Free Globetrot

What Credit Cards Do I Currently Have Open?

I was doing some review the other day trying to figure out how many credit cards I currently have open right now. I have 13 open rewards credit cards. I have had many others, but I have since closed those credit cards. From these credit cards, I earned 645,000 points. These are not necessarily the top credit cards. There are many great credit card offers. Remember, before applying for any new credit cards, ensure that you are getting the best offer available.

They are:

Chase Ink Bold - 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points. Rumor of a 70,000 points offer

Chase IHG Rewards Club Select - 80,000 points, currently only 60,000. may be better offer available

Chase British Airways Visa - 50,000 points

Barclays Arrival Plus World Elite - 40,000 points

US Bank Club Carlson Premier Rewards - 85,000 points

US Bank Club Carlson Business Rewards - 85,000 points

US Bank LANPASS Visa Signature - 30,000 points, currently only 20,000 points

Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature - 25,000 points

Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business - 30,000 points, currently only 25,000

Citi Platinum Select Aadvantage World MasterCard - 50,000 points

Citi Business Aadvantage World MasterCard - 50,000 points

Citi Executive Aadvantage World Elite Mastercard - 100,000 points currently only 50,000. May be better offer available.

Earn 5,000 Air Miles with Rocket Miles on Your First Hotel Stay

Rocketmiles is a hotel booking site that offers bonus miles for booking through their site. If you work it right, there is the possibility of earning up to 5,000 miles from a single night stay.

The first thing to note is that Rocketmiles does not list budget hotels. Rooms offered are 3 Star or better with rates starting at over $100 per night. That said even if you are a budget traveler it could make sense to use Rocketmiles one time because of the first use incentives of earn 5,000 miles for a single night stay.

Rocketmiles allows you to choose which airline you want to earn miles with and they have a large selection of miles partners including:

This is how it works to get 5,000 miles for your first night stay. Sign up with my referral link and you will get 1,000 bonus miles for your first booking. Then use this link to get an additional 3,000 bonus miles (only for first time users). On top of this you will get 1,000 miles for the reservation.

You receive 1,000 miles per night, so if you book two nights you would receive an additional 1,000 miles.

Using this method you would receive 5,000 points for your first night. Traveling with a partner? If you are traveling with a partner and want to stay more than one night then one of you can earn 6,000 points for the first night and the other person can earn 5,000 points for the second night. Just book the consecutive nights under your two different names and accounts.

The both people will get the 5,000 bonus miles. Also the first person can sign up with my referral link, receive 1,000 bonus points, then refer their partner to receive an extra 1,000 bonus points.

If you are planning on a three or more night stay, use this link to collect 5,000 United miles for your first booking. You will also receive the referral bonus and at least 1,000 miles per night. With this link you could earn 9,000 United miles for a three night stay.

If you have a one, two, or three night stay coming up, it may be worth it to splurge a little and collect extra miles while with Rocketmiles. more info

50,000 Miles for the Chase MileagePlus Explorer Credit Card with $50 Statemen Credit

For now until 9/2/14 Chase is offer the Chase MileagePlus Explorer Visa Signature card with 50,000 bonus points instead of the regular 30,000 bonus points. You will also get a $50 statement credit as well. If you were thinking of signing up for a new credit card this could be a great option.

The Chase MileagePlus Explorer Visa Signature card comes with:

50,000 points after $2,000 in purchases in first 3 months
$50 Statement Credit
Free Checked Bag
Priority Boarding
No foreign transaction fees
5,000 bonus points for add an authorized user

So after making the $2,000 minimum spend and adding an authorized user you would have 57,000 United miles. That is enough for two round trip domestic flights.

The Chase MileagePlus Explorer Visa Signature was one of the first credit cards I applied for when entering the miles and points hobby. I used these miles for a one way trip from the USA to Bangkok.

Ridiculously Cheap Cruises as low as $129 for 4 Days

I never really considered taking a cruise. I always thought of cruises as an expensive option when compared to independent budget travel. I stumbled upon the Vacations to Go website and specifically the 90 Day Ticker. I was very surprised by how affordable many of the cruises were. I find that in many cases the cost of the cruise is much cheaper than what you could traveling independently for the same period. Many cruises are less than $50 per day per person. In many locations such as Alaska, the Caribbean, or Mediterranean transportation, food, and accommodation are likely to add up to a lot more than $50 per day per person.

I found rates as low as $129 for a 4 day cruise.

Note you will have to sign up by email before you can view the cruises at Vacations to Go. And no I do not get any affiliate commissions for any of the links in this post.

The 90 Day Ticker as the name would suggest shows all of the cruises departing within the next 90 days. This is where the best deals are found. Obviously the short time frame does not work for some people, but if you have the flexibility to just up and go with less than three months or even one month notice you can score some really cheap cruises.

Another of my favorite links at Vacations to Go is the Re-positioning Cruises. Re-positioning cruises occur at the end of a cruise season when a ship is moved from one region to another. I have found many great deals leaving Florida in the spring traveling to Europe. Many of these trips can be had for around $50 per day per person. In some cases, it would be cheaper to take the re-positioning cruise than to pay for a one way flight.

If you are willing to look into it, you could reasonably travel on a re-positioning cruise from one part of the world to another for less than the cost of the flight to the same destination.

Remember that the cruise package covers all of your food on board. If you want alcoholic beverages they cost extra. In my experience, I have just brought my own alcohol on board with me. The cruise line will tell you that you are not allowed to, but it is not illegal. Just bring it on with your luggage when you first get on. Keep it out of sight in your room and you won't have any problems.

A few examples of the cheap cruises that I found:

$299 7 Day Alaska Cruise - Anchorage to Vancouver, BC, Canada 8/11/14
That is only $43 per day

$569 8 Day Australia Cruise - Sydney to Sydney 11/11/14
That is only $72 per day

$129 4 Day Bahamas Cruise - Miami to Miami 9/22/14
Only $33 per day

$219 7 Day Caribbean Cruise - Puerto Rico to Puerto Rico 8/17/14
Only $32 per day.

$529 11 Day Re-positioning Cruise - Copenhagen to Miami 10/6/14
Only $48 per day.

If you have any comments, please feel free to leave them below. I love hearing from readers.

Meeting Minimum Spending Requirement Plus Make $25 with Lending Club

I recently stumbled upon Lending Club, a peer to peer lending site. Lending Club totes itself as the leading platform for investing in and obtaining personal loans. Basically you can loan money to others for a return depending on the risk of the particular loan. You can loan as little as $25 per loan. Your lending is combined with the lending of other users to fulfill the whole loan amount. The helps to diversify the risk.

The benefit to those who want to manufacture spend is the ability to initially fund your Lending Club account with up to $5,000 using Paypal with a credit card. Once you have funded your account you will have to invest the funds before you can withdraw the funds again. In general you are looking at a 6 month minimum investment, so this is only for those that want to invest and want to diversify their portfolio. As an added benefit, I found a link that offers a 1% bonus if you deposit $2,500 or more and fully invest in loans. You could invest the full $5,000 with a credit card and receive a $50 bonus.

For more information, this FlyerTalk Thread about meeting minimum spending using Lending Club is a great resource.

If you are interested in other methods of investing using a credit card check out my previous post:

How to Meet Minimum Spending on Credit Cards with Loyal3

IHG Hotel Point Breaks

IHG stands for Intercontinental Hotels Group. IHG Point Breaks

Last Week, IHG (Intercontinental Hotel Group) released its newest list of Point Breaks. Point Breaks are a selection of hotels that can be had for just 5,000 points per night. Many of these hotels regularly cost 30,000 points.

You may not be aware of the IHG rewards program, but the Point Breaks can be a great reason to sign up for Chase IHG Rewards Club Visa credit card.

The Chase IHG Rewards Club Visa credit card is often touted as one of the best hotel credit cards available.

I was able to use my points on Point Breaks for a four night stay in at the Intercontinental Mendoza in Mendoza, Argentina. I visited with my parents for four nights. We had two different rooms. The cost was just 5,000 Priority Club points per night. The regular points rate is 25,000 points per night. Over the four night stay in two rooms we saved 140,000 points by paying just 40,000 points total for the two rooms for four nights versus 200,000 points. We also received free breakfast for all of us because of the IHG Platinum status that came with the Chase IGH Rewards Club Select Visa credit card.

If you wanted to maximize the points you received from the Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Visa credit card and only use them for Point Breaks, you could get 12 free nights from this one credit card.

There are many other good value hotels in the IHG program. This winter I am planning on a ski vacation to Whistler, BC. There is a HolidayInn that only charges 15,000 points per night for a suite.

This website shares how you can buy 5,000 Priority club points for $35 with this workaround. You do need to have at least 10,000 Priority Club points in your account already to use this trick.

How to get a 55 Day Interest Free Loan

I have been doing some research recently with the best ways to get low interest money for borrowing needs.
Studies show that 39% of Americans do not pay off their credit cards every month. This means they are subject to the very high interest rates on most credit cards some as high as 29%. With the average credit card debt for US adults at $4,878 there is a lot of interest being paid to credit card companies.

Some people in need of quick cash pawn something, probably not the best idea. This can carry significant interest rates. Some people take out cash advances on credit cards. Also not a good idea. Not only are there up front fees, but the interest starts accruing immediately often at rates of 29% per year.

If you are need of temporary loan, this is possible through your credit card. It is possible to get an interest free loan for 55 days. How does this work? Every credit card has a billing period which is generally 30 days. After the billing period is the grace period which is usually 25 days. If you were to make a large purchase or use other techniques to get cash from your credit card on the very first day of the billing period, you could have an interest free loan for 55 days.

Even though you would officially get the loan for 55 day interest free, it can take several days to get the money into your bank account. Planning for 50 days is a safer option.

I am not recommending that anyone just go out and do this, but there may be circumstances where this is the best option. I remember when I was a sophomore in college. I was poor and broke. I once took a $500 cash advance on a credit card from an ATM. What's even worse is that this was a credit card that I had a balance on that was not paid off at the end of the month. At the time I did not completely understand exactly how much I was paying, but I likely paid over $150 to borrow $500 by the time I paid off the credit card balance. Remember that if you take a cash advance there are usually up front fees as well as high interest rates that start accruing immediately. There is no 25 day grace period. Also, you pay off the lowest interest borrowing first when you pay your bill. This means that if you already have a balance for other purchases, you will not pay off the cash advance until all of the other credit card debit is paid off first. This can get you into trouble quickly. I just want people to be aware of how this works and do NOT take a cash advance on a credit card.

There are other much less costly methods for getting access to cash quickly.

If you need cash for something like rent that you cannot pay with a credit card directly you can use Amazon Payments to transfer up to $1,000 per month to another person with a credit card for no fees. See my previous post: How to Meet Minimum Spending Requirements for Credit Cards - Amazon Payments for more information.

You can also use the method outlined in this post: How to Meet Minimum Spending on Credit Cards - Debit Gift Cards to Money Orders. This method will incur an upfront fee that varies depending on the fees for the $500 gift cards. A $5.95 fee is 1.2% fee on $500. If you need to get access to more than $1,000 cash.

It is easy to figure out when the first day of your billing period begins. Just look at your past credit card statement, and it will show the billing period as well as the due date. This will be the same days every month.

I am planning on testing out the benefits of this 55 day interest free loan with Loyal3. I wrote about how to use Loyal3 to make minimum spend requirements. You can check that out here. I am going to test out how much money I can push through Loyal3 in a 55 day period by buying stocks with a credit card for no fee, then selling those stocks. Churn, repeat. I will let you know the results when I finish my experiment.

If you have any questions or comments, please comment away!

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