Holiday season is creeping up on us. No matter if you’re an avid shopper or celebrator, the average person increases their financial expenditures in the last months of the year thanks to gift giving, social engagements, holiday travel, and—perhaps for some of us—holiday avoidance.
In the Cards for Travel community, we believe that any time your spending goes up, it’s always a good time to take stock of what’s in your wallet and re-examine your points earning credit card strategy.
More money spent should always mean more points and miles earned.
Here are four tips to get your wallet holiday-ready. Do them now, and we promise that Santa will deliver you some big mileage bonuses to reward your effort:
1. Inventory your potential expenses
Brainstorm a list of the expenses you’ll have in the next 3 months including holiday travel, parties, gifts, end of year giving, and other special events. If you think you’ll be spending at least $1,000 over your everyday budget, this is a good time to consider applying for a new credit card and using these expenses to meet the minimum spending requirement on a new card.
2. Make sure you’ve got the right airline cards for your holiday travel
If you’re flying somewhere to celebrate (or avoid the celebrations), this is a good time to make sure you have the co-branded card for the airline you’re flying–like the Gold Delta SkyMiles card from American Express.You’ll earn bonus points when purchasing your ticket on the card, and with most airlines you’ll save a bunch of money with free baggage check, and beat the holiday airport madness with priority boarding.
3. Maximize the points you earn from online shopping
Most of your mileage cards will earn at least 1x point per dollar spent when you shop online, but you easily up this earning ratio by taking advantage of online “shopping portals.”
Simply visit the shopping mall page managed by your favorite airline or hotel group (most of them have one and you can find it by searching the hotel name + online shopping portal), enter your mileage number for the host airline, and then select the online store where you want to do your actual shopping from their menu of merchants.
You’ll be redirected to the actual store, and magically earn extra points for anything you purchase. If you’re a Chase Sapphire Preferred card holder, it’s worth checking out the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall to maximize the points you can earn from spending.
4. Buy your gift cards where you’ll earn the most miles
Gift givers are opting more than ever for stuffing gift cards into stockings because they’re easy to get, let recipients choose what they really want, and cut out the hassles of shopping and returns. If you’re one of the millions giving gift cards this season, make sure you’re purchasing them at the store where your credit card is going to earn the biggest number of bonus miles per dollar purchased. Check out the gift card stock at your local gas station, supermarket or office supply stores and match the availability with the bonuses offered on the cards you’re using.
Turning holiday planning and spending into a points maximizing game is guaranteed to make the experience much more fun. And if you get stuck standing in a long line of holiday shoppers you can always spend your time dreaming about how you’re going to turn all the points you’re earning into next year’s holidays. Hawaii anyone?
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Photo: livenature
