Never Use Your Debit Card Again

“Never use your debit card for purchases.”

I WISH someone had given me that advice years ago when I opened a new bank account and got my first debit card. I felt all official and thought how easy it was to not have to worry about carrying cash any more. Wow, when I think back now of how many rewards I was missing out on it makes me want to cry.

Debit cards are pointless. Literally. It’s just like paying with cash, which does you no good at all other than you’ve successfully bought the item you wanted. But there’s a whole world of rewards out there just waiting for you! Whether you’re wanting to keep it basic and stick to just earning cash back on items or are more interested in being able to earn free travel miles (like me!), the options can be overwhelming. Once my mind was opened to it, I’ve never looked back and never used my debit card for a single other purchase.

You may call me crazy, but I actually consider following the world of credit cards a hobby of mine now. I’ve found the travel and credit card reward blogs that I like and I’m subscribed to them. I receive daily and weekly emails that I review looking for new deals, tips and tricks. I couldn’t even tell you how many hours I’ve spent researching all this stuff. But I figured if I’m going to be dedicating so much time into growing our budget as much as possible, I should be sharing these findings with everyone else as well.

First of all, if you are not confident in your ability to control your spending, you should really just stop reading here. All my advice is based off the caveat that you will ensure you pay off your credit card each month. If you don’t, the amount of interest you will be charged FAR outweighs the rewards you’ll ever be able to earn and completely cancels out all your efforts. So seriously, if you aren’t very good at keeping your spending in check as it is, or remembering to pay your bills on time, don’t get into the credit card world. Credit card debt is a dangerous thing to be involved in and extremely difficult to escape.

If you’re still with me, then you should also know that despite all the cards we sign up for, we still don’t make any extra purchases than we normally would. I don’t ever pay extra money to buy things I don’t need just in order to take advantage of a credit card bonus or the rewards they offer. It’s simply not worth it. And right now we have enough credit lines open to spend close to 50% of our annual income. That’s scary. Don’t do it. Stick to your regular spending habits.

If I still haven’t scared you away, yay! Time to share the fun stuff. Did you know that since January of 2014, I have gotten 6 new credit cards and Pablo has gotten 1? There are so many offers out there and it can get overwhelming. But I’ve determined my strategy. Not only that, but my credit score is now higher than it’s ever been (last I checked it was a 740). Here’s just a sampling of what we’ve earned:

40,000 bonus miles from the Barclay World Arrival Master Card

45,000 bonus miles from the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Card

20,000 bonus points (miles or cashback) from the Chase Freedom Visa Card

Just about to earn 50,000 points and $50 statement credit with our Hilton Honors Visa Card

My most exciting news yet, I just got approved for the CITI AAdvantage Card which will give us 100,000 bonus miles after meeting the minimum spending requirement!!

Intrigued yet? Once I started earning these, I was hooked. I now don’t even look at a credit card that is not offering a huge sign up bonus. It’s simply the absolute best way to earn cashback and miles. Many people worry about the effect that all this credit card signing up can have on your credit score. I know I was apprehensive, but I can say that my credit score has significantly increased from where it was a year ago. If you’d like to learn more about credit scores and how they work, I’m working on a post on that. Keep in mind that I’m by no means an expert in all things credit cards, but I’ve definitely poured a lot of time into learning about this and there’s a lot of beneficial information. Read on to the next post for more information.