Stop Thinking Airline Miles

Every once in a while - which is becoming more than once in awhile, friends ask about which credit cards I'm using to gain points, etc.

They all seem to have been trained to think that "airline miles" are the best credit cards to carry in their wallet. Someone will whip out their Delta Skymiles card for example.


I beg to differ and beg them to switch right now. What's even more painful is to see friends use credit cards that accrue absolutely nothing (plain vanilla mastcard or visa for example). If they own their own business or are doctors, dentists, etc, they have tons of expenses they are charging and get nuttin out of it!

Here's the card I use and recommend: American Express Starwood Card.



There's several benefits which clearly make this better than the plain old miles cards:

• You can redeem miles on most major airlines - not tied to just one airline
• When you redeem 20,000 miles, American Express will give you a bonus 5,000 miles free
• You can redeem miles for tons of other stuff like gift certificates to Sharper Image and other stores.
• Starwood Preferred Guest points are awesome because you can stay at a broad range of hotels from FourPoints to Sheraton to Westin to St. Regis hotels.
• There are NO blackout dates for Starwood hotels. If they have a room available to sell for cash, you can use your points to book that night.
• They have Starwood points package discounts which give you a MUCH better ROI on your points to make it worth % or more of your spending. For example, if you pay $25,000 on your airline miles card, you get 25,000 points, right? That's worth a domestic ticket which is say, $380 (average domestic ticket price according to Associate Press). That's 1.5% value of the $25k you spent. But with Starwood, you can easily get rewards worth 4% or more through their system.

ATM's are the Enemy. Get Free Stuff Just for Paying.

It amazes me sometimes when I stand in line at the cashier and someone in front of me pulls out a wad of cash to pay for their purchase. Sometimes the total on the register is $400-500 or even more like the last time I was in Home Depot. The guy in front of me had a big fat wallet with a bunch of credit cards, but instead, he hands over five $100 bills to pay for the Weber Grill.

If he manages his cashflow like this, he must be paying for tons of stuff in cold cash. That's a big no-no!

If you have the cash flow, you should really get a credit card that gives you point and also gives you a float for 30 days till payment is due. What's more, if you choose your credit cards wisely, you'll get extra benefits like breakage & theft protection, warranties will be extended -- sometimes even doubled in length, all for free.

One of my favorite cards in my wallet is the Starwood American Express. It gives you tons of points which turns out to be more than 4-5% value if you use them right. And just off the bat, if you cash in 20,000 points, you can convert it into a free 25,000 point airline ticket on any major airline -- that's 5,000 points free. There's other bonus type scenarios in the Starwood program that really makes it worthwhile. Not to mention the standard array of American Express benefits like rental car insurance coverage, accidental breakage protection (great if you have kids!), and more.

You also have the ability to get extra cards on your account so you can separate out different categories of spending or by person. The end-of-year statement which is broken down in different ways on paper is great for taxes -- just hand it over to the accountant and they have details of your tax-deductible items.

For me, it's definitely a card worth carrying in the wallet. I bet that guy at home depot in line in front of me could get this card, not change his current spending habits at all other than paying with his American Express card and get at least week's worth of free hotels every year after year. And he wouldn't be hitting that ATM machine all the time as he must be doing. You certainly don't want the ATM to be your friend.

Must-Have for Hummer, Suburban & Escalade Owners

If you drive one of those super-sized SUV's like the Hummer H2 or even H3, Suburban, or a Cadillac Escalade, you are paying through the nose for gas right now. And reports from ABC News and other sources already are warning us that gas *will* reach as high as $4/gallon this summer of 2007 (no, that's not a typo!).

If you're one of those drivers that already knows the fact that gas stations pre-authorize a single gas purchase for $50 or $75 and your SUV actually requires multiple swipes to fill up the tank, then you really should do something about it...what you ask?

Use a credit card that gives you back 5% of all your gas purchases. Think of this this way: If you drive your Suburban 15,000 miles a year, that's up to $187 in free cash-back rebates you can pocket just by using the American Express card with gas rebate. (Suburbans have 31 gallon tanks, drive 16 miles/gallon avg, 15,000 miles/year, $4/gallon at the pump. Escalades are worse with 13 mi/gal avg!)

And guess what? You have more than 1 car in the garage, so double or triple that cash-back number!!!!

There are several credit cards on the market that offer cash rebates on gas specifically, American Express has one of the best ones out there -- and now you can apply on the web with a very simple form and get an approval response within 60 seconds.