Loyal Only To Next Big Sign Up Bonus

Loyal To Next Big Sign Up Bonus

Are you that person that has one or two credit cards that you opened years ago when perhaps there was a great promotion to good for you to pass up?  It captured your attention and got you to take action to see if you would be approved to get the card and perhaps you had to spend x dollars in x months to get x amount of points.  You collected yourself to do it that one or two times, but once you got those promotional offer bonus, you then just rested on your laurels.  You might still be using those same credit cards to this day though they don't still offer you oversized value.  Don't worry, I've been there too, but I'm here to snap you out of that.  So, the question is why so loyal?  Do you not see any opportunities out there that grab you like once before?  I don't know about you, but these banks are very competitive for you business that I am always seeing offers that only make me loyal to the next big sign up bonus.

Push It To The Limit

I like to think these days I am loyal only to the next big sign up bonus irregardless of what bank is offering it if it helps me achieve award travel to a destination I'm planning on going to or stockpile points/miles for future travel and experiences that can be bought with this form of currency.  I wasn't always thinking like this, but thanks to Alex and Brad over at Travel Miles 101 via His and Her Money Podcast with Talaat & Tai, they hipped me on how I could push this award travel to the limit.  I haven't looked back since and I signed up for my first credit cards of this year over this weekend.  They were the American Express business cards Business Gold Rewards that offers 50,000 Membership Rewards after $5,000 spend in 3 months and the Blue Business Plus Credit Card offers 20,000 Membership Rewards after $3,000 in 3 months.  

When There Are Lulls

I'll start working towards hitting these spending limits to get 70,000 Membership Rewards points using the technique I outlined in my blog, "How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred".  One thing I especially like about Membership Rewards points is that they are a transferable points to a lot of other loyalty programs.  Don't get me wrong, as there are moments when you have lulls when applying for credit card bonus due to restrictions that banks impose on how many or what category of credit cards you can have at any one time.  When this happens I usually focus on directing spend on points in transferable currencies like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints, or Citi Thank You Points until I get it cranked up again.  Usually, if you are working this system between a couple where each of you can sign up for the same cards, you can accumulate enough points for at least two free great award travel vacations per year.

Loyal For No Other Reason

Other than that reason, I am not loyal to any particular bank unless they are offering me something of value such as points/miles, cash, and service benefits.  Resting on your laurels could mean you are leaving $500 on the table every 3 months are so because these promotional offers you see for 50,000 points are usually worth about $0.01  each($500/50,000).  If you are going to have $3,000 - $5,000 in expenses every 3 months, you could potentially be getting a different card with a new sign up bonus every 3 months and that is equivalent to the banks giving you $2,000 over a year for cashback, award travel, or experiences.  Each of these bonuses is a reduction to your out of pocket expense, and if you have been reading my blog, you will know this is common theme I preach.

In Closing

Next time you see an offer x points for spending x dollars in x months, consider what has the current card you have been spending on offered you lately.  If nothing, perhaps you should take advantage of the offer as that card you are using now will still offer you the same thing after you take advantage of that new promotional offer, am I right.  But don't stop there, keep taking advantage of the next big sign up bonus.

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.

Subscribe to my blog @ http://oslifemoneypoliticsnotherthings.blogspot.com or on the right side of this page in the Follow by Email box.  

Please provide feedback or questions pertaining to this blog post by leaving a comment below.  Also please be sure to share this content with your friends and family.  I thank you in advance.

Also, next time you think to shop at Walmart online, how about clicking through on the banner ad at the bottom of my blog site.  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!

Loyal Only To Next Big Sign Up Bonus

Loyal To Next Big Sign Up Bonus

Are you that person that has one or two credit cards that you opened years ago when perhaps there was a great promotion to good for you to pass up?  It captured your attention and got you to take action to see if you would be approved to get the card and perhaps you had to spend x dollars in x months to get x amount of points.  You collected yourself to do it that one or two times, but once you got those promotional offer bonus, you then just rested on your laurels.  You might still be using those same credit cards to this day though they don't still offer you oversized value.  Don't worry, I've been there too, but I'm here to snap you out of that.  So, the question is why so loyal?  Do you not see any opportunities out there that grab you like once before?  I don't know about you, but these banks are very competitive for you business that I am always seeing offers that only make me loyal to the next big sign up bonus.

Push It To The Limit

I like to think these days I am loyal only to the next big sign up bonus irregardless of what bank is offering it if it helps me achieve award travel to a destination I'm planning on going to or stockpile points/miles for future travel and experiences that can be bought with this form of currency.  I wasn't always thinking like this, but thanks to Alex and Brad over at Travel Miles 101 via His and Her Money Podcast with Talaat & Tai, they hipped me on how I could push this award travel to the limit.  I haven't looked back since and I signed up for my first credit cards of this year over this weekend.  They were the American Express business cards Business Gold Rewards that offers 50,000 Membership Rewards after $5,000 spend in 3 months and the Blue Business Plus Credit Card offers 20,000 Membership Rewards after $3,000 in 3 months.  

When There Are Lulls

I'll start working towards hitting these spending limits to get 70,000 Membership Rewards points using the technique I outlined in my blog, "How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred".  One thing I especially like about Membership Rewards points is that they are a transferable points to a lot of other loyalty programs.  Don't get me wrong, as there are moments when you have lulls when applying for credit card bonus due to restrictions that banks impose on how many or what category of credit cards you can have at any one time.  When this happens I usually focus on directing spend on points in transferable currencies like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints, or Citi Thank You Points until I get it cranked up again.  Usually, if you are working this system between a couple where each of you can sign up for the same cards, you can accumulate enough points for at least two free great award travel vacations per year.

Loyal For No Other Reason

Other than that reason, I am not loyal to any particular bank unless they are offering me something of value such as points/miles, cash, and service benefits.  Resting on your laurels could mean you are leaving $500 on the table every 3 months are so because these promotional offers you see for 50,000 points are usually worth about $0.01  each($500/50,000).  If you are going to have $3,000 - $5,000 in expenses every 3 months, you could potentially be getting a different card with a new sign up bonus every 3 months and that is equivalent to the banks giving you $2,000 over a year for cashback, award travel, or experiences.  Each of these bonuses is a reduction to your out of pocket expense, and if you have been reading my blog, you will know this is common theme I preach.

In Closing

Next time you see an offer x points for spending x dollars in x months, consider what has the current card you have been spending on offered you lately.  If nothing, perhaps you should take advantage of the offer as that card you are using now will still offer you the same thing after you take advantage of that new promotional offer, am I right.  But don't stop there, keep taking advantage of the next big sign up bonus.

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.

Subscribe to my blog @ http://oslifemoneypoliticsnotherthings.blogspot.com or on the right side of this page in the Follow by Email box.  

Please provide feedback or questions pertaining to this blog post by leaving a comment below.  Also please be sure to share this content with your friends and family.  I thank you in advance.

Also, next time you think to shop at Walmart online, how about clicking through on the banner ad at the bottom of my blog site.  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!

One Cruise Within Sight

One Cruise Within Sight

I posted previously in my blog, "Lofty 500,000 Points Goal for 2 Vacation Cruises" and followed on with video on Facebook to get the word out that we were on a mission to accumulate 500,000 Ultimate Rewards (UR) points in the next 3 - 6 months in order to pay for 2 vacation cruises with points alone.  Help from readers towards that goal has been dismal, but I'm encouraged anyway because as the quote goes, "success results when preparation meets opportunity", my wife and I have been preparing for award travel opportunities as they arise through disciplined spending using strategic tilt towards credit cards with big signup bonuses whose rewards points can be used for all types of travel and experiences.

The Preparation & Opportunity

In January, my wife signed on for the Chase Sapphire Reserve just as the promotion for 100,000 UR was ending and we have achieved the 4K spend and received those points, coupled with the points she previously had for Chase Sapphire Preferred for 60,000 UR.  She also was able to get approved for the Chase Ink Preferred which has 80,000 UR bonus once 5K spend is met.  Then couple that with an average 4,000 UR points we get on average and my existing points combined will tally to 289,530 UR/$4,342.

Current Balance Before the 85,000 UR to be Added

This cruise is within sight because I have a plan to get to that 5K required spend in next month or so by doing 3 things

• Paying taxes and offsetting the service fee charged by signing up for the promo on Citi for opening checking account and get $300 - $3,000+

• Paying accountant - $500

• Paying 6 month auto insurance premiums up front - $1000

The thing with booking a cruise through Chase Ultimate Rewards is that you must have all the required points needed at the time of booking or the remainder would go onto the credit card you are booking with, which in our case, would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve.  There is no plan to have a remainder, we would have enough points to book this 9 Night Western Mediterranean Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas (New Ship being built—this will be the largest ship in the world)

with an Ocean View balcony room.  

 

 

 

And It Don't Stop

We may not hit our lofty goal of 500,000 UR for 2 vacation cruises this year, but there is always next year for preparation to meet opportunity.  I know 2 things is that we will continue to use strategies that will maximize our ability to obtain award travel and that our preparation will save us $3,334 for 

Cruise Price for 2 People

the cruise and perhaps another $2,722 for flight, which is too far out to accurately predict cost wise, for this trip and thousands of dollars for trips in the future.  So, that is $6,056 we aren't going to need to come out of pocket for and we are going to be enjoying a free vacation.  I'll invest the $504 ($6,056/12) saved over the next 12 months in my Loyal3 10 Stock Plan.

That is some serious money and it is just my wife and I that I'm talking about, so imagine a bigger family trying to go to Europe without trying to offset any of the cost using award travel.  The answer is either they can't afford to go or they going pay the cost of a small vehicle to get there!

I know that people are slow to wake up to the opportunities before them for whatever the reason.  What I'm saying here is not doing anything that's illegal.  I am not going to promote you sign up for a credit card using my link, nope, I just hope that you take heed because this ship is going to sail whether you are on-board or not.

 

In Closing

My wife and I preparation is going help us meet one of our goals for a free cruise vacation from Europe which should be fantastic.  We didn't have to go into debt to achieve and in fact we will be saving $6,056 which can in turn be invested in stocks of 10 of the most ubiquitous companies in the world.  You can choose to take advantage or not, to support or not, but I'll continue to write blog stating our next vacation destination, and you can pretty much guess that I will be trying to use award travel to get us there!

One Cruise Within Sight

One Cruise Within Sight

I posted previously in my blog, "Lofty 500,000 Points Goal for 2 Vacation Cruises" and followed on with video on Facebook to get the word out that we were on a mission to accumulate 500,000 Ultimate Rewards (UR) points in the next 3 - 6 months in order to pay for 2 vacation cruises with points alone.  Help from readers towards that goal has been dismal, but I'm encouraged anyway because as the quote goes, "success results when preparation meets opportunity", my wife and I have been preparing for award travel opportunities as they arise through disciplined spending using strategic tilt towards credit cards with big signup bonuses whose rewards points can be used for all types of travel and experiences.

The Preparation & Opportunity

In January, my wife signed on for the Chase Sapphire Reserve just as the promotion for 100,000 UR was ending and we have achieved the 4K spend and received those points, coupled with the points she previously had for Chase Sapphire Preferred for 60,000 UR.  She also was able to get approved for the Chase Ink Preferred which has 80,000 UR bonus once 5K spend is met.  Then couple that with an average 4,000 UR points we get on average and my existing points combined will tally to 289,530 UR/$4,342.

Current Balance Before the 85,000 UR to be Added

This cruise is within sight because I have a plan to get to that 5K required spend in next month or so by doing 3 things

• Paying taxes and offsetting the service fee charged by signing up for the promo on Citi for opening checking account and get $300 - $3,000+

• Paying accountant - $500

• Paying 6 month auto insurance premiums up front - $1000

The thing with booking a cruise through Chase Ultimate Rewards is that you must have all the required points needed at the time of booking or the remainder would go onto the credit card you are booking with, which in our case, would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve.  There is no plan to have a remainder, we would have enough points to book this 9 Night Western Mediterranean Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas (New Ship being built—this will be the largest ship in the world)

with an Ocean View balcony room.  

 

 

 

And It Don't Stop

We may not hit our lofty goal of 500,000 UR for 2 vacation cruises this year, but there is always next year for preparation to meet opportunity.  I know 2 things is that we will continue to use strategies that will maximize our ability to obtain award travel and that our preparation will save us $3,334 for 

Cruise Price for 2 People

the cruise and perhaps another $2,722 for flight, which is too far out to accurately predict cost wise, for this trip and thousands of dollars for trips in the future.  So, that is $6,056 we aren't going to need to come out of pocket for and we are going to be enjoying a free vacation.  I'll invest the $504 ($6,056/12) saved over the next 12 months in my Loyal3 10 Stock Plan.

That is some serious money and it is just my wife and I that I'm talking about, so imagine a bigger family trying to go to Europe without trying to offset any of the cost using award travel.  The answer is either they can't afford to go or they going pay the cost of a small vehicle to get there!

I know that people are slow to wake up to the opportunities before them for whatever the reason.  What I'm saying here is not doing anything that's illegal.  I am not going to promote you sign up for a credit card using my link, nope, I just hope that you take heed because this ship is going to sail whether you are on-board or not.

 

In Closing

My wife and I preparation is going help us meet one of our goals for a free cruise vacation from Europe which should be fantastic.  We didn't have to go into debt to achieve and in fact we will be saving $6,056 which can in turn be invested in stocks of 10 of the most ubiquitous companies in the world.  You can choose to take advantage or not, to support or not, but I'll continue to write blog stating our next vacation destination, and you can pretty much guess that I will be trying to use award travel to get us there!

Lofty 500,000 Points Goal for 2 Vacation Cruises

Here

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

Tallying up the above, our UR points tally stands at  285,967, if combined and if placed in my wife's Sapphire Reserve Ultimate Rewards account, they are worth $0.015 per point towards travel.  Dollar-wise, they are worth $4,289 ($0.015 X 285,967) towards travel.

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)

BeFrugal
TopCashBack
Mr. Rebates
Ebates

• 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

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 => Debitize

In 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!