re: Just got a rewards CC.. what are the best ways to get to your intro rewards goal?

Do they send the refund monthly? If not then there’s no reason to not pull it out of escrow. Otherwise I’d be waiting a whole year to get the refund.

quote:

---

I don't escrow. But I can see what he is doing and the benefit for points.

---

Still wondering why he has an escrow.

I get 4-6 new cards a year. Every other year I get a Southwest personal and business in November. I make sure to hit the spend on both in January so I get the most out of the companion pass. I usually pay my homeowners policy to meet the spend on one of the cards in January. Policy is due in March. I then wait a couple of weeks and call my mortgage company and tell them I paid the insurance by mistake. They either send me a refund then or when my escrow fund “rebalances” each year in March and shows an overage. I just leave it in escrow because I’m too lazy to go through the process and I don’t always need or think about prepaying the insurance. I just use it mostly when spend is needed to get a bonus. My business insurance is due in November and insurance on rental house I don’t have mortgage on is also available to charge during the year.

quote:

---

You don’t have to pull your house out of escrow to pay insurance. I just pay the policy early and mortgage company sends me a refund.

---

If you can get out of escrow that money gets to sit in a savings account at 5% right now vs 0% in your escrow.

quote:

---

They do not. I purchase the CD on the first day of the statement period. I'm not paying off that purchase for another 60 days.

---

That’s good to know. I’d never considered this before. Just to scalp a bit of interest, I’ve taken 0% loan offers and stuck the funds in CDs and/or bills. Nothing life changing… more about the satisfaction of using the bank’s money to earn some zero risk dollars.

So I’ll look into what you’ve mentioned here. Thanks.

quote:

---

No, you'd be shocked how many people get. 4-6 a year is very mild.

---

I got a new AMEX a few months ago and they did a hard credit pull and my credit score went down 20 pts

It's creeping right back up to where it was though.

Yeah. Looking at Reddit churning I’m less than rookie. I just do it enough to get 2-3 cheap vacations a year. Like someone else said it’s not free vacations by any means but just cheaper than not using any points at all. I think the biggest issue people have is not planning way ahead. I get points with no specific plan on how to use them. Then when my wife comes up with a travel idea I look at all the different points I have and see best way to get hotels, airline tickets, etc. As far as my credit score, my credit never falls below 790. And business cards don’t result in pulls on personal credit.

quote:

---

think the biggest issue people have is not planning way ahead. I get points with no specific plan on how to use them

---

Preach. It's not rocket science when airline and hotel prices increase in Europe when school is out. It's on ITA Matrix, and easily seen based on years of data. Do you run the risk of getting rained out in Northern Europe a few days. Yeah, but everyone can just keep flying to Cancun and pretending they've won at life (no offense if that's what you do.) Everytime the school district sends out calendar preferences, I'm hardcore "get us the F out of school as fast as possible so I can take advantage of shoulder season," with less cost.

Just a thought, why don't you come up with a couple of travel ideas a year, rather than let your wife get run by Instagram algorithms and influencers?