The Great Debate: Cash Back Credit Cards Vs Travel Credit Cards

The Great Debate: Cash Back Credit Cards Vs Travel Credit Cards

Hi everybody dgr here with dgr reports welcome to another episode of frugal points this is the series where I drive in my car and talk to you about the philosophical side of points and miles today I’m going to be talking about a cashback strategy for travel versus a points strategy for travel and

We’ll discuss whether or not there’s some sort of Middle Ground to that in case you’re wondering why it’s dark out I just dropped my wife off at the de Mo International Airport at 3:30 a.m. for a 5 a.m. flight so that’s why I’m driving at this time sorry it’s not much to look

At let’s dive in so why do we use points why do I use points well it’s a good way to travel duh I mean you know we talk about I’m on team travel versus I’m on team cash back and we tend to divide that into almost

Like team travel will Trot all over the globe stay in fancy hotels and get epic value in that way team cash back is going to just save for retirement have more income maybe do the financial independent retire early thing or something like that and are going to get epic value that

Way sometimes we act like the twain shall never meet whereas I think they actually can meet or here’s where I’m going with this this discussion is there a third way or maybe a fourth way and that is a cash back strategy for travel now you might be thinking well

Yeah a hybrid strategy duh that’s what lots of people do that’s even what I do uh for example I have my Chase setup the way I want want my Sapphire preferred couple ink cards got some freedoms I’ve got a city setup I’ve got the Capital One Venture x uh I’ve got

All four of the major transferable Point currency systems going but what’s the main reason why I have cash back well it’s a supplemental thing it’s a hybrid thing so for example this is not exhaustive but I have a blue cash every day from American Express

Throws a little bit of cash back my way I have the US Bank Cash Plus 5x on utilities non- rotating categories and of course you could always cash out your Chase or city points or MX points Etc uh and I don’t have a major problem with

Doing that as long as you’re getting a penny a point so that’s the way I build up my travel savings account then I use that travel savings account for or uh things when I travel you know mostly meals entertainment attractions uh things that you can’t pay for with points this is

Not intended to be an exhaustive list if you’re going to make your travel free you basically have to do that or you have to cash out points because with very few exceptions you can’t use points to pay for a hamburger you can’t use points to pay for admission to the

Museum or an amusement park all right so we’ve we’ve got that out of the way and yes there is this third hyd way but that’s not really what I’m talking about what I’m talking about is like a whole fourth option and I’m going to call it cash

Back for travel and what I mean by this is that cashback is your predominant way of traveling you’re not using points to book hotels for the most part you’re not using transferable currencies to book airline flights what might that look like I think the first thing it’s going to look

Like is someone who does a lot of domestic economy travel uh and I’m in that boat so what are points best at the thing that points are best at is getting you international business or first class flights when my family went to England and Sweden last year it was points that made that

Possible mostly AMX a little bit of Capital One and on the flights I calculated out that I almost got 10 cents per Point not quite let’s face it those business class flights are expensive so I don’t think you’re going to be able to pull off a traveling lifestyle where you’re flying

International business class three or more times a year and rely on a cash back strategy so let’s rule that out but think of someone like me so yes I want to take a big International vacation with my family about every other summer based on current velocity but if I rule

That out everything else we’re doing domestic and it’s mostly economy uh in the last few years I’ve flown to Pensacola Florida Pittsburgh Pennsylvania uh Norfolk Virginia Las Vegas St Louis twice um there’s others that I’m not thinking of some driving trips in Illinois and Wisconsin for that

What could you do with cash back well you could book domestic economy tickets and you could use any Airline it could be allegian it could be Frontier could be American United Delta you know some combination of comfort plus cost-saving you can use travel portals you can go through Expedia you can go through

Hotels.com you can go through like the chase travel portal and pay cash you could go through the Capital One travel portal and pay cash cash and earn points that way so you’ve got lots of options you’ve got card linked offers you’ve got uh portals like rutin and savings

Portals along those lines to earn extra points or cash back you’re a free agent you’re not locked into any particular currencies just you know you’ve got cash cash is king So if I were to execute that strategy what would it look like well first of all I’m probably going to dump

All of the high-end cards not that I have a lot so I’m going to dump like uh any platinum cards any gold cards from MX whether business or personal I’m not going to have a CSR from Chase um I’ll probably still keep the capital 1 Venture X just to get the free

Priority pass lounge access and you know that card ends up being I’m doing air quotes net annual fee free although we know really you shouldn’t pay $300 for $300 travel coupon but regardless you can still book cash tick tickets through your Capital 1 portal whether or not I

Would keep the City premiere is kind of debatable but then I’m going to have a whole bunch of cash back I’m going to do like the altitude go from US Bank get my 4X on gas I’m going to have like the city custom cash to get 5x on some sort

Of category if possible I’m going to have more than one City Custom cash um I’m going to keep my blue cash everyday or blue cash preferred for groceries I’m going to keep my US Bank Cash Plus for utilities and maybe fast food um I’m going to find a card that

Gives at least 3x or 4X on dining well that’s easy any of the no annual fee cards from Chase like the freedom unlimited Freedom Flex get you 3x on dining so right there you can just take that as cash you’ve got your 3% cash back I’m going to be hunting for bank

Account bonuses pretty aggressively you know four to six seven times a year you know try to get $200 $300 $400 Bank sign up bonuses I’m going to be signing up for Rando credit card just for onetime sign up bonuses like you know if there’s a business card from Capital One that

Gives $750 cash back after $10,000 of spend I’m going to be going for that kind of thing if there’s some obscure Credit Union in North Dakota that’s got you know a card where I can get $300 cash back maybe I’m going for that so that’s what I’m going do on the cash

Back side but in this fourth way that’s not all travel it’s not all points it’s not all cash back it’s not hybrid it’s this dedicated cash for travel I’m also going to keep some travel cards I know that sounds weird but these are going to be the cards where they pay for thems

With either a free night certificate or something along those lines so for example I’m going to keep my US Bank altitude Reserve I’m I’m going to use realtime rewards a lot I’m going to use Mobile Wallet a lot so my 3x Mobile Wallet combined with my 1.5 on the

Real-time rewards uh I’m going to get 4 and 1 12% cash back equivalent frequently with that and I’m just going to be looking for Great Deals and portals I can stack and that kind of stuff I’m going to be um keeping my IHG Premier business card issued by Chase

Because it’s going to give a free 40,000 Point certificate every year I’m probably going to try to pick up the Hyatt card uh with Chase the consumer one because I get a free category 1 through four I’m probably going to have um something like the surpass card from

American Express for Hilton stays and try to put at least 15,000 on it a night to get a free night certificate depending on the type of domestic travel it might make sense to go up to the Aspire so either the surpass or the aspire fire you know I’m going to pick

Up one of the bonvoy cards by Marriott that gives you a free night certificate so you know get at least four cards that have fnc’s on them and then anything that gives you a status that makes it worthwhile so like I’m a big Hilton semi loyalist I’d say a

Fanboy I’m not super loyal but I kind of like Hilton so I’m probably going to be you know trying to do some Hilton stays um in a lot of like Hampton in Hilton Garden in sort of the less expensive thing home to suits you know so I’m building up points through my

Stays I’m looking for like Chase offers of like 10% back on a Hilton stay if that’s appropriate depending on how things shake out I’m probably keeping my um Aeroplan card Air Canada’s Aeroplan card because it has that 1.25 pay yourself back and I frequently talked about how with transfer bonuses you can effectively

1.625 even if they end up enforcing the 50,000 point a year thing I’ll revisit that some other time I feel like if you transfer 80,000 points every other year excuse me 100,000 points every other year you know there’s still positive value to be had there and use it for

Things like dining at the hotel and picking that up you know indirectly paying for it that way so I think you’ve got a ton of options and you can kind of be creative and be a bargain hunter at the same time I think for someone that

Wants to do a lot of frugal value traveling within the US where you’re not staying at the bougie upscale hotels you’re staying at a perfectly cromulent holiday in or holiday in express uh Hilton Garden in Hampton in um you shoot I’ll even throw in the choice card because uh Choice gives you

I don’t remember if it’s 15 or 30,000 free points a year for a $95 annual fee which is enough to easily pick up like a nice country in or maybe even an Ascend property occasionally and then the LOM card you know gives you uh I think 30,000 free

Points a year no 15,000 free points a year which is you know it’s some Way’s better than a free night certificate cuz maybe you only use it every other year but hey you’re getting plenty of value you might do the vassa trick every now and then but you’re mostly just you know

You’re going to stay at a pretty nice Lita or something like that or a sleep in sleep in is choice you get the idea you know you’re going to be really careful about checking your Google reviews because with Brands like Choice Hotels and Windom there’s just a ton of

Variability I should also mention this strategy pairs really nicely with buying points for example Hilton points and itg points you can frequently buy for half a penny each and yes there are caps with Hilton you can combine them with a player two with IGG you can’t but with

This strategy probably my wife and I would both be buying whatever the maximum number of Hilton points per year is or at least we have that option and then we can combine them into my one count cuz I have the gold status from the surpass card I mean shoot maybe look

Into the Best Western card so I think it would be a system where you have a lot of Hotel cards and a lot of cash back cards and you just try to maximize those two things together and work on them together I do have a referral friend

Link for the IHG cards issued by Chase I think those are topnotch cards whether you’re fully into some sort of hybrid strategy or a cash back for travel or just dancing around the issue and I’ll put a referr a friend Link in the description box or pin comment if you

Consider using that one I would really appreciate it I’m going to do the same thing with my Hilton surpass card of course you can use that to get to any of the Hilton cards that would be a refer a friend link too check that out I just feel like there’s a lot of

Appeal to that I’m not saying I’m going to give up my points you know I’ve got AMX points but nothing really planned for them between now and summer of 2025 so I I might try this it’s something that’s bouncing around in the back of my brain a cash back four travel strategy

With your hotel type cards mixed in uh you’ve got your Aeroplan card you’ve got your US Bank altitude Reserve just try it for a year or two and and see if I like it I’m not sure if I will or not um but yeah when I travel alone like a

Weekend rip trip a 4-day weekend getaway if I have a decent Hampton in I’m fine with that another thing that opens up is the possibility of nonchain hotels or airbnbs or verbos those kind of things you can mix those in look for gift card buying you know again you know

Go to Staples buy your 5x on your ink cards if if it’s just 5% for cash back some hotels.com gift cards use the hotels.com gift card to book some uh property that’s you know maybe a boutique hotel that’s not part of a chain you get your hotel.com rewards you

Can use Rakuten to pay hotels.com and yeah you’re not getting a ton of value out of hotels.com the reward program kind of sucks nowadays but you’re getting you like 2 and a half% back equivalent that you can stack with other stuff just lots of options I think uh

Let me know what you think and if you think I should try that or not and as always may your spending Be Frugal and may your points be plenteous thanks for watching

Can you use a cash back credit card to book a hotel? Sure you can!
What would happen if I decided to concentrate all my credit card rewards on cash back, and then apply that cash back to hotel stays? Here we have a bizarre merger between hotel credit cards and cash back credit cards. Let me know if you like it!
Refer-a-friend: IHG Cards (Business or Personal): https://www.referyourchasecard.com/210j/BXQZYSTYR7
Hilton Surpass (Really Any Amex card): https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/referral/prospect/cards/personal/DOUGLR0cs0?CORID=D~O~U~G~L~R~0~c~s~0-1705012151786-1456256379&GENCODE=349993060430883&XLINK=MYCP&extlink=US-MGM-SPA_WEB_MYCA-copypaste-1110-201329-K44D%3A9966&v=1
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