Personal Finance

Credit card points can be used for many things, depending on the program, and the top things to consider are redemption options that fit your needs, existing wants, and budgets...air miles, hotel points, student loans, mortgage payments, and the biggest, cash. It's a long term game, and if you can plan ahead a year or two as far as what you need miles and points for, and strategically get cards in certain programs/airlines/hotels you can get free access to otherwise unaffordable experiences.Having a partner/spouse you 100% trust you can play with doubles your effect, I mention the trust because ID theft is all too common as is financial fraud within the family. You also need to be flexible about where and when you travel to get more out of your points, if you're using points for that

I've been in the churning game for 10 years and paid off the last $13k of my school loans, and didn't pay for an airplane ticket or hotel for 10 years while flying around the world several times and taking many trips(miles redemptions are so bad after COVID and dynamic lricing for awards I bought a plane ticket with cash last month and just felt dirty.