So it wasn't too long ago, back when I decided to apply for my very first credit card. Since then, I have over 15 different credit cards I've even applied for one in the last few days. I'll share with you guys in an upcoming video what that is now Although we made a lot of content talking about what things to do, the step-by-step protocols, the ultimate guide on making sure that you fully know how to maximize your credit card well, we haven't really done in a while is go over some of the biggest mistakes that you need to avoid to make sure that you still come out ahead The way: I See credit cards. It's just like a tool and a tool can be used against you.

You can be getting a kitchen knife and have it work for you, chopping and dicing and making your your food or that same knife can honestly just stab you in the back now. I don't want to get too Grim but that is the Frank reality of the use of credit cards and I see a lot of people continuing to make these common mistakes that I wanted to talk about in this video and to give you guys some Solutions on what you should do in order to make sure that you come out ahead. I Also want to encourage you guys to watch until the end just in case you may be overlooking some of these mistakes that you're making and on top of that, I'm going to be providing you guys some new solutions that I've also been working on that you might not have thought of before. So to kick this video off, let's start with mistake number One and that is going to be not paying your balance in full.

Now, if you're a credit card veteran, if you're someone who's been here within the space for many, many years and you just heard that line, you might be cringing to yourself Brian How dare you slap me with this beginner info. But let me tell you, there is still a large percentage of people all across the states that are continuing to ride up interest and not paying off their credit card bills on time every single month. By the way, the impact of this is getting even worse as a Congress and our government continues to raise those interest rates, we're seeing the interest rate on credit cards continuing to Skyrocket up where once before if you had credit card debt, it would be like 10 to 20. Now we're seeing credit card interest rates climbing anywhere from 20 to even 40 percent.

This means if you have a credit card and you have a thousand dollar balance of debt on it in just a single year, that can cost you an additional 200 to 400. It even turns out according to statistics that 33 percent of people right now only pay the minimum payment amount every single month. Now, there are certain exceptions for this if you are going through a financial pinch and you really just can't afford to pay your bills or you know you gotta put food on the table. there are instances where you can pick up no interest credit cards for a 12, 15, or even 21 month period to help you get by.

But then there are people who don't even know all that stuff exists. They don't know about balance transfers, they don't know about the benefits of business credit cards and how they don't report to your personal credit report, all while still carrying the benefits of having zero percent interest. and they just get like the gold card and then they just rack up the interest and then they get like another credit card. They rack up the interest and you're just defeating yourself.

Look, this here is the most important tip that I Want you guys to all know and carry with you till the end of days. Never pay interest on a credit card and for any point or welcome bonus offer you think that is gonna mitigate the amount of credit card interest you start accumulating. You are wrong. If you are trying to get into this space trying to fly the World Travel for free.

Get all these you know crazy Hotel upgrades. It will not work if you continue to carry any type of credit card debt. The best rule of thumb is to treat your credit card like a debit card, Set everything up on automatic payments, and if you can't pay the balance at the end of the month and it's out of your budget, this game might not be made for you. Now the second mistake that I see a lot of people making within the points of Miles space is frankly, just being selfish.

Credit card rewards can exponentially increase if you know how to share the game with your friends or with what we call a player two. One of the best ways that you can do this comes from the whole referral game that credit cards allow you to take advantage of. And this is where if you apply for as an example, the American Express Gold Card you're gonna get a new offer to get one of your friends or a player to like your wife, your spouse, your partner, your brother, your sister, Whatever it is, get them into the space where you guys can both get an elevated welcome bonus offer and they can get higher amount of points than they normally would. Referrals are just going to be a great method for you to lean on to earn a ton of points from various card issuers without having to spend enormous amounts of money.

Nearly every issuer offers referral bonuses to people that benefit both parties. So if you have your phone with you or you're by your computer I'm sure you are if you're watching one of these videos, but you can actually log into the American Express app at any time. Access the referral link, and if you give this link to one of your friends, they can be earning a welcome bonus offer of 90 000 points to that card instead of the public offer of sixty thousand points. This all comes with the same spending requirements so they don't have to spend an elevated amount either.

and you'll also be getting a 30 000 Point Kickback for referring your friends to the card on up to a hundred thousand points a year. So thirty thousand Point kickback is going to be about three hundred dollars one to one I Think two to one is a very easy Redemption that most people can get if you have no idea on how to get good redemptions. I Also talk about that in this video. but I Also made a full in-depth guide a few months ago that you guys can also watch at the end of this video too.

But you can basically get up to 100 000 points, which is about a thousand dollars one to one or two thousand dollars if you're able to strategically use those points for good. Redemption Now this method is gonna work the best. If you're living with a spouse or like you know you have your wife, your husband, you can plan out strategies where pretty much you apply for a card, you invite them to get that same card under their own credit profile, and you can maximize the amount of points that You get Now just keep in mind when you're chasing welcome bonus offers that you are able to spend the required amount. Now, one amazing thing that happened over the past few years is the fact that American Express as an example has extended the welcome bonus offer time length where once it was always like three months you would have to spend x amount of money in three months.

but now you have up to six months or half a year in order to hit that spend. So this year is really advantageous for most people, especially if you're not a huge heavy spender. But when it comes to this mistake and trying to overcome it, there are also a few things to be aware of. First of all, if you are trying to get any of your friends referred into the credit card game, make sure that you know that that they have decent spending habits.

They don't have a terrible credit score, and they don't have any type of financial struggles or debt. This is because as great as this game is referring back to mistake number one, you could also be referring to your friend for a lifetime of credit card debt that they shouldn't probably get into. As long as they're somewhat responsible, they have a decent score. You can definitely help your friends get even more wealth accruing tools like this.

Now, the third mistake that I see a lot of people making is not hunting for the best welcome bonus offer possible on some of these cards. So if you didn't know, a lot of these cards change their welcome bonus offers depending on the season, the time of year because sometimes the banks just want more people signing up for a card and other times they're just running promotional incentives to boost their numbers up. Now when you see a welcome bonus offer like the one currently being offered on the AmEx Platinum it can feel like a no-brainer 80 000 points which are worth about eight hundred dollars after you spent six thousand dollars in the first six months would be an offer. So naturally what most people do is they apply for the card.

They make the spending at the point and and they don't think twice about it. but just by doing a little bit more work, you can find welcome bonus offers on like the Platinum Card where it can be from 80 000 points to a hundred thousand points to 125 000 points or even the highest that I've ever seen was 150 000 points for that same card. This is even more important once you know that some of these issuers like Amex have rules like the once in a lifetime rule on their welcome bonuses meaning that you could have cost yourself up to seven hundred dollars from just applying for the same beginner welcome bonus offer without thinking twice. Now, if you're not sure that you're getting the best possible offer, be sure to check out the link Down Below in the description.

We're creating a new program where we can ensure that you are getting the best offer out on the market for this. we have a type form and you can also access this within our free Facebook group linked Down Below in the description. Now the fourth mistake that I see a lot of people making is not taking the best redemptions on your points. So pretty much you spent all this time getting the right card and then you spend the money to get all the points.

You make sure you pay off your credit card on time. But then this is where the Magi should happen. You should be able to know how to get best redemptions with those points now. I've seen some horror stories where people will use their points in order to get like air pods or like paying off like certain statement credit charges like there's a lot that the banks are going to throw at you in order to not get the most value out of your points.

And let me tell you first thing right here, in order to maximize this which is very very important you need to look into Transfer Partners when it comes to utilizing Transfer Partners It's going to take a bit more work, but I assure you you're going to be getting a better value than you would from just using your points within the banks app. On the other hand, there are some instances where if you use like the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and you pair that out with the Chase Sapphire Reserve you'll be getting a 50 boost on your points. So that essentially makes those points worth up to 1.5 cents each while booking through the portal. But I Want to mention that this is a bare minimum and sometimes Within These portals.

the price of the hotel could be even higher, so it actually cancels out. Now guys, we are also working on putting together an exclusive service where we find some of the best expert Point Redemption individuals within the market and we can go ahead and pair them up with you guys who might be looking for a way to use your points with the most amount of value possible. If you are interested in a service like that, be sure to check out the links Down Below in the description. Join our Facebook group, stay tuned with our newsletter updates and from there if we get any updates on the progression of this, we'll notify you guys as soon as possible.

Now the fifth mistake that I see a lot of people, especially beginners make within the early game of the credit card points and model space is the fact that they want to avoid as many Annual fees as possible now. I Recently even got a DM from someone. they're like hey, Brian I just applied for the AmEx Platinum card and I'm looking to get another card. but I don't want another annual fee because I'm paying so much.

Look I Get it. Most people don't want to be paying anywhere from a thousand to two thousand or three thousand dollars or more in Annual fees per year on certain cards. But what if I were to tell you? But by paying a thousand two thousand, three thousand dollars in Annual fees, you're getting four thousand, Five thousand, Six thousand dollars back. Unless you're budgeting like an expert and you know exactly how much money you're going to be spending every single year and you're accounting for that in the opportunity cost for getting some of these cards and outweighing the benefits that you may not be using.

I Get it? But if you're not doing that and you're just avoiding credit cards because it has a heavier annual fee, you are not fully utilizing the benefits that exist within the space. I Recently made a video going over the American Express Platinum Card how it has a 695 annual fee. But if you use even just like a three quarters or even half the credits that they offer, you find that you're still getting outsized value and even within the first year of card ownership just by getting the welcome bonus offer, you are still coming out on top ahead even after accounting for the annual fee. Another credit card is the Chase Sapphire reserve.

It has a 550 annual fee. pretty hefty, but right away you get 300 in statement credits, effectively bringing that annual fee down to 250. And then you also get the Welcome Bonus offer. and you get a variety of other credits too.

So the point I want to make is generally the higher the annual fee, the higher the Welcome Bonus offer you're going to get. and the higher the annual fee, the better the earning rate usually is. Obviously do your own due diligence because your miles will always vary because there are some cards that are just straight up whack booty spaghetti sauce like the Luxury Card Gold Card Which has a 995 dollar annual fee, but that doesn't mean you're going to be getting more than a thousand dollars of value In fact, on that card I've talked about it many years ago and I still talk about it now. you'd be lucky to get just a couple hundred bucks back in value at the end of the day.

If the benefits outweigh the fees, you can get some serious positive Roi But not avoiding those one-time annual VCC hit every single year. So ladies and gents, by not only getting the right cards, but also utilizing the rules that come attached to the whole points of Miles game, you will be coming out ahead in value. If at any point you found value within this video, be sure to drop a like down below subscribe to the channel. Check out the links Down Below in the description for the Facebook group and also if you guys want to meet up in person.

I Would love to see y'all's beautiful faces out here. We've done this every few years now and then, but we have an upcoming travel Summit this is going to be in Canada I'm partnering up with my boy Ricky from Prince of Travel where he's hosting a pretty cool event I'll be speaking on one of the panels there and I'll have a chance to meet you guys as well. so if you guys want to check out tickets for that I have a discount code linked Down Below in the description as well. Thank you all so much again for watching this video.

Have a lovely day and I'll see you all soon! Peace.