Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the
Speaker 2: Order KERNI Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: 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: Millennials who want to Financial Freedom. My name is Jessica
Speaker 4: Ricky and as always I am joining finance expert Victoria Devine.
Speaker 1: Hello is Jessicarig. How are you? You say your name
Speaker 1: really weird?
Speaker 3: Do I?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You don't say it correctly? Not Ricky.
Speaker 4: Come on, someone actually DMed me the other day. We
Speaker 4: went to school together and she's like, I didn't know
Speaker 4: that was how you said your name, And I'm like,
Speaker 4: I mean potato, potato, it's the same same. But if
Speaker 4: somebody calls me Victoria Devine, I get real salty. So
Speaker 4: I don't know how you don't get salty. And the
Speaker 4: fact that peer pressure has gotten you to a point
Speaker 4: where you literally just accept the wrong version of your
Speaker 4: name because it's easier. She's a doormat. What can we say?
Speaker 4: But today we're not talking about me. We are talking
Speaker 4: about points hacking, which is kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Is this real left field for she's on the money,
Speaker 1: I know. And it's not what you think.
Speaker 4: V It's not an episode about getting your rewards points stolen?
Speaker 1: Am I run? No, It is not about that.
Speaker 4: Albeit if you want to donate your Velocity points to me,
Speaker 4: you're more than welcome to. It's actually about maximizing the
Speaker 4: benefits of your points to get free stuff, which is
Speaker 4: obviously a money win for things like flights and upgrades
Speaker 4: and hotels and household goods and Jessica, you literally got
Speaker 4: a free entire kitchen aid. So we're gonna talk about that.
Speaker 1: We absolutely are.
Speaker 4: And with many of the biggest programs based around credit cards,
Speaker 4: I do want to preface something at the very top
Speaker 4: of this episode. We always, always, always say that credit
Speaker 4: cards are not for everybody. In fact, listen back to
Speaker 4: our most recent episode, it was on September twenty eighth,
Speaker 4: on the pros and cons of credit cards before going
Speaker 4: any further into this episode, because we're not here to
Speaker 4: promote you getting a credit card, but there are so
Speaker 4: many people in our community who have questions about points,
Speaker 4: and when you ask, we deliver.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
Speaker 4: So for those who are inclined and do want to
Speaker 4: know more, we know that tons of people in our
Speaker 4: community are always talking about the best way to leverage
Speaker 4: their points, which is what we're going to chat all
Speaker 4: about today. And look, it's not about changing what you buy,
Speaker 4: how much you spend, or signing up for something that
Speaker 4: you actually can't forward.
Speaker 1: We don't do that in this house. It is not
Speaker 1: an option.
Speaker 4: This is about looking at these systems to see if
Speaker 4: there's a way of them not only suiting you, but
Speaker 4: benefiting you. And today's an introduction to how some of
Speaker 4: these systems operate and where you can get more information. Now,
Speaker 4: these deals are changing all the time, so the best
Speaker 4: thing that you can actually do is just check yourself.
Speaker 4: We will link a few point hack sites that have
Speaker 4: really good information and cross comparisons of credit card perks
Speaker 4: and loyalty programs for you.
Speaker 1: These sites will also.
Speaker 4: List the top deals that they have found that run
Speaker 4: for a limited time. And we're going to look at
Speaker 4: the ways that you can earn points and break them
Speaker 4: down into some of the big things that you can
Speaker 4: use them on, so flights, online, shopping, hotel, loyalty programs,
Speaker 4: and we're going to look at flexible points, which really
Speaker 4: interests me. And then Jesse Garci in the second half
Speaker 4: of the show, we're also going to share your top
Speaker 4: point hacks that you sent in to us. Sounds great.
Speaker 4: Let's start by talking about those flexible points programs. What
Speaker 4: exactly are they? Okay, so simply flexible points programs, which
Speaker 4: actually is a mouthful to say, is a scheme where
Speaker 4: you earn points in a central account so later you
Speaker 4: can transfer the points to a range of different loyalty
Speaker 4: schemes such as frequent flyer programs, credits and gift cards.
Speaker 4: Most of the flexible programs in Australia are run by
Speaker 4: financial institutions like American Express Member Rewards and Z Rewards
Speaker 4: and City Rewards, but supermarket loyalty schemes like Woolworths Everyday
Speaker 4: Rewards and fly buyers are also flexible points programs, and
Speaker 4: each flexible points program has a transfer rate between their
Speaker 4: own points and their partner's points or miles, which actually
Speaker 4: lets you send your points over to a partner program
Speaker 4: at fixed rates whenever you want to. So, for example,
Speaker 4: Jess two Amex points actually transfers over to one Velocity points,
Speaker 4: so it's basically like a two to one ratio. And
Speaker 4: most frequent flyer programs themselves don't offer flexible points. Once
Speaker 4: you earn points in that program, you can't move your
Speaker 4: balance between other programs, which is what makes flexible wis
Speaker 4: wards program so appealing. Yeah, let's talk about one of
Speaker 4: my favorite kinds of points, which is the two major
Speaker 4: supermarkets and their programs with the two major airlines.
Speaker 1: So it's your favor though flybys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No Surprises, which just conveniently links to Virgin, which
Speaker 4: is our preference for flying, and then Willworth's Everyday Rewards
Speaker 4: which links to Quantests. Why have we got a preference
Speaker 4: for Virgin? I feel like I've been DMed this a
Speaker 4: lot of times just and it's literally just because the
Speaker 4: food in the lounge is better. They're really good, and
Speaker 4: I really like their This is so off topic, but
Speaker 4: they recently changed the uniform requirements to really inclusive, which
Speaker 4: I loved. I feel like that just really validated why
Speaker 4: we already flew with them, because people are just nicer,
Speaker 4: full stop.
Speaker 1: End of story. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 4: But that contract tell me about Flybys all right. So
Speaker 4: Flybys is a very big and very long standing loyalty
Speaker 4: program that actually connects Coles and Virgin Australia, but it
Speaker 4: actually has so many more partners like Bunning's and Kmart
Speaker 4: and literally basically everything under the sun from my perspective,
Speaker 4: Earning Flybys points allows you to redeem them for a
Speaker 4: whole heap of rewards. So these include transferring them to
Speaker 4: Velocity points, or discounts on your next coals shop or
Speaker 4: retail items that you buy from the Flybys store Jess,
Speaker 4: which you would know a fair bit about the value
Speaker 4: of the points is not equal when spending them in
Speaker 4: different places though, so there are a lot of people
Speaker 4: who do these, like points hacking websites where they tell
Speaker 4: you where you get the best bang for your buck
Speaker 4: and they are the highest when you use them for
Speaker 4: Virgin flights. The you go, yeah, but did you know
Speaker 4: the best part about all of this what it's free. Like,
Speaker 4: you don't even have to have a credit card to
Speaker 4: start collecting Flybys points. You literally just get a card
Speaker 4: and scan it every time you check out.
Speaker 1: That's a dream, It's actually a dream.
Speaker 4: And I think that so many people think that they
Speaker 4: need a credit card to have any type of rewards points.
Speaker 1: But jess, why did you get your.
Speaker 4: Free kitchen aid mixer because I shopped a cult But like,
Speaker 4: did you pay anything for it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: I used completely points, no credit card, no credit card,
Speaker 4: and no extra spending either. Tried and true. She just
Speaker 4: bought a whole heap of Ben and Jerry's. So then
Speaker 4: we've got Wilworths and Quantus and Everyday Rewards is the
Speaker 4: loyalty program of Wilworth Supermarkets BWS, Big w and Coltext,
Speaker 4: Willlworst Fuel and you earn points for each dollar spend,
Speaker 4: which can then later be redeemed for money off your
Speaker 4: Willworth's shop money win, or can be converted into Quantus points. Now,
Speaker 4: Everyday Rewards only has a few partners and set earn rates,
Speaker 4: so it's pretty simple and at the moment, you can
Speaker 4: get one point for every dollar that you spend at
Speaker 4: will War Supermarkets BAWS so participat in cowtexs and cowtext,
Speaker 4: Willworths outlets and big w and online. That sounded like
Speaker 4: an ad and it absolutely wasn't. None of this is sponsored.
Speaker 4: How amazing would it be if we got paid to
Speaker 4: talk about points? Oh my god, that would be like
Speaker 4: the ultimate points hack.
Speaker 1: Anyone knows?
Speaker 4: Someone hit us up fly Bys please, I'm your biggest fan.
Speaker 1: Literally.
Speaker 4: So with the everyday rewards as well, you get rewards
Speaker 4: at every two thousand reward points that you earn, and
Speaker 4: there are three different ways that you can actually redeem
Speaker 4: your reward so you can convert them to quantus points.
Speaker 4: You could get ten bucks off your next will wor
Speaker 4: shop bank the value to Christmas and get multiples of
Speaker 4: ten dollars off your shop from December onwards, which happens
Speaker 4: to be a very very popular one in our community.
Speaker 1: Jess.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Now, I'm a creature of habit and I generally like
Speaker 4: to shop at one supermarket, but I know a lot
Speaker 4: of people like to shop at multiples that they can
Speaker 4: get the best to deal.
Speaker 1: Literally, can't be bothered. Now I go.
Speaker 4: There is a coals and an Audi basically side by side.
Speaker 4: Swing into Audi, get all of my favorite things because
Speaker 4: as you know, you can only get the good small
Speaker 4: cucumbers at the AUDI.
Speaker 1: Of course, we need to pick up a.
Speaker 4: Bottle of La mule Rose, not sponsored, honest to god,
Speaker 4: just good, and then I go get everything else are
Speaker 4: in coals and we are done. Like, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to multiple too. So that's better than the average bear,
Speaker 4: I'd say, I think so. If that's the case, if
Speaker 4: people are shopping multiple places, is it a bit cheeky
Speaker 4: to sign up for multiple programs? Absolutely not, jess You've
Speaker 4: got to be in it to win it. And if
Speaker 4: it was me, I would be signing up to all
Speaker 4: of the different programs that are offered by different places
Speaker 4: and just picking and choosing the offers that work for you. Honestly,
Speaker 4: from my perspective, I think so too. And a little
Speaker 4: pro tip from one Flybys user to another. If you
Speaker 4: have a Flybys card and you don't use it for
Speaker 4: a few months, generally speaking, you'll get a special loyalty
Speaker 4: prompt where it's like, spend seventy dollars in store and
Speaker 4: you get four thousand points to get you to come back.
Speaker 1: Oh that's genius.
Speaker 4: But like you would never know about that, Jessica, because
Speaker 4: you literally always use your flybys points. And do you
Speaker 4: know what happens guys? When we check out and she's
Speaker 4: with me and I don't have my card, she takes
Speaker 4: my points, not even sorry about it. But let's go
Speaker 4: to a really quick break, and when we come back,
Speaker 4: I want to talk through flights because I feel like
Speaker 4: that's something a lot of people that's interested to here for,
Speaker 4: which is why we put it on the second side
Speaker 4: of the episode. Just it's called hook in the industry.
Speaker 1: Smart from us. Don't go anywhere, guys, We'll see you
Speaker 1: in a minute.
Speaker 4: All right, thanks for sticking around, everybody. Let's chat all
Speaker 4: things flights, Victoria. You just mentioned flights as a reward
Speaker 4: for supermarket loyalty and flexible points programs, But how do
Speaker 4: the loyalty programs that are specifically for airlines work.
Speaker 1: So flights are.
Speaker 4: A major across the board incentive for all of the
Speaker 4: programs that we are actually looking today, especially credit cards sadly,
Speaker 4: which are coming up next. But let's look into the
Speaker 4: airlines thing. So, frequent flyer programs are a massive source
Speaker 4: of revenue for airlines. In some cases, frequent flyer programs
Speaker 4: are more profitable than the actual airline itself. That's crazy, yeah,
Speaker 4: crazy right. The way frequent flyer programs make their money
Speaker 4: is by selling the points to companies who will then
Speaker 4: use them the points as a marketing tool to get
Speaker 4: you the consumer to use their service or buy their product.
Speaker 4: So if you and you to the points hacking game,
Speaker 4: your first step is to join a free frequent flyer program.
Speaker 4: So you need to decide which frequent flyer program you
Speaker 4: want to align yourself with. In Australia there are two
Speaker 4: main ones, so we've got Quantus Frequent Flyer and Velocity
Speaker 4: Frequent Flyer, which is with Virgin Australia. Arguably I wouldn't
Speaker 4: be signing up for both because flights are expensive, Jess.
Speaker 4: And then you're just dividing the ability to get to
Speaker 4: a higher status sooner.
Speaker 1: But you do, you boo.
Speaker 4: It's free and easy to join Virgin Australia and if
Speaker 4: you go on the Quantus website, it will tell you
Speaker 4: that it's ninety nine dollars fifty as a fee to
Speaker 4: sign up, but there are many different ways that you
Speaker 4: can actually join for free. There are some links in
Speaker 4: our show notes. You're welcome and if you've forgotten, just
Speaker 4: google it. It is very very easy. Yeah, there are
Speaker 4: definitely tons of airlines out there, though not just in
Speaker 4: Australia that probably have programs that might benefit us as well. Right, Yes,
Speaker 4: And we have just recently reached the benefits of this ourselves, Jess,
Speaker 4: when we went to the US for work, and so
Speaker 4: we're not here all day. We're just going to really
Speaker 4: focus on Quantus and Virgin in this episode. But there
Speaker 4: are obviously lots and lots of different airlines that have
Speaker 4: lots of good opportunities for Australians to earn and transfer points.
Speaker 4: But remember when we traveled, Virgin had so many partner
Speaker 4: airlines that if we had lounge access with Virgin, we
Speaker 4: would get it somewhere else in a big capital airport.
Speaker 4: So money win from my perspective, absolutely, Now, if I
Speaker 4: can't afford to fly, or if I maybe just don't
Speaker 4: fly all that often, isn't it a bit of a
Speaker 4: waste of time joining.
Speaker 1: A frequent flyer program? Haha?
Speaker 4: You might think so, But there are actually so many
Speaker 4: opportunities to collect points without flying. You can actually boost
Speaker 4: your frequent flyer balance pretty fast, Jess. In fact, it
Speaker 4: is actually possible to earn hundreds of thousands of miles
Speaker 4: per year without ever flying or setting foot into the sky,
Speaker 4: and you don't even need to spend points on those
Speaker 4: flights either. You do this by making your purchases through
Speaker 4: either the Quantus Shopping website or the Velocity Eastore portal
Speaker 4: or wherever the equivalent of the program's online stories. If
Speaker 4: you've been using our friends at shop back, then these
Speaker 4: actually work pretty similarly with both Quantus Shopping and Velocity
Speaker 4: E stores. You can actually just go to the homepage,
Speaker 4: log in, click on the retailer that you want to
Speaker 4: shop at, and you'll be told how many points you
Speaker 4: have per dollar, and then you'll be redirected to the
Speaker 4: retailer through the loyalty program's portal.
Speaker 1: It's honestly really easy. You then complete your.
Speaker 4: Purchase as normal and make sure once you've checked out,
Speaker 4: you sit tight wait for a few weeks for the
Speaker 4: points to transfer to credit and your stuff to arrive
Speaker 4: in your mailbox. You're locked mailbox after last week's episode.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Now can you run me through VD?
Speaker 4: What are the affiliated airlines that you can get points
Speaker 4: through with quantusm Virgin There are a fairview so Quantus
Speaker 4: you can earn in redeem points with airlines. For example,
Speaker 4: you can do it with Emirates, Cathe Pacific and American airlines,
Speaker 4: as well as a whole heap of non airline partners.
Speaker 4: And then Virgin they partner with airlines like Singapore Airlines,
Speaker 4: Eddie Had and Delta.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Incredible. Now let's get into it.
Speaker 4: Arguably the biggest rewards scheme out their credit cards. And
Speaker 4: again we're just giving you a really brief overview and
Speaker 4: then you can go and do your own research, because
Speaker 4: we're definitely not recommending that you get a credit card
Speaker 4: just for points, because not only do you need to
Speaker 4: make sure that choosing a credit card aligned with your values,
Speaker 4: but the offers available and the nuancewers of how they
Speaker 4: work and how long they're available for are all so
Speaker 4: specific and they change constantly depending on the card. But
Speaker 4: there are some unif buying themes out there that we
Speaker 4: can touch on right there. Yeah, of course, so we
Speaker 4: won't really talk about the specific cards, but more what
Speaker 4: they generally offer and how they work. So most banks
Speaker 4: and credit card companies will try and compete in the
Speaker 4: market to win you over by offering really big sign
Speaker 4: up points. You've probably seen it before, like sign up
Speaker 4: and spend X y Z in your first three months
Speaker 4: and you get like one hundred and fifty thousand points,
Speaker 4: which is just worth a return trip to New York.
Speaker 4: Like it's really interesting, also really sexy. But this means
Speaker 4: that you can also earn hundreds of thousands of Frequent
Speaker 4: Flyer points with a single sign up, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of a money win if you're already going to do that.
Speaker 4: So if you're looking at a credit card and you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I just really don't know what one to go with,
Speaker 4: like maybe look at the features and benefits of systems
Speaker 4: like this that could actually help you with a goal
Speaker 4: that you're working towards anyway, Like if you've got a
Speaker 4: New York trip on your goal list, maybe that's something
Speaker 4: that can get you there quicker. They also often offer,
Speaker 4: depending on the level of the card, either free ongoing
Speaker 4: lounge access or several passes per year. So I know,
Speaker 4: through the Quan credit cards, like they absolutely give you
Speaker 4: a few passes per year if you've gotten AMEX. Usually
Speaker 4: it's just unlimited access for you and a partner, which
Speaker 4: is kind of cool if you fly all the time,
Speaker 4: and that's a value to you. Some offer money for
Speaker 4: free flights and dining, and some offer insurance and other
Speaker 4: perks like phone screen replacements and reduced or free account
Speaker 4: fees for the first year, or they offer cash back,
Speaker 4: which is obviously a great money win. Plus points of course,
Speaker 4: don't have to be used just on flying, Like you
Speaker 4: literally bought a kitchen aid mixer for your kitchen during lockdown,
Speaker 4: you know, like we didn't need to fly anywhere, and
Speaker 4: she's still reaping the benefits absolutely. So let's say I've
Speaker 4: done my research, I'm like, oh, i want to go
Speaker 4: to New York, and I've decided that signing up for
Speaker 4: a credit card works for my budget and my lifestyle,
Speaker 4: and I want to get into the whole points hacking thing.
Speaker 4: What do I need to be keeping in mind?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 4: So the first thing that question gives me mad anxiety
Speaker 4: because I feel like so many times people are like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm going to do it so I can budget and
Speaker 4: cash flow better, and then it just doesn't work out
Speaker 4: so well. So we need to be really, really really cautious,
Speaker 4: and we need to make sure that we stay in
Speaker 4: control of our finances and our budget. So we are
Speaker 4: going to prioritize our budget and cash flow and paying
Speaker 4: everything off and only putting really necessary purchases on a card.
Speaker 4: It's really really easy, and I feel like I'm just
Speaker 4: getting a bit randy here, but it's really easy to overspend.
Speaker 4: So it is honestly so vital that you know what
Speaker 4: you can afford and you pay your credit card balance
Speaker 4: in full every single month and you're not spending beyond
Speaker 4: your means. So if you are, and you are a
Speaker 4: responsible human adult, which I am not, jes A GRICI,
Speaker 4: you could choose to spend every single dollar on your
Speaker 4: card and then transfer from your account to pay that
Speaker 4: balance off in time. You can also put it on
Speaker 4: direct debit so it happens automatically, so you don't even
Speaker 4: have to remember. It will just you know, if you
Speaker 4: spend five hundred dollars on groceries this month, it will
Speaker 4: automatically pay it off. Or every time you spend on
Speaker 4: your credit card, you could actually just log in and
Speaker 4: pay that amount off so that you are, you know,
Speaker 4: making sure that you're aoka and all good, but it
Speaker 4: kind of keeps you accountable to make sure that with
Speaker 4: each purchase you actually have that cash there to transfer immediately.
Speaker 4: And if you set that system up it's very unlikely
Speaker 4: that if you transfer for every single purchase, ever, you're
Speaker 4: very unlikely to put yourself in a position where it's
Speaker 4: getting beyond your control. So by doing this, it makes
Speaker 4: sure that you're not paying any interest Jess. It's basically
Speaker 4: like shooting yourself in the foot, because if you're paying
Speaker 4: interest on a card where you're collecting frequent flyer points,
Speaker 4: it's probably going to render them absolutely useless. You'll also
Speaker 4: want to make sure that you're using the right card
Speaker 4: for the right transaction, so that you get the maximum
Speaker 4: points for every single dollar that you spend. I can
Speaker 4: imagine you just getting down and like calculating what is
Speaker 4: the best card to use and when at what period
Speaker 4: of year, and what benefits you're going to get, and
Speaker 4: what value and bonus there is.
Speaker 1: I just personally, not my circus.
Speaker 4: Not my monkey's. Like, I know people do it, I
Speaker 4: know people enjoy it. I just don't have the time, energy,
Speaker 4: your effort for it. But for example, some cards will
Speaker 4: actually pay you one point five points per dollar if
Speaker 4: you're shopping at a super market. Well, others might only
Speaker 4: pay zero point five, So you want to be shopping
Speaker 4: with the one point five Yeah, exactly, and Jess would
Speaker 4: be all over that. Another thing that I have looked
Speaker 4: at before is check out pointshack dot com dot au,
Speaker 4: where there is honestly a great cross comparison of all
Speaker 4: of the credit cards that are out there. It shows
Speaker 4: you a whole heap of different offers that are available
Speaker 4: from like American Express and Visa and MasterCard and branded
Speaker 4: credit cards, along with a whole heap of in debth
Speaker 4: guides to each of the cards and the benefits and
Speaker 4: some of the cons And I have a final little
Speaker 4: sneaky hot tip for you, miss just Gricci. Next time
Speaker 4: you're out, pick up the tap tell me more. Well,
Speaker 4: your friends will think you're fantastic because you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: don't worry, I'll pop it on my card and we'll
Speaker 4: work it out later obviously, then get them to repay
Speaker 4: you in cash and you walk away with the points.
Speaker 2: Gene.
Speaker 1: Yes, actually you mentioned that.
Speaker 4: I have a couple of friends who I reckon a're
Speaker 4: doing exactly and I'm not mad about it. I don't
Speaker 4: want to pay for a five hundred or a tab
Speaker 4: on my card and they're so happy to do it.
Speaker 4: It takes the stress out of it for everyone. Because
Speaker 4: we just figure it out you know later, who over
Speaker 4: you want. I've got to make sure that you've got
Speaker 4: trustworthy friends, because like offering to pick up the tab,
Speaker 4: like if I did that with you, I know I'm
Speaker 4: gonna get paid back.
Speaker 1: It's yes, she's good for it. She's not a douche.
Speaker 4: But you know, those friends, I don't know if you've
Speaker 4: still got them, but I left them all behind in
Speaker 4: university where it'd be like, oh, you owe me ten
Speaker 4: dollars because I picked up your XYZ and they're like,
Speaker 4: oh yeah, yeah, I'll get to it.
Speaker 1: I'll get to it. They never get to.
Speaker 4: It, and then I get awkward and then I stop
Speaker 4: talking about it, and yeah, anyway, yeah, And if you
Speaker 4: pick up ten dollars for ten friends, that's one hundred
Speaker 4: dollars that yell and it.
Speaker 1: Just adds up.
Speaker 4: I think that you're a little bit like me, where
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I just grab it, few no worries,
Speaker 4: like there needs to be some ebb and flow here,
Speaker 4: And I feel like there are some people out there
Speaker 4: that you would not pick up the tab for. So
Speaker 4: it's a good tip if you've got wholesome friends, all right,
Speaker 4: talk to me VD about hotel rewards programs. Okay, so
Speaker 4: again there are so many here, but to capture the
Speaker 4: gist of this. Hotel loyalty programs are often useful to
Speaker 4: look at and engage with, as they are usually more
Speaker 4: flexible than frequent flyer programs by allowing you to train
Speaker 4: for the points out to a range of different frequent
Speaker 4: Flyer partners, so you'll be able to redeem the points
Speaker 4: for hotel stays or credit for future travel. And Jess,
Speaker 4: we travel a fair bit and we usually stay in
Speaker 4: the same hotels, so it doesn't matter which state or
Speaker 4: territory we were in. We usually just pick the same
Speaker 4: branded hotel one because I have a point system with them,
Speaker 4: and it's just easier to we know what we're going
Speaker 4: to get, Like yeah, just you and I. We're creatures
Speaker 4: of habits, so we don't actually want to try a
Speaker 4: new fancy hotel. Usually we just want the tried, true,
Speaker 4: and tested. But because we do that and we've stayed
Speaker 4: so many different times at different places, we often get
Speaker 4: like welcome drinks, like we're going on a holiday instead
Speaker 4: of a work trip. We often get room upgrades or
Speaker 4: like do you know how they always leave like chocolates.
Speaker 2: In our room.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's so good. Ten out of ten.
Speaker 4: Oh irish yet Va, you actually did that recently, didn't
Speaker 4: you? You transferred points out of your hotel for our FLA.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 4: And then reason I did that was because when we
Speaker 4: travel for work, and this is like very niche. It
Speaker 4: might work for some people, it might not work for
Speaker 4: other people, but when we travel, Jess, for work, it's
Speaker 4: obviously a work expense, so like I can deduct the
Speaker 4: tax off that, but you know what, I can't deduct
Speaker 4: the tax off my honeymoon. So I'm a transfer those
Speaker 4: points out and then pay for my honeymoon flights, which
Speaker 4: are business class flights that I have gotten literally entirely
Speaker 4: on points to and from our honeymoon location, because like
Speaker 4: that's just a money win, Jess.
Speaker 1: That is now I have free flights.
Speaker 4: And it didn't make sense to like spend all of
Speaker 4: the points on work stuff if I can transfer it
Speaker 4: out newsic personally, because otherwise I would have had to
Speaker 4: pay a fair bit per dollar that we earned in tax.
Speaker 4: So I'd worked it all out. I felt very just Goorichi,
Speaker 4: that is a straight genius. And before we skid out off,
Speaker 4: I thought I'd share a few other hot tips that
Speaker 4: we got.
Speaker 1: From the shees in the money community.
Speaker 4: Genius are arguably a lot smarter than us, honest, sorry,
Speaker 4: sometimes they just run rings around us. Remember that time
Speaker 4: we spoke to a moneyed diarist who worked out that
Speaker 4: she got like five points per transaction, So she broke
Speaker 4: her bill up into like one cent increments and made
Speaker 4: that algorithm to just like transfer one cent till her
Speaker 4: bill was paid. Yes, a genius Like here, I am
Speaker 4: thinking I'm a wizard because I transferred my Hotel points
Speaker 4: to pay for a flight, and she's out here being
Speaker 4: like you were basic.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: Well, our first hot tip comes from Anne, who said
Speaker 4: time getting a credit card with a big bonus points reward.
Speaker 4: So like you were saying before, where you sign up
Speaker 4: and spend x amount time that with an upcoming large
Speaker 4: expense like your red Joe.
Speaker 1: Oh smart, or like your insurance is a jew or.
Speaker 4: Something, So you hit that minimum spend really easily. It's
Speaker 4: not a lot of addmin work for you, and you
Speaker 4: don't have to go out of your way to spend
Speaker 4: more money smart, What else have you got? This feels
Speaker 4: like a Friday Drinks money win edition.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 4: Next one is meet the minimum spend, earn the points,
Speaker 4: and then call and cancel the card, And a lot
Speaker 4: of the times you'll be able to get your annual
Speaker 4: fee refunded.
Speaker 1: What the heck? Why would you? That sounds dodgy, But
Speaker 1: like I know, it's completely fine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think it would a lot of the
Speaker 4: times be done incrementally. If you've signed up for the
Speaker 4: card and you had to pay every three months, for example,
Speaker 4: to get your sign up bonus, and you close your
Speaker 4: card after the three months, I think a lot of
Speaker 4: companies would maybe just go ahead and refund the difference,
Speaker 4: so if you're not using the card for another nine months,
Speaker 4: you get the nine months back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: And the other thing I'd say there though, is just
Speaker 4: obviously I've got my little finance hat on, and I
Speaker 4: get a little bit angsty with things like this. If
Speaker 4: you're planning on signing up to credit cards and then
Speaker 4: canceling them just for points, I'd be really cautious of
Speaker 4: your credit report and your credit score, because that is
Speaker 4: not a good thing. Like a lot of turnover on
Speaker 4: your credit report is not that sexy. And if you're
Speaker 4: going for a mortgage or you need finance, like, that's
Speaker 4: maybe not the best idea you've ever had, something really
Speaker 4: really good to keep in mind. Our next tip says,
Speaker 4: I get a new Quantus Frequent Flyer card every year
Speaker 4: because I look at the sign up fee versus the
Speaker 4: amount of points that I get in bonus, and so
Speaker 4: they've obviously worked out that it's better for them cost
Speaker 4: wise to spend that money again but get a larger
Speaker 4: bonus secondary time.
Speaker 1: Yes, smart, I know, very clever.
Speaker 4: I feel like by doing that as well, you might
Speaker 4: also be able to take advantage of I know that
Speaker 4: when I signed up for my insurance, I got free
Speaker 4: access to the Quantus Frequent fire program, So you might
Speaker 4: be able to stack things that way so that you
Speaker 4: don't pay the fee and you get a sexy sign
Speaker 4: up bonus. To be honest, I don't think Conscious are
Speaker 4: going to be all of that happy with me. But
Speaker 4: if you google Quantus Frequent Flyer sign Up Free, it
Speaker 4: usually comes up with a discount code. Oh I didn't
Speaker 4: give you that information on this podcast.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: And the very last tip that we have here is
Speaker 4: from Aaron and she says that she follows a lot
Speaker 4: of credit card hacking groups and websites like the points
Speaker 4: hack one because people share up to date tips and
Speaker 4: tricks there all the time.
Speaker 1: Like we said, it's always changing.
Speaker 4: So if you're somewhere where you're seeing it all the time,
Speaker 4: you're thinking about Facebook groups for this stuff, Jess, people
Speaker 4: get obsessed over it. It's like the came up Mum's
Speaker 4: Facebook groups. They go off points hacking exactly the same.
Speaker 4: And some of these points hacking websites have like comment
Speaker 4: sections and forums, and like, if you really want to
Speaker 4: get really deep, you absolutely can. I mean, the one
Speaker 4: thing I would say to wrap this episode though, Jess,
Speaker 4: is just be really careful that you're not spending beyond
Speaker 4: your means and you're not signing up for things that
Speaker 4: are gonna put you in a compromising position in the
Speaker 4: long term, because nobody ever signs up to a credit
Speaker 4: card with the intention of getting insignificant debt that they
Speaker 4: can't get on top of. Like, no one is going
Speaker 4: to do that because that just sounds silly, right, Like
Speaker 4: I'm not going to be like, hey, just have this
Speaker 4: credit card, it's really going to ruin your life, and
Speaker 4: then you're gonna have this debt that's going to take
Speaker 4: you more than seven years to pay back. You'd be like, no,
Speaker 4: thank you, Victoria. That sounds terrible. Yeah, So I think
Speaker 4: we need to just really reflect on our thoughts, our values,
Speaker 4: our beliefs, and our behaviors and whether a credit card
Speaker 4: is going to work. But as we covered in this episode,
Speaker 4: there are a whole heap of points programs that you
Speaker 4: can sign up to that don't require a credit card.
Speaker 4: And maybe that's more akin to you, or maybe you
Speaker 4: want to go the whole hog and have absolutely everything
Speaker 4: you do you booth. Well, I'm gonna put a thread
Speaker 4: in the Facebook group today, so go check it out
Speaker 4: where you can share your top tips and tricks four
Speaker 4: points hacking if you have any to share.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's gonna be a fun thread. That's
Speaker 1: I want to know.
Speaker 4: It's gonna put me to shame. I'm going to be
Speaker 4: like remember that time I got flights for my honeymoon
Speaker 4: business class for free and they're like, Babe, that was
Speaker 4: to Queensland.
Speaker 1: I got them to New York. I'll sit down the
Speaker 1: back buye.
Speaker 4: Speaking of the Facebook group, if you're not a member,
Speaker 4: we would love for you to come and join us.
Speaker 4: The community shares tips and tricks every single day, free
Speaker 4: of judgment, and you can search She's on the Money
Speaker 4: on Facebook to join us. If Facebook's not your thing,
Speaker 4: We're on Instagram. It's cute, it's educational, it's a great
Speaker 4: time where She's on the Money a US.
Speaker 1: Don't forget.
Speaker 4: Lastly, if you enjoyed the app, leave us a review,
Speaker 4: give us a rating, a star, I love a star.
Speaker 4: I was that child, and we'll put your rewards shot
Speaker 4: back on the fridge next week.
Speaker 1: Jo oh my god. Please, But I think that's about
Speaker 1: it for today.
Speaker 4: All from us today, See you later, guys, fine, happy
Speaker 4: points hacking. The advice shared on She's on the Money
Speaker 4: is general in nature and does not consider.
Speaker 1: Your individual circumstances.
Speaker 4: She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and
Speaker 4: should not be relied upon to make an investment or
Speaker 4: financial decision.
Speaker 1: If you do choose to buy a financial product.
Speaker 4: Read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored
Speaker 4: towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money
Speaker 4: are authorized representatives of Money sheper Pty Ltd ABN three
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