Saturday, September 22, 2018

An Easy $150 (or $400+) From a Single Credit Card

Travel is great. Once I figured out that I could actually go some pretty cool places, I was hooked. I often plan trips a year or two out and then try to strategize how I can make them happen with a bonus here or a deep discount there.

But, alas, I know that travel is not for everyone. However, this does not mean that those who hate to travel have no ways to benefit from many of the same credit card offers that I've benefited from.

I recently wrote about my #1 credit card recommendation--the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It comes with a bonus that's worth at least $500. However, it also requires $4,000 in spending within 3 months to earn that bonus. 

I realize that this level of spending might be a bit scary for some people. I totally get it. 

There are other options that could still provide smaller benefits, but with a smaller required spend. 

One of these is the Chase Freedom Unlimited (for full disclosure, this is an affiliate link--I may be compensated if you sign up--you can get the exact same bonus by just googling the card and signing up there, as well). 

Benefits of the Chase Freedom Unlimited

The Chase Freedom Unlimited comes with a $150 bonus. This is admittedly less than the $500+ that you can get from the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it's still a nice little chunk of change for very little effort.

If you're scared away by some of the big spending requirements of the Sapphire Preferred, you can get this bonus after spending just $500 over 3 months. That equals out to $167 of spending per month.

This does not have to be spending that you're not already doing. In fact, I do not recommend spending extra money just to earn a bonus (unless it's an annual fee on a card that gives you more benefits than the cost of the fee--but that's nothing to worry about with this card). 

How can you reach $500 in spending. Let's say you pay $100 in gas just commuting to/from work. That would get you 60% of the way to getting the bonus, and it's spending you're already going to be doing anyway. If you spend even $70 on groceries in a month, you've now qualified for the bonus. 

In addition to the $150 bonus (it'll actually be at least $157.50 after meeting the $500 minimum spend), the card also pays 1.5% cash back on every dollar spent anywhere. 

Again, I don't recommend spending more money than you would otherwise spend to get 1.5% cash back. That's bad math and bad for your finances. If you spend any more than 1.5% in excess of what you'd otherwise spend, you'll actually come out on the bad end of the deal. 

You can get the $150, use it as a statement credit or have Chase send it to you, and then you never have to use it again. 

The card comes with no annual fee whatsoever. You can keep it for as long as you like with no cost at all. The interest rate should not matter if you pay off your purchases every month. 

How You Could Get $400+

This trick will only work for folks in the same household who pool their finances. Chase has a refer-a-friend program. The link that I've posted that allows you to sign up for the Chase Freedom Unlimited is a referral link. 

Those who have access to the link will be able to share it via email or social media platforms to get a $100 bonus. 

So, here's the maths:

You get $150 (actually $157.50) after meeting the $500 spend.
You refer your spouse, who signs up. You then get a $100 bonus for the referral.
Your spouse then earns the $150 bonus (actually $157.50) after meeting the $500 spend.

This means that a couple could get at least $415 from each signing up for one credit card and spending $1,000 that they'd otherwise be spending anyways. Keep in mind that you may not qualify for the card, but if your credit is good, $150+ for an individual or $400+ for a couple in cold, hard cash is not a bad idea. 

In fact, if you're a disciplined spender who is not one of those folks who spend way more just because you have plastic, it's a bad idea not to take advantage of opportunities like this. 

If you like to travel, you could use this $415 to go toward a vacation. If you're a saver, it could go to your emergency fund or your retirement fund. You could pay a bit down on a house or car loan. It's straight up cash, and you can use it for whatever you want to use it for. 

If you decide to sign up, I'd appreciate if you'd use my referral link for the Chase Freedom Unlimited. If you want your spouse or significant other to earn the bonus, I'd actually appreciate if they use your referral link if and when it's available, rather than mine. Any bonuses will not be cut if you use referral links.  

If you have any questions about how this process works, let me know in the comments. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Also, if you find the information useful, be sure to sign up to follow the blog for updates. 

Monday, September 10, 2018

Cheap Beach Trips in Lithuania




I'm currently working for a semester at a university in the port city of Klaipeda, Lithuania. Many Americans would think this is downright crazy, leaving the US and all, but I'm usually up for an adventure. Therefore, I was pretty excited to get on a plane and take the longest (in terms of time) trip I've ever been on. I've been outside the US several times before, but two weeks was pretty much my limit.


Since the theme of this site is travel, you'd probably guess that this is one of my biggest hobbies. You'd be right. While traveling to Lithuania is related to my work, there are also quite a few cool things to visit in the Baltic region. If they're free or really cheap, the cool meter goes up even more.

The Curonian Spit


Right across a lagoon from the port of Klaipeda is a 50-mile-plus peninsula that's basically a giant sandbar. This sandbar is known as the Curonian Spit, named after one of the Baltic tribes that used to inhabit the region. A ferry travels across the lagoon at regular intervals during the day, and many Germans and Lithuanians like to vacation (or is it holiday?) on the beaches on the Baltic side of the Spit.



The lagoon that separates Lithuania's mainland from the Curonian Spit (Photo by Author)
As you can probably see from the image above, Klaipeda is actually becoming a fairly popular destination for Baltic cruise ships. Note the Lithuanian flag to the left of the big boat. This image was taken from one of the spots that the ferry uses to dock on the Spit side of the lagoon.

From this spot, it's just a little over a hundred meters to Nerija, a restaurant that offers Lithuanian fare. I've already eaten here a couple of times, and I've really enjoyed the šašlykus, which is basically a grilled pork kebab. It's pretty tasty.




Pork Kebabs and French Fries on the Curonian Spit
While the restaurant is not free, getting to the Spit is about as close to free as you can get. From our apartment, a trip requires a round-trip bus ride and a round-trip ferry ride. The bus costs €1 each way for adults if you buy on-board. It drops to about €0.58 if you use an electronic bus pass that you can reload. Kids are one-half of the adult price when riding the bus. Like most European cities, there is a robust public transportation network that only requires a walk of a few blocks from most stops to your ultimate destination.


The ferry ride costs only €1 for a two-way trip. That's what I would call cheap in my book. After disembarking from the ferry, it's about a 15- to 20-minute walk across the Spit to one of the nicest beaches I've ever visited. There's also another ferry a little bit further up the lagoon, and it also carries vehicles across. Since I'm relying on my feet and public transportation while in Europe, I don't foresee using this ferry during my stay.


I've been to several beaches in the US and abroad. Of all of the beaches I've visited only Baby Beach in Aruba has as much sand as Smiltynė Beach. The sand is soft, and it is pretty white. The beach itself is quite wide, as well. The water temperature on the last day we visited was 19 degrees C, which is about 66.2 F, according to Google's conversion. Not as warm as the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic of the Southeastern US at this time of year (early September), but not too bad.




The Beach at the Curonian Spit is pretty wide (Photo by Author)

The Beach at Smiltynė, right across from Klaipeda--This was the sunniest that it was while we were here (Photo by Author)
We actually walked from the tip of the Spit near the entrance to the port to Smiltynė. The walk was a nice trek along the sand while the tide rolled in. Then we hiked through the forest to Nerija Restaurant for a late lunch. It was a fun day that was pretty cheap overall. Packing a picnic lunch would have made it even cheaper, but the lunch at Nerija was for a birthday celebration.

For those who would want to explore more of the Curonian Spit, the resort town of Nida, Lithuania, is just about 50 km down the coast. This is about as far as Americans can go, however. Just to the south of Nida is the isolated Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.


A visa, and an expensive one at that, would be necessary for people traveling on a US passport to enter Russian territory. I may try to head down to Nida at some point during my stay, but do not plan to try and enter Kaliningrad Oblast. Nida is accessible by bus from Smiltynė, and apparently by ferry from Klaipeda from what I've read.


Of course, Americans would have to pay quite a bit to get to the Baltic states. That is, unless they used frequent flyer miles or a card that allowed them to utilize travel credits like the Capital One Venture card. The general cost in miles for a trip across the pond would be 60,000 miles with United, Delta, or American, and there are lots of partner airlines to make it happen. There are several options to earn the miles that are necessary, most of which do not actually involve flying.


The partners airlines are necessary to reach the Curonian Spit for people from the Western Hemisphere, because direct flights to the Baltic are pretty much nonexistent. I actually wound up flying AirBaltic from Brussels to get to Riga. Then it was a four-hour bus ride down to Klaipeda from there. Therefore, you'd need to connect to a partner somewhere else in Europe to get to Riga, Vilnius, or Palanga to reach this part of the world.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

My Number One Credit Card Recommendation

Free travel...it's something I love to think about. It's something I love to experience. And it's pretty easy to cut the cost of flights and hotel rooms to pretty much nothing. As I've noted before, one of the easiest ways to get free travel is through signup bonuses from banks. It's pretty easy to rack up tens of thousands (and occasionally hundreds of thousands) of points from signing up for a new credit card or two.

You might wonder what credit card I'd recommend the most for those looking for a quick trip. It's an easy answer. That would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. (This is an affiliate link. If you sign up for this card, I may be compensated. You can also just Google Chase Sapphire Preferred and get the same offer, but I do appreciate any support you might give).

Why the Chase Sapphire Preferred?

You might wonder why I'd choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It's pretty easy to give a reason. I like the fact that you can get a 50,000-point bonus after spending $4,000 over the first three months that the card is open. You might think that it's hard to spend this much, but many middle-class families spend at least $1,000 a month on insurance, gas, and food. If you put all of these expenses on the card, you're pretty much there. 

What are 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points worth? You can use the points for a statement credit at a penny a point. This means that you could get at least $540 of that $4,000 back just be utilizing the points for a statement credit. If you're averse to annual fees, no worries. There's no fee the first year. Starting with year two, there's a $95 annual fee, however. If you want to avoid the fee, you can cancel the card after 10 or 11 months as long as you've used the bonus or transferred the points to a partner.

The card earns a point per dollar spent, as well as two points per dollar for spending in the travel and restaurant categories. This is where the $40 extra dollars comes from, but it would likely be more if some of the spending went toward paying for travel or restaurant expenses. 

You can get an even bigger return from these 54,000 points, however. If you use the card to pay for travel through the Chase travel portal, you'll get 1.25 cents of value for each point. This means that the signup bonus alone would get you $625 of value from the signup bonus and at least $50 more from meeting the minimum spend. This could pay for multiple airline tickets or a few nights at a decent resort, depending on where you're looking to go. If you have a spouse with good credit, he or she could sign up after you've hit the bonus, and you could effectively double the bonus!

You can even use your Chase Ultimate Rewards points as a 1-to-1 transfer opportunity with a number of travel loyalty programs. For example, your 54,000 points could become 54,000 Rapid Rewards points with Southwest Airlines, 54,000 Mileage Plus miles with United, or 54,000 points with Hyatt or Marriott. These are some of the best travel partners around. 

How I Used My Chase Sapphire Reserve Bonus


I got the signup bonus a few years ago, and I proceeded to go to Disneyland, among a few other places in Southern California. I utilized a Southwest Airlines fare sale to transfer 29,000 Ultimate Rewards points for 29,000 Rapid Rewards points. Four tickets to LAX from Denver, total cost $44.80 (taxes that frequent flyer miles don't erase). I call that a win. 

We saw the Lakers at the Staples Center
Here's a statue of Jerry West. Go WVU!
I then looked for places to stay. They were pretty expensive, to say the least. I had a free night through Marriott, which I used to spend the first night close to the airport after our late arrival. Then I transferred another 24,000 to Hyatt for a free three-night stay at a Hyatt House near Disneyland. It was actually in a one-bedroom suite for only 8,000 points per night. Talk about a travel score! 

I added another night in this hotel for about $180. This means that I saved $540 on hotel expenses at the Hyatt (not to mention another $150 or so from the free Marriott night). I probably saved another $400 to $500 on flights although it's been a few years and I can't remember the exact cash price.

This means that my one signup bonus got me nearly $1,000 of value. The flexibility that comes with the Chase Sapphire Preferred is why I can say it's my number one card recommendation. You can sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred here.   

If you're worried about spending $4,000 in three months, you could also start with the:

Chase Freedom Unlimited ($150 bonus after spending $500 in 3 months + no annual fee ever) Affiliate Link

Where would you use your travel bonus from the Sapphire Preferred? Let me know in the comments.