Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: that lets you in on all the money secrets you
Speaker 4: need to know to live your best life. Because let's
Speaker 4: be honest, if someone told you that you could fly
Speaker 4: business class without dropping thousands of dollars or getting a
Speaker 4: fancy credit card, you'd want the tea, right, Yes, of course.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 4: Well today we are absolutely delivering, and we're doing things
Speaker 4: slightly differently as no surprise to anybody, hopefully.
Speaker 2: My name is Victoria Divine and.
Speaker 4: Joining me on the podcast today is not our usual
Speaker 4: deep dive besa ed.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, she's fine.
Speaker 4: We've kept her in a cupboard to the side, like
Speaker 4: she's in storage for now. But she's just not the
Speaker 4: certified point hacker like the guests we have in studio today,
Speaker 4: which I obviously gave a really good ah what we
Speaker 4: call that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I gave it away. I gave it away.
Speaker 4: She's part of the she's on the money team, and honestly,
Speaker 4: she is the most points savvy person I know.
Speaker 2: It's the one and only. Just grit you. Hello, welcome
Speaker 2: back to a Wednesday episode.
Speaker 5: Thank you for it's been a while.
Speaker 4: But the second this topic came up, I was like, oh, guys,
Speaker 4: I'm really sorry about this, Beck, but you're not allowed
Speaker 4: to be on this episode. I love you, but it
Speaker 4: will just be me telling you about points. But if
Speaker 4: we get Jessica, it can be Jessica telling me about points.
Speaker 5: And I think that's a good deal. I'm pretty happy
Speaker 5: with that.
Speaker 2: I think it's really good.
Speaker 4: Now, when we say points hacking, a lot of people
Speaker 4: automatically think about flights, which, yeah, you can totally get that,
Speaker 4: But that's just the beginning, isn't it. Jess Jess I
Speaker 4: have personally witnessed this, Like it's not just me being like,
Speaker 4: oh I heard just did this. I have witnessed this,
Speaker 4: and I've seen you snag some truly iconic rewards with
Speaker 4: your points and none of it actually involved you having
Speaker 4: to have a fancy black Amex or even a credit
Speaker 4: card at all. So before we get into the house,
Speaker 4: let's just dive into Jess, what have you bought with
Speaker 4: your points?
Speaker 6: Oh, in the last few years, I've had some goodies.
Speaker 6: I got a Dison vacuum, I got my kitchen Aid.
Speaker 6: I feel like the ogs know this story.
Speaker 4: The kitchen aid was a community effort. I feel like
Speaker 4: you tracking the points. I was you were hustling the points,
Speaker 4: but the community was your biggest cheerleader.
Speaker 5: And I love that thing. I use it all the time.
Speaker 5: And what else? I got AirPods pros with points as well.
Speaker 6: It's just in the last like four years, so it's
Speaker 6: like not taking me that long either really to do it.
Speaker 5: So there's been some goodies, I agree, Jess.
Speaker 4: And also I need to just lay this out right
Speaker 4: because she's on the money. We aren't here for like
Speaker 4: just spending to get a reward. Likely we are not
Speaker 4: buying things because points are associated. We are buying things
Speaker 4: because we are intentional with our spending. This is just
Speaker 4: like a little sugar or cream on the top, right,
Speaker 4: It's not about spending for the sake of getting a
Speaker 4: really shiny reward. So I've got some rules before we
Speaker 4: start talking about this, all right. So points are fabulous.
Speaker 4: We love points in this house, extra value for stuff
Speaker 4: you're already gonna buy, Jess Slay, We love that. But
Speaker 4: buying random things that you didn't need because you saw
Speaker 4: in the catalog that there were bonus points this week
Speaker 4: not sligh.
Speaker 2: That is not the vibe.
Speaker 4: In fact, studies have shown and this is me like
Speaker 4: about to promote loyalty programs, but then also I'm just
Speaker 4: going to shoot on them a little bit to the start,
Speaker 4: because like we need to just get on the same page, right, So,
Speaker 4: studies have shown that loyalty programs can actually increase customer
Speaker 4: spending by twelve to eighteen percent and can increase company
Speaker 4: revenue by twenty five to get this just ninety five percent.
Speaker 2: That's corc and I need to get.
Speaker 4: That down because otherwise, why Jess, would companies have loyalty
Speaker 4: programs to begin with?
Speaker 2: If it's not driving sales.
Speaker 4: Why would you take the time, the energy, spend all
Speaker 4: of that effort on building a program if it's not
Speaker 4: adding to the bottom line.
Speaker 5: It's a great point.
Speaker 4: They're making money from giving us points, but we're smarter
Speaker 4: than that. We're going to take their points for spending
Speaker 4: things we were already going to spend. Right, So now
Speaker 4: I've laid out a few of the ground rules, Jess,
Speaker 4: what would be your first tip for someone wanting to
Speaker 4: maximize the points from their everyday spend.
Speaker 6: I think that one of the first things you want
Speaker 6: to look at is what I call it an ecosystem.
Speaker 2: We've got an ecosystem, I've.
Speaker 6: Got an eco car because, exactly as you're saying, if
Speaker 6: we're trying to collect points, doing the things we're already doing,
Speaker 6: thinking about petrol, thinking about where do we buy our groceries,
Speaker 6: thinking about.
Speaker 5: What stores do you shop at a lot Because there's
Speaker 5: two major camps in Australia.
Speaker 6: There's Velocity, which is paired with flybys, and then there's Quantas,
Speaker 6: which is paired with everyday rewards. Those the two major
Speaker 6: k But if you're Jess, you have all of those,
Speaker 6: don't you.
Speaker 5: You absolutely can do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like it's free to sign up, Like I want
Speaker 4: to have Flybys and I want to have everyday rewards
Speaker 4: like pop off Queen Well, and that's it.
Speaker 6: I think like a lot of people will find and
Speaker 6: I find that I am a Cole's Kmart girlies. Velocity
Speaker 6: is perfect for me, but I do still have everyday rewards.
Speaker 6: If I happen to find myself at a Woolies, I'm
Speaker 6: still gonna be.
Speaker 4: This is where I'm a bit silly Jess, because I'm
Speaker 4: definitely more of a like Velocity points and Flybys points
Speaker 4: girly because like I think we all know, like I
Speaker 4: prefer to fly Virgin, so I want my Virgin points.
Speaker 4: But I also shop at Coals because it's my local
Speaker 4: and like everybody knows, I love a Kmar so that
Speaker 4: can works best for me. But it's kind of like
Speaker 4: comparing Taylor.
Speaker 5: No, it's not.
Speaker 4: It's not like comparing Taylor Swift and Beyond. They're not comparable,
Speaker 4: but I tried to make a comparison that would hopefully
Speaker 4: tell you, like it's in a way.
Speaker 2: Much of a muchness.
Speaker 4: But for me, I probably should get everyday rewards as
Speaker 4: well for the random times I found myself in Wallies.
Speaker 5: Just because you might as well.
Speaker 4: It's asologically exactly, So what do we need to be
Speaker 4: thinking about when we're like signing up because I think
Speaker 4: for most of us, just like me, I like lean
Speaker 4: towards one kind because it just aligns more with just
Speaker 4: the spending that I already have.
Speaker 6: So it's totally that's identifying where you shop the most,
Speaker 6: like what you know you want to do to maximize.
Speaker 6: So if you're someone who flies more with Virginal flies
Speaker 6: more with Quantas, that might influence the choice that you
Speaker 6: make if you're planning to use your points for flights.
Speaker 6: It's also worth checking which airline partners are associated, because
Speaker 6: it's not just Virgin and Quantus that fly. Both of
Speaker 6: them have partner airlines that you can also. I know
Speaker 6: that when I went to Japan, I think it was
Speaker 6: might have been Air Japan was under the Virgin umbrella.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of them, correct. I think people
Speaker 4: think that you have to fly Virgin. You don't have
Speaker 4: to fly Virgin. You have to fly a airline that
Speaker 4: is going to accept Velocity points exactly. Like on their website,
Speaker 4: they have literally so many of them that you can
Speaker 4: look up Jess. I just want to segway into this
Speaker 4: because I've just remembered. So we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 4: having points, and I've said, like I want Velocity points
Speaker 4: and fly bys, and last year I signed up for
Speaker 4: one Pass and do you remember the message I was
Speaker 4: sending you. I just like Jess, Like Jess and I
Speaker 4: were texting back and forth because like we aren't just
Speaker 4: like on the podcast talking about this stuff. It's in
Speaker 4: our real life. I'm like, I feel like I have
Speaker 4: hacked the system. Did you know if you sign up
Speaker 4: for one Pass you get all of these points and
Speaker 4: if you like link it on your phone, you can
Speaker 4: get double points every time that you shop it CAMA
Speaker 4: and like we were just like on their website calling
Speaker 4: through the terms and conditions. I was like, this has
Speaker 4: to be capped. It's not capped, so tell me a
Speaker 4: little bit more about I guess other loyalty programs that
Speaker 4: connect to the ones that we already have to increase
Speaker 4: our spend. So that's like one Pass, which I think
Speaker 4: not that many people have heard about.
Speaker 6: One Pass is a great one and we've seen one Pass.
Speaker 6: And the other major supporting loyalty program is every Day Extra,
Speaker 6: which is Everyday Rewards. They're both paid programs, but they
Speaker 6: both go on sale. We've seen both of them.
Speaker 2: Go on sale day.
Speaker 4: That's when I signed up for mine. Yeah, so last
Speaker 4: year I got it for fifty percent off. So instead
Speaker 4: of I think it's meant to be like four dollars
Speaker 4: a month, they get it for two dollars a month.
Speaker 6: And they're crazy, And we've everyday rewards have gone on
Speaker 6: sale I think for half price as well. So keep
Speaker 6: an eye out because you can sometimes pick up that
Speaker 6: membership at a discounted price. They also will often have
Speaker 6: additional perks. So for one pass, I know that you
Speaker 6: can get free shipping on catch you get, you know
Speaker 6: your four times points on every spend for everyday rewards
Speaker 6: you get? Is it five percent? I think off of
Speaker 6: a shot once a month, that might be ten percent.
Speaker 4: I think it's ten percent. I don't know, but like
Speaker 4: it's pretty good. The one thing that I will say
Speaker 4: is I hate when I get to check out and
Speaker 4: I'm like checking out, I've scanned my Flybys thing, and
Speaker 4: then it pops up and says, do you want to
Speaker 4: spend Flybys points? Because I'm like, I don't want to
Speaker 4: accidentally hit yes, because I just want to be really clear,
Speaker 4: Love you flybys, love you one pass, but that's actually
Speaker 4: a really bad exchange of points for money. So like
Speaker 4: if you're at the checkout and you're like, oh, maybe
Speaker 4: I should pay you with points. I mean, if you're
Speaker 4: start for cash, great option totally, but you're not getting
Speaker 4: good ROI like, you're not getting a good exchange rate,
Speaker 4: and we need to consider that too, which is like
Speaker 4: when we talk about or when I talk about the
Speaker 4: exchange rate, right, it's like how many points per dollar
Speaker 4: are we basically getting, Like that's really low? But did
Speaker 4: you know, sorry side not if you go into your
Speaker 4: Frequent Flyers app, you can turn that notification off when
Speaker 4: you scan in at COLT.
Speaker 5: I used do that because it pops up all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I always have that minute of like which
Speaker 2: one do I press? I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that. Yeah, so I go
Speaker 2: turn that off.
Speaker 4: I know that you can do it because people have
Speaker 4: told me that you can do it, but I haven't
Speaker 4: done it for myself yet. So that's probably like a
Speaker 4: life admin task. We're both going to do it right
Speaker 4: after Yeah, okay, all right, all right, So you've told
Speaker 4: us that you actually have an ecosystem, which is absolutely
Speaker 4: not how I thought that this was going to go.
Speaker 4: I thought you were going to be like yep, so
Speaker 4: points you get one, you spend one. Just got an ecosystem,
Speaker 4: and it turns out I do too. I did not
Speaker 4: realize you should know it. Well. I didn't know that
Speaker 4: you call it an ecosystem, and now it feels more legitimate.
Speaker 4: I've just got my Flyby as my one pass, I've
Speaker 4: got all that set up, I've got it all attached
Speaker 4: to my Velocity. But now we've picked an ecosystem. We've
Speaker 4: added our like little booster let's call them booster memberships.
Speaker 4: So you've got your like one pass, all your everyday extras.
Speaker 4: But you're not done with us yet, are you? Like,
Speaker 4: otherwise we wouldn't have a whole episode for you.
Speaker 5: Yep. So you're absolutely right.
Speaker 6: Because I want to talk about bonus offers, and these
Speaker 6: are my favorite because they're very easy and weirdly kind
Speaker 6: of satisfying.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, are they ever like talking about bonus?
Speaker 4: There was a bonus ages ago when I was buying
Speaker 4: my iPhone. This is probably not how normal people function.
Speaker 4: Sh Yes, Love it you've got a whole heap of
Speaker 4: points if you're buying gift cards, but the same amount
Speaker 4: of points on my phone wouldn't be it. And I
Speaker 4: remember there was like some weirdly specific like numeric value
Speaker 4: you had to buy like one hundred dollars gift cards. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so I bought like twenty of them. Yeah points, Queen,
Speaker 4: it's queen, Yeah, it's queen. You should have seen the
Speaker 4: receipt when I checked out with my iPhone because it
Speaker 4: was like this, poor girl. Anyway, I regret nothing, sorry
Speaker 4: about that.
Speaker 6: Well, both flybys and Everyday rewards run in app offers
Speaker 6: every single weeks. If you don't have the apps, get
Speaker 6: the apps. There's things like if you spend a said
Speaker 6: amount of groceries, say fifty dollars in groceries, you get
Speaker 6: a thousand bonus points. Honey, mean buy a specific product
Speaker 6: that they want to promote, you get triple the points.
Speaker 4: But you're already going to be spending money on groceries.
Speaker 4: If it means that you're like, oh, should I do
Speaker 4: the grocery shop today.
Speaker 2: Or hold on?
Speaker 4: Bonus points are on Monday, I might just push it
Speaker 4: out like a day or two. If you can or
Speaker 4: like specific point. Can you build your menu around that?
Speaker 6: Well, that's it, because sometimes they'll even do ones where
Speaker 6: it's like a four week challenge.
Speaker 5: It's like spend one hundred dollars every week for four weeks.
Speaker 6: So what we'll often do is push our higher ticket
Speaker 6: items out so that insteadifying because in our household, for example,
Speaker 6: idrin pepsimax, my boyfriend drinks coke zero, so will alternate
Speaker 6: the week use me, I know, not even a diet coke.
Speaker 5: Can you believe it?
Speaker 4: They're only diet coke in this house. In saying that,
Speaker 4: I don't know if everyone's seen the video. I did
Speaker 4: a blind taste test of the two and it turns
Speaker 4: out I can't tell the difference. But if you show
Speaker 4: me the can I know they both days like debt
Speaker 4: but deien. So splitting up your higher priced purchases across
Speaker 4: those four.
Speaker 2: Weeks and you just so you know, if you're gonna
Speaker 2: you're not going to be invited back on this podcast
Speaker 2: if you smack talk coke lives.
Speaker 5: So I deeply apologize.
Speaker 6: So activating those offers, keeping track of you know what's available,
Speaker 6: you can then you know, build it around your half
Speaker 6: priced specials and things like that to still keep your
Speaker 6: costs down while maximizing the points you can get.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like people think this is really commated
Speaker 4: and they're like, oh, I don't even know where to
Speaker 4: start with points. Baby, just sign up for fly buys.
Speaker 4: You sign up for fly buys, you can get the card.
Speaker 4: It's either a card you're keeping your wallet, or I
Speaker 4: have mine on my pay pass, Like what is it
Speaker 4: like the Apple pay or whatever it or there, It's
Speaker 4: just on my phone. I'm just collecting points. It's not
Speaker 4: going to happen overnight. But then you'll check and one
Speaker 4: day you'll be like new iPod MAXs, perfect iPod AirPod,
Speaker 4: AirPod MAXs.
Speaker 5: And that's a good reminder for people.
Speaker 6: Pop your cards in your wallet, because I feel like
Speaker 6: the barrier for a lot of people is not remembering
Speaker 6: that they have it. Or if you have a partner
Speaker 6: and you have one card, put them on your Apple wallets.
Speaker 4: Or if you're like me and you have become a
Speaker 4: mum and you are spending a lot at camar LOLd jokes.
Speaker 2: Everybody spends a lot of money.
Speaker 4: It came up, But I feel like I'm keeping them
Speaker 4: in business by buying their baby clothes, link your cards
Speaker 4: through your like camart login, so it's like one and done,
Speaker 4: so you don't have to remember when you're online checking out.
Speaker 4: All the information is just like in there, but like
Speaker 4: I do that through my one pass anyway. But we've
Speaker 4: picked our program, j Yes, we've you know, doubled up
Speaker 4: with boosted our points. But bearsties, we are just getting started,
Speaker 4: So we're going to go to a really quick break,
Speaker 4: and after the break, Jess is going to take us
Speaker 4: even deeper into the world of points stacking and how
Speaker 4: to make even more points go even further. Stick around, Jess,
Speaker 4: welcome back. I'm very excited that you are still here.
Speaker 4: Thanks for sticking around, even though you're like pepsi not
Speaker 4: diet coke. But before we go any further, I was
Speaker 4: doing a bit of research for this episode and I
Speaker 4: actually have to talk about this now. I feel like
Speaker 4: it is like the wildest points hack of the year,
Speaker 4: and it involves a bath toy.
Speaker 5: Oh, I have seen these tell us all about it.
Speaker 4: So a few weeks ago, Big w had this random
Speaker 4: three dollars fifty like bath toy. It was literally like
Speaker 4: a duck, like a little yellow rubber ducky right, and
Speaker 4: for some reason it was earning one thousand Quantus points
Speaker 4: per duck. Crazy three dollars fifty for a thousand points, right,
Speaker 4: and because every rewards links to Quantus Frequent Flyer, a
Speaker 4: few very clever people they worked out that by buying
Speaker 4: a couple of hundred ducks could actually score them business
Speaker 4: class flights for approximately eleven hundred dollars. So they had
Speaker 4: done all of their numbers and worked out, all, right,
Speaker 4: I need to buy this many rubber ducks. Obviously, they
Speaker 4: sold big w out of bloody rubber ducks, like literally,
Speaker 4: it was posted like an hour before in a points
Speaker 4: hacking group on Facebook and then it sold out completely
Speaker 4: And I just thought that was insane. I also don't
Speaker 4: endorse it though, so like, don't get me wrong, if
Speaker 4: you were planning on, you know, purchasing business class flights, fantastic,
Speaker 4: I think, But also what waste? Like, why are you
Speaker 4: buying you know, three hundred and fifty bloody rubber ducks?
Speaker 2: Jess, Yeah, look, what are you going to do with that?
Speaker 4: Like it sounds good in theory, but I think it
Speaker 4: was a bit of a mess up. I don't think
Speaker 4: they meant to give you a thousand points on rubber ducks, Like,
Speaker 4: I don't know the semantics of that situation, but the
Speaker 4: idea that you're purchasing stuff you don't need for points,
Speaker 4: I'm just like, Babe, that's naughty. That's not the point
Speaker 4: of points hacking. Points hacking for me is about spending
Speaker 4: money that I was going to already spend, but getting
Speaker 4: a bonus or a benefit for doing so.
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely, And it's really easy to have, you know,
Speaker 6: I think going back to the bonus points thing, if
Speaker 6: there's something that you use and you know you're always
Speaker 6: going to use, I've done it with like toilet paper,
Speaker 6: or again when soft drinks on sale, or something that
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 5: You're going to use all the time, we buy it
Speaker 5: all the time.
Speaker 6: And if we've got the funds in our budget to
Speaker 6: purchase the head, maybe we'll buy a couple of extra
Speaker 6: when they're on you know, some kind of bonus points exactly,
Speaker 6: But buying three hundred and fifty.
Speaker 4: Rubber ducks, as you said, like, I think it's fun
Speaker 4: and I loved reading the article and it's clearly very relevant,
Speaker 4: but for me, it's actually not a benefit, Like, what
Speaker 4: are you going to do start a rubber duck shop,
Speaker 4: I would te hundred and fifty people who want to
Speaker 4: buy rubber ducks. Yeah, it's absolutely besteful.
Speaker 2: Also, what were you going to do return them? Ill?
Speaker 5: No, No, when you return things, they exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: So I think it's just it's very important that we're
Speaker 4: taking this into consideration. So you've told me a lot
Speaker 4: about like the points stacking, and that makes sense, and
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm ticking all the boxes here mainly
Speaker 4: guided by you, if I'm being honest. But one thing
Speaker 4: we haven't mentioned that isn't points. Just we're obviously checking
Speaker 4: out online getting some points, but like we're using shopback right.
Speaker 6: Hm, shop back, cash rewards, any kind of cash back
Speaker 6: platform is a great way to double dip.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like double dipping, Like I want to double dip,
Speaker 4: so if I can, I'm ordering online because you can literally,
Speaker 4: So if you're doing your like weekly grocery shop, not
Speaker 4: only is it going to be more planned to do
Speaker 4: click and collect, but you can literally check out through
Speaker 4: one of your cash rewards programs and like get your
Speaker 4: five percent back or get your couple of percent back,
Speaker 4: and then your fly bys points and it becomes like
Speaker 4: a game. Yeah, you are gammifying, grocery shopping, and once
Speaker 4: you start thinking.
Speaker 6: About it, it becomes really like second nature to go, Okay, well,
Speaker 6: if I'm going to get something and they sell it
Speaker 6: at BW and they sell it, it came up, well, I'm
Speaker 6: going to go to whichever one aligns with the points that.
Speaker 2: I one hundred want to collect one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: And I mean you mentioned before like your petrol, and
Speaker 4: I feel like this is one that I hadn't thought
Speaker 4: about deeply enough. Now I have, obviously, but like at
Speaker 4: the time I thought, oh this ecosystem thing. At the time,
Speaker 4: I didn't know it was an ecosystem. It just gets
Speaker 4: too complex, Like I'm like, oh, is it like cowtext?
Speaker 4: Do I go to seven eleven? Like where am I
Speaker 4: going to do this? Talk to me about partner stores,
Speaker 4: like because like you have it all mapped out, like
Speaker 4: you know that these are the stores that I get
Speaker 4: the best rewards at. So like, I know you hold
Speaker 4: off getting petrol. You have literally broken down on the
Speaker 4: freeway before because you've been waiting to get petrol at
Speaker 4: the right petrol station. So don't be like Jessica, no,
Speaker 4: But I mean we could learn a little bit.
Speaker 6: Definitely, So I always fill up at a seven eleven
Speaker 6: or a Shell Calls Express because they're partnered with Velocity.
Speaker 6: And again you can lack your one past example you
Speaker 6: gave early. You can link all of these things online.
Speaker 6: So I use the seven eleven app that's got my
Speaker 6: Velocity card linked to it. So I scan my seven
Speaker 6: eleven app in store, which is great because I also
Speaker 6: will often scan it because I'm using the fuel lock
Speaker 6: program saving money on fuel. There again, we're double dipping
Speaker 6: where we can. If you are in the Everyday Rewards camp,
Speaker 6: the Woolies fuel stations are the ones that you want
Speaker 6: to fill out at. Both of those platforms also will
Speaker 6: run bonuses, so at seven eleven it'll often be, you know,
Speaker 6: buy a meat pie and something and get an extra
Speaker 6: five hundred points.
Speaker 4: Or speaking of meat piles, did you see my video
Speaker 4: on meat piles? Because I did a collab with seven
Speaker 4: eleven because obviously I'm obsessed with them and I literally
Speaker 4: love working with seven eleven. Like this is so lame,
Speaker 4: but like my seven eleven partnership came from a spat
Speaker 4: I had online with a local coffee shop. Do you
Speaker 4: remember that condescending man who told me that if I
Speaker 4: wanted to afford the good things in life, like I
Speaker 4: probably should get a real job. Anyway, that was really fun.
Speaker 4: If you want to look up coffee gate, you can
Speaker 4: to google Victoria Divine coffee shop and it'll come up.
Speaker 4: It's all over the Daily Mail. But he also told
Speaker 4: me that if I can't afford the coffee at his
Speaker 4: coffee shop, because I had said online, oh my god, guys,
Speaker 4: like an oat latte for seven dollars, Like, wasn't complaining.
Speaker 4: I was literally posting something that we were all thinking.
Speaker 4: Didn't name and shame his cafe, just to be very clear,
Speaker 4: wasn't being rude. I posted a blank coffee cup. But
Speaker 4: he knew that I went to his cafe, so he
Speaker 4: was not impressed, and he told me that I should
Speaker 4: go seven eleven.
Speaker 2: So you know what I did. I went to seven
Speaker 2: eleven and the coffee there was better and a lot
Speaker 2: cheaper as well, a lot cheaper.
Speaker 4: But recently people were like, Victoria Devine doesn't eat meat pies,
Speaker 4: Like this video is phony, Jess. We love a meat pie.
Speaker 4: We love a slope. Our old office used to be.
Speaker 4: Do you remember the one on Burk Street. AH used
Speaker 4: to be around the corner and we would literally be like, okay, cool,
Speaker 4: so if we get this one piece of work time,
Speaker 4: we get a meat pie and a slope.
Speaker 5: It was messed.
Speaker 2: Literally Marney Ween.
Speaker 4: Anyway, I just felt like I needed to say that
Speaker 4: because I am so proud of that partnership that like,
Speaker 4: I talk about it because I love it, not because
Speaker 4: they're paying me guys. And if it's in the ecosystem, oh,
Speaker 4: I love an ecosystem. I'm going to refer to it
Speaker 4: as an ecosystem to my husband and see how he
Speaker 4: feels about fancy it does.
Speaker 5: Another good one is liquor Land.
Speaker 6: They're linked to Flybys, so if I'm restopping the wine rack,
Speaker 6: buying a bottle is a gift or throwing a party, I'll.
Speaker 5: Always try and go there instead of going somewhere random.
Speaker 2: Because it gets fair.
Speaker 6: They'll sometimes offer points deals, and when it comes to
Speaker 6: my car, I will get my car service more often
Speaker 6: than not.
Speaker 5: At my car. I get my tires and stuff.
Speaker 6: There too, because it used to be the Kmart one right, yeah,
Speaker 6: so my car's Camart tire and order I think rebranded.
Speaker 6: They often include free roadside assistance with your services, which
Speaker 6: I have used when I had my flat tire re.
Speaker 2: So that is actually so funny.
Speaker 6: Came my free roadside assistance came out, sorted me out,
Speaker 6: But I got fly.
Speaker 2: This isn't the first time you've required roadside assistance.
Speaker 5: Oh no, I'm a regular.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh, I.
Speaker 4: See that the fuel gauge is flashing red. That just
Speaker 4: mean it's having a.
Speaker 6: Good day, the brave day, but earning Flybys points on
Speaker 6: my service. They sometimes will offer bonus points there as well.
Speaker 6: I think one time I got like twenty thousand bonus points.
Speaker 6: So if you need a log book service or something
Speaker 6: looked at it's going to cost you a bit of
Speaker 6: money anyway, you might as well squeeze all the value
Speaker 6: you can out of it, is my philosophy.
Speaker 4: And she literally does like that's why she's on this
Speaker 4: episode because she's so much better at it than I am.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, I don't have that many points, and
Speaker 4: then I kind of like, don't do that much about it,
Speaker 4: just as like, excuse me, what, like you should see
Speaker 4: her account balance is honestly shocking.
Speaker 6: I would always say just check the partner stores first
Speaker 6: and remember because I know sometimes people will say, you know,
Speaker 6: the prices might not be as good the place that's
Speaker 6: more favorable for your point system. But a lot of stores,
Speaker 6: like office Works for example, will price match and office
Speaker 6: Works is.
Speaker 2: Not going to let you get away without getting a
Speaker 2: good deal.
Speaker 6: So look at price matching as well if that's something
Speaker 6: that you're concerned about.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent, And as I mentioned before, obviously if
Speaker 4: you're shopping online, make sure you're using other platforms like
Speaker 4: shop backs so that you're getting cash back. But they
Speaker 4: aren't points related, but both Quantus and also Virgin they
Speaker 4: have their own online like shops or online malls or
Speaker 4: whatever we want to call it. So basically you can
Speaker 4: click through their site before heading to I guess stores,
Speaker 4: so you like log into your Virgin and then go, oh,
Speaker 4: I do want to hit like the iconic. I really
Speaker 4: want to go to Sephora or David Jones or whatever.
Speaker 4: But when you do it that way, you can often
Speaker 4: earn like bonus points on your shop. You're not necessarily
Speaker 4: spending your points, but you're like getting more points because
Speaker 4: you're logged in, which is a money win. And like
Speaker 4: Quantus actually have just like shop Back, they have like
Speaker 4: a browser extension. It's called points Prompter, and it just
Speaker 4: pops up while you're online shopping to let you know
Speaker 4: where like bonus points could be made. So it's like
Speaker 4: doing it for you, which I think is really cool. Now,
Speaker 4: I also wanted to touch on this. I know that
Speaker 4: you buy stuff, Jess, like you're really good at like
Speaker 4: getting like a stand mixer and stuff. I have had
Speaker 4: this debate a few times with Brook in our team,
Speaker 4: who's also a very big points hacker, Like if she
Speaker 4: wasn't based in Perth, this would be a three way conversation,
Speaker 4: but she would never buy things from the online shops
Speaker 4: that like Virgin or Quantus have because she's done the
Speaker 4: mats and.
Speaker 2: The conversion doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: But then I also know that you're making sure you're like, well,
Speaker 4: I'm not just going to save it all for travel,
Speaker 4: because like I was going to buy air pods.
Speaker 2: My AirPods are free, I'm not going to like for me.
Speaker 6: It's about like if I want something, but I'm not
Speaker 6: exactly to pay the money for me.
Speaker 5: It's yeah, but you're absolutely right, But.
Speaker 4: I wanted to talk about it, like the conversion is
Speaker 4: not incredible, but like you're getting an item for free, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's a better deal than you know, saving it for
Speaker 4: travel for you because you're like, well, I don't know
Speaker 4: when I'm going to do x YZ, or like that's
Speaker 4: not in my value system at the moment. So like, yes,
Speaker 4: we want to make sure we know how to get
Speaker 4: the best possible deal. But also like Jess, she was
Speaker 4: never going to buy a stand mixer from kitchen Aid
Speaker 4: that was like nearly one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Get it on points.
Speaker 5: Exactly right, But talk us through the best way to
Speaker 5: get the flight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, So when it comes to flights, there are
Speaker 4: actually a few good tips that have come out of
Speaker 4: our Facebook group. So I went through the Facebook group
Speaker 4: and was like, let's do a little roundup rewards seats.
Speaker 4: So they're the seats that you can buy with your points.
Speaker 4: They are usually limited, and it usually works out to
Speaker 4: book really early for your holiday or your flight or
Speaker 4: books super last minute, so there are usually only four
Speaker 4: or fewer, which was wild seats per flight in premium
Speaker 4: cabins available and they go really quickly. Like remember when
Speaker 4: we were booking to go to the Uses and were
Speaker 4: points ACKed it. Yeah, we points hacked our way to
Speaker 4: the US and like just so you know, guys, we
Speaker 4: flew the whole team business class to the US and
Speaker 4: it was lovely. It was so nice, but it was
Speaker 4: because we were points hackers. But the way that we
Speaker 4: did that meant that, you know, we weren't on the
Speaker 4: most popular flight time, right, Like we all had to
Speaker 4: chat and we were like, okay, cool, Like we all
Speaker 4: want to fly business, we can be a little bit
Speaker 4: flexible on them. And we booked so far in advance
Speaker 4: that meant that we could. But then on our return
Speaker 4: flights we hadn't worked it out, so we booked super
Speaker 4: last minute and ended up getting business class. So I
Speaker 4: think it's really important to understand how the booking works
Speaker 4: because if you're like, oh, I might go in like
Speaker 4: a month, not going to lie to you, there's probably
Speaker 4: not going to be points flights available yep, or your
Speaker 4: points are not going to go that far because your
Speaker 4: points to upgrade or to go on that flight might
Speaker 4: be all of your points or completely astronomical and a
Speaker 4: really bad like exchange, if that makes sense, whereas the
Speaker 4: exchange that we did it was incredibly reasonable. So I
Speaker 4: would be making sure that you're either booking soon as
Speaker 4: the flights are released or getting ready to pounce like
Speaker 4: really last minute when the airlines actually just drop all
Speaker 4: of their unsold seats upgrades, So you know how people are, like,
Speaker 4: should I, and this is a guess, is a good question.
Speaker 4: Should I buy a flight with one hundred percent points?
Speaker 4: Or should I buy the flight and then upgrade with points?
Speaker 4: Usually upgrades are going to get you better value than
Speaker 4: full redemptions, and that's what we did. So we had
Speaker 4: normal flights that we upgraded with points. Otherwise it would
Speaker 4: have been astronomical. So if you already paid for like
Speaker 4: an economy seat, using your points to upgrade to business
Speaker 4: or premium economy often gives way more bang for your
Speaker 4: buck than using points to book the flight out right.
Speaker 4: And I have done this recently. I have a wedding
Speaker 4: in August. It is in Bali. I have booked flights,
Speaker 4: but the way that Steve and I did it, I
Speaker 4: booked economy flights and then we've just upgraded using points
Speaker 4: to fly business gorgeous. But I'm not going to pay
Speaker 4: for business class flights. Like, please don't get me wrong,
Speaker 4: I don't know at what point in my career I
Speaker 4: will be comfortable spending money like that amount of money
Speaker 4: on business class flights.
Speaker 2: Crazy, Like, at what point do you go?
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, ten thousand dollars is reasonable for flights.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's something that for me, I'm like, that's
Speaker 6: just something I could simply never afford until I started
Speaker 6: using points and I.
Speaker 5: Was like, oh, this is how people do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like even like and please don't get me wrong,
Speaker 4: I am not so silly to think that you're not
Speaker 4: looking at me and going Victoria. You absolutely could afford
Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars if you want to, Yes, and I
Speaker 4: am so grateful I can. That is a dumb financial
Speaker 4: decision on my behalf. I'm not doing it, like, I
Speaker 4: don't care how much money I have. I'm not wasting
Speaker 4: that much money on a flight. But you best believe
Speaker 4: my points will get me there. So if I don't
Speaker 4: want a business class flight, you best believe, girl, it's
Speaker 4: a flex because I've.
Speaker 2: Points hacked my way there.
Speaker 5: Incredible.
Speaker 4: The other thing I would say is consider using your
Speaker 4: points for accommodation instead of flights. So I was lucky
Speaker 4: enough that we had heaps of points when Steve and
Speaker 4: I did Europe. So we did Europe when Harvey was
Speaker 4: four months old, and we actually booked a heap of
Speaker 4: our accommodation subsidized with points, which ended up working so well.
Speaker 4: But another community member I saw in our Facebook group
Speaker 4: had shared that it worked out to be cheaper to
Speaker 4: pay cash for their flights to Europe and then they
Speaker 4: use their points to cover ten nights of accommodation in
Speaker 4: London and Barcelona. So flights aren't necessarily always the best value,
Speaker 4: especially when hotels in really big cities can be really
Speaker 4: really Expensive's great, have a look at that, because like
Speaker 4: I know that you and I are like, oh, business
Speaker 4: class so nice, But it's not always about just upgrading
Speaker 4: and having business class flights, Like sometimes I want my
Speaker 4: economy flights to be free, you know. Yeah, Like that's
Speaker 4: the biggest flex not spending money. And if you want
Speaker 4: to compare points to value, because like I'm all about
Speaker 4: a ratio here, we all know I'm an investing queen,
Speaker 4: points value to the cash price, right, so you know
Speaker 4: how I'm saying, Oh, it's not a good exchange. How
Speaker 4: do you work out your exchange rate? I've got a
Speaker 4: stat for you, per so before booking, I would divide
Speaker 4: the ticket cost by the number of points required. And
Speaker 4: if you're getting at least like one point five to
Speaker 4: two cents per point, that's a good deal. So I
Speaker 4: want it to be like one point five to two
Speaker 4: cents a point. I feel like that's a good deal.
Speaker 4: That's a good deal. If you want flexibility, I wouldn't
Speaker 4: limit yourself to just one airlines points either.
Speaker 2: Sorry.
Speaker 4: One of how She's on the Money community members actually
Speaker 4: shared that she prefers not to stick to just Quantus
Speaker 4: or Velocity. She actually collects both, like just re read
Speaker 4: she so that she has more options available across lots
Speaker 4: of different airlines and partners, and that honestly gives you
Speaker 4: a better shot at finding availability and sometimes better value
Speaker 4: for your points. And that's something to think about if
Speaker 4: that's important for you. So, if today has taught us anything, Jess,
Speaker 4: it's that you actually just don't need a fancy credit
Speaker 4: card to start collecting points, and you actually don't need
Speaker 4: six hundred duck buck points, like really don't if you
Speaker 4: want to make points work.
Speaker 6: For you totally, and the b reminder you are collecting
Speaker 6: the points, the points are not collecting you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like people get like real like caught up
Speaker 2: in it. And it's easy too.
Speaker 5: It's addictive, Like.
Speaker 4: I remember when you were like literally so close to
Speaker 4: having enough points for your stand mixer, which I think
Speaker 4: was your big first points purchase. Yeah, like say, this
Speaker 4: is genuinely something we talk about in our team all
Speaker 4: the time. And you were like, oh my god, the
Speaker 4: I'm like three hundred points away and you kept checking
Speaker 4: every day to see what was coming in because you've
Speaker 4: linked everything.
Speaker 2: You were like, surely, surely.
Speaker 5: Now, yeah, genuinely.
Speaker 6: Like we said earlier, the rewards can be amazing, but
Speaker 6: they only make sense if you're spending the money you
Speaker 6: are going to spend anyway exactly.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, I feel like that is a very
Speaker 4: good place to leave it. And ah, a very big
Speaker 4: thank you to our resident Points queen, Miss Grici, for
Speaker 4: sharing all of her tips and her tricks and genuinely
Speaker 4: iconic hacks, even though I don't agree with the fact
Speaker 4: that she drinks pepsi with us today. And guys, if
Speaker 4: you enjoyed today's chat and now you're low key planning
Speaker 4: on how to turn your grocery shop into a holiday
Speaker 4: or even a kitchen and stand mixer, make sure you
Speaker 4: follow or subscribe so that you don't miss out on
Speaker 4: our next episode. And hey, if you've got a wild
Speaker 4: points win or a stacking strategy that we need to
Speaker 4: know that we haven't covered today. Please drop it into
Speaker 4: the She's on the Money Facebook group to benefit the
Speaker 4: whole community because we are always here for a points
Speaker 4: hacking suggestion.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, we are see.
Speaker 2: You next week. Guys, I.
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