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In the blog post, "Travel for Free To Chicago (Chi-Town)", I mentioned my cousin wanting my wife and I to go on 2 cruises with them next year. One is an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle, WA and the other is a cruise out of Europe. Of course I'm interested in going, but I would like to go for free or as free as possible utilizing points and manufactured cash, but quite honestly, I will need to strategize a plan. Part of that plan is to enlist the help from my readers to help get my wife and I there for free or as close to free as possible. So what do I envision? The time-frame, although it is next year, is a short time to come up with 500,000 points without help.
Point Choices
Last year I went all out and signed up for a ton of credit card of which points we have used for hotel and airfare redemption in New Orleans, Cancun, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Miami. However, this trip is for a cruise and it narrows down the point pool that we can use to accomplish this lofty goal to 3 transferable points that I know of, Chase Ultimate Rewards(UR), American Express Membership Rewards(MR), and Citi Thanks You(TY) points. There are definitely cons to 2 of the transferable points; namely, MR and TY. They are as follows:
- A limited amount of TY points on hand
- No huge signup bonus for TY points cards
- MR cannot be combined for members of the same household
- MR similarly has low signup bonus along with one time cap per sign up bonus
- A limited amount of MR points in me and my wife's account to make significant dent
Best Point Option
So, currently the best and only choice I can see at this time is to use UR points which we kind have a decent amount of and we can combine points for members under the same household. However, we are still short of the total 500,000 needed to pay for the cruises in their entirety. There is no easy way to hit that limit in say the next 3 - 6 months without potential help from others that I see can give us wins towards that 500,000 goal.With it decided to use UR points, here is our current status.
- My wife has 176,543 UR points currently
- My wife potentially can get another 85,000 UR points once we hit $5,000 minimum spend in 3 months for the Chase Ink Preferred
- I have 24,424 UR points currently
- I am currently constrained by the Chase 5/24 rule, so signing up for new credit cards with huge signup bonus would be unlikely approach for me until next year when 2 years will be up
Retail Price For 2 Cruises
I hadn't yet mentioned how much these cruises retail for. The cruises are both on Royal Caribbean, the Alaskan Cruise for 2 people and a balcony room will be $4,200 and the European cruise for 2 people and a balcony room will be $3,300. This doesn't include airfare, which I have sufficient points in other loyalty programs to cover. So as it stands, my wife and I are short $3,210(214,033 X $0.015) or 214,033 (500,000 - 285,967) UR points. I would like to get the points/cash needed in the next 3 - 6 months because the closer we move towards next year, the target can start to move and things can become unavailable.You Can Help By...
So how can you help? Well, Chase often sends out promotional offers which state if we refer friends which signup with a link we provide, we can get up to 50,000 UR points per calendar year. If 5 people signed up using my wife's link and 5 people where to sign up using mine below that would be 100,000 UR points right there. Leaving 114,033 to go. This is were the real challenge arises to arrive at the last 100K+ points through normal spend. As points don't accumulate as quickly without the big signup bonus.We largely already direct our normal spend onto transferable points type credit card, but in addition, we can still raise cash and other credits too through the help of readers of this blog by use of promotional links right here on my blog.
Let me tell you what they are below (to sign up use the links below):
- Plastiq - fee free credits (for you and me)
- Cashback portals - cashback (for you and me)
- Credit Sesame - cash from affiliate link (free credit score for you)
- Ibotta - cashback (for you and me)
- Debitize - cashback (for you and me)
- Wife's Chase link (up to 50,000 per year when 5 people sign up, you will get 50,000 UR with $4,000 spend in 3 months)
- Os Chase link (up to 50,000 per year when 5 people sign up, you will get 50,000 UR with $4,000 spend in 3 months)
Note: It is not signing up alone, but other action you must follow through on for me to get credit, so please see the terms and conditions.
Although I can use Plastiq to pay my 3 mortgages, it will cost me approximately $60 per month in service fees or $360 over 6 months only to net 18,000 UR points. I can probably use manufactured spend using gift cards for about 30,000 UR points over the next 6 months without being shutdown. However, outside of accumulating transferable UR points, Plastiq is running promotion until April 18th to get 2x fee-free dollars when I refer friends and this is not limited to 5 people, so if 10 people were to signup and use Plastiq service using my link, that $360 would go away and I'll be able to net that 18,000 additional UR points without paying that $360 in service fees that otherwise I would incur.
Hypothetically, assume we got 10 readers to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and we are at 114,033 and we deduct another 48,000 UR points (30,000 + 18,000) from manufactured spend and paying mortgage on Plastiq leaving 66,033 UR points/$660. These remaining points can be gained through manufactured cash using methods below.
With the cashback portals, it is $5, $10, or $15 back when referrals signup and purchase something and earn $10 on the their portal. This too is unlimited number of people. So readers signing up using my cashback portal links can help us raise the cash to cut into the balance of $3,218/214,033 UR points. If 12 readers were to signup on one or several of the cashback portals below, here could be results
Ebates - Refer 2 get $50, then $5. Assuming 12 readers sign up on Ebates and spend $25 that's $100.
TopCashBack - Referral at $10 per person that signs up and earns $10. Assuming 12 readers sign up on TopCashBack, that's another $120.
BeFrugal - Referral at $15 per person that signs up and earns $10. Assuming 12 readers sign up on BeFrugal, that's $180
Although I can use Plastiq to pay my 3 mortgages, it will cost me approximately $60 per month in service fees or $360 over 6 months only to net 18,000 UR points. I can probably use manufactured spend using gift cards for about 30,000 UR points over the next 6 months without being shutdown. However, outside of accumulating transferable UR points, Plastiq is running promotion until April 18th to get 2x fee-free dollars when I refer friends and this is not limited to 5 people, so if 10 people were to signup and use Plastiq service using my link, that $360 would go away and I'll be able to net that 18,000 additional UR points without paying that $360 in service fees that otherwise I would incur.
Hypothetically, assume we got 10 readers to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and we are at 114,033 and we deduct another 48,000 UR points (30,000 + 18,000) from manufactured spend and paying mortgage on Plastiq leaving 66,033 UR points/$660. These remaining points can be gained through manufactured cash using methods below.
With the cashback portals, it is $5, $10, or $15 back when referrals signup and purchase something and earn $10 on the their portal. This too is unlimited number of people. So readers signing up using my cashback portal links can help us raise the cash to cut into the balance of $3,218/214,033 UR points. If 12 readers were to signup on one or several of the cashback portals below, here could be results
Ebates - Refer 2 get $50, then $5. Assuming 12 readers sign up on Ebates and spend $25 that's $100.
TopCashBack - Referral at $10 per person that signs up and earns $10. Assuming 12 readers sign up on TopCashBack, that's another $120.
BeFrugal - Referral at $15 per person that signs up and earns $10. Assuming 12 readers sign up on BeFrugal, that's $180
Tallying the manufactured cash on cashback portals is $400.
The affiliate links for Credit Sesame is $2 for every signup. Ibotta give $5 per signup and Debitize gives $10 per signup. These are all unlimited in nature. These sign up cashback helps to cut into that balance as well.
Assuming that 50 people sign up for the credit score on Credit Sesame, that's $100
If 12 people sign up for Debitize, that's another $120.
If 12 people sign up on Ibotta, that's another $60.
That is total of $680 and that hits the goal of 500,000 points/manufactured cash to pay for 2 cruises. An ambitious goal, but totally achievable with your help.
Resources That Help Explain the Services Promoted
In this post, I explain about how to use Debitize and how it can help you => DebitizeIn this post, I explain how to get cash back using cashback portals and how it can help you => How to Get Cash Back on Online Shopping
In this post, I explain how Plastiq can be used to achieve the minimum spend on credit card with huge sign up bonus => How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred & How To Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend for Signup Bonus
In this post, I explain how Ibotta can be used to get rebates on shopping for groceries => Ibotta
Sign Up, Help Us, I'll Help You
So please signup and apply for one of the credit card offers, the cashback portals, get your credit score, and Debitize to manage your credit spend while achieving rewards because I am asking you to help us achieve this lofty 500,000 UR points goal, but in addition because these products/services will help you do what I have been promoting on my blog from go, which is save money, improve your personal finance, and allow for award travel for you as well.Besides providing you knowledge and information in the content on this blog, I am willing to go above and beyond to help those who directly help us either with personal help with investments question you might have, credit questions, or helping you achieve a plan for award travel as well. I will promote referral links for you on my blog site for people who want to sign up for the services I promote like those above.
So, if you signup to help my wife and I toward this goal, I wanna know about it so in the comments below the blog, tell me what you did, based upon the request I made above, that can assist us and tell me what I can do to help you in any of the topics I write on on this blog or promotions you want to run for these services I list. I'll reciprocate the favor.
In Closing
At the end of the next 3 - 6 months, I will provide a status on how we did towards getting travel for free as you can see the combined cost for those 2 cruises is $7,500. Instead of sending that money off into the ecosystem of Royal Caribbean, I would love it instead to stay in the Os household ecosystem and to be invested in either my Loyal3 10 Stock Plan, or used for real estate investment, or options trading. Wouldn't you want to do the same? Help us do it and I'd like to help you as well. This would be awesome to achieve the goal of 500,000 UR points/manufactured cash to pay entirely for these cruises!!Check out my Affiliate and Referral links here for products in services to help with investment, credit, cashback, and award travel. Also you can find more of my blog post on Start Here.
Also, next time you think to shop at Walmart online, how about clicking through on the banner ad at the bottom of my blog. It will be appreciated, but also check out my blog post Loyal3 10 Stock Plan. If you are spending money in Walmart, you should be owning it too!
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