Inspired Budget

#141: How to Start Travel Hacking with the Travel Hacking Moms

• Allison Baggerly • Episode 141

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Unlock the world of nearly free travel and learn how disciplined budgeting can actually boost your credit score! The fantastic trio from Travel Hacking Mom, including Alex, Pam, and Jess, join us to reveal how they've turned credit card points and miles into a passport for global adventure.

Their stories are as inspiring as they are practical, from Alex's serendipitous discovery to Pam's evolution from coupon queen to travel hacking royalty, and Jess's quest for affordable family vacations. They not only share their escapades but also the strengthened bonds and cherished memories made along the way.

We dissect the fundamentals of starting your own travel hacking voyage with sage advice on the significance of a solid credit score and the benefits of focusing on one points currency to start. We wrap up with strategic tips on maximizing credit card rewards and a sneak peek into the infectious excitement of planning the next thrifty yet luxurious getaway.

Whether you're new to the game or looking to refine your travel hacking skills, this episode guarantees a treasure trove of insights to fuel your wanderlust without draining your wallet.

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Speaker 1:

And as I did that research, I learned that opening credit cards isn't going to destroy your credit, and all three of us have seen our credit scores have actually gone up since we've started travel hacking. So when you apply for a credit card you're going to have a little ding on your credit report from that inquiry, but there's a lot of benefits that come with opening credit cards that make up for that small drop in your score.

Speaker 2:

Hey, this is Allison, and welcome to the Inspire Budget podcast, where we talk all things budgeting debt and saving money. Today we have a trio of guests yes, three guests the women behind travel hacking mom, alex, pam and Jess. They've cracked the code on traveling the world using credit card points and miles. With experiences ranging from Hawaii to Paris, greece to Mexico and countless other beautiful destinations, alex, pam and Jess have demonstrated how strategic financial choices can unlock a world of adventure. So, whether you're a seasoned traveler or someone wanting to dip their toe into travel hacking, you're in for a treat. Welcome Alex, jess and Pam to the Inspire Budget podcast to talk all about travel hacking and being travel hacking moms. So welcome you guys, hey thanks.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having us.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so I want to hear from each of you, really briefly, what got you into travel hacking and how you discovered it. Yeah, so I'll go first.

Speaker 1:

I'm Alex and I started travel hacking probably about six, six and a half years ago, and I actually had a friend that was doing it. I didn't know that that's what she was doing. When I saw her doing it, I was a little confused, and then I stumbled upon it online, took a deep dive into blog posts, read it all of that and really just fell in love with it because I wanted to travel and I couldn't afford it. So I had found my answer.

Speaker 2:

I love it. I feel like traveling when you can't afford it, especially as a mom with kids. It's so expensive, jess. What about?

Speaker 3:

you, yeah. So I started in 2015 and sort of a similar story to Alex. I had my daughter in 2013, and then I have three stepkids. So we're a blended family and traveling with six people, as you can imagine, is very expensive. I did not grow up traveling. I took my first flight when I was 18, but I always really wanted to travel and I wanted those experiences with my family, and so I just started doing it out of necessity. It was either start travel hacking, figure out a way to do this, or don't travel at all, or just stick to road trips close to home, and so I dipped my toes into it. I was really skeptical at first, dipped my toes in, and here I am, eight years later, still addicted and still travel hacking.

Speaker 2:

I love it. What about you, pam?

Speaker 4:

Well, I'm a retired nurse and the joke in my family was that I mean, I love to travel, so I was always trying to earn extra money for travel. So I would say that I was going to book something and my husband would say, well, how are you going to pay for I go? Oh, I'll work an extra shift. And so it just got to be a joke in my family that there's only so many days in a week to work, with those extra shifts to pay for travel. And so Alex found out about travel hacking and I had been an extreme couponer, wrote for a very famous blog, and so I literally changed free toothpaste and free shampoo into nearly free travel, and it was the best thing I ever did.

Speaker 2:

Wait, hold on. So you changed what.

Speaker 4:

Well, I used to as an extreme couponer. I was always using coupons for free toothpaste and free shampoo and saving money there that I could use on some of my travel. But when I found out about travel hacking it was like, oh, we're going to go big now because this was a huge difference. In just saving pennies on the dollar, I could really save a lot.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we mentioned it yet, but I'm Alex and Pam is my mom, so we're mother daughter duo. And then Jess is our friend that we met through travel, hacking and social media and then asked her to join the team. So that's kind of the connection. Sometimes people think that Pam is both of our moms, which I'll take Jess as my sister any day, but she's just a friend.

Speaker 2:

I love it. I'm just curious have you guys ever travel, hacked a trip together, the three of you?

Speaker 4:

We have. We have an annual trip that we try to do every year. We call it our travel hacking mom retreat. Last year we went to Mexico. We went to the what was it? The Andes, mayacoba. Yes, we went there and we travel hacked that Alex and Jester getting ready to do a trip, without me, because I already had a trip planned and we have another one planned in Scott, still for December. That's our second retreat because we have been together as a threesome for a year.

Speaker 2:

I love it. So, jess, I can relate a lot to your story where you said you grew up you didn't take your first flight until you were 18. I think I was also 18. I flew in college to go visit one of my best friends and went to Harvard and I always thought that the idea of travel felt so untouchable because of finances, because of my budget and my money or my lack of enough money, and so it sounds like you have the same type of situation because we didn't travel growing up. So what are some of the first basic steps that you took? Whenever you first got started? And then I know Alex, you said it was either Alex or Jess. One of you said that y'all started and it was. You kind of dipped your toes into it because it can be really intimidating. So, jess, can you kind of break down a couple of steps that you took to get started?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I actually learned about travel hacking from one of my co-workers at the time and she was telling me about it. I noticed that she and her family she's married and has two kids and they were traveling all over the world and I was. I went into her office and I was like, listen, I know how much money you make and I know that you don't make enough money to be taking the trip. Like, how are you affording these vacations? And so she told me about travel hacking and I was immediately super skeptical because she started talking about okay, well, you have to open credit cards and you have. And so I was thinking that's going to ruin my credit score. You know all the things that people come to us now and say like I'm nervous that it's going to ruin my credit score. I don't think I'm going to be able to be approved for that many credit cards. How do you stay organized? All those thoughts were running through my head, and so she sent me a few resources.

Speaker 3:

At the time, social media wasn't really a thing, it was mostly all just on blogs, and so she sent me some blogs and she was like check these out, see what you think. And the thing is like I was skeptical, but I trusted her. I was thinking she's not going. You know she's a smart woman. She's not going to be telling me to get into something that's shady or illegal or anything like that. And so I started just reading and I started really slow and I think that that's what we recommend for people. We're at a place where we've been doing this for a really long time now, and so maybe we are comfortable taking a little bit more risks, opening more cards than maybe some people are comfortable with.

Speaker 3:

But we didn't start that way. You know we started with I opened a credit card with a pretty low minimum spend I think it was around 500,. You know I had to spend $500 in three months to earn my welcome offer. I did that, I got my points and I was like, okay, that wasn't that bad, maybe I'll try to do it again. And a few months later I opened another card.

Speaker 3:

I told my husband about this. He was even more skeptical than I was, but I said listen, I want to travel. You're either in or I'm traveling without you, because this is how we have to like. Unless we're both going to suddenly start making a bunch more money, this is our only option, and so he reluctantly agreed to start opening cards. Also, if you have, we call that a player too. It doesn't have to be a spouse, it can be a partner, it can be a parent, a sibling, just anyone you want to travel with. But having someone that you can refer credit cards to really helps, because you earn referral points for a lot of the cards and so you can double the amount of points you get. You can really earn a lot more points that way, and so, yeah, I just started really slow and made sure I had all the basics down. I did a ton of research and, yeah, the more I did it, the more comfortable I felt with it, and then just kept going after that.

Speaker 2:

I love it. Okay, so you mentioned that you were really skeptical. You're worried about how this would impact your finances. Can you even take out that many cards and use? Talks about how a lot of people are really concerned. Alex, I want you to tell us what are some of the myths, some of the myths of travel hacking, because when I first got started, I very much felt like is this allowed or is what's the catch? Right? That's how I felt. So what are some of the common myths that you see people that are new to travel hacking are feeling or scared of that might almost be holding them back from ultimately like taking free trips with their family.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's definitely some myths out there, and I would say the biggest one is people are so worried that it's going to destroy their credit score, and that was my biggest concern too. So before I even opened my first card, I figured out okay, what impacts my credit score? What is it all made up? What even is a credit score first? So I feel like you hear it talked about a lot and you know what's important, but you don't really even know what it means or what it does. So I had to research and kind of educate myself of what a credit score is, why I need a good one and all of that.

Speaker 1:

And as I did that research, I learned that opening credit cards isn't going to destroy your credit, and all three of us have seen our credit scores have actually gone up since we've started travel hacking. So when you apply for a credit card, you're going to have a little ding on your credit report from that inquiry, but there's a lot of benefits that come with opening credit cards that make up for that small drop in your score. So as long as you're paying off your card each month on time and in full and you're not carrying these high balances on your cards, then you should see kind of what we saw in your credit score should actually increase. So I would say that's by far the biggest myth that we see in the biggest reluctancy that people tend to have with getting into travel hacking.

Speaker 2:

Does anyone else have another myth that they can think of? Because I agree with you. I saw that same situation with me and my credit score increasing, and it's higher than ever. So, pam, what do you say? What myth do you know about when it comes to that?

Speaker 4:

Well, I think one of the myths when you get into travel hacking is that you open up one card, you put all your spending on that card and you're going to be able to continue to travel for forever. And so we get people that open up one card and they go on that first trip and they go. Well, now I hardly have any points and I'm having a really hard time earning more points. It's so slow. And so the idea behind travel hacking is that, yes, you earn points through travel and through the card, continuing to use it, but it's through those welcome offers that banks give you for opening up their card. I mean, banks want us to try them out, and so they're willing to offer you 50,000, 100,000 points or miles to put so much spending on their card. And so that's the way that we're able to continue to travel is that we open up a card, we meet the minimum spend and then we open up another card or refer our spouse to it so that they get the bonus again. And it's through opening up multiple cards and slowly again. At first I'm a low CD. Alex can attest that I went full in, so I probably my first year had way more cards open than most people, but for most people it's just opening up a couple cards a year two to four cards between the spouses and then using those welcome offers for your trip. So if you think that you can travel hack with just one card and that's it, that's a huge myth.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 2:

My first, I guess, dipping my toe in the water or travel hacking was the Southwest Companion Pass, and we did that for a year and once our companion pass was over, I was like, okay, I'm all in, let's do this. What's next? What's next with this? And it can be I don't want to say addicting, because I wouldn't say that like I'm addicted to travel hacking or anything like that. But I do think as and I wouldn't be doing my due diligence as a podcast host for inspired budget podcast to talk about the, I guess, the risk of not having discipline with credit cards, because a lot of people do have high credit card debt and we all know that those the interest rate is just ridiculous. So what do you recommend to the people that you work with in terms of kind of finding a balance between using travel hacking to help you reach your goals and do things, versus not using travel hacking in terms of, like, racking up debt?

Speaker 1:

Well, I think one of the first things is, if someone sends me a DM or sends us a DM and they ask what's the interest rate or can you send me, give me some information about a card with this interest rate? I flat out it's if you want to travel hacking, you're wondering about interest rates. You shouldn't be travel hacking because, like you said, the interest rates on these cards are very, very high, and so I actually have never even really paid attention to what the interest rates are, because I know I'm going to pay my card off in full each month.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so let's talk about that. How do you know just you've worked with how many like hundreds, thousands of people to help them figure out? Is travel hacking for me? What are like some sets you give them Like travel hacking is for you if or it's not for you, if this or maybe not now.

Speaker 3:

I would say definitely the ability to, like Alex said, pay off your card on time and in full each month. That is the biggest one I tell people. If you cannot pay off your card every month in time and in full, don't do this. It's not the right time, maybe not never, but just not right now. Because if you're paying interest on your credit cards, then you're not traveling for free. You know you're paying for it in the form of interest, and so that is the biggest thing we tell people. Also, typically we recommend someone have at least a 700 credit score to be able to get approved for these travel rewards cards that we recommend.

Speaker 3:

There are so many credit cards and a lot of people come to us and they say, oh, I'm interested in getting a cashback card, why should I get a travel rewards card instead? And the answer is that a lot of times you get way more value redeeming your points and miles for travel. There's often much higher welcome offers on the travel rewards cards than on cashback cards. So those are just a couple of things to consider. The third thing would be can you meet the minimum spend on the card that you're applying for?

Speaker 3:

So what we like to tell people when they're first starting out is you're basically treating your credit card like a debit card. You are charging all of your everyday expenses. You're charging your groceries, your gas, dining out, medical expenses. If your daycare takes a credit card, that's an amazing way to hit a minimum spend, and so you wanna make sure that you can hit that minimum spend. Most minimum spends are around $4,000 in three months, so you're looking at about $1,300 of expenses per month. Can you hit that? With prices the way they are these days, I find it very easy to hit my minimum spend, especially if you have a family. I know Alex has four young boys. They can probably hit a minimum spend just with their grocery bill. They don't even need it.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly what I was thinking. I was like groceries right there done.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and so it's really just a matter of doing the math and thinking can I hit this minimum spend? A lot of times, there are certain times of the year where people might have higher expenses than normal. The end of the year tends to be the time that I spend the most money with things like Black Friday shopping for the holidays. Our HOA fees are due, then tax bills are due, and so you can also get strategic and plan. Okay, I know I'm gonna have a lot of expenses in the next three month period. Maybe I'll apply for a card that has a higher minimum spend that I couldn't normally meet, but I can now because I know I'm gonna have all these expenses coming up.

Speaker 3:

And we set ours. We set our credit cards to auto pay. Just pay off the statement balance every month. Some people find it more helpful, especially when they're starting out, to pay off their card more frequently than that. Maybe, instead of paying off your card once a month, it helps you to pay it off once a week. That's fine. The bank is gonna tell you that you cannot pay your card once a week, and so that's another strategy that sometimes helps people when they're just starting out get a little bit more comfortable moving all of their charges over to a credit card rather than a debit card, or paying cash.

Speaker 2:

I love that tip. I've actually known people that I have a friend who travel hacks and he has a lot of cards and he pays His card off every single day. It's just like just like he brushes his teeth, just like he takes a shower, he pays his card off. It's just so habitual and he's like I just need that money out of my checking account and it's like it's okay. He figured out what works for him, right.

Speaker 1:

Well, and he's probably not gonna get into credit card debt because he's staying on top of it, and so if someone struggles with that. That's a really good way to make sure things don't get out of hand.

Speaker 2:

Exactly Okay. So let's say that someone is like I'm ready, I want to just dip my toe into this. I want you to really quickly and Pam, you can do this lay out just like the step-by-step basics for how this like Travel comes out, like, where does it come from? I'm thinking of questions people might have like do I have to sign up for a Card and go to a specific place? Like, if I sign up for a time-share presentation, I have to go to this specific place. That way people understand how you spend money to earn points and redeem those points.

Speaker 4:

Well, we suggest always that people start out small. We have a favorite card. We like cards that earn transferable, that's a transferable currency, and that's a card that isn't a branded card, so it's not a card that say, like a united card, you get that card. The only thing you can use it for is for United flights. So we like our transferable currency cards. I don't know if we can say what our favorite card is. Okay. So our favorite beginner card is a chase, sapphire preferred and the usual.

Speaker 4:

Yes, it's a great card because it has great. You can use the points that you're gonna get. The usual offer on it is that you're going to get 60,000 Chase ultimate rewards after spending $4,000 in three months. That's the usual, very standard offer for it. We love it because it's so beginner friendly. It has great transfer partners.

Speaker 4:

So once you have spent your amount, you're gonna get those ultimate rewards. You can use them. You can go and you can use them in the portal, which is like Expedia, that you're not going to get the best value, but it's certainly possible. You know you'll get 1.5 cents per point there. We like to transfer them to partners. That's where we get more bang for our buck. Some of our favorite partners with this card are Hyatt hotels Amazing value there. You can transfer it to Southwest Airlines, you can transfer it to United Airlines and then a lot of other partners, and so that's what we do. So we get a card, we meet our bonus, we capture that and then we transfer it somewhere that we then use to book our our flights or or our hotels.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm and I think at the beginning we do say that it's. It's helpful maybe for newer people to have a destination in mind that can help sort of Okay, narrow down, okay, which cards might you know but be beneficial for you to open. But we're definitely, like Pam said, fans of the transferable points. Just because they give you so many more options. You're not locked into one specific airline or one specific hotel chain and then you can just keep opening cards that earn those same points. We actually have a like free guide to chase ultimate rewards points that lays out all of the different cards that you can open that earn that currency, and so I think it's the best to open the flexible rewards cards unless you have a specific need for a certain airline or hotel card.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I have that card. My husband and I both have it, and I love that you can also combine points, so you can share points as well. And then I even have the chase unlimited business card so I can spend money on my business and combine it all into one big pot. I.

Speaker 1:

And I think, too, like starting off with one currency like that is going to make it a lot less overwhelming than getting Chase Ultimate Rewards and getting American Express Membership rewards, because a lot of different bakes have transferable currencies. They all have different transfer partners, but I think when you're just starting out, it's a really good idea to start with one of those. Understand how that one program works and it'll take a lot of the overwhelm out. And, like we said, the Chase Ultimate Rewards program has a lot of the easier transfer partners that are going to work best for most people and it just yeah, I think it's a most beginner friendly program out there.

Speaker 2:

It's like walking into a grocery store and saying what am I going to make for dinner you have so many options versus walking into a restaurant and you're only have this small menu of options. Right, exactly, yeah, yes, okay, this has been amazing. I love it. Now I want you to tell everyone where they can find you guys, how you help others, just especially moms. Start travel hacking and taking their trips on, taking their kids on trips.

Speaker 3:

We have a ton of places that you can find us actually, so I would say we're probably most active on Instagram, so it's just at Travel Hacking Mom. We have a website and a blog. Our blog has over 400 published posts with a ton of information. We have a podcast, the Travel Hacking Mom Show, which is great for people who are just starting out. It's very beginner friendly. Just make sure you start with the very first episode and we kind of just walk you through everything you need to know.

Speaker 3:

We have a Facebook group that has almost 50,000 members where we give advice, other members give advice. It's very friendly and non judgmental and anyone is welcome. And then we also have a masterclass, a free masterclass that you can find if you go to the link in our Instagram bio. We might be able to include it in the show notes, but it's a free 30 minute masterclass that you can register for, and we basically walk through our exact method for how to get started with this how to start traveling nearly free, how we open cards, how we rack up the points through our everyday spend, how we redeem our points for maximum value. So it's a really great place to start If you have absolutely no idea what we're talking about. It's a really great place to sort of start getting familiar with the concepts.

Speaker 2:

I love it and I will link to that class down below because I know how wonderful it is whenever all of the information's in one spot. When someone's like I'm ready to do this, I'm ready to learn who wants to like go and browse across a ton of articles and, you know, piece it together. It's nice when it's all in one spot. Okay, so at the end of my episodes, I like to ask three questions to my guests, so each of you get a question. We'll start with you, Pam. Pam, what is one thing you're looking forward to?

Speaker 4:

I'm always looking forward to my next vacation. I'm probably. We have so much foam up between the three of us One of us plans a trip and the other one's like planning a trip the next day or getting a new card because someone got a card, just got a new card today and I go, oh, I'm going to apply for that card. So 30 seconds ago before, or 30 seconds before I got on here, I got that same card. But we are huge travelers and the ability of having points and miles and to be able to travel for pennies on the dollar makes it so wonderful, and so that is always my. The thing I'm looking most forward to is the next vacation.

Speaker 3:

Which one is the one you're, which one of your like? 12 trips. Are you looking forward to the most?

Speaker 4:

Oh, I don't even know. I'm going to my husband and I are going to the Maldives and Singapore, and Singapore has been on my bucket list for a long time, so I think I'm really looking forward to that one?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that sounds amazing. Okay, Jess, what is one money mistake you've made that you would tell everybody to avoid?

Speaker 3:

Not travel hacking sooner and spending so much money on travel. It's funny because so my husband and I got married in 2011. We went to London and Paris for our honeymoon. We blew economy terrible flights, like a layover, like a seven hour layover in Germany. Finally, get to Paris. We're in this hotel room that is literally the size of a closet. I have to like crawl over him to go to the bathroom. But I was just happy. You know, I had never been to Europe before and so I was just happy to be there. We just went to Italy earlier this year. We flew in business class on the way there, first class. On the way home, we stayed in luxury hotels in Lake Homo, florence and Venice and we spent less money out of pocket than we did on our super budget honeymoon. Wow, I kick myself all the time for not starting sooner, but it's like you don't know what you don't know, and so I will not make that mistake again.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing. Did you document that trip somewhere? I did.

Speaker 3:

We have a podcast episode about it and we have blog posts about it and I'm sure we have reels on Instagram about it. So no shortage of information about that trip.

Speaker 2:

I love it. Okay so, alex, the last one is for you. It's actually not a question, just finish this sentence. My favorite thing I've ever spent money on is massages. Oh, that was quick, you knew.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was thinking about it because that's something we do when we go on trips is we always book ourselves massages, and when you're not paying for your flights and hotel, you can budget in the massage, and so that is something that's very important to all three of us. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh. This has been so great and helpful and I will link to your website, your podcast and your class your travel class, down below in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having us I hope you enjoyed today's episode and that you are walking away inspired to figure out how you can travel for nearly free. As always, if you're enjoying the episode, please leave a rating or review. It means the world to me. Bye.

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