Maximize Your Points: Stacking, Buyers Clubs, Redemption Hacks, and More

#55: Points expert, Julia Menez, joins Chris to go deep on all things points and miles, including points stacking, optimizing rewards, tools to help organize your points and miles, using buying clubs to earn lots of points, and Chris shares how a somewhat sketchy website saved him an extra 15% off a new couch!

Julia Menez (@geobreezetravel) is a points strategy coach, speaker and host of the Geobreeze Travel podcast, where she interviews travelers from all walks of life about their points and miles strategies.

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Fabric: Affordable term life insurance for you and your family

CardPointers: 20% off the app that helps you earn more cash back, points, and miles.

Point.me Award Search: $1 trial w/ this link (and the code HACKS)

All the Hacks Live Q&A Episode

Monday, 5/9 @ 12p PDT
Register and join at allthehacks.com/live

Selected Links From The Episode

Connect with Julia Menez: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Julia’s Podcast: Geobreeze Travel

Julia’s gift to All the Hacks listeners: Geobreeze Hotel Upgrade Template

Buyers Clubs

Earn More Points + $$$

Grabr - International purchasers prepay for you to buy items locally
Rakuten - Cash back at thousands of stores
Fluz - Cash back at thousands of stores + referral bonuses
Seated - 20%+ back at partnered restaurants
Dosh - Additional rewards shop, dine, and book. Can be stacked with Seated and other dining portals
Cashback Monitor - Portal to find cash and points back for online retailers.
Honey & RetailMeNot - Promo Codes Instantly
SearchTempest - Search the whole USA on Craigslist
Savendeals - Coupons for Crate & Barrel, Lowes and Home Depot
MyVegas Rewards - Get points towards free things in vegas
Frequent Miler - Blog with great points + miles content
Doctor Of Credit - Blog with great points + miles content
Pay1040.com - Pay taxes with your credit card
ID.me - Discounts for teachers, military and more.

Optimizing Your Points

Feedly - Keep track of many blogs/websites
AwardWallet - One dashboard for all your points
Travelfreely - Credit Card management
CardPointers - Automated Reward optimizer for your credit cards
Credit Karma - Credit score tracking
Point.me - Award flight search tool ($1 trial w/ this link and the code ALLTHEHACKS)
ANA Around the World Redemption - Up to 8 flights in biz class for less than 120k points
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles - Great deals for award flights
United Excursionist Perk - Unique trick to get an extra free award flight from United
Scott’s Cheap Flights - Alerts on cheap flights around the world

Credit Cards

American Express® Gold Card - 4x Dining/Groceries
Bilt Card - Earn Points on Rent
Chase Freedom Unlimited® - 1.5x on Everything
Chase Freedom Flex℠ - 5x on Rotating Categories
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card - 3x Dining/2x Travel
Chase Sapphire Reserve® - 3x Dining/Travel
All the Hacks Card Signup Site - Thanks for using this! :)

Podcasts

Full Show Notes

How people on a smaller budget can earn enough points to use toward travel [03:05]

Outsource buying, how participating in buying groups can work to your advantage [05:14]

When sourcing items, do buyers usually pay more than the item costs? [07:04]

Buyer’s groups: are they reliable? trustworthy? Advice to keep you from being scammed, and how to learn about the different buyer’s clubs options available [08:36]

Using Freedom Flex, Freedom card, Freedom Unlimited, Sapphire Preferred, and Sapphire Reserve to earn points [11:10]

Bringing electronic and medical devices to Latin America: reasons to consider using Grabr, and advice about safety during the product exchange [11:55]

Chris and Julia walk through an extreme example of how valuable ‘stacking’ can be along with ways to automate the process [13:40]

The unbelievable benefits of stacking through dining portals [14:54]

Using Cashback Monitor to learn the best places for cashback, transferable points, and airline points, as well as hacks for accessing coupons online [18:45]

Julia’s favorite app for stacking deals in Las Vegas and how often you can take advantage of the offers [23:53]

Chris highlights the “crazy amounts” of point stacking deals [26:39]

Specific places to search online for timely deals that require prompt action and tools to help organize your point balances [28:52]

Why it’s important to understand the 5/24 rule and its exceptions [31:54]

Julia Menez’s go-to cards and her advice for travelers who are just beginning the process of accumulating points [35:16]

Amazing redemptions to take advantage of even though you may not have a huge balance and how to use the ANA Around the World redemption program [40:02]

Plan a trip across Europe using Julia’s redemption super hacks [45:07]

Buying points, is it worth it? Chris and Julia share their perspectives [50:55]

3 reasons why paying your taxes on a credit card might actually make sense [52:54]

Hacks to save money and earn perks for members of the military and their spouses [57:49]

For upgrades and extra perks, while traveling, Julia shares a special link to a template on her website for All the Hacks listeners [59:56]

Where to find Julia Menez online [1:01:50]

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