The question that I hear the most in life is “Why didn’t you shave?” But when I’m not speaking with my wife, the question I hear the SECOND most is “What credit card should I get?” It’s a pretty complicated question that leads to a whole other set of questions – today I’m going to talk about the things you should be asking yourself when you’re trying to choose a credit card to apply for. As always, don’t bother applying for a credit card in an effort to reap rewards if you can’t pay your bill off in full monthly. You’ll just lose yourself money in the long run because interest charges won’t be worth any rewards you own. Anyway, on to the post.
Maximizing Bonuses on Everyday Credit Card Spending with Gift Cards
I’m on record saying that the fastest way to earn miles and points is through lucrative sign up bonuses. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concentrating on maximizing your earning rate at other times. In this post I’ll detail some of the ways I ensure that I earn the most points possible whenever I’m purchasing something.
Building Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: United
Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: Introduction
Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: United
Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: American Airlines
Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: Delta
Bulding up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: US Airways
Update (5/1/2013): It seems that the 50K United Mileage Plus Explorer offer is no longer available anywhere. That’s too bad – adjust your strategies accordingly.
I thought I’d start this series with my favorite mileage currency out there: United Miles. As I stated in the introduction, United has lots of partners and great award rules (one stopover and TWO open jaws), giving a lot of flexibility and options. The good news is, there are a lot of cards out there to help build a balance in United Mileage Plus quickly. The bad news is, everything revolves around Chase credit cards, meaning it will take a little bit of time.
April Credit Card App-o-rama: 4 for 5 for 240,000 Miles and Points
I’ve been spacing out my credit card applications, so I decided to go for a big one this April. I applied for five cards, and after some phone calls, was approved for four of them to the tune of 240,000 total miles and points. I’ll explain the five cards I applied for, how I was approved, the sign up bonuses, and why I didn’t get the fifth one.
Credit Card Application Strategy: Canceling Cards
Good points earning credit cards always come with a catch: an annual fee. Obviously, once you have 4, 5, or 10 of these cards, it becomes unwise to pay for all of the annual fees. So you’ll need to do two things: decide what cards to cancel, and then actually cancel those cards to avoid the annual fee. Here’s how: