Cash Back vs. Points: How to Blend Credit Card Rewards with Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, U.S. Bank & More
Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by co-host Darren to discuss how to combine cashback credit cards with a points and miles strategy.
Recorded July 7, 2026, this episode focuses on when cashback makes sense, how to cash out flexible points, and why travelers may want both points and cash in their overall credit card rewards setup.
Justin and Darren explain that points and miles can be great for flights, hotels, lounges, and premium travel, and cashback can help cover expenses that points do not easily offset, including airline fees/taxes, food, transportation, and other out-of-pocket travel costs.
They compare traditional cashback cards with points that can be cashed out, starting with American Express Membership Rewards options such as the Schwab Platinum, Morgan Stanley Platinum, and Amex Business Platinum with Business Checking. They also discuss strong Amex earning cards, including the Amex Gold Card, Amex Business Gold, and Blue Business Plus.
The episode also covers Chase Sapphire Reserve Pay Yourself Back, shifting Chase redemption categories, Capital One Venture and Venture X purchase eraser redemptions, and Citi cash-out options through cards such as the Citi Strata Premier and Citi Strata Elite. Justin and Darren also discuss US Bank business cashback cards, including redemption considerations and how a US Bank checking account is needed to get better value.
They review the Discover IT rotating 5% categories, gift card redemption bonuses, and the upcoming July 27, 2026 move to Capital One. The conversation also includes niche and high-value plays such as the MGM Iconic Card for casino status and cruise opportunities, plus pure cash-back options like the Venmo Credit Card and Langley Signature Cash Back Visa.
If you are deciding between cash back and travel points, this episode explains why the best answer may be using both.
Timestamps
00:00 Podcast Intro
00:35 Cashback Strategy Setup
01:49 Why Cashback Matters
04:31 Amex Points Cashout
07:19 Chase Points Cashout
11:41 Capital One Points Cashout
14:23 Citi Cashout Options
16:06 Support And Sponsors
18:27 US Bank Cashback Cards
20:39 Discover Cashback
24:22 MGM Iconic
27:58 Venmo And Langley
33:25 Trips, Credits, And Wrap Up
38:07 Closing Outro
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy travel podcast breaks the mold
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. For today’s episode, my frequent co-host, Darren, and I will talk about earning cashback from credit cards, including cashing out points and traditional cashback credit cards.
If you’d like to blend your miles and points strategy with a cashback strategy, [00:01:00] perhaps to offset travel costs that can’t be offset by points, this episode is for you. On with today’s show, recorded seven seven, July 7th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren. Thanks, Justin. Always enjoy getting to talk points and miles.
There’s lots of value certainly to be had in points and miles, but there’s nothing quite like the good old US American dollar, Justin. We have options with credit cards, especially those that earn points that can be cashed out. We have the straight cashback cards or the more traditional cashback cards, and I think there’s reason to have a blended strategy.
Most listeners probably will prioritize earning points and using points for travel. I definitely can’t fault them for that. This is the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast after all. But there are certain things that can’t be offset by points in most circumstances. Maybe it’s food when you are overseas.
Maybe it’s [00:02:00] transportation. Maybe it’s a train ride that can’t be offset. Maybe parking, souvenirs. It goes on and on, and some people would like to earn that cashback and use that to offset those travel purchases or really any purchases. You might also be in a situation, if you’re a more advanced listener, where you have tons of points and you want cash.
You might be sitting on over a million Hilton points because you’re spending on those Hilton cards to earn those free night certificates, but you’re not really using the Hilton points, so instead of using a card that maybe is earning 6X Hilton at grocery stores, maybe you’ll wanna shift to a good cashback earning card at grocery stores or for other purchases Maybe life circumstances have changed.
Maybe you or someone else close to you has had a baby, and you’re not going to be traveling as much this year or next year. Maybe some sort of health complication. Maybe you’re a listener who doesn’t travel as much. [00:03:00] Maybe you travel once or twice a year and you’d like more of that cash back.
You provided a great number of examples there. I was just talking to a friend last week who upgraded his premium economy seat on SAS to business for $425 and some miles, so yet again, Justin, a opportunity to use some of your cash back or convert some of your points to cash back to travel a little nicer if you’re returning on a long trip or perhaps unfortunately you’ve been part of the recent layoffs.
Certainly that has made news this last six months or so, especially in the tech sector, and you’re looking for ways to pay bills. I can certainly see a switch of focus from points and miles to travel to just paying the bills. Justin, I know you made that switch a number of years ago, and I think you have a great perspective on a blend of cash back and rewards points
it’s nice in miles and points we don’t have to do an either/or. [00:04:00] We can do a both or maybe take a compromise of what I’m calling a blended strategy that you’re using points earning cards, and in some cases you’re cashing out those points.
You have the option to either use it for travel or to use it as cash back rather than traditional cash back cards that are just straight cash back and you can’t use them for travel, you can’t use them for points. You don’t have access for hotel, airline programs and more.
Let’s get out of the theoretical and into the actual. The first example of a blended miles and points strategy with cash back is with America’s favorite bank, American Express. A Charles Schwab Personal Platinum card can cash out membership rewards, those are the Amex points, at 1.10 cents per point.
A Morgan Stanley Personal Platinum card can cash out membership rewards at one cent per point. If you have a Business Platinum card and an American Express Business [00:05:00] checking account, you can cash out membership rewards at one cent per point up to 1 million points per calendar year-ish.
Sometimes it’s been more than that. A nice benefit of American Express cash-outs is that your pool of points is combined considering all your Amex cards, both personal and business. Earn at high rates, including the personal Gold card, 4X dining and grocery. You can use the Amex Business Gold card on your top two categories from their select list that includes gas, dining, software and tech providers like Newegg and Best Buy, and other categories.
The Blue Business Plus card earns 2X on all spending, preferably on spending that isn’t bonused on other cards, up to $50,000 in spend per calendar year. I wouldn’t keep the Blue Business Plus for more than a year because the 2X isn’t impressive, but maybe you got a high welcome bonus on the card and you’re just holding onto it for one year.
The [00:06:00] Business Platinum card, you don’t hear this too much, earns 2X at home improvement stores and on transactions of $5,000 or more. I use the Business Platinum often for gift cards and prepaid cards at Lowe’s, and sometimes I’ve had unbonused spending of $5,000 or more, especially during the sign-up bonus period where you can get progress toward the sign-up bonus and elevated earnings rather than just settling for that 1X on most spending.
I’ve had many Business Platinum cards in recent years through special offers allowing me to get numerous welcome bonuses. We have lots of option and points earning with American Express
As our friends over at MileNomics podcast say, Justin, world’s funnest bank. I think the Amex membership rewards cash out options here really are the best in class. Unlike some of these other banks that we’re gonna talk about in a moment where you have to offset purchases this is, as Randy Moss once [00:07:00] said, “Just straight cash, homie.”
If you have the right cards and combination of cards you can directly convert those points into cash, right into your bank account. So I think that’s still best in class. We have a lot of ways to earn through many different personal and business cards, charge cards, and credit cards with American Express.
We’ll move on from American Express to Chase, another example of a blended points and miles strategy.
I’ve used the personal Chase Sapphire Reserve card to cash out points. As of recording July 7th, 2026, you can cash out points at 1.2 cents per point
to offset public transit purchases, gas station purchases as well. you can cash out at 1.5 cents per point offsetting select charitable donations. And we get another number here, because why not? Offset the annual fee at 1.25 cents per point. Each quarter, the cash out values change and The categories also change. [00:08:00] We’ve seen higher values and better categories.
I think in the past, the best we’ve seen was in 2019 or 2020, grocery spending was bonused on the personal Chase Sapphire Reserve, and the pay yourself back, I believe, was 1.5 or 1.25 cents per point. We were earning 3X or whatever it was at that time and cashing out at a higher rate. In July of 2026, the cash-out options aren’t looking so great, in my opinion, compared to the past.
Like Amex, the earning potential from Chase cards can be high, especially with the Chase Ink Cash business card earning five times points at office supply stores, up to 25,000 spend per card member anniversary, a whopping 125,000 ultimate rewards every year because, of course, America loves math. The personal Chase Sapphire Reserve also earns at decent rates, and that’s changed too.
It’s currently 4X on flights booked directly with carriers. For me, usually [00:09:00] taxes and fees that aren’t offset by points, 4X on hotels booked direct, perhaps some incidentals, 3X on dining, not too far away from Amex offering 4X, and sadly, 1X on everything else. No longer 3X on generic travel, including cruises.
Sad to have lost that. But we do still have the Chase Freedom Flex earning 5X in select rotating quarterly categories. I believe now gas is one of those options in July of 2026. The categories have not looked good so far this year, though. Like Amex, all the Chase points can be combined across cards, so you have a lot of options with Chase, whether using points for travel or essentially cashback
I don’t know if America truly loves math, Justin, but it appears Chase does. Between all the different redemption point values, it seems like it’s more and more challenging to keep things straight, and Chase seems like they’re continuing to [00:10:00] devalue, essentially, an Ultimate Reward point.
Still some good options here, certainly. I think the big difference between this and Amex is it’s that you have to offset a purchase you’ve made. You have to spend a lot of money at gas stations, you have to spend a lot of money at public transit. That seems like that would be challenging.
We have the MBTA in Boston. You could ride the T a lot, and you could offset those purchases, too, but I believe you’re only earning 1X on that spending, so not as exciting.
My wife and I both have a large portfolio of Chase cards. I don’t anticipate that’s gonna change anytime soon, but we value those points for transfers to partners much more than we do for cash out. But, I probably don’t earn them nearly as quickly as you do, Justin.
Are you cashing out any Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Justin? I have offset the annual fee recently when it posted. In a past podcast episode, I was even considering downgrading the card, but I think it [00:11:00] was close, so I’m going to keep it and give it a shot, and I’ve been able to redeem the edit credit at the Kimpton IHG Taconic in Vermont.
I think that was a pretty good redemption, so we’ll see what that has going forward. But in July of 2026, the pay yourself back isn’t looking so good, so maybe I’ll just wait until the next quarter and see what happens. I got a bit hosed because I made grocery purchases in June, and then July came, and then I wasn’t able to cash out those points because everything was already accounted for, and I had to wait until the 4th of July for the statement to close, so I had all these 1X grocery purchases.
War on happiness continues there.
But let’s move on to Capital One, the Capital One Venture and Venture X. X gonna give it to you, Darren. They offer the ability to transfer points to select airline and hotel programs, but you can also use their purchase eraser feature to redeem points at one cent per point, offsetting eligible travel [00:12:00] purchases, including tolls, I believe.
Fire up that EZ Pass. At the time of recording, July 2026, the Venture X and the Venture offer sizable welcome bonuses at 75,000 miles, potentially 750 in cash, or again, you could transfer some of those points to travel partners. In addition, you earn 2X on all spending on the Venture and the Venture X, and the Venture X includes an annual travel credit, anniversary miles, lounge access, and more, making the higher annual fee on that card a good investment.
The Capital One Spark Cash Plus business card in July of 2026 is currently offering a $2,000 welcome bonus for spending $30,000 in the first three months, and an additional $2,000 bonus for spending half a million dollars in your first year. All spending also earns 2% cash back, and [00:13:00] you can get your $150 annual fee refunded if you spend $150,000 in a year.
I think not so bad, Darren, for those high spenders out there. Yeah, some really nice sign-up bonuses here, and I do appreciate what I assume is the first DMX reference on the show. More to come. More to come. Yeah. Capital One, I think, again, some significant value here, going back to the original Capital One Venture card, and now the Venture X.
Both earn 2X miles. I think that’s a reasonable proposition for either a low annual fee or a mid annual fee, plus some statement travel credits for those folks that are gonna be, again, using cards for travel. Makes sense. I think some nice value here, and especially if you’re gonna be looking to use the points to offset travel expenses that are not easily captured with points and miles. A few years ago, my family and I went to Alaska. We rented an RV, Justin, and [00:14:00] drove around as one does when you’re in Alaska.
And we were able to offset that RV expense with a Capital One Venture card. So some nice options, reasonable point earnings, and for the Venture X card, some nice benefits including, like you said, lounge access at a number of lounges, which you covered in last week’s episode or- … a previous episode at least.
The time-traveling listeners will determine. Finally, for the blended miles and points, we have Citi. The Citi Strata Premier earns 3X at grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants, a good all-around card, I think. At the time of recording, July 2026, you can also get a welcome bonus of 60,000 points. Cash out points at one cent per point or transfer to travel partners like American Airlines.
The Citi Strata Elite also earns 6X on, in my opinion, the quirky Citi Nights, N-I-G-H-T-S, TM. Citi [00:15:00] Nights purchases that we can also call 666, defined as spending at restaurants on Fridays and Saturdays from 6 PM to 6 AM Eastern Time. Eastern Time, Darren. Don’t get it wrong, and definitely don’t have a server process your payment at 5:59 PM.
6X for 6 PM to 6 AM, that’s the 666, on Fridays and Saturdays. Earn 3X on dining outside Citi Nights, and get 1.5X on all other spending. Earn a 75,000 point welcome bonus offsetting their $595 annual fee. That’s also offset by an additional $300 hotel credit, a $200 splurge credit, AKA gift cards at Best Buy, and if you’re not doing that, why aren’t you doing that?
A $200 Blacklane credit, four American Airlines lounge access passes, and more.
Citi sure does sound nice, Justin, but [00:16:00] sadly, I think you and I are both out of the game due to a business decision.
That’s what they said
Very good. We’ll take a short break and then we’ll get back into it with the more traditional cashback cards. This show is like a job for me. It’s free for listeners with no paywall. I spend time editing audio, creating transcripts, and preparing for the show. I also pay for software and subscriptions.
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Simply cancel existing flights and rebook when AutoPilot emails you about lower fares. Find my link in the show notes. Returning to the show, once again, I’m here with Darren, returning co-host. We’re talking about cash back earned from credit cards, cashing out points.
Thanks again for joining me today, Darren.
We’ll move on to US Bank. They often have high welcome bonuses on their business credit cards, namely the Triple Cash, which has a $750 welcome bonus, also offering 3% cash back, that’s the triple, at office supply stores, and a $100 software subscription credit with select merchants.
The Leverage business card has also offered a $750 welcome bonus, although not with impressive earnings, just 2% cash back at grocery stores. So most would likely [00:19:00] just use the card for the welcome bonus and occasionally small purchases just to keep the card active. Most will cancel Leverage after year one because it has a $95 annual fee, where the Triple Cash is no annual fee.
But I’ve had retention bonuses offsetting the Leverage annual fee The US Bank Altitude Power Visa card, this is a newer business card compared to the Leverage and the Triple Cash. They’re offering a 75,000-point welcome bonus or $750. Earn 2X
everywhere and 2.5X on up to $5,000 in combined mobile wallet purchases per quarter. US Bank is a bit tricky though, because points don’t always cash out at one cent per point in my experience, but they do if you have a personal or business US Bank checking account, which you may as well have anyway because they offer welcome bonuses.
Unlike other checking accounts, you’ll probably wanna keep a US Bank checking account in order to get that better cash out rate. This was a stealthy change they made. I didn’t [00:20:00] hear any announcement about it, but one day I went to redeem points as a statement credit, and it wasn’t one cent per point, so I instead cashed out to the checking account and I will be keeping it.
So we have lots of options with US Bank, even though we lost one of our favorite credit cards, the Altitude Reserve, or at least it was devalued and I downgraded it.
I like the $750 sign-up bonus on, what is it, $7,500 in spend usually, right? Basically got 10% back on sign-up bonus plus whatever earning structure you’re signing up for there. It certainly presents an interesting value proposition if you’re in the churning sort of mode. Yeah, lots of opportunity there.
We also have Discover. The Discover It card is probably their most popular one, and for good reason, but they’re soon to transfer to Capital One on July 27th of 2026, so we’ll find out what happens then. But at the moment, we’re recording, again, July 7th, 2026, it’s earning 5% [00:21:00] cashback on up to $1,500 in spend each quarter in rotating categories, currently gas stations, drugstores, and transportation.
In the first cardmember year, you earn double or 10%, and depending on your timing of signing up for the card, you might get five quarterly opportunities, even though there are four in a year. Just think about that for a moment. If you sign up towards the end of a quarter, you maximize the first quarter and you’re able to get five quarters in one year.
We’ve defied math in some way. Other spend gives just 1% cashback, but it’s bonused to 2% in the first cardmember year. You can cash out points for cashback, but even better, various gift card redemptions are a stronger play because there are often bonuses of 15% or better. Usually, cashing points out for gift cards is a bad deal, but it’s not in many cases with Discover.
In July of 2026, Nike gift cards currently have a [00:22:00] 20% added value. So because America loves math, that 5X is more like 6X in a way. I think the Discover IT a more advanced play, though, because casual cardholders likely won’t max those 5X categories. Hopefully, if you’re listening this far, you’re maxing those categories if you have the card.
And the welcome bonus is usually weak at maybe $100. Other cards also have similar bonus rates. As we’ve talked about, other cards will earn 4X gas, so an extra 1% from Discover isn’t the biggest of deals. But in the past, Discover has bonused mobile wallet spending at 5X. They’ve bonused grocery at 5X, and especially that mobile wallet category was fantastic.
We’ve even seen home improvement at 5X, which is pretty nice. Sometimes even Target has been a 5X category for decent gift card opportunities, stacking with Target promos buy select $100 gift cards, get a $10 bonus card, or maybe a Target Circle bonus, Darren, where if you spend 100 on almost [00:23:00] any purchase in the store, you’re gonna get back 10 or $15 in Target rewards, for example Everybody loves a good Target’s shopping trip, Justin.
Yeah, I’m curious what’s gonna happen with the Discover Capital One, merger with Capital One purchasing Discover Network, and sounds like trying to move their credit card processing onto the Discover platform. This’ll be very interesting and see how that works out. I like these rotating categories.
Again, something I’ve been able to utilize. Discover it is one of my wife’s oldest accounts. It’s a pretty easy 5% back on $1,500 spending most quarters, and like you say, in some instances it’s even better than that.
So kinda like the Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex that we talked about earlier, very similar values there. And for someone that’s, again, maybe just getting into the game, something to consider. I like the Nike Uplift as well. You can get yourself new shoes or just resell the Nike gift cards. I [00:24:00] think some good opportunity there rather than the straight cashback, but that straight cashback is also an option if you’re not into gift card reselling for some reason.
And if you’re listening this far, why aren’t you? Please get involved. We’ve had a lot of past episodes on that. Get in the game, Justin. Tell them, “Get in the game.” Yep. Less whining, more winning. One of my favorite sayings.
Moving on to another card, I’d have a hard time not mentioning my favorite credit card, the highly underrated MGM Iconic credit card, which earns 2X on grocery and gas purchases in addition to earning tier credits with MGM, which allow you to unlock status.
The 2% can be converted to slot dollars or free play, or it can be used for comps that offset dining, hotels, and more, and the dining can also stack with the wonderful myVegas redemptions. I’ve had a past video on the myVegas games where you can often redeem rewards like $25 [00:25:00] off of $50 on dining, buy one get one dining offers, and much more.
The card also has bonus categories, 6X on MGM spending. And it offers benefits for high spending and just having the card, annual points, annual tier credits, and much more. Earning the status atop the 2X is very valuable, especially now since MGM Gold status, if you earn it, not if you just match to it, , you get an annual cruise, and you can match that offer to other cruise companies and get more cruises.
You can also spend your way to MGM Platinum status, that’s 200,000 tier, for another cruise, a $600 airfare rebate, a $200 dining credit or $200 in comps and more. In July of 2026, the Iconic card also offers a welcome bonus of 30,000 points or $300 in comps or free play and an additional 15,000 tier [00:26:00] credits.
In the past, the bonus was higher, but this is respectable. A great proposition for those interested in cruises, casinos, and then matching that MGM status to other casino programs
I know this is one of your favorite cards, Justin, and every time we talk about which card I’m gonna get next, you’re like, ” are you getting the MGM now?” It’s your destiny. I hear you, buddy. I think this, you’re right it provides tremendous value. I love the cruise matching aspect of this tier credit opportunities, and it’s certainly on my shortlist of cards.
It’s something I really should dig into. We talked about this card on, specifically on an episode, and I think we talked about we’d want, you’d wanna apply, what, at the beginning of a year? Remind me on that. When’s the best time to apply for this card?
Yes, you can apply in January, and then you get the whole year to earn those tier credits, or you can be more precise and apply in early to mid-December because [00:27:00] if you start spending on the card in December, your first statement is going to close in January. And when that statement close, all that spending counts toward the tier score for the calendar year.
If your statement closes on January 2nd, for example, I have mine close on the 4th, I called in to change the statement closing date, you start the year with a very healthy amount of tier credits if you use the credit card heavily in December.
It might not be so great to sign up in July because then you only have about half the year to get those tier credits, but if you already have tier credits from other sources, it could be good, but the bottom line is earning gold status to get all the benefits, including the cruise, then you don’t have to worry about, oh, how am I going to match, how am I going to get status, because this just guarantees you status every year as long as you put the proper spend on the card.
Thanks for the review on that. January 2027, Justin, it’s my destiny Or mid-December 2026. Or mid-December 2026, touche.
One of your favorite cards [00:28:00] to one of mine this is not a blended miles and points card. This is just a straight cashback card, and that’s the Venmo card issued by Synchrony Bank, Justin.
It’s a 3% cashback at grocery stores, including Costco essentially a statement balance in your Venmo account at the end of every statement period.
If perhaps you do some sort of rain dance or use five different laptops and use a VPN and different IPs, or you just happen to be lucky, for lack of a better term, the Venmo credit card is offering a 9% cashback offer for your first six months.
Again, not many people being targeted for this or seeing the offer, but wow, 9% cashback in your first six months, especially if you’re buying a lot of gold at Costco and the Venmo credit card and Synchrony are okay with that.
I applied for and received my Venmo credit card prior to the 9% i’ve been looking for it for my p2 and p3, but I haven’t found it yet.
If you know where to find it, send it my [00:29:00] way. Great welcome offer, for sure.
Finally, I recently got approved for this card. I haven’t heard much about this card at all, but it’s the Langley Signature Cashback Card. I’m at the point now where I’ve had so many cards, I’m running low on options, and I think this one was a good one for my situation.
Some have also called it the CIA Credit Union. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but it’s Langley for sure, and I got a $200 cash welcome bonus. This is going to be spending $3,000 in the first 90 days and, interestingly, 5% cashback on what they call everyday purchases. Every month you need to activate a category, and some of the options are grocery stores and home improvement stores, including Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Justin: You get this 5% cashback on up to 2,000 in spend, so America loves math, $100 cashback every month on this card. I selected Lowe’s and Home Depot because I don’t have many other [00:30:00] cards that are bonusing Lowe’s and Home Depot. I’d use the Business Platinum card for 2X membership rewards at Lowe’s, sometimes the BILT Palladium card for 2X or 3X with the points accelerator.
But I like this as an option for 5% back at Lowe’s as I’m buying lots of gift cards and prepaid cards at Lowe’s. Even though there’s a cap of 2,000 a month, I think it’s respectable, especially if you have a lot of spending. There was a lot of lamentations surrounding the downfall of the Citi Custom Cash card.
I was never a fan of that card because it caps at 500 a month. But for those that really liked the Citi Custom Cash, perhaps you can like the Langley card because you’re getting 5% back on 2,000 spend per month compared to the low cap of the 500 on the Citi Custom Cash. Again, we have options. This is just cashback, not points.
They can’t be Thank You Points or Citi Points, but 5% cashback is respectable. The sign-up bonus for $200, not [00:31:00] horrendous, so I think this can be a more advanced or niche play for listeners that have already had the stronger cards that are out there, and they’re just looking for more options. Yeah, it’s nice to uncover some of these credit union cards, Justin, although the CIA card, I don’t know how I feel about that.
We’ll go for the FBI card in the next Apparama maybe. Better than the NSA card probably. We can get cards with NASA Credit Union as well. I don’t have any at the moment, but those are options. They had a Star Trek credit card at one point. I bet they would look really cool. I would think- … the branding of those cards would be outstanding.
Like a matrix design? Yeah, solar system maybe. I don’t know. Oh. I’m thinking though at least if someone gives you a hard time with your Langley credit card Justin, you can whisper and say, “You know this is the CIA card, right?” And see if- I’ll show them my Global Entry- … it might look like a spy ID.
Yeah, see if that changes their minds at all. [00:32:00] Cashiers making up rules at Dollar General, right? You could show them that. I got a checking account with them first. It’s usually the policy with credit unions that it’s best to have a checking account first and then apply for credit cards.
I’ve seen a lot of data points of people just being declined if they weren’t already a member, or you’d have to go through a lot of identity verification steps, and that’s annoying. So I got a checking account with them, and the checking account also has an added bonus that you can buy discounted gift cards.
At one point there was 15% off Home Depot gift cards. How about that? We usually see maybe 10% or 10X on Home Depot cards in other places, but 15% off is quite good. Unfortunately, you can’t use the credit card to buy the gift cards, even their own credit card oddly enough, but still some meat there for gift cards with the checking account.
Not amazing. I didn’t get a signup bonus on the checking account either, but I wanted to get the credit card, so I figured why not get the checking account and then get the credit card a little bit later. Approved, instant approval. [00:33:00] Not many problems, just had to sign signature documents in email, which is sometimes the case with credit unions, so hopefully success going forward.
I already used it at Lowe’s, and I have the whole rest of the month to max out that 2,000 spend, so that’ll be very easy Yeah, let us know how that goes, Justin. It seems like 5% at Lowe’s and Home Depot would offer some good positive expected value, Justin. Is that how I should say that?
So what do you got coming up, Justin? A trip to Georgia, right? Yes. I’ll be going to Savannah, Georgia.
This is booked with the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program. I used two of my $300 credits from Business Platinum cards, and also I’m staying at Hyatt properties, so I’ll get Hyatt Elite qualifying nights, which is very nice, and perhaps additional benefits from being a Hyatt Globalist member one of the highest statuses barring some lifetime statuses.
And Hermitage Bay in Antigua booked with Hilton free night [00:34:00] certificates. And I transferred BILT points to Alaska, my first BILT transfer, because the flights from Philly to Savannah were extremely cheap with Alaska points. It’s flying through American Airlines, but even with the partner booking fees, it’s still a very good deal.
Unfortunately, I was declined for the Bank of America Atmos Summit card, the higher annual fee Alaska card, but I was approved for everything else, including that Langley credit card, the new or revamped Rakuten card that’s serviced by American Express but issued by Imprint/Webbank. I got approved for the Barclays Wyndham card that we discussed in a past episode, the new higher annual fee Premium or Premier Wyndham card.
Lots of success in the recent app-arama, although Bank of America unfortunately was a decline, but I have the three new cards in my [00:35:00] wallet ready to go, and already have used them. Fantastic. Sounds like a great great trip and good utilization of some benefits on the way there. And now we’re halfway through the year, so it’s gonna start all over again, the Bilt hotel credits, the Amex hotel credits-
and more. I was just thinking about that. Get your travel credits ready. Yep, trying. Our first-world problems of all the hotel credits. Past podcast guest Beth said she needed more hotel credits like she needed a hole in the head, but we’ll get through it together. More winning, not whining. That’s exactly right, Justin.
We have an upcoming trip, but we’ll get there pretty early probably. It’s an international trip to Asia, and don’t have Clear for the family, but thought, “Eh, we’ll probably be there early enough. We could go ahead and sign up for that and do that while we’re waiting, still have some time in the lounge.”
So that’ll be good use of credits. Looking to see about FHR on the other Platinums that we have, Business Platinums that we have, and see how long we’re gonna keep those around or whether we can [00:36:00] downgrade and still capture about half of that annual fee or more back, depending on when we signed up for those cards.
Surprisingly, Justin, a lot of those cards were signed up for in the middle of December. I’m not, I know that’s probably shocking to you. Just a good time to sign up for the MGM Iconic credit card. Played, sir. Played. I have a spreadsheet on one of my Dell monitors here with my monthly, annual, quarterly, and more credits.
I’ve heard a lot of lamentations, the mental bandwidth, Darren. “Oh, it’s so hard to keep track of the credits.” I disagree. I just have the credits in a spreadsheet. I also have Google Calendar notifications. It’s more to do and more to keep track of, but I don’t find it particularly difficult, especially knocking out the credits early, knocking out the credits mid-month, that are the monthly credits.
And in some cases, you don’t have to use all the credits if they don’t make sense. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, what was it, the DoorDash credits, I haven’t used that in a while, the $10 off since it’s been [00:37:00] devalued. And maybe if you don’t use the edit, you don’t use StubHub, maybe not the end of the world, although we do have to be mindful of the annual fees that we’re paying and trying to get our value from that.
The value proposition for most of these cards is good enough that we don’t need to cash in every single one of those, quote-unquote, coupons from the coupon book. But if we can find a few along the way, combined with a sign-up bonus, maybe an annual credit of some sort, it still makes it worthwhile, and when it doesn’t, yeah don’t be afraid to downgrade or cancel that card once you’re past the first year that you paid your annual fee.
Don’t get stuck
in addition to Asia, I’ve just made a booking for the family to head to Germany. We’ll be in Frankfurt for the Christmas markets over the Thanksgiving long weekend there, so excited about that. Ended up booking Singapore business on the way there, and Singapore premium economy, it looks like, on the way back for six people, bringing my mother-in-law along.
First time in Germany for [00:38:00] really any length of time, and excited to check out the Christmas markets over there. Very good. We’re open to adventure. Nice to hear that you have more travel planned using these credits for sure as we come to a close for today’s episode. Thanks again for joining me today.
Pleasure to be here, Justin. Enjoy talking points and miles, and thanks to all the listeners for tuning in. Yes, and stay tuned for future episodes. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, and posts.
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