Things are cruising along nicely here.  I used free gas tactics to get $30.83 in free gas in the past 5 days.  Nicoleen’s Citi Hilton Reserve bonus spend is completed.  We got Nicoleen’s authorized user card in the mail for my Chase Hyatt and she made a purchase with it, earning us 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points.  And to top it off, I finally posted a couple articles I’ve been meaning to finish for some time now.

New Posts This Week
– Our Fall 2015 Credit Card Applications is an overview of the strategy, tactics, and results of our latest round of card apps.
– Bonus Redemption Plans for our New Cards gets into how we plan on using the free night certificates from our new Hyatt and Hilton cards.  Six nights in luxury resorts in Hawaii between the three cards.

Credit Card News

The Chase Sapphire Preferred sign-up bonus has been jacked up to 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points!  Another 5,000 bonus is available for adding an authorized user.  With the $4k required spend for the bonus an at least $1k of that in the 2x categories of dining or travel, getting this card is worth 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points!  That’s enough for a round trip to Europe during peak season (when transferred to United, for example).  My referral links for this card are expired but if you are interested in getting it, here’s the direct link to the Chase website.  Or you can try clicking through another blogger’s links, but make sure the offer is for the jacked up bonus and not the standard 40,000 + 5,000 offer.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

It’s been a typical two weeks here, with a wondrous variety of free gasoline, new credit cards arriving in the mail, bonus points earned, and travel plans being made!

In the last two weeks:
– $14.12 in free gas
– Still abstaining from free Menards stuff
– Received a $25 Subway gift card in the mail which I got for $8.93 and some orphan Wells Fargo Rewards points from my soon-to-be cancelled Propel World card.

New Posts This Week
– $5,000 in Free Menards Merchandise is a visual journey through two years of every free after rebate item offered at Menards.  It’s worth a gander!
– Which Card Should I Get?  Ah…the age old question.  This post will not give you one simple answer, but it will explain the two strategies we employ to make our decisions, and get you thinking about all the factors that contribute to that decision.

Credit Card News
Nothing earth shattering as far as bonus offers go, but on the personal front there is some news.  Last week we got 4 new cards in the mail.  A Chase Hyatt card for each of us, a Citi Hilton Reserve for Nicoleen, and a Citi Thank-You Premier for me.  I’ll write a full run-down of the rationale for our card applications later this week.

Travel News
I booked a 24 hour get-away to the Embassy Suites in St. Paul to use up my remaining free weekend night certificate from my Citi Hilton Reserve card.  For a while now it’s been on our bucket list to concurrently get the Hyatt free night certificates from the aforementioned Chase cards and use them for a vacation at a luxury resort.  Phase I of that plan is now accomplished, as we were both approved for the cards and will soon have the required bonus spending taken care of.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

I hit the credit card and point research hard this weekend in preparation for our next round of card apps. I also did my monthly card and point update.  Here’s a summary of our points earned and used:

• earned 2,321 airline miles
• earned 1,209 Chase Ultimate Rewards
  
• spent 1,277 Wells Fargo Rewards points towards $12.77 of a $25 Subway gift card

It’s been a slow week for free gas.  We’re out of coupons for this month already and don’t have enough points to redeem for the big ($25) coupon yet.  I managed to get $4.50 in free gas this week.

New Posts This Week
– 2015 AMEX Small Business Saturday Statement Credit contains an important lesson for anyone interested in value tactics.  Read the post to gain the wisdom!

Credit Card News
The general consensus lately, especially for Chase, is that it’s better to have some credit limit overhead than to keep your limits high in order to raise your credit score via your credit utilization percentage.  In preparation for a Chase application I sent private messages requesting decreases in credit limits for a couple of my Chase cards.  By next week’s update I should have a report on whether or not it did any good.

UPDATE: Since starting to draft this post, I decided to apply for our next round of cards.  I’ll report back next week, but here’s a preview….

Within our grasp…

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

This update covers about two weeks and includes my personal monthly points and miles update, a preview of some brewing travel plans, a report from a reader, and my current credit card usage decisions.

First, a look into my personal tracking.  Since the previous update I have pumped $19.01 in free gas.  For 2015 the percentage of my commute gas that’s free has dropped below 17%, mostly due to rising fuel prices.  I recently tallied our monthly points and miles earnings.  Here are the results:

• earned 9,629 airline miles
• earned 7,253 Chase Ultimate Rewards
  
• earned 96 ‘other’ points

Travel News
I’m getting the itch to plan a trip.  We don’t have any travel plans on the books right now and it’s starting to bug me!  I might have something in the works for Europe next summer, but what really gets me excited is the prospect of another tropical, lazy vacation with Nicoleen.  We’re exploring the idea of a 6 night stay on Maui sometime next year.  If we play our cards right (and I do mean cards), we should be able to get all 6 nights at top tier resorts for free.  Of course the plan would be to get the flights for free as well.  I’ll write more about this plan as it develops, but here’s a teaser of the place we have our eyes on:

Value Tactics Reader Reports
ValueTactics reader Derek reports paying just $561 for $2,984 worth of airfare!  He’s flying his family of 4 to Grand Cayman Island and he accomplished this awesome deal by using the value tactic outlined in this post from onemileatatime.  Nice work, Derek, and have a great trip!

Credit Card News
Nicoleen is still working on the awesome promotion on her American Airlines Aviator Red by Barclay for 15,000 AAdvantage miles for spending $500 each month in September, October, and November.  I had been taking advantage of the “spend $1000, earn 1000 extra” bonus offer valid each billing cycle on my Citi AAdvantage card, but I recently got a better offer:

That’s 3x miles (vs. 2x on the 1000/1000 deal) on categories I’ll easily hit the bonus limit on, PLUS there’s no $1000 minimum per month. I’ll definitely be using this card until the bonus limit has been met. Based on my experience, it seems like this Aviator Red from Barclay (previously the U.S. Airways Barclaycard) is becoming a clear front-runner when it comes to periodic promotional bonuses.  This is a targeted bonus, however, and not everyone gets the same offers.  I was notified of this one via e-mail.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

I had a lot going on this week at home and at work, so there’s not much to update. I only filled up once with gas, so I saved $2.18 in gas since the last update. I’ve been doing a lot of home remodeling projects and car repairs recently. Saving money on labor when possible by doing repairs oneself is a simplistic value tactic. Of course it takes time to do your own work but it’s also satisfying to do your own work sometimes, so that adds some value.

New Posts this Week
No new posts this week; too busy!

Credit Card News
We are spending toward 2 different bonus offers at the moment, both for American Airlines miles.  I got a retention offer on my Citi AAdvantage card a few months ago where I get 1000 bonus miles for every statement in which I have at least $1000 net spending.  I wasn’t working on any other bonuses so I decided to take advantage of that offer last month.

The retention offer was good for the next 16 statements.  ValueTactics reader Nidakeed reports success in stacking these bonuses when getting the same offer two years in a row.  During the 3-4 months of overlap, you will earn 2000 bonus miles on the >$1000 monthly spend.

The other offer we’re working on is one I previously mentioned on Nicoleen’s Barclay Aviator Red card.  She gets 15,000 bonus miles if she spends $500 or more in September, October, and November.  Piece of cake and a lot of bonus miles!

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

The year is 2/3 over and there is over $425 more in my pocket than if I had not used the free gas tactics.  At this rate I’ll hit $600 for sure!  In the last week and a half I saved $35.87 spread over 4 trips to the pump.

In the last weekly update I showed you all the free Menards stuff available at the moment.  I was at the store getting some remodeling supplies this weekend and I decided to get the 4 free stick lighters.  I figured we could always use some of those around the house…..or is this what me starting to fall off the wagon looks like?

New Posts this Week
– Flea Market Round Up is a report on the flea market I was set up at earlier this summer.  I went for one Saturday with the goal of selling as much Menards free stuff as I could.

Website News
In a long-overdue update, I refreshed the Results Tracker on the left side bar to reflect recent data. All of the results you see on that side bar were accomplished since August 2012 when I got my first premium credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

A few readers have requested a noobie guide they can send their interested friends and family to.  I think it’s a great idea and it’s a feature that all the similar websites have, so I’m going to make that a priority in the coming week or two.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!