FUNDING OUR TRAVELS

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OUR STORY

We had always heard of travel rewards on credit cards, but we were always leary to sign up for them because we spent 3 years paying off all of our debts ($70,000) so that we would be debt-free. We achieved that goal in 2015, and we even went on national radio on the Dave Ramsey Show to proclaim it.

One day I was listening to the show and I heard a guy call in about using credit cards for the rewards as long as your paid off all of the cards every month and you always had the money in your account to pay for the payment.

This made sense to me, so I decided that we would test out a travel reward credit card for the first time. Since then these are all of the cards that we have opened since then.

 
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Our First Card

We opened a Visa Choice Privileges Credit Card to get hotel points to stay at a MainStays Suites in Pensacola, FL.

We received 32,000 points, which is good for about 3-5 nights, after we met the minimum spend of $1000 in the first 3 months. We met this easily by buying groceries and gas for the family. We book the hotel, and we had a fun family vacation at the beach. This is my walkthrough video of this hotel that we stayed at using points.

 

ADVICE

If you are planning on using credit cards to earn travel rewards, make sure that you are being financially responsible by paying off your credit card balance every month because the interest that you would get on your balances if you do not pay it off will not be worth the travel rewards.

our Travel Cards

Advertiser Disclosure: LaneVids.com, LaneVids, and Dad Reviews has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. LaneVids.com, LaneVids, Dad Reviews and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Editorial Disclosure - Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank,credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed,approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

After the success of using our first card, I decided to choose a card that gave reward points to Marriott hotels because we really like staying in their hotels. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card has a sign up bonus of 75,000 points when you spend $5000 in 3 months.

We planned for this and achieved it so that we could have another summer of travels without the expense of hotels since we had these reward points. This is a card that we continue to use today because we really enjoy staying at Marriott hotels.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred

The reason that I got the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is I was looking for a travel card for everyday expenses that covered many different aspects of travel.

What I like about this card is that you can offset some of your travel and food expenses with points, or you can use it for airfare and at many hotels. In my opinion, this is a great all-around card.

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IHG® Travelers Club

I applied for the IHG Traveler card because I wanted a card that could be used to get points for stays at Holiday Inns for our family road trips that we take. To my surprise, IHG covered a lot more hotel chains than just Holiday Inns.

This is my latest card, so I’m interested to see where it will take our family since we haven’t used any of the points from it yet.

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Hilton Honors

If you like to stay at Hilton Hotels, then this is the travel credit card for you. During our 2020 family road trip to Florida, we stayed at a few Home2 Suites by Hilton hotels using this card.

If you like Hilton hotels, this is the perfect card for you.

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Spirit Airlines Mastercard

This was my first airline card. We don’t fly much, but when we start to, I’ll be sure to cover more card about airline travel rewards. I only have this one because I was getting into travel reward cards, and I was taking a solo-business trip to California.

I received a bulk of points from this card that I haven’t redeemed yet. The card has no annual fee, so I keep it open and active.

UPDATE: I’ve cancelled this card. Spirit Airlines is not great. I had a horrible experience with them flying back from Florida and they now charge a $79 annual fee. I do not recommend this card.

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User Generated Content Disclosure - Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

 Cost of Travel Series