How did I travel for free when I was a student in the US?
One of my dreams is to travel around the world.
When I entered the university door, every vacation I saw my friends traveling here and there, I really wanted to go too. But I knew that my family couldn’t support me, and I also couldn’t open my mouth to ask my family for money to go.
Fortunately, I happened to read an article by a travel blogger sharing about how he and his wife often travel for free.
And I immediately followed suit.
And now, after After nearly 10 years of following this method, my husband and I have traveled to Mexico, Hawaii, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and many states in the US many times, completely free of charge. Not only that, I also brought my family along, and I was able to stay in luxury hotels for free.
Today I will share with you how you can get $1000 to travel.
Note: This method currently only applies if you have a green card in the US and have credit. Score is quite good (from 670 and above).
Step 1: Register to open a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card [Register here].
After registering, you will receive notification of whether you are accepted or not immediately. And about 1 week later, you will receive the card at home.
Within 3 months after opening the account, you need to use this card to buy/spend at least $4000.
If you are not a big spender and you are worried about how to use up $4000 within 3 months, don’t worry. At the end of the article, I will share with you how a student like me did it.
Step 2: How to use bonus points After you have used $4000, your Chase account will have 80,000 bonus points. How much are these 80,000 bonus points worth? This depends on how you use your reward points: If you exchange them for cash or gift cards, you will receive $800. If you use them to book travel services at Chase’s website or use them to pay your Chase credit card bill, you will exchange them for $1000. If you transfer these points to an airline or hotel brand, depending on the company you choose, the value may be more or less. With Chase rewards points, you can transfer to many airline and hotel brands (Southwest, United Airlines, Air Canada, British Airways, Emirates, JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, and many others).
Step 3: How long can bonus points be saved?
You can use bonus points right away or save them for when you need to travel. You can also combine points between you and other family members (just need to live at the same address) to conveniently use bonus points.
For example, my husband and I often combine points and buy plane tickets for the whole family at the same time.
Frequently asked questions:
1. Are there any fees to use this card?
Yes! The card’s membership fee is $95 per year.
After the first year, if you do not want to continue paying the membership fee, you can call the company to close this card or downgrade to another card with no fee but within the same Chase company.
I usually rarely close the card because in addition to the initial promotion, the other benefits of the card are also worth the $95 fee per year. If I find any card not worth it, I will downgrade it instead of closing the card (because closing the card will lower my credit score. Living in the US, credit score is very important).
2. Why do I advise you to register for this card and not another card?
In Chase, there are many different types of cards with many different rules and benefits, some are for personal use, some are for businesses. I will share more in the following articles.
Currently, if you are not a business, and you want to start using credit cards to get points, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is currently the card with the most attractive program. My sister just signed up for this card!
3. I don’t spend much, how can I spend $4000 in 3 months?
When I was a student and didn’t spend much, I often asked my family to use the card for me.
For example, when my family needed to pay car insurance, home insurance, pay electricity, water, telephone, gas, buy food, buy household appliances, instead of paying in cash or signing a check, I will use the card.
I will not buy things that I do not need, just for the sake of having enough!
4. Does using a credit card incur interest?
Yes! If you do not pay off your debt in full each month, the interest rate can be up to 20-25%. Therefore, I always pay the entire debt on time every month so as not to pay interest.
5. Is it safe to use a credit card?
Yes! There was a case where, for some unknown reason, someone got my credit card account number and bought a bunch of things for several thousand dollars.
When I found out (I check my account often), I called Chase and that party assisted me very quickly, did not hold me responsible for that transaction, closed the old account, and couriered me a new card with the account number. new).
Please comment “yes” if you find it useful!
Dr. Christina Nguyen
The Phoenix Medical Academy
