Speaker 1: Episode four, How to Hack your Next Vacation with Chris Hutchins.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life.
Speaker 1: Here your host Jen and Jill m Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill,
Speaker 1: and today we are talking about saving on your next vacation,
Speaker 1: not just hacking with travel awards credit cards, but hacking
Speaker 1: in other ways too. So if you are somebody who
Speaker 1: wants to save money on your vacation and don't want
Speaker 1: to use credit cards, stay tuned. Oh my gosh, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get so so much from this episode. We basically
Speaker 1: say hello to Chris and he just gives us all.
Speaker 1: He starts, he starts, he just start. It's in, so
Speaker 1: we won't we won't hold you back from the deluge.
Speaker 1: Just remember we have all the links that he mentions
Speaker 1: in our show notes, so don't pull over to the
Speaker 1: side of the road, or worse, try to visit them
Speaker 1: while you are driving. We've got them in the show notes,
Speaker 1: all written down for you. And if you are interested
Speaker 1: in other episodes on traveling, we've got some of those
Speaker 1: for you too. But first, this episode is brought to
Speaker 1: you by Debt Free Stories. We still got them, We're
Speaker 1: still releasing them. This is our ten episode YouTube series
Speaker 1: where we are interviewing listeners just like you who have
Speaker 1: paid off debt in various ways, various amounts, from various backgrounds.
Speaker 1: So there is going to be someone in some story
Speaker 1: that you relate to. There just has to be. So
Speaker 1: they are so amazing, so had to YouTube dot com
Speaker 1: slash Foogle friends to catch all of them have been
Speaker 1: released so far. We still have a few to be released,
Speaker 1: so subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so
Speaker 1: that you're the first to know when the next ones
Speaker 1: are released. It all right, So if you are interested
Speaker 1: in vacation NG, I mean awesome. If you're not, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe your life is so great you don't
Speaker 1: need a vacation from it, and which, of course awesome.
Speaker 1: You're probably not listening to this episode, right, So a
Speaker 1: few of our other episodes if you are interested. We've
Speaker 1: got episode to fifty, which is how to Save money
Speaker 1: on travel, So this is kind of like an extension
Speaker 1: of that one. Basically, listen to this one and if
Speaker 1: you want more non credit card tips to save on
Speaker 1: travel had to episode to fifty if you want really
Speaker 1: like true travel hacking through credit cards, Episode one fifty
Speaker 1: travel hacking for beginners. It's my five card strategy for
Speaker 1: starting with credit cards to travel hack, and it is
Speaker 1: definitely for beginners. So episode one fifty is the one
Speaker 1: we send everybody too. And then we also have episode
Speaker 1: one nineteen where we talk with Danielle Dezier of The
Speaker 1: Thought Card about staycations, local travel, road trips, so that's
Speaker 1: more your jam. Episode one Night Team is for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: plenty about travel. We love talking about travel. So let's
Speaker 1: get into our interview with Chris. Chris is a phenomenal
Speaker 1: human being. He's an avid life hacker, financial optimizer. He's
Speaker 1: the host of the podcast All the Hacks, where essentially
Speaker 1: he just shares in every episode his quest to upgrade
Speaker 1: his life without having to spend a fortune. So he
Speaker 1: is definitely doing that. Here we are benefiting from all
Speaker 1: of his life hacking skills and we're so excited to
Speaker 1: share with you. Let's get into it. Chris, welcome to
Speaker 1: the show. We're super excited to talk about hacking things.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm excited to be here. We need. We
Speaker 1: need all the hacks. And for those who didn't have
Speaker 1: the privilege, it really wasn't a privilege of being with
Speaker 1: us before we hit the record button, It's very obvious
Speaker 1: we we just need to hack our way through life
Speaker 1: because we're not hitting it, so we need hacks. So
Speaker 1: thanks for being there with us, Chris, I think this
Speaker 1: would be helpful for us and our listeners. But we
Speaker 1: want to specifically talk about travel hacking. It's one of
Speaker 1: the things we get asked about a lot. We're not
Speaker 1: experts at it. We've dabbled, we dipped our two in
Speaker 1: the water of hacking. But for you, based on experience,
Speaker 1: how can one get started with travel hacking? What do
Speaker 1: we need to know? What does beginning look like? So
Speaker 1: I think traditionally travel hacking is kind of synonymous with
Speaker 1: playing the credit card points and miles game. I don't
Speaker 1: think it has to be. So I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: zoom back and say there's like points and then the
Speaker 1: non points version. So in general, if you don't want
Speaker 1: to get into the credit card stuff, and we'll get
Speaker 1: to it, don't worry. But I'm gonna just gonna go
Speaker 1: through a handful of kind of travel hacks that have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with credit cards, even though that's kind
Speaker 1: of the bulk of where everyone kind of traditionally goes.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of stuff. They're just like better searching,
Speaker 1: right if you're searching for flights, I think Google Flights
Speaker 1: is the best search tool you want to get the
Speaker 1: best deals. You don't necessarily need to book with points
Speaker 1: and miles to get a good deal. And so that
Speaker 1: includes stuff like being able to search multiple airports. Either
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area, there's three airports. I'm always searching
Speaker 1: all of them to try to figure out where I
Speaker 1: could go, searching different dates. Google Calendar has this amazing
Speaker 1: ability to say like seven day trip from San Francisco
Speaker 1: to like New York, but you could pick all three
Speaker 1: San Francisco and all three New York airports and then
Speaker 1: look at a calendar and be like, which week is
Speaker 1: going to be the cheapest or which day is going
Speaker 1: to be the cheapest for a year. So I think
Speaker 1: that's one thing when it comes to thinking about flights,
Speaker 1: and I'm just going to dive in here so I
Speaker 1: don't have like we're here. They can always replay this
Speaker 1: when you're going internationally. Another really important travel hack when
Speaker 1: it comes to flights is around what i'll call positioning.
Speaker 1: So if you're going from San Francisco to New York,
Speaker 1: it's really straightforward. Almost every airline that flies to New
Speaker 1: York or San Francisco flies that route. But if you
Speaker 1: were going internationally to maybe some less common destination, maybe
Speaker 1: an island in Greece or something like that, most of
Speaker 1: the airlines that fly from your home city, wherever it
Speaker 1: is in the United States, probably don't also fly to
Speaker 1: an island in Greece. In fact, even if you include
Speaker 1: their partners, they might not fly to that island. But
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of airlines that fly to the
Speaker 1: islands in Greece or all over the world that are
Speaker 1: not part of a big you know, travel collective of
Speaker 1: you know, alliances with United American Delta, those kind of airline.
Speaker 1: And so if you just searched San Francisco to Santorini,
Speaker 1: you might only find a couple options, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: be usually the most expensive options. But if you try
Speaker 1: to just get yourself to Athens and buy the ticket
Speaker 1: to a Greek island, it'll add on seventy dollars. But
Speaker 1: from San Francisco to Athens. There's probably hundreds of options
Speaker 1: because almost every carrier flies to the major cities in Europe,
Speaker 1: the major cities in Asia, etcetera. So a really important
Speaker 1: thing is if you're ever looking to buy a flight
Speaker 1: to somewhere that's not a major city, also look and
Speaker 1: see if getting to a nearby major city is much cheaper,
Speaker 1: and then just buy that extra flight. After the fact,
Speaker 1: leave yourself enough time to go collect your bags and
Speaker 1: recheck them if you're if you're checking bags because you
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna be able to transfer them directly
Speaker 1: because of that. But if you're looking at a two
Speaker 1: thousand dollar ticket, then all of a sudden became eleven
Speaker 1: d dollars and you've got a family of four and
Speaker 1: you're saving you know, almost thirty dollars. Yeah, well then
Speaker 1: it's totally worth having to budget a few extra hours
Speaker 1: or maybe even just spend a couple of days in
Speaker 1: that city before you move on. So true. I love
Speaker 1: Google the Google flight search function. There's certain airlines that
Speaker 1: don't show up on it, especially for people who come
Speaker 1: to the Southwest Allegiance or don't show up there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: Southwest does, but the price is always hidden. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: price is always hidden on Southwest. Someone actually created a
Speaker 1: browser extension that would fill it in and then Southwest
Speaker 1: suit them, so that doesn't work anymore. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: you'll see the Southwest flight, but you have to go
Speaker 1: check the price. But other than Southwest, it's it's pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The hack there is if you go to the Wikipedia
Speaker 1: page for any airport, you can look at all the
Speaker 1: places it flies. That's one. There's a website called flights
Speaker 1: from dot com or flight connections dot com and you
Speaker 1: can put a city in it will show you all
Speaker 1: the routes there. So I like to do that more
Speaker 1: for countries internationally because Google flights might not be the
Speaker 1: perfect place for every island. And Thailand and or Greece
Speaker 1: it's pretty good, but those other websites are pretty good
Speaker 1: at showing you every flight from that airport. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And flights are one of the biggest barriers to entry
Speaker 1: for vacations, Like it's typically the flights that get families
Speaker 1: from traveling to these, you know, far away places. It's
Speaker 1: usually kind of you're limited by where you can drive
Speaker 1: when you have a larger family. So like, yeah, being
Speaker 1: able to save five hundred, nine hundred dollars per ticket
Speaker 1: on a flight by just checking out the variables is
Speaker 1: a fantastic hack. That's a great stuff. So that's flights.
Speaker 1: When it comes to where you stay, a few fun things.
Speaker 1: So one, you can negotiate your Airbnb every time if
Speaker 1: you're booking Airbnb. We made the transition from no kids
Speaker 1: to two kids, which is synonymous with the transition from
Speaker 1: staying in hotels to staying in rented houses because there's
Speaker 1: just no to make it easy once the kids are
Speaker 1: old enough that you could like leave them in a
Speaker 1: room with a closed door. I think hotel has become
Speaker 1: a better option again. And if you're in Europe, actually
Speaker 1: a lot of hotels have a deal where your second
Speaker 1: room is fifty percent off if it's going to be
Speaker 1: occupied by children. Because also, unfortunately in Europe, a lot
Speaker 1: of hotels have like a two person capacity for the room,
Speaker 1: so if you're a family of four, even though there
Speaker 1: might be two beds, you might not be able to
Speaker 1: have everyone in there. But definitely asked the hotel if
Speaker 1: they give a second room at a discount, which is
Speaker 1: common with a lot of chains. So yes, always negotiate
Speaker 1: your Airbnb s. I always email the host and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we're coming. It's a little out of my budget. Or
Speaker 1: there's a place that I like that is a similar price,
Speaker 1: your place is a little nicer. If you could drop
Speaker 1: the price, I'd book it right away, and then I do,
Speaker 1: and I'd say at least fifty hit ray getting people
Speaker 1: to drop the price, especially if it's last minute. Also,
Speaker 1: especially if you're trying to optimize for a good deal,
Speaker 1: look at the calendar and if the place you're staying
Speaker 1: at has like six nights free in their calendar and
Speaker 1: it's booked before and after that, you might have a
Speaker 1: lot more leverage trying to get a deal, because if
Speaker 1: they got a three nights day, they might not be
Speaker 1: able to fill the rest. So if you're like perfectly
Speaker 1: slotting in their opening, you know that's a good opportunity. Also,
Speaker 1: in other countries, there are a lot of sites that
Speaker 1: aren't Airbnb that you might not know about, even like
Speaker 1: local ones. So I always download the main image from
Speaker 1: Airbnb of a place, and then I go to Google
Speaker 1: image Search and I do a reverse image search and
Speaker 1: I upload the picture and sometimes you'll find other websites
Speaker 1: that are listing the same place maybe without the ten
Speaker 1: percent fee that Airbnb charges. We just did that when
Speaker 1: we went to Paris and we found a place that
Speaker 1: we found the place on Airbnb somewhere else for less,
Speaker 1: and we tried to negotiate on Airbnb with that place
Speaker 1: and they said no. So we actually found a way
Speaker 1: to get a good deal. If you book a hotel
Speaker 1: directly with a hotel, email the hotel and say hey,
Speaker 1: we're coming to stay with you. We're really excited, you know,
Speaker 1: looking forward to staying with you. That's literally it, and
Speaker 1: then follow up a few days before. I think I've
Speaker 1: had more listeners, like hundreds of listeners send me emails
Speaker 1: like we got upgraded, we got free breakfast, we got
Speaker 1: our parking compt like all kinds of stuff because they
Speaker 1: booked directly, meaning not at trip Advisor, not somewhere else
Speaker 1: at the hotel's website. Maybe create a loyalty account with
Speaker 1: the hotel before so they know they have a chance
Speaker 1: to build a relationship with you and their brand. And
Speaker 1: you would be surprised at how many things you get.
Speaker 1: If you're booking, you know, a budget hotel that doesn't
Speaker 1: have suites or room service or anything like that. It's
Speaker 1: probably not gonna get you much. So that's on hotels.
Speaker 1: On car rentals, there are a lot of programs like
Speaker 1: Triple A and Costco that give you a spouse free
Speaker 1: or car seats free or those kind of things. There's
Speaker 1: a cool site called auto slash that because most car
Speaker 1: rental reservations can be canceled for free. You just tell
Speaker 1: them your car rental reservation, or you can just book
Speaker 1: through them directly. But even if you've are you booked,
Speaker 1: you give them your reservation and then they just monitor
Speaker 1: every day and if they see that it's gone down
Speaker 1: in price, they email you and say, hey, go rebook
Speaker 1: your reservation. It's gone down in price. So they'll just
Speaker 1: monitor every day. What is that website, it's it's auto
Speaker 1: slash auto slash, And we'll have all these links in
Speaker 1: the show notes too, because I know Chris just just
Speaker 1: gave out a lot of Really, I don't think that
Speaker 1: is what we are here for, and that's what all
Speaker 1: of our Listen, this is hacking your vacation, and this
Speaker 1: is this is it. So I won't go through everything.
Speaker 1: I've got an entire you know, I'm almost at by
Speaker 1: the time this comes out. I bet I've done a
Speaker 1: hundred episodes on how to upgrade every aspect of your life.
Speaker 1: But one more I'll leave you with is on if
Speaker 1: you're traveling internationally. A lot of times taking your domestic
Speaker 1: phone is going to be super expensive and paying for
Speaker 1: international data. But now with a lot of phones, especially
Speaker 1: if you've gotten a new phone in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, they all support what's called an SIM which
Speaker 1: back in the day you used to like take the
Speaker 1: SIM card, put it in the phone. Now you can
Speaker 1: do the whole process electronically. So there's a site I
Speaker 1: love called air alo a I R A l O
Speaker 1: dot com. When it's just a directory of all the
Speaker 1: sims you can buy all over the world. So if
Speaker 1: you're going to Europe, you might be able to get
Speaker 1: you know, twenty gigs of data for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks for like twenty dollars. But back in the day,
Speaker 1: you need to go find the store by the SIM card,
Speaker 1: put it in activated. Now you can do the whole
Speaker 1: thing online and it's so easy, So you can save
Speaker 1: a lot on data traveling internationally doing that. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: That's like a little taste of the fact that there
Speaker 1: are a lot of ways to save money on a
Speaker 1: vacation when you are not going to play the credit
Speaker 1: card points of Miles game. I love that. However, when
Speaker 1: people talk about travel hacking, the big thing they're talking
Speaker 1: about is playing the credit card points of Miles game,
Speaker 1: Because whether it's earning points from signing up for a
Speaker 1: new card or whether it's just spending in the right categories,
Speaker 1: you can rack up points at a and make them
Speaker 1: useful for travel at a rate that's can be far
Speaker 1: more valuable than just getting cash back, which I think
Speaker 1: is why people get really excited. You know, there can
Speaker 1: be cards with hundred and fifty thousand point or miles
Speaker 1: sign up bonuses that could cover multiple flights, you know, internationally.
Speaker 1: So before I go into that, I will caveat that
Speaker 1: there is no amount of interest charge on a credit
Speaker 1: card that makes it worth doing anything to earn points
Speaker 1: on a card. So if you can't pay your credit
Speaker 1: cards off in full each month, this is a great game.
Speaker 1: Once you start to get to the point that you
Speaker 1: pay your credit cards off in full each month, come
Speaker 1: back listen to the rest of this episode about ways
Speaker 1: that you can optimize that. But until then, it's going
Speaker 1: to be far more financially, better to focus on paying
Speaker 1: down your debt, getting it to the point that you're
Speaker 1: not crewing interest and paying interest charges than earning some
Speaker 1: free points. So I want to make sure that gets
Speaker 1: out there. Just do our job for us. Disclaimer. So yeah,
Speaker 1: a ton of great tips that you don't even need
Speaker 1: to have a credit card for. And credit cards really
Speaker 1: just are the icing on top of the like quote
Speaker 1: unquote like free vacation stuff. But like it is, okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's dive into the credit card points stuff. Is
Speaker 1: there any such thing as a quote unquote free vacation?
Speaker 1: So look, when you buy most things, not all things,
Speaker 1: like I can't pay for my childcare with the credit card,
Speaker 1: I can't pay my property tax with the credit card.
Speaker 1: But for most things you purchase online, you pay with
Speaker 1: a credit card, and you can choose whether you pay
Speaker 1: with your debit card. You're checking account of your credit card.
Speaker 1: If you use a credit card and you don't have
Speaker 1: to pay an extra fee to use it, you're going
Speaker 1: to be able to use a card that gets you
Speaker 1: cash backer points. So I would say, if you're comparing
Speaker 1: a debit card to earning points, yeah, there could be
Speaker 1: a free vacation. But al cabiat that if you're using
Speaker 1: a card that gives you two percent hash back, like
Speaker 1: the City Double Cash, like, you're not really getting a
Speaker 1: free vacation if you take it on your points, because
Speaker 1: you could have gotten cash back and use that cash
Speaker 1: to pay bills, payoff debt, anything like that. So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say there's any anything that's a true free vacation
Speaker 1: because if you're using points and miles to go on
Speaker 1: a vacation, those points and miles could have been cash back.
Speaker 1: That said, I think there's something emotional that is different
Speaker 1: than the rational mind, which is you accrue a bunch
Speaker 1: of points that you didn't spend money for. Maybe you
Speaker 1: spent money to buy things you need, but you didn't
Speaker 1: actually buy the points, and then you're able to use
Speaker 1: those points to fly somewhere, stay in a hotel somewhere,
Speaker 1: or both, and you're like, Wow, the flight was free,
Speaker 1: the hotel was free. Yeah, I could have earned some
Speaker 1: cash back, but it was free. That was awesome. So
Speaker 1: I would say there's an emotional free vacation. But if
Speaker 1: you're looking at the like true rational economist mindset of
Speaker 1: opportunity costs, it probably wasn't completely free. There are sites
Speaker 1: that I've used in the past called like CouchSurfing, where
Speaker 1: you can stay with locals and other countries actually for free.
Speaker 1: Or maybe when you lead travel ret your place out
Speaker 1: on Airbnb and if you can make enough that you
Speaker 1: know it covers the cost, maybe your vacation is free.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to travel hacking, I think there's
Speaker 1: a bit of a misnomber of saying like, oh, I
Speaker 1: took this amazing vacation for free. It's like, yes, but
Speaker 1: you could have had cash If you did cash back,
Speaker 1: would you have been able to take that same vacation
Speaker 1: with that amount of cash back? Often no, So I
Speaker 1: think where travel hacking comes into play is that you know,
Speaker 1: if I spend a certain amount on a credit card,
Speaker 1: I might be able to earn five cash back, but
Speaker 1: with points and miles, I might be able to get
Speaker 1: a thousand or two thousand dollars worth of travel. So
Speaker 1: I'll split it into two things. There's like earning the
Speaker 1: points and redeeming the points. The redeeming I'll just give
Speaker 1: the high level first because this opens up a huge
Speaker 1: rabbit hole that could be five more episodes. But in general,
Speaker 1: when you earn points and miles, you have two options
Speaker 1: on how you redeem those points and miles, depending on
Speaker 1: what cards and everything. If you have a hotel card
Speaker 1: or an airline card, you're gonna earn those points and
Speaker 1: miles and you're gonna only be able to use them
Speaker 1: in that program. So we'll set that aside. But if
Speaker 1: you earn Amex points or Chase points or Capital one
Speaker 1: or City or built any of these kind of flexible currencies,
Speaker 1: those points can either be used to basically equivalent cash
Speaker 1: rate of buying gift cards, buying travel through the Chase
Speaker 1: portal or the Amex portal or that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: or you can transfer those points to airlines and hotel groups.
Speaker 1: Any trip you take that you are able to use
Speaker 1: your points on is awesome. So I don't wanna discourage
Speaker 1: people from the mindset of like, oh, you have to
Speaker 1: eke out the best absolute value to be able to
Speaker 1: take an awesome vacation. I think we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about mistakes. I think that's one of the biggest mistakes
Speaker 1: people make. But oftentimes the best value you can get
Speaker 1: is when you transfer those points to an airline and
Speaker 1: book with the airlines program. So like we could go
Speaker 1: down a lot of rabbit holes there. If you have flexibility,
Speaker 1: it gets even better. There are sites like point dot
Speaker 1: me that make it really easy to go search across
Speaker 1: lots of different airlines, so you're not going United and searching,
Speaker 1: going to American and searching, going to Delta and searching.
Speaker 1: So to get the absolute best value, you've got to
Speaker 1: invest some time. But even if you don't want to
Speaker 1: do that and you just want to go I've earned
Speaker 1: Chase points, I go to the Chase portal, I book it.
Speaker 1: You know, in Chase's example, depending on which card do
Speaker 1: you have, those points might be worth anywhere from one
Speaker 1: to one and a half cents, whereas if you redeem
Speaker 1: them for gift cards or cash back, it's usually on
Speaker 1: it's usually only one cent or even in some cases
Speaker 1: half a sent. So even if you're just booking in
Speaker 1: the portal, you will still be able to get some
Speaker 1: value from your points that will let you take free
Speaker 1: vacations with air quotes because you know what we just discussed.
Speaker 1: But if you want to go down the rabbit hole
Speaker 1: of transferring those points, you can get even more value.
Speaker 1: I've got a ton of episodes on that we're not
Speaker 1: going to go down that too deep right now. But
Speaker 1: let's talk about earning, because that's like you can't do
Speaker 1: any of this if you're sitting with a Chase account
Speaker 1: with one point in it. So there are too kind
Speaker 1: of level one ways that you earn when you open
Speaker 1: up a new card. A lot of cards give you
Speaker 1: a sign up bonus if you spend a certain amount
Speaker 1: of money in a certain window. I'd say, like the
Speaker 1: most common is three to four thousand dollars in three months,
Speaker 1: and if you do that, maybe you get anywhere from
Speaker 1: I like to think that the floor is like seventy
Speaker 1: thousand points is like a good entry, and then if
Speaker 1: it's anything over a hundred, it's amazing. And that's with
Speaker 1: these kind of flexible currencies. Hotel points sometimes are worth
Speaker 1: less than airline points. So you might see a hotel
Speaker 1: card that's like a hundred and fifty thousand, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I wouldn't put that on the same level. But
Speaker 1: if it's Chase, it's am x, it's capital one. Anything
Speaker 1: over a hundred is amazing, anything over seventy is pretty good,
Speaker 1: And so you sign up for the card, you get
Speaker 1: the points. That's it. It's easy. You know, if you
Speaker 1: have enough spending that you could do that once or
Speaker 1: twice a year, could be pretty reasonable to rack up
Speaker 1: hundred two hundred three hundred thousand points a year, depending
Speaker 1: on you know, how you're able to do that. There
Speaker 1: are some nuances to like how many cards you can
Speaker 1: open in a year, And so I would say like,
Speaker 1: let's just play you know, one oh one it and say,
Speaker 1: you know, get one card or two cards and and
Speaker 1: do that. So that's part one. The other part is
Speaker 1: just spending optimally. There are cards out there that are
Speaker 1: really great if you buy a lot of airline tickets,
Speaker 1: but if all you do is buy buy groceries, it's
Speaker 1: the worst card out there. Right. There are cards that
Speaker 1: are great for gas and groceries, but if you have
Speaker 1: an electric car and you don't make cook at home
Speaker 1: and you only go out to eat, that's terrible card.
Speaker 1: So I always say, go look at where you spend
Speaker 1: your money, whether you've made a budget, whether the current
Speaker 1: card you have has one of these annual reports that
Speaker 1: you can look at for last year and say, where
Speaker 1: do I spend my money? If it's all on groceries,
Speaker 1: maybe optimized for a card that earns a lot of
Speaker 1: points on groceries if it's all on travel, optimized for
Speaker 1: a card that earns a lot of points on travel,
Speaker 1: so I you know, you can go down the one card.
Speaker 1: I spend most of my money on travel and dining,
Speaker 1: so that Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve is like a
Speaker 1: pretty good cover. You can play this game to the
Speaker 1: point that you're like, well, I also spend money on groceries,
Speaker 1: so let me get a card that does well on groceries. Oh,
Speaker 1: I also spend money, And you can go down and
Speaker 1: down and stack to the point that you have five
Speaker 1: ten cards. But to get started, I say, just like,
Speaker 1: focus on a card that covers where you spend most
Speaker 1: of your money, and if you want to get a
Speaker 1: second one, focus on a card that covers everything else.
Speaker 1: I love the Yeah, I love the Capital one, Venture
Speaker 1: and Venture X cards. It's just two X on everything.
Speaker 1: You don't have to think about it. It's like every
Speaker 1: purchase I make, it's two points, no worries, so that
Speaker 1: pairs well. I think that's such an important caveat too,
Speaker 1: because I get a lot of people friends included, just
Speaker 1: asking me about my opinions on credit cards just because
Speaker 1: of this podcast, and I could be so in love
Speaker 1: with my card and say this has been great for me.
Speaker 1: But especially when there's a high annual fee to have
Speaker 1: the card, it really has to make sense for you
Speaker 1: if you're going to utilize that card to the highest
Speaker 1: level of benefit, and if it's actually going to benefit
Speaker 1: for you for what your lifestyle is. I think that
Speaker 1: those are excellent things to keep in mind. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: some of those high annual fees, by the way, there
Speaker 1: are credits that try to offset them, almost all of them. Right,
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, well we're gonna charge you to fifty,
Speaker 1: but you'll get ten dollars a month in uber uber
Speaker 1: Eats credit and another ten dollars a month you can
Speaker 1: spend at you know, like shake Shack or grub Hub
Speaker 1: or that kind of stuff. So if you get ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month times two times twelve, you get two
Speaker 1: hundred forty dollars a month two dollars a year of credits,
Speaker 1: and the annual fee is two hundred fifty dollars. And
Speaker 1: the card I'm referencing is the Amex Gold Card. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of deal. You're only spending ten dollars, but
Speaker 1: if you don't ever order online at uber eats, and
Speaker 1: you're just starting to say, oh, well, because I have
Speaker 1: ten dollars, let's order dinner. And you're gonna spend fifty
Speaker 1: dollars to save ten dollars, but you wouldn't have spent
Speaker 1: any of it first place. We're not really getting anything
Speaker 1: back there, You're actually creating yourself more. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's why, like Jill and I have different credit card strategies.
Speaker 1: She uses like a lot of her benefits because she
Speaker 1: would use them other like anyways, Whereas I tend to
Speaker 1: stick with the lower annual fee cards because I don't
Speaker 1: use any of those. I go pick up my own takeout.
Speaker 1: Jill can't fathom that, And so I'm gonna come into
Speaker 1: my door yea, if I'm gonna if I'm going convenience,
Speaker 1: I'm going convenient. Yeah, I would rather go more welcome
Speaker 1: bonuses with more lower fee cards and and do it
Speaker 1: that route. So yeah, it is really the card that's
Speaker 1: right for you will vary based on what you are
Speaker 1: already using. Yeah, how do you value these perks these benefits.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of cards that come with travel credits,
Speaker 1: like the venture X card has like a travel credit
Speaker 1: and you can use it in the Capital one portal
Speaker 1: for hotels and flights. But if you don't travel, you're
Speaker 1: never getting that three dollars back. But if you spend
Speaker 1: more than three on travel and you book your flight
Speaker 1: or your hotel through Capital one, like, it's almost as
Speaker 1: good as cash. So you just gotta look at it
Speaker 1: and figure out am I going to get this value?
Speaker 1: And be honest with yourself? And if you are, and
Speaker 1: you know the card is gonna cost you an extra
Speaker 1: twenty dollars a year, well maybe that's a good deal
Speaker 1: if it gives you a few more points per dollar
Speaker 1: on a category you spend on. But if it's gonna
Speaker 1: cost you five dollars a year, and it's gonna give
Speaker 1: you an extra two points per dollar on gas, but
Speaker 1: like you rarely drive, you've got to ask yourself, is
Speaker 1: getting an extra thousand or five hundred points a year
Speaker 1: really worth that much money? And the answer is usually no.
Speaker 1: I think points in general come in very different valuations
Speaker 1: depending on who you ask, but I'd say, at a
Speaker 1: bare minimum, like all points are usually worth except hotel points,
Speaker 1: about a cent on the high end, two cents, So
Speaker 1: that's kind of the range, like the most flexible points
Speaker 1: like Chase and Amex that you could train it sort of.
Speaker 1: So many airlines, you know, people often say they're probably
Speaker 1: worth about two cents, but if you're spending more than that,
Speaker 1: you're definitely not getting a good deal. M hmm. We're
Speaker 1: beginning to already identify some of the pitfalls for people
Speaker 1: here where it could go wrong, where there is room
Speaker 1: for mistakes. What have you seen in your area of
Speaker 1: expertise here related to travel hacking that people are making
Speaker 1: and and and how could they avoid it? What are
Speaker 1: the biggest mistakes? What can they do to avoid it?
Speaker 1: I think there's two, one, maybe three. We could just
Speaker 1: go down a lot of them. But I don't want
Speaker 1: to scare anyone off. But when it comes to trying
Speaker 1: to get the best use, like use of your points,
Speaker 1: the maximum value. I've seen people who have heard stories,
Speaker 1: and I've shared some of these stories where okay, well,
Speaker 1: we were planning our honeymoon, We planned a year out,
Speaker 1: we knew where we wanted to go, We found the
Speaker 1: absolute best way to get there, and we booked it
Speaker 1: an international business class, which can be like one of
Speaker 1: the best, you know, like we were never gonna actually
Speaker 1: pay for a ten tho dollar fly, but we were
Speaker 1: able to get a ten thousand dollar flight on points,
Speaker 1: So when you talk about it, it's like, wow, we
Speaker 1: actually got like eight or nine cents for each of
Speaker 1: our points, which is kind of crazy when you think
Speaker 1: about it, because if you were using a credit card
Speaker 1: that even at the bare minimum, gives you two points
Speaker 1: per dollar, if you're able to get nine cents from
Speaker 1: those points, it's like you're getting eighteen percent cash back
Speaker 1: on everything you spent. So someone will hear that and say, well,
Speaker 1: it would be a horrible use if I can only
Speaker 1: get two cents, I gotta find a way to get nine.
Speaker 1: And then they're like, hmmmm, well, the only way to
Speaker 1: get a lot of points right now when I'm looking
Speaker 1: online is to fly in business class. I didn't even
Speaker 1: want to fly in business class, but now I'm flying
Speaker 1: a business class And well, we really wanted as a
Speaker 1: family to go to London, but all the flights I
Speaker 1: found were to roam. So now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: someone's like trying to optimize for getting the best deal
Speaker 1: and they end up taking their family in business class
Speaker 1: to Rome, using all of their miles to get the
Speaker 1: best deal when all they really wanted to do is
Speaker 1: go to London and they were totally fine flying in economy,
Speaker 1: And so they end up optimizing the trip around getting
Speaker 1: the best deal, then going where they want to go
Speaker 1: and doing what they want to do. So I'll say,
Speaker 1: it's always awesome if the stars align and where you
Speaker 1: want to go, what you want to do, when you
Speaker 1: want to do it happens to be the best deal.
Speaker 1: But don't hold, you know, beat yourself up over not
Speaker 1: getting the absolute best deal that you hear me or
Speaker 1: anyone else online talking about. When it comes to, you know,
Speaker 1: the number of the dollar value you got from a
Speaker 1: certain amount of points. I'd say, if you're getting any
Speaker 1: amount of value of your points over a penny a point,
Speaker 1: you're probably doing better than you would with cash back,
Speaker 1: and that's awesome. And if you're still just getting one
Speaker 1: cent a point, well then you're getting the same thing
Speaker 1: you would have with cash back, so that's also awesome.
Speaker 1: And for a lot of us, I know, I've had
Speaker 1: lots of months where like cash flow is tight. If
Speaker 1: you're taking a vacation that didn't require you to dip
Speaker 1: into your cash because you didn't have it, well, that's awesome, Like,
Speaker 1: so I don't want anyone to beat themselves up over
Speaker 1: thinking that they have to get the best possible deal,
Speaker 1: because it can be stressful and it can end up
Speaker 1: resulting in things that you don't want. That's so helpful.
Speaker 1: I need to hear that because I have like over
Speaker 1: almost close to two hundred thousand points like wracked up
Speaker 1: just because we're in the middle of cash flowing renovations
Speaker 1: and I want to use it on a really long
Speaker 1: international flight. But then in the back of my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, but I could use that on multiple
Speaker 1: domestic flights, Like do I really want to just dump
Speaker 1: all of them into this one international flight versus getting
Speaker 1: the most amount of travel out of these points. But
Speaker 1: hearing you say whatever it is for you that that
Speaker 1: you've planned and had this idea of how you want
Speaker 1: to use it, go for it super permission giving Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: if there's a wedding that you really want to go to,
Speaker 1: but cash flow is tight and the points are gonna
Speaker 1: let you go to the wedding, Like, that's a great
Speaker 1: use of points. But if cash flow is not tight,
Speaker 1: and all the short domestic trips you can afford in
Speaker 1: your budget, but you're never going to spend, you know,
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a person to go on that like
Speaker 1: honeymoon level international vacation, then maybe that's for you. Is
Speaker 1: the better, better use and you know so, so that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I think about it from a
Speaker 1: wrist standpoint. Look, I'll add a few other fun hacks
Speaker 1: just for people to kind of keep in the back
Speaker 1: of their mind if you want to earn more points.
Speaker 1: So one is, uh, every one of these websites that
Speaker 1: has a portal like Chase am X, most of them
Speaker 1: all have these shopping portals, so you can go online
Speaker 1: and look, and there's portals like racket in where you
Speaker 1: can also earn cash back. But for a lot of
Speaker 1: the points websites, they similarly have one where you could say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go buy something from Apple, so why not
Speaker 1: click the link from the Chase website and earn one
Speaker 1: cent per dollar on my Apple purchase? So similar to
Speaker 1: the cash back portals, they have points portals. One thing
Speaker 1: I like to do, especially if you're someone who doesn't
Speaker 1: spend a lot, but you really want to get these
Speaker 1: sign up bonuses. So let's say you only spend a
Speaker 1: few thousand dollars, let's say in less than a thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a month, and you've got to sign up bonus
Speaker 1: and you need to spend three thousand dollars in three months,
Speaker 1: and that's just not what you normally put on a
Speaker 1: credit card, like you're super frugal. Well I don't, I'd say,
Speaker 1: don't go buy stuff you don't need to meet the
Speaker 1: minimum spend, Like that's never gonna help your budget or
Speaker 1: your financial situation. But is there something that you know
Speaker 1: you're going to spend money on in the three months
Speaker 1: that follow that you could pre buy, you know, a
Speaker 1: gift card for So let's say you always spend two
Speaker 1: bucks a month on Amazon, Well maybe you could buy
Speaker 1: a five Amazon gift card so that you can meet
Speaker 1: the minimum spend to get that sign up bonus. And
Speaker 1: then the few months that follow, you could spend that
Speaker 1: gift card. And that gift card to Amazon could be
Speaker 1: a gift card to the grocery store, it could be
Speaker 1: a gift card to the gas station, anything like that.
Speaker 1: And if you want to really ramp it up. I
Speaker 1: mentioned the m X Gold earlier because it's it's four
Speaker 1: x points on dining and groceries. So anytime I want
Speaker 1: to buy something that doesn't have a bonus, so take
Speaker 1: rid of it. We've talked about renovation like home Depot lows.
Speaker 1: There isn't a great hard that earns a lot of
Speaker 1: points at Home Depot unfortunately. But I have a card
Speaker 1: there's four x points at groceries, So I just buy
Speaker 1: Home Depot gift cards at the grocery store and then
Speaker 1: pay for my Home Depot purchase with home home Depot
Speaker 1: gift cards. So I'm getting four x points on home
Speaker 1: Depot because I buy gift cards at the grocery store,
Speaker 1: where I have a card that has a high bonus.
Speaker 1: You may have a card that has high bonus at
Speaker 1: drug stores while they sell gift cards at CBS and Walgreen's.
Speaker 1: You might have a there are some business cards that
Speaker 1: have a high you earned five points or something three
Speaker 1: points at office supply stores like you know Staples and
Speaker 1: Office Max, Well, they sell gift cards there. So I
Speaker 1: like to play the gift card arbitrage game where if
Speaker 1: you have a card that earns a lot at a
Speaker 1: place that sells gift cards, you can always buy the
Speaker 1: gift cards that you can spend somewhere else. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have thought that it worked that way. That's insane. I
Speaker 1: have heard you do want to be careful with like
Speaker 1: manufactured spending, like buying like American Express. So those types
Speaker 1: of cards, Yeah, So retailer gift cards like a you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know gap, old Navy Home Depot, those things
Speaker 1: usually don't have fees to buy them. But when you
Speaker 1: buy a Visa gift card or you buy an am
Speaker 1: X gift card, they usually have activation fees for those cards.
Speaker 1: And if you break that activation feed down into like
Speaker 1: a percentage of the purchase, it usually doesn't make up
Speaker 1: for the cost. Like it usually ends up not being
Speaker 1: a good deal. So buying a five gift card at
Speaker 1: the grocery store, that's a Visa gift card, and pain
Speaker 1: whatever the activation fee is probably isn't a good deal
Speaker 1: on an ongoing basis. But if you signed up for
Speaker 1: a credit card and you need to spend three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in order to get seventy five thousand points, and
Speaker 1: you're a two thousand, nine hundred dollars and there's nothing
Speaker 1: you need that you could buy a gift card for anything,
Speaker 1: and you just buy a hundred dollar Visa gift card
Speaker 1: and you have to pay six dollars to activate it. Well,
Speaker 1: the six dollars was worth the seventy five thousand points
Speaker 1: that you would of foregone if you didn't get it.
Speaker 1: So in those like final few days you're trying to
Speaker 1: meet the minimum spend. If you have to pay a
Speaker 1: fee or something to use your card, it's probably worth
Speaker 1: it if you've got ten or a hundred thousand points
Speaker 1: on the line. But just generally if you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want more points, I'm gonna take my grocery gift
Speaker 1: card and just keep racking up these Visa gift cards,
Speaker 1: probably not a good use. Lots of strategy involved, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: There's some crazy advanced, weird stuff that I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get into, where like their websites where people like
Speaker 1: who want to buy things online but there's limits, like
Speaker 1: you can't buy an unlimited number of iPads. Someone's like,
Speaker 1: I want to buy a thousand iPads and ship them
Speaker 1: to a country where they're really expensive. If you just
Speaker 1: buy the iPad and mail it to me, I'll pay you.
Speaker 1: They're called buyers clubs, like their ways to earn more points.
Speaker 1: But even I haven't gone down that path. That's the
Speaker 1: only one. The only one I really love it is.
Speaker 1: I'll encourage anyone listening because it's a way to trade
Speaker 1: your time for more points. And sometimes when we're trying
Speaker 1: to be frugal or willing to spend our time for benefit,
Speaker 1: and that is like raise your hand to volunteer to
Speaker 1: plan the next group trip. So travel is one of
Speaker 1: the categories that always gets the most points. There's so
Speaker 1: many cards that are in three to five points per
Speaker 1: dollar on flights and hotels. So something I always love doing.
Speaker 1: No one seems to like planning a group trip, right.
Speaker 1: It's like coordinating everyone and all the stuff. I would
Speaker 1: always raise my hand and say, hey, guys, I will
Speaker 1: plan this trip. I'll book the hotel's all, book everyone's flights,
Speaker 1: I'll collect money from everyone. I'll coordinate it all. You
Speaker 1: don't have to pay me, of course, because like, why
Speaker 1: would my friends pay me? That's weird. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put it all in my card and you guys all
Speaker 1: have to like venmo me or zell me or something.
Speaker 1: And depending on how much you trust your friends, you
Speaker 1: might ask them to venmo you in advance. Uh, if
Speaker 1: you trust them enough. You could say way too. You know,
Speaker 1: you could, you could book everything and then ask them
Speaker 1: to reimburse you. But when you do that, Let's say
Speaker 1: you've got a group trip with five six let's say
Speaker 1: six total people, and you're booking flights. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you're going to Nashville, you're going Austin something like. That's
Speaker 1: two fifty dollars. Well, that's of flights. You know, you're
Speaker 1: booking three nights in a two hotel rooms. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: another thousand dollars on hotels you just spent. Maybe you
Speaker 1: did it on a card that earns three points per
Speaker 1: dollar on travel. You're almost earning ten thousand points from
Speaker 1: planning this trip from your friends, which is a meaningful
Speaker 1: contribution towards your points balance. I've been lucky enough to
Speaker 1: be able to do this for like twenty person group trips.
Speaker 1: You've got twenty people, Well that's just like four times
Speaker 1: as much. And uh, you know, if you you're taking
Speaker 1: a group trip with maybe you want to plan your
Speaker 1: next family reunion, like who knows, But that's a way
Speaker 1: I've been able to rack up a lot of points
Speaker 1: without having to spend a lot of extra time. My
Speaker 1: friends have gotten wise to this. We're out to dinner.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, I'll put it on my car and
Speaker 1: everyone Ben Momi, all right, I'll put you did that
Speaker 1: last time, so it's my turn now. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: we can we can share, we can pass the baton
Speaker 1: on who gets to put it on their card. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love that strategy. It's taking somebody else's points from
Speaker 1: them who probably isn't travel hacking anyway, so I don't
Speaker 1: feel bad and it's everybody wins. But unlike the dinner one,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're at least and I said, it doesn't
Speaker 1: cost you time. I mean, it doesn't cost you extra money,
Speaker 1: but what you're trading your time for the points because
Speaker 1: for something that people don't like doing. It's like most
Speaker 1: people don't like organizing travel and group trips and planning
Speaker 1: and logistics. So you're saying, hey, I'm gonna take your
Speaker 1: points from booking this trip, but I'm gonna do all
Speaker 1: the work. And for some reason, if I wouldn't frame
Speaker 1: it like that, by the way, okay, I'll plan the
Speaker 1: whole trip and I'll put it all my card and
Speaker 1: you guys can reimburse me. And if they're like well,
Speaker 1: I want the points to be like, if you want
Speaker 1: the points, you're welcome to do it. You just have
Speaker 1: to play in the whole trip. And almost always they'll
Speaker 1: be like, okay, no, never mind, you play the whole trip.
Speaker 1: So any any way that you can can do that.
Speaker 1: I'll just caution that sometimes, you know, volunteering to pay
Speaker 1: for things is great, but sometimes there are cases where
Speaker 1: you have to pay a fee to do something. So
Speaker 1: I get so many questions like, oh, I spent so
Speaker 1: much on childcare, but they don't take credit cards? Is
Speaker 1: their way to do it? The short answer is no,
Speaker 1: Like there are a bunch of services out there that
Speaker 1: will say, oh, you know, put it on your card
Speaker 1: and we'll mail them a check or send it to
Speaker 1: them on PayPal and we'll pay my credit card and
Speaker 1: you'll pay a fee. Almost all the times, the fees
Speaker 1: are greater than you know, two percent, And even though
Speaker 1: you might be able to argue that the number of
Speaker 1: points you'd get might be worth you know, effectively three percent,
Speaker 1: I don't like to play that game. I think you're
Speaker 1: you're basically paying fees now for the prediction that you
Speaker 1: will be able to make your points valuable in the future,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think that's worth it. So and
Speaker 1: you're sending you're sending your money to a bank who
Speaker 1: has enough money and not to maybe like a smaller
Speaker 1: like airbnb renter or somebody else who could really use
Speaker 1: the money if you just like paid for your vacation.
Speaker 1: So like it's just it's who's getting the money? When
Speaker 1: are you gonna pay it in fees or you're going
Speaker 1: to buy a vacation Like that's how I think of it.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not going to go out of my way
Speaker 1: to get more points if I have to pay fees
Speaker 1: because I don't want the banks to get more of
Speaker 1: my money. That's not why I do this. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but all I will say if you have rent, which
Speaker 1: is something that you can usually not earn points on. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a company called Built and they don't pay me
Speaker 1: to say this, but they have a credit card that
Speaker 1: lets you earn points on rent, and they've worked some
Speaker 1: crazy partnership to make this possible. And unlike a lot
Speaker 1: of cards where you get a big sign up bonus
Speaker 1: when you sign up, you get no sign up bonus.
Speaker 1: So they've chosen to say instead of a sign up bonus,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna let you earn points on rent, and
Speaker 1: they'll let you earn I think up to fifty thousand
Speaker 1: points a year on rent. So it's also three x
Speaker 1: on dining and travel card like it's a it's a
Speaker 1: great card, good cell phone protection, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But if you're paying rent, the built card is a
Speaker 1: great option to start earning points on rent. There's no
Speaker 1: annual fee, so it's a good low low fee card.
Speaker 1: I don't make any money, but if you want to
Speaker 1: use my referral code, it's all the hacks dot com
Speaker 1: slash built, I might earn some points, but yeah, built
Speaker 1: cards a good option. That's like the one expense where
Speaker 1: there is actually a way to earn points on it.
Speaker 1: But all the others property tax or childcare or your
Speaker 1: you know, your law person that tells you that they
Speaker 1: charge money and they don't take credit card. There's there's
Speaker 1: unfortunately no secret there. But obviously you could ask them
Speaker 1: do you think you could take credit cards? But usually
Speaker 1: the answer is no, I don't want to pay fees. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what else doesn't take credit cards? Who or
Speaker 1: charge fees is pretty much good all the way around
Speaker 1: of the week. That's right time for the best minute
Speaker 1: of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and
Speaker 1: his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 1: maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That bill Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: this is the bill of the week, Chris. Now that
Speaker 1: we've yelled at you, we'll tell you that. Every week
Speaker 1: we invite a listener or our guest to share with
Speaker 1: us their bill of the week, and so we'd love
Speaker 1: to hear yours. So my bill of the week is
Speaker 1: car insurance bills. And so here's something that I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people probably don't do as much as
Speaker 1: they should. So I was on State Farm for like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, ten years, and they were always like,
Speaker 1: we're pricing in this. You've been a customer forever. Discount,
Speaker 1: It's awesome. And I just just and then we got
Speaker 1: a new car and I was like, wow, car insurance
Speaker 1: went up. Newer car usually it's more expensive than older cars.
Speaker 1: So I was like, okay with it. And then I
Speaker 1: just started racing around and I was like, wow, even
Speaker 1: with this, like you're a super customer discount, Geico was
Speaker 1: like cheaper and I know it's like their ad some
Speaker 1: save some percent, some number of minutes, get right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But I'm not saying Geico is cheaper because a lot
Speaker 1: of my friends it was the opposite. They're like, I'm
Speaker 1: on Geico, but I checked State Farm. It is shocking
Speaker 1: how regularly the data on cars is changing for each
Speaker 1: individual insurance company. So my challenge to everyone this week
Speaker 1: is go online, check out a few different sites that
Speaker 1: you know, like with U s A, if you're a
Speaker 1: member Geico, State Farm, whatever it is. There's some comparison
Speaker 1: sites also, but and go reprice your exact policy and
Speaker 1: see if somewhere else is cheaper. And I know you
Speaker 1: might be thinking, well, I already paid six months, so
Speaker 1: I gotta wait till then. No, if you cancel your
Speaker 1: insurance policy, all the insurance companies will actually just pro
Speaker 1: rate your refund so you can do it at any time.
Speaker 1: You don't have to wait till the end of the cycle.
Speaker 1: And I was just shocked at how much cheaper it
Speaker 1: was to ensure the exact same car with the exact
Speaker 1: same limits on a different insurance carrier. And unfortunately I
Speaker 1: obviously I've lost my State Farm super customer discount but
Speaker 1: I save like hundreds of dollars a year on insurance now,
Speaker 1: so that's my bill of the week. It's so funny
Speaker 1: because we were on Progressive for like ten years, and
Speaker 1: then when we repriced, it was cheaper with State Farm.
Speaker 1: So that's who were we have now. But we also
Speaker 1: just got a new car, so it's time to re check.
Speaker 1: It's time to return by the scene right now. This
Speaker 1: is true for your homeowners insurance, this is true for
Speaker 1: your renter. Like all these policies, it's a pain, but
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I remember telling some friends this over lunch,
Speaker 1: and like all of a sudden, now everyone's repricing their
Speaker 1: insurance policies. At lunch, like half the people in the
Speaker 1: room saved like over a hundred dollars a year on
Speaker 1: their insurance. So you could do this at any time forever.
Speaker 1: On one of those like boring zoom calls. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, while while I'm like paying half attention,
Speaker 1: let me just go and reprice all my insurance policies
Speaker 1: and see if I can save some money. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, I love seeing people save money. So that's
Speaker 1: my that's my tips from the same cloth, Chris. If
Speaker 1: you all listening want to save hundreds a year on
Speaker 1: your car insurance, or you want to talk about how
Speaker 1: you did, or you are a person named Bill. You
Speaker 1: know we're calling you out, Bill Curtis. Visit Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash Bill. Leave us your bill. We
Speaker 1: are here for it, ready and waiting, no fees, and
Speaker 1: now it's time for all right, So for this week's
Speaker 1: Lightning Round question, we will all we will all answer
Speaker 1: this one, Chris, but as our guest, you will go first.
Speaker 1: I thought the benefits should be that I get to
Speaker 1: go last. I mean, you will have the easiest time.
Speaker 1: It's always the guests that has the easiest time. Answering
Speaker 1: the question what was the toughest situation you've been in
Speaker 1: while on vacation and how do you solve it? Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I have an answer for this one too. So Life
Speaker 1: and Thad and we were on a bus and we
Speaker 1: were going to Malaysia on a bus and we pull
Speaker 1: into this I don't even remember what border crossing it was,
Speaker 1: and we were looking for the bus that we were
Speaker 1: supposed to get on that goes to Kuala Lumpur, the
Speaker 1: capital of Delagia, and there was no bus there's not
Speaker 1: even a bus station. So we start like walking around
Speaker 1: it's night and we're like, where's the bus and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's no bus. So we went to like a the
Speaker 1: equivalent of a seven eleven, and we were like, hey,
Speaker 1: how do we get there? And they're like, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: no bus till tomorrow and there's no hotel. So we
Speaker 1: just stood outside of the comedian store and we just
Speaker 1: asked every person that walked in, are you driving there?
Speaker 1: Are you driving there? And finally so I was like, no,
Speaker 1: but my buddy drives a truck and he's driving there.
Speaker 1: And it was definitely a sketchy situation. And they were like,
Speaker 1: this guy gave us a ride to a truck that
Speaker 1: was like parked on the side of the highway and
Speaker 1: he's like, hop in the truck bed like in the
Speaker 1: it was like a semi truck, not like a pickup truck,
Speaker 1: and we just, I guess hitchhiked our way in the
Speaker 1: back of a truck for the next four hours because
Speaker 1: we somehow mistakenly ended up in a town with no
Speaker 1: busses and no hotels. Wow, and internationally that's one of
Speaker 1: the most intense situations. But we didn't know this at
Speaker 1: the We didn't know this at the time, but we
Speaker 1: had e trade as are like checking account that year
Speaker 1: because the trade had no a t m v S.
Speaker 1: I don't think they still do. I don't. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to endorse them, but that was who we had.
Speaker 1: What turns out, the trade did not allow cash withdrawals
Speaker 1: in Malaysia, so we didn't know it at the time,
Speaker 1: but we didn't actually have any money, and we we
Speaker 1: maybe had like ten dollars to our name, but we
Speaker 1: had no money and no way to get money. So
Speaker 1: it turns out if we had to take that bus,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have been able to buy the ticket anyways,
Speaker 1: So we probably would have found ourselves in a similar situation.
Speaker 1: But if you ever find yourself there, what we did
Speaker 1: was we literally just found groups of people like that
Speaker 1: we're in Malaysia, that we're related to, some hobbies we like.
Speaker 1: So I was interested in startups at the time, so
Speaker 1: I like start up Malaysia and I just emailed everyone
Speaker 1: on the list. It was like, Hey, could I PayPal
Speaker 1: someone some money and you could like give me some cash,
Speaker 1: So that was our hack to get cash. The next day, Wow,
Speaker 1: credit cards worked which now in this was like fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago, Like you can usually use your credit card
Speaker 1: most places. Back then, we couldn't, so it was it
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a tough situation, sounds like it,
Speaker 1: but you you figured it out and you're still alive.
Speaker 1: You're back in the States now. There were some doubts,
Speaker 1: but we're here. Yes, that is awesome. I'm reminded every
Speaker 1: time I think about travel. I love it. I love
Speaker 1: it so much. In some ways I feel a little
Speaker 1: obsessed and addicted, But then a question like this reminds
Speaker 1: me that literally, on pretty much every single trip, domestic
Speaker 1: or international that I've been on, I have faced significant difficulties,
Speaker 1: And when it's happening to me, I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: why I should just at home, and then I do
Speaker 1: it again. The one that's just standing out to me
Speaker 1: in the moment is my husband and I were in
Speaker 1: Jamaica and had booked This was one of the first
Speaker 1: times that I had booked an airbnb internationally, and I
Speaker 1: kind of got a taste for the fact that international
Speaker 1: airbnbes might not be for me, because it just feels
Speaker 1: like the checks and balances and accountability is not there
Speaker 1: at least in my experience in the one place we
Speaker 1: booked in Jamaica, and so we show up, I was
Speaker 1: expecting a really amazing time and vacation and a beautiful
Speaker 1: spot and we got there and that was not the case.
Speaker 1: It was not as advertised, like the door didn't lock,
Speaker 1: there were no actual windows like secure there was there
Speaker 1: wasn't opening in the room with some bars, but there
Speaker 1: was no screen and there was no glass or no nothing.
Speaker 1: And it was a shared porch with other people who
Speaker 1: were out there smoking weed and it was just wafting
Speaker 1: into our room. Nothing to do about it. They could
Speaker 1: literally reach their hand through the window or hear our conversation.
Speaker 1: We could hear there didn't even that was the biggest problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just felt so like, oh, we're just kind of
Speaker 1: being looked at and watched, and like, whoever's on the
Speaker 1: porch is like sharing our bedroom with us now? And
Speaker 1: it was not. It was not the vacation I had envisioned.
Speaker 1: And so my husband and I decided what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do is just get a taxi out of there and
Speaker 1: see what resorts in the area had bookings. While it
Speaker 1: ended up being that it was pouring down rain because
Speaker 1: it was the rainy season, and it also happened to
Speaker 1: be Valentine's Day. It was February fourteen, and we just
Speaker 1: walk onto this property of an all inclusive resort just
Speaker 1: to see if they had any room for us in
Speaker 1: the end, and they didn't, and we're soaking wet with
Speaker 1: our backpacks asking if this. They're like, how did you
Speaker 1: get in here? How did you get that security? We're like,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, but can't you book us a room?
Speaker 1: They couldn't know. Oh. It was like the most vulnerable
Speaker 1: feeling to be like, I don't want to go back
Speaker 1: to where we're staying. No place in the area has
Speaker 1: a spot for us. It's downpouring on Valentine's Day and
Speaker 1: we're sitting in the rain with our backpacks, like where
Speaker 1: do we go? What is possible for us? Ended up
Speaker 1: calling the airbnb host and explaining the situation. He had
Speaker 1: another room still on the same property. It was a
Speaker 1: little bit better, but it definitely really was not the
Speaker 1: best vacation. Your turn off hold on one thing. I
Speaker 1: just took advantage of Airbnb's air cover policy, which is
Speaker 1: like their new insurance thing, and I will say I
Speaker 1: was very impressed so if you check it, if you're listening,
Speaker 1: if you check into an airbnb and it's not what
Speaker 1: it was described and the host doesn't offer anything to
Speaker 1: fix it in your case, TBD, whether, like you know,
Speaker 1: whether that was a fair compin Airbnb in our case,
Speaker 1: was willing to pay the difference for us to move
Speaker 1: to a place that was equal to what we were
Speaker 1: supposed to have. Yeah, believe that we did reach out
Speaker 1: to Airbnb, but again it was Valentine's weekend and they
Speaker 1: were like nothings. We were really up the creek. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Yeah. I So when Travis and I
Speaker 1: went to Bali, we were staying half of our trip
Speaker 1: in the southern part and then half of our trip
Speaker 1: in central part of the country or of the city state.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's been so long and I have
Speaker 1: so much pregnancy brain. We were somewhere and it's a country.
Speaker 1: We transferred, got our transportation and realized when we were
Speaker 1: an hour out that Travis had left his phone at
Speaker 1: the airbnb, and his phone was also his wallet, so
Speaker 1: his wallet had the debit card. So we were Travis
Speaker 1: had no phone and we had no access to money,
Speaker 1: and so um, when we got to our final destination.
Speaker 1: We agreed to pay the driver to go back and
Speaker 1: get it and bring it to us the next day,
Speaker 1: and he miraculously did. It was missing our debit card,
Speaker 1: so we were fortunately we were able to like cancel
Speaker 1: it very quickly, so nothing was able to be used
Speaker 1: from it, and it was a separate I think we had.
Speaker 1: We got the Charles Schwab debit card because that was yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't even our regular checking account we had.
Speaker 1: We were only putting money into that account for the trip,
Speaker 1: so it's not like it had a lot of money
Speaker 1: on it. We canceled it immediately, but then we had
Speaker 1: no debit card because that's like we didn't want to
Speaker 1: bring our other debit cards because we didn't want them
Speaker 1: to get stolen. So we spent the rest of the
Speaker 1: with that whole week we were kind of relegated to
Speaker 1: the places that would take credit cards. But that was
Speaker 1: a scary day having your phone, debit cards, all your
Speaker 1: money kind of in the whims of somebody whose name
Speaker 1: you don't know, and then you get there and then
Speaker 1: they have taken your debit card, which was the thing
Speaker 1: you worried about. So just to be clear, those experiences
Speaker 1: for all of us, they were not great. But if
Speaker 1: you had said, what's the ratio of great travel experiences
Speaker 1: to poor ones? I just want it for anyone out
Speaker 1: here who's like, Hey, why am I listening to this episode?
Speaker 1: Why am I even trying to earn points? I don't
Speaker 1: want to travel anymore. I would say nine nine till
Speaker 1: like one point one in terms of like the awesomeness
Speaker 1: of travel compared to the downside. But even those stories,
Speaker 1: that's life, that's life lived. Problem solved out in the
Speaker 1: rain on Valentine's Day in Jamaica. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: if it would have gone perfectly, who knows if I
Speaker 1: would have remembered the trip, so you would have remembered
Speaker 1: I remember them here for the travel, I agree, Chris.
Speaker 1: And if people are just here for more from you,
Speaker 1: tell us where they can find more. Yeah, I'm if
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, which you probably are. I have
Speaker 1: guests called All the Hacks. We talked all about upgrading life, money,
Speaker 1: and travel. Just search All the Hacks. If you want
Speaker 1: the show notes to anything, it's at all the Hacks
Speaker 1: dot com. And if you want to support me and
Speaker 1: the show and you want to sign up for a
Speaker 1: new card. Do it at all the hacks dot com
Speaker 1: slash cards. I'd appreciate it unless you can find a
Speaker 1: better sign up onus somewhere else than go get the
Speaker 1: most points. But if you can find it on all
Speaker 1: the hacks dot com slash cards, do it. They're awesome.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for hanging out with us, Chris. Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me who I feel like I have
Speaker 1: a lot of hacks when it comes to travel, and
Speaker 1: I took my own notes. There are a few things
Speaker 1: that stood out to me related to the rental cars
Speaker 1: and the bit about exchanging your points are transferring your
Speaker 1: points to a certain hotel to get more for them.
Speaker 1: I didn't know those pieces, so I am also excited
Speaker 1: to get more from Chris at his podcast. Absolutely yeah,
Speaker 1: what a great what a great, great time, and good
Speaker 1: luck to you all in your travel. Yes, please let
Speaker 1: us know where you're going, especially if you're in the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends club, then we can see pictures. Who love
Speaker 1: those pictures. Anyhow, Thank you all for listening so much,
Speaker 1: and many of you know the membership that Jen just
Speaker 1: mentioned is for our listeners who are paying off debt,
Speaker 1: where we do monthly money challenges, we offer accountability groups,
Speaker 1: and we congratulate certain members on this podcast, like this one.
Speaker 1: Michelle shared in our group her recent gratitude post and said,
Speaker 1: I am so grateful to Jen and Jill for faithfully
Speaker 1: showing up for us every single week over the last
Speaker 1: five plus years, and for creating this amazing community. I
Speaker 1: remember back in the day of the o G Facebook,
Speaker 1: a frugal Friends community, when it seemed like every other
Speaker 1: week someone was like, is there an accountability group for this?
Speaker 1: And now there is. You did it, ladies. You're doing
Speaker 1: such an amazing job and your passion and perseverance really
Speaker 1: inspires me. Michelle, we are nothing but hearts over here.
Speaker 1: If you are grateful for us, we will definitely read
Speaker 1: it on the show, and we will we'll keep bringing
Speaker 1: it at you. All this all all the opportunities, from
Speaker 1: the debt free stories on YouTube to the membership to
Speaker 1: just this podcast. Yes, but she also said she was
Speaker 1: thankful for other things like look about herself. She's grateful
Speaker 1: for her kids, her fiance, finally in a financial place
Speaker 1: where she can spend money on things she wants to do,
Speaker 1: like the Frugal Friends club and amazing supportive community and
Speaker 1: friends helping her pursue her goals. Wonderful, Michelle, way to
Speaker 1: be grateful. Yes, so excited for you again. Thanks for
Speaker 1: being here everyone. If you want to check out our
Speaker 1: membership where we have these courses, interviews, challenges, and so
Speaker 1: much more to help you in your financial journey, head
Speaker 1: to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club. You can
Speaker 1: just check it out. Just check around. You don't have
Speaker 1: to give us your money yet, just see what it's about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got a list of all the well most of
Speaker 1: the stuff we have right on that page. So well,
Speaker 1: we'll see you next time. By Frugal Friends is produced
Speaker 1: by Eric Sirianni. Are you going to spend Valentine's Day
Speaker 1: in the rain today? Valentine's saying it's raining. We don't
Speaker 1: know if it's going to be raining. If it's raining,
Speaker 1: then I'll probably study indoors. Oh man, what a memory that.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. Though, Like, if it weren't for that experience,
Speaker 1: I don't like it wouldn't stand out to me as much.
Speaker 1: But like Eric and I bonded that day. It seemed
Speaker 1: really awful at the time, But in some ways I'm
Speaker 1: kind of grateful for that experience. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: just prefer bonding in other ways, like a beautiful, all
Speaker 1: inclusive the Yeah, that's just like my personal preference for
Speaker 1: traveling to each their own cruises, all inclusives, Like I
Speaker 1: don't really want to work for anything or have anything
Speaker 1: go wrong on the vacation. But that's me, right, that's you,
Speaker 1: and that's and we're different. You know, we're different in
Speaker 1: that differently suffering and uncertainty and chaos. I have enough
Speaker 1: of that at home. Yeah, I have a toddler, all right. Well,