"Hey Chris, how do you travel these all these wonderful places on YOUR salary?" Well, I pay half or a quarter of what most people pay for their vacations and getaways. How?  PYCC – Pimp Your Credit Cards!

I notice a ton of credit card advertisements in the September through November time frame. It didn’t occur to me, but this is perfect timing to pay property taxes. For our trip to Milan, Chase paid my property taxes and in return, I got to stay at one of the most luxurious hotels in the city.

Using a credit card that offers travel points is the perfect way to pay for the perfect vacation. Take advantage of your spending habits and convert those cards into luxurious stays in fantastic locations. November is also the time to start Christmas shopping, making it a great time to start racking up points. Spending reports state that most of us spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000 for gifts. That's a great start to racking up the points, doing something that you're already doing anyway.

Another way to racking up the entry fee for free travel, is use your card for everything, every day! When I learned that Costco was now accepting Visa, cha-ching! Most cards even offer additional credit for supermarkets and gas stations. Cha-ching again! At a birthday dinner, everyone was putting in cash to pay for their share of the bill, and I offered to take the cash and put it on my card. My friends asked, "Why don’t you just pay cash?" I looked at them and simply replied, "Points!" Hundred dollars for this dinner, $50 for gas, $30 for movie tickets, I’ll even pay my utility bills with my credit cards. Points, points POINTS!!

Some people worry that putting so much on you credit card will get you in trouble. That was old school thinking. "Use money as a tool!" The cash that I was going to spend to pay for the dinner, write a check for utilities, or cash for anything else is simply use to pay the credit card bill. In some cases I’ll even pay in advance. There are several times when I’ve had a credit balance, a surplus of payments, made to the credit card company. And if I have a negative credit balance, don’t worry I’ll just use that up next month. Online banking is great because it allows scheduling a static payment to your card, and it also ensures that you’re never late on your payments, so no late fees!

Simply identify the type a traveler you are to assign yourself particular credit cards out there that will reward you with a free travel. Are you a Jetsetter looking to travel the world, then look to Chase Bank with credit card for United, Asiana, and Alaska Airlines. Do you focus more on local travel visiting family within the states? Then maybe American Express, or Citibank for Delta or American Airlines would be more your speed. Or simply go to your favorite travel partner, regional airlines such a Southwest, Spirit, Virgin and others, all have affinity cards. Cards associated with the provider that gives you extra points when you purchase their products.

You’ve traveled somewhere now you need to sleep somewhere. The same applies to hotels and rental cars. All the major brands, Marriott, Hilton, Starwood have cards that offer free nights upon meeting the spending criteria. In 2016, my initial buy-in got us 2 free nights in Paris. This year, my recurring spending will get us 2 if not 3 free nights in Barcelona! I pay for my Netflix, Redbox, DirecTV bill, with my credit cards. Gas, food at Costco, movie tickets, car rentals, Home Depot. Everything on a single card. At the end of the year are usually have enough points to cover several nights that will save me upwards of $1,000 in hotel fees.

Below is a list of affinity cards aligned with travel programs that I find on my favorites. You may want to check the sites depending on the brands that you assigned align yourself with to see when they have specials. American Express regularly offers 60 to 75,000 points when you spend $3000, but about once a quarter they offer as much as 100,000 points. Chase has deals where they bump their 50,000 miles to 80,000 on United.

 

 

 

 

 

Bank	Benefit	Partners	Spend	Points/Miles
American Express	Hotels	Hilton Starwood	$1,000 - $4,000	50k - 100k
American Express	Airlines	Delta	$5000 - $3,000	10k - 40k
Bank America	Airlines	Alaska   Allegiant  Asiana Spirit Virgin Atlantic	1st Purchase - $2,000	15k - 30k + Companion Fare
Bank America	Cruises	Celebrity  Norwegian  Royal Caribbean	1st Purchase - $2,000	15k - 30k + Companion Fare
Bank America	Rail	Amtrak	1st Purchase - $2,000	15k - 30k + Companion Fare
BarclayCard	Airlines	American  Frontier  Hawaiian  JetBlue  Lufthansa	1st Purchase - $1,000	10k - 60k
BarclayCard	Cruises	Carnival  Holland America  Princess	1st Purchase - $2,000	5k - 10k
BarclayCard	Hotels	Choice  Diamond Resorts RCI Wyndham	1st Purchase - $2,000	15k - 30k + Companion Fare
BarclayCard	Misc	Priceline  Uber	1st Purchase - $500	$100 - 5,000pts
Citibank	Airlines	American  Frontier  Hawaiian  JetBlue  Lufthansa	$750 - $5,000	25k - 60k
Citibank	Misc	Expedia	$1,000 - $2,000	15k - 25k
Chase	Airlines	British Airways   United       Southwest	$2,000 - $5,000	40k - 80k
Chase	Hotels	Disney Hyatt IHG Marriott   Ritz-Carlton	$1,000 - $4,000	40k - 80k