Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy, explains the secrets to getting more savings and maximizing rewards on your credit card. 

<div class="block">Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy, explains the secrets to getting more savings and maximizing rewards on your credit card. </div>
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Stretching Your Dollar

Cashback & Beyond: Credit Card Savings Revealed

Welcome back to stretching your dollar. Here on news of the New York Stock Exchange summer is a busy time for traveling and as viewers prepare for trips or are looking to save money, let's dive into how to maximize credit card rewards. Joining me now is Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Point Sky Clint. The big question is how can viewers take advantage of credit card rewards? Well, well, first of all, sign up for everything, sign up for every loyalty program. And I always tell people even if they're very new to the game that they want to open one new credit card a year with a large sign up bonus, uh, to really churn those points, get lots of points and potentially use those points for a vacation once a year. So, uh, but there's all kinds of ways you can play this game. Um, and we can run through a few examples if you want. Let me ask you, let's just walk through to start once a year. Do the, do the points expire after a year? Why would you suggest on an annual basis? So, uh, what I would suggest is that people have a new credit card open every year and then uh use those points for a yearly vacation. So there's your budget for a vacation, potentially right there, or at least a lot of savings towards that vacation. So, if you've got a sign up bonus and say it's 100,000 points, that's pretty huge. You could potentially get a couple of flights or a week's hotel nights out of that. So it, it can really add up and, and if you're, if you're getting one of those sign up bonuses each year, that's a big chunk of your vacation every, every year. Ok. I like where you're going with this. Now, when you're deciding the best card for you, what goes into that decision? So you gotta weigh, you gotta weigh it all out. But uh if you're new to this, I would start with a basic card like the Chase Ultimate rewards card. It gives you a sign up bonus of say 60,000 points. But the, the beauty of those transferable currencies from the major banks like American Express or Chase is you can transfer those points to hotel or to uh airlines. So they, they sort of, they're, they're more versatile not locked into like a Delta credit card or an American credit card though. Those can certainly help too if you're a little more advanced. So I hear you obviously mentioning a lot that taking advantage of a vacation, which is amazing. We all want to take vacation is a good way to maximize these points to points go further if you cash them out for that versus let's say just general cash back. Yes. So you will get more value out of your points uh rather than getting straight cash back. However, you really need to have a little bit of knowledge in order to make that happen. So sometimes people just don't want to deal with it. They don't want to learn everything that we teach at the points guy. They just want a straight cash back card and that's fine. There's plenty of really good cash back cards out there. But if you are just willing to invest a tiny bit of time, this is what I did in my thirties. I started learning how to do this and it's enabled me to travel around the world in business class. And that's certainly better than a straight 3% cash back card. Sounds really nice. Especially on a hot summer day. Ok. So here's another question. If people, yours follow your advice and they open a new card, a credit card every year to try to use those points, those sign on bonuses to take advantage of a vacation per se. How does that impact your credit score? Is there any risk involved with this strategy? So this is one of the biggest myths out there is that opening multiple credit cards will hurt your credit score. It actually improves your credit score. So I think my last count, I had 23 credit cards that I currently have opened, which is pretty remarkable. I also have excellent credit. So the more credit cards that I've opened, the more credit I have available, I'm not using all that credit. So it makes me look like a really good credit risk because I have all these cards without carrying balances on them. So as long as you're paying off the balance every month in full, uh you can come out ahead in the credit card game. I do want to note though, obviously, credit card rates, fees, right? Interest that you would pay on late payments is at a record high. I mean, it's been at a record high for months now, given how aggressively the central bank has raised rates to try to combat inflation in general when someone opens a credit card, let's say they don't have one and they're doing it for the very first time, Clint, what do they need to know about paying on time to make sure that they can get excellent credit like yourself. So that's the most important lesson in the credit card game. If you cannot pay your credit card bill off every single month and keep on top of it, then you should not bother getting into the rewards programs at all because you'll pay much more in interest than you would earn in the rewards. So you really got to stay on top of it, if you're going to try to play this because the banks are counting on you not paying your bills on time carrying a huge balance and paying them interest. So you really got to beat the banks at your, at their own game. But there's plenty of ways to do that and it's easier than you think it is. Clint. My final question. It is prime day, uh, day one of two days of prime day. Are there ways that shoppers, credit card holders rewards uh appointees can take advantage of the shopping event? Yeah. You know, Amazon actually loves people that have American Express and chase cards. They'll often let you uh sign up, click on an activation link, use a credit card that you have linked to your Amazon account and get a percentage off up to $80 off sometimes. I think that's one of the current promos right now. So make sure you do your research. We've got a whole guide to the best way to match, maximize your spend at Amazon at the points guy today. And we're also breaking down all the best deals. So plenty of resources out there. You just got to do a little bit of research. But yeah, absolutely. Credit cards can help you in that front. Super helpful and inspiring Clint. I'll note that as well. We all want a vacation and excellent credit. So good for you, Clint Henderson, managing editor of the points guy. Thank you.