You know what it’s like when you go on vacation. You use your credit card to book your hotel and your airline ticket, and of course, you go shopping. It’s all fun and games until you come home to a giant credit card bill to pay off. You suddenly develop a case of the post-vacation blues. This can all be avoided if you use your credit card and rewards points wisely. Let me show you how!
The first rule of thumb is HOTEL LOYALTY. My husband and I have a Marriott rewards card, so we try to stay at Marriott when we travel. As a result, it’s not difficult for us to build up enough points to redeem for hotel rewards. When my girlfriend invited us to spend New Year’s Eve in Florida, I knew there was a Ritz Carleton resort there featuring the Tiburon Golf Course as well as free access to their beach resort. It’s simply unbelievable. My husband could golf and I could enjoy the beach — $450 per night. Luckily, we had enough rewards points for FREE night!
Always look and ask for special opportunities. On a whim, my husband asked the hotel staff about other ways to earn hotel rewards points. This is when he discovered they had a promotion offering 50,000 points simply for opening a new Marriott MasterCard – no minimum purchase and no strings attached. BAM! Another FREE night! Our hotel bill went from $900 to FREE!
The second rule is to know the perks connected to your credit card. Sometimes we don’t realize the extras connected to our credit cards. For example, when we booked our trip to Florida, we used an airline credit card that allowed us to check our bags and golf clubs for FREE. That was a savings of $120. In addition, we used the 12,000 points on our card toward the cost of the tickets – another savings of $130. This brought the cost of our flight down to $630.
The savings don’t end here. Let me tell you more!
The third rule is to find a credit card that PAYS you. Our credit card pays us 6% on all our gas, groceries, and pharmacy purchases, so we use this card for these types of purchases and then pay it off at the end of the month. By the end of the year, we usually accumulate a sizeable amount. Prior to our trip to Florida, we received a check from the credit card company for nearly $1,800. This meant that our entire trip was FREE! We received enough back from our credit card to pay for the flight AND have over $1,000 to take with us.
So that’s this week’s Smart Money Tip. Be sure to use your credit cards wisely and make them WORK for YOU. Have a wonderful week and live with purpose, passion, and prosperity!
P.S. If you haven’t checked out our FREE course yet featuring my signature six-step system called, Unlock Your Financial Power: They Key To Health, Wealth & Happiness, be sure to do that now by clicking here for immediate access!
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Originally posted on katannaabbott.com
Katana Abbott, CFP®, is a Life and Legacy Coach™, and founder of the Six Pillars of Awakened Prosperity System™, the proven step-by-step process that shows you exactly how to create wealth, make a difference and live the life you love. To get your F.R.E.E. Video Course and receive her weekly money, mindset and manifesting articles on attracting more wealth, joy and ease into your life, visit www.midlifemillionairesecrets.com
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