Ever felt overwhelmed by the world of credit card points and miles? Me too! It can be A LOT. Fortunately we've found some apps to help us manage this hobby and they've really made it super easy. This episode is all about getting yourself organized in the world of credit card points and miles. We are sharing our favorite tools, like Rocket Money, that streamline your budgeting by importing and categorizing all your transactions. We’ll also touch on other apps like EveryDollar and YNAB but explain why Rocket Money is our go-to for its user-friendly interface and precise transaction tracking.
We talk about an app that makes sure you're getting the full value out of all of your monthly/yearly credit card benefits/credits/perks, and another that advises you on which credit card to use to get the most points for your purchases.
We also dive into the Travel Freely app, a comprehensive tool that keeps track of your credit card details, sign-up bonuses, and annual fees, making sure you never miss an opportunity to maximize your benefits.
We also shed light on some of our favorite travel planning resources, and some of the best points tracker websites like Max My Point, Point.me, and PointsYeah, which help you monitor point availability for hotels and flights.
Tune in and transform how you manage your credit card rewards and travel points, making every trip a rewarding experience!
Ever felt overwhelmed by the world of credit card points and miles? Me too! It can be A LOT. Fortunately we've found some apps to help us manage this hobby and they've really made it super easy. This episode is all about getting yourself organized in the world of credit card points and miles. We are sharing our favorite tools, like Rocket Money, that streamline your budgeting by importing and categorizing all your transactions. We’ll also touch on other apps like EveryDollar and YNAB but explain why Rocket Money is our go-to for its user-friendly interface and precise transaction tracking.
We talk about an app that makes sure you're getting the full value out of all of your monthly/yearly credit card benefits/credits/perks, and another that advises you on which credit card to use to get the most points for your purchases.
We also dive into the Travel Freely app, a comprehensive tool that keeps track of your credit card details, sign-up bonuses, and annual fees, making sure you never miss an opportunity to maximize your benefits.
We also shed light on some of our favorite travel planning resources, and some of the best points tracker websites like Max My Point, Point.me, and PointsYeah, which help you monitor point availability for hotels and flights.
Tune in and transform how you manage your credit card rewards and travel points, making every trip a rewarding experience!
Speaker 1:
The credit card points and miles world can feel incredibly overwhelming. After all, there are multiple credit cards to manage, you have to make sure you're not going over your budget and you have to plan all these trips that you get to take now for nearly free. So in today's episode, we are sharing all of our favorite tools in our points and miles toolbox that make our life incredibly easy and don't take a ton of time. Hi, I'm Rhea.
Speaker 2:
And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1:
And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.
Speaker 2:
We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.
Speaker 1:
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.
Speaker 2:
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.
Speaker 1:
Hey guys, welcome back to Travel Party of Five podcast.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:
Hello, if you have listened to any previous episodes before we hop into today's topic, if you wouldn't mind leaving us a rating or review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen, we would so greatly appreciate it. The more reviews we get, the more people are able to find our podcast and learn how to use Points and Miles, so we thank you so much.
Speaker 2:
And thank you.
Speaker 1:
Let's dive right in. So we have opened about a dozen credit cards in the last 12 months, not to mention the cards that we previously have from years prior.
Speaker 2:
It's a lot.
Speaker 1:
It's a lot, and so one of the questions that we get asked a lot is how the heck do you keep track of of you know however many credit cards?
Speaker 1:
you have and we do, like I guess you could keep a spreadsheet or whatever. We use an app, um, and there's a bunch of other apps that we use that make this hobby pretty easy and don't take up a ton of time, because we both work full-time, we have three kids, they're in regular school, we are busy, busy people. So I'm going to list out, in no particular order, a couple of different apps that we use to keep us organized.
Speaker 2:
Nice. I'm excited to learn about these apps. You have no idea what any of these are, do you?
Speaker 1:
No, no idea, okay. So the first, the most important thing with this hobby is you need to make sure that you're not overspending, and that can be easy to do when the money is not leaving your checking account every time you swipe your card. So my favorite app to budget is Rocket Money, and so we use the paid version. They have a free version too. I think the paid version is well worth it because it imports all your transactions. You do have to sign in with your bank information, but I mean the free version.
Speaker 1:
You have to literally manually add every transaction, and that is not the life for me. We have too many transactions and I would just never do it. We use the paid version. It's around $100 a year and it's the best budgeting software that I have used, and we've used quite a few. We've also tried EveryDollar, which is dave ramsey budgeting app, and that works good. But the sync to bank accounts was always messing up and then I would have to re-sync and then I would have duplicate transactions so this rocket money has all of our accounts and cards on it.
Speaker 1:
Yes, all of our accounts and cards are linked, including credit cards, and when I get a new credit card, it's easy to just go in and like kind of add it.
Speaker 1:
the other one that we've tried. A lot of people say that this one is really good if you use credit cards exclusively for most of your spending and that's YNAB, so Y-N-A-B and that stands for you need a budget. So we have used the paid version of YNAB in the past and it just does not make sense to my brain and I have watched so many tutorials on it and I just cannot make it make sense and so so many people will say like oh, once you get the hang of it, it's so worth it.
Speaker 1:
It's so incredible, nope, I cannot get the hang of it's so worth it, it's so incredible, nope, I cannot get the hang of it.
Speaker 2:
So I throw like why does it not make sense?
Speaker 1:
it's kind of weird, like the credit cards. It's like I feel like I might explain this incorrectly because I haven't used it now in like a year, but I feel like it should be like a debit, but it shows up as a credit, and then the way that you pay off the car I can't, I don't even know it.
Speaker 2:
Just it's like I mean, if it's, if it makes no sense to your brain, then it's just gibberish to mine yeah, it's not for me.
Speaker 1:
Hey, if you use it and love it fantastic, like the my my best advice is that you should use some type of budgeting software. Here's what I like about Rocket Money, and I'll add I was pretty hesitant to try it because I had been disappointed with every dollar and with YNAB, and so I was kind of like ugh, I don't want to do a whole new one, but Rocket Money imports all of your transactions over the last 12 months so you can look back and see historically oh, we've been spending X amount on groceries every month, does it?
Speaker 2:
categorize, so it does categorize, or do you have to do that?
Speaker 1:
Well, it does it, but it's not always super correct at first. So you can then go in and tell it like oh, this retailer is actually grocery you, you know, or this is really this, so it will make its best guess.
Speaker 1:
And then you can go in and then like change any assigned transactions to be under the correct category if it's wrong gotcha and then it learns like, once you do that, it learns like okay, this, you know this venmo transaction every month is for tutoring or whatever, and so I have found it incredibly helpful. The link to bank accounts is much more seamless than it ever was with every dollar and I mean I just couldn't recommend it enough. So highly recommend Rocket Money. But bottom line, just use some kind of budgeting software and that way you'll know whether or not you're starting to spend more or not, because if you spend more money it's not really free travel.
Speaker 2:
Nope, have to stay on budget.
Speaker 1:
Yes, have to have to have to. The next app is going to be Card Pointers, and so this one has both a free and a paid version. I only use the free version. I've never used the paid so can't speak on it. But what I use this for is to make sure that we are using all the credits associated with all of our cards, so you don't have to link any bank accounts, you just go in and put in the cards that you have. So, like I'll say, oh, I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and I have the Capital One Venture X, and it'll tell me for the Venture X, for example, you know you have a $300 travel credit to use this year. Have you used it yet? And then I can just say, yep, I've used it, and then I check it off.
Speaker 2:
Um, that's helpful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the Chase also has a monthly DoorDash credit. It's $5 a month credit, and so it'll say like, have you used your $5 a month for June or July? And now I have to tell the app yes, I used it. So if I don't tell it, it doesn't know because it's not synced with anything. But that's really. All I need is just a reminder.
Speaker 1:
So that app is a really good one to make sure that you are getting the most out of the annual fees that you're paying, and can help you save a ton of money. I think on their website or app it says most users save $750 per year. So definitely a way to make sure that you're getting the most money for the annual fees that you're paying. The next app is called Max Rewards. This is also a free app. I don't know if they have a paid version. We don't pay for it, though and this is an app that will tell you like, if you're going to go to Costco, for example, you can put in Costco and it can tell you the best card to use, based on the cards in your wallet, to maximize points.
Speaker 1:
That's helpful, yeah. So like if you have a card that gets four or five X on restaurants and you put it in a restaurant, it'll probably say you should use that card because it's going to earn you five X points. So if you're really trying to maximize your everyday spend without opening a ton of new cards, that would be the app I would recommend.
Speaker 2:
That's called max rewards. So many things out there to help you.
Speaker 1:
There's really a ton of things, and we haven't even gotten to my favorite one yet. Um yeah, in fact I think we're oh, you know what, what here. I think you should talk about the next one, which is because you have recently dove into this dive to dove, dove into the world david, as our daughter would say toilet toilet.
Speaker 2:
She gotta use a toilet.
Speaker 1:
She has to go to the toilet. Um, you recently joined one of these for our upcoming trip to kawaii oh, it's a facebook group, yeah, which I think are very, very helpful yeah, facebook and there are facebook groups for everything. Literally everything, and Facebook is not just for old people anymore. The best part about Facebook, in my opinion, is the groups.
Speaker 2:
Was it for old people?
Speaker 1:
It is for old people. Who do you see on Facebook posting every day? Is it young people or is it old people?
Speaker 2:
I mean.
Speaker 1:
It's for the elderly, but I think Facebook groups are fantastic for crowdsourcing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, they're so helpful.
Speaker 1:
It's incredible. So well, yeah, why don't you talk about the Kauai Facebook group you joined first, and then I'll.
Speaker 2:
Well, we're going to Kauai in September. I don't know if we've said that in a previous episode or not. I'm sure we have, but yeah, I joined a couple of Kawaii facebook groups, um, just to see what everyone's talking about and what everyone's doing with a family of five. Um, it's recommended everything from hikes to beaches, to restaurants, you know, to things to do with kids, and it's so helpful and you can get on there and ask any question and get an answer fairly quickly.
Speaker 1:
Yep, and my other favorite thing to do in Facebook groups is to search. So I like to search in the group and you can find. You know, there's probably someone who's already asked your question.
Speaker 2:
Only old people search on Facebook.
Speaker 1:
Bless your heart and soul. So I'm actually Dwayne did that totally on his own. That's normally something that I would do, but I have been completely buried with work and everything else, and so I have planned absolutely nothing for our trip to Kauai so far. Um, but I do belong to a lot of various Facebook groups and I was trying to think. I feel like they fall into a couple of categories. So the first category is points and miles communities. So I'm in a few that are specifically for like travel hackers and people who are using these, this credit card hobby, like pretty what's the word that I would say like pretty aggressively, like we are, and so I learn a ton from those various groups and I also ask questions in there sometimes if I can't find my answer by searching. The other type of group is for destinations. So I mean just some general travel groups where I can search specifically for Tokyo or Kauai or Costa Rica or whatever. And then I'm also in some specific destination groups, like I was in one for Costa Rica.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean they have hotel groups, hyatt groups, hilton groups.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I'm also in a bunch of hyatt groups, yeah, and a marriott one too. Yeah, it's just I.
Speaker 1:
The knowledge that's in there is just incredible yeah um, so yes, facebook, do not skimp out on facebook groups. They're incredible for researching a trip. They're also incredible for helping you to learn more about the Points and Miles community. We don't have a Facebook group. I don't know that it would make sense for us to start one. I feel like it's a lot of work to moderate them, but I mean, I guess you never know what's going to happen in the future.
Speaker 1:
The last one that is probably my most favorite tool before we get into a couple of other websites that you can use. There is an app that literally helps us to keep track of every single credit card we've opened, the date we opened it, what our 524 status is, when each card will fall off of our 524 status is when our like when each card will fall off of our 524, and also can give card recommendations. It has a separate thing for, like, personal cards and business cards. It's incredible and I literally check it all the time as a good reminder because by using this app, I don't have to keep it in my head. It just lives in this app and I can open the app whenever I have a question.
Speaker 1:
The app is called the Travel Freely app and, again, it is completely free, there is not a paid version, and it tells you, like you just, it's the first thing I do whenever we open a credit card is I go into that app and I add it and I say we opened it on this date, this is a signup bonus. And then it tells you like, oh, you have, you know, 90 days to meet this bonus. So I can go in and it'll say, like your bonus deadline is approaching and I can make sure that I've already met the signup bonus for that card. Or it will say hey, you know, you opened this card a year ago and the annual fee is coming around again. So then it's on my radar that, oh, I'm probably going to cancel that card.
Speaker 2:
So helpful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, unless I'm getting the benefit that outweighs the annual fee.
Speaker 2:
So I got a cool question Do any of these apps know your credit score and like, do they recommend cards that you should get or no?
Speaker 1:
and like do they recommend cards that you should get or no? Oh, that's good. So I don't know if it knows your credit score. I can't remember if I had to input that. I don't think it knows your credit score, but it does make. This app does make card recommendations so it can say, like, oh, you know, a good next card for you would be, you know, maybe one of these three options. And it also will tell you if there are elevated offers on cards like, for example, the chase inc business preferred card right now has an elevated offer of 120 000 sign up points. So if you referred someone and got the sign up bonus, you would would earn 160,000 chase points, which is the most it's ever been.
Speaker 2:
Nice.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so, um, it's, it's incredible. It's my favorite app. It's the first thing that I do anytime I open a card, and so we have one set up for like me, and then one set up for my business cards, and then one set up for you and one set up for your business cards, and that's how in the oh. The other cool thing is it tells you, like, how many points you've earned in a year.
Speaker 2:
Oh nice.
Speaker 1:
And so that's how I knew last year like, oh, we earned, you know, it was like over a million points. I think it doesn't track, uh, referral fees or referral points, I mean like bonus points, I mean like bonus points, but it tracks like any signup bonus. So, really, really phenomenal app. I will put a link to it in the show notes. I'll put a link to all everything that we talked about, all the apps, in the show notes. The last thing that I wanted to add and this probably deserves a whole other episode, which we can do at a later date but there are a couple of websites that you can use to track point availability, both for hotels and flights, and I didn't want to leave them out of this episode because I do use them occasionally. There's actually a lot of different websites that do this, but I'm just going to talk about a couple of the ones that I like. So, for hotels, I like to use Max by Point.
Speaker 1:
There is a free version of this. I do not have the paid version. The free version only allows you to set up one alert at a time. So far, that's worked fine for us. I could see myself paying for this in the future. I think it's like, I don't know, $8 a month or $10 a month or something. It's not a ton of money, but if you don't travel a lot it doesn't make sense to do the paid version. But you would use this if there was a specific hotel you wanted to go to on points that did not have point availability. You would set an alert for that hotel and the dates that you want and then it would email you whenever availability opened up for that date, point availability specifically. So that's called Max, my Point, and again, that's for hotels.
Speaker 1:
And then there's a couple of different ones for flights that I've used. And to be clear again, this is not a comprehensive list, like there are a lot more than this, but these are the two that I have used. So there's pointme, that one, the free version. You don't get a ton, you have to do the paid version and we do not pay for it. So I can't speak a ton about it, but it is probably one of the most popular ones. And then the other one is pointsyeah or pointsyeah or pointsyeahcom or something like that. That one is mostly free and you can get some good use out of the features just by using the free version. So, again, that would be if you are looking for award flights on a certain day or week or month, airline or airline, and it will send you alerts, you know, depending on what pops up. So that is all we've got for today. So, quick recap, we've got the rocket money app, card pointers app, max rewards app and then the travel freely app don't forget about the facebook groups oh yeah, facebook groups.
Speaker 1:
Don't skimp on them, even if you're not elderly, and then so I'll put links to all those in the show notes and I'll also link to the website. So the max, my point, the point dot me and points yeah, I'll link to those as well. As always, if you have questions, please find us on Instagram and send me a DM. I'm on there almost every day.
Speaker 2:
Follow us, leave a review for the podcast on there almost every day. Follow us, leave a review for the podcast. We'd appreciate that.
Speaker 1:
Follow us on Instagram. We post lots of behind the scenes stuff there, so we appreciate you. Thank you for listening. Hope this was helpful. And you know what, if you have been in the Points and Miles games for a while and you have any other tools that you really like, send them to me. I always like to check them out.
Speaker 2:
Yep, so hopefully this is helpful. Thanks for listening.
