When are personal loans a good idea is a top question for those searching the internet. When one takes the time to look at the financial situation in much of the first world, it is no wonder why people would be asking this question. Here are a few considerations when deciding to take out a […]
Living Within Your Means and Paying Down Debt
We live in a consumer society. It is difficult to stay out of debt and live on a budget. What if you have a small income and many expenses? How do you make your income stretch as far as you can? How can you consolidate debt so it’s not overtaking your expenses? We will explore […]
How to Quickly Pay Credit Card Debt
When you have debt, specifically credit card debt, you’re likely paying high interest. Obviously that’s not a secret because it’s how credit card companies make their money. If you’re trying to pay off debt, however, that’s some of the first debt you should try to pay off. Once again, not a secret since paying high […]
How We’re Travel Hacking Our Way to Peru in April 2015
For me, there is really no greater feeling than traveling for free. I tell people the places we’ve stayed and the flights we’ve taken, all for next to nothing and I’m pretty sure a majority of them think I’m full of it. But I always tell people that you should give every single thing in […]
140,000 Points From The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card From Chase & Unboxing Video
As someone who’s applied and been approved for over 30 cards over the past five years, I’ve seen some pretty great offers come and go. In fact, I still remember the first offer that got me started on this miles, points and credit card journey that I’m now on. I was sitting at work casually […]
Reader Question: How To Use Points & Miles To Get To North Carolina
Today I’m featuring a question I received via e-mail a few weeks ago. Reader RB would love to go visit her boyfriend in North Carolina but she’s a starving student. So how can she use miles and points to make it all the way from Cali to North Carolina for free?! I was hoping to […]
My Latest Credit Card App O Rama Nets 250,000 Points and $200: Applying and Spending
This is part two of our two part series about my latest credit card App O Rama and how I netted 250,000 points and $200. Part 1 covered preparation and strategy for an App O Rama of this kind of magnitude and today we’ll talk about how the application process and spending works. I ended up deciding […]
My Latest Credit Card App O Rama: Preparation and Strategy
This is part 1 of a two article series about my latest credit card App O Rama and how I netted 240,000 points and $200. Part 2 on Friday will talk about which cards I applied for, how many points I ended up with (it’s a lot!) and how I met $20k in spending in […]
Get the 2014 US Airways Mastercard Before It Goes Away
Even though the merger between US Airways and American Airlines has been going pretty smoothly, I’ve actually been more concerned about how the merger between the two frequent flyer programs will work. Working in the aerospace industry, I think less competition is a bad thing for consumers but at this point, there’s not a whole […]
How I Got $1750 From the SPG Amex Card 30k Offer
Normally, I won’t even consider a credit card sign up bonus offer unless it’s in the 40,000-50,000 point range. On average, 1 point is worth at least 1 cent so if you can score 50,000 points that means you just earned yourself $500. I make good money at my day job but I still know […]
Do You Pay With Cash or Credit Cards?
Most of the credit card articles on this site have to do with the points and miles you can accumulate by signing up for various cards and spending on daily purchases. But one of the first things I recommend to someone struggling with their spending is to get rid of their cards and start paying […]
Increase Your Citi Credit Card Limits
Editor’s Note: Here’s a Saturday bonus article since I didn’t technically write an article yesterday 🙂 Most of the time when I get mail from Citi it’s junk mail like offers for balance transfers, adding an authorized user or those paper checks. Does anyone actually use those stupid checks that probably charge 30% interest? I […]
Using Vanilla Reloads to Meet Credit Card Spend Requirements
(Editor’s Note: I wrote this article a couple weeks ago and since then CVS has instituted a new policy that requires cash to pay for Vanilla Reloads. Sadly, it looks like this deal is now dead unless you can find VR’s somewhere else) According to my credit card statements, I spend a lot of money. […]
Using a Credit Card to Buy Fee Free Stocks with Loyal3
Update(5/11/2014): Loyal3 now limits credit card purchases of stocks to $50. So you can still use it to MS but it isn’t a viable option if you’re looking to do more than $1-2k. It’s easier than ever to invest your money in stocks these days. Not only are companies battling it out when it comes […]
100,000 American Airline Miles for One Credit Card Sign-Up
Since I’ll be using nearly half a million points this summer on various hotels and flights for my honeymoon I’ve been on the lookout for a big score when it comes to credit card sign-up bonuses. I still currently have a few hundred thousand points left but my accounts have taken a huge hit during […]
Overpay Your Utilities Before You Cancel Service
I’m always looking for easy ways to save money or make money. Basically anything that will put more money in my pocket without much work is something I like. I get a lot of my ideas from browsing deal forums like Slickdeals or travel forums like Flyertalk but occasionally I’ll come up with a good […]
Are Credit Card Bonuses Taxable?
Now that my favorite time of the year(tax time!) is right around the corner, I’m starting to get a lot of 1099’s in the mail. I have many sources of income which usually means a lot of 1099’s showing up on my door step. It’s more work for me but it’s usually a good thing […]
Get Your Free FICO Score from Barclaycard
The media likes to bombard us with credit related advertisements. It doesn’t matter whether you’re watching TV, listening to the radio or playing a podcast, it seems like there are always ads for free credit scores, debt repair and things of that nature. I’ve always felt strongly though that I shouldn’t have to pay for […]
Why I’m Addicted to Credit Card Bonuses
I don’t promote many credit cards on this site but I do have a lot of experience with them. Right now I’ve got about 25 open credit cards and if I had to guess, I’ve probably accrued over a million miles and points over the last 3-4 years. I’m always looking for easy ways to […]
My Latest Credit Card: The Amex Starwood Preferred Guest Card(SPG)
Update (6/3/14): The current offer has been increased to 30k points for the Amex SPG Personal and Amex SPG Business card. If you’d like to sign up using my referral code, please shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you the sign-up link. Since I’ve got a European honeymoon coming up this summer, I’ve been in […]