JosephWaterman.com

Credit cards. They’re usually associated with bad spending habits that lead to unnecessary debt saddled with exorbitant interest rates − and this is certainly a warranted reputation. But for my wife and I, credit cards have actually proved to be a reliable source of disposable income. Since 2011, we’ve received $2,600 in cash and services simply by making purchases with our credit cards and then taking advantage of their respective reward point programs.[1] We haven’t paid a single penny in interest or hidden charges and we don’t pay annual fees. Below, I’d like to share our experience and give a road map for how you can start making use of the best reward programs out there. First though, a few ground rules that you absolutely MUST follow or this unquestionably will not work out in your favor.

1. Without exception, you MUST pay off your credit card balances IN FULL every month. The moment you start paying any kind of interest on your balances, the whole idea of coming out ahead goes completely out the window. Don’t get me wrong, you can buy toys, fund hobbies and go on highly discounted vacations with the money received from reward programs, but only AFTER you’ve actually redeemed the points. If you use your credit cards as a means to pay for things that you can’t pay for in cash, I highly recommend that you stop reading now. This isn’t for you.
2. With some exception, you need to have a good credit score. For those that don’t have a good credit score, there are still plenty of reward programs out there, but to get into the ones with the best returns, you’ll need to have a score of approximately 700 or better.[2]

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get started.

Pick a General Rewards Program

The first step in this process is to find a credit card that offers a consistent rewards program and has no annual fee. To get the most out of your spending, I recommend a card that works off of some sort of “point” based system − as in, you are given “X” number of points for every $1 spent. This will allow you the greatest amount of freedom when redemption time comes around (also, they’re just easier to understand). To me, cards that strictly offer airline miles or free hotel stays are too narrow. These kinds of cards are excellent for specific use cases (which we’ll discuss a little later), but not as a true “everyday” card. For my wife and I, our general use card is the aptly named Chase Freedom card. It offers a modest starting bonus of $100 cash back after spending your first $500 on the card, has no annual fee and has excellent bonuses throughout the year (for example, from July – September 2013, every $1 spent at gas stations received 5 points, instead of the usual 1 point). To give you an idea for how your usual spending can add up over the course of the year, in 2012, we cashed in $513 worth of reward points and they all came from our Chase Freedom card – pretty sweet!

Pay for Everything and Anything With Credit

From now on, you have one mission when paying for normal expenses: pay with credit. Groceries, gas, cell phone, restaurants, medical expenses, auto insurance, gym membership, car repairs/maintenance, school tuition, cable TV and internet − it all goes on your credit card (not your debit card and not in cash). This ensures that for every dollar you spend, you’re building up reward points. For my wife and I, there are only a few things that don’t get paid with credit − our mortgage payment, monthly utilities and a charitable contribution to Compassion International. For our mortgage payment and monthly utilities, the respective providers do not accept credit.[3] Poo on them. For Compassion International, we prefer that our full contribution goes directly to them (credit card companies take a fixed percentage of every transaction run as credit – it’s one way they make money and how they can afford to give you and I free cash).

Take Advantage of Large Sign-up Bonuses

This is where you’ll see the largest rewards in the shortest amount of time. These are cards that offer massive sign-up bonuses when you meet a minimum spending requirement within a specific timeframe (a typical requirement is $3,000 worth of spending within the first 3 months of having the card). Some of the biggest sign-up bonuses are usually on credit cards with travel focused rewards – airlines and hotels. If you want to go on a highly discounted vacation or if you’re a frequent traveler, you’ll want to look at cards like the Citi® AAdvantage® World MasterCard, American Express Hilton HHonors or Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards Premier Visa. Two specific cards that I’d like to highlight and have personal experience with are the Chase Hyatt and Chase Sapphire Preferred cards.

The Chase Hyatt, as the name suggests, offers reward points towards free stays at Hyatt Hotels. The sign-up bonus offer is two free nights at any Hyatt Hotel in the world and only has a $1,000 spending requirement (within the first 3 months). Want to stay at the Park Hyatt in Paris (normally $880/night)? You can do that. How about the Park Hyatt in Tokyo (normally $420/night)? Yup, you can do that too. Basically, you’re looking at potentially $1,700 worth of rewards for a relatively low spending requirement. It’s an excellent card if you’re planning on visiting any city with a Hyatt Hotel.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is another card with an excellent sign-up bonus and I particularly like it because its rewards are not tied to any specific category. The current offer is 40,000 reward points (which is $400 cash) with a $3,000 spending requirement (within the first 3 months). While $400 is certainly a great sign-up bonus, what’s really great is the 1:1 transfer program that this card gives you access to. This allows you to transfer points earned on this card to other reward programs outside of Chase. Some examples include Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus, Hyatt Gold Passport and several others. Why would you want to do that? To maximize the value of your points. For instance, transferring 22,000 points to the Hyatt Gold Passport reward program gets you one free night in a Grand Club room at any “Category 5” Hyatt Hotel in the world.[4] That 22,000 points, worth $220 in cash, potentially becomes worth more than $300, depending on where you stay. You can find category 5 Hyatt Hotels in some really great cities – New York City, Las Vegas, Beijing and Singapore – just to name a few.[5]

This past July, my wife and I took a road trip that included a stop in New York City. If you’ve been paying attention, you can probably guess where we stayed. Using our two free nights from the Chase Hyatt card and a 22,000 point transfer from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, we were able to stay at the Grand Hyatt New York (which sits between Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan) for three nights at no charge – a stay that would normally cost over $1,000! There is no way we would be able to do that without reward points.

The one downside to these types of cards are that they almost always come with an annual fee. For the Chase Hyatt card, the annual fee is currently $75/year. I was lucky enough to find a deal that included the two free nights and an instant $100 statement credit after your first purchase, which covered the annual fee for the first year.[6] This card is also unique in that every year you pay the annual fee, you automatically receive one free night in any “Category 4” or lower Hyatt Hotel.[7] We’ll probably keep this card and use the free night towards a one-night getaway in Milwaukee, Madison or Chicago (stays in these cities would normally cost over $130/night). For the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the annual fee is $95, but it is waived for the first year. I will be canceling this card next year to avoid paying the fee. There are several cards that offer terrific sign-up bonuses, but because of their annual fees, should not be used on an on-going basis. I recommend using them for their sign-up bonuses and then canceling them before the annual fee is charged.

That’s pretty much it! No gimmicks, no hidden fees, no exorbitant interest charges – just a good chunk of free, disposable income! Getting into credit card reward point programs usually involves lots of questions though, so I’ve created a short Q&A below that address some of the immediate concerns that I had when I first started. Also, in a first for this website, comments are open! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them here and I’ll do my best to answer. Lastly, I would highly recommend heading over to a website called Million Mile Secrets. My good friend Ricky pointed me there a few years ago and it is pretty much where I learned everything I know about reward points.

Q&A

• Won’t opening all these credit cards negatively impact my credit score?

Yes and no. Opening a credit card requires a hard credit check and this will negatively impact your credit score by a few points (usually 3 to 5). These points will slowly come back over the course of two years, at which time the hard inquiry drops off of your credit report completely. Depending on your situation, the points lost due to the hard inquiry might actually be offset by point gains from now having a greater total available credit (one of the many metrics used to determine your credit score). I’ve applied for 2 credit cards in the past 10 months and my credit score is still comfortably above 725. This isn’t license for you to go bonkers and open 10 new credit cards, but it’s okay to pick out a few that you really like and apply for them.

• Won’t canceling a credit card after only 1 year negatively impact my credit score?

Again, yes and no. One metric used to determine your credit score is average account age. Having credit accounts open for 10+ years is better than having credit accounts open for only 1 year. This is why it is important to have a good, general rewards card with no annual fee that you can keep open for many, many years. In fact, rewards program or no rewards program, any credit card you currently have with no annual fees should never be closed – just put it in a drawer and leave the account open. It’s also important to understand that it is the act of opening a new credit card that negatively impacts your average account age metric. The act of canceling your card will not hurt your credit score per say, it will just halt the age of one card that is averaged with all of your other open accounts. Basically, you’ll take the hit in average account age when you open a new credit card, not when you close it. Also of note is that average account age is far from the most heavily weighted factor in determining your credit score. The single easiest way to negatively impact your credit score in a big way is to make a late payment. Don’t do that.

• $3,000 is a lot of money. How am I going to spend that much in only 3 months?

If you’re a single, college student, this will probably be impossible (unless you can convince your parents to pay your school tuition on your credit card and then promptly pay it off!). But then again, if you’re a single, college student, you probably shouldn’t be doing this. It’s way too easy to spend money you don’t actually have at this point in your life. Trust me, I know from experience. That said, if you’re disciplined and want to get your feet wet, there are plenty of cards that offer much lower spending requirements. I’d recommend starting with something like the aforementioned Chase Freedom card or the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card, which has no annual fee and offers $100 in sign-up rewards after $1,000 in required spending (within the first 3 months). If you’re not a poor college-student, meeting a $3,000 spending requirement isn’t as hard as you might think. The key is to plan on getting a new card just prior to a large purchase that you would otherwise already make. Going to need 4 new tires for your car in 6 months? That’s a good purchase to kick off a new card with. Renovating the kitchen this winter? One, you’re crazy. Two, get a new credit card before you start. My wife and I have done two cards with the $3,000 spending requirement now and didn’t have any problems reaching it.

• I’m not understanding the point-to-cash conversions. Is there a chart for this?

Every rewards program has it’s own nuances, but most of the point-based programs work like this:

1 point = 1 cent

So, 10 points equals 10 cents, 1,000 points equals $10, 10,000 points equals $100 and so on. Every program is required to disclose exactly how much a point is worth, so just make sure you’re reading that section of the terms and conditions. For airline and hotel reward programs, you will absolutely need charts. For airline chart links, go here. For hotel chart links, go here. Beware − they’re a mixed bag of crazy.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Disclaimers:

• Throughout this post, I have repeatedly made mention of Chase Bank as this is our primary financial institution. I have not been paid to write this, but I am a big, big fan of Chase. I’ve never had any customer service problems, their reward point programs are awesome and their website is easy to use. I can’t really ask for much more than that. If you pay off your credit cards in full every month, don’t overdraft your checking account, and don’t threaten any tellers with a gun, I’m pretty confident that you’ll also have a great experience.
• If you use my link to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, I will receive a 5,000 point referral bonus. None of the other links throughout this article are referral links.
• I cannot guarantee that your experience will exactly mimic ours, but I think you can get pretty close, if not better.