Doubletree Cookies and Hilton Gold Status

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Brad Christensen

If you’ve never stayed at a Doubletree Hotel, I’d urge you to consider it for your next overnight stay.  Upon check-in, they give you a warm, moist chocolate-chip cookie that is absolutely to die for.  In fact, as I read down the ingredients organized by greatest content first, it goes like this: “Chocolate chips, walnuts, flour, butter, sugar…”

Yes, they are more chocolate chip than they are cookie.  The second you bite into it, you know… and you love it.  If your mouth is already watering, check out www.DoubleTreeCookies.com

I’m indulging in my recently attained Hilton Gold Status that came to me by no other virtue than by having a Visa Signature card (The United Mileage Plus which, incidentally, also got me 50,000 United Miles).  They upgraded us to a nice room with a balcony overlooking the Boise river, and gave us free breakfast and drink vouchers.  If I can find excuses to make two more stays before the end of August, I’ll maintain my status until 2013.  As these things go, once you taste it, you’ve got to have it… so I think I’ll find a way to make it happen.

I guess I’ve become somewhat of a “status snob,” with my newfound affection for first class and hotel perks, I’m really getting into the swing of things.

It’s exciting to see so many people dropping by to visit our site.  We had more visitors yesterday than we’ve ever had, so please keep coming and tell your friends. Also, we’ve added this feature where you can sign up for email updates, so sign up for that if you’re interested.

 

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How Credit Works

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Brad Christensen

When I was a child I heard everywhere that credit cards were evil.  My wife watched a film in school that was called “The Perils of Plastic.”  It talked about the dangers of credit cards, and taught her that they were “bad.”  The truth is that when they are used incorrectly it can negatively affect your future.

The reality is that credit is essential these days.  Without it most people would have a difficult time purchasing a home or investing in a good education. We use it for vehicles, boats, loans,  and much more.  It is a measure of your ability to pay people (Banks) back when they lend you money. You need to make sure that you have a good credit score so you can use it to secure some free travel.

There are many scales that are used to determine your credit worthiness.  The most common scale that is used is called a FICO score.  This score has a range from 300-850.  Keep in mind that there are three different companies that issue you a FICO score, they are TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.

You are entitled to receive a free credit report(without the score) every year from each of the three bureaus.  I would recommend that you space out those free reports all across the year so you are constantly watching for anything that might be a problem.  There are a lot of services that offer you credit monitoring, but I wouldn’t pay for one of those.  I’m too cheap.  I have found Credit Sesame to be very useful.  They provide the score to you (no report) at no cost.

I have personally applied for four different cards over the last calendar year and my Experian score has increased by 8 points in the last year.  Make sure you calculate your decisions.  I do recommend that you put your great credit score to work though 😉

FICO scores are determined by five different categories.  The pie graph below came from myfico.com.  Payment History

  • Never miss a payment
  • Never miss a payment
  • If you are late…pay as soon as possible

Amounts Owed

  • Never owe more than 30% of your balance
  • i.e. Your credit limit is $10,000–Never owe more than $3000 at the statement closing date
  • You don’t have to carry a balance on your card in order to help your credit to grow.

Length of Credit History

  • This is what your average length is of all credit that you’ve ever been issued.
  • i.e. You’ve had your mortgage for 10 years, a credit card for 8 years, and one car loan that you had for 6 years.  You would add all of these up (10+8+6=24)  24/3=8 years would be the average length of credit history.  The longer this is the better.
  • For this reason we always ask you to keep your credit cards for at least one year.  Don’t cancel them immediately after getting the bonus.

New Credit

  • This is in reference to the amount of inquiries that you have on your credit report.  Each inquiry takes approximately 2-6 points depending on your scenario.
  •  When applying for a new account most credit card companies only check one of the three bureaus.  (Capital One checks all three)
  • Spread your inquiries amongst all three of the companies.  You can ask us if we know which card pulls from which agency.  If we know, we are more than willing to help.

Types of Credit Used

  • Credit Cards, Mortgages, Charge Cards, and Finance Accounts are all different types.  They want to see that you have a variety of these accounts.

Wanderlust with us.

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Delta $400 Vouchers – Burning a hole in my pocket

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Brad Christensen

I’ve told you about The Bump… how taking a small inconvenience on a flight can lead to piles and piles of free or very near free airline flights.  In March of this year, somehow I stumbled into a situation that resulted very much in my favor.

Somehow, probably because of my proclivity for cheap fares, my flight from Boise to Orlando was routed through LAX with an ugly monster red-eye.  I wasn’t exactly excited about it, but the first-class upgrades I had gotten thanks to my Delta Skymiles Credit card were easing my pain.  When I got into LAX, I made my way to the gate for my next flight and positioned myself (according to custom) where I could pounce on any opportunity to skip the red-eye and have Delta buy my a hotel room for the night.  Fortunately, it went down just like that.  Before 10:00pm I found myself comfortably in bed instead of trying to sleep in an airplane.

The next morning I partook of the breakfast coupons I had also been given for my troubles and sit down at the gate, voraciously reading “The Count of Monte Cristo.”  As the time for my flight approached, once again the attendant made the announcement that the flight was overbooked, and that they were looking for volunteers to take another flight.  Once again I jumped at the opportunity, this time only adding a couple hours to the overall trip – a few more chapters in my book I figured, and for a $400 voucher, who can go wrong?

These vouchers expire in March of next year, and though a beautiful summer has already arrived in Idaho, I’m already anxious to have a use pinned down for these puppies.  My wife and I celebrate 10 years of marital bliss here soon, so I’ve considered an anniversary escape to Hawaii.  I’d also like to make my way into Cuba by way of Cancun.  I have a good friend who wants to meet up in Roatan, Honduras in October.  And there’s a part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing Nova Scocia in late August.  If I need to, I suppose I can search out some secondhand vouchers if we decide to take the whole family.  It’s a wonderful predicament to be in – plagued by wanderlust.

Wanderlust with me – post a comment on where my $400 Delta vouchers should take us.

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Updated Credit Score

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Brad Christensen

I logged onto my Credit Sesame account today for the first time in the month of July.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that my score had climbed from a 806 to an 808.  It didn’t cost me anything to get the score, but I know that when the next hot card comes out I’ll be able to hit it up without any worry.

I was reading through their blog that they have and I saw a story about receiving the credit score from your lender.  It appears as though our Frank and Dodd have done a great thing for the American people by making their credit scores available to them when applying for a loan.  However, it seems as though their work didn’t help the people who have good scores.

They are only willing to share your score with you if you meet one of the following criteria:

1.  If a card issuer raises your APR on an existing account because of your score;
2.  If the lender uses a custom score that only uses credit data as the input and that results in a denial or adverse approval;
3.  If the lender uses multiple scores to make a decision and any of those scores meets the FCRA definition of a credit score (they have to disclose the credit score), and that results in denial or adverse approval;
4.  If the lender has denied a loan because of a score;
5.  If the lender has approved the loan, but used Risk Based Pricing because of the score. (I.e. the consumer has been approved for a loan, but at a higher interest rate or fees than those offered to other customers.)

So for those responsible people out there the legislation doesn’t do anything to help you.  Keep in mind that Credit Sesame doesn’t provide you with the whole report, you have to go to annualcreditreport.com to get your full report.  This only provides you with the score.  It is updated monthly and doesn’t provide the full report.

My brother had a conversation with someone yesterday who put it like this: “Gotta love putting the 800 credit scores to use.”

3000 AAdvantage Miles for Shae from the Appraiser

Today I read on MillionMileSecrets about how he scored 2500 AAdvantage miles for signing up for the American Airlines emails that come to his inbox.  I was very intrigued by the post and tried for myself.  After inputing my AAdvantage member number the Appraiser told me that I didn’t qualify for the program.

I was pretty disappointed with their decision, but I decided to put my wife’s AAdvantage member number to see if she qualified for the deal.  Instantly the told me that she qualified for up to 3000 AAdvantage Miles.  I was jealous, so I went through the process and agreed to the terms and conditions and they told me that within 4 months I should score the miles in her account.  Thanks Daraius for the heads up.

Groupon Has Added Travel

Check out Groupon’s new travel link.  They have teamed up with Expedia to give great deals on hotels and vacation packages.  Thanks to dealswelike.com for this one.

Posted in American Airlines, Credit Advice, Credit Sesame | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

www.VRBO.com – Paradisical Rental Villas

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Brad Christensen

What did we ever do without the internet?

In one of my earliest voyages, having determined that Zihuatanejo, Mexico would be our vacation spot (based on the fact that it was the destination of choice for the protaganist in Shawshank Redemption), I set out to find us a nice place to stay.  At that point, America Online (AOL) was the internet portal of choice.  I searched for people in Zihuatenejo and stumbled onto a lady named Heike.  As it turned out, they had a little villa with three bedrooms and a pool that they rented – perfect for our family. (Literally I don’t think their website has changed in more than ten years… it’s like a relic from the past).

Our Pacific Coast vacation was ideal – authentic tacos, cheap taxis, serene snorkeling on Isla Ixtapa, and catching three enormous sailfish all at once in the deep blue.  Yet, what made it all the more exciting was the paradisical villa we stayed in.

It was there that I came to truly appreciate the hammock.  Hammocks are furniture’s way of saying, “You don’t have shit to do.”  Hammocks are the tropical equivalent of Lipitor.  In fact, take a look at this picture… did you feel that?  That was your blood pressure dropping.  Now you’re starting to feel the wanderlust, aren’t you?

Aside from the hammocks, our villa had beautifully manicured grounds, a refreshing pool, a full kitchen, a rocking stereo and a feeling that it was uniquely ours.  There it was revealed to me that hotels aren’t always the best option.  Don’t get me wrong, they have their place, but the rental villa is serenity at its finest.

Since then I’ve let my AOL login lapse… the rental villa search is no longer so inefficient.  There are many, but my preferred platform for searching out these hidden gems is www.VRBO.com.  Some of these are rented by agencies, but a great majority are people like you and I who have the wanderlust, and haven’t been able to do escape full-time yet, so they invite you to stay in their place to help them pay the bills.

If you have frequent flier miles that are begging to be used, start daydreaming with a search of Bocas Del Toro, Panama on www.VRBO.com or HomeAway Vacation Rentals.  If you don’t have frequent flier miles, shame on you!  Get started with any of the cards we’ve mentioned in the many posts on www.worldwanderlusting.com.

If you don’t already have a well-established credit score and need a staple card that you can hold for a long time with no annual fee and some travel rewards, we like the American Express Blue Sky card.

Posted in Fun Travel Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

TD Ameritrade Miles Offers

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Brad Christensen

TD Ameritrade Special Offers

I know that I highlighted one of these offers earlier, but I recently stumbled upon the other offers, so I figured I would share them with you. It looks like they are willing to part with about 25,000 miles with almost any carrier.

TD Ameritrade Delta Offer
Delta is the US’ largest carrier (I believe).  Since they acquired Northwest they have hubs all across the nation.  Their Skymiles are sometimes referred to as Skypesos as they sometimes don’t have a high value, but they still get you places.

TD Ameritrade United Offer
United is going to be merging with Continental very soon.  They are still working to get all of their programs on the same page. Their Mileage Plus program is great for going to Southeast Asia.

TD Ameritrade Starwood Offer
Remember that 20,000 Starpoints can be transferred to any airline and they will bonus you an additional 5000 bonus Starpoints as well. This means that you could theoretically change these to AAdvantage miles with American Airlines. Depending on which hotels you pick this could last you up to maximum of 10 nights in hotels across the world.

TD Ameritrade US Airways Offer
US Airways has hubs in Phoenix and Philadelphia. They are a member of the Star Alliance team.

TD Ameritrade Amtrak Offer
This will get you some Amtrak points that will help you to take trains all across America. I’ve personally never ridden on a train in the US, but I’m sure it would be great.

TD Ameritrade Continental Offer
I know that Continental is going to be merging with United soon, but it looks like this offer is still going on. Maybe you can even open two of these accounts.

I’m already partaking of the Starwood offer listed above.  I have half of the points and it is great.  I know that I’d never make any interest anywhere else, plus this allows me to trade with the funds.  Hopefully that will result in a better increase than .0000001% that I could be making otherwise at the nearest bank.

I’m almost sure that if you have an existing account you could simply add new money to the account(call first to ask for the offer) and they might even give it to you on an account that you already have.  I only say this because after I set up my account they asked me if I would like to add these funds to an existing account that I already had.

There are quite a few terms and conditions to earn the points, but it all adds up. You can deposit $2500 that might be sitting around in your account, make some trades with the cash to make it grow and score some miles at the same time.

Half of the miles will be deposited into your account after about two weeks and the other amount will be deposited after about six months. You must keep the money in the account for a full nine months or they can charge you a pro rated amount for the points if the funds don’t stay in the account.

Mint.com will help you to track the amount in your TD Ameritrade account.

Posted in TD Ameritrade | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Picture and Currency Quiz

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Brad Christensen

Where was this taken and what currency is used there?  I’ll offer a hint because this isn’t exactly an iconic feature: There are many Vans there, but not the kind you drive.  Good luck!

Posted in Travel Quiz | Tagged | 2 Comments