A year ago, I wrote a post in which I recapped all of the credit cards that I opened in 2017. That year was a big milestone for me – it marked my first year ever of travel hacking. Prior to 2017, I only had two credit cards. One was a Citi credit card that I got in college, the other was a Target credit card that gave me 5% off my Target purchases.
In that first year, my wife and I opened up 12 credit cards between the two of us and racked up over 600,000 points and miles. Not too shabby at all.
2018 marked my second year of travel hacking and it turned out to be even more lucrative than 2017! I ended up opening a total of 13 credit cards – 9 for me and 4 for my wife. In total, my wife and I accumulated almost 1 million points and miles. When you add in the points we earned from the actual spending we did on the cards, we ended up accumulating over a million points and miles. That’s pretty incredible, especially when you consider that just 2 years ago, I literally knew nothing about credit cards and travel hacking.
I’ve always thought it was helpful when bloggers shared the cards they got with their audience, so, with the start of the new year, I thought I’d share all of the details about the credit cards I opened in 2018. My hope is that this post can give you a good example of how to approach your credit cards. At a minimum, this post should hopefully give you a good look into how a regular person like me strategizes earning points and miles.
The Credit Cards I Opened In 2018
In 2018, I opened up exclusively business credit cards. For those of you that don’t know, business cards are extremely advantageous because they allow you to get more cards without impacting your 5/24 status. I wrote a post about why you need to look at business credit cards and you should read that post if you’re looking for more information about how business credit cards work and why you need to use them if you want to maximize your points and miles.
Below is a recap of all of the credit cards I opened in 2018.
1. Chase Ink Business Preferred
I earned a total of 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points by hitting the minimum spend requirement on this card early in the year. The Chase Ink Business Preferred (CIP) is actually the business card that I use for this blog since it offers 3x points on advertising spending. I’ve been running a lot of Facebook ads for this site, which means that using this card is very advantageous for me.
Note that the CIP does have a $95 annual fee, but that’s well worth it since the signup bonus is worth a minimum of $800 and worth at least $1,000 if used for travel (and worth much more if transferred to partners). I use this card solely for blog expenses and will continue to keep it as my blog business card for the foreseeable future.
2. CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard
The CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard allowed me to earn a bunch of American Airlines miles in 2018. This card has a $95 annual fee that is waived in the first year, which is good since it means I can see how this card works for me without having to pay an upfront annual fee.
3. American Express Platinum Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card
The Delta Business Platinum card gave me 70,000 Delta SkyMiles, plus a $100 statement credit once I made my first purchase from Delta. The nice thing is that any purchase from Delta triggers the entire $100 statement credit, so doing something like paying taxes for a Delta flight or buying a drink on the plane triggers the entire statement credit. This card came with a $195 annual fee, but when you include the $100 statement credit, the annual fee is an effective $95. Combine that with the points I earned and paying the fee made sense.
4. Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
I opened this card right before the Marriott and SPG merger was completed, so this particular card does not exist anymore, but there’s another version of this card that’s basically the same. This card had a signup bonus of 75,000 Marriott points, which was pretty good. The annual fee was also waived in the first year.
Note that if you’re looking for Marriott or SPG points, be sure to research the rules. With the Marriott-SPG merger, there are some fairly complex rules that determine whether you’re eligible to earn the bonus depending on which SPG or Marriott cards you open.
5. American Express Business Gold Card
This card gave me 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards points, along with $1,500 worth of G-Suite credit. It required $5,000 of minimum spend in 3 months, but that also included the $1,500 that I spent on G-Suite that was reimbursed by the card. Effectively, I only had to spend $3,500 in 3 months to earn the bonus.
The $1,500 worth of G-Suite credit is good for me to use on this blog. I use G-Suite for my business email and storage now, and with the $1,500 worth of credits that I’ve purchased, I basically can cover those expenses for the next decade.
6. Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard (Opened 7/2018)
This card gave me 50,000 American Airlines miles after making one purchase with the card. It has a $95 annual fee that isn’t waived in the first year, so essentially, it’s like I paid $95 for 50,000 American Airlines miles, as earning the bonus only required me to make a single purchase with the card. $95 for 50,000 American Airlines miles was a good price, especially since I racked up a lot of American Airlines miles in 2018.
7. Chase Ink Business Unlimited
The Chase Ink Unlimited (CIU) had a 50,000 point signup bonus with no annual fee, so this was a good card for me to get to build up my Chase points balance. It also offers 1.5% back on all purchases, which makes it a pretty good card to use for base spending. My wife recently product changed her CIP to a CIU for her dental practice since that was a more efficient use of her cards.
Total Points I Earned From Credit Card Signup Bonuses in 2018: 620,000
I personally earned 620,000 points and miles from the multiple credit cards I opened in 2018. It’s a huge stash of points – more than it seems like I can spend while working a full-time job.
As for whether you can do this same thing, I’d say absolutely you can. If you’re doing any sort of side hustle, then you absolutely have a business, which means that you are eligible to open business credit cards. A common mistake I see people make is thinking that they can only get a business card if they have a “real business.” The key is to remember that if you’re doing any gig economy or sharing economy thing, you absolutely have a real business.
A lot of people are reluctant to get business credit cards because they think that only business expenses can go on them. The truth is that there’s no actual requirement that your business credit cards only have business expenses on them, so you can put personal expenses on your business cards without worry.
Note that if you have an actual business, it makes sense to only put business expenses on those particular cards for accounting purposes. If you have a business that is incorporated in some way, you should also not mix any business or personal expenses for legal liability reasons. Of the business cards I got in 2018, only 1 is used exclusively for business purposes. The rest are used as I see fit.
The Cards My Wife Got In 2018
My wife has always been more of a passive credit card user and she pretty much only gets cards when I tell her to do so. We didn’t open any cards for her in the first half of the year since she was in the middle of buying a dental practice and we didn’t want any new credit lines or hard pulls messing up her practice loan approvals.
Once the purchase was completed, we tried to get her the Chase Ink Preferred card to use for her new business, but oddly, we got denied and Chase wouldn’t budge on letting her get the card (we were essentially told to wait a few months and try again).
Since we couldn’t get any Chase cards, we ended up getting here a Citi business card and an American Express business card for her to use for her practice, then added the Chase business cards later.
Below is some more detail about the cards my wife got in 2018. Note that every card my wife got in 2018 was for her dental practice. She didn’t get any personal cards or business cards not related to her practice (in other words, these cards are only used for her practice expenses).
1. CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard
We ended up getting this card because my wife needed a non-AmEx card to pay vendors with – many vendors only take Visa or MasterCard, which can make relying on just an American Express card problematic.
2. Hilton Honors American Express Business Credit Card
We opened this card at the same time as the Citi business card. This card gave us 125,000 Hilton points after hitting the minimum spend. It has an annual fee of $95, which isn’t waived in the first year.
The rationale for this card was that it had a good signup bonus, and it also came with a Priority Pass that gave her 10 free lounge passes per year. We already have a priority pass with my Chase Sapphire Reserve, but since my wife doesn’t always travel with me, we thought it made sense to make sure she had her own Priority Pass just for the times when she’s traveling on her own. The card also gives you two free night certificates and Hilton Diamond status after you spend a lot of money on the card. Since her practice has so much overhead, this seemed like an easy way to earn a high-level hotel status.
3. Chase Ink Business Preferred
We finally got this card for my wife’s practice towards the end of the year. I referred her using my CIP referral link, so we ended up getting a total of 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points – 80,000 for hitting the minimum spend and 20,000 for the referral.
4. American Express Blue Business Plus (Opened 11/2018)
This card didn’t have a signup bonus, but I wanted my wife to have a decent base American Express card to use for her practice. The point of this card is really just to serve as a base card that has a decent earnings rate for everyday business spending. Basically, all of my wife’s dental practice spending should go on either this card or the Chase Ink Preferred card.
Total Points My Wife Earned From Credit Card Signup Bonuses in 2018: 300,000
Altogether, my wife and I earned a combined 920,000 points and miles between all of the various cards we got in 2018. When you add in all of the points we earned from spending on the cards, we definitely earned over 1 million points and miles. Crazy!
My Credit Card Strategy for 2019
2019 will pretty much be a fresh year for me, as I haven’t gotten a new personal credit card since May of 2018. What this means is that, by next year, I’ll pretty much be looking at a fresh slate when it comes to the Chase 5/24 rule.
One big thing is that my wife and I have the Southwest Companion Pass, which will expire at the end of 2019. The Southwest Companion Pass has proven to be really useful for us, so we’re definitely going to try to get it again for 2020 and 2021. This will involve either me getting the two cards necessary to earn the bonus, or we’ll have my wife earn the Companion Pass again since she’ll be eligible for Southwest bonuses at the end of the year (assuming the rules don’t change by then, which they definitely can).
In conclusion, 2018 turned out to be a very good year on the travel hacking front. We’ve gotten to the point now where our mileage accounts are very full.
Getting started with all of this stuff can be scary, but like anything, once you understand how it works, it becomes much easier. Credit cards won’t make you rich, but if you do them right, they can be very valuable. For high-income earners, it becomes even more valuable since credit card points are tax-free.
If you have any questions about your own credit card plans, feel free to shoot me an email on my contact page.
This post may contain affiliate links. Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- Upgrade ($200) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $200 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $200 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Ally Bank ($100) – Of all the banks out there, Ally is, without a doubt, my favorite. At the moment, Ally is offering $100 to customers who open an eligible Ally account and meet the requirements. Here are the step-by-step directions to earn your Ally Bank referral bonus.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
One million points is pretty amazing! Thanks for sharing your list of cards.
Two questions I have been wondering about:
1) What would you say is the minimum revenue to have before applying for a business card? We currently probably can scrape together about $1,000 of annual revenue from side hustles, so it seems strange to apply for a business credit card that would have a minimum spend (to get bonus) of 3-5 times our current annual revenue. Right now we are not sure if we will really grow that revenue.
2) What is your thoughts on adding your wife as an authorized user on your card, or vice versa? If there are extra bonus points it is nice, but I know it can mess up the 5/24 count with Chase.
$1,000 of annual revenue is fine. I’ve put as low as that and had no problems. You can always up it if you want – it’s not like you have to be exact.
Don’t add your wife as an authorized user. It’s better to have her open accounts for herself, rather than being an authorized user. If you do add her as an authorized user though, you can always remove her later, but I wouldn’t recommend adding her as one.
Very nice blog and i enjoyed reading your articles. Great stuff. I had one question about “The strategy with the CIP is to open your first CIP with your social security number, then open your second CIP using an EIN”. Looking at the application form it does ask for business and tax id. Did you mean one can use the same business name (an LLC for ex.) with two different tax ids ? first card using own ssn and second using ein (for the business) ?
Thanks
Hi,
So, when you apply for your first CIP, your business name should be just your name. I think you can also use your business name if you actually have an entity set up. For tax ID number, you put your SSN. Then in the bottom part of the application where you fill out your personal information, you put your SSN again in the space where it says Social Security Number.
When you apply again with an EIN, your business name should still be your name (unless you have an actual entity set up). The Tax ID number should be your EIN.
My suggestion would be, first card use your own name as your business and your SSN. Second card you can use your own name or a business if you have one, and then an EIN.
Great. Thanks. Chase has limit of 5 opened cards over last 24 months. I assume that if one apply to this card under different Tax id (SSN then EIN), it’s 2 different entities and the card is counted once toward the limit of 5 ? meaning if i apply to the card under my name that is counted towards my name and SSN and when i apply under my business it’s counted one toward the 5 limit for my business ?
The great thing is that business cards from Chase, Amex, and Citi do NOT appear on your credit report. That means that when you get a Chase biz card, it has no impact on your 5/24 status. Despite opening up all those cards in 2018, I’m still at 4/24 since I only opened biz cards.
So when you get those Chase biz cards, they will not count towards your 5/24 status. The only thing to know is that you can only get the Chase biz cards if you’re under 5/24. So to figure that out, count all the personal cards you’ve opened in the last 24 months. That’s your current 5/24 count.
Question about the Marriott Biz card … my wife and I both have that card and we are coming up on our 1-year anniversary date. We’ve earned our bonuses on the cards but are debating on keeping them open.
It appears you get 1-free night stay on your anniversary date for a 35,000 point or less hotel.
Do you think the $95 annual fee is worth it? I keep going back and forth on deciding what to do.
Hey John. Definitely an individual choice for you and your wife. I had an SPG biz card that was up for renewal in October and ultimately I decided to keep it for the free night, since I figured I’d probably use the free night at some point in the coming year. If you think you’ll need to pay for a hotel room that costs you more than $95, then definitely makes sense to keep. If you don’t think you’ll spend more than $95 on a hotel room this year, then drop the card.
I’m also debating about whether I’ll keep my Marriott Biz card when it comes up for renewal this year. Still haven’t made my decision yet.
Thanks for all the incredible info! This is exciting stuff. One question I had was regarding cards with annual fees. Obviously it makes sense to cancel any cards you don’t need before the annual fee comes around. However, as you mentioned in the first card you opened, it sometimes makes sense to keep cards that have annual fees depending on the bonuses. As someone who operates on a tight budget, would you recommend keeping any cards that have annual fees? Even if the bonuses justify paying an annual fee, I don’t have any wiggle room unfortunately to cover any annual fees. Do some cards offer the opportunity to have an annual fee waived, say if you spend a certain amount or maybe use your points to cover the fee??
Absolutely. I need to write a post about what to do about cards after the first year, but essentially, it’s call and seek a retention offer, and if no retention offer, then decide whether to close or downgrade the card, if possible.
I have a SW Biz card for example that has a $99 annual fee. Called up and asked for a retention offer and they gave me $100 statement credit to keep the card open. Plus, that card came with 6000 anniversary miles each year. So, for my 2nd year with that card, I essentially got paid $1 and was given 6000 miles.
Kevin
Really enjoy reading all your posts having only recently come across the site. The side hustle action is fantastic! Hoe has your personal credit score been impacted by the last two years of card openings? I.e. If you look at equifax or another monitoring service, pre card activity to today, how impactful has the game been? Thanks
Hey Michael. So my personal credit score is still in the high 700s and low 800s range, even as I continue to get a lot of hard pulls and open new cards. As I write this, according to the official Experian app, my credit score is 805. My TransUnion and Equifax are about the same as well.
Really, there’s a lot more that goes into credit scores than people realize, and if you’ve got a few old cards already, your credit score will not really be impacted very much. That was my big fear as well when I started, but now that I understand how credit scores actually work, I realize that its a myth that your credit score gets hurt by opening up cards.
Good job FP, congrats on achieving the 1MM milestone!. As you say, the strategy you’re sharing could be followed by anyone so I really appreciate your transparency. I think it’s really important to highlight that even though travel hacking offers many perks it is something that should be tackled with lots of discipline and planning. As you clearly state, all these cards, for the most part, have minimum spends ($3K-$5K) that need to be reached within a few months (~3 months). I personally try to time opening of cards with upcoming major FIXED expenses and most importantly I pay the full balance at the end of the month. If you find yourself spending more and paying interest then you’re defeating the whole purpose of travel hacking. Thanks for reminding me about the EIN strategy. This is something me and the wife plan on doing in 201 for the CIP. Happy new year!
If you figure that most people spend somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 per month on things that could go on credit cards, that means everyone is spending between $12,000 and $24,000 per year on credit cards. That’s easily 4-6 credit card minimum spends that can be hit each year. I think anyone could do that if they put in some effort!
Make sure you do the two CIPs for each of you. Four CIPs, plus the self-referrals means 380,000 total chase points.
Wow! Good for you! Congrats
Happy New Year
Thanks Jo Ann!