Credit Cards and Airline Miles

In My Humble Opinion
1

Several questions about this…

First, do they pay off? In my situation, I’m not going to be running up thousands of dollars of charges a month, so it will take me a few years to get enough miles for tickets.

Any recommendations on which card to get? I’d really rather not get one without an annual fee mostly because I’m against paying an annual fee on credit cards. Looking around, there are a couple out there, but not many. My best offer is through a credit union, but those miles expire after 4 years.

How do you maximize your points earned? I can start paying most of my monthly bills on this, but unfortunately my biggest expenses don’t take credit cards (mortgage, groceries, electric bill, costco). Anyone know how I can start paying my mortage on the credit card?

Any tips or opinions are greatly welcome!

I pay off my credit card every month, so APR and late fees and such are not a concern at all.

2

First, do you travel much by air, or are you just looking to get miles so that you can take a vacation? If you do travel, then by all means get the card, even if it has an annual fee.

Here is an example of a recent trip of mine - Denver to Washington Dulles. About $300 for the flight, so 300 miles, ~3000 miles for the roundtrip, plus 3000 more for booking online. That is 6300 miles in one shot. Do that 4 times and you’ve got a free ticket.

I earned 56,000 miles yast year, about half from air miles and half from other stuff. I use United Mileage Plus for $65/year, and I get miles from hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, florists, car rentals, online investments, etc.

Strategies - If you really do pay off your card in full every month, then put everything on it. Gas, groceries, pizza, dining - everything. Sign up for every affiliate program there is. Safeway gives United miles, almost every hotel chain has one, etc. You will get coupons in the mail - save them and use them, you’ll get more miles. Book flights online. Airlines want you to go paperless and do it yourself, and will reward you for it with miles.

It may be much harder to accumulate miles if you don’t travel, but at a couple thousand $ a month as you say, that is a free trip every year for a $65 investment. Just keep in mind that you can’t get award travel over holidays, or almost any desireable time of year (New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Orlando in the winter, etc.)

Of course YMMV :wink: