It’s bound to happen to everyone. Whether it’s a leaky roof that needs replacing, a water heater, or new tires on your car – unexpected expenses come up. I use to view these expenses as purely negative and would attribute them to bad luck until I stumbled upon Credit Card Rewards. Continue reading to find out how I turned a Rotting Tree into Free Hotel Nights!
The Tree (& Ants)
If you’ve been watching our Weekly Wednesday Night Live Show on Facebook then you already know about the darn ants that have invaded our home (& Lisa’s pants lol). We did some investigative work and found that some tree branches from our neighbors tree were touching our roof. Assuming this may have been one of the ways these pesky friends have been infiltrating the house, we made a call to our Tree Guy.
Called the Tree Guy
The Tree Guy came over and gave us a quote on getting the branches cut down. To our surprise, he said that the tree had been struck by lighting and went on to explain that there are all sorts of critters living inside, including ants. Just Great! The tree has to come down which of course is going to be a large expense. After years of rewiring my brain, my new automatic thought is – how can we maximize this upcoming purchase?
Options
First, I took a look at the Top Credit Cards Page of the month and reviewed the current offers. Since I’m over 5/24 and Lisa’s under, we reviewed what made sense for both us. Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card is the best option right now. We actually both use to have the old Hyatt card but closed it before the 5/24 Rule was instituted. Now that Lisa is under, it made sense for her to open it and get back on the Hyatt Train! (Choo Choo)
The Offer
At the time of writing this, the Welcome Offer for the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card is two tiered. The first tier is Earn 25,000 Hyatt Points after spending $3,000 in the first three months. The second tier is earn an additional 25,000 Hyatt Points after spending an additional $3,000 (Total of $6,000) in the first six months. This offer has expired. The current World of Hyatt Credit Card offer is you can earn up to 30,000 World of Hyatt Points once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months, plus earn another 30,000 on points with 2 points per $1 up to $15,000 spend within 6 months of account opening. Given that there are some great value Hyatt properties around the world starting at 5,000 Hyatt Points a night, we can certainly stretch the 50,000 out for many Free Nights!
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Surprise Bonus
The surprise bonus comes from the current Covid-19 Hyatt Program Changes. For opening the World of Hyatt Credit Card, TEN qualifying night credits are added to your rewards account. Typically the opening benefit is only five qualifying nights. In addition, Hyatt has added that for every $5,000 spent, an additional qualifying night credit will be added (on top of the two you already receive). This promotion runs through June 30th 2020.
Why does this matter?
Hyatt has different incentives for hitting milestones within their program which result in perks like lounge passes and free night certificates. In addition, after spending $15,000 on the World of Hyatt Credit Card, you earn a category 1-4 Free Night Award!
Basic Breakdown
If you do the math, we will start with 13 qualifying nights (and 50,000 points) towards a milestone after spending our first $6,000. We will work towards spending the $15,000 for the Free Category 1-4 Hotel Night Certificate which will give us an additional 6 qualifying nights (2 for every $5K Spent + 1 Bonus). That leaves only 11 nights to go in order to secure another Free Category Hotel Night Certificate. If we earn that night plus another annual Free Night Certificate next April; we’ve made out with at least 65,000 Points and 3 Free Category 1-4 Night Certificates! This could equal 17 Free Nights if I opted to stay at some Basic lower tiered hotels which start at 5,000 points per night 🙂
How did I do on the math? Is your head spinning or were you able to follow along? I’d love to hear some feedback down in the comments or over in the 4,000+ Basic Travel Facebook Group! At this point we’re definitely not traveling but we are planning for the future. When we do, we will certainly have many free Hyatt stays all thanks to a rotten tree in our neighbors yard!
