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.

We're Using Our Airmiles Card for Vacation

It's time for a vacation and the accumulated miles on our Airmiles Credit Card has enough to get us two round-trip tickets anywhere in the lower 48. Since we're planning a trip in February, we don't have much to worry about blackout dates.

I've often considered switching over to Delta for our airmiles card but I've been using the United Mileage Plus card for quite some time; hence, long enough to accumulate two tickets for vacation. I really like Delta Air and tend to use them as our choice air carrier.

Sometimes you don't have a choice of airlines and for a while I was flying United at least once a month and eventually they offered a card through Chase. The card had no annual fee, which is unheard of for airmiles cards so I grabbed one up. Delta and the other airlines have cards, but they're fee free the first year and the $75 thereafter. Not worth it if it takes 5 years to accumulate enough frequent flyer miles on purchases alone.

So for now we're stuck with United for our airmiels card until someone offers a better deal.

To really exploit your card, you need to use it whenever you book hotel or rent a car. You get 1 mile for every dollar you spend plus 500+ ff miles for your hotel stay. Our last trip to ATL, we used our Mileage Plus card to rent a Jeep Cherokee. Since it was a driving trip, we booked our hotel rooms with Hilton and got miles just about every night we checked-in.

We've never been to NYC and that should be a nice trip to take to spend on Valentines day or on our wedding anniversary. Now if I can keep it a suprise from my Wife...

Until next time, remember to pay off your credit cards each month to avoid those hefty interest rates those companys charge use to keep us in debt.

Here's another Way to Save with Credit Cards

My wife received a really good credit card offer from American Express today. The Blue Sky is cash back rewards card where you accumulate one bonus point for each dollar you spend.

After you spend your first $500, American Express gives you 7,500 bonus points. This is equivalent to $100 off any airline ticket, hotel stay, and car rental or travel package. You must redeem the bonus points in blocks of 7,500.

Unlike Discover, you’re limited to the travel industry. But American Express pays you 1.3% ($100/$7,500) instead of 1% for Discover purchases.

Blue Sky has no annual fees; the APR for the first 6 months is 0%! Zero-percent loans are nice to have even if it’s only for 6 months. Just set aside what you spend and pay it off before they jack up the rate.

After six months, the rate goes up — at least in my wife’s case — to 12.24%. Your rate maybe higher or lower depending on your credit score. Since I pay off all my balances, I never get charged interest. But still, it’s nice to know that it’s a fairly reasonable rate as far as credit cards go.

Another thing I like about this card is that you’re not tied to any specific airline. I use my United Card to keep my miles alive, but I can’t even remember flying United. We mostly fly Delta or Alaska, so it’s a waste to carry the card and use it to save money. I would like to get Blue Sky, but I already have two American Express Cards, one for personal and one for business expenses.

Since my wife doesn’t have an American Express Card, this is the one she should apply for in her name to help her maintain her credit history. Plus, we can use the $100 American Express hands out to help offset the cost of our vacation next year!