Featured
Category
Register for Hyatt free night earning opportunity (and other Chase grocery offers)
There’s a great opportunity right now for Chase World of Hyatt and legacy Hyatt cardholders, so I want to remind readers to register for both offers (and some other available
PSA: Use Firefox to link Rakuten to your Amex account
Rakuten is in the news a lot lately. Between various 15% cashback deals at stores like Saks 5th Avenue, and the 90-100% cashback on the LifeLock, there are some good deals. Fur..
Surprise Surprise: IHG not (yet) extending Free Night Certificates beyond Dec 2020
Back in April, IHG blanketly instituted Dec 31, 2020 as the expiration date for all unexpired free night certificate (FNC) as of Mar 1, 2020 that had already been issued. That m..
Yes, Triple Dip is possible with your new Amex Platinum
If you are the owner of a new Amex Platinum card because of the extraordinary signup bonus (here’s the coverage by Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler), you might be wondering wh..
Exciting: Hilton Improves Points Redemption Value!
I’m seeing an exciting development with Hilton Honors that I haven’t seen reported in the blogosphere (but I also haven’t read every blog).
The value of Hilton points has hovered ..
Episode 46: Making Money by Investing in Mutual Savings Banks
On today’s podcast I chat with Bram Berkowitz to discuss investing in mutual savings banks. I first became familiar with the topic from an…
Why are some Visa cards dropping collision damage waiver coverage?
As I tweeted out on Friday, I was surprised to get an e-mail from US Bank telling me that my Flexperks Travel Rewards card would no longer have “Auto Rental
Episode 45: Heightened Credit Card Offers, an Air Transfer Bonus, and a Juicy Grocery Promo
On this week’s “No Annual Fee” podcast we discuss… 0:25 Amex Personal Gold/Platinum Offers through Resy (HT DDG) Direct Link to offers Personal Gold…
Grocery store rewards datapoints at the end of a lucrative few weeks
The last few months have seen a more or less continuous stream of offers supercharging the value of grocery store manufactured spend:Between September 4 and 10 Green Dot cards ea..
Unreduced Social Security spousal and dependent benefits and the family maximum
Last week I wrote about the way age differences can play an important role in thinking about the timing of Social Security old age benefit claims. Specifically, spouses need to
Galveston Revisited: my interview with the head of Galveston Park Board
Back in May, Sam and Robert of the Milenomics Squared podcast (and a slew of other activities in and around the world of travel hacking) invited me to join their
The Manifesto Episode 13: Deep Dive into Galveston, TX with Kelly de Schaun
Earlier this year we launched a podcast network, adding the Manifesto hosted by Gideon the Free-quent Flyer to the Patreon Feed. In this episode…
The spooky effects of age differences on Social Security benefits
Become a Patron!I was skimming one of the interminable posts over at Michael Kitces’s Nerd’s Eye View blog by Jeff Levine and was struck by his description of a very
Modern economic growth (and personal finance)
Become a Patron!I’ve recently started listening to a podcast about economic history called, fittingly, The Economic History Podcast, and the last episode on the “Great Divergence..
Foreign exchange products: TransferWise and Revolut
As long-time readers know, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and so I end up hearing a lot of podcast ads. A few months ago, I started hearing ads
Episode 44: All About Amex (in 10 minutes)
Today we’re doing 10 minutes on the podcast All About Amex. This post is a companion piece to that audio. The goal here is…
Cheap lessons
Become a Patron!One of my favorite concepts to tell people about is “affordable luxuries,” the things that barely make a dent in your bank account but immediately spark joy: cheap
The Chase Freedom family of cards: it's (still) all about quantity
In a case of impeccable timing, at the beginning of this week I was high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park, far from cell service, and so
Non-owner car insurance
Non-owner car insurance is one of the least-understood insurance products because it is needed by so few people: most people who drive own a car, and most people who own
Kings Canyon National Park: An Underrated Gem
I’ll keep this short and let the pictures do most of the talking, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed Kings Canyon National Park on my first Sierra Nevada visit in late July. Kings Can..
Who is the Inspirato Pass ripping off (and who is rich or dumb enough to find out?)
Every 21st century tech scam involves ripping off some combination of three groups of people: customers, service providers, and investors. If you can exploit regulatory loopholes..
More Delta Platinum and refund hijinx
Right now all travelers, but especially travel hackers, are juggling even more decisions than usual. In the before time, we might make speculative bookings far in the future as s..
Personal finance during the plague: the lean months
Become a Patron!A stylized fact about the course of the current pandemic is that while the economic impact was swift and severe, the effect on personal finances was muted by