The Points Guy will sometimes post comparative tables of the benefits of different credit cards. He is open that if people click links on his site there is some benefit to him, but for people interested in comparing card benefits, its interesting.
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These types of information are everywhere, because these bloggers all make most of their money from people who click their links to apply for these credit cards. Banks pay significant referral bonuses to these websites.
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True. But its interesting to read and shows up in my email box. I donāt personally click the links to the cards directly as am not interested in any more cards. I just liked to see the comparison, but not enough to seek them out 
Take Capital One Venture X Visa card, for example. With all the benefits it offers, itās easily one of the best super premium cards (by that I mean a card with an annual fee in excess of $300/yr). Capital One pays 25k miles for each referral but caps the total to 100k miles a year for any individual cardholder. However, thereās no such cap for bloggers. They can pocket millions of such miles each year.
And they use the miles to travel And report. I am kinda ok with that. As long as he doesnāt recline his seat 
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Iām lolāing a little bit that this thread which indicates penny pinching to a degree is now all about saving some airlines miles so people can jet off more often 
(I realize itās not everyone - some are just saving miles/points for necessary travel butā¦.)
Have you ever found yourself justifying a purchase just because you will say, āwell, this credit card will give me double points this month if I purchase this so THAT makes it worth it!ā
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Just hopped back on here to add that I looked into Hotels.com going to switch to OneKey along with Expedia and VRBO. One used to get essentially 10% off hotels since it took 10 nights to get one free stay that was averaged in cost from those nights. Now one will only get 2% OneKey cash. Unless Iām reading something wrong, thatās an 80% drop in rewards.
Up to now Iād shop on hotels.com, then compare on the hotelās site to see which was my better deal - going all the way to putting in the cc info to make sure all fees and taxes were added to the cost. Almost always it was better going with hotels.com due to the 10% off. Once in a while it was better going direct, so we are members of pretty much all of the typical chains, but rarely use them. In the future I guess weāll be using those more, but itās quite disappointing.
Weāll be losing our Gold Status unfortunately. I liked the perks from that when it applied. We donāt select the same chain often enough to get the good perks, nor do I want to because I prefer selecting the best hotel for our desires, and thatās not often one chain.
And for us, weāve discovered domestically we really enjoy Amtrak (as long as we get a roomette at least), so our jetting has gone down.
Canāt do Amtrak or drive to the Caribbean though (or other places, of course, but we havenāt been far flung lately).
Travel is still our passion though - regardless of distance from home. We prefer new places to revisiting, so have been delving into new more hidden spots along previously traveled spots.
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The phrase at our house is āpoints is points!ā
ā¢ We use 2 credit cards only. Too much effort to keep track of multiple cards. One free card for auto-cash back on everything. The other with a nominal fee, used primarily for travel benefits (side story/gripe below). Usually we just cash in the points rather than use toward travel, and it still pays for the annual fee.
ā¢ I TRY to shop at upscale used shops. We have a few in town. I can get much nicer clothes or housewares than Iād be willing to spend on new. The āhuntā is fun. It helps the environment (or so I hope). It also limits the choices ā which for me is a good thing (due to analysis paralysis).
ā¢ When traveling, we TRY to eat our nicer meals early afternoon, providing a needed break, and saving cost and portion size.
ā¢ We belong to a travel club, that shares accommodations for a nominal fee. You also have to host strangers ā so must be ok with that. To date, we have not had a bad experience, and have met some great people. Stays have been humble to outstanding.
GRIPE time: We started with Chase Sapphire Preferred, but are ready to leave, and will look at Venture X. The ONE time we used Chase points for a flight, it was a very disappointing experience. We tracked costs, and finally booked. Two days after booking (of course), the ticket cost (and points needed), nose-dived 30% ! I had never seen that large a drop on airline tickets. We purposefully booked changeable tickets, so called Chase travel, hoping to save the difference toward a future flight.
Chase insisted we had the non-changeable level tickets, but that was incorrect. I verified with the airline, who agreed our tickets could be changed. Had we booked through the airline, there would be no problem saving the cost difference toward a future flight in a year window. They told me exactly what to tell Chase travel, but since booked through Chase travel, had to be changed through Chase travel.
Chase would not budge. We could fully cancel, and start over, waiting until the points were credited toward a future flight, and then use those same points toward re-booking. But no one could tell me how long it would take for those original points to be credited ā and knowing how fickle airline pricing is, we did not want to wait ā we simply wanted to change per airline rules. If we used ānew pointsā for the new flight, the old points were not fully credited, but had to be used toward a future flight of the same nature.
At first Chase said they could not just āchangeā the flight (and voucher the difference). After my repeated questioning, they agreed they COULD technically change the reservation to the lower cost, but the difference in points would simply vanish. WHY would anyone do that? Change your ticket for a lower cost, but not get any type of credit or voucher for the difference?
I could not find any fine print about losing points on their website ā it simply says to check the airline ticket policies.
I was on the phone with Chase travel over 2 hours, on hold, re-directed, up the ladder, poor communication, etc. with multiple representatives telling me totally different policies ā but none matching the airline ticket policy. The phone experience was awful.
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As I canāt see family or long time friends without flying, it is just part of life, unfortunately. I thought Iād start driving, but I find east coast driving intimidating. I adore trains, but sleeper cost makes them quite pricey and donāt want coach over night as Covid is still a thing.
All my economies are about facilitating travel. Used clothing, used books, garage sales, etc.
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I had a similarly negative experience when a vendor used my chase visa fraudulently last year. They were oddly very difficult to deal with. I did eventually get a new card number and the fraudulent charge refunded, but I had never had such poor customer service after almost 20 years of being a customer. I think itās a sign of the times. Fraud and the current economy are costing the banks.
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If you have a good amount of spending and travel, the credit card points/deals can offer significant benefit. However, thatās not what comes to mind when I think of āmoney saving tips.ā Generally spending less (and earning less points) and choosing fewer + less expensive vacation/travel options would likely offer a greater āmoney saving.ā
That said, I do regularly combine credit bonus/point type offers with my property tax bill. For example, I used Chase Ink Business for my previous semi-annual property tax payment, which at the time had a $900 bonus (up to $1800 if redeemed on select travel purchases) and no annual fee. I donāt have high enough general day-to-day spending to reach the points requirement for the $900+ bonus, but my property tax spending was high enough to earn the bonus. The card cashback roughly negated the increased property tax cost for paying with card, so my net was close to $900+ ā not as large a savings as other things I listed in my initial post, but still significant.
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No. Just like I donāt buy something I donāt need on sale because itās āsaving money.ā My points donāt rotate though. Stuff like that is too hard for me to keep up with. Iām very lazy when it comes to managing all of the different rewards through different cards and businesses. Thatās why one is good for me. I still have my USAA card and delta Amex though. I rarely use them. USAA Iāve had since I was 17 so I donāt want to close and the delta I use for delta flight. And both have small random monthly auto charges (Netflix and such). But in general, I put my whole life on the venture X - cable bill and cell phone included.
And H does have an Amazon card that he uses for his stuff and both of us on Amazon.
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Anyone have the Marriott Boundless card? Wondering if it is a good deal. Try to stay in Marriotts and am a gold member but not lifetime silver yet.
$95 per year and initial promo of 3 nights then 1 per year.
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We do. We both open separate cards when they had promotions for 5 free nights so now we have 10 free nights between two of us which we going to use in two weeks for our trip. We donāt keep any of the cards that have yearly fees past first year when we get bonuses. And we repeat this exercise every two years (24 months is the language chase has in those offers). Same with IHG cards
Yes, this is what I meant! :).
But also as @great_lakes_mom said, for some is just trying to keep ties with family, commute college students or transit to elderly parents.
The promotion shows 3 nights. Does it change periodically and/or should I try to bargain for 5?
We never purchase for just for the points. We do however sometimes put an autopay on the credit card (instead of checking account) to get points. An unanticipated benefit of putting as much spending as possible on the United Visa is that we do get a nice annual breakdown of spending. Yes, there is a good chunk of travel and non-necessity spending ā¦. but thatās because these are our Go-Go years of retirement.
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It does. I follow doctorofcredit and only open new cards when he indicates that the current offer is a very good deal.