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How to Earn the Most Points
This is the million dollar question in travel hacking. There are so many different family and travel situations as well as credit cards and ways to pile on points that it can be hard to make absolute statements. And while there are plenty of “gray” areas that can earn you a lot of points, we are going to stick with the clear ones today.
Sign-Up Bonuses
The fastest way to earn a ton of points with the least amount of effort is sign up bonuses. There is nothing else that gains you the extreme numbers as quickly as they do. I will say however, that there is IMMENSE value in stacking points and using multipliers.
Multipliers
Credit cards all come with multipliers, 3x points for restaurants, 5x points for office supplies, etc. One of the best ways we have found to utilize these multipliers is to first analyze your budget. Once you know the places you spend the most money, you know which cards to search out.
For Example, let’s say Bob’s most frequently used budget categories are Restaurants, Gas, and Groceries. The credit cards that I might pursue:
- AMEX Gold – earns 4x at restaurants and grocery stores
- Citi Premier – earns 3x on gas
When not working on a minimum spend, we utilize the cards that earn us the best multipliers for each category to earn the most points possible.
Stacking
Stacking is much more complex and reminds me of extreme couponing in a lot of ways. We stack some when we see it, but there are many out there who are much better at it. Stacking includes utilizing sites like Rakuten, or airline shopping portals, as well as special offers on your credit card, to earn multiple points in multiple places per purchase. There are many people who earn hundreds of thousands of points this way each year, but it will definitely take more of your time and energy to do it.
An example:
Stanley Cups has a 10% back offer on Rakuten.
Stanley Cups also has a $15 back deal on AMEX.
I buy my $60 worth of Stanley cups through Rakuten, and pay with my AMEX Card.
I receive: 600 Amex points through Rakuten, $15 back on my Amex bonus, and the 60 Amex points I make from the original purchase.
If you are interested in stacking, check out Ginny @thegrady_bunch on Instagram for some of the best stacking tips.
Resources for Stacking
Conclusion
There are so many ways to earn credit card points, and yes, you can build points really well through stacking and multipliers, but the best way to gather the most points is sign up bonuses, which is why we really encourage people towards business cards, to maximize your sign up bonus abilities. However, if you aren’t comfortable with business cards, start giving your eyes to multipliers and stacking so you can get the most points possible for that next dream vacation!
