:55.080 | or some quick shares to,

00:25:56.720 | but hopefully we'll get to more in detail

00:25:58.980 | when I build out those other sections

00:26:00.840 | and share that on the show.

00:26:02.200 | So one was from Josh.

00:26:03.820 | He said, "What are the limits

00:26:04.660 | "on how many Capital One cards you can have

00:26:06.580 | "and how often you can apply for them?

00:26:08.820 | "He likes no annual fee cards,

00:26:10.280 | "and Capital One has a bunch of those."

00:26:12.300 | So the rule with Capital One,

00:26:13.800 | you can only have two personal Capital One cards at once,

00:26:16.840 | and I think you need to wait 90 days between applications.

00:26:20.200 | I haven't tested these.

00:26:21.120 | I only have one personal card, the Venture X,

00:26:23.280 | and one business card, the Spark Cash Plus.

00:26:25.840 | So that's my understanding there.

00:26:27.360 | The rules change for every different issuer.

00:26:29.800 | So Chase has rules, Amex has rules, Capital One has rules.

00:26:32.880 | Part of what I wanna build out

00:26:34.240 | when I start to build this into a lot more,

00:26:36.500 | whether it's multiple episodes, a course, a guide,

00:26:39.480 | something, is this information on each individual issuer

00:26:42.680 | and what those rules are.

00:26:43.600 | So stay tuned there.

00:26:44.880 | Separately, I got an email from Willie

00:26:46.040 | who was concerned about some of the language Citi has

00:26:48.240 | about taking legal action to recover losses

00:26:51.320 | for people that are effectively

00:26:52.640 | trying to churn through bonuses.

00:26:54.600 | But I was reading through the language

00:26:56.320 | 'cause I wanted to give my take.

00:26:57.760 | And by the way, of course, I'm not a lawyer.

00:26:59.400 | I don't have experience in all these situations.

00:27:01.680 | But a lot of the restrictions seem to be around

00:27:05.320 | repeated cancellations of cards within one year.

00:27:08.180 | That seemed to be the red flag area.

00:27:09.940 | The other ones were like taking advantage of offers

00:27:12.280 | that weren't intended for you or purchasing things

00:27:15.120 | and returning them after the bonus is hit

00:27:17.400 | or not using a card for your own personal spending.

00:27:20.100 | Those ones seem pretty easy to mitigate.

00:27:21.560 | But the one about repeated cancellations

00:27:23.360 | was one that I wanted to address.

00:27:25.220 | And I think the answer is not canceling the card

00:27:28.960 | within a first year and waiting until the annual fee posts

00:27:32.200 | and then cancel it within 30 days.

00:27:34.440 | And within that window, most of the card issuers,

00:27:37.300 | if not all of them, I can't say for certain,

00:27:39.340 | will give you back your annual fee

00:27:41.080 | if you cancel that window.

00:27:42.400 | And then you won't be canceling within one year,

00:27:46.040 | which kind of makes that rule

00:27:47.580 | or the stipulation and the terms not apply.

00:27:50.300 | That said, as I've said multiple times,

00:27:52.760 | if I have an annual fee on a card I don't want,

00:27:55.600 | I will definitely first look at either downgrading that card

00:27:58.960 | or reaching out to see if there's a retention offer.

00:28:01.160 | A lot of issuers will offer you huge deals,

00:28:03.800 | sometimes lots of points or waived annual fees

00:28:07.120 | to get you to keep the card for another year.

00:28:08.820 | And so if you don't wanna keep it because of the annual fee

00:28:11.400 | and they can waive the annual fee or give you 50,000 points,

00:28:14.120 | it might totally be worth it.

00:28:15.400 | So that's my advice there.

00:28:17.520 | But again, things like this,

00:28:19.000 | the rules around opening and canceling

00:28:20.760 | are things that I wanna include in the future.

00:28:23.360 | But I do wanna share an awesome hack that Marco shared.

00:28:26.560 | And this also deserves a little bit more of a deep dive

00:28:29.520 | than I'm gonna give it today.

00:28:31.040 | But he mentioned how I haven't covered the fact

00:28:33.560 | that a lot of the business gold and platinum Amex links

00:28:36.920 | are what are called no lifetime language links,

00:28:39.500 | which means you can get the cards multiple times.

00:28:42.500 | And so this seems crazy, but Marco wrote in and said,

00:28:45.980 | he's gotten four business platinums,

00:28:48.140 | four business gold cards.

00:28:50.260 | He says he's on track to earn at least one and a half

00:28:52.380 | to 2 million Amex points from doing this.

00:28:55.100 | Yes, they're business cards,

00:28:56.300 | but he's done it all as a sole proprietor,

00:28:58.300 | doesn't have a business with an EIN.

00:29:00.740 | And he's just verified that the first time you do it,

00:29:05.500 | you do it with the best link you can find.

00:29:07.740 | Then after that, you find the links

00:29:09.940 | with no lifetime language and you can do them every 90 days.

00:29:13.860 | He pointed out that Amex allows you

00:29:15.140 | to have up to 10 charge cards.

00:29:17.160 | So you could do any mix of business golds and platinums,

00:29:20.060 | and you can cancel them after you've had them 12 months.

00:29:22.980 | It seems crazy.

00:29:24.340 | I wanna do a little bit more homework,

00:29:25.940 | but he cycled through a lot of these cards

00:29:28.700 | and been able to rack up hundreds of thousands

00:29:32.220 | by the time I'm recording this, probably millions of points.

00:29:35.140 | And so that's definitely something

00:29:36.860 | that if you're eligible for business cards

00:29:38.460 | and you have the spend to do it,

00:29:40.060 | there is a formula here that I wanna dig into

00:29:42.900 | a little bit more in the future.

00:29:44.380 | If I can find anything he's written publicly about it,

00:29:46.420 | 'cause I know Marco's written some posts,

00:29:47.900 | I'll share that in the show notes.

00:29:49.580 | Another question came in about credit card approvals

00:29:51.820 | with low credit.

00:29:52.940 | So Ed said that his player two got denied for a card

00:29:55.900 | 'cause they didn't have enough credit history

00:29:57.700 | and wanted to know some advice.

00:29:59.740 | I don't have a ton of experience with this,

00:30:01.340 | but a few things I wanted to share.

00:30:03.260 | One, I love the Credit Karma app

00:30:05.620 | because it shows you not only nuance of your credit

00:30:08.420 | and what you can do to improve it,

00:30:10.140 | but it also sometimes shows you cards

00:30:11.980 | they think you're likely to get approved for.

00:30:14.020 | If you Google around,

00:30:14.860 | there's a tool called the card match tool

00:30:17.700 | that does something similar

00:30:18.780 | where you can get matched with cards you'll get approved for.

00:30:20.780 | And then Amex just launched a tool

00:30:23.420 | that lets you know if you're gonna get approved for a card

00:30:26.020 | before you apply for it

00:30:27.380 | so you don't have to take the credit hit.

00:30:29.340 | So those are three things I would be using

00:30:31.140 | if I had a lower credit score

00:30:32.660 | and I wanted to try to make sure

00:30:33.740 | I wasn't applying for cards that I got denied for.

00:30:36.580 | Another question from Yvonne about the Apple credit card

00:30:38.780 | and what I think about it

00:30:40.100 | now that it's tied to a savings account.

00:30:42.460 | I gotta say, I am a huge fan of Apple products,

00:30:45.220 | but I'm not a huge fan of the credit card.

00:30:47.460 | Yes, you get 3% at Apple.

00:30:49.180 | And so if you spend a ton at Apple, maybe that's worth it.

00:30:52.700 | But for the rest, you get 2% back on Apple Pay

00:30:55.980 | and 1% everywhere else.

00:30:57.980 | You can use the Citi Double Cash.

00:30:59.380 | You can use the Venture X to get 2% back

00:31:02.100 | or 2X points on everything else

00:31:03.980 | without having it to be on Apple Pay.

00:31:06.340 | I think recently there's been a small signup bonus,

00:31:08.700 | maybe $100, $200.

00:31:10.740 | So for me, it's just not worth it.

00:31:12.380 | If you do the math on what you'd get from a signup bonus,

00:31:15.620 | it just makes using this card totally not worth it.

00:31:19.260 | The interface supposedly is great.

00:31:21.460 | However, I think that it's very difficult

00:31:24.220 | to sync Apple Card data with most budgeting tools.

00:31:28.140 | And so actually I think that's another downside.

00:31:30.060 | I know that a lot of the products I've been playing with,

00:31:32.460 | it's like, here's how you can link any of your cards.

00:31:34.540 | And for the Apple Card,

00:31:35.500 | you've got to download and export your PDF statements

00:31:38.020 | and upload them manually.

00:31:39.500 | So for me, I'm not a fan of the Apple Card.

00:31:42.460 | If you want 2% cash back,

00:31:43.740 | there are a lot better cards to do it

00:31:45.020 | that don't require Apple Pay.

00:31:46.460 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.

00:31:50.940 | I get it, life comes at you fast, but trust me,

00:31:54.460 | your friends are probably desperate for a good hang.

00:31:57.340 | So kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.

00:32:01.420 | Just make sure you do it the easy way

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00:32:11.820 | It doesn't even have to be a good one.

00:32:13.660 | It could be your dog's birthday,

00:32:15.100 | that the sun finally came out,

00:32:17.060 | or maybe you just want to celebrate

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00:32:20.620 | With Drizzly, you can make hosting easy

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00:32:30.100 | And since I know you like a good deal,

00:32:31.740 | Drizzly compares prices on their massive selection

00:32:34.300 | of beer, wine, and spirits across multiple stores.

00:32:37.300 | So when I really wanted to make a few cocktails

00:32:39.340 | while we were hosting family last week,

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00:32:43.220 | delivered in less than an hour,

00:32:44.860 | but I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store.

00:32:48.340 | So whatever the occasion, download the Drizzly app

00:32:51.420 | or go to drizzly.com, that's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.

00:32:57.300 | Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations.

00:33:00.540 | I've heard too many stories from friends, family,

00:33:05.420 | and even listeners about identity theft and phishing scams

00:33:08.540 | causing so much pain and hassle,

00:33:10.780 | and it's just not something I want in my life.

00:33:13.300 | And I feel like we have the right to stay private

00:33:15.700 | and protect our personal data.

00:33:18.140 | One of the biggest reasons a lot of this happens

00:33:20.220 | is that there are dozens of data broker sites out there

00:33:22.860 | selling and sharing our personal information online.

00:33:25.840 | When I first looked up our family,

00:33:27.180 | there were hundreds of pieces

00:33:28.740 | of our personal info out there,

00:33:30.400 | but thankfully I started using Delete.me

00:33:32.580 | to automatically get all of our personal data

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00:33:46.200 | but they'll continuously scan for new data that shows up

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00:33:50.860 | Delete.me removes data from over 500 websites,

00:33:53.580 | and on average, they find and remove over 2,000 pieces

00:33:57.240 | of personal data for a customer in their first two years.

00:34:01.000 | When I first signed up,

00:34:01.920 | I was actually skeptical about needing a service

00:34:03.980 | on an ongoing basis,

00:34:05.200 | but these data brokers are relentless,

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00:34:17.600 | So if you wanna get your personal information

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00:34:23.880 | and get 20% off a plan for you or your entire family.

00:34:28.320 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/deleteme.

00:34:32.320 | I just wanna thank you quick for listening to

00:34:35.920 | and supporting the show.

00:34:37.400 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

00:34:40.240 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,

00:34:42.960 | and discounts from our partners,

00:34:44.720 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals,

00:34:48.240 | so please consider supporting those who support us.

00:34:51.620 | On the point of cards and perks,

00:34:53.460 | I wanna answer Kate's question

00:34:54.660 | about the best uses for travel credits.

00:34:57.260 | So this is a good one.

00:34:58.220 | Between my wife and I,

00:34:59.060 | I think we have seven cards that have travel credits.

00:35:02.220 | We have three that earn the Amex airline credits,

00:35:05.740 | two Capital One cards that get their travel credits,

00:35:08.280 | and two Chase cards that earn their travel credits.

00:35:10.460 | So on the Amex side,

00:35:12.320 | I'll talk for a second about their airline credits.

00:35:14.420 | So the way it works is you have to specify an airline

00:35:16.540 | at the beginning of the year,

00:35:18.140 | and spend money on that airline,

00:35:20.460 | but not on tickets.

00:35:21.660 | It needs to be on any incidentals,

00:35:23.300 | seat fees, Wi-Fi, priority boarding,

00:35:26.860 | upgrades, that kind of stuff.

00:35:28.740 | I will say the Flyer Talk has a number

00:35:30.900 | of tremendously helpful posts for every single airline

00:35:35.300 | that will help you figure out

00:35:36.420 | what codes for those travel credits and what doesn't.

00:35:39.060 | Southwest, one of the most interesting things

00:35:41.520 | is it seems that tickets under $100 code for credit,

00:35:45.420 | and so one thing I've seen people do

00:35:48.260 | is buy tickets for $80, $90,

00:35:51.100 | and then if you're not gonna use it,

00:35:52.460 | cancel it and then apply that ticket

00:35:54.660 | towards a flight that's more expensive.

00:35:56.540 | That's a strategy I know has worked really well

00:35:58.900 | to redeem those airline credits easily.

00:36:01.300 | So I think Southwest has been my choice

00:36:03.140 | for all of our Amex credits to be able to redeem,

00:36:06.180 | and we've been pretty fortunate to be able

00:36:07.580 | to make sure we're getting the max value there.

00:36:10.340 | On the VentureX side, those travel credits with Capital One,

00:36:14.140 | I don't know if there's a best use,

00:36:15.980 | though I prefer using it for airlines over hotels

00:36:19.140 | because I think on the hotel front,

00:36:21.180 | booking directly gets you a lot more perks,

00:36:23.380 | being able to reach out, talk about upgrades,

00:36:25.420 | which I'll get to later in this episode.

00:36:27.820 | I've used all of our VentureX credits for booking flights.

00:36:30.940 | They've almost always been flights

00:36:32.860 | where they were one-way and I was very confident

00:36:35.940 | I was gonna take them

00:36:37.260 | and it wasn't something too far in advance.

00:36:39.460 | So that's how I've used it.

00:36:40.940 | On the Chase side, it's so easy

00:36:42.260 | because they just reimbursed your card for travel spend.

00:36:45.340 | So you don't really have to do anything

00:36:46.900 | other than spend $300 a year on travel,

00:36:49.380 | which happens naturally for us,

00:36:51.180 | and so I haven't had to do anything.

00:36:53.100 | Love those credits.

00:36:53.980 | I wish every airline credit was as easy to use as Chase's.

00:36:57.180 | Speaking of airline benefits,

00:36:58.740 | Ben corrected something that I said earlier.

00:37:01.700 | I was talking about using your priority pass

00:37:03.780 | to get some of these airport spa benefits,

00:37:06.340 | and he pointed out that I might've gotten the cards wrong.

00:37:09.580 | So the Amex and Capital One priority passes

00:37:12.060 | are not able to get the spa experiences.

00:37:15.260 | In fact, they're usually not able to get

00:37:16.580 | most of the non-lounge experiences, including restaurants,

00:37:19.620 | but the Chase Sapphire Reserve priority pass does qualify.

00:37:22.820 | So if I misspoke, I'm sorry.

00:37:24.540 | If you've got your priority pass through Chase,

00:37:26.620 | hopefully you're eligible for dining

00:37:28.540 | and spa benefits with priority pass.

00:37:30.660 | Also, I mentioned the Clear credit

00:37:32.460 | with the Amex Green above,

00:37:34.500 | but I've got a lot of value out of Clear recently,

00:37:36.860 | and I just wanna make sure that people know

00:37:38.260 | about some of the other ways

00:37:39.420 | you can get a better deal on Clear.

00:37:41.140 | So obviously, if you have an Amex Platinum or Green card,

00:37:43.940 | you get Clear statement credits,

00:37:45.820 | but if you're a student, you can get Clear for $60.

00:37:49.100 | If you're in the military, you can get it for $99.

00:37:51.620 | If you have any status on Delta or United,

00:37:54.380 | you can get Clear for anywhere from $179

00:37:57.700 | all the way down to $0.

00:37:59.580 | So just being a member of those programs

00:38:01.860 | will get you $10 off, so that's a no-brainer.

00:38:04.220 | And then if you have multiple people,

00:38:06.340 | you can add them for $60 to a family plan.

00:38:09.300 | So I definitely think it's worth,

00:38:11.060 | if you're trying to have Clear with a partner

00:38:12.860 | and you don't have any credits for it,

00:38:14.700 | definitely make sure you pool your accounts.

00:38:17.180 | I know that all of our family is in one Clear account,

00:38:20.140 | including parents, because we wanted to make sure

00:38:22.180 | we save as much as possible.

00:38:23.980 | So that's one thing there.

00:38:25.220 | So that was a ton of deals and hacks on points.

00:38:28.060 | There's still a few more travel ones I wanna get to,

00:38:30.220 | and then I'll get to some of the non-travel ones.

00:38:32.300 | So Garrison wrote in and wanted to say,

00:38:34.900 | first off, that he used the hotel upgrade tips

00:38:37.940 | to get an incredible experience

00:38:40.140 | at the Fairmont in San Francisco,

00:38:41.620 | double room upgrade, significant drink credits,

00:38:44.300 | all the result of emailing in.

00:38:46.380 | So again, if you haven't emailed in to your hotel

00:38:50.100 | to get upgrades, definitely do that.

00:38:52.500 | The trick is to book direct, reach out in advance,

00:38:55.580 | let them know you're coming,

00:38:56.540 | you're excited to stay at the hotel,

00:38:58.060 | let them know if you're celebrating anything

00:38:59.860 | and see what happens.

00:39:01.040 | And I've seen so, so many listeners get amazing deals,

00:39:04.860 | but I will say Carol wrote in asking,

00:39:07.220 | how do you get the hotel email?

00:39:08.620 | Sometimes it's hard.

00:39:10.140 | And so I'll say that here are all the tips I have.

00:39:13.180 | Sometimes it's easy and it's on the website.

00:39:15.300 | Sometimes it's not.

00:39:16.520 | Recently, I tried using Google Bard

00:39:18.680 | because unlike chat GPT,

00:39:20.540 | it's using more up-to-date information and just said,

00:39:23.020 | can you find me the email address for the hotel?

00:39:25.580 | That worked.

00:39:26.460 | If that doesn't work, you can call the front desk

00:39:28.860 | and you can ask for an email address to send something in,

00:39:31.780 | you can search around,

00:39:33.120 | you can look on Flyer Talk or TripAdvisor.

00:39:35.700 | Sometimes the concierges or the managers

00:39:38.380 | leave their email address in comments.

00:39:40.680 | You can try to find the GM or the head concierge on LinkedIn

00:39:44.820 | and use one of the tools.

00:39:46.420 | I like one called Lucia to get email addresses

00:39:49.540 | from people's LinkedIn profiles.

00:39:52.160 | All of those options could work.

00:39:53.700 | And hopefully if you use all of them,

00:39:55.780 | you'll be able to get an email address.

00:39:57.420 | I do find that just calling or checking the website

00:40:00.420 | or using a tool like Google Bard is the fastest,

00:40:03.280 | but plenty of options.

00:40:05.000 | Also, one hack from Francis was that

00:40:08.320 | when he was on his honeymoon,

00:40:09.740 | he met someone that told him one thing he always does

00:40:13.200 | when he's traveling internationally

00:40:14.960 | is email the hotel manager

00:40:17.040 | and ask if there's anything he can bring from the US.

00:40:20.120 | The manager in this particular situation asked

00:40:22.960 | if there was any chance he could buy a couple English books

00:40:26.100 | that were under $20 and brought those to the manager

00:40:30.240 | and got upgraded to the penthouse suite.

00:40:32.280 | So I love this hack,

00:40:33.920 | adds even more to the email to the hotel.

00:40:37.160 | Obviously it's not always gonna work.

00:40:38.700 | Maybe somebody doesn't need anything,

00:40:40.760 | but definitely worth asking.

00:40:42.400 | And I think we'd all love to get the penthouse suite upgrade

00:40:44.660 | anytime we're traveling.

00:40:45.600 | So hopefully that works.

00:40:46.920 | Going back to Garrison's email,

00:40:48.600 | he also pointed out that getting into the points game

00:40:51.640 | as a Canadian can be a little tricky,

00:40:53.880 | but he was really happy with using point.me

00:40:56.360 | to find some great flights and maximizing AeroPlan points

00:41:00.240 | and suggested that if anyone's in Canada,

00:41:02.600 | they should get on top of the Amex AeroPlan Reserve Card,

00:41:05.720 | which he's got a tremendous amount of value for.

00:41:08.160 | I don't have any partner links for that,

00:41:10.120 | but I will put Garrison's link.

00:41:11.680 | So if you're a Canadian listening

00:41:13.060 | and you're looking to get the Amex AeroPlan Reserve Card,

00:41:16.040 | Garrison's link for that referral is in the show notes.

00:41:19.040 | Obviously he would love it if you used it.

00:41:20.920 | Couple more things on hotels.

00:41:22.520 | So Carl wrote in and asking how I think about resort fees

00:41:26.420 | and taxes when I'm redeeming points for a hotel.

00:41:29.380 | And I think it's pretty straightforward for me.

00:41:31.520 | Whenever I'm trying to figure out what a hotel will cost,

00:41:33.960 | I'm not looking at the regular rate.

00:41:35.960 | I'm looking at the final, final rate

00:41:38.240 | and double checking that it includes any extra fees,

00:41:41.560 | especially resort fees, which can be quite expensive.

00:41:44.680 | And then I'm comparing that to using my points.

00:41:47.080 | And so sometimes you'll look

00:41:48.240 | and a hotel might look like it's $120 a night,

00:41:51.160 | and this is especially true in Vegas.

00:41:53.200 | But by the time you check out two nights at that hotel,

00:41:55.640 | which should have been $250, end up being $400

00:41:58.820 | because there's resort fees, there's taxes,

00:42:01.220 | there's surcharges and everything like that.

00:42:03.120 | So anytime I'm trying to compare redeeming points

00:42:06.120 | and booking with dollars,

00:42:07.480 | I'm always looking at that final, final rate

00:42:09.640 | and comparing that.

00:42:10.600 | This is especially good for people booking Hyatt,

00:42:13.760 | Hilton, Wyndham or Choice Hotels

00:42:18.200 | because all those programs waive resort fees

00:42:21.080 | on award bookings.

00:42:22.400 | So definitely a chance to save a little extra.

00:42:25.860 | Unfortunately, Marriott does not waive resort fees

00:42:28.640 | on awards days, which is unfortunate,

00:42:30.640 | but there's not really a good trick around that.

00:42:33.000 | Also on paid stays,

00:42:34.220 | if you can achieve Hyatt Globalist status,

00:42:36.240 | I know that you can get your resort fees waived as well.

00:42:39.340 | I've never stayed at hotels enough

00:42:40.640 | to get that kind of super premium top tier status,

00:42:43.120 | especially on Hyatt.

00:42:44.400 | So I haven't had any experience there.

00:42:46.800 | Finally, this almost never works,

00:42:48.920 | but there are cases where it has worked in some places.

00:42:52.200 | You can always ask to waive the resort fee.

00:42:55.360 | It doesn't usually work, but every now and then it does,

00:42:57.840 | especially if any of the amenities listed on the resort fee

00:43:01.440 | are not available.

00:43:03.040 | So if a resort fee is supposed to include a room safe

00:43:06.720 | or wifi or a business center

00:43:08.880 | and any of those things aren't available,

00:43:10.640 | then definitely you should be able

00:43:11.980 | to get the resort fee waived.

00:43:13.160 | So that's something to look into.

00:43:14.920 | I hate resort fees, they drive me crazy,

00:43:16.840 | but at the end of the day,

00:43:17.760 | there's just sometimes you can't do anything else about 'em.

00:43:20.120 | Also, Ben wrote in, long time listener.

00:43:22.320 | Ben, thanks for listening.

00:43:23.840 | He noticed I mentioned all the flight drops

00:43:26.120 | on flights and car rentals, but I didn't talk about hotels.

00:43:30.080 | He said he's been using a cool free app

00:43:32.000 | called Pruvo, P-R-U-V-O, for the last few years.

00:43:35.640 | He says it's kind of like AutoSlash,

00:43:37.200 | but for refundable hotels.

00:43:38.980 | It saved him hundreds of dollars

00:43:40.880 | and offered him some last minute savings.

00:43:42.960 | So he said, definitely check that out.

00:43:44.740 | He might not know this, but it turns out

00:43:46.560 | that AutoSlash actually launched HotelSlash as well.

00:43:49.920 | So that's another option for monitoring hotel flight drops.

00:43:53.520 | And another great hack from Casey around hotel prices.

00:43:57.120 | He's planning a trip to Scottsdale for winter break

00:43:59.640 | and it was gonna be $2,200 to book on Hilton's website

00:44:02.960 | for a refundable option.

00:44:04.480 | So he tried HotelSlash

00:44:06.400 | and he found a fully refundable option for $1,800.

00:44:09.240 | So he booked that, but there wasn't a place

00:44:11.320 | for him to add his Hilton Honors number in the process.

00:44:13.260 | And that's true.

00:44:14.100 | A lot of the times you book hotels in portals

00:44:16.920 | and on discount sites,

00:44:18.860 | not only might you not be able to add your number,

00:44:20.920 | but you also might not be able to earn points.

00:44:24.180 | So he called the hotel to give him his Hilton number.

00:44:26.660 | And as they were looking it up,

00:44:27.700 | they mentioned that the reservation actually came

00:44:29.400 | from Expedia, which is important for what happened next.

00:44:32.380 | So he remembered that Hilton has a price match policy,

00:44:37.380 | where if you find a lower price somewhere else,

00:44:39.240 | they'll match it and take 25% off.

00:44:42.060 | So he called the Hilton customer service line

00:44:44.340 | and asked for the deal.

00:44:46.060 | While they said HotelSlash

00:44:47.660 | wasn't one of the sites they recognize,

00:44:50.420 | he had learned that that booking

00:44:51.820 | actually came through Expedia.

00:44:54.100 | So he had them verify the price on Expedia

00:44:56.900 | where they did find the $1,800 price and they would match.

00:45:00.300 | So Hilton ended up lowering the price by 25%

00:45:03.460 | and he ended up paying 1,400, still fully refundable

00:45:07.180 | and now booked directly with the hotel,

00:45:09.380 | which meant he could send an email

00:45:11.140 | and definitely have a higher chance of getting upgraded

00:45:13.500 | and certainly earn his points.

00:45:15.860 | So moral of the story is with any hotel chain

00:45:19.700 | that has a price match policy,

00:45:21.360 | if you ever find better rates on other sites,

00:45:24.300 | definitely worth trying to see

00:45:25.600 | if you can get them to match it

00:45:27.020 | so that you can book direct,

00:45:28.460 | you're gonna have a better experience if you book direct.

00:45:30.720 | So hopefully that helps somebody else save.

00:45:33.580 | As with all of these deals and hacks and ideas,

00:45:36.460 | definitely if you have success, send it in

00:45:38.700 | because I know people love hearing about all these wins.

00:45:41.460 | There are plenty of examples of people

00:45:43.220 | who heard me mention unclaimed money multiple times

00:45:46.100 | and it wasn't until they kept hearing stories

00:45:48.100 | about people having such great success that they tried

00:45:50.860 | and then they found hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

00:45:53.900 | So hopefully that helps.

00:45:55.180 | And just as I was about to upload this episode,

00:45:57.420 | I got an email from Aways,

00:45:58.980 | which is my favorite hotel award searching product,

00:46:02.200 | that they're having a huge summer travel sale

00:46:04.700 | until June 27th where anyone can get 40%

00:46:07.340 | off their premium plan,

00:46:08.780 | but All The Hacks listeners can get 50% off

00:46:11.780 | with a three-day free trial at allthehacks.com/aways,

00:46:15.780 | A-W-A-Y-Z.

00:46:17.820 | If you haven't checked out Aways,

00:46:19.180 | it's a hotel search engine that shows real-time cash

00:46:22.220 | and points pricing for all the major hotel chains.

00:46:25.580 | It really helps you get the most out of your points

00:46:27.660 | when you're planning a trip,

00:46:29.060 | or you can use their annual award calendar,

00:46:31.100 | which will let you find the best deals

00:46:32.940 | at the most desirable properties anywhere in the world.

00:46:35.800 | It's such an amazing tool for using points on hotels.

00:46:38.740 | They also have a free plan

00:46:40.060 | that lets you do five searches a month.

00:46:41.940 | But if you wanna check out the three-day trial

00:46:43.660 | on the premium plan and get 50% off,

00:46:45.820 | go to allthehacks.com/aways, A-W-A-Y-Z,

00:46:49.700 | and let me know what you think.

00:46:50.900 | When it comes to air travel,

00:46:52.700 | Frances wrote in and said that she had a broken stroller

00:46:56.220 | on her American Airlines flight.

00:46:57.820 | And even though it was outside of the 24-hour window,

00:47:00.020 | she was supposed to reach out to get any compensation.

00:47:03.120 | She still had the photos.

00:47:04.760 | So she ended up trying anyways,

00:47:06.680 | and they ended up replacing the entire price of the stroller.

00:47:09.780 | So for anyone who ever has anything damaged,

00:47:12.180 | don't forget to reach out.

00:47:13.700 | Even if the airline won't do anything,

00:47:15.300 | go back to episode 113,

00:47:17.360 | where I talk all about the credit card benefits.

00:47:19.380 | It's possible that your credit card

00:47:20.740 | might have you covered here.

00:47:22.180 | Okay, finally, the last travel-related hack.

00:47:24.260 | I know we've got so many of these.

00:47:25.860 | Hopefully you guys enjoy all these travel hacks

00:47:27.740 | and you can get a lot of value.

00:47:29.020 | Please shoot me an email, tag me on Instagram,

00:47:31.900 | @replyme on Twitter.

00:47:32.980 | Let me know what you think.

00:47:34.380 | I'm always trying to find out the right format

00:47:36.580 | for making these episodes great.

00:47:38.540 | But this one's from Mike,

00:47:39.940 | and he pointed out that he does

00:47:41.020 | a lot of international travel

00:47:42.780 | and wanted to share some rental car tips.

00:47:45.660 | So he always denies the rental car collision coverage.

00:47:48.540 | He's using his Venture X to get his collision damage

00:47:51.500 | covered through his credit card.

00:47:53.260 | But in the past few years,

00:47:54.660 | he's noticed that internationally,

00:47:56.460 | a lot of the rental car companies are requiring a letter

00:47:59.280 | from the credit card company

00:48:01.180 | stating that they provide collision damage coverage.

00:48:04.220 | He said the letter's easy to get.

00:48:05.720 | Usually you can email, support,

00:48:07.560 | or call the card concierge and they'll forward you something,

00:48:10.700 | but it does take time.

00:48:12.140 | So if you have some time to kill

00:48:13.700 | before you're traveling internationally

00:48:16.060 | and planning on using your card for rental coverage,

00:48:18.780 | it could be worth getting a printed copy of a statement

00:48:21.380 | saying that you have this coverage in advance.

00:48:23.620 | He said you don't need to email it to them.

00:48:25.260 | You don't need to plan, but I would bring it

00:48:27.060 | so that you can show it to them at the counter.

00:48:28.900 | The second was about a car accident in Costa Rica

00:48:31.420 | where the person needed to actually use

00:48:33.420 | one of these claims with this credit card company.

00:48:35.980 | And so the important piece of information here,

00:48:38.580 | no one was hurt fortunately,

00:48:40.240 | but he said the insurance company

00:48:42.800 | wanted so much documentation and fortunately they had it.

00:48:46.100 | But the most important thing he said that was essential

00:48:48.700 | was getting a police report.

00:48:50.300 | So if you're in an accident in a foreign country

00:48:53.060 | using a credit card or really anything for insurance,

00:48:55.740 | make sure that you get a police report.

00:48:58.180 | Funny enough, the only circumstance I have

00:49:00.780 | of this happening was also in Costa Rica

00:49:03.340 | and we did get a police report.

00:49:04.800 | So definitely make sure that you can get the police report

00:49:08.380 | when that happens, it's very important.

00:49:10.720 | Fortunately, after many phone calls and many escalations,

00:49:13.780 | he was able to get fully covered,

00:49:16.620 | but the $2,000 deposit they held on his card

00:49:19.700 | didn't get released until that was all resolved

00:49:21.700 | three months later.

00:49:22.880 | So just know that that can happen,

00:49:25.700 | but getting the right documentation,

00:49:27.700 | making sure you get everything you need can really help

00:49:30.340 | and make sure that you get covered at the end.

00:49:32.380 | Good news is he did get covered.

00:49:33.700 | It wasn't a problem in the long run,

00:49:35.280 | but it was a little bit of a hassle.

00:49:37.000 | And had he not had that police report,

00:49:39.060 | the assumption was that it probably wouldn't

00:49:40.980 | have gotten reimbursed as he had expected.

00:49:43.220 | Finally, I've got a few things that aren't related to travel

00:49:46.060 | but are great hacks and great learnings

00:49:48.580 | and great questions from you all.

00:49:49.940 | So the first two are on health.

00:49:51.580 | I've talked a lot about different health

00:49:53.420 | and blood-related diagnostics to do.

00:49:55.780 | You all know I'm a big fan of InsideTracker

00:49:57.740 | who's a partner of the show

00:49:59.260 | and I've used them multiple times over the last few years

00:50:02.140 | to do a lot of my blood work and check biomarkers.

00:50:04.980 | So definitely, if you're interested,

00:50:06.380 | you can check them out, allthehacks.com/insidetracker.

00:50:09.900 | But Bizu wrote in and wanted to share a program

00:50:11.900 | called All of Us,

00:50:12.900 | which is currently being sponsored by the NIH

00:50:15.380 | and it's geared towards precision medicine.

00:50:17.580 | I took a look at it

00:50:18.780 | and they're looking at all kinds of information

00:50:21.320 | related to genes, hereditary disease, blood work.

00:50:24.200 | But the cool thing for Bizu

00:50:25.460 | is that in her location due to a grant,

00:50:28.140 | the blood work was all free.

00:50:29.980 | So it cut down on the cost significantly.

00:50:32.620 | So definitely something worth checking out.

00:50:35.340 | I haven't spent a lot of time looking into All of Us,

00:50:38.180 | but I'm always a big fan

00:50:40.020 | of the government-sponsored programs

00:50:41.780 | that can help you get blood work done for free

00:50:44.580 | or really anything that would help you

00:50:46.100 | be more intentional with health.

00:50:47.740 | I'm excited, Bizu, you're doing that this year in 2023

00:50:50.540 | and hopefully this helps other people.

00:50:52.820 | Similarly, John sent me an email

00:50:54.700 | letting me know that for the GRAIL test,

00:50:57.100 | which is a cancer detection test using blood work,

00:51:00.340 | that there's actually a giant study

00:51:02.080 | called the Pathfinder 2 study

00:51:03.740 | happening all across the country

00:51:05.960 | that ends up giving free GRAIL tests as part of the study.

00:51:10.500 | Unfortunately for anyone under 50 years old,

00:51:12.980 | that is a requirement of the study,

00:51:14.500 | but for anyone over 50,

00:51:16.160 | it's definitely a way to get this test done for free.

00:51:19.260 | I know my doctor recommended this test

00:51:21.360 | as something to consider,

00:51:22.960 | not necessarily something necessary for my age,

00:51:26.260 | but the question I actually asked my doctor,

00:51:28.140 | which I'd encourage other people to ask,

00:51:30.380 | because so much of medicine

00:51:31.580 | is based on what insurance covers,

00:51:33.940 | I said, "Hey, if I was willing to spend

00:51:35.460 | "a couple thousand dollars this year on my health,

00:51:38.080 | "are there specific diagnostics or tests

00:51:40.380 | "that you would recommend?"

00:51:41.960 | And the GRAIL test came out of that conversation.

00:51:44.780 | If you do some searching on the GRAIL test,

00:51:46.420 | you will see an article in the New York Times recently

00:51:49.340 | that sounds pretty bad.

00:51:50.460 | For the people affected, it probably very much was.

00:51:52.960 | They had a system error that falsely sent

00:51:55.820 | either letters or emails to 400 people,

00:51:58.100 | letting them know that their test

00:51:59.880 | came back positive for cancer,

00:52:01.780 | when in fact it wasn't.

00:52:03.320 | I think the silver lining was,

00:52:05.440 | it was much more related to back office work

00:52:07.580 | than the quality of the tests.

00:52:09.940 | Obviously, not a great situation for them,

00:52:12.420 | and even worse for the people that got that message,

00:52:15.060 | but I do think that they've probably figured out

00:52:17.500 | how to make sure that doesn't happen again,

00:52:19.340 | so I am interested in this test.

00:52:20.820 | I haven't done it yet,

00:52:21.840 | but it's something that is on my plan for this year.

00:52:24.700 | And so the Pathfinder 2 study,

00:52:26.060 | which I'll link to in the show notes,

00:52:27.180 | might be great for people listening,

00:52:28.940 | or if you're too young,

00:52:29.780 | maybe people who's listening's parents.

00:52:31.800 | I've talked a lot about how I love clipping deals

00:52:34.220 | in the Safeway app,

00:52:35.600 | but Sarah wrote in to tell me to let everyone know

00:52:38.580 | that you should also be looking at warehouse stores.

00:52:41.680 | So she was heading to BJ's and she checked their app,

00:52:44.460 | and they had coupons for $10 off any purchase,

00:52:47.140 | a free case of water, free chips.

00:52:49.340 | She ended up getting over $20 of value for 30 seconds.

00:52:51.980 | So whether it's Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's,

00:52:54.460 | or your grocery store, Kroger, Safeway,

00:52:56.380 | definitely check those apps.

00:52:58.100 | I think almost every single time I open up the Safeway app,

00:53:01.740 | there is a $5 to $10 off your next grocery purchase

00:53:05.220 | in that app.

00:53:06.060 | So every time I open the app,

00:53:07.360 | I almost always save $5 to $10,

00:53:09.460 | again, for 30 seconds of work.

00:53:11.140 | So definitely something that you should all be doing.

00:53:13.020 | Thank you, Sarah, for the reminder to do it other places.

00:53:16.380 | Couple things on money.

00:53:17.820 | Ryan wrote in wanting to say

00:53:20.060 | that we talked about high yield savings accounts

00:53:22.040 | in the episode with Ben Carlson,

00:53:23.700 | but we didn't talk about the Wealthfront Cash account.

00:53:26.560 | Maybe it's that I worked there and I feel a little bit

00:53:29.180 | like I don't want to constantly talk about Wealthfront,

00:53:31.580 | but I will say I'm a huge fan of their product.

00:53:34.480 | I have my money in the Wealthfront account.

00:53:36.300 | It is super simple and seamless.

00:53:38.600 | Tons of FDIC insurance, easy deposit withdrawal.

00:53:42.000 | Is there a window of time right now

00:53:43.440 | where you might be able to earn higher yield

00:53:45.120 | or better tax advantaged yield from short-term treasuries?

00:53:48.200 | Yes.

00:53:49.080 | If you're not in a high tax bracket,

00:53:50.580 | maybe it doesn't matter as much,

00:53:51.700 | or maybe you live in a state with no tax

00:53:53.420 | and it doesn't matter for you either,

00:53:55.000 | but his top money hack this year

00:53:56.560 | that he's been sharing with everyone

00:53:58.320 | is using the Wealthfront Cash account.

00:54:00.240 | And I just want to flag that

00:54:01.240 | that is where I keep majority of my cash.

00:54:04.460 | Also, if you sign up with anyone's cash referral link,

00:54:07.560 | you should be able to get an extra 0.5%,

00:54:10.840 | boosting the 4.55% to 5.05%, which is pretty awesome.

00:54:15.840 | I'll put a referral link for my account in the show notes

00:54:19.520 | if you want to use that,

00:54:20.520 | or if you want to use anyone else's.

00:54:22.300 | And if you're signing up for any of the investment accounts,

00:54:24.140 | which by the way,

00:54:24.980 | Wealthfront recently launched a cool bond portfolio,

00:54:27.180 | which is kind of supposed to live somewhere

00:54:29.020 | between the risk of cash and investing.

00:54:31.540 | And if you want to use that or any of the investing accounts,

00:54:33.860 | you can get $5,000 managed free with a referral link,

00:54:36.940 | and I'll post mine in the show notes as well.

00:54:38.500 | Speaking of personal finance,

00:54:40.220 | Tony wrote in a question asking what apps I use

00:54:43.180 | when it comes to tracking all of my spending and budgeting.

00:54:47.200 | And I'll share three options.

00:54:49.520 | There are plenty of tools and services out there.

00:54:51.920 | I know a lot of us used to use Mint back in the day,

00:54:54.680 | but I've kind of grown tired of Mint,

00:54:57.380 | and I've settled on three

00:54:58.860 | that I think are great recommendations.

00:55:01.380 | So if you don't want to pay anything,

00:55:03.900 | I'm a big fan of the Rocket Money app.

00:55:06.100 | Yes, they're a partner of the show,

00:55:07.900 | but I really think they have a great free tracking app

00:55:11.420 | that lets you manage all of your transactions,

00:55:14.140 | categorizing, getting alerts on when things get refunded

00:55:17.420 | or unusual purchase sizes.

00:55:19.380 | I'm also a big fan of the premium version of Rocket Money

00:55:21.560 | that will just cancel subscriptions for you.

00:55:23.900 | So definitely check out Rocket Money

00:55:25.660 | if you want a free app for this.

00:55:27.780 | If you're an Apple or Mac user,

00:55:29.840 | I'm also a big fan of the Copilot Money app.

00:55:32.660 | They don't have any of the

00:55:33.500 | canceling your subscription features

00:55:35.060 | you'll get from Rocket Money.

00:55:36.340 | It's purely focused on budgeting and transactions,

00:55:39.740 | but it's really great UI.

00:55:41.940 | Personally, this is my budgeting app

00:55:44.380 | and the premium paid app that I'd recommend.

00:55:47.460 | I love it.

00:55:48.300 | It's so seamless.

00:55:49.580 | I will put my referral link.

00:55:51.340 | I'll get a couple of months free if you use it.

00:55:53.320 | So thank you, but I do love this app.

00:55:55.300 | I pay for it.

00:55:56.140 | They're not a partner of the show.

00:55:57.620 | I think it's great if you're willing to pay

00:55:59.660 | and you're an Apple user and you value kind of the UI, UX,

00:56:03.700 | and some of those extra features of a premium paid app.

00:56:07.060 | And then last, if you don't really wanna use apps

00:56:09.680 | and you'd rather manage everything in a spreadsheet,

00:56:11.860 | check out Tiller HQ.

00:56:13.840 | I've used it in the past.

00:56:15.100 | It's a pretty cool product that pulls

00:56:16.700 | all of your transaction data into Google Sheets or Excel,

00:56:20.440 | letting you kind of run your own analysis,

00:56:22.840 | but being able to benefit

00:56:24.020 | from kind of Plaid and Yodlee style syncing

00:56:27.260 | where you're able to get your transactions

00:56:28.800 | pulled in automatically.

00:56:29.900 | So those are three I'll recommend.

00:56:31.520 | And I'm really glad you asked that question, Tony,

00:56:33.100 | 'cause I love that.

00:56:33.940 | You didn't ask Tony about net worth tracking

00:56:36.380 | and budgeting and forecasting,

00:56:38.020 | but my two favorites there are the Wealthfront app,

00:56:41.180 | the product we built for financial planning

00:56:43.360 | and being able to model out the future

00:56:45.480 | based on home purchases,

00:56:47.460 | based on sending your kids to college and all that stuff.

00:56:49.820 | I don't think there is a better net worth

00:56:52.100 | for forecasting tool than what we had at Wealthfront.

00:56:54.580 | I say, we, I don't work there anymore,

00:56:56.260 | but what Wealthfront has is my favorite there.

00:56:58.860 | And then for tracking net worth,

00:57:00.620 | if you wanna go to a little bit more nuanced

00:57:02.420 | and you go on to dial in things a little bit more detail,

00:57:04.940 | I'm a huge fan of Kubera.

00:57:06.620 | It's how I track my net worth.

00:57:08.460 | I don't do my forecasting there,

00:57:10.100 | but I do track everything there.

00:57:12.020 | They did recently launch a forecasting tool

00:57:14.360 | that I haven't spent enough time with.

00:57:16.020 | So I can't endorse that tool yet,

00:57:17.820 | but if you wanna check out Kubera,

00:57:19.180 | I'm a huge fan.

00:57:20.140 | I'll put a link in the show notes.

00:57:21.260 | I think it's just all thehacks.com/kubera.

00:57:23.620 | And I'm actually working with them right now

00:57:25.300 | to see if we can get a deal for members.

00:57:26.780 | So stay tuned there.

00:57:28.060 | Last thing to close this out is about cell phones.

00:57:30.340 | Two hacks from Scott and Chris.

00:57:32.620 | Scott wanted to share his experience

00:57:34.340 | buying for phones for his family,

00:57:36.100 | which includes a bunch of teenagers

00:57:37.880 | who always seem to want the latest iPhones

00:57:40.260 | and regularly break them.

00:57:42.180 | He said that he's been using a site called Swappa,

00:57:46.180 | S-W-A-P-P-A, to buy mint condition

00:57:50.060 | or very good condition iPhones

00:57:51.860 | for anywhere from a third to half off.

00:57:53.980 | He's bought over 10 iPhones here.

00:57:56.220 | Ouch is what he said in his email,

00:57:57.920 | but he hasn't been burned yet.

00:57:59.600 | So that's how he's buying iPhones

00:58:00.980 | to get a huge discount for his family.

00:58:03.020 | And then Chris pointed out,

00:58:04.300 | I've shared in the past using Phone Barn

00:58:06.580 | to buy numbers so that you can port to get deals

00:58:09.900 | when you're transferring numbers to carriers.

00:58:12.140 | He pointed out that Google Voice can do this for free.

00:58:14.220 | You can get your line from Google Voice

00:58:16.180 | and then you can transfer that number

00:58:18.140 | over to another carrier to get a deal.

00:58:21.020 | You may have to pay a $3 unlocking fee,

00:58:24.020 | but it's very minor compared to the $500 to $1,000

00:58:27.620 | you might save porting a number over to a new carrier.

00:58:30.420 | So he said that was a great tip.

00:58:32.120 | And then last, Francis asked a question,

00:58:34.180 | which I'm gonna have to punt on, but it's in this camp,

00:58:36.780 | so I didn't want you to think I wasn't covering it,

00:58:38.980 | just about covering cell phone plans

00:58:40.920 | and how to compare them and how to figure out what to do.

00:58:44.060 | Part of the reason I'm not including it

00:58:45.500 | is because I was gonna talk about Verizon

00:58:47.220 | and then they just up and changed all their plans again.

00:58:49.660 | And I still don't even know how that affects my own plan.

00:58:52.700 | So stay tuned in the future.

00:58:54.420 | I'd love to talk more about cell phone plans,

00:58:56.500 | but not gonna be this episode.

00:58:58.000 | Wow, I know we covered a lot of hacks, deals, questions.

00:59:02.300 | Hopefully this was helpful.

00:59:03.580 | Definitely reach out to me and please share more.

00:59:06.140 | I love getting questions.

00:59:07.380 | I love doing these episodes

00:59:09.060 | and I know they're really valuable to people.

00:59:11.020 | I can see it in the feedback I get.

00:59:12.620 | I can see it in the download numbers.

00:59:14.340 | So keep them coming.

00:59:15.820 | Still, this is overdue,

00:59:17.420 | but I've been saving all the questions

00:59:19.060 | related to family, children, travel with kids,

00:59:22.780 | college savings for a big episode

00:59:24.820 | to do all of those things together.

00:59:26.100 | That's coming soon.

00:59:27.060 | So feel free to add more there.

00:59:29.340 | Otherwise, thank you so much for listening.

00:59:31.100 | I will see you next week.

00:59:32.360 | (upbeat music)

00:59:35.400 | (upbeat music)

00:59:37.980 | (upbeat music)

00:59:40.560 | [BIRDS CHIRPING]