30000 Miles United Business Card

For the second or third time this month, I received the "30000 Miles United Business Card" offer from Chase. For the second or third time this month, the credit card offer went into the shredder.

I like Airmiles credit cards, but they take a long time to accumulate enough miles to get any form of frequent flier benefits. Even though the first year's annual fee is waived, the $75 recurring fee real eats into your profit.

Just to break even on the next year, you would have to spend $7,500 on the United Business Card. That same amount charged on your Discover would saved you at least $75.

By the 5th year rolls around, the initial 30000 miles was paid for by you so it's not really free after all. After that, Chase is making a nice tidy profit of $75/year by collecting annual fees from you.

Sure, you can cancel the card, but how often do you cancel credit lines? I can't even remember the last time I canceled a card.

So, for now, they'll keep sending in the "30000 mile" offer and I'll keep shredding them because it's all about saving money whenever possible and I'll use my Discover Card to precisely do that.

Airmiles Credit Card Takes Us to S.F.

We had a wonderful weekend trip to the Bay area with complements from our airmiles credit card. Even though the trip was relatively short, it was nice to get away for the weekend and not worry about the economy and just focus on the good things in life: love, eating, eating and more eating.

The free airline tickets saved us lots of money so we splurged on shopping without feeling too guilty. Plus we saved 5% on our rental and hotel by using Discover. However, it took a day to get over guilt of not working on our "save money online" site which getting close to launch, but it will get done when it's good and done.

It must have been over 20 years since we've been to China Town and the Wharf. The food was delicious and even the sand in the Clam chowder was good.

Now that most of the United Air miles are gone, I'm either going switch over to Delta or just use my cash back card more often. It's really hard to justify using United since we hardly fly them.

It will take a couple of more years before we accumulate enough frequent flier miles before we can take another free trip. With the bad economy, we had a sense of urgency to take this trip sooner than later. (Who knows if our miles will still be around or what shape the airline industry will be in a couple of years from now.) But it was a good trip to San Fransisco with thanks to our airmiles credit card.

Where to Get a Good Credit Financial Education

Let’s face it; our public school system is broken. Even though credit and personal finance is one of the most important aspects of our daily living, basic financial knowledge is rarely taught in our schools. What little financial information learned is taught from our parents and that information is passed down from generation to generation. Unless your family has a business, it’s quite possible that you know very little about finance.

While this blog is about Saving Money Using Credit Cards, without a basic understanding of finance, you may not understand what I’m writing about. I was fortunate enough to be raised in a family that had a business that taught me how to balance the books, raise cash, and make a profit all at the early age of six. By the time I was in High School, I all ready worked 10 years when the kids my age were getting their first job at McDonalds.

Needless to say, the Los Angeles Unified School District did not contribute to my financial education.

But what about you, where are you in your financial education? My guess is that like everyone else, you have little financial knowledge and this, perhaps, is why you are reading this blog.

Regardless, you need to start somewhere and going back to High School may be your answer. I don’t imply that you physically attend classes, but picking up some financial reading material may help aid you in your education.

One of the best resources to get started with your financial education is What Every High Schooler Should Know about Credit and Finance, by Jarrod Williamson.

The reality is that many of the areas covered in this book are simply not taught to young people. Thus many people, including adults, don’t know the important and, in some cases, hidden and nearly secret information about the way financial things really work in American society.

– Thomas Mayhew, Publisher, CrimsonBooks.

I don’t think that I can sum it up better than what Thomas just did! You need a financial education that our public schools did not provide you.