For those that is not there in other apps such as Rewards wallet.
There are some good softwares such as AwardWallet, Rewards Wallet, various apps in the mobile stores, all of which essentially pull the latest points and their expiration dates from various hotels, airlines, rental points and anywhere they provide points. For me, the best way is to use the points as soon as possible or work towards a goal - like say a 4th of July vacation or labor day vacation. Such planned vacation and activities are easier to track, set a goal and reach the goal. While sometimes it is worthwhile to live the life and just do air travel and a mini vacation spontaneously. The point is use the points rather than keeping them there. Now, it is quite possible that at a middle stage of collecting points, you just are not sure where and when to spend these points. At the time of this writing, I have a few hundred points with Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards and few cash balances here and there. Cash ones are the easiest since you just apply them in your next statement balance while the points are sometimes hard to track in the daily grind.
For the points, the apps are a very helpful option though they come with limitations too. For instance, AwardWallet, one of the leading app trackers that had some big programs such as United, Southwest and JetBlue at one point. Subsequent policy changes on the airlines part means this APIs were closed. APIs Basically the interface from which the outside apps get information about your mileage, expiration dates and other information. This leads to having a ton of apps for such as basic purpose of looking mainly at the expiration dates. Now, if you look at the basic features of these "apps", they are mostly enhanced or glorified excel. Forget about the recommendations or various pie charts and views and what not, at the root these are just data manipulation on two values : your mileage expiration dates and your actual mileage.
For simplicity, I just put them in excel. Now to qualify to make an entry in excel or to come in the current sheet of excel or the topmost view, given the limited attention span I have, I just list down the airlines or places where I have the big rewards. Big Rewards are anything more than say 5000 or 10000 points, values at which I get at least one free ticket or one free night stay among others. Anything less than that, I would rather be reminded by the company about it and then I act on it. For instance, Delta - an airline with the stingiest and most uncool rewards programs on the planet, sent me an email about my remaining 5000 points which were due for expiration. Like the 10,000 and 15,000 points before that which I donated to charity, I donated these too. No point in tagging this long or keeping them alive. I avoid flying Delta and when I have to on a free ticket, I would rather get a sign-up bonus and then use it and then discard it. The Delta program makes it difficult to cash your rewards and go upwards for 40k points for even short-haul flights. Back to the rewards tracker, it makes sense to put down only your favorite programs or the ones that you are focussing to build maximum miles on or the ones where you happened to accumulate huge points.
Open a Google or Zoho Excel doc or any online doc and then enter your program name and just the expiration month and year. This would give a quick and clear view on the top programs that you are enrolled in and the date by which these points are going to expire. It also does not lead to information overload and give you a ton of other reward programs that you just enrolled in some promotion to clog your sight. It helps focus, limits values. Once in a few months, do log into all the accounts and check for promotions and ways to accumulate points. Many give you points for social media participation or spending on dining programs among others. This way you keep the point balance alive. This is the topic which will explore in the next post.
Bottom line: Do not get too caught up on the apps. Fill them up once and watch them once in a few months. Also login to said programs and keep track of any small miles here and there. For the miles that matter to you, simply put them in an online doc with expiration date next to it.
Friday, July 18, 2014
How to Load Serve from Chase Cards Online
Why Templates? gives you a set of valid reasons on why to use such templates or basic workflow diagrams on a day-to-day basis. To summarize, if you run out of big bonus spend cards (or soon enough you will), the world of category rewards aint so bad. You could make some decent money, though not as much as the 100k or 75k cards. But still, I think it makes sense to pursue this during lull times. The reason to use templates is to simplify your process and think less about which cards and where to spend. I just print them out and put it in my room or car. If you wanna go real agile (software programmers know what I am talking about), you could print it out and paste it in your study room or bed room. Trust me, it just frees up the mental resources down the line. These money loading business could quickly go out of hand with you not knowing where you loaded and how to verify it, which store to go and which card to put the spend on. The best way is to just write it down, the good old-fashioned way. Eventually, it will evolve to just a bunch of templates that you could be tweaking as these rewards structure, the way the prepaid cards are loaded and the credit card programs inevitably change.
This post details about how to load Credit Cards and Debit cards money into Serve or BlueBird from American Express online. Note that there is a limit of $1000 as of now. The process is fairly straight forward and should not ideally require a picture below. But in the interest of just having it as a process, I put them in a diagram. I refer to this picture and open a spread sheet where it mentions whether this action has been done for this month. If not, I simply log into the Serve website and then set up an auto pay using the Add Money Settings for the next 5 days. Then check back again after a week, update my spreadsheet. Rinse and repeat every month.
Unlike Bluebird, Serve allows loads online up to $1000 from both a credit card as well as debit card. If you have ISIS Mobile payment, this limit is bumped by $500 each.
The debit card program is similar to the credit card one. For Amex prepaid cards, Serve and Bluebird, you have to call them and verify your identity before they allow your cards to be linked. Hence, I just stick with cards that I will use for a long time. For credit cards, the Chase ones or Citi ones are usually good and earn points while Amex credit cards don't earn any points. For debit cards, the best ones are the local credit unions or ones like Fulton Bank or any other regional banks. I am yet to experiment on Airlines debit cards though they seem to earn 2 points per dollar spent.
Is it worth it, one may ask? Well, that is up to you. If you look at an annual basis, that is $120 on one card. So for credit as well as debit card, that is likely $240, though you may fall short on the debit card portion but still you may get something like 2500 reward miles. All for just routing your bill pay from your debit card to Serve card. For credit card, the $120 per year could be used to splurge. More often than not, you could redeem it for restaurant gift cards or Amazon cards or anything. To put it in perspective, this is about the same amount that you would get charged if you were to use an average active mutual fund in the US on an investment of about $10,000. So it might not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, but still it might get you that new gadget or round off that much-needed rewards for a plane ticket.
This post details about how to load Credit Cards and Debit cards money into Serve or BlueBird from American Express online. Note that there is a limit of $1000 as of now. The process is fairly straight forward and should not ideally require a picture below. But in the interest of just having it as a process, I put them in a diagram. I refer to this picture and open a spread sheet where it mentions whether this action has been done for this month. If not, I simply log into the Serve website and then set up an auto pay using the Add Money Settings for the next 5 days. Then check back again after a week, update my spreadsheet. Rinse and repeat every month.
Unlike Bluebird, Serve allows loads online up to $1000 from both a credit card as well as debit card. If you have ISIS Mobile payment, this limit is bumped by $500 each.
The debit card program is similar to the credit card one. For Amex prepaid cards, Serve and Bluebird, you have to call them and verify your identity before they allow your cards to be linked. Hence, I just stick with cards that I will use for a long time. For credit cards, the Chase ones or Citi ones are usually good and earn points while Amex credit cards don't earn any points. For debit cards, the best ones are the local credit unions or ones like Fulton Bank or any other regional banks. I am yet to experiment on Airlines debit cards though they seem to earn 2 points per dollar spent.
Is it worth it, one may ask? Well, that is up to you. If you look at an annual basis, that is $120 on one card. So for credit as well as debit card, that is likely $240, though you may fall short on the debit card portion but still you may get something like 2500 reward miles. All for just routing your bill pay from your debit card to Serve card. For credit card, the $120 per year could be used to splurge. More often than not, you could redeem it for restaurant gift cards or Amazon cards or anything. To put it in perspective, this is about the same amount that you would get charged if you were to use an average active mutual fund in the US on an investment of about $10,000. So it might not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, but still it might get you that new gadget or round off that much-needed rewards for a plane ticket.
Got a Twitter Handle
Twitter is the primary form of communication for this blog. So the best way to reach me and the other authors of this website would be to simply use the twitter handle that can be found on the right hand side of this site or here:
@creditsteroids
Or directly click on the link below:
https://twitter.com/creditsteroids
The main goal here is to spend money on credit card as fast and effecient as possible and return back to my own time. Then travel with collected points to every place possible.
Rinse and repeat.
@creditsteroids
Or directly click on the link below:
https://twitter.com/creditsteroids
The main goal here is to spend money on credit card as fast and effecient as possible and return back to my own time. Then travel with collected points to every place possible.
Rinse and repeat.
Ancillory Host
This blog will serve as an ancillary host for the main blog site:
http://creditcardsteroids.wordpress.com/
http://creditcardsteroids.wordpress.com/
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Power of automation
For those dealing with computers on a day to day basis, it is common knowledge that computers, applied scientific creations and technology, robots etc are tools that help automate various aspects of life thus allowing humans to do what they do best - sleep like a bear. Honey badger really likes that concept and tries to get all its eating/sleeping/spending/living habits out of the way so that it can remain in its state of iowa (which is blissful state of ignorance and being) as soon as possible. There are so many activities and things to do in life. There are the good stuff like fitness, yoga, travel, experimenting on concepts such as minimalism, learning finance and spirituality or simply helping out other humans and pursuing math and science and so on .. (there is also TV :D ). While not aspect of life can or should be automated, it is possible to achieve a balance which helps your mind being mindful while keeping oneself engaged and on. Take the example of driving - in my view, do I like shift stick manual driving? Probably no, that is a bit too much work. What about driverless car - again no. Not due to lack of trust on technology but it is simply nice to drive oneself and get that experience. It is kind of a yoga in itself and takes off your mind from its current context. Maybe at a later point of evolution and time, with a particular activity such as exploring maybe driverless car looks enticing. But, I would really like to be in a spot where I do driving for the sake of it and not because it is stressful. There is already a driverless car in place - it is called train or hiring another human as driver. I think technology can aid or help as a tool. To completely automate it and treat it as a black box kind of takes the fun. Of course, to each his own. There is nothing wrong in having a view and application consistent with one's own comfort level. In the context of credit cards, there are people who automate the credit card spending and keep track of things in their minds or in excel sheets. Frequent changes means frequently revising all this. A simple case of changes that happened in 2013-2014 can be tabulated as follows:
1. The sign up bonuses came in targeted and in certain periods of a year
2. The tools mainly used such as reload cards underwent drastic changes in terms of fees, locations where they are available, locations where they frequently ran out, how they could be loaded
3. Some of the main tools such as Amex Serve card or Bluebird or Paypal or Netspend/Go/Vanilla reload kept changing the rules about how they can be loaded - some stores accepted credit cards while some wont.
4. Walmart accepted loads on the prepaid cards at first and then stopped
5. Same with CVS
6. Same with ... you get the gist!
7. Online bill pay service stopped or limited number of users per service
In the meantime, the customers had their target of spending 5k to 10k within 3 months would get fatigued with too much gift cards at hand and less money to spend. Not everything can be or should be automated. For instance, I had some minor automation in some online sites to load money from a certain credit card. Not only the site changed its rule regarding the loading limits and automation, the credit card itself fell out of favor in terms of points raked. Now, on a given day with a busy work schedule takings its toll on mind and body, it is difficult to keep tab on such things and make necessary adjustments. Let alone missing opportunities, sometimes automation at this level becomes a burden. Those with software background can appreciate the negatives that too much automation cause to a process. Hence the approach of this blog is going to be flexible. There are no written rules in the land of hustling, no optimization, no crying over missed offers and so on. There is no point in being rigid. Rather best to adapt and use a tool well. This blog would give well crafted images - essentially flow charts or work flow. One can mindlessly , like a drone , simply execute the steps on the way without thinking and reap the benefits of strategic credit card spending. Some day when there is a computer which will do some of this via open API, it would make sense to have a program that reads this image and converts that to point earning action. Till then, we would just change and adapt as per need.
The image instructions would not be as simple as loading an app or getting a code to scan on a store. Those are unit actions in themselves which us humans can do quite well. But when it comes to having to chose between 5 stores to load, 5 cards to choose from, 5 stores where they can be purchased and then keeping track of these, you may want tools that help you achieve these in under 10 minutes time on a weekday. That is the aim of this blog.
Bottom line, look at the images that come up on this site and execute them. If this gain traction, I might even come up with a few apps which help you give the tools require to manage them well. The tools would be generic enough for beginner to advance level folks to use. Aim is simplicity, ease of use and learn, easy to use quickly and highly customized solution to a problem which simply solves the problem. The aim is to reach a balanced level of automation in a moving goal post such that it optimizes our time and effeciency.
Some tracking apps such as reward wallet are good but they dont seem to integrate with a significant number of airlines or hotels. Of course, many folks counter that with an excel that is customized and has important information such as end dates, expiration date of rewards or annual fee due dates among others. A better tool would be to remind you to use a set of credit cards every six months or simply transfer over 100 points every six months from some of the better reward programs such as the Amex Membership rewards or the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
As of 2014, some tools are better used by human minds rather than computers. They are simply better computers than man made computers. For instance, looking at a moving story from a charity organization and getting inspired by it enough to donate one's miles to the charity instead of taking that trip to a tropical destination is something that can be done by a human mind with a single thought for now. So while sentinels need to do the sentinel thing, lets get together and create the visual and functional tools to speeden up the point raking strategies.
1. The sign up bonuses came in targeted and in certain periods of a year
2. The tools mainly used such as reload cards underwent drastic changes in terms of fees, locations where they are available, locations where they frequently ran out, how they could be loaded
3. Some of the main tools such as Amex Serve card or Bluebird or Paypal or Netspend/Go/Vanilla reload kept changing the rules about how they can be loaded - some stores accepted credit cards while some wont.
4. Walmart accepted loads on the prepaid cards at first and then stopped
5. Same with CVS
6. Same with ... you get the gist!
7. Online bill pay service stopped or limited number of users per service
In the meantime, the customers had their target of spending 5k to 10k within 3 months would get fatigued with too much gift cards at hand and less money to spend. Not everything can be or should be automated. For instance, I had some minor automation in some online sites to load money from a certain credit card. Not only the site changed its rule regarding the loading limits and automation, the credit card itself fell out of favor in terms of points raked. Now, on a given day with a busy work schedule takings its toll on mind and body, it is difficult to keep tab on such things and make necessary adjustments. Let alone missing opportunities, sometimes automation at this level becomes a burden. Those with software background can appreciate the negatives that too much automation cause to a process. Hence the approach of this blog is going to be flexible. There are no written rules in the land of hustling, no optimization, no crying over missed offers and so on. There is no point in being rigid. Rather best to adapt and use a tool well. This blog would give well crafted images - essentially flow charts or work flow. One can mindlessly , like a drone , simply execute the steps on the way without thinking and reap the benefits of strategic credit card spending. Some day when there is a computer which will do some of this via open API, it would make sense to have a program that reads this image and converts that to point earning action. Till then, we would just change and adapt as per need.
The image instructions would not be as simple as loading an app or getting a code to scan on a store. Those are unit actions in themselves which us humans can do quite well. But when it comes to having to chose between 5 stores to load, 5 cards to choose from, 5 stores where they can be purchased and then keeping track of these, you may want tools that help you achieve these in under 10 minutes time on a weekday. That is the aim of this blog.
Bottom line, look at the images that come up on this site and execute them. If this gain traction, I might even come up with a few apps which help you give the tools require to manage them well. The tools would be generic enough for beginner to advance level folks to use. Aim is simplicity, ease of use and learn, easy to use quickly and highly customized solution to a problem which simply solves the problem. The aim is to reach a balanced level of automation in a moving goal post such that it optimizes our time and effeciency.
Some tracking apps such as reward wallet are good but they dont seem to integrate with a significant number of airlines or hotels. Of course, many folks counter that with an excel that is customized and has important information such as end dates, expiration date of rewards or annual fee due dates among others. A better tool would be to remind you to use a set of credit cards every six months or simply transfer over 100 points every six months from some of the better reward programs such as the Amex Membership rewards or the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
As of 2014, some tools are better used by human minds rather than computers. They are simply better computers than man made computers. For instance, looking at a moving story from a charity organization and getting inspired by it enough to donate one's miles to the charity instead of taking that trip to a tropical destination is something that can be done by a human mind with a single thought for now. So while sentinels need to do the sentinel thing, lets get together and create the visual and functional tools to speeden up the point raking strategies.
Power of automation
For those dealing with computers on a day to day basis, it is common knowledge that computers, applied scientific creations and technology, robots etc are tools that help automate various aspects of life thus allowing humans to do what they do best - sleep like a bear. Honey badger really likes that concept and tries to get all its eating/sleeping/spending/living habits out of the way so that it can remain in its state of iowa (which is blissful state of ignorance and being) as soon as possible. There are so many activities and things to do in life. There are the good stuff like fitness, yoga, travel, experimenting on concepts such as minimalism, learning finance and spirituality or simply helping out other humans and pursuing math and science and so on .. (there is also TV :D ). While not aspect of life can or should be automated, it is possible to achieve a balance which helps your mind being mindful while keeping oneself engaged and on. Take the example of driving - in my view, do I like shift stick manual driving? Probably no, that is a bit too much work. What about driverless car - again no. Not due to lack of trust on technology but it is simply nice to drive oneself and get that experience. It is kind of a yoga in itself and takes off your mind from its current context. Maybe at a later point of evolution and time, with a particular activity such as exploring maybe driverless car looks enticing. But, I would really like to be in a spot where I do driving for the sake of it and not because it is stressful. There is already a driverless car in place - it is called train or hiring another human as driver. I think technology can aid or help as a tool. To completely automate it and treat it as a black box kind of takes the fun. Of course, to each his own. There is nothing wrong in having a view and application consistent with one's own comfort level. In the context of credit cards, there are people who automate the credit card spending and keep track of things in their minds or in excel sheets. Frequent changes means frequently revising all this. A simple case of changes that happened in 2013-2014 can be tabulated as follows:
1. The sign up bonuses came in targeted and in certain periods of a year
2. The tools mainly used such as reload cards underwent drastic changes in terms of fees, locations where they are available, locations where they frequently ran out, how they could be loaded
3. Some of the main tools such as Amex Serve card or Bluebird or Paypal or Netspend/Go/Vanilla reload kept changing the rules about how they can be loaded - some stores accepted credit cards while some wont.
4. Walmart accepted loads on the prepaid cards at first and then stopped
5. Same with CVS
6. Same with ... you get the gist!
7. Online bill pay service stopped or limited number of users per service
In the meantime, the customers had their target of spending 5k to 10k within 3 months would get fatigued with too much gift cards at hand and less money to spend. Not everything can be or should be automated. For instance, I had some minor automation in some online sites to load money from a certain credit card. Not only the site changed its rule regarding the loading limits and automation, the credit card itself fell out of favor in terms of points raked. Now, on a given day with a busy work schedule takings its toll on mind and body, it is difficult to keep tab on such things and make necessary adjustments. Let alone missing opportunities, sometimes automation at this level becomes a burden. Those with software background can appreciate the negatives that too much automation cause to a process. Hence the approach of this blog is going to be flexible. There are no written rules in the land of hustling, no optimization, no crying over missed offers and so on. There is no point in being rigid. Rather best to adapt and use a tool well. This blog would give well crafted images - essentially flow charts or work flow. One can mindlessly , like a drone , simply execute the steps on the way without thinking and reap the benefits of strategic credit card spending. Some day when there is a computer which will do some of this via open API, it would make sense to have a program that reads this image and converts that to point earning action. Till then, we would just change and adapt as per need.
The image instructions would not be as simple as loading an app or getting a code to scan on a store. Those are unit actions in themselves which us humans can do quite well. But when it comes to having to chose between 5 stores to load, 5 cards to choose from, 5 stores where they can be purchased and then keeping track of these, you may want tools that help you achieve these in under 10 minutes time on a weekday. That is the aim of this blog.
Bottom line, look at the images that come up on this site and execute them. If this gain traction, I might even come up with a few apps which help you give the tools require to manage them well. The tools would be generic enough for beginner to advance level folks to use. Aim is simplicity, ease of use and learn, easy to use quickly and highly customized solution to a problem which simply solves the problem. The aim is to reach a balanced level of automation in a moving goal post such that it optimizes our time and effeciency.
Some tracking apps such as reward wallet are good but they dont seem to integrate with a significant number of airlines or hotels. Of course, many folks counter that with an excel that is customized and has important information such as end dates, expiration date of rewards or annual fee due dates among others. A better tool would be to remind you to use a set of credit cards every six months or simply transfer over 100 points every six months from some of the better reward programs such as the Amex Membership rewards or the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
As of 2014, some tools are better used by human minds rather than computers. They are simply better computers than man made computers. For instance, looking at a moving story from a charity organization and getting inspired by it enough to donate one's miles to the charity instead of taking that trip to a tropical destination is something that can be done by a human mind with a single thought for now. So while sentinels need to do the sentinel thing, lets get together and create the visual and functional tools to speeden up the point raking strategies.
1. The sign up bonuses came in targeted and in certain periods of a year
2. The tools mainly used such as reload cards underwent drastic changes in terms of fees, locations where they are available, locations where they frequently ran out, how they could be loaded
3. Some of the main tools such as Amex Serve card or Bluebird or Paypal or Netspend/Go/Vanilla reload kept changing the rules about how they can be loaded - some stores accepted credit cards while some wont.
4. Walmart accepted loads on the prepaid cards at first and then stopped
5. Same with CVS
6. Same with ... you get the gist!
7. Online bill pay service stopped or limited number of users per service
In the meantime, the customers had their target of spending 5k to 10k within 3 months would get fatigued with too much gift cards at hand and less money to spend. Not everything can be or should be automated. For instance, I had some minor automation in some online sites to load money from a certain credit card. Not only the site changed its rule regarding the loading limits and automation, the credit card itself fell out of favor in terms of points raked. Now, on a given day with a busy work schedule takings its toll on mind and body, it is difficult to keep tab on such things and make necessary adjustments. Let alone missing opportunities, sometimes automation at this level becomes a burden. Those with software background can appreciate the negatives that too much automation cause to a process. Hence the approach of this blog is going to be flexible. There are no written rules in the land of hustling, no optimization, no crying over missed offers and so on. There is no point in being rigid. Rather best to adapt and use a tool well. This blog would give well crafted images - essentially flow charts or work flow. One can mindlessly , like a drone , simply execute the steps on the way without thinking and reap the benefits of strategic credit card spending. Some day when there is a computer which will do some of this via open API, it would make sense to have a program that reads this image and converts that to point earning action. Till then, we would just change and adapt as per need.
The image instructions would not be as simple as loading an app or getting a code to scan on a store. Those are unit actions in themselves which us humans can do quite well. But when it comes to having to chose between 5 stores to load, 5 cards to choose from, 5 stores where they can be purchased and then keeping track of these, you may want tools that help you achieve these in under 10 minutes time on a weekday. That is the aim of this blog.
Bottom line, look at the images that come up on this site and execute them. If this gain traction, I might even come up with a few apps which help you give the tools require to manage them well. The tools would be generic enough for beginner to advance level folks to use. Aim is simplicity, ease of use and learn, easy to use quickly and highly customized solution to a problem which simply solves the problem. The aim is to reach a balanced level of automation in a moving goal post such that it optimizes our time and effeciency.
Some tracking apps such as reward wallet are good but they dont seem to integrate with a significant number of airlines or hotels. Of course, many folks counter that with an excel that is customized and has important information such as end dates, expiration date of rewards or annual fee due dates among others. A better tool would be to remind you to use a set of credit cards every six months or simply transfer over 100 points every six months from some of the better reward programs such as the Amex Membership rewards or the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
As of 2014, some tools are better used by human minds rather than computers. They are simply better computers than man made computers. For instance, looking at a moving story from a charity organization and getting inspired by it enough to donate one's miles to the charity instead of taking that trip to a tropical destination is something that can be done by a human mind with a single thought for now. So while sentinels need to do the sentinel thing, lets get together and create the visual and functional tools to speeden up the point raking strategies.
Why this blog?
So, onto the second post!
In this post, I would start with what is this blog? What does it do?
I would reflect a bit about why there is a need for such a blog.
What value does it provide to the reader and myself? What are the different topics and boundaries that we will navigate?
Well, this blog is about strategizing credit card spend. A lot of credit card sign ups offer heavy sign on bonuses, good on-going rewards in the form of cash back, bonus points, travel points or myraid other choices such as fee waivers, services and ancillory benefits. How to go about getting those credit cards? To be sure, there is no clear cut way before one decides to apply for credit cards. Most people apply for one or two credit cards, if at all, and that is for convenience of not carrying cash or preventing debit card transactions. There are pros and cons of using credit cards and it is upto each individual to decide whether to apply for one, how many to apply or how long to keep them. How to manage the fees and weigh the cost benefit associated with each of them. Most of these are fairly simple yes/no individual level subjective questions. There are lot of websites and financial sites which educates a reader on these choices and many of these are quite common sensical and readers can always take a "trial and error" approach for these.
This site for a large part assumes that you are a credit card user who likes to rake in the points. Again, there are tons of websites and forums dealing with this topic. There are forums and sites such as flyertalk and many other secretive minded commentors who try to keep the good deals under radar for as long as possible. In the internet driven world, of course, there are also lot of bloggers who can smell these and make this content go viral. The credit card companies often target their best customers or potential customers. But in this now-complex environment, there are simply too many deals and offers out there that one can get easily blinded. Some of the blogs are essentially higher level news sites that wade through all this info and try to get you the deals. Many times they are late, and it is just a matter of time before the general (or significant number of ) public catches up to it and then the deals are taken down by the companies.
The trends before 2005 is out there in the web in old posts. Post 2005, there were periods of time when there were good sign up bonus offered by large credit card companies for limited period of time. The teaser continued and evidently large customer base was formed as can be seen by the continued popularity of these mechanisms. A ton of bloggosphere was devoted to these content. The emergence of quick communication tools and social services further gave the marketers powerful tools to reach the critical mass in a given market. The big question is - Are you one of the lucky people who could be in the "critical mass" segment? You would have to be on top of the game , be reactive and follow the social media services that were embedded in the 2009-2012 period. The emergence of offers and coupons by various restaurants and retail outlets - online and offline means that many limited time offers are going to go viral like they did in 2013/2014 and few folks would be able to get wind of it.
Where does this blog fit in? The main purpose of this blog would be go provide tools for finding those deals with special focus on the credit card spending strategies as well as few quick hustles. The quick ones would be mostly just reposts or links to other tweets or blogs. Honestly, those ones are the low hanging fruits. The big ones are the strategies that one has the option of repeatedly using over time.
As mentioned earlier, to maintain the uniqueness and originality of this site, we wont emphasize on reposts. Those would be just secondary links or plain texts information. Many such information can be easily gleamed via social media sites and alerts and simply by keeping tabs on the brand websites that you like. The main value this site would add is to provide up to date, accurate information on the spending strategies. For instance, in early 2014, Citi came up with 100k sign up bonus on 10k spend. This was a good deal by any measure - be it the past decade, late 90s or in general the way American Airlines and Citi target their HNI clients or very frequent fliers. These deals with limited numbers on them make to the market and the hope is that well to do folks will sign up. With the power of tools that the internet provides as well as mechanisms such as "reloads" it is fairly easy to achieve those targets without sweating. I know a bunch of people met the target spend of 10k of this particular card within a month without breaking a sweat. A lot of folks also have a main job and dont want to spend their time and mental energy in such activities. It would be nice if a computer algorithm does this on its own. Of course, we would have to rely on a robot to get to CVS or 7-11 stores. But thats not the hard part. The hard part is which card and tools to chose and how to strategize them and manage them. How not to get lost in deals, informations and keeping tab of the various cards that have filled up your wallet by this time.
I promise that the first few posts would be voluminous writing but soon this would devolve to easy to understand images and few texts .. which is what is my aim for this blog. There is no point in creating more links and information overload in the internet. There is no point in redistribution, content formatting or presentation and get a few ad impressions and clicks on the way. I see this blog as something that I am going to do in the coming days and essentially this is a central strategy for me too when it comes to manufactured spending as some call it or strategizing credit card spend in a way that is less taxing to your mind, as I call it.
Why this blog?
So, onto the second post!
In this post, I would start with what is this blog? What does it do?
I would reflect a bit about why there is a need for such a blog.
What value does it provide to the reader and myself? What are the different topics and boundaries that we will navigate?
Well, this blog is about strategizing credit card spend. A lot of credit card sign ups offer heavy sign on bonuses, good on-going rewards in the form of cash back, bonus points, travel points or myraid other choices such as fee waivers, services and ancillory benefits. How to go about getting those credit cards? To be sure, there is no clear cut way before one decides to apply for credit cards. Most people apply for one or two credit cards, if at all, and that is for convenience of not carrying cash or preventing debit card transactions. There are pros and cons of using credit cards and it is upto each individual to decide whether to apply for one, how many to apply or how long to keep them. How to manage the fees and weigh the cost benefit associated with each of them. Most of these are fairly simple yes/no individual level subjective questions. There are lot of websites and financial sites which educates a reader on these choices and many of these are quite common sensical and readers can always take a "trial and error" approach for these.
This site for a large part assumes that you are a credit card user who likes to rake in the points. Again, there are tons of websites and forums dealing with this topic. There are forums and sites such as flyertalk and many other secretive minded commentors who try to keep the good deals under radar for as long as possible. In the internet driven world, of course, there are also lot of bloggers who can smell these and make this content go viral. The credit card companies often target their best customers or potential customers. But in this now-complex environment, there are simply too many deals and offers out there that one can get easily blinded. Some of the blogs are essentially higher level news sites that wade through all this info and try to get you the deals. Many times they are late, and it is just a matter of time before the general (or significant number of ) public catches up to it and then the deals are taken down by the companies.
The trends before 2005 is out there in the web in old posts. Post 2005, there were periods of time when there were good sign up bonus offered by large credit card companies for limited period of time. The teaser continued and evidently large customer base was formed as can be seen by the continued popularity of these mechanisms. A ton of bloggosphere was devoted to these content. The emergence of quick communication tools and social services further gave the marketers powerful tools to reach the critical mass in a given market. The big question is - Are you one of the lucky people who could be in the "critical mass" segment? You would have to be on top of the game , be reactive and follow the social media services that were embedded in the 2009-2012 period. The emergence of offers and coupons by various restaurants and retail outlets - online and offline means that many limited time offers are going to go viral like they did in 2013/2014 and few folks would be able to get wind of it.
Where does this blog fit in? The main purpose of this blog would be go provide tools for finding those deals with special focus on the credit card spending strategies as well as few quick hustles. The quick ones would be mostly just reposts or links to other tweets or blogs. Honestly, those ones are the low hanging fruits. The big ones are the strategies that one has the option of repeatedly using over time.
As mentioned earlier, to maintain the uniqueness and originality of this site, we wont emphasize on reposts. Those would be just secondary links or plain texts information. Many such information can be easily gleamed via social media sites and alerts and simply by keeping tabs on the brand websites that you like. The main value this site would add is to provide up to date, accurate information on the spending strategies. For instance, in early 2014, Citi came up with 100k sign up bonus on 10k spend. This was a good deal by any measure - be it the past decade, late 90s or in general the way American Airlines and Citi target their HNI clients or very frequent fliers. These deals with limited numbers on them make to the market and the hope is that well to do folks will sign up. With the power of tools that the internet provides as well as mechanisms such as "reloads" it is fairly easy to achieve those targets without sweating. I know a bunch of people met the target spend of 10k of this particular card within a month without breaking a sweat. A lot of folks also have a main job and dont want to spend their time and mental energy in such activities. It would be nice if a computer algorithm does this on its own. Of course, we would have to rely on a robot to get to CVS or 7-11 stores. But thats not the hard part. The hard part is which card and tools to chose and how to strategize them and manage them. How not to get lost in deals, informations and keeping tab of the various cards that have filled up your wallet by this time.
I promise that the first few posts would be voluminous writing but soon this would devolve to easy to understand images and few texts .. which is what is my aim for this blog. There is no point in creating more links and information overload in the internet. There is no point in redistribution, content formatting or presentation and get a few ad impressions and clicks on the way. I see this blog as something that I am going to do in the coming days and essentially this is a central strategy for me too when it comes to manufactured spending as some call it or strategizing credit card spend in a way that is less taxing to your mind, as I call it.
First Post
Hello All!
I will keep this short and simple.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Thanks for stopping by.
I will keep this short and simple.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Thanks for stopping by.
First Post
Hello All!
I will keep this short and simple.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Thanks for stopping by.
I will keep this short and simple.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)