Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel, and I am that, and today we're discussing unique and delightful credit card benefits.
Delightful credit card benefits, indeed, you know, I feel that, I feel like delight like. That's a word that you use to describe people that's Oh, he's got a delightful personality. It's not often that we use that term to describe different financial products that are out there, but we truly do think that there are some of these different benefits that are that are going to surprise you and they might even delight you. That is what we're going to
be talking about today. It's almost like a laundry list that we've got to cover. He's true, I probably haven't heard about this, this, this, this, this and this, and even if like two or three apply to you, and you say, wait a second, I didn't know that existed, not know that was bringing into your life, it could be shocking but also rewarding. You want to maximize the benefit you're receiving from those cards. So somewhat related, I guess speaking of getting a deal, specifically getting a deal
when it comes to summer camps. So Joel, our oldest girls our oldest daughters, Selma for you, Heavy for me. They are both currently away at their first overnight sleep away camp. Yeah, based on the pictures, seems like they're having a stinking blast. So in the midst of them having a ton of fun, they're at camp. Did you notice did you get an email from the camp talking about early registration? Because that showed up in my inbox,
this warning. I was just like, oh, snap, they want to ride that momentum into the next year, exactly right. And but the thing is, that's what happens.
By the way, every time we go to FINCN the Money media conference, they send an email out the very next day and they're saying, do you have a good time?
Didn't you have a blast?
Sign up now? And by the way, this offer only lasts for three days, but you get the best rate of people are.
So, speaking of getting a deal, what are your thoughts on that when you commit to going to a camp or a conference like this a year out, a year in advance, if that means that you get the best rate, if you're able to snag that deal, all right, I think a couple of things. How would you approach it?
I think one, I like a good deal, So I am prone to sign up, and maybe that's why they're sending it because they know that.
But two, you have to.
Like look at your schedule and look at what's the likelihood that you're actually going to follow through, that you're actually going to go on that trip, that you're actually going to go to camp, that you actually want to go back to that conference. And then three how bigs a discount? Is it thirty bucks off or is it three hundred dollars off? Like is it is it ten percent off? Or is it or forty percent off? I mean, those kinds of questions I think would help me.
Numbers matter realize.
Okay, well, and then would you be okay if you ended up not going? Is there any sort of refund or would or would you think that would you be devastated by how much money on? I think that's the biggest thing. So as far as looking ahead, well with you know, with fin Con, we were thinking, okay, are we going to have a podcast next year?
Uh? All signs points to yes, I hope. So I think so I shook the magic eight ball or not funny to stop this anytime soon. But I think digging into the fine print is what's really important, because I woult to have a contingency, like the ability to back out for me at least, I think that needs to be available and well, specifically with camp, I would be willing to sign up for a discount if I knew that either I could get all my money back that's great, or even at least being able to transfer like a
deposit to a different week or something like that. And so yeah, you know, I think the moral of the story is definitely consider some of these different discounts and offerings that are provided by conferences or camps. Yeah, dig into the fine print, figure out what recourse you might have if you were to pull the plug.
Okay, that makes me think of one more thing. If you're looking for for like summer travel and you're trying to get a beach house or something like that, the further ahead you look, the more availability there's going to be, the better chance you're going to find a cooler spot at a better price. So just put that on people's radar. Two, start looking in August or September for junior July the next year. That I think that's gonna potentially save you
money and gets you better accommodations. I know, sometimes I've waited too long. The oh yeah, pickens get slim Yep, it stinks.
It stinks. It stinks knowing that, oh man, we could have such a better place for the same amount of money.
Or which we did this year, Like we go on our annual all Guard family vacation and we got the dopest beach house we've ever rented for not much more money than we typically spend.
Yeah, and I'm sure we'll talk more about this once we actually experienced the house, but it was because it was a new listing and we were willing. This is another kind of weighing the you know, the pros and the cons, weighing the odds. There's three reviews, do you trust them or not exactly? But in this case, it seemed like we did a little more digging and we're able to find that house elsewhere. But we'll report back as to whether or not that house was worth it for sure.
But for now, Matt, let's mention the beer we're having this one is called Jammiest Bits of Jam by Sour Sellers. It's, of course a sour fruited beer. We'll give our thoughts on this one later on in the episode. But let's get onto the subject a hand. Let's talk about unique and delightful credit card benefits that we think that had a money community needs to know about. And Matt, this made me think, I've mentioned that a tree fell through our house, right and how painful it's been.
How about an update folks want to know.
Yeah, so basically, the construction has started, or the reconstruction has started, which is great, but it's going to take a couple of months. We're out of the house and we're actually spending like half the summer in the Atlanta area half the summer down in Florida. So get an extra extra vacation.
Out of it.
That's like partially paid by paid for by insurance, which is But this episode kind of made me think about something in this process where a company went above and beyond to delight me, and it was the company that removed the tree from our house. Like the first step, which is to remove the tree, it felt like construction was going to start soon thereafter, but no, it's been weeks and at least a month.
But did they remove the tree and then leave mints on your pillow?
Not quite that great? Not fight that great, but they actually had They tarped the roof after they were done removing the tree, and the tarp job left something to be desired. They charged me like five hundred plus dollars for the tarping part, and it literally was like they stapled one blue tarp like I could have done. It should have been like twenty dollars, right, And so there was still a lot of water coming in. And the guy who runs the company, he actually called me and
he said, hey, how is the experience. We pride ourselves in delivering five star service? And I was like, man, I will say, actually, there's a lot of water coming in. And that was the one thing. You guys were fast, you were on it. The job was done well except for this one part of it. And so he sent his crew out immediately. They tarped like a mofo, and he refunded every single dollar that they build me for tarping and more and so like, would it have been better if the job was done right?
Initially?
Yeah, probably, But I'm honestly actually more loyal to this company now considering he called me directly, he asked me about, you know, how the service went, and then he made it right and went above and beyond and making it right. So I just think that sort of response is rare. It put a smile on my face. And yeah, today I think maybe some of these these credit card parks were going to talk about you might not know about it.
They might put a smile on your face because it might be something where you're like, you found money in a place you didn't know it was hiding.
That's kind of how it feels. It's like that hidden twenty in the pocket from winter. You're like, I wasn't even expecting this. Well when I said mint on your pillow, that actually made me think about like, if you go to a nice reste, I'm not gone into my bedroom, all right, Yeah, that's just creepy. So like fancy restaurants, like they'll bring out I think they're called it like a mouse de bouche, a mooz boosh, a mooz booch,
something like that. Clearly we're very cultured. Yeah, I don't even know how to say it right, but I love it when they bring out these little things that you didn't even order. But it's something that the chef prepared specifically. Between these two courses, I've only ever experienced that like twice in my entire life, but every time it happened, it was the coolest thing ever. It was a delight.
And I'm not necessarily going to equate the two, but it is similar when it comes to credit cards, right, Like everyone out there knows of the standard benefits that you get with credit cards, like cash back, Yeah, heard about it. I know about that. But when you're able to score a reward or a benefit that you were not expecting at all, like that is when the delight
kicks in. So sort of like you were saying about the tree company, like everybody pretty much expects the company to show up on time, right, to do a good job when it comes to clearing the tree out of there your yard. I went back there later that day. It was spotless. I was like, man, did the yard guy also come and cut the grass? Because it looked
great except for the whole. But I guess a lot of times you expect them to do the things that you are paying them for, but it's that unexpected action that they took to satisfy you as the customer, Like that is what took them to the above and beyond status. And you know that piece of plastic in your wallet. It has similar abilities to delight you, but you got to know what they are in order to benefit.
Yes, of course, we always, always, always have to discuss proper use of credit cards, Matt. Every time we talk about this is the disclaimer. The disclaimer, Yes, it always has to exist in any sort of time we're talking about paying with plastic because we need to make sure that you know where we stand with credit cards and
how to use them. They are not for everyone. And so if you've had an issue us in the past with overspending and not paying your statement off on time and in full, then seriously, you might want to just like not listen to the rest of this episode because I'm flying with that. That curiosity even might might not play out well. Right, you might start like, oh, look at all these amazing little things that they're dangling in
front of me. But if you can't use the credit card in the most basic discipline way that we talk about, well, the rewards you get are not in any way going to make up for the interest that you pay, and you'll still come out a loser in the end, So there's no benefit is worth slipping back into unhealthy financial habits because if you're not taking the most basic measures of paying off that balance every single month, you are going to outspend the rewards that you're earning by a
wide margin, and might an even wider margin now, Matt, because interest rates have gone up. So I think the average credit card interest rate is something like twenty four percent now, it ten years.
Ago well over twenty percent.
Years ago is like twelve percent, and so that's a massive difference. And yeah, two percent cash back going to come anywhere close, right, even with these other perks, is not going to come anywhere close to making credit cards a smart purchasing method for you.
If you retain a balance, that's right. And by the way, the pressure washer that was just outside our window to actually just ran out of gas. So it's nice not to have that. If you were wondering, what is that annoying sound in the background, You know what, We live in the real world here, and sometimes the house next door is getting pressure washed. But we're not denying the fact that, like, not everyone who uses credit cards are going to come out ahead. And a recent study actually found that.
Rich bar the way, can I just say that makes sense? Because the banks aren't going to lose money. They're not going to offer you reward exactly and then not find any way to pay for them.
Yeah. But so the reason study I was gonna mention a quote from that is that reward cards tend to induce more spending, leaving naive customers with higher unpaid balances. The study estimated that an aggregate annual redistribution of fifteen billion dollars from less to more educated, from poor to richer folks. That is a lot of money that is changing hands, fifteen billion dollars. Then something close to fifty percent of credit card users carry a balance, and that
is how that money is changing hands. So some folks out there are they're deluded into believing that this actually helps their credit by carrying a balance. This is not the case. It only hurts your bottom line because you're paying money. Yeah, I forget the exact number, but there's a a not an infantetially small number of people who think having that balance actually boost their credit score when
the opposite is true. Absolutely. Yeah, but if you are in that naive camp, you would be far better off using cash or even just using your debit card instead of continuing to use credit cards. For the bulk of your spending.
Yeah, and it pains us to say that because there are so many benefits in so many perks, not just the perks we're gonna mention, but even other things that we talk about, just protections that you have, federal legislation that protects your money. More that we talked about I think some in episode six twenty nine about how using a credit card when you spend is going to offer
you superior consumer protections. But still it's worth foregoing those if it's going to ruin your finances, right, And I guess that brings up the question, Matt, does this make credit cards predatory?
We don't think so.
But Aaron Lowry, the broke millennial who I like her, I like what she does. She made this allegation actually in a recent Bloomberg article. But the thing is, no one is forcing us to use credit cards. It's a personal choice, right, And so Yeah, Granted, we'd love to see more personal finance education on everything ranging from credit cards to every kind of debt for high schoolers so
that they don't end up learning the hard way. But I think a similar argument can be made that the only reason savers are earning something like five percent on the cash or stocking away now is because other people are taking out car loans at ten to fifteen percent interest rates. And so I just think that the credit
card itself shouldn't be the scapegoat. And some people want it to be the scapegoat and want to make it sound like credit cards are the devil, like Bobby Bouchet's mom and the water Boy or something like that, right, But I just don't think that's true. And yes, some people end up losing in the proposition. That's why we need more personal finance education. That's yes, the answer isn't necessarily to wipe credit cards from the face.
It's not to ban them, but to get more folks participating and using them the right way. And if that and if that means that over time the rewards like that the proposition changes, then so be it exactly. But the fact is, like, these are the rules of the game, and we're going to play by the rules that exist because that, yeah, that is our goal with the podcast is to spread the knowledge so that everyone knows how to properly use a credit cards.
Let's be honest, if if eighty five to ninety percent of people stop carrying a balance. Overnight, things would change, Rewards would dramatically decrease, and a lot of the things we're going to talk about would become vaporware almost overnight. Yeah, I totally agree to say that, like, oh, credit cards
are all the problem. Well, it's almost like saying that like paying interest or like compounding interest, that that is something that shouldn't exist, and it's like, well, no, it it's just a fact, Like it's just a rule, and you just want to make sure that you are on the receiving end of compound interest, not on the paying end.
And so until the banks change some of those rules and what it is that they're offering, we're gonna do all we can to take advantage of it and make sure that everybody out there knows that they can take advantage.
Of it as well.
One minor thing I'll mention here, there's legislation being introduced right now and to rein in some of the fees, the visa MasterCard charge, which I'm not gonna lie, that is kind of a problem and they probably should be rained in, and that in and of itself would probably impact the credit card rewards that we all receive. We'll see what happens there, and I'm sure we'll end up talking about it on a Friday flight if it comes
to fruition. But you know our stance now, Using credit cards in an educated and disciplined way can get you significant rewards and a slew of really cool benefits that you might not be aware of. And so we're gonna discuss a bunch of those. We're gonna get to that laundry list of killer rewards you need to know about right after this.
Right we are back, and we are talking about these delightful credit card benefits that we don't think that you know about. And we kind of mentioned this early on, but you know, everybody knows about the big things out there, the sign up bonuses. They can be honestly rich, as I'll get out equally like eight hundred bucks, even one thousand dollars when you get approved and meet a spending threshold, when you're able to kind of translate that into travel rewards.
But just the straight up cash back on every single purchase that is also fantastic. But this is also the obvious stuff, and we're not gonna talk much about that. We want to focus on the lesser known glories that your credit card has to offer. And so we'll start with a few of the lesser known travel benefits before we get into even more obscure territory. But you can rack up rewards with airlines and hotel specific cards, or you can opt for other cards that allow for even
greater flexibility. But some of the travel perks that you might not be familiar with are things like rental car insurance. If you rent cars enough, the primary coverage that you can get from a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred is pretty sweet. So what that means is that if you are or in an accident in that car, well, Chase, they're going to act as your primary car insurance company before your normal insurance that you have on your private vehicle.
And it just means every time when you're asked for that insurance and you're like sweating and sweating bullets and you're like, what if I.
Get an accident, well, you gotta wry about it. You can turn it down with these you've used the right card and unfortunately we didn't have this card, Joel. This this sort of come in handy when we were in Scotland. We haven't talked about this on the show, neither you or I had the Chase Sapphire Preferred or any car that had the primary insurance carver.
One of my cards used to have it, and they stopped carrying it as a perks, and.
I like to the way I take advantage of the different benefits with credit cards. Meant that I actually couldn't apply for another Chase card, and so what that meant
was that we actually opted for the coverage. And specifically, the lady was like, well, you know, there's a lot of potholes on the roads around here, and specifically we were going to the Isle of Sky in Scotland and the roads are terrible there and the rental cars don't have any spare tires in there, and so she said that if you get a flat tire a blowout, you're
on your own. And I thought that sounds terrible, and so we opted for the insurance, which also included a little collision that took place.
Because it was good because you beat that thing up.
So we had pulled over on the side of the road. We were looking at a lock.
I've never seen anyone go in reverse faster than you did. I think went into reverse and I couldn't see scale or hard junior side.
There's like this concrete metal rigging lobby intelligence on the ground that I couldn't see in the rear view, and I kind of crunched into that thing.
So the insurance was helpful, but if we didn't.
Ended up being totally fine. But the reason we had to get that, we felt the need to go ahead and get that was because we didn't have the sweet perks that came with a card like the Chase Safire, but we were short of that in mine because when we were booking the car, we were like, we just don't have enough time to get the credit card before we had to book the Going back to booking the booking vacation rentals, give yourself more time, because if we had more time, I think we could have maybe found
another car that offered that that benefit. So this is a good into stuff. Do as we say, not as we do, and in the future sometimes we mess up, we will do we human according to this advice. But there are other great travel perks too, right besides something like primary rental car insurance are the and and by the way, there's a different Some credit cards offer secondary car insurance and others offer primary Yeah, and the primary is far superior. That's what you want. Yeah, that's what
you want. That's the ideal, that's the good stuff exactly.
That means you don't have to sweat it at all and that you don't have to really involve your insurance company. The credit card is the stand in well. Lounge access is another perk that some of our favorite travel credit cards offer.
I don't really care about that personally. Well, because your sister, so she's got the last Yeah, and she pays you know, we'll get to fees later on this episode, but that's it comes with a hefty fee. But they travel a ton, her and her husband, and they guessing that's something that she takes oh massive advantage of.
Yes, that is one of those things where if you like to be fancy and you like to travel fancy, this is one of the cheapest ways to travel fancier. So usually you have to have one of the credit cards with the more expensive annual fees in the four to seven hundred dollars range. But if you're let's say, in the airport twenty five thirty five days a year, and you're taking advantage of that lounge accell or it could be well worth it.
It makes me think, okay, again, going back to our Scotland last Scotland reference to this episode, you don't want to have too many of them, you know. In one episode. But when we're flying out of Atlanta, we were in the International terminal, which it's not great. I'll just or I'm sorry. The food offerings aren't. Oh yeah, the food was bad. I was like, the terminal was fine, but some of the like the other concourses or whatever, I think it was concourse, fuh is the International some of
the other ones have amazing restaurants. There's actually some really well known restaurants in there in f Like literally, we're at some crappy taco place right and they had a terrible marguerite that was bad. And I was looking across the way and like the seating, We're just sitting at
this tiny little table. And then you looked across the way and you see the fancy folks wheeling their bags into the special club the lounge access over there, and I thought, Okay, I get it, Like I understand why folks opt for cards that have access to those different lounges or even you know, when sometimes folks will pay for that access. Yeah, but that's expensive, and so why not get a card that includes that access.
I think when our kids are older, this is definitely a park I'm going to take advantage of because I think we'll be traveling a lot more when when my kids are double digit ages all of them or something, and we're all taking trips together or Emily and I are able to get away on more trips like without the kids too, when it to be just a little bit nicer, well like a date as opposed to just.
Totally slumming it like you look you did in our early twenties.
Yeah, so again, this is something we don't really take advantage of, but I think it's a park worth mentioning, and it's a huge one for a whole lot of people who are like travel fanatics. Another one in the
travel spheres. If you live near an airport or Southwest flies, you can spend enough on that card to snag a companion pass that can be an incredible perk, which the companion pass basically means for a year plus that companion that you identify gets to travel for basically free, just kind of the fees, taxes and fees which are or
minimal trip cancelation, interruption coverage. That's another perk specifically the Chase Sapphire Preferred and some other cards offer as well, which can be a nice benefit not having to pay extra for that that just comes standard. Lost luggage reimbursement is another perk that some of the nicer travel cards offer certain customers or offer all their customers. And then free global entry and TSA pre check, which is going to help speed you through airport security. That's another one.
I got pre check one time, Matt. This is a long time ago, but again I don't travel much anymore, so I don't care as much about these perks. But that is a good one for people who travel too, because it just speeds you through that security line sometimes thirty to forty five minutes more quickly, saving you time time sometimes keeping you from missing that flight altogether. Exactly, it ends up costing you even more money. Yeah, I
think I saw the Chase Sapphire Reserve. They actually they have like one hundred dollars credit that goes towards some of the pre checks in every single year. But let's get even deeper into some of the different unique benefits out there, and we're going to kind of run through a bunch of these, but we'll make sure to link to just a ton of the specific cards and resources in the show notes for this episode so that you
can find what you need. But cell phone insurance, this is an incredibly valuable one that few folks advantage of. And so what that means if you are clumsy, if you're prone to dropping your phone. First of all, the.
Cheapest thing you can do is put a case on it, case the screen protector. But next consider paying with the right credit card in order to score some basically free insurance in the event that you were to put your phone through the ringer, dump it through the toilet, a raccoon runs off with it. You never know, I don't yeah, I don't know if the raccoon thing will actually fly.
Sometimes like stolen, you got to prove it stolen or lost accounts too, So where's the police report?
That's right, that's what they say. But the built car this is a great credit card for renters because you can actually, by the way, be Ilt b Ilt, Yeah, you can actually earn points, earn rewards by actually paying your rent with this car's credit card. Up. It's kind of doing that yeah, but it also has great cell phone insurance that comes with it, the Chase Freedom Flex. It's actually another great option, and it offers eight hundred
dollars per claim with just a fifty dollars deductible. And the bonus here is it does not have an annual fee, so you don't have to pay out the nose. You don't have to pay additional fees in order to have access to some of these sweet, delightful benefits.
Yeah, just from know what the fine print is. Like with the built card, I think you have to make five transactions a month or something to qualify, and one of those needs to be paying your cell phone bill. So look and see what the fine print is before you say, oh great, I have this perk. Wait, it turns out I was paying my cell phone bill with a different credit card and now I don't qualify. So those are the kind of things you need to know to maximize and to actually get to use and qualify
for these rewards. Let's talk about ride share and food delivery apps. Like, if you like taking ride share or ordering food delivery, your credit card can help you score a discount or even free services on that front. And you and I were not really fans of food delivery apps. We actually kind of rake them over the coal on the Friday flight last week because they're so expensive.
It's so expensive, But somewhat recently you're even talking about how you might even consider it because I forget grocery delivery. I said, grocery delivery. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's.
Right, which is in my mind. It's still more expensive and not ideal, but given kind of all the things we've had going on, like far superior than having take door dashes where you're just like we literally all you.
Have to do is go pick up the food exactly. It's not like you have to walk through the restaurant and hunt for it, right and then make it or something.
And the fees are astronomical, like we like we discussed on Friday, and so you're paying an armor leg But if you make that purchase with let's say the Chase Afire preferred, you'll get Instacart Plus and door Dash benefits, and same thing with Diskounded Lift and Uber Rides. Basically basically a certain credit towards what you spend with those companies.
And so a lot of them have like a it's like a fifteen dollars per month credit that goes towards those services exactly. And so if you're addicted to getting food deliveredy you haven't shaken your pandemic way of having stuff just sent to you instead of you actually going to.
And if you're one of the people who says convenience, Trump's money on this front. And I'm still saving, I'm still putting money in a wrath and in my four to one K guys, don't worry, but this is a splurge I make. Well, maybe you can make that splurge just a little more intelligently with with one of these cards that kind of gives you at least some sort of credit or discount for when you do use those apps.
Again, reading that fine print, checking the back end of your favorite credit card in order to see what the kind of because we're not going to run through everything here, but to see what special little benefits that they offer, especially if it's a service or a product, or like a restaurant like fast food, for instance, that you already frequent.
Your Forreign Buffett and you're listening right now, you could get your morning McDonald's meal ten percent cheaper the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Specifically, they offer ten percent back at a bunch of different fast food restaurants. We know, he listens, he just hasn't been willing to be a guest yet. He's going to go to these days.
Ah, he's kinding. I would love to have them on but McDonald's, but also Subway, Little Caesars, along with just a bunch of other random discounts. Again, you only really find these by just snooping around in the my account section, and you might be surprised to see some random retailer that you happen to use and you're missing out on a discount because you're not using that particular card.
Like I saw recently, MX Blue Cash Preferred had I think it's expired now, but they basically had almost the full rebate of the cost of Google one storage for a year, And so I logged into the back end to see, well, what are the discounts that they have right now? There was a Levi's discount like thirty bucks off one fifty or something, and then Fubo, which is one of those streaming services that has just a bunch
of like live sports as well. It was like thirty bucks off a month for the next three months if you pay with that credit card.
So very nice.
These are the kind of things that you have to Every credit card is different, but most credit cards offer something like this and a laundry list of these things. Really like seventy eighty or ninety of these discounts, and so it's worth checking in there. Or am I planning to make a purchase at Levi's this month? No? Okay, forget that. Yeah, but if you were, Bam, that's an extra thirty bucks off that you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Yeah, that's the trick making sure that you don't participate in spending that you weren't already planning to do. Like, don't look on there and be like, oh, look, thirty percent off edible arrangements. Never done that before, but now I'm gonna go do it. But that card, specifically, the Amex Blue catsch Preferred. Hey those are romantic, Hey baby, how about some of this kind of though? The AMX Blue catch Preferred also offers return protection, which is really cool.
This is something a lot of folks might not be aware of. And so the way this works, even if the retailer you buy something from doesn't take returns, or if the clock runs out on your ability to make that return within the window, well you can return that item to Amex within ninety days of the purchase. So there's a limit. It's up to three hundred dollars per item, and they limit you to one thousand dollars per year. But even still that's a lot of money. That's a
big perpose, especially for forgetful folks. It can be really helpful. Agreed.
Yeah, and that's yeah, that's quite to say. Let's say you forgot to return some AirPods and you're like taking it. I'm out two hundred bucks and I don't really like these things, and we'll guess what AMEX will will be the apple for you on your behalf, and we'll give you your money back. And so that's kind of cool.
On that same note, extended warranties are kind of the cousin to return protections, right, and so the Points Guy has a great list of the credit cards that offer the best extended warranties like and oftentimes that's an extra year or two of the manufacturer's warranty that they'll tack on and the credit card will just kind of eat it if your item goes bust. That's a way to avoid the really expensive like protection plans and stuff that
they want to sell you. At best Buy, you could confidently say no, that's okay, I got the manufacturer's warranty. And because I use this card, it doubled that I've got plenty of free coverage.
I don't need your expensive stuff. Yeah, okay, So I just saw too that we were talking about the Platinum card from Amex specifically when it comes to travel, but it also includes a Walmart Plus membership, which I think
is pretty cool. And you know, this one stands out in my mind because more of our shop, like literally my family family shopping, we do it online, and it seems like Amazon has becomeing sort of the default option, not only for us, but I think for a lot of folks out there, and they're obviously there's nothing wrong with what Bezos is offering.
But if you're making retired living on a yacht, al right, this is jassy. Okay, this is jassy, now, that's true.
But like, if you're making purchases online without considering other retailers, without considering other sites and what their prices are, then you could most definitely be overpaying if you are sort of a Beholden customer, Beholden audience. And so if you've got a card that comes with that membership, which includes free shipping, then that could be the last hurdle keeping
you from doing some proper comparison shopping. So, yeah, maybe you do your standard search on Amazon and oh, there's a product I want, here's how much is going to cost. But you're already logged in to Walmart Plus because you've got that account now, and then you can easily pull
that price up and you're comparing apples to apples. And also it's worth mentioning there are store specific cards as well, So if you are a frequent buyer at items of items at Amazon or Target, it might be worth considering getting their store specific cards because they're oftentimes offering a very high rate of bonus rates, you know, percent for everything you buy. Yeah, either one of those stores with those cards exactly. So it's just like if you live
some pertial discount. It targets like your everything store, Like you go there not only for groceries, but also for beauty supplies or well, you know, stuff for the yard, stuff your baby that kind of.
Stuff groceries even right, A lot of people exactly the Target for groceries now too.
And then five percent card could make a ton of sense for you there.
Yeah, we got the Amazon card actually when they had a two hundred dollars sign up bonus, and typically there's no sign up bonus for that card, so that was part of what propelled me to get it. I was like, oh, three two hundred bucks and five percent back on everything we buy in Amazon with no annual fee. I think it made sense. So h but we don't have a Target card because we don't shop there enough. Although I don't know, I guess I'd have to run the numbers.
My wife actually shops a Target a decent bit, so maybe it would make sense to get that one too, especially never go to Target again, no annual fee. But that's the only place you would want to use those cards. You wouldn't use your Target or Amazon card literally anywhere else. You would only use them for purchases at those retailers. All right, Let's talk about another kind of interesting perk
that most people don't know about. It's only offered by one credit card company that we know of, and that is Privacy protection. So this is this definitely fits in
the unique category. And basically, by turning this feature on with Discover, if you have a card from them, they'll proactively work to remove your personal information from those people search websites, those annoying websites that list out your name, your address, your phone number, stuff like that, and they will kind of pull back some of that privacy back into your life, which could potentially lead to fewer spam and fraudulent phone calls, that kind of stuff.
Yeah, so I've got a financial benefit maybe, but it's more like a peace of mind benefit. Yeah.
I kind of like that because credit card perks have over the years proliferated and they've gotten even more interesting and even even more unique and different. Credit card like they're competing on this front for customers, and I love to see that. Discover is like, Hey, what if we have had some some like privacy conscious customers and we can literally do some work on their behalf in order to bring back a little privacy that they used to have into their lives.
I think that's a that's a cool it's a fun one totally. And So another standout benefits are some free entertainment options that some of the different cards offer specifically. And I get that new Apple headset for free. That's not entertainment, that's a productivity device. I was just gonna watch immersive TV. That's what's gonna what it's going to be used for. No free museum visits Bank of America entertaining. Yeah, they can get into museums around the country without paying
a dime the first full weekend of every month. This is one actually wasn't aware of until we dug into it. But check to see what's available where you live, because this could be a killer perk that could save you massive amounts of money if you actually take advantage of it. But there are different cards. I mean again, we're not gonna mention them all, but I saw the Capitol one Saver card. If you are into live music or live sporting events, they offer eight percent cash back, which nobody
ever offers that much. That's it's a whopping eight percent. And so if you are into again in the realm of entertainment, going out there and attending events like that, that could be a card that makes a lot of sense for you. Yeah, And on a somewhat related note, Visa Signature they offer the benefits, Like there are something like fifty wineries that participate that are Visa signature wineries I guess or whatever. But it's Bogo. You pay for
one tasting and you get another one for free. So if you, I mean, we love craft beer, that's the show. I love it. Like I want there to be a card that takes up the how to Money challenge and accepts our challenge and is going to offer like a buy one beer, get one beer free at participating breweries across the country. But if you're really into wine, that
could totally pay off. If you and a friend or a significant other love to check out some of the different wineries, check out that card and see if there are wineries near you that you would attend all the time.
Yeah, and by the way, that the Bank of America card Museum thing is pretty cool, Like the list is pretty robust in the Atlanta area. There's some great museums I haven't been to. And I'm like, Okay, if that's like thirty bucks a pump or let's say you're taking a family of four or five, I mean that really could time.
Six, dude. I know that's what I'm saying.
That's it really like a high Museum of Art free entrance, and the Civil Rights Museum, stuff like that, which I still somehow have not been to.
Got to get to. Might have to get a card so I can get it for free. You have you been to the uh so there's a local museum here and on Sundays it's free. Oh yeah, I've heard about that. No, I haven't been. You I got check that on. Okay, I gotta check that one out, all right. One One.
Another perk that we feel is worth messing is referring other people to one of your favorite cards, and you can snag meaningful money back for telling your friends about your favorite card, sometimes seventy five hundred dollars a pop. I do not suggest spamming your friends, no, but if you feel like that card will be helpful to them, yeah, send them a link. I literally sent a link to a friend the other day about the Matt Propane East.
We call propane Taxi but now it's called Cinch. Yeah, And one of my friends was asking about it and I was like, yeah, it's great, and it literally costs a dollar more than going to Kroger and they'll just like pick it up and replace your tanks for you know, about the same price, and yeah, I would get twenty five bucks on Amazon if he signs up for it,
be in my link. There's no shame in that game, right, And so you can do the same thing with credit cards where if yeah, if you and even if you just have a significant other and they don't have that card yet, well you don't have to necessarily put them on your account, give them the referral link, let them sign up for their own. That way, they maybe get a sign up bonus and you get the referral credit at the same time.
So you got to look at all the different ways that you can score benefits with credit cards, not just the official I mean, I guess you know. The referrals are something that a lot of cards offer.
Yeah, there's a lot of things, a lot of different ways you can play this cable. Don't usually think about it, but you can start selling your friends and family on your favorite credit.
Cards and make a bundle exactly. But you know, it's not all rainbows and butterflies though. There are some downsides to credit card use, and we want to make sure that we cover those specifically as they pertain to trying to take advantage of some of these different benefits that cards offer. We will get to all of that right after this.
All right, Matt, let's keep going talking about credit cards. And yes, of course, there are a lot of unique benefits we just mentioned. I'm sure a lot of those, or at least a few of those many of our listeners had no idea about, like the wine thing or
the museum thing. And those perks can be meaningful, right, and especially, like we said at the beginning, if you handle credit cards in a discipline manner, these are it's sugar on top of the reward you're already getting the ones that are posted everywhere and on the commercials about the cash back and the percentage you get when you use that card.
That's right.
I think one last perk I feel like it's worth mentioning is that you can you build up a great credit score when you use your credit card well. And I think everyone.
Knows this is like the broccoli and carrots breefits. Not as sexy as some of those other ones, but but boys, it good for you.
It is over the long home, of course. Yeah, and I think everyone knows that handling credit well is going to be a boost to your score. But that includes credit cards. When you when you use your credit cards, when you keep that utilization low, when you pay it off on time and in full every month, you're building a solid score which helps you out in your the financial arena in a bunch of different ways over the
long run. Whether it's applying for an apartment to live in and boy, you got this like seven to ninety credit score and they say yes immediately because your credit score is so great, or whether it's getting that lower interest rate when you're buying a home, that kind of stuff. But I think that's one of the things that deserves mentioning as well. But now, now let's get to the cons and like kind of what you have to wade through really in order to score some of these perks.
They sound great on their face, and they are. I think there's a lot that are worth taking advantage of and worth considering. But at the same.
Times, right, these delightful perks, Yeah, so we get to take advantage, they don't necessarily they don't make it easy always, that's right. Yeah, Unfortunately, there's always a catch. And the biggest one of all, you know, I think is the fact that a lot of these cards that offer these incredibly attractive benefits come with an annual fee. It's going to cost you anywhere from like ninety five bucks to
six hundred and ninety five dollars. I think that's the biggest annual fee that we came across, depending on the card that you're considering. And here's the thing. This is regardless of whether or not you actually take advantage of those benefits, once you get that new card, you can expect that annual feed to show up on your first statement. So don't let that catch you off guard. It's gonna
be there. And some of these perks can be had from cards that don't levy an annual fee, but you're gonna pay at least a little bit for some of the best perks that we mentioned.
You want those airline lounges, you can expect to fork over a minimum of three ninety five a year.
I don't. I don't think that they doesn't see any access for any less than that. I didn't.
I not that I saw, but I could be wrong, and maybe if I am our listeners, I'm sure again it will. We'll send us, we'll send us emails letting us know. But that's the thing. Yeah, for the best benefits for the biggest benefits for the stuff that is like even more rarefied, you are going to you know, likely it'd have to get one of those cards that has an annual fee. If you want the primary car rental insurre. It's still a bargain. I would say the
Chase Sapphire preferred annual fee is ninety five dollars. That's not terrible to get a perk like that along with the other perks they offer, but be aware of that and if you're you're not taking advantage of the perks to the degree you thought, well, the annual fee just might not be worth it. And unfortunately, most cards aren't going to give you the Costco membership money back guarantee, right, so you can't try it out for a year and then say, hey, actually, now it wasn't my jam and
then they'll pay. They'll they'll give your money back and they throw in a Rotissey chicken just because they're kind.
Yeah. I don't know if they actually do that, but yeah maybe, I don't know. If you get a particulary, get that on the front end for the sign up offers that sometimes yah Costco has actually yes, here's a case of water, a hot chicken, and a swifter's totally random.
Yeah, they have had those, like sign up bonuses back and they they're rare though they're.
Hard to come back. I haven't seen them as much recently.
Yeah, well, they don't really need to. They have so many members and it's a desirable place to be more crushing it. But you just can't cancel a couple of week, twelve months get your money back. That's not how it works. You can, though, try and contact the credit cards customer retention line to see if you're able to get the fee waived or reduced. And that is a worthwhile thing. Like that's asking for a discount, which is something we
talk about on the show regularly. Especially if they wave the first year's fee, there's a chance they'll discount it at least in order to keep you happy. And it's always worth of the shot. It's always worth asking because the worst thing they can say is no.
That's right. Yeah, well, and don't forget too if you are an active member of the military. So it's the service Member's Civil Relief Act that passed in the early two thousands. But this means that card issuers have to give certain benefits to active service men and women, and most banks, most card issuers go above and beyond and they just fully waive the annual fees. So if you are an active military member, realize that you don't have to pay eighty fees and there's nothing but upside.
For you, specifically for active military members, Like why not get the American Express card that has the six hundred and seven hundred dollars anually.
If there is a temptation to overspend, right And like, that's just one of the other cons is that. And we kind of touch on this earlier, So I'm not
going to spend too much time on this. But if you are, yeah, if this is a slippery slope for you, or if you've dealt with overspending in the past, this isn't something that we want you to take advantage of because, like, honestly, the biggest requirement of managing some of these different benefits is to stay organized and to know what it is that you are seeking after, right, Like, it takes the right kind of person to be able to keep up
with the different offerings that the banks are dangling out there in front of us. And so even if you're not tempted to overspend at all because you've always used a credit card. It takes someone who is able to stay organized and just keep up with how much you've already spent and then how much more you need to spend in order to score that sweet bonus. For instance. I think some folks are able to just wing it, you know, they can do the math in their head.
But others might want to dedicate a little bit of time to at least keeping a spreadsheet with a running total how much they have left to spend in order to snag that benefit. But something keep in mind if that is not your in your wheelhouse, Like if you haven't even started budgeting yet, then taking advantage, for instance, of credit card offers, it's probably not something that you are probably ready for.
Yeah, you're not ready for Depcon two when you have achieved Coon one, right, But I think it's also important to mention and note that offers change and that credit card benefits are changing all the time. Especially during COVID, we saw a lot of travel cards start offering pulling back on some things and offering better benefits in other areas, and we mentioned this. I don't know a few months ago, but Costco their City credit card, for instance, they stopped doubling.
The manufacturers weren't speaking of Costco, which is a bummer, right for any anybody who holds that card and found that perk to be helpful. Like I enjoyed that perk, right, It gave me peace of mind when I was making a big purchase, like Okay, cool to buy a fridge at Costco. I've got four years worth a warranty versus one year at home Depot or something like that. But
that no longer exists. So you've got to kind of stay up to speed and say, Okay, does this cards still offer this benefit that I value or have they kind of changed the rewards that they offer customers and especially Matt those ones we were talking about when you click my account in the back end of you know, your credit card sign in page, credit card dashboard, Yeah, you'll see like those are always changing and they'll say this is twenty four days left on this offer, or
this one expires at the end of next month, and so yeah, if you make the purchase with that card outside of the dates that that reward is available, like it just it go poof, it goes away. It vanishes and so you don't have access to it anymore.
That's right, yeah, I mean, bottom line, we just don't want rewards to go to waste. Research shows that a quarter or nearly a quarter of credit card users haven't redeemed any of the rewards in the past twelve months, and we don't want you to be like them. And one of the reasons is because the rewards that you earn become less valuable over time, and so saving them for a rainy day is the wrong tactic to take. It's one of the reasons. So I've got with Capital
one I think they have. I guess it's I assume it's on all the different diferent cars they offer. But you can automate the rewards and so once it hits a certain threshold, it automatically gets applied to your account. I love that because it takes the onus off of me, and that's one thing I don't have to worry about where it is automatically being redeemed. But like what we're talking about today, though, like all the different benefits, they
aren't something that you have to accrue. It doesn't build up. But you don't have to build up these dollars or these points in order to use them. These are things that are available on day one. It just takes again, like Joel said, like digging into the fine print, logging into the back end, and seeing what benefits are available to you that you just aren't taking advantage of it. Yeah.
I think it's a good idea to have a redemption strategy in mind for travel points you're accruing, or for cash back, hopefully automatically redeeming that right with every statement period or something like that. But then again, with all these secondary these other perks that we're talking about, these unique offers that the credit card companies have, make a plan to use them. So if it's the free museum thing,
it's the first, you know, weekend of every month. Put it on the calendar and be like, cool, we're going to hit up at least three.
Museums this year.
Yeah, And that way you're actually taking advantage of the things that you say you're going to and make a note kind of whether it's writing on the physical card itself or having a little piece of paper in your wallet or your purse, they kind of reminds you, Okay, this is the card I used when I book a Lyft because I get fifteen dollars a month or twenty dollars a month towards my lyft right.
Rabbits, sharpy right it directly on there.
Make sure you're using the right card for the right things, because if you're not, you're not actually getting the awards that you're hoping to get or you thought you were going to get when you signed up for that card, because you're using the wrong one. It's a really important thing, and it's something that I think it's a basic mistake that a lot of people could make. Matt and one other thing, Like I don't know how long ago, this
was maybe six eight months ago. On the show, we talked about our super Chill credit card optimization strategy, and we basically what we pointed people to was a basic three card approach that we thought made sense for a whole lot of people. You don't have to overthink it, you don't have to overdo it, and just having three cards and using them appropriately will garner you a whole lot in terms of cash back, and we'll probably lead to you earning hundreds and hundreds of dollars in cash
back on credit cards every single year. This implementing some of these deeper rewards and trying to maximize these these other more unique benefits you can get. It might lead people to bringing more than just three credit cards into their lives. So I think there's like probably a happy balance, But like you said, you've got to stay organized, right, And so I think.
You depends on your personality, depends on what you're what you're capable of, like what you're down for, because I think there are some folks out there who could go the I'm going to get fifteen different cards in each every single like I'm only going to use them for one, you know, one kind of purchase only. I think that could work for certain individuals. But you got to know yourself and for all those folks out there, you know who I'm talking about, right, I'm talking to you know yourself.
Yeah, And there's no need to go a whole hog, right, or you don't have to do that. But I think some probably like a happy medium is great. Like if you're doing the three card optimization thing, that's great, that's a great strategy, and maybe you incorporate you pull in one or two other cards over time that have some of the favorite secondary benefits.
That we mentioned today, who say, oh, yeah, now I really am going to get a lot of use out of the rental car coverage or when it hit up those fifty win winery Right yeah, fine, those get those specific cards bring that into your life, the ones where you feel like that's going to be the best returning investment, and particularly specifically if it's a credit card that.
Has no or a low annual fee but has like a high return when it comes to the value you're going to get from from those secondary rules.
Right yeah, as long as you are able to again use that credit card properly and you are not caring a balance and you are not paying any additional dollars on top of that annual fee to the credit card company where they are making bank. And by the way, we'll also link to our credit card tool because that can be sometimes folks don't want to read an entire
article and you just want to click some sliders. Our credit card tool allows you to do just that, where you can sort different credit cards based on some of the different benefits that they offer. Yeah, we'll make sure to link to that in the show notes, but it's just also how toomoney dot com forward slash credit card tool. Joel is that it for credit cards? Were going to get back to the beer, Yeah, let's do it all right.
This one was the jammiest bits of jam and I'm glad I got to say it this time because you said it at the beginning. I love this title. This is another beer that we got to enjoy from Sour Cellars. What were your thoughts on this one?
Okay, so very jammy, which I love like I love it when it's a sour beer. But it's also got like some thickness. It almost tastes like there's like parade fruit in the beer, which is my jam.
It carried no pun intil It certainly carried a little bit of sediments as well, so it's like, oh, they're using real.
Bits of fruit. Oh this well, this one was for real. And this one was made with boison berries. I'm more of a strawberry fan, but I actually think I like this boison berry beer a little more.
Have we talked about boys and berries before in the show. I don't know if I've ever had just straight up boison berry before. I prefer sn I wasberries, but I guess because of the color with a purple, it kind of reminds me of grape like it almost has like a grapey jam urns. Yeah, like a current, but super I would say it's a little less aggressive than the
last Sour Cellars beer that we had this. I guess it's because of maybe more the fruit that's in this one that brought along some more sweetness not quite as tart, not quite as tart, which I'm all about so certainly enjoyed this one. Glad we got to enjoy yet another beer from Sour Sellers from or out of Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Cucamonga.
I am totally going to go to Rancho Cucamonga someday one of these days and try more Sour Sellers beers because they're killing it. This is, I mean, right in my alley of favorite style and they're making a couple ones.
For sure. I don't know how I'd never heard of them. It kind of reminds me of, Man, what's the last time you had a cascade? They a sour By cascade, but it kind of reminds you of them. The format similar, It's a larger bottle, a lot of fruit, pretty aggressive. They certainly I wouldn't be surprised if maybe there's a little bit of cross pollination going on even between those
two guys. Yeah, no, if they made a collab, I'd totally drink it for sure, absolutely, But yeah, we'll make sure to link to the different resources we mentioned during this episode up on the website at how to money dot com and you can do a sport slash credit card Toool if you're looking for that. But Joel, that's going to be it for this episode, buddy. Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,