Traveling With Credit Card Points- Video #3 – A Blueprinting for Credit Card Points

All right, so so far we’ve done the intro. How we saved 40 ,000 a year in travel at a minimum. We’ve gone through very well thought out concerns. Thank you, Stephanie and Ben. I think it’s very helpful both being new to this game.

A lot of people started the game. We’ll have similar concerns as you. So hopefully we address those very well. And then the third thing we’re going to do now is we’re going to just go through a quick blueprint of how to get started on this, some things to watch out for.

And then the fourth thing we’re going to do is we’re going to show you how to maximize the points. Once you earn those, you can take a million points and make them worth 10 grand or we can take a million points and make them worth 100 grand. No joke if you book them the right way.

So okay, so let’s talk through the blueprint. So we know how to earn these. So the first thing we want to do is we want to look at chase cards. Why? Because Chase has a 524 rule. If you have 5 credit cards in the last 24 months, Chase will not approve you for a new application period.

This does not have to be just chase cards. So for example, Stephanie had 5 American Express cards she just opened. Chase isn’t touching her for 2 years. If she opens up a card a year later, it’s 2 years from that year.

So American Express Capital One discovered they don’t have this rule. So for example, if Ben went and got 5 chase cards and then 5 American Express cards, if he did that right, he would successfully get 10. If Stephanie got 5 American Express cards and 5 chase cards, she’d be stuck in the 5 American Express cards.

Does that make sense? Yes. So in general, right order, we’re going to chase first. Where are we going for Chase? You can either get the Chase Sapphire or the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This one has a $100 fee.

This one has a $550 fee. This is the one I’m going to recommend that you always keep open. It’s got that big fee, attach $550. Again, you get $300 back in travel. You get the free Door Dash. It’ll pay for itself.

You can get free TSA if you start traveling a lot. You don’t have TSA. You never travel with me because I’m not going to wait for you. Global entry, all those kind of things. Get it because you’re just going to save lots of time at Agony to make your travel.

Very special. Secondly, then we’re going to pick on you. You’re a valued team member at EWA. Thank you very much. Why would you get a Chase Business Inc. as a W -2? You’re going to say, I don’t own a business.

Doesn’t matter. Anyone can get a business credit card. It’s legal. Have you ever sold a book on eBay or sold anything in your life? Yes. You could sell me that notepad right now for $10 and say, legally you’re a business owner report that is a sole proprietorship.

Get a business card. Put in your name as the business. Your name is the business. Ben Ruttenberg. Put in your tax ID as the business tax ID. Put in your W -2 income as the income. Put in your home address as the business address.

If they ask you’ll send a utility bill from your home address, it’ll get approved and record time. Business cards are the best cards, period. You do not have to be a business owner to get a business card. Chase Business Inc. And then there’s other Chase cards we want to go after.

Just curious Matt, what are the advantages of a business card as opposed to a… You can get a large amount of points. So, 100 ,000 introductory points instead of 50 ,000 introductory points. Then there’s some ongoing benefits as well to them as well.

Generally speaking, it’s just a bigger pool. Because the credit card company knows if you’re a business, most likely you’re going to spend more money on that credit card than if it’s a personal card. So they make the bonuses bigger.

So you get all of these. They all go to a Chase pool. Now we have 600 ,000 Chase points. We can now transfer those to United, transfer those to Hyatt. We can transfer those to Marriott. We can transfer those to Southwest one for one.

Extremely valuable. We can go on the Chase portal and start booking travel, which would be the worst rookie mistake you’ve ever done. We’ll tell you why in a second. But in first blueprint is you’re going to get your Chase cards.

Why do you have that Excel spreadsheet? You need to know. Go on creditkarma .com. Look up your credit, your accounts. They’ll tell you when all your accounts open, when’s the last one. Because you may be 224 right now.

So Stephanie, you may have three cards we can get in the next 24 months. Get those knocked out first. And generally speaking, don’t do more than two cards per month. That the success rate high of getting approved for every card that you possibly do.

Any questions on that so far? Okay. That’s really the blueprint. And obviously you have a time limit to hit the bonuses. So if you get the Chase Sapphire Reserve and you’re like, I’m going to put my mortgage payment.

next three months, we don’t want to open up Chase Business Inc. in month two, because we’re still trying to hit this bonus that if we don’t have the money, if it takes us three months before we can put a dollar in here, then by the time you get to this one you have one month left to hit the bonus.

So another reason for the Excel spreadsheet, look at your budget and cash flow, is that I can hit this bonus in two months, so then in the start of month three, I’m going to go to card number two.

Once I know I can hit that bonus in three months, then I go to card three, card four, card five. If you’re doing tax, that’s really easy, because if you owe 10 ,000 taxes, we can probably knock two or three out all in one in one day.

Other blueprint to know, so Stephanie for you and your husband for example, you can each have a Chase Sapphire reserve. If you open up one and add him on yours, you get one bonus. He’s just an authorized user. You need to open up your own account, own login, own loyalty IDs.

He will need to open up his own card, own loyalty IDs, etc. You can make each other an authorized user, so if you’re planning on using this card while you’re out and about, then you could hit the minimum spend quicker if you want it.

Does his spending, if he’s an authorized user, will count towards your bonus and vice versa. If you open him as an authorized user, you’re getting one bonus, not two. If you open up two separate cards, you’re getting two bonuses, not one.

That makes sense? Absolutely. That’s a good call, because that’s what people usually do, is like you would open one and then add your spouse or whatnot as the user. You wouldn’t want to pay two annual fees, but if you’re a credit card points junkie like me, annual fees, we know our relevant.

We’re saving the big money. Makes sense. Any other questions on the blueprint? The biggest mistake I see is trying to plan this perfectly and I want to go to Hawaii this year and then researching, is that where you want to go? I planned everything, so that’s a great. Forget planning. Get the points irrelevant of what you want to do or where you want to go.

It’s going to be the same card you eventually open up. Just earn as many points as you possibly can. It’s going to work out no matter what. What I’ve seen is I want to go to Hawaii this year and then someone will get the five worst cards to get to somewhere and then they just ruined the possibility for the next two years to really maximize this stuff because they opened up a Hilton card.

Just using an example, one of the worst ones on the market right now. That may have shifted. Hilton and I actually have a high status. Just earn, get the best cards, earn the points.

If you have enough points you’ll always be able to travel wherever you want, whatever you want for free. Don’t attach the two from the get -go. Step one, earn as many points as possible. Step two, learn how to maximize the points and then step three, just know that you’re going to be able to always get to where you want, whatever you want for free.

Simple as that. Any questions on blueprinting? Alright.