Bilt Bulletin September 2026: Obsidian to Palladium Upgrades, Authorized User Strategy, Grubhub Premium Plus, and Dave Ramsey Rebuttal Bonus Segment

Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by returning co-host Darren for a September 2026 Bilt Bulletin covering new Bilt upgrade offers, authorized user strategy, referral bonuses, Grubhub Premium Plus, Bilt Cash, Point Accelerators, and year-to-date earning and redemption updates.

Justin and Darren discuss targeted Bilt Obsidian-to-Palladium upgrade offers, along with updated upgrade and downgrade terms that may affect how cardholders move between Bilt products. They also cover an enhanced referral offer showing as 10,000 Bilt points and whether it creates more value for existing cardholders. A major strategy topic is Bilt authorized users.

Justin and Darren discuss how paying the $95 authorized user fee could potentially create additional Point Accelerator opportunities, increase Bilt Cash value, and make sense for users putting significant spend on the Bilt Palladium Card.

They also cover a free one-year offer for Grubhub Premium Plus and how it can stack with Bilt’s monthly Grubhub credit for additional food delivery value. The episode includes a year-to-date Bilt check-in, with Justin and Darren sharing progress toward Bilt status, total spending, points earned, and real redemptions.

They discuss Alaska Airlines transfers, hotel credit stacking, dining credits, rent payments, Point Accelerators, and smaller recurring credits such as Lyft, Grubhub, and Walgreens. The episode ends with a bonus segment responding to George Kamel and the Dave Ramsey Show after Kamel said, “if you wouldn’t buy it at full price, don’t buy it on sale.”

Justin uses real discount examples to argue that buying something on sale can make perfect financial sense. Justin and Darren also react to comments debating the advice and Justin’s orirginal Facebook response that got 65k views.

Timestamps

00:00 Points And Miles Intro

00:32 Episode Preview

02:58 Bilt Program Basics

05:04 Referral Bonus Boost

06:47 Obsidian To Palladium Upgrade Offers

11:14 Authorized User Accelerator Strategy

15:26 Free Grubhub Premium Plus

17:05 Year-To-Date Bilt Check-In

20:09 Dave Ramsey and George Kamel Rebuttal

34:07 Wrap Up And Support Links

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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, Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost. Returning co-host Darren joins me to talk about what’s new with Bilt, targeted upgrade offers for Obsidian credit card holders, benefits of adding an authorized user to possibly use more points accelerators and more Bilt Cash, and an opportunity for a free year of Grubhub [00:01:00] Plus Premium for even more value with Bilt.

We’ll also update on how our year-to-date Bilt progress is going with spending, Bilt Cash redemptions, and more. Near the end, a special bonus, a segment responding to another horrible take from a Dave Ramsey personality, this time George Kamel. George wrote, quote, “Here’s your reminder. If you wouldn’t buy it at full price, don’t buy it on sale.”

My Facebook response got around 65,000 views at the time of recording. People are still chiming in the comments. Dave Ramsey fans are defending George, and many others agreed with me.

Today’s episode, recorded September 21st, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren, for another Bilt Bulletin We love our BILT bulletins, Justin. It’s been an exciting couple weeks here. More and more things that BILT are, BILT, BILT is, BILT are, I don’t know slowly rolling out to us.

It seems like we kinda had a wishlist earlier [00:02:00] in the year, things they had promised and here we go down the list check. Excited to talk about it and maybe some strategies on earning even more BILT points, Justin. We’re getting towards the end of September, the time of recording, and the end of quarter three, 2026.

That means lots of benefits to redeem with BILT before the end of the month. Please, listeners, don’t do it on the final day of the month and things don’t work out. I’m also excited for new deals coming into quarter four and the Christmas season. We might even ride Blade helicopters around Christmas time thanks to BILT, our very own Christmas gifts.

Yeah, maybe Rudolph gets replaced by Blade this year. Santa out there on the old Blade helicopter and cruising around Manhattan. Who’s to say, Justin? What about Rudolph with Blade? That’s a- Maybe Rudolph could be on the outside. Oh. A new sleigh. There you go. A new sleigh, per se. A new sleigh.

A little bit of a delegation finally for Santa to give a little time off. Maybe Richard Kerr will [00:03:00] give Santa some time off, but first, for listeners who are not yet in the BILT program, maybe they don’t have a BILT credit card, they could be unfamiliar, we’ll do a quick intro of BILT and then get into the new updates.

BILT is a loyalty program with a credit card component. Darren and I have the BILT Palladium Credit Card. It gives a base two times points on spending, and the option Darren and I chose is 4% back on a second currency, BILT Cash. You’re getting the 2X points and 4% BILT Cash on all spending with the BILT Palladium Credit Card.

You can use BILT points to transfer to travel partners, airline programs, including Atmos Rewards for Alaska Airlines flights that also can get you on American Airlines planes. You can use points for hotel programs, including World of Hyatt, and BILT Cash can be used with rent and mortgage payments, letting you earn some BILT points.

BILT Cash can also be used to [00:04:00] boost your 2X spending on the Palladium card up to 3X for $25,000 in spend per calendar year with the Point Accelerator feature. You can also redeem BILT Cash for hotel credits, dining credits, and much more that we’ll talk about in today’s show. The BILT Palladium Card also gave us a 50,000 point welcome bonus.

It looks like that’ll still be the case in September of 2026. You also get BILT Gold Status, which gives you various benefits, including bonus points transfers to travel partners, bonuses using Blacklane rides paid for by BILT Cash- And much more. You also get $300 in Bilt Cash as part of the Palladium credit card welcome bonus, an annual $200 in Bilt Cash which should post with card approval.

You also get two $200 hotel credits per calendar year, January through June, July through December, that can stack with $100 hotel credits for, America loves math, $300 off two night [00:05:00] or more stays with Bilt. Lots of value to be had, and we’re breaking it down today

Looks like there’s also an enhanced referral bonus, at least on my Bilt account, Justin. It’s up from two and a half thousand Bilt points to 10,000 Bilt points.

Could be your friend, neighbor, or spouse as the case may be. For the record, I have gold status. I’m not sure if the enhanced referral varies by status. And I’m very close to platinum status through spend, as Justin and I will talk about in a minute. Justin, have you looked to see whether you have a enhanced referral bonus on your account?

Yes, and I must also say for the record, you do have a wife, and for the record, you do have some daughters, so those can be possible referrals or referees, whatever that language might be. I saw the offer as well, and for those interested, you can go in the show notes or HurdyGurdyTravel.com to find a referral link to Bilt.

We’re not sponsored by Bilt. We’re just doing this independently, [00:06:00] but referral bonuses are there for people who choose to sign up and find good value in this program and with these credit cards.

A nice little bonus, especially around quarter four, as I mentioned, where people might be spending more anticipating the holiday season. So this could be a good time to get a new credit card, a new Bilt credit card, and many others, because of course, the answer to everything is more credit cards for those listening who can use credit responsibly and intelligently

What do you say, like to say? Travel for free or at low cost? Yes, that’s right. Yeah. I got that one right. The name of the group in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

We’ll have to test you later on that one. Yeah. Justin’s nice. He always cuts that part out where I manage to bungle the name. If I actually get it right one of these days, he’ll leave it in. You get some extra Bilt cash, yeah. I like it. Very good. We’ll move on to the first news item.

This time for Bilt Obsidian credit card holders. This is the mid-tier or mid-range annual fee credit card with Bilt. Select card holders are [00:07:00] getting upgrade offers to go from the Obsidian to the Palladium card. And just hours before recording, Frequent Miler posted that Bilt added upgrade and downgrade terms and conditions.

This is in addition to the upgrade offers, so that’s likely a clue, I would suspect, that more people will get upgrade offers, and people can even downgrade from Palladium to other cards when second-year annual fees hit. Here are some of the terms and conditions for an upgrade to Palladium.

Upgrade bonus.

When you upgrade to another Bilt card, you are eligible to receive an upgrade bonus as indicated in the Bilt app or website at the time of your upgrade. Where the destination product’s upgrade bonus includes Bilt Cash, the upgrade bonus is subject to all terms and conditions set forth by Bilt Cash program terms available at URL, including expiration redemption restrictions and forfeiture provisions.

Where an upgrade bonus includes 50,000 Bilt points and Bilt Gold Elite status, those are only earned after you make everyday spend totaling $4,000 or more within 90 days from the effective date of the product change and are subject to the terms set out in the Bilt Palladium welcome bonus section.

Bilt has been a little slow to roll these [00:08:00] things out, Justin, but that was not slow, so- Oh, thank you. Thank you … for all those folks for all those folks that are listening at enhanced speeds, that was even more enhanced, Justin.

I could channel The classic Bill O’Reilly clip. What does it mean to play us out? What does it mean to roll us out? The big news here is that there are upgrade offers available. Pretty excited about just the opportunity for upgrade offers. How about you, Justin? What do you think? Do you see a upgrade/downgrade opportunity in your future? I think it’s a really good business decision that they’re going to allow downgrades, as it seems, rather than people just outright canceling the card.

This is what happened recently with PenFed Pathfinder. As they changed the terms, they’re gonna be charging annual fees. I wanted to downgrade to a no annual fee card. They wouldn’t let me, and then I just completely ended my PenFed relationship, credit cards, checking account, savings account.

It’s nice that Bilt is allowing the downgrade option. Some might not see the [00:09:00] value in keeping Palladium in year two, but they could downgrade, which is a nice option for them to allow that to keep a customer. We’ll have to see. People are already sweating about, “Oh, is the annual fee worth it in year two?”

But year two isn’t even here yet. That’ll be a decision several months down the road. Much is subject to change, so I don’t think that’s a very interesting conversation at the moment, but it will be, and we’ll definitely cover that on the podcast when it gets closer to annual fee time or when that annual fee posts, and we likely have 30 days to make a decision about whether to keep, cancel, or downgrade.

I do like the upgrade option from Obsidian to Palladium.

I think that can be strong, especially if you maxed out the 3X grocery up to 25,000 spending on the Obsidian card, because after that it’s only 1X earning on spending in most cases. The Palladium upgrade should also come, I hope it would come, with the 50,000 bonus points, then you would get [00:10:00] 2X everywhere on Palladium spend, more hotel credits and more Bilt Cash.

Upgrading around November or December can be especially good, as you can capture the $200 hotel credit near the end of the year, not paying as much in annual fee versus if you upgraded in September or October, for example

for someone that’s just entering the Bilt ecosystem, where would you want them to start, Justin?

Would you start at the Palladium or would you start them at the Obsidian and try to play maybe a more advanced strategy? I do like the Palladium for the bigger sign-up bonus, the 2x everywhere or 3x everywhere with the points accelerator, and is especially good for those intermediate to advanced listeners who have lots of spend opportunities.

Whereas with the Obsidian, maybe if you have lower spend, if you don’t have other cards that are bonusing grocery, I suppose that could be more appealing, but it will be an individual decision of course. But it could be interesting [00:11:00] if people apply for the Obsidian, they get an upgrade offer a few months later, and they’re able to double-dip in a way on the welcome bonuses.

Lots of questions, but we’ll be on the lookout for updates and clarifications to those terms, the offers, and what people are seeing.

We’ll move on to another segment. There’s been more talk of adding an authorized user to BILT cards. You have to pay an extra $95 for an authorized user, but then you could, as I understand it, use BILT cash for their authorized user card or account and activate even more point accelerators for extra 1X earning, a total of 3X on the Palladium card.

This can be quite good for those with lots of spending and lots of BILT cash that might expire at the end of the year. I don’t think we need an America Loves Math moment breaking down the numbers to see that the numbers don’t lie here. But do they spell disaster for you, Justin? Oh, I think the opposite of disaster with more points earning unless you pay the $95 [00:12:00] and don’t earn much in exchange for it

The most recent article that I read that really outlined some of the opportunities for adding an authorized user was published by Gary Leff on his blog View From The Wing. He reported that an authorized cardholder chooses whether they want to accrue BILT points in their own BILT account or to the primary cardholder, and this part had also been previously discussed in a frequent miler episode.

I think both a podcast and a blog. What Gary then talks about is if that authorized user has gold or platinum status, they can activate five more accelerators with the authorized user Palladium to accrue BILT points for their own account. Could I refer my wife to a Palladium? Could then I add her as an authorized user and she adds [00:13:00] me, and now all of a sudden we have 10x accelerators , five for me, five for my authorized user on her card, and then five and five for her Palladium, or five for her authorized user on my card.

Geez, I can’t even keep it straight. In order to do that, you need the gold status, and I think for example, if you started at Obsidian, you wouldn’t have gold status right away, of course. You would have to spend money. You’d have to spend that 25k at 3x to get there before activating the accelerator and then going forward.

If you wanted gold status, the easiest way to get gold status is probably to have a Palladium, as well, which means of course the answer to everything is? More credit cards.

We have, what, about three months left in the year, so- you’re probably up against it if you don’t already have some big spend opportunities coming up in $5,000 [00:14:00] increments.

Maybe January 2027, that would be more appealing. Then you get the full calendar year to resolve all the point accelerators. Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. Maybe it’s beginning of next year along with the MGM Iconic card. Oh, def- definitely Of course, January 1st The MGM Iconic. The ball drops, your credit card application goes in.

You’re cheering, you’re excited. “Oh what’s that? Oh, my credit’s reset. Now I apply for more cards.” Bang the pots and pans for a different reason. It would be very interesting to see, for example, instead would the strategy be refer my wife for the Obsidian 25k in spend gets her to gold status, add her as an authorized user on my card for an accelerator.

She uses that and then I use mine, of course, and then later on we see if we can find her an upgrade offer to the Palladium. Chime in the YouTube comments- Maybe … with their ideas on this. It might be more complicated than the Marriott Bonvoy [00:15:00] credit card matrix of doom about eligibility as well.

$95 gamble Yeah. Does Bilt at some point decide, “Hey, we’re getting gamed too much here for $95. We’re gonna, pull upgrade offers. We’re gonna limit the ability to do these sorts of things.”

That’s certainly a possibility. There’s still a few unknowns here, and like you said, Justin it’s probably a $95 gamble, probably worth it for many of us.

We’ll move on to another segment to see about whether Grubhub upgrades could be worth it. We have a new offer with Grubhub, a free year of Grubhub Premium Plus. This could stack well with the Bilt $10 a month Grubhub credit that’s really a $10 off promo code. It’s my understanding that Grubhub Premium Plus can stack with the Bilt credit. I first saw this offer for a free first year, really generous, a whole year, not just a month, through a push notification on my Android [00:16:00] phone, but I’m also seeing it in the Grubhub app on the same phone as a pop-up and under the Account tab.

Upgrade for one year of Grubhub Premium Plus for a monthly $10 delivery credit, a $10 grocery credit, $0 delivery fees, lower service fees, and 5% back on pickup. I plan on activating or upgrading in October 2026 since I used my Bilt Grubhub credit in September. Get my free year, set a calendar reminder around 11 months from now or so to cancel, use the last benefit, and get out. This sounds like a no-brainer and a good stack with Bilt.

You could Even stack it with an Amex Gold and get $30 off an order Can you? It’s charged to the card. You have a promo code and the $10 Grubhub Premium Plus credit, $30 total All right. Yeah, maybe. [00:17:00] Give it a go, and let us know on the next Bilt Bulletin.

All right, we’ll have to save it for the next episode.

We’ll move on to another segment to wrap up with Bilt, doing a check-in to see where we stand with spending, status, and how we’ve been using the Bilt cash. At the time of recording, near the end of September 2026, I spent about 45,000 on the Bilt Palladium Card, aiming for 50,000 spending to secure Bilt’s Platinum status, which gives me an extra Blade helicopter ride, extra rent day transfer bonuses, more Blacklane credits, up to $150 off a Blacklane ride, and other perks.

I’m not rushing to 50,000 because I aim to spend on rent days through the end of 2026. That’s the first of the month where you get bonus points on your spending and there could be other promotions bonusing spending. We’ve certainly seen things like earn extra points on Amazon, earn extra points with Mobile Wallet, earn extra points at drugstores, and so on.

I used some Bilt [00:18:00] points for transfers to Alaska Airlines so far for domestic flights, 7,500 one way from Philly to Savannah and Los Angeles to Philadelphia, 7,500 points with Atmos Rewards or Alaska Airlines. Really good value there. I maxed out all my point accelerators, my favorite use of Bilt cash, and then I used some to stack with the $200 hotel credit for $300 off in total for a two-night stay.

Earlier this September, I used $25 in Bilt cash at the Mediterranean restaurant Zatinya in Las Vegas in the Caesars Palace Forum Shops. I’ve also been using Bilt cash for my apartment rent payments to get bonus Bilt points and avoid fees versus using a credit card. I also used $10 in Bilt cash for $10 in Lyft credits, $10 in Bilt cash for $10 in Grubhub credits, $10 in Bilt cash for a $10 Walgreens gift card, and I’m [00:19:00] looking forward to using Blacklane at some point later this year.

Another hotel credit to use, so that’s another $100 in Bilt cash atop the $200 benefit, and I might fly in Blade helicopters later this year

Sounds like you’ve had another busy month with BILT and BILT Bucks, Justin. I’ve about caught up with your spend for the year. I’m at about 46,000 for the year, so certainly within striking distance of platinum status here with about three months to go.

I’ve often said that organic spend doesn’t really move the needle very much, but I will say college tuition might be the exception to that rule.

I’ve used all my point accelerators for the year, and unfortunately I’m still struggling to find a good place to use my food credits. I guess I’ll just have to come out and spend some time with you in Vegas, and we can do the free food or cheap food tour that you and I have talked about a few times.

All roads lead to Vegas, [00:20:00] absolutely. Walgreens has been great. Certainly looking to use my $200 hotel credits again this half year, second half of the year.

Not as much BILT news this month, so we have a bonus segment. This is a post that went viral on my Justin Vacula Facebook page, my personal Facebook page, responding to George Kamel, a Dave Ramsey personality. He’s been a co-host with Dave Ramsey many times, or has co-hosted with other personalities.

I’ve responded to some of his bad takes on my Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast YouTube channel. This time, it was a quick Facebook post responding to an astonishing claim that he said on his social media, quote, “Here’s your reminder. If you wouldn’t buy it at full price, don’t buy it on sale.”

Unquote. Notice this was not something like, “Just because it’s advertised as being on sale doesn’t mean it’s a good deal.” That would be reasonable. The quote was also [00:21:00] not, “Be skeptical of value when items are listed as on sale.” That would be reasonable, too. George carefully chose his words for this social media post, and I responded with counter examples of things I would buy on sale that I would not buy for full price.

I mentioned grocery discounts. There was a recent Redner’s deal, a salad kit marked down to 50 cents. I wouldn’t buy it for four or five dollars, but I would buy it for 50 cents. I also mentioned Lowe’s discounting seasonal T-shirts. As I have many Christmas T-shirts, they were marked down to a dollar ninety-nine, but I wouldn’t have purchased them for $15.

I mentioned discounted Target gift cards. They often run deals 10% off during the holidays. I mentioned sneaker discounts, like sneakers that would be originally priced high, but then you could find them heavily discounted.

I didn’t expect so many Dave Ramsey and George Kamel fans to pop up in the comments, but of course, we’re here for it. We have their takes, but before their takes, what are [00:22:00] your thoughts, Darren?

It’s another example of Dave Ramsey and his supporters/apostles, depending on your interest in the fervor of supporting Mr. Ramsey and how they speak in absolutes. The whole idea that Mr. Kamel is implying is that we’re not, we, people, consumers, are not price sensitive, right?

The example you gave I’m the same way. I buy new running shoes about every six months, and I look for the previous model, which is usually, 25% cheaper than the current model, and I am perfectly happy with that.

I don’t necessarily need the newest model and so I’m happy to look for the cheaper option. But I’m going to buy running shoes at some point.

How does that fit with your experience in the trenches arguing with our our friends, quote unquote, “on the internet”?

My pattern for the last few years getting involved with [00:23:00] Miles and Points is going where the deals are. I’ve heard people say things like, “I don’t shop at Giant. I don’t go there,” when I tell them about a good deal at Giant, but I will go where the deals are. And Panera Bread, we’ve mentioned many times on the podcast, they run discounts on their SIP Club, and now they’re running intro promotions of $5 a month for three months.

I wouldn’t spend $5 on a single large coffee, but I’m more than happy to spend $5 for a month, which can give me up to 30 drinks. This is a great example of times where I wouldn’t pay full price but would pay if it’s on sale.

Let’s get into the commenters. Commenter Keith said, “I do not think this means what Justin thinks it means.

I think it means don’t buy something just because it’s on sale. If you actually don’t need the item itself, don’t get seduced into buying it just because you think you’re getting a deal. You can end up with a bunch of useless junk that you bought on impulse because you thought you were [00:24:00] getting a deal on it.”

I responded, “If that’s what he really meant, then he could’ve said, ‘Just because something is advertised as being on sale doesn’t mean it’s a good deal.’ He didn’t say that, so I’m addressing his exact quote.”

Here lies the challenge with arguing with people on the internet. Common refrain is that’s not what I meant,” or even better, “That’s not what he meant.” How do you know what he meant?

In the counter examples I gave, I responded to his post. I didn’t mention useless junk. I mentioned things that I’m actually going to use, things that are significantly marked down.

Here’s another commenter, Dan, who says, “$200 sneakers never get marked down to $50. George’s point is valid on most sale items.” I responded, “Sneakers are constantly marked down. You must not follow deals. Either way, I’m proposing an example. Lamenting that they never get marked down is missing the point.

Here is a past order where I got $22 shoes through [00:25:00] Adidas on eBay, thanks to a sale. There are many such examples. At the moment, the same shoes are $70, so this was quite a discount. I wasn’t looking at buying them for $70, but I hopped on this deal when they were $22.”

Yeah, I think Dan needs to take an economics class to understand how consumers respond to price sensitivity.

I didn’t do the archeological dig to try to find the older orders, but this was a recent one and I included a screenshot.

We had a commenter, Alan, who says, “Dave Ramsey’s advice, and that of his acolytes, is intended for people who struggle with debt.

If that’s not you, ignore it. You’re not his audience, and no, his advice likely doesn’t make sense for you.” I responded, ” This is one of my biggest problems with the Dave Ramsey crowd. The blanket statements, the lack of nuance, the lack of critical thinking, and the lack about taking personal responsibility when it comes to spending.

They’re quick to say things like, ‘Hey, man up and get married. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’ all of that. But when it comes to [00:26:00] spending, they’re quick to say things like, ‘All credit is bad. The banks are evil. You’re going to overspend. Everybody overspends.’ And they even make comments like, ‘If you’re in debt, you should never see the inside of a restaurant,’ instead of course, finding good deals at restaurants.

Here, Dave, George, and others can educate people about spending responsibly, how they can get good value from their money, but instead it’s a don’t buy something if it’s on sale if you wouldn’t pay full price, not understanding very basic ideas in economics and value, and not understanding free and heavily discounted birthday food that I covered in a past podcast episode.”

The approach that Dave Ramsey is taking is I think you and I have talked about this, I’m not sure on the show, but certainly offline, that he, basically takes this abstinence-only approach, very broad statements, very black and white.

It doesn’t seem like he specifically says only certain people, would benefit from using my approach. He seems to indicate that [00:27:00] everyone would benefit- Correct … from using his approach.

Correct. Again, I think you and I would certainly disagree with that.

I’ll move on to another comment here.

Jared says, “You missed the point they probably were trying to make. But I get what they are saying. If while you can’t afford to buy something at full price, then saving 25% doesn’t justify the purchase either. And they were provably speaking about big purchases, not some sneakers, which in your example were also marked down over 50%, or a cheeseburger either.”

I responded saying, “It’s funny how people say I missed the point. I’m taking George at his word and provided counter examples. George also did not mention anything about big purchases. George was not talking about sneakers. George made a blanket statement.”

Yeah, because that’s how Dave Ramsey talks.

Even these people who do have problems with spending, they have a lot of debt, whatever the case might be, wouldn’t they benefit from the information [00:28:00] about the sales that, hey, you can compare grocery flyers, you can look at the clearance rack, you can follow these different websites that might point out the deals.

That would be helpful to them. Yeah, okay, maybe they shouldn’t buy the $5 salad or wouldn’t buy the $5 salad, but if they could buy it for 50 cents, that could be a good change if they’re doing the Dave Ramsey envelope budgeting system or whatever the case might be Sure. I think anything that you can do to stretch your money.

Folks here are not looking at things logically. They are looking at things emotionally, and you’re arguing logically, and we know how those arguments go.

There’s another commenter, Paul, who said, “I guess George’s simple point was too complicated for some people to understand.” That’s interesting. A simple point was complicated.

Okay. He continues, “Some people really need things broken down to such a simple level that they can’t just be a quick phrase.” [00:29:00] I responded, “If it’s complicated, he could have used more characters. But instead, as presented, it’s an extremely bad take. Funny, when I make statements about personal finance, I don’t say, ‘I didn’t really mean that,’ or, ‘It’s actually more complicated.’

When items are more complicated, I can say probably, maybe, consider, elaborate, give different examples, talk more about it rather than making a blanket statement.”

Another commenter, Jonathan, says, “Let me explain this to you like you’re 12.” Okay, we’ll avoid a Chris Hansen moment there. Jonathan continues, “When you see something on sale, ask yourself, would you buy it at full price?

If the answer is yes, then enjoy the discount. If the answer is no, then you probably do not need this item and shouldn’t spend money on it just because it’s on sale. The salad kit never goes from $5 to 50 cents. You are overly exaggerating, and that is not even remotely close [00:30:00] to what we’re talking about.”

I responded, ” you can’t dismiss the example as overly exaggerating just because it undermines the position you’re attempting to defend. The entire point of the salad example and the other examples is that there are plenty of situations where it makes perfect sense to buy something at a sale price even though you would not buy it at full price.

That directly contradicts George’s blanket statement, ‘Never buy something on sale if you wouldn’t buy it at full price.’

Saying the salad kit never goes from $5 to 50 cents doesn’t address the logic anyway. The exact numbers aren’t even the principle. If something is worth a dollar to me but not $5, buying it for a dollar can be perfectly rational. That’s how prices and individual valuations work. I genuinely don’t understand why defending Dave or George requires pretending obvious counter examples don’t exist.

If a rule falls apart as soon as someone gives a valid counter example, the problem is with the rule, not with the counter example.” And then I provided a screenshot of the 50 cent salad deal [00:31:00] that he didn’t think existed. That was an exaggeration.

And I’m sure he was met with not capitulation or not understanding.

It was met with either ignoring you- … ’cause it fit his framework or narrative of how it’s supposed to work. Or more arguments that how that store wasn’t near him, so it didn’t matter, it wasn’t applicable, and it’s not applicable for everybody, and so forth and so on. And how do you get those coupons anyway?

The situation of what happened and everything else, that’s what dictates that. Absolutely. I cannot think of a better quote- … to sum up this whole process, Justin.

But we have one more. We’ll stop with this one. Mason said, “Yeah, in your magical land of 95% off sales, it makes great sense.” He’s referring to the actual sales that exist in real life that aren’t really sales, but marketing ploys.

I responded, “I linked numerous examples of actual sales and did not say it had to be 95% off. Why are you setting the bar that high?”

[00:32:00] That’s what happens when you’re not actually interested in having a conversation or learning. You’re just trying to make a point using hyperbolic examples.

95% off sales. And you will find 95% off sales, but we don’t need to set the bar that high in order to say, “Hey, I’ll buy something for a dollar that was marked at five if I find it valuable as a dollar.

I’m willing to spend a dollar on something.”

This happens at casinos. I can get a drink from a drink server for a dollar.

I could tip a dollar. I wouldn’t go to the food court and spend four or five dollars for a drink, but I’ll gladly pay a dollar for that same drink

Yeah, that’s, that’s- There’s so many examples that we can give here, so- Th- that’s- Yeah, that’s like the supply and demand curve and price sensitivity. That’s basic economics. But anyway- Basic, basic economics … it doesn’t really matter. Thanks for doing the good work and at least trying to be the voice of reason in what appears to be a very illogical world.

It’s funny, I’ve been on the treadmill at [00:33:00] Planet Fitness, and that’s a time where I can walk vigorously and respond to some of these comments, and it was interesting that it was on my own page. It wasn’t on my response on George Kamel’s page. Everybody came to my page and made the comments. I wasn’t digging out the responses and arguing with them.

They came to me, so that was pretty funny that it happened that way.

You should cut out this clip, post it in that chat, and see if anyone from that thread listened to your very logical and reasonable arguments and changed their mind about Dave Ramsey and his approach.

I have heard some miles and points people say that they had listened a lot to Ramsey, but then they found out that his advice wasn’t good, and they started into the credit card space. So people do change their minds, that’s for sure.

There is some hope there And there were a lot of positive comments and people agreeing with me, people debating the other commenters. There’ll be some more comments and more posts after this recording [00:34:00] I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. My brain hurt reading through the three or four messages that I read through before this

very good. Thanks for joining me today to talk about BILT and the bonus segment on George Kamel and the general Dave Ramsey sphere.

I’ll be curious to hear what our listeners think about some of our ideas and how maybe they can maximize their Bilt rewards points in this year and in next in different strategy options.

And in the comments, was there a thing you recently bought that was on sale that you wouldn’t have paid full price for, and why?

Didn’t you opt into a Hulu discount? There was a Black Friday deal that was something like $1.99 for a year of Hulu rather than something like $10 a month. I think that’s a pretty easy example.

Yeah, that’s a great example of a, a good deal that most folks would consider taking advantage of.

Very good. Thanks for coming on today, and thanks to everyone for [00:35:00] listening

Thanks, Justin, for having me, and look forward to coming back again next month. Thanks everyone for listening. If you like the show, please support me through links at hurdygurdytravel.com and by becoming a Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast supporter on subscribestar.com or YouTube.

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