Points and miles beginner’s guide: Maximizing large purchases

Points and Miles Beginner’s Guide

#14. Maximizing Large Purchases

It seems like the biggest expenses are the ones we can’t pay with our credit cards: Mortgage payments, rent, taxes, car payments, landscaping, housekeeping, etc.

I previously outlined how to earn miles on student loans payments. The methods outlines in that post can also be used to earn points and miles on your other big expenses.

Cars

Whether it’s a new or used car, you can earn up to 5 points per $1 on this expense.

Option1: Use a mile-earning debit card to purchase a money order made out to the seller. You will need:

• Delta Skymiles Check Card (earn 1 mile per $1)

Or

• Alaska Airlines Debit Card (earn 0.5 miles per $1)

Or

• UFB Direct Airline Rewards Checking (earn 0.5 AAdvantage miles per $1)
• Money Center at “the world’s largest retailer”
• $0.77 money order fee

Option 2: Use Chase Ink Bold to purchase Vanilla Reload cards (earn 5 points per $1), load Vanilla cards onto Netspend, and use the Money Order feature to send a check.

• Netspend card
• $3.95 fee per $500 Vanilla Reload card, $1 Money Order fee.

Mortgage and Rent

Option 1: Use a mile-earning debit card to purchase a money order made out to the lender/landlord.

• Delta Skymiles Check Card (earn 1 mile per $1)

Or

• Alaska Airlines Debit Card (earn 0.5 miles per $1)

• UFB Direct Airline Rewards Checking (earn 0.5 AAdvantage miles per $1)
• Money Center at “the world’s largest retailer”
• $0.77 money order fee

Option 2: Use Chase Ink Bold to purchase Vanilla Reload cards (earn 5 points per $1), load Vanilla cards onto Netspend, and use the Money Order feature to send a check.

• Chase Ink Bold
• Vanilla Reload cards (available in $500 increments and $3.95 fee per card)
• Netspend card
• $3.95 fee per $500 Vanilla Reload card, $1 Money Order fee.

Taxes

Option 1: Use a mile-earning debit card to pay taxes with Official Payments, and pay a flat fee of $3.95.

Option 2: Pay your tax bills with a mile-earning debit card on www.pay1040.com and pay a flat fee of  $3.89.

Option 3: Use a mile-earning debit card to purchase a money order made out to the United States Treasury.

• Delta Skymiles Check Card (earn 1 mile per $1)

Or

• Alaska Airlines Debit Card (earn 0.5 miles per $1)

Or

• UFB Direct Airline Rewards Checking (earn 0.5 AAdvantage miles per $1)
• Money Center at “the world’s largest retailer”
• $0.77 money order fee

Option 4: Use Chase Ink Bold to purchase Vanilla Reload cards (earn 5 points per $1), load Vanilla cards onto Netspend, and use the Money Order feature to send a check.

• Chase Ink Bold
• Vanilla Reload cards (available in $500 increments and $3.95 fee per card)
• Netspend card
• $3.95 fee per $500 Vanilla Reload card, $1 Money Order fee.

Extra credit. If you want to cough up a few bucks extra and earn even more points, use your mile-earning debit card to purchase a money order and pay off your mile-earning credit card!

Have you tried to earn miles on any of these expenses? Do you know of any other cheap ways to pay these expenses?

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