Credit Cards Archives - asthejoeflies

Mar 26 2018

Four Reasons to consider passing on the Chase Iberia Credit Card

Like I wrote about last week, at one point in my miles and points career I applied for cards I didn’t need. That was all well and good when we didn’t have kids and could fly off to Europe for the weekend. It’s less ideal now that our time is limited. One thing I wish I had seen during my “Phase 3” heyday were more reasons not to apply for the shiniest new credit cards out there. So I’ve written this post about reasons to avoid the Chase Iberia credit card with that in mind. If you’re looking for reasons to talk yourself out of this card, this post is for you!

Now let me get this out up front: this is a perfectly good card and will fit a lot of people’s situations. However, every single review you read of a new credit card spends 90% or more of its time talking about what’s good about the card. This post will spend 90% of the time highlighting what’s not so good about the card, but let me get the other 10% out of the way. 50,000 Avios can be very useful to families who live in cities that have good AA space, transferring to British Airways is useful if not cumbersome, and the card not being subject to 5/24 is great.

Alright, let’s get to the reasons why I’m avoiding the Chase Iberia credit card. You can also consider these reasons to be wary of the hype.

1. It’s not really a 75,000 Avios sign up bonus

The first thing I think consumers should be aware of is the advertisement of the sign up bonus being 75,000 Avios rings a bit false to me. You earn 50,000 Avios after $3K in spending, and the other 25,000 after $7K in spending. If you have reliable MS or reselling methods, that 75K might be worth it. But if you’re a bit more average, like myself, 25K for 7K of spending isn’t amazing. I’d rather do 7K spending with my Chase Ink at office supply stores and earn 35K Ultimate Rewards.

Here’s the tricky thing that I need to remind myself. Even though I know I probably wouldn’t earn the 75K total if I applied for this card, just seeing it advertised as 75K has a subtle effect on how I view the card. I know better, but advertisements, which I’d is how I’d characterize 80% of the Chase Iberia credit card posts out there, have one job, and that’s to psychologically fool people into buying products. So I personally need to mentally adjust when I’m reading the hype, and I think others should do the same.

Just remember the opportunity cost of spending an extra $7000 to earn that extra 25K Iberia Avios. It definitely will be worth it to some, but not all. But it’s really a 50K sign up bonus with a 25K spending bonus. At least that’s how I identify it.

2. Avios (both Iberia and British Airways iterations) can be difficult to use in your situation

I used to love British Airways Avios. Even post devaluation, I found being able to take AA flights for slightly cheaper to be invaluable. Then a funny thing happened, AA tightened up all their award space and I had a bunch of kids. Now all of a sudden I’m searching for four tickets during peak school vacation times. Finding nonstop flights that fit those criteria can be very difficult.

One highly touted usage of British Airways Avios is the ability to redeem for flights from the West Coast to Hawaii for 12,500 per segment. That is indeed a great deal! Except:

They say Avios are great for the West Coast to Hawaii, but that’s contingent on award space

Things get better in September but your kids are probably back in school.

Update : counterpoint from @lsjbrooks

That space does my family very little good but hopefully it helps yours

Looks like you cherry-picked that LAX-Hawaii space. It looks decent in late July and most of August, especially non-HNL. Only east-coast Hawaii casuals go to Oahu 😜
— Tim (@ljsbrooks) March 26, 2018

Anyway, sometimes Avios can be super useful, but I generally haven’t found them to be as useful as the internet says they are. You have to get pretty creative, and if you don’t have a lot of time to do your research, you may just be chasing a shiny new sign up bonus that you don’t have the time to put the work into to use properly. Also, if you’re busy, you might not want to go through the hassle of transferring from Iberia to British Airways. It’s only like, two steps, but there’s the 90 day waiting period yada yada yada…I have found as my time has become more precious these small nuisances add up.

In terms of using the Avios for Iberia flights, I’ve had my eye on BOS-MAD on Iberia in the summer (it’s seasonal) for years now, but have never found enough seats for my family. We’d love to go back to Madrid, and you’d think the Iberia credit card could get us there, but in reality…probably not.

3. It’s another card to keep track of in your sock drawer

The earn potential on the card out of the sign up bonus isn’t very exciting. Most people don’t fly Iberia regularly so it won’t be worth it to spend $30K to get a $1000 voucher. (Though at 3.3% back, it’s not bad if you do I guess). But most people aren’t going to be spending on Iberia or British Airways flights regularly, so this card will only earn you 1 Avios per dollar. Obviously you can do better just by using any Sapphire Card which will earn you a minimum of 1 Ultimate Reward point per dollar which you can of course transfer to Avios.

So, most people will just get this card for the sign up bonus and sock drawer it – that’s not going to be worth the hassle for a lot of people.

4. Is the card worth going past 5/24?

A lot has been made about the fact that the Iberia card isn’t subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule. For some people, that’s great because if you’re “LOL/24” you have no chance to ever get back under so any hit of that sweet, sweet Chase is worth it. However, 24 months isn’t that long in the game – I’ve been dropping closer to 5/24 over the past 12 months. We’ve kept my wife permanently below 5/24. So is this card really worth adding to your 5/24 total or putting you over?

Ultimately, the miles and points game is a long game – so make sure you keep that in mind as you make your decisions.

Final Thoughts

If I’m being perfectly honest, I thought there’d be more compelling reasons to avoid the new Chase Iberia card. Turns out, the reasons are mostly subtle, meaning it’s likely a pretty good card! I thought I’d try a new angle while analyzing the credit card, so I don’t know if I’ll do another post like this in the future. In the end, I think my post has at least convinced me that I’m personally going to pass. Because the fact of the matter is, there aren’t many compelling reasons to get this card either. These days I like to keep my credit card applications to the ones I really want, and I’ll stick with that for now. If you’re looking for a more traditional review, DoC’s got you covered.

How about you, does the Chase Iberia card have a new space in your wallet? For the next month or so at least? Let me know in the comments!

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Mar 19 2018

Why you shouldn’t sign up for every credit card sign up bonus you hear about

I think the credit card and travel hacking game can be dangerous for a variety of reasons. One of the most dangerous can also be one the most subtle. For lack of a better term, I’ll call it “internet peer pressure.” Even if you don’t overspend to meet credit card sign up bonuses and pay off your balances monthly, there exists an inherent pressure from the blogosphere to be signing up for every single credit card sign up bonus that comes around. When I started this game, I always felt I HAD to have the newest, best credit card sign up bonuses out there. It starts off simply, but like I said, it’s very subtle. I think a lot of travel credit card enthusiasts go through phases along these lines:

Four Phases of Travel Credit Card Enthusiasts

Phase 1: Hmm, should I dip my toe into this credit card rewards thing?

In Phase 1, you’re still not convinced that applying for credit cards regularly won’t hurt your credit. You dip your toe into the pool by getting a card, probably a Chase Sapphire Preferred because you’ve heard about it ad nauseum. For some people, you’ll take one trip with those points, but for others…

Phase 2: Establishing a credit card application rhythm

If you continue on, you start getting a good handle on how often you can apply for credit cards, and fall into a predictable rhythm of adding one, two, or more new cards every couple months. Maybe you double or triple the number of trips you take in a year, and you really get into the swing of earning miles and points regularly through sign up bonuses. Now lots of people stop at Phase 1, but I think for most people in Phase 2 you end up at…

Phase 3: You really want to sign up for more credit cards but there are no good signup bonuses left so you just chase that next bonus

I think I hit Phase 3 about 2-3 years into the game. I had exhausted most of the “great” sign up bonuses but I felt like I had to still sign up for new cards every three months so I started applying for good, not great sign up bonuses. I’d convince myself mentally that I “needed” these cards even though I had no uses for the miles or they belonged to obscure programs. Hopefully for those who enter Phase 3, like myself, they enter Phase 4:

Phase 4: You realize that you should only be earning the miles that you plan to spend, and that almost everyone in this space is trying to sell you credit cards

Have a plan for your miles and points. Earn the miles you plan to spend. Once I finally burned that into my brain, I stopped chasing sign up bonuses. I then coupled this with my realization of the fact that all the “buzz” about every single new and “amazing” credit card sign up bonus out there results at least in some part from people who are trying to sell you said credit card.

Understanding the internet’s role in making you want to sign up for new credit cards

I’m not trying to be critical here, though I’m not trying to defend anyone either. But I’ll just speak for myself, even my blog and social media, which receives no compensations from banks for credit card conversions, contributes to the “buzz” behind cards. That’s because when my friend tells me they just bought a $1500 dollar snowblower my automatic reaction is “you should have signed up for a new credit card.”

Of course, this just perpetuates the notion that all spend should be going towards meeting credit card sign up bonus minimums. And if you’re in Phase 2, that’s almost definitely correct!

BUT. You get to a point where all of a sudden you are chasing points in programs that you don’t have a plan for. So, you may be earning more points, but if you don’t use them, maybe you should have just used them for regular spend on one of the cards you already have.

Factor in the fact that the minority of the community, at least on the blogs, warns you to consider how “lifecycle effects” (copyright Free-quent Flyer) has changed your travel habits. My wife and I flew internationally 5 times a year before our first child, now our goal is 2 international trips a year.

Whenever a new credit card comes out, everyone gets excited, and rightfully so! I really wanted the Hilton Aspire card and I really want the new Iberia card. But the reality is I haven’t redeemed a single Hilton point or Avios (Avio?) for over two years). So as much as I want shiny new cards, it’s tough to say I can actually use those miles and points.

Whenever a new card comes out, 90% of blogs will write about it, travel hacking Twitter will blow up, and if it’s big enough, even your mom will ask you about it. It’s tough not to buckle under that kind of pressure, especially when the bonus is legitimately good. But I do my best to remember to ask myself: Am I thinking about my actual spending (of miles) habits when I fall for the buzz for new credit cards?

Orphaned Points – My Hall of Shame

I reached Phase 3 right around lifecycle effects dictated a restriction on my travel. So, I have a personal hall of shame, orphaned points I need to get rid of. I thought it’d be fun to share my sources of shame and how I plan to get rid of them.

Radisson Rewards (~140,000 points)

Earned via: Club Carlson credit card sign ups back in the day

Reason for shame: Still haven’t used a single point. Had a stay booked right before the extra free night expired but we ended up canceling.

Plan for use: Since I plan on starting to book two rooms in the foreseeable future, we should use this on our next domestic vacation.

Alaska Airlines (~150,000 miles)

Earned via: a couple of BofA Alaska Airlines cards plus some old Virgin America Points

Reason for shame: Alaska Airlines felt like a great idea. We love Seattle, we love flying Cathay to Hong Kong, and hey maybe we could even fly Emirates. But it turns out when we had kids we actually realized we don’t like traveling without them! (Except for once or twice). I also didn’t book using AS for our last trip to Hong Kong because I wanted the flexibility to change dates and times from AA.

Plan for use: No active plans. 🙁 May just burn them on domestic AA flights.

Merrill Edge Points (~50,000 points)

Earned via: Merril Edge+ BofA card sign up bonus

Reason for shame: I guess I’m not ashamed of this, but I am reminding myself I need to use these points for my next flights

Plan for use: My next domestic flights

Final Thoughts

Remember, you don’t need to sign up for every credit card sign up bonus! Be sure to evaluate your miles and points needs and make your decisions accordingly. If you travel all the time, this probably applies less to you, but if you’ve got a growing family like mine, make sure you at least consider exercising discipline in your overall strategy.

Also, I’m sure some of you have orphaned points and your own hall of shame, so I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

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Mar 05 2018

How long should you wait between credit card applications? (Reader Question)

So today IRL I had a friend ask me, “How long should I wait before applying for a new credit card?” This friend, who I’ll call Nicole, had been poking around my blog but couldn’t find if I had written about it anywhere. While I discussed the different ways applying for new credit cards affects your credit score way back when this blog began, I never explicitly discussed how long to wait between credit card applications. I thought it’d be helpful to address this really quickly.

Of course, the answer, as always, is it depends. And I’m generally hesitant to hand out concrete advice these days, on the blog at least. We all have our unique situations. Still, I’ve had a few reader questions lately that I’d like to address, and I’ll start with this one.

For these reader questions, my aim is to provide a framework for people to make their decisions. While I know my friend’s particular situation and what I’d advise her, that doesn’t mean it’s the same thing I’d advise another reader. But I think the framework we approach questions generally remains consistent.

So, what should you consider when deciding how long to wait between credit card applications? TL;DR at the bottom of the post if you’re lazy, but if you’re a beginner make sure you understand what you’re getting yourself into.

Can you handle paying your credit cards in full?

Since this post suits beginners more, let me start with the biggest reminder. Credit cards and the benefits you can earn are wonderful, but you must have both the means and the discipline to pay your cards off in full. Otherwise, the banks are making money off of you and you are putting yourself in a negative financial situation.

There are, of course, exceptions for advanced players – but that’s 400-level stuff. Be responsible, pay your credit card bills on time and in full, or perhaps consider another strategy.

Factors that affect your credit score

So I mostly covered it in that old post, but let’s quickly look at what affects your credit score. It’s important to understand what a credit score is and how it’s used.

Simply put, the banks are trying to figure out whether you will pay them back their money. Obviously, if they extend you credit and you never pay it back, they lose money. Your credit score places a numerical value on how “trustworthy” you can be. With that in mind, a quick recap of what affects your credit score.

Payment History

Obviously, if you pay your bills on time, you will look more credit-worthy to the banks. And like I said above, pay your credit card bills on time and in full.

Credit Utilization

This is mostly a fancy word for the amount owed. Basically, if you use a lot of the credit offered to you, then banks find you less credit-worthy. “Why does she need all that extra money?”, they ask. So if you have a lot of credit available to you but you don’t use a lot of it, you seem more credit-worthy to the bank.

Average Age of Accounts

If banks have been extending you credit for a long time, you look more credit-worthy.

New Credit Inquiries

If you keep asking the banks for more credit, that naturally hurts your credit score.

People often wonder how long should you wait between credit card applications? While there's no simple answer, it's important to understand the factors that affect how long to wait between credit card applications. — A reminder that a good understanding of how your credit score works can help you keep your score high even when applying for new credit cards

What causes banks to refuse to extend credit to someone

So I said I’d give you a framework for making your decision. Taking into account the factors that affect your credit score above, you can sort of figure out why banks would reject you for a credit card.

If you use up a lot of the credit extended to you, apply for cards all the time, and miss payments, obviously you’ll look bad to banks and they won’t want to give you credit cards.

However, if you’re responsible and pay your cards on time and don’t use up all your credit, you will look different to a bank even if you apply for cards a lot. Does applying for a lot of cards look great? Probably not, but overall you look like a net gain for the banks and they will be more likely to approve you for a credit card.

Your credit inquiries (each time you apply for credit) hurt your score the most in the first three months, and then the negative effect decreases.

So a general rule of thumb, which led to the old app-o-rama strategy, is don’t apply for credit cards more frequently than every three months. But overall, it’s okay to apply for cards every three months because every card you approve for makes your credit utilization look better, assuming you don’t increase your spending. You get more credit extended to you, spend the same amount of money, so your amount of credit used goes down.

And, of course, there are lovely banks like Chase with rules prohibiting you from (generally) getting approved for new cards if you’ve opened too many in the past. Google Chase 5/24 if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Overall, make sure you have a good understanding of where you stand before you apply for new credit cards. Sites like Credit Sesame and Credit Karma will give you an estimation of your credit score, too.

I don’t use Credit Sesame much anymore, but it’s still a good place to monitor your general credit worthiness

How often do you apply for credit cards overall?

This, ultimately, is what I asked my friend and the most relevant to her situation. If you consider yourself a travel hacker and apply for cards all the time, you should follow the general rule of thumb and wait 90 days for new cards.

But if you’re just starting out, or have a lot of expenses coming up, it’s not the worst thing in the world to apply for, say, two cards within a month of each other. It will definitely hurt your score in the short term but on time payments and your credit utilization should balance that out in the long term.

Which is why I say everything depends. Personally, I don’t adhere to a strict 90 days anymore, though I try to keep everything spaced out like that as a general guideline.

Some questions to ask yourself

As promised, here’s the TL;DR version. A framework, if you will, of what to ask yourself/think about if you are trying to figure out how often you should be applying for new cards.

Are you paying your credit cards off in full every month?
Assess your payment history, credit utilization, average age of accounts, and recent credit inquiries.
How many lines of credit have you applied for in the last 90 days?
Do you have any large credit needs (e.g., mortgage), coming up in the next 90 days?

While the general answer to how often to apply for new lines of credit is 90 days, a good understanding of yourself and your habits in relation to the above questions should help you determine situations when you might not want to wait the full 90.

Final Thoughts

Again, I can’t reiterate this enough. You have to figure out what works for your current financial situation. But I’d definitely advise against messing around if you’re not paying your credit cards off in full. Personally, I don’t apply for cards every 90 days anymore. I just wait until I see sign up bonuses I like and then pull the trigger. That means sometimes I’ll go six months with no new cards. Other times, I apply for 3 cards in the span of 12 days.

If you’re a beginner, start out slow and find out what works for you. Hopefully this gives you a general idea of what to consider in terms of time between new cards. Remember, sign up for cards with your travel goals in mind. Happy travels!

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Feb 12 2018

Current miles and points earning strategies for this father of three

So now that the dust has settled and our family zone defense has been set up after the third child, I’ve spent some time the past few weeks taking stock of my current miles and points earning strategies. Let me start by saying don’t take these as recommendations. My goal for this article is for you, the reader, especially if you are potentially a parent with limited time like myself, to have some food for thought about your miles and points earning strategies.

I’ll outline three earning strategies that I’m using regularly and three that I’m mostly ignoring these days. To provide context, as a father of three, my time outside the house alone has become extremely limited. The free time I have exists mainly at home – kids napping, asleep for the night, etc. I probably get the most “work” done after 9 PM.

So, my strategies are tailored to what I can do online without making too many detours. I can probably afford one 15 minute detour a day on average after I drop of the kids but I prefer not. Also, I haven’t stepped foot in a Wal-mart in three years and have no regrets. Let’s take a look at strategies I’m using/not using.

Since all these strategies are viable (even the ones I don’t use), when applicable I’ve tried to list some sources for those getting started. Feel free to add in the comments!

Strategies I currently use

1. Credit card sign up bonuses

Try as I might, I can’t get away from çredit card sign up bonuses. They still remain the fastest way to earn miles and points since I can clear spend naturally. At this point I generally only clear one card bonus at a time which I can more or less do naturally. Plus I use #2 and #3 below to help clear bonuses.

One thing to note, I’ve finally managed to get away from what I can best describe as credit card sign up bonus hype. I try to make sure I have a goal in mind before earning miles and points, which means passing on “great” offers sometimes. Example, I decided to pass on the American Express Hilton Aspire card since it didn’t fit with our current travel plans (through 2019). I can’t take on another $450 card!

If you want to learn more about credit card sign up bonuses, you pretty much can find information at any miles and points blogs. Just beware of the hype and make sure the latest it card works for you.

There are tons of different miles and points earning strategies out there. Different strategies will work for different people, make sure you know your earning options and what works best for you. — There are lots of great credit card sign up bonuses still out there, even though I passed on this one

2. Gift card reselling

I hit gift card reselling hard in Q4 last year, mainly because it dovetails very nicely with my need not to leave the house. You can buy and sell giftcards from the comfort of your home office (online arbitrage). In generally, I stick to deals that are breakeven or slight money makers and take home the points (this of course is very easy in Q4 when lots of gift cards go on sale for the holidays). I also generally only buy when I know that I can sell immediately, reducing the amount of money I need to float.

I have taken a break from gift card reselling, partially because of some of the liquidity concerns at The Plastic Merchant, my preferred vendor. I plan to still use them but also diversify to other platforms when I get back into it (which I should have been doing all along). But if you’re interested in getting into gift card reselling you should follow people like Doctor of Credit, Danny Deal Guru, and Miles to Memories on Twitter, they generally post deals. Then it’s up to you to figure out whether you can sell them at a good enough price to justify the points you earn. The Plastic Merchant has great deal alerts as well, provided they have figured out their issues of course.

3. Ticket reselling

One of my newest miles and points earning strategies is ticket reselling. Like buying Justin Timberlake tickets and selling them for a profit. The pros of ticket reselling is you’re likely making more money than you are with gift card reselling. The cons are you have a lot longer float time with your money and a lot more risk, especially if you don’t understand the market economics of concert tickets.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t resell tickets without my partner, who does the majority of the work for a share of the profits. And I generally stick to stuff that I figure won’t have a problem selling (Hamilton) and don’t get too greedy about profits. Another real danger about ticket reselling is you have to float large amounts of money for long periods of time, which I personally limit pretty severely. So I’m not raking by any means, it’s more of a trickle.

If you want to get in on this, I’d highly recommend reading Miles Per Day, he is all about ticket reselling these days (when he’s not getting shut down). I do worry that market saturation will eventually take its toll, but I guess we’ll see. I don’t resell tickets aggressively, so I wouldn’t personally recommend this as a primary miles and points earner (because I don’t have enough experience with it to say either way).

Strategies I currently stay away from

1. Product reselling

Reselling products using Fulfillment by Amazon or even Ebay seems pretty lucrative. I have friends who have been doing it for years and of course my partner in crime on the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast, Trevor of Tagging Miles, makes reselling a good side business. But I have neither the time, organization skills (what little organization energy I have gets applied elsewhere), or even space in my house to deal with reselling. If you want to get into reselling, definitely check out Trevor’s site, but make sure you’re in it for the cash profit, not just points and miles. (Or so I hear.)

2. Manufactured Spending

Like I said, I refuse to go to Wal-mart, so my MS options have been limited for years. I hear rumors Wal-mart might be even tougher now too. My two main avenues of MS died within the same month and I feel no strong pull to get back into it for now. If something comes along that I can do in my pajamas, I’ll get back into it, but I can’t be running around town all day.

If you want to get into MS, my best suggestion? Attend one of the ubiquitous frequent flyer slash miles and points junkie meetups. While some meetups are better than others, as long as you’re willing to reach out a little you should be able to find like minded people and that can help you get started. If you’re a family guy or gal, Dia’s Family Travel for Real Life conferences attract more hardcore MS people than you might think – and I appreciate the family bent of those conferences.

3. Bank bonuses

I spent one year signing up for a bunch of bank bonuses. Hands down they probably present one of the simplest ways to earn cold, hard cash, but the reality is I just didn’t enjoy all the housekeeping. Keeping track of all the accounts, cancelling them, not cancelling them, paying attention to bank mergers, etc. etc. Plus 1099s and all that jazz. So I’ve given up chasing bank bonuses for the time. On the other hand, if you’re interested, bank bonuses sometimes provide more value than credit card sign up bonuses. Cash also has the added benefit of being able to do crazy things like pay your bills. Doctor of Credit posts bank bonuses all the time and updates that list every month, including niche local ones. Be sure to find the ones that make the most sense to you if you choose to go down this route.

4. Bitcoin

Just…no. Unless you enjoy gambling, in which case be my guest. But crypto = gambling. Also, tough to generate credit card spend or points buying crypto anyway (though not impossible, I hear?). Never gamble what you can’t afford to lose, when the fun stops, etc. etc. (Full disclosure I have been known to enjoy gambling from time to time).

Final Thoughts

Remember, your miles and points earning strategies (and burning strategies) should be tied to your local opportunities. Make sure you earn the miles you use, and what works for you may be completely the opposite of what works for me. But hopefully this at least gives you some food for thought, especially if you’re just starting out.

What preferred miles and points earning strategies do you use? Let me know in the comments!

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Jan 25 2018

American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card Review for Families – should I take on another $450 annual fee?

Whenever a new credit card hits the market, it generates a ton of buzz in the miles and points community, rightfully so. How much value can we get out of the new card? Is it worth getting? I have admittedly not been paying attention to the new Hilton cards from American Express. Noah from Money Metagame told me he had signed up for the American Express Hilton Aspire credit card on the last episode of the podcast (releases 1/30), so I decided to take a look at the card.

Feeling lazy? Just look at each heading, each of which outlines a card benefit, and the questions I think you should ask yourself about how beneficial that feature might be for your family.

As I outlined in my last post, I’m trying to be more focused with this blog. That means as I look at this and other credit cards, I’ll be looking at it with a family focus – my family’s, actually! As I start this post I haven’t actually decided whether to get the card yet. I find most credit card reviews to be too generic so I’d like to take a look at how the benefits would meet my situation. (If you’re unfamiliar, two parents, three kids five and below). I have no credit card links or anything like that, so if for some reason this review persuades you to get the card, just use the Google for the application link. If you want to support other affiliate bloggers it’s as easy as “Hilton Aspire Card (insert blogger name here)”.

Before evaluating a new credit card, be sure to…

Aside from the usual reminder about being responsible with your credit (do it) and not carrying a balance to avoid huge rewards destroying interest charges (don’t do it), one suggestion.

If you’re new to this game, or even if you’ve been in it awhile like me, large credit card sign up bonuses often feel like catnip. I think my body might actually release endorphins when I get approved for a new credit card. That means I’m often sitting down to look at a new credit card looking for ways to convince myself to apply.

To help combat that, make sure you sit down and make a demand schedule. Milenomics talks about making one here and Bob Dwyer discusses the practical aspects of making a physical one here. A demand schedule basically helps you figure out how much you’re going to actually be traveling. In other words, if you’re not going to be going anywhere, that should change your evaluation of whether you need Hilton hotel points or not. After all, Hilton points don’t pay your rent or mortgage.

I’d suggest at the very least thinking about whether you will have the opportunity to stay in a Hilton in the next two years. That’s probably a generous enough timeframe.

A review of the new American Express Hilton Aspire credit card, specifically geared towards families and family travel. What you need to know before you apply. — Suite at the Elara in Las Vegas – would be great for a family

Looking at the Hilton Aspire card benefits for families

As always, Doctor of Credit has done a great write up of all the card benefits here. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives of this card for a family. I’ll end each section with some questions to ask yourself (aka the questions I’m asking myself) before you consider applying.

Sign up bonus: 100,000 Hilton points after $4K spend in 3 months

To me, a realistic price of a Hilton hotel room that I can get is about 50,000 points per night. Yes, I can do better, but since I don’t currently have a specific property in mind, I can’t guarantee that I will. I also can’t guarantee that I won’t do worse!

So, to me, the sign up bonus is worth two free hotel room nights, which, due to my current family situation, I might even consider using for adjoining rooms on one night only. (Though it’d be great if I could find a Doubletree or Embassy Suites or something, then I wouldn’t have to get adjoining rooms).

I think I can realistically stay in a Hilton for two nights in the next two years, but I have no brand loyalty to other hotel chains. However, even two nights is dicey, because we often like to rent apartments now. So it’s not a guarantee that I could fit two Hilton nights into my demand schedule, but it’s a safe bet.

Do you think your family will have the chance to spend two nights at a Hilton in the next two years or so?
Do you have other hotel demands like loyalty to another brand or the desire to book apartments over hotel rooms that might lower that chance?

$450 annual fee

Do I really want another $450 annual fee card? I’ve cut down since that post but if I apply for the Apsire I’m adding a new one. Am I really going to be able to maximize the benefits, or am I going to be too busy? After the questions to ask, let’s take a closer look at the benefits people generally look at as “off-setting” the annual fee.

How much in annual fees are you already paying per year?
Do you have the time and energy to make sure you off-set this one?

$250 annual airline credit

Like the American Express Platinum and Gold cards, there is an airline credit associated with the Hilton Aspire credit card. Like the Platinum and Gold cards, I bet many people will use this credit to buy airline gift cards or engage in other shenanigans to get the credit. I’m currently personally sitting on like $500 of Delta credit. You have to make sure you use this credit.

This credit actually doesn’t appeal to me very much, due to the aforementioned Delta credit. Also, even though our family is getting pretty big, we travel less due to the whole newborn baby situation. So I can very realistically book every single flight on my current 2018 demand schedule with points. So how valuable is this airline credit to my personal, situation, really? Not sure…

Do you have airline credits that you still need to use?
Were you even planning to book flights with cash in 2018 in the first place?

$250 Hilton Resort credit

This benefit is pretty nice since it applies to the cost of your stay. Unfortunately, it only applies to select Hilton properties. It’s a decently big list and most of them are lovely, warm beach destinations, but you can’t just go to Joe Average Hilton and receive the credit. The credit seems fairly easy to use, but it does restrict your demand schedule due to the list of hotels.

Do you have a stay planned at one of the hotels on Hilton’s resorts list?
If not, are you willing to plan part or all of an entire vacation around said list?

Complimentary Hilton Diamond Status

Hilton Diamond status is great if you’re traveling overseas, and only so so in the States. If you’re a sweet talker you probably can leverage it into more upgrades than I’ve been able to, and free breakfast even if it’s continental is always appreciated. Still, status means less to me as a parent of young kids (except for the free milk). Also, Hilton can be a bit inconsistent in applying benefits, or rather, you will never be just quite sure how special you will be made to feel. 😛

Do you really need Hilton Diamond status?

Free Weekend Night on signup and each year thereafter (F, Sa, Su)

This is a nice little benefit that you can squeeze some value out of (plus you can earn another when you hit $60K of spend). A free night is a free night for the most part, but again, this will put some restrictions on your demand schedule. Here is yet another night that you are committing to Hilton.

Same questions as the sign up bonus section

Priority Pass Membership

Do you have this on another one (or six) of your credit cards already?

14X points at Hiltons, 7X points on flights booked through AMEX and restaraunts, 3X everywhere else

Don’t you have better daily earning options?

Will I sign up for the card?

I don’t know, I’m still on the fence. I probably can maximize the airline and resort credits, but do I really want to restrict my demand schedule like that? My wife and I both hate sort of being locked into certain properties or locations, or even airlines. And seriously…swimming in Delta credits.

Then again, there are the credit card approval endorphins to consider. So, I’m still on the fence. I’m seriously considering cutting my AMEX Platinum (because while in theory using the 50% points rebate was great, I only used it once). If I do that I think I can replace it with this card.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this review has been slightly helpful in giving you a framework with which to evaluate the Hilton Aspire credit card in the light of your family’s needs and wants. Overall, I think the card is solid with a lot of nice benefits, provided you can maximize them all. There’s the rub though – will you be able to maximize the benefits while dealing with your (I assume if they’re anything like mine) crazy kids? Make sure you do, to get that “value.”

Are you planning on applying for the card? What amazing benefit did I totally miss? Let me know in the comments!

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