For our trip to Portugal, my wife and I flew business class to Europe. Two tickets cost us 160,000 points. Paying cash, that flight would have been somewhere around $12,000.
I would never pay that. But I didn't have to, and neither do most people. That's what gets me about credit card points. They're sitting there, and most people either aren't collecting them or aren't using the ones they already have.
I'm an accountant, so numbers come pretty naturally to me. But I didn't start out knowing any of this, and I'm convinced almost anyone can get good at it faster than they think.
I Didn't Start Out Knowing Any of This
When I left for college, I got my first credit card. I was super scared of messing up my credit, so I'd pay it off in full right after I bought anything. It was a Discover card earning cash back, and I still have it today for my credit history.
That habit is still the foundation of everything I do. Everything in this article assumes you're paying your balances in full every month and not spending more than you normally would just to earn points.
Once I started traveling, I got the United card because I didn't want to pay for checked bags. That was the whole reason. Then I started picking up little tricks. I'd keep the United card for a couple of years, close it, and open a new one to get the sign-up bonus again. I used 60,000 of those points to book my first flight to Europe and thought, this is awesome.
For about eight years, the only points I ever had were United points. Nothing else.
Then my brain started going: if I could do this without really trying, what could I do if I actually learned more? I started reading blogs and articles. The Points Guy is honestly how I got going. And I made mistakes. At one point I had about 600,000 Chase Sapphire points, and during COVID Chase offered a 50% bonus if you redeemed them toward your balance. I thought, cool, I'll do that. Looking back, I could have made those points worth ten times more.
I really only got serious around 2022. Before that, I had never flown business class in my life. Since then I've flown it probably ten times, to places like Japan and Europe, and I booked my entire honeymoon on points. I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it because it took about four years, not twenty. It's so much easier to learn this stuff now.
It's a lot like building a business. In the beginning you don't really know what you're doing, you're figuring it out. Then it gets easier, you build systems around it, and eventually you have strategies.
One Card Isn't a Strategy
The biggest misconception I see is that people think they're supposed to have one credit card. I think that's crazy, because there are so many cards with so many great benefits.
If you fly United a lot but also fly American a lot, have a United card and an American card. It's not that big of a deal. I have around sixteen cards.
Here's why it matters. The sign-up bonus is where you really get your points, unless you spend a ton of money, which I don't. A typical card earns one point per dollar. So you can spend $100,000 to earn 100,000 points, or you can get a sign-up bonus that gives you 100,000 points. That adds up a lot over time.
You don't need to open sixteen cards at once, either. I think one new card a year is very manageable. For business owners, timing helps. Tax software is our biggest expense, so if I'm going to open a new business card, I'll do it about a month before that payment comes out and hit the spending requirement with money I was already going to spend.
As for credit, the impact of opening or closing cards really varies by person. In my case it's been small, and I try not to close cards. When I do, I'll usually downgrade to a no-annual-fee version instead. Over time, having several cards that you pay on time can help show lenders you're responsible. But if your credit is already in rough shape, new applications can hit you harder, so know where you stand before you start.
Match the Card to the Person
"It's kind of like when I do tax advisory. I can't just give you generic tax advice. Every person's different."
There's no one credit card that's good for every person. If you dine out a lot, get a card that earns three or four times points on dining. People get the Amex Platinum, but it only earns one point on most purchases. The Amex Gold earns four times on dining. Once you set that up, every meal earns four times instead of one, and you never have to think about it again.
My own system is pretty simple at the base. I use my United card at United, my Marriott card at Marriott, my Hilton card at Hilton. The branded cards always make sense at their own brands.
For someone who says, "Nick, this is way over my head," I recommend the Capital One Venture X. That's the one I told my mom to get. You earn two times points on everything: a couch, dinner, gas, advertising for your business. A lot of cards only earn one times, so you're getting double without thinking about it.
On the other end, the complex stuff is what I love. For Portugal, I transferred my Amex points to Iberia, a Spanish airline, during a promotion that gave me 30% more points. Then I found a good deal on the flight and booked the hotels with credits from my different cards. It sounds complicated, but when you do it every year, it's pretty easy.
The Annual Fee Question
People always ask about annual fees. Sixteen cards with fees can add up, sure. But if you actually use the perks, they almost always outweigh the fee.
I've done two presentations on credit cards now, and I always show the breakdown. My Amex Delta card comes with a buy-one-get-one flight. Christine and I booked a flight to Florida at $650 a ticket, and one was free. The annual fee is $350. So I made $300, and that's just one benefit. The card also has a Resy credit and a Lyft credit.
I do analyze my cards. If I'm losing money, or even just breaking even, I'll close it. In my head, I need to actually make money. I wouldn't get a card with a $300 fee that gives me $300 back. I need a $300 fee that gives me $600 or $900.
Start With the Cards Already in Your Wallet
Because everyone knows I'm into credit cards, when I go to accounting conferences I'll see what people have in their wallets. I'll ask, "You have that card, do you use this and this?" And they say no, they didn't even know about it. That happens literally every time.
So if you take one thing from this, look at the benefits of the cards you already have. The Marriott card, for example, gives you $25 toward dining every month, but if you don't use it, it just disappears. It doesn't carry forward. The Amex Platinum gives you dining credits every quarter plus hotel credits every year. Most people don't use all of their benefits, and that's what the banks are banking on.
If you only have one card and want a second, I'd start with an airline card, as long as you fly. It's usually around a $95 annual fee and you get free checked bags, so it's actually saving you money. That's low-hanging fruit. (I never travel with just a carry-on. If I get free bags, I'm using them.)
Once you see how easy that was, you can think about whether something like the Amex Platinum or a premium hotel card makes sense for you. I have the United Club card, which costs more, but I can go into the lounge and get breakfast, lunch, or dinner depending on the time, have a drink, and bring someone with me. I love that. Other people just want to get to the airport and get on the plane, so it wouldn't be a big sell for them. That's the whole point. It depends on you.
Think of Points Like Currencies
"If you have points, it's like having currency, and you have ten times your currency if you just use it right."
Most people have one card, or one family of cards: all Chase, or all Amex. I think of points like currencies. There are the big banks, Capital One, Amex, Chase, and Citi, and then there are the airline and hotel programs. Some are more valuable than others depending on what you're booking.
They also transfer to different partners. Amex points can go to Delta but not United. Chase can go to United but not Delta. That's where it starts getting confusing, but it's not terrible. A quick Google search will tell you. I have a lot of it memorized, but I still look things up all the time.
One last thing, and it's a pet peeve of mine: if you're applying for a card and you know someone with that card, ask for their referral. If Chase is offering you 75,000 points, you still get your 75,000 through my referral, and Chase gives me points on top of that. It comes from the bank, not from you. People tell me all the time, "Nick, that was such a great idea, I applied for the Chase card," and I'm thinking, why didn't you tell me? To me, that's throwing money in the garbage. (Occasionally a referral offer is lower than the public one. If it is, skip the referral.)
The best part for me isn't even the points. It's when someone texts me from a Chase lounge saying how cool it is and that they never would have known about it. That's the fun of it. Once you learn it, it really does feel like a game. You just have to start playing.
Connect with Nick
Nick is a CPA, EA, and co-owner of Boscia & Boscia PC, and through his brand TheBalancedCPA he's all about proving that a great accounting career and a life full of travel can go hand in hand. Whether you want to talk firm modernization or which card should be in your wallet, he's well worth a follow on LinkedIn.