27 Months of Sign-up Bonuses: $11,000+, 500,000 Points, and 4 Free Nights

July 22, 2017July 22, 2017 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist14 Comments

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you should definitely know by now that I am a huge fan of sign-up bonuses. I have written about credit card sign-up bonuses, bank account sign-up bonuses, and also about free vacations that I’ve been able to obtain using the bonuses themselves. If you’re completely unfamiliar with these bonuses, I’d suggest starting with credit card bonuses as they as usually the easiest. I wrote about the basics of credit card bonuses in the past which should give you some background and information on how it all works.

I have spent the past 27 months (starting April 2015) aggressively pursuing sign-up bonuses to assist on my path to financial independence and to earn some free vacations and weekend trips. Since beginning I’ve kept a close record of everything I’ve signed up for including: bonus amount, spending requirement, how long the account has to be open, how to avoid fees on the account, date approved, and date closed. I transposed some of this information into an Excel document in order better visualize the pertinent information and to determine how much I had actually earned from these bonuses. The results were ridiculous and really surprised me!

Let’s go ahead and look at a couple of screen shots of the spread sheet and then I’ll discuss some of the specifics.

In total this is: 27 new credit cards and 23 new bank accounts opened in the past 27 months!

So from the totals at the bottom, you can see that in cash bonuses I made $5,800 plus a $650 cell phone credit which I also count as cash, which equals a total of $6,450. I included three credit card referral bonuses ($50) on the spreadsheet, but since those don’t actually count as sign-up bonuses, I’ll subtract them out. So that equals $6,300 total in cash earned. This is with fees that I paid already being subtracted out. You can also see that I earned a total of 915,000 miles/points and 4 free hotel nights. The $6,300 in cash shown here is obviously quite a bit less than the $11,000+ number I stated in the title, so where did the extra $5,000 come from? The extra money came from selling my Chase, Citi, and AMEX points for cash. This is not the ideal situation for most people as the cash value is significantly less than the value I could get for these points if redeemed for travel. The reason I did this is that my primary goal is reaching financial independence as soon as possible, and there is no way that I would have used all of those points on travel in the next several years. I’d rather have the cash now and earn more points for travel later that I will use primarily after financial independence in two years. Here is how much I got for the points after all fees:

250,000 Membership Rewards Points (AMEX): $3,262.45
97,000 Thank You Points (Citi): $1,106.64
80,000 Ultimate Rewards points (Chase): $1,116.35
- Total: $5,485.44

Now adding the $5,485 to the $6,300 earned in cash bonuses mentioned above, I end up with a staggering total of $11,785 in cash! You may notice that the amount of points I sold are actually more than the amount I got from the sign-up bonuses and the reason is that I earned additional points on the cards while meeting the spending requirements.

If that isn’t awesome enough, I’ve also used some of the airline and hotel miles as well as the 4 free hotel nights for some great stays including:

1 night in a suite at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.
1 night at the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York.
2 nights at the all-inclusive Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Jamaica. (We got an additional 2 nights from Whitney transferring some of her Chase UR points to Hyatt.)
2 nights at the all-inclusive Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay in Jamaica.
2 Round trip flights from Charlotte, NC to Montego Bay, Jamaica on Southwest.
2 Round trip tickets from Charlotte, NC to Aruba on American Airlines. (Scheduled for December this year!)
And many weekend trips where we spent a night in various (not as memorable) hotels using Hyatt, IHG, or Hilton points.

When all is said and done, it is safe to say that I’ve gotten/will get well over $25,000 in value from all of these sign-up bonuses. That’s over $10,000/year of additional TAX FREE income. How amazing is that??

If you haven’t started pursuing sign-up bonuses, I strongly encourage you do so ASAP. These bonuses can lead to serious value even if you don’t go as extreme as I have over the past two years. Feel free to reach out to me with questions or comments in the comments section below or the “contact me” section above! Thanks for reading!

***I want to give a huge shout out to the Doctor of Credit blog which played a major role for me in finding all of these bonuses. That is the site where I recommend that everyone start!

$3,000+ in Cash Earned from Bank Account Bonuses over 1.5 Years

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist2 Comments

Previously I’ve talked about how lucrative bank account bonuses can be. This is something I have gotten into over the past year and a half in my journey toward financial independence, in addition to other profitable “side hustles.”

I was preparing everything to do my taxes earlier this week and noticed that I have quite a few 1099-INT forms for 2016. This made me realize that I have signed up for quite a few new bank accounts in the past year and a half and have made a decent amount of money from them. I keep a very detailed record for each account I sign up for, including: date of account opening, bonus amount, requirements for bonus, requirements to avoid fees, early account termination fees (if applicable), date bonus was received, and the date the account was closed. I signed up for my first bank account bonus in October 2015 which was a Discover checking account with a $50 bonus. Below I will list all of the accounts I’ve signed up for as well as the amount of the bonuses received. At the end I will add them all up, and we’ll see how much I was able to earn over the past year and a half.

2015

Discover checking- $50
CitiGold checking account- 40,000 Citi points (redeemed for $400 in gift cards)
Santander Bank- $20/month for 17 months that account was open. – $340
Discover savings- $100
U.S. Bank checking- $125
TD Bank checking- $150
Wells Fargo checking- $100
First Tennessee Bank checking- $250

2016

Suntrust checking- $200
Northpointe Bank checking- $50
Amalgamated Bank checking- $150
TIAA Cref savings- $100
PNC Bank checking- $300
Capitol One Money Market- $100

2017

Bank of America checking- $300
M&T Bank checking- $400

Total in past 1.5 years: $3,115

All of these bonuses had different requirements, some easier than others. Usually the higher bonuses involve more difficult requirements but not always. Many required some sort of direct deposit, but often transfers from another bank will work to meet that requirement which is easy enough. When I added all of these bonuses up I was surprised to see that this is an average of a little over $2000/year in additional income! This number will be less from this point forward most likely since there is usually a 12 month waiting period after you close each account before you are eligible for the bonus for opening the same account again, and some only allow one bonus per person ever. This $3,115 is in addition to all of the bonuses that I have earned from credit cards, brokerage accounts, and referrals over the past year and a half. When I started looking into sign up bonuses, I would have never thought I would end up making a decent side income with it, but it has turned out to be fairly lucrative. If you have never looked into sign up bonuses on bank accounts, I encourage you to check it out! I owe much of my success to the Doctor of Credit blog. Here is a great place to start the search for bank bonuses.

Motif Investing $100 Sign-up Bonus Review

June 28, 2016January 20, 2017 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist6 Comments

[Expired. $100 bonus is no longer available.] If you have read my past posts on sign-up bonuses, you probably know that I am a big fan of making easy money with these bonuses. Motif Investing is not only a great place to get started with investing but they also have a very simple $100 bonus for opening an account, funding it, and buying at least one Motif. I just received the sign-up bonus on my account about two weeks ago and would recommend this to everyone since it was a very pain free process and a good return on the time investment.

Motif Investing is basically a brokerage account in which stock trades are able to be performed. They offer individual stock trades for $4.95, which is a competitive rate, but what makes Motif different than normal brokerage accounts is that they allow multiple stocks to be put into a “Motif.” This is best explained in a quote for Motif’s website, “What’s a motif? A motif is a basket of up to 30 stocks or ETFs intelligently weighted to reflect an investment theme, market insight or innovative trend. Choose from one of our professionally built motifs, customize, or design your own. Then buy your motif in just one click.” A Motif costs $9.95 to trade which is an awesome deal if you build a Motif with 30 stocks that you want to invest in. You are able to buy the basket of stocks for $9.95 instead of making 30 individual trades and paying several transaction fees. It’s not a bad idea to keep this account open and use it after you receive the bonus, but this is up to you.

Now for the sign-up bonus details:

Click through my referral link here. (I will get $100 as well if you meet all the requirements but send me your Paypal info and I’ll send you $50 of my bonus once it posts)
Fund your account with at least $1000 within 10 days of opening the account.
Make at least one Motif trade (If you are only opening this account for the bonus then I would suggest buying a US treasury Motif which will have less risk of investment loss. Then sell the Motif the next day in order to further limit your risk.)
Keep the money in the account for at least 45 days.
The bonus will post about two months after your meet the requirements, in my experience.

The bonus requirements probably took me about an hour total to complete. This is a pretty good return on investment in my opinion.

Total amount gained from bonus:

$100: bonus from sign up
-$9.95 * 2 = -$19.90 from buying and selling the Motif you choose
+$50: Half of my referral bonus sent to you from Paypal once the bonus posts
= 130.10 total for an hour of work

Check it out and let me know if you have any questions about the bonus! Enjoy the free money!

The Basics of Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses

May 12, 2016May 12, 2016 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist5 Comments

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed financial adviser and the information in this article is not meant to be individualized financial advice. Everyone’s situation is different so if you are unsure about what to do with your funds, please seek an adviser that can consider your own individual case and make recommendations to you. Some of the links in this post are my personal referral links and we will both receive bonuses if you sign up through them.

I realized after some questions and comments on previous posts that I may have gotten a little ahead of myself with detailing credit card sign-up bonuses without first talking about the basics of how they work. I understand that for someone that has spent most of their life hearing about how terrible credit cards are, more convincing and explanation may be warranted before you decide to venture down this road. I want to try to answer some questions that you may have about the sign-up bonus process and possibly dispel some myths about credit cards along the way. As I’ve written about previously, credit cards are not the enemy, and you can make a significant amount of extra money with credit card sign-up bonuses.

The first thing that you may be wondering about is how you will go about not paying interest once you sign up for a card and start spending on it. Contrary to what some may tell you, making a purchase on a credit card does not lead to immediate interest. For example, let’s say that I have a credit card with a statement closing date on the 15th of each month. The statement close is when your bill is determined for the previous month of purchases. Credit cards have a grace period in which you are allowed to make your payment, this will be indicated as your payment due date. So for the example above, imagine that I make only one purchase on the card on January 1st. The statement will close on January 15th and the payment due date will be set somewhere around a month from that point, likely the middle of February. What that means is that you have a month and a half to pay off that purchase before you are charged any interest or fees. You can always make the payment before the due date if you desire (I often do that to make sure that I avoid any fees and to stay on top of my spending). A key point here is that when you make your payment, you are paying the full statement balance and not just the minimum (the minimum will lead to interest charges). In this scenario, you get a 45 day interest free loan on your purchase as well as cashback or points on the purchase if you have chosen a good card. Being charged interest is not a concern if you are paying your statement balance in full each month.

Okay, so interest will not be a factor as long as you stay on top of your bills and don’t spend money that you don’t have. So what about the impact of a credit card on your credit score? For most people, opening a few credit cards will actually increase your credit score (as long as you are paying your statement balance as indicated above). This is due to a couple of factors:

Increasing your available credit will make you look more desirable to lenders because it means that you have more “wiggle room” if you run into hard times. i.e. you could always begin to carry a balance if you had to for some reason due to an unexpected expense (although this should not be an option for us).
Making additional payments on time each month will increase your score because it makes you look like a more responsible borrower.

My credit score has decreased over the past year but I expected it and was willing to make this sacrifice for the massive amount of value I got out of the cards (about 20 new cards opened in the past 10 months). Whitney, on the other hand, has opened five cards in the past six months and has gotten very good value from her cards as well but in addition, her credit score actually increased!

Now you may be wondering, if credit card sign-up bonuses and cashback are so awesome, then why doesn’t everyone take advantage and why do credit card companies offer the bonuses if people are making money and getting free travel from them? The answer to both of those questions are very closely related. Not everyone takes advantage of these because only a very small percentage of people are actually responsible with their finances and are able to pay their statement balances each month. This means that most people that sign up for these bonuses end up paying interest on their purchases and lose money in the long run even when taking into account the sign-up bonus and cashback rewards (if you’re saving money and being responsible with your finances, this does not apply to you). It is because of the majority losing money to credit card companies that these awesome offers are available to us and afford us the opportunity to capitalize. The credit card companies are more than happy to lose money on a few people to make money on the majority. The key to all of this is NOT being part of the majority that pays interest and loses money.

What about annual fees that some cards charge? Many of the cards that have annual fees waive the fee for the first year for new card holders. This is convenient since many of the cards that I sign up for, I am only interested in the sign-up bonus and don’t wish to keep the card after that. So in this scenario, I will keep the card for a year, reap all of the benefits, and then cancel it before I ever have to pay any fee on it. There are also quite a few options that don’t have annual fees at all and still offer good sign-up bonuses. Chase Freedom and American Express Blue Cash fall into this category.

I hope that this post eases some of the fears that are associated with credit cards. If you are financially responsible and are doing well saving money, reward credit cards are a no-brainer. Put your expenses on the card (or cards) that you choose, pay them off each month and reap all of the rewards with none of the negative consequences. Enjoy your free travel and cashback! Are there any other questions that you have regarding credit cards or sign-up bonuses?

Make Easy Money with Bank Account Bonuses

May 2, 2016February 19, 2017 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist3 Comments

Bank account bonuses can be much easier to complete than credit card bonuses. There are usually no spending requirements associated with bank account bonuses. Most of the bonuses involve making direct deposits or performing a certain number of transactions. Both of these should be easy for most people, but they can be made a little easier if those things are not feasible for you. For example, transfers from one bank to another, also referred to as an ACH push, often count as a direct deposit which makes that requirement easy to meet. Debit card transactions can easily be completed by buying very small denomination Amazon gift cards. Occasionally, some bank accounts will require keeping the account open for a certain period of time in order to keep the bonus, and there also may be a monthly fee charged if certain criteria are not met.

I am always willing to put in a little effort to grab the low hanging fruit, and that’s what I consider bank account bonuses to be. The bonuses are usually not as high as the credit card offers, but I still made around $1000 (between cash and gift cards) in the past six months from various bank account bonuses. This is nothing to scoff at in my opinion and can easily add up to a substantial amount toward financial independence. Many bank account bonuses are only available in certain states or regions, but some are available nationwide depending on the bank. Below I will discuss the bonuses that I have completed and were the least hassle.

Citigold Checking: Although this account involves some hassle and fees, I would consider it to be the most lucrative that I have completed to this point, which is why I have it listed first. There are two separate offers currently, one for 50,000 American Airlines miles and one for 40,000 Citi Thank You points. Which one you choose will be based on your goals and future travel plans. I chose the 40,000 Citi points which turned into $400 worth of Target gift cards. For many, the AA miles could be worth much more than this if redeemed for business or first class international flights.

Santander Checking: This bonus was very easy to complete and is worth $150 in cashback. The only requirements are to have $500 in direct deposits and keep the account open for 90 days. This one is definitely worth it in my opinion if you have easy access to changing your direct deposit to a new bank. For more information, here is a great article about the bonus and requirements: http://www.doctorofcredit.com/santander-150-checking-bonus/

Discover Bank Savings: Discover bank has been my primary checking and savings accounts for the past year or so due to good customer service and a decent interest rate (.95%) on their savings account. They are currently offering a $100 bonus on their savings account. This bonus will be difficult to complete for many because it requires a deposit of $15,000 into the account. Considering that is the only requirement, it is very easy to complete if you have the money available in another savings account. Simply open the account, move the money in and wait. After the bonus posts, you can always take the money back out, but if this money is part of your emergency fund, it may be worth it to leave it in the account for the interest which is better than most other traditional savings accounts.

Suntrust: This offer is not available in all states so click the link to see if you are eligible. It only takes $2,000 worth of direct deposits in the first 60 days in order to get $200 cashback on this checking account. They also offer a savings account with a $50 bonus when you deposit $5,000 into the account. To save some hassle, both of these accounts can be opened at the same time. I only opened the checking account because the savings account offer was not available when I opened the account, but the process was very smooth and I have already received the bonus.

Netspend: Although the sign-up offer on this account isn’t huge, I think it is a very good account for most people to sign up for. Netspend is a high yield savings account that I recommend to everyone. These days, when most people talk about “high yield” on savings account, they are still referring to an interest rate below 1%, or if you’re lucky, a little over 1%. Netspend offer 5% on their savings account currently which blows most others out of the water. The reason that they are able to offer such a high rate in today’s environment is the fact that they make money off of purchases made with an associated prepaid debit card. This does not apply to you if you don’t use the debit card and instead choose to leave your money in the savings account to reap the reward of the high interest rate. In addition to the high interest rate, they also offer a $20 sign-up bonus if you go through a referral link for the account and deposit $40 or more (mine is included above). The one catch with this account though, is that you can only earn the 5% interest on a balance of $5,000 or less. In my opinion, this is still a significant amount and I choose to keep my emergency fund in this account instead of in a savings account earning 1%. There are a few other accounts similar to Netspend, and I will make a specific post on these 5% interest accounts very soon, as I believe that they are a great place to get a safe return until US stock valuations return to a more reasonable level.

In the past year I have signed up for all of these accounts as well as a few others that are no longer available. I would also like to mention that Chase also has great sign-up bonuses on their checking and savings accounts, but I did not include them in the list because I am not able to apply based on my home address. Make sure to check to see if Chase accounts are an option for you. There are also several other great bank account bonuses that I haven’t been able to take advantage of because of my location, but depending on where you live you might be able to. I hope that some of these accounts will be helpful for you and allow you to make some extra money. Do you have any other recommendations for currently available offers that I didn’t list? Thanks for reading!

Best Credit Cards for Easy Cashback Bonuses!

April 28, 2016July 11, 2017 Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist5 Comments

As I have written about in the past, credit cards can be very lucrative, especially with sign up bonuses. This does not apply to just credit cards though. I have also made a significant amount of money from bank account and brokerage account sign up bonuses which I will be writing about in the next few weeks. Credit card sign up bonuses can be a little more difficult depending on the card because they usually involving having to spend a significant amount of money. If done correctly, these can also be easily accomplished if you do your best to put any planned big purchases on the cards. I’ll discuss each of the different types of sign-up bonuses and then provide links to some that I have completed and had success with.

There are hundreds of credit card sign-up bonuses available but only some are worth the time and effort. Also, some of the bonuses fluctuate throughout the year meaning that depending on when you sign up, you could receive much less bang for your buck. Over the past nine months, I have signed up for 18 new credit cards for the bonuses. Some of these are obviously more lucrative than others, but I have gotten some benefit from all of them. They also have different amounts of spending required in order to receive the bonuses which should be a strong consideration for you. Make sure that you will be able to meet the spending requirement, otherwise you get very little benefit from the card. Currently in my job situation I do not get paid vacation days, so even though some travel cards would have given more value than cashback bonus cards, I don’t have a lot of time for travel, so it makes more sense for me to choose the cashback bonus cards. Here are some cards that I would currently recommend:

Chase freedom: This card offers a $150 bonus after spending $500 in the first 90 days of being a card member. This should be very achievable for most and is a pretty decent cash bonus. This card also offers 5% cashback in rotating categories each quarter and include: gas, groceries, restaurants, etc. This card also does not have an annual fee, so it is worth keeping even after the sign up bonus for the reward categories. I first got this card about six years ago and still use it consistently.

Chase Sapphire: This is a premium card from Chase and has a very big sign-up bonus. 50,000 points after $4,000 spent in the first 90 days. That 50,000 can be worth $500 in cash or $625 in travel booked through Chase. These points can also be transferred to one of Chase’s travel partners for even more value depending on your travel plans. There are many other benefits offered by this card which can be found on the link above. Keep in mind that $3,000 can be difficult to spend in three months, so make sure that you have some big purchases planned or some other method of completing the spending before signing up. This card charges an annual fee, but it is not charged for the first year. If you do not decide to keep the card, simply cancel before the fee is charged in order to avoid it. But, not to worry, if you forget to cancel it before the fee is charged, you can call and cancel the card and have the fee refunded within 30-60 days of the fee being charged (depending on the card issuer, I’m not 100% sure what the date range is for this card).

Barclay Arrival Plus: 40,000 “miles” after $3,000 spent in 90 days is the offer on this card. The “miles” can be cashed in for $460 after meeting the $3,000 requirement due to the fact that this card also earns two “miles” on each dollar spent. Although Barclay refers to their program as miles, for all intents and purposes, it is essentially cashback due to the fact that each mile counts as 1 cent when redeemed for a statement credit. This is a very good card to keep for a year, even after the sign-up bonus is completed, due to the 2% cashback offered on every dollar spent. This card will also charge an annual fee after the first year, but you can easily cancel before that point as stated above.

American Express Blue Cash: This card offers $100 cashback after $1000 in purchases in the first 90 days. In addition, this card has no annual fee, so it is a good one to keep for the long haul. Another big benefit of this card is 3% cashback at grocery stores and 2% cashback at gas stations all year long! Right now they also are offering 10% back on US wireless telephone service providers up to $2,000 spent during 2016. This can be a huge benefit for those with big cell phone bills.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold: The current bonus for this card is 25,000 membership rewards points after $2,000 spend in 90 days. Although this is worth $250 in gift cards, there is often a better offer available. If you are willing to wait for the right time to sign up, this card often offers 50,000 points after $1,000 spent. This is the offer that I signed up for last year, and I would recommend waiting if possible. The annual fee is waived for the first year on this card, but is charged beginning on the second year so be sure to cancel before the second year. American express membership reward points can also be transferred to airline and hotel partners, which can make these points more valuable for some.

Discover It: This card is very similar to Chase Freedom. There is currently no sign-up bonus available for the card, but it is still worth it to sign up for this card in order to use the 5% quarterly categories that are offered. This is especially lucrative right now because Discover is matching all of the cashback that you earn in the first year of being a card member. This actually makes the rotating categories worth 10% instead of just 5%. These categories are often similar to the Chase Freedom, but occasionally will be different meaning that it is possible to be earning 5% in one category from Chase Freedom while earning 10% in another category with Discover It!

I just focused on the cards that I have applied for and that offer cashback or cash equivalents (gift cards) as this is usually the most valuable for me on my journey to financial independence. There are other awesome cards for hotel stays and airline miles which I will discuss in a post in the near future. Keep in mind that rewards cards only make sense if you are paying your balance in full each month. If you currently have credit cards with balances on them, sign-up bonuses may not be the best option for you. Thanks for reading! Are there any cards not on this list that you would recommend for the cashback sign-up bonuses?