Have you ever heard someone say, "I used my miles to buy my plane ticket/hotel room/other expensive things" ??
I feel like I hear it constantly. Yet for the amount of times I've traveled, I've only earned enough Southwest points for a portion of a one-way ticket.
My facepalm moment was after asking someone how they earned their miles.
Credit card, idiot.
See I don't put anything on a credit card. Anything. My theory is if I have the money in my bank account why not just pay from debit?
And if I don't have the money in my bank account?
Well I don't buy it.
I'm terrified of credit cards. I've managed to accumulate them, and I'm worried I'll make a charge and forget to pay it off. So much to the point I check my credit card statements constantly worried I made a charge on the wrong card. "Still at zero balance? Phew." I was lucky enough to grow up in a family where we paid cash for cars, didn't take out student loans, and didn't buy things we couldn't always afford.
You see why I like to pay cash for everything? Debt is the devil.
But I digress.
I started researching miles reward cards. I'm in the process of planning a honeymoon, bachelorette parties, trips, etc. And I want the biggest bang for my buck!
I narrowed it down to two cards:
After posing the question on my facebook about which one people preferred, I noticed a lot of my friends had Chase Sapphire and loved it. Plus the bonus 45,000 points was a nice little incentive.
So I applied! Got my card recently, and have transferred all of my recurring payments to the credit card (gym, sewage, garbage, etc). The idea is to pay this card off every month because the interest rate is a nasty 15.99%. BUT for every dollar we spend, we get a point back. And for every dollar we spend on Travel and Dining (which is more than I'd like to admit) we get TWO points back! Basically, for the money we're already spending we can now earn miles toward traveling.
I've even gotten Aaron on board my excitement train. We'll go out to eat and he'll look at me and say, "Chase Sapphire?!" Yes honey, we're Chase Sapphiring this.
I felt so dumb for not having a card to earn miles. I feel like I always hear people say they're paying for travel with Miles and I'm just NOW getting it. However whenever I ask people what miles card they use, most people don't use one or have any idea what I'm talking about either.
Soooo I thought I would share my story on my little bloggy with my lovely bloggy friends. If you enjoy traveling and don't currently have a Miles reward type of card, do your research and hop on the bandwagon. Might as well earn rewards for the money you're already spending :-)
And for your Tuesday morning - an adorable photo of my loves.
I am the exact same way when it comes to credit cards. My oldest sister went on a spending spree when she turned 18 and got approved for her first credit card and her credit has been ruined ever since so I've always been terrified of them too. It took my husband almost 5 years to finally convince me of the benefits and we also went with a Chase Saphire for traveling too. But you better believe I am paying off that balance all.the.time. There is no way I am going to be charged interest for something we can pay right out of our account. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI found a site where you can earn miles by taking surveys. I don't qualify for any of the credit cards that help you earn miles... but I wish I did, because that would really help when I move to Oregon because I'll want to fly back and forth a lot!
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