Look Beyond Credit Cards: Upping Your Points and Miles Game

Earning miles via credit card sign-up bonuses is becoming more difficult. I don’t know about you all, but I barely have time for things like reselling or other creative ways of earning miles anymore. Instead, I try to really maximize my everyday spending and big purchases. Of course, that only goes so far. So for the time being, I’m adding a few other activities to generate miles beyond credit card sign-up bonuses. Are you in the same boat? Here’s how you can up your points and miles game:

 

Checking Accounts

I got a pretty generous checking account offer from Citi recently: Open a Citi Gold account, deposit $200,000 and spend $1,000 over two months on the debit card to earn 60,000 AAdvantage miles. I definitely don’t qualify for that bonus, so why is this such a great offer? There are two additional tiers involving lower balances and they can be stacked!

• Citi Priority Checking: 50,000 miles after $750 debit purchases in 60 days + 1-2 consecutive bill payments
• CitiBank Checking: 30,000 miles after $375 debit purchases in 60 days + 1-2 consecutive bill payments
• Basic Banking Checking: 5,000 miles after $125 debit purchases in 60 days + 1-2 consecutive bill payments

Through this promotion, I can earn 85,000 AAdvantage miles just by opening three checking accounts and spending $1250 in two months. I’ll take it!

Amex Offers

Amex Offers is on a role. I’ve never received as many 10,000 point bonus offers as I have this month. First, I got targeted for a 10,000 point bonus from the Hilton Amex Ascend Card. All I have to do is spend $3,000 on anything to get the bonus. I also got targeted for a 10,000 point bonus for spending $500 at Bergdorf Goodman. I’ve shopped this around to friends and family to see if they need anything – designer clothing, makeup products, etc. I don’t think I’ll break even by reselling, so right now I’m asking people to pitch in and let me charge their purchases to my credit card.

I received another 10,000 point bonus from the Amex Platinum Card. I have to spend $600 at AmexTravel to earn 10,000 bonus points. I have through the end of the summer to do this, which is going to be a piece of cake because I have several big travel bookings coming up that I can charge to this card. I also checked Amex accounts belonging to my dad and brother – they got several of these offers, so I’m looking at over 50,000 bonus points from these Amex Offers. Score!

Big Purchases

Recently, my parents decided to go solar. With the tax credits and deal through Costco, it just made sense. My dad initially wanted to finance it at 3%. I pointed out that he would be spending $750 a year on interest.

Instead, he could put that on a 3% cash back card like the Discover It Miles Card and earn $750. My preference is to put it on the Starwood Amex Card and Chase Freedom Unlimited. That’s 25,000 – 37,500 points I can put to very good use.

Other Ways to Earn Bonuses

Because I don’t have a ton of time anymore to earn lots of miles, I’m really making the most of what I spend every day. I’ve been paying my parents’ mortgage with a credit card through Plastiq for some time. Since I earn a decent amount of referral credits, I’ve also been using Plastiq to pay the landscapers, pest control, etc. My sister recently leased a new car and used my SPG Amex card for the down payment, which was a nice bonus. I’m also earning a decent amount of miles from the United MileagePlux X app as well as dining rewards programs.

I’ve also been looking at opportunities to earn more miles at work. I’m wrapping up a project that has a few big expenses attached to it. Recently, there was a $1500 bill that I was going to submit to our accounting department. I checked with my boss (who is totally on board with this points stuff) and got the OK to charge it to my card and get reimbursed. I’m going to see if I can do the same for another upcoming expense that is about 20 times as high.

Right now, focusing on spending bonuses and looking for opportunities to put big purchases on my card is how I’m earning lots of miles. It will have to do until I’m able to get back to my previous routine of earning an easy 10,000 miles per day.
What are you doing to earn more miles outside of credit card sign-up bonuses?