Comments on: Travel Hacking 101 w/ Brad Barrett

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:44:36 +0000

In reply to Aaron. I hear ya, brotha... I don't mind my minimalism ways at all in the c/c world :)

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:42:25 +0000

J$ – I think maybe this needs to be discussed a little bit further. Playing this credit card game is not without its ramifications to your credit bureau score.

Credit bureau scores are broken down into 35% for payment history, 30% for amount owed, 15% length of credit, 10% new credit and 10% types of credit. Playing this credit card game will impact 15% of your score. Here is how – say John Doe has had a credit card with ABC Bank for 10 years and another credit card with First Bank for 2 years. That’s 12 years of trade line history between two cards for an average length of credit of 6 years. Say John Doe starts this credit card game and adds 4 new cards. Now he has 6 credit cards with barely over 12 years credit history for a new average age of 2 years. That will impact a credit bureau score! Also, all those new credit limits and the accompanying credit inquiry will have a 5 point hit on the score. So John just took a 20 point hit on his score for getting these new credit cards in playing this game. Another thing to consider too is if the credit limits of all these new revolving credit cards and the balances of any existing installment loans total greater than 25% of their annual gross income. If something unfortunate happens to this person and they start using these credit limits their Debt To Income Ratio could skyrocket AND their credit score drop just as fast. Maxing out credit limits lowers your score.

I get what people are trying to do with travel hacking but I think it is a dangerous game and like someone said above ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. So says the guy who works for a credit union and looks at a lot of credit bureaus.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 20:06:59 +0000

In reply to Patrick Burrows.

Woah! I didn’t even know you could PAY college tuition on a credit card – that’s bad ass! (And also scary for those who aren’t so good w/ credit – hah).

Thanks for sharing, man :)

By: Patrick Burrows

Patrick Burrows — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 17:03:50 +0000

I stumbled on the concept of travel hacking a few years back on my own, before I even knew it was a thing. One of my sons started college a few years back and that’s when I started seeing all of these bonus offers for opening new credit cards. For the past 3 years, I have been opening 2 new cards (one for myself and one for my wife) just before the beginning of each school semester and his tuition bill coming due. I split the tuition payment between the 2 new cards each semester (easily hitting the minimums for each card’s signup bonus), and then paying off the credit card balances out of our state 529 education plan, to which I had been contributing since he was little. Earlier this year, we had a wonderful 2-week 25th anniversary trip to Europe, with 75% the cost covered by all of our bonus points/miles I had accumulated travel hacking over the past 3 years. On average, I would say for every $7000 spent on college costs, I got back $1000 in travel rewards. So, for those parent’s with kids in college or about to start college, travel hacking can be a very lucrative way to get back some of your hard-earned college savings!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sat, 30 May 2015 02:33:44 +0000

In reply to Kristin @ Brokepedia. Nice!!! And Congrats on the engagement - how exciting! :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sat, 30 May 2015 02:33:16 +0000

In reply to jlcollinsnh. Look at that! Awesome worlds colliding all over the place :) I'll have to come out to one of those things and chill with y'all. It does sound pretty fun.

By: Kristin @ Brokepedia

Kristin @ Brokepedia — Tue, 26 May 2015 21:55:58 +0000

Brad rules. I had no idea how to get started with travel rewards, and he sent me step-by-step instructions and talked me through it over the phone. As a result, my fiance and I recently went to Japan and Hawaii. Flights were about $450 each–that’s round trip, both destinations. We’ve already started earning points for our next trip, and bonus: my fiance’s credit score has improved quite a bit since adding him as an authorized user. Totally worth it.

By: jlcollinsnh

jlcollinsnh — Tue, 26 May 2015 19:30:49 +0000

Hey J$, great interview and a great “get” in having Brad.

Like you, I’m not temperamentally suited for this, but luckily Mrs. jlcollinsnh is! She has been doing this for a while now and Brad has helped her refine her approach.

Just the other day she said to me, “Oh, BTW, you are flying First Class to Ecuador this fall for the Chautauquas.

Speaking of the Chautauquas, Brad also stepped up and offered to help all the attendees travel hack their way there for FREE. Thanks again, Brad!

He’s a great guy to work with.

By: Tawcan

Tawcan — Tue, 26 May 2015 16:28:31 +0000

We’ve done a little bit of travel hacking but would love to get into it a bit more, especially once we start traveling more as Baby T gets older.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 26 May 2015 15:26:45 +0000

In reply to Kurt.

I’m sure they’ll fly *in the bedroom* wherever she ends up taking the two of you – ZING!