I’ve never hid the fact that I love to get free travel. One of the best ways I’ve found to help build points account balances is credit card rewards. It’s not just about getting the credit cards, but about signing up when they have the most lucrative rewards.
This is one of those times. American Express is offering 30,000 bonus points if you sign up for their Starwood card and charge $1,000 in the first three months.
I’ve been so excited about and happy with my 10,000 points that I’ve earned in the past through this credit card. I remember how exciting it was to know that I was going to get 3 nights in Los Angeles for those 10,000 points. That is huge value and incentive – 3 free nights hotel. The Starwood Starpoints program is one of the best ways to get free hotels.
But, until July 31st, 2010, American Express has made the offering just a little bit sweeter – well, actually a lot sweeter – 20,000 extra points sweeter. You can sign up for an American Express credit card and get 30,000 bonus Starwood points. As a side note, the landing page says the offer expires on 7/6/10, but is still appears to be active.
If you are a US resident and you’re in the market for a new credit card, (and even if you’re not) then I suggest you grab this card while it is available. Our family does our best to stockpile points when the offers are available so that when we vacation the free points will be waiting for us.
What can you do with 30,000 Starwood points?
Get 5 nights at a Category 3 hotel. Our family recently stayed at the Four Points Darling Harbour for five nights. Each room cost 28,000 points. We saved more than $1,500 per room for the stay. A $1,500 bonus value is not too shabby of an incentive to sign up for a credit card.
Get 7 nights at a Category 2 hotel. Actually, you could get up to 10 free nights, depending on your travel flexibility. Category 2 weekend nights cost 3,000 points and weekday points are 4,000 points.
Don’t want to use your points for a hotel? First of all, you’re crazy. Hotel points are much more valuable than flight points. Secondly, you can just transfer your points to some of your favorite airline points (Aeroplan, Alaska, American, British Airways, Continental, Delta, Hawaiian, United, and US Airways). The best part is that when you transfer 20,000 points, Starwood will give a bonus 5,000 points. Thus, 20,000 of your points can turn into 25,000 airline points. Be sure to check you specific program for their point to point redemption rate. I know that
And now, the caveat.
Since I also blog about personal finances, I feel like I need to preach about credit cards for a few moments.
If you need to choose between getting points and doing something that is better for your finances, then do what is better for your finances. A person who has a problem with credit card debt isn’t winning any games by playing the credit card rewards system. In our family, we typically spend what is needed to take advantages of the bonuses, and then we usually cancel the card or store it in a safe. If you have credit card debt problems and you’re trying to get out of credit card debt, you should be developing a debt snowball and getting out of debt, not accumulating more debt.
Now, use your fine judgment, and if you can control your spending with a credit card, this might be the right time to apply for this card (this is not a direct link, but instead a link to the site where I learned about the promo. This way they can get some benefits for providing good information).
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