Category Archives: Travel

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How to Use the Miles and Points You Acquire

How to Travel for Free: Part 6 of 7

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Throughout this series of posts I’ve argued that miles and points are useful not only for free travel but also for freeing up money you would otherwise have spent on travel. To maximize your savings, there are two basic considerations. First, earn the most miles and points for the least expenditure of time and money. Second, redeem miles and points for the most value.

My advice on earning the most miles and points is straightforward. Go for Chase cards first (provided you have opened fewer than 5 cards in the previous 24 months). Then, open the most lucrative signup offers on my Best Credit Card Signup Offers page.

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Which Credit Cards to Get to Maximize Free Travel

How to Travel for Free: Part 4 of 7

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In the previous posts in this series, I’ve shared an approach to getting a lot of free travel by taking advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses. I also explained why doing so usually has a positive, not negative, effect on one’s long-term credit score (provided you pay your credit card off each month)—a conclusion that would surprise most people. Two questions then arise: how often can I sign up for credit cards and which ones should I sign up for?

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How Often Can I Sign up for Credit Cards?

There is no cut and dry answer to this question. But I would offer these three points by way of reply:

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Understanding Credit Scores and the Effect that Credit Card Applications Have on One’s Credit Score

How to Travel for Free: Part 3 of 7

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In my previous post I discussed how you can earn a lot of free travel quickly by signing up for a credit card with a big sign-up bonus. A question that arises for many people is: what effect does signing up for credit cards have on one’s credit score?

It is an important question. A good credit score is key to getting loans, such as for a home mortgage, at the lowest rate possible. A quarter point swing in the interest rate on a 30-year home loan can easily be the difference in $10,000, $20,000, or even more over the life of the loan.

In most cases it would be foolish to earn credit card bonuses if doing so meant you would miss the lowest rate on a home loan. But does it?

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Leveraging Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses for Free Travel

How to Travel for Free: Part 2 of 7

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In my last post I shared some of the amazing travel opportunities that can be enjoyed for pennies on the dollar or even for free. Free travel can enable the enthusiast to travel more. But it can also enable those of us who would pay some amount to travel anyway to divert those funds to other priorities.

There are lots of tricks that help enable free travel. But today I want to share the single most powerful technique by far: signing up for a credit card that is offering a big sign-up bonus.

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Imagining the Possibilities of Free Travel

How to Travel for Free: Part 1 of 7

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Sharing amazing experiences with people I love is part of what matters most to me. Travel has always provided such experiences, and as a result I’ve always loved to travel.

The view, overlooking Oahu's Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, from my family’s room at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel

The view, overlooking Oahu’s Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, from my family’s room at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel

About 4 years ago, I got to a point where my family was expanding and I wanted to continue traveling, but I didn’t want to spend every nickel I earned to do it. At the time, I definitely did not know that free travel was possible, and I didn’t know how to do it.

I began to hear about mile and points experts, but at first I wasn’t sure what to think. Were they for real? Did they have a terrible credit score and a heap of debt?

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How to Save 46% on a Hotel Room with a Hotwire / Priceline Trick

I Recently Saved over $50 in 20 Minutes

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How would you like to save 46% on a hotel stay as I recently did? The trick is to play Priceline off of Hotwire. Let me explain through the lens of my recent booking.

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I needed to stay in Estes Park, CO for one night. Searching on Orbitz.com, the cheapest rate I found was $90 for a 2-star hotel.

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