Did you know that the average American has over 5474 dollars of credit card debt, higher cost of living Rising Unemployment and out of control inflation has brought Consumer Debt higher than it has ever been before. But look on the other side of that, you actually have a world where millions of people are able to make the most out of credit card rewards, to get upgrades, status, and free travel. The concept of using credit cards to make money isn't reserved for the Rich and Famous and even when I started I was still in college just five years back. So ladies and gents in this video, I'm going to be teaching you exactly how to get out of debt, how to use credit cards to your advantage, and I'm gonna give you the full ultimate beginner's guide and rundown on the things that the banks may not want you to know.

So let's start this by asking yourself one simple question: how high of an emergency expense could you cover without going into debt? Well, if you responded with 400 or more, you're not alone because 40 of Americans can't cover an unexpected expense of 400 without going into debt. In fact, around 42 percent of people under the age of 58 right now use their credit cards just as their emergency fund. And that gets even more terrifying when you factor in the statistic that 20 of credit card holders only pay their minimum payment from month to month. So look, ladies and gents, I mean there is a serious lack of credit card education going on here within the States, but a generous amount of credit cards are still being handed out.

It seems like there's a division between two groups. One is the group where if you only pay your minimum payment and you carry a balanced month after month, the banks are simply just profiting off of you and then on the other side of that group you have people who understand how to work the system. They don't pay money to the banks, but instead the banks pay money to them. Now look, although I may not personally agree with how the entire system works.

I Try my best to not hate the player nor the game. but I try to find a way to win and in this video today, my whole goal is to just teach you on how to do the same. First of all, if you're part of the statistic where I just mentioned and that you're paying credit card debt, you would be what a bank would call a revolver. It actually turns out that Banks make the most amount of money from revolvers and they do everything possible to get you to keep holding that balance as long as possible.

That's because Banks can earn anywhere from 15 to even 25 interest every year off of revolvers who carry those balances. On the other side of that, there is a much more Ideal World called being a transactor or what I'd simply just call being a winner. Only 29 of credit card users are considered to be transactors, and what this is is pretty simple. A transactor is simply someone who just uses a credit card like you would with a debit card.

When you get your statement at the end of the month, you pay off the card balance in full before your payment deadline. And transactors never spend more money than they can afford, and they never let their balances accrue interest. If you are able to use credit cards and earn those percentage back points and you accumulate those welcome bonuses, then you're able to profit off the banks. So what is travel hacking? About a year ago I went to Los Angeles and book the night at The Ritz Carlton just using credit card points because of the credit card that I held I Got a free upgrade from a regular room to a full-size suite at the time.

That's just a simple example of one of the perks that you can get from a various amount of credit cards within the market currently at the moment. I have over 15 credit cards that I use for various purposes and there are different types of credit cards that offer you varying level of benefits to meet anyone's need. For example, if you are a college student, you're just getting started out with the credit card game I'd often recommend someone to go for beginner level no annual fee credit cards versus someone who's making 100 to 200 000 per year. they always travel then I'd Probably recommend something like the American Express Platinum Card or the Capital One Venture X card where that card is going to give you a ton more benefits within that category When it comes to optimizing what credit cards could be the best for you, not every single credit card on the market may fit your needs.

This is because everyone has different spending habits. You all have different goals like I Wanna one day maybe go to the Maldives versus someone else watching this video? Maybe you just want to go to the city? Maybe you want to visit Antarctica Maybe you like the coldness when people have different travel goals. When people have different incomes and they have different ways that they spend their money, it makes a different setup on what they carry within their wallet. So if you happen to be eating out a lot I'd Recommend getting the American Express gold card or if you're someone who spends a lot of money on Amazon then the Amazon Visa Prime card would be better suited for you.

Each credit card that is focused on that specific category of spend is going to allow you to maximize the amount of dollar that you put in. Now this here's the key because you're going to be benefiting from the things that you're already buying. Say you use something like a debit card? Well, you don't have any risk of paying interest, but you also don't have any benefit of earning on your purchases. Now look, there are rules to follow to mitigate the risk that I'll get into later.

But let me show you how good the benefits can be first. So after you evolve from the beginner cards and you get into what I consider the mid-tier cards, you get introduced to things like what I just said, the American Express gold card, or the Chase Sapphire preferred or even the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card These lineup of cards are just an example for you to start earning ultimate reward points or American Express membership reward points. And they allow you to start using cash two points and points to miles or free travel instead of just getting a simple amount of cash back. You'd be surprised of how many deals you can get and how far that you can expand the value of those points with the right Transfer Partners or finding the best travel deals.

There are some people in the world who appreciate Simplicity There are some people who don't like to travel too much and that is completely fine. But if you do want to make sure that you get every dollar squeezed as much as possible from these credit cards, take as another example the American Express Gold Card which will give you 4X the value of your purchase and membership reward points when you spend money on restaurants, takeouts, or U.S supermarkets. Now, if you spend a thousand dollars in these categories, you'd be getting about 4 000 membership reward points. If you decide you want to redeem those points for higher value, you could transfer it out to any other participating partner and they got a whole bunch of those if you decide to redeem to higher value.

Transfer Partners Like a A which gives you two cents for every membership reward points or sometimes even more that one thousand dollars in spend that you'd be doing anyways could get you an equivalent of eighty dollars in travel credits now if you spend that every single month anyways, that can add up pretty quickly. To make it even better, these cards often have much better welcome bonus offers. For example, the American Express Gold card is offering sixty thousand membership Reward Points as a welcome offer for spending four thousand dollars in your first six months versus a lot of these no annual fee cards which would give you a fraction of that. So say you spend a thousand dollars a month in these four categories of the first year and collect that welcome bonus.

If you add that together, you'll be earning yourself a total of a hundred eight thousand membership reward points that would be worth over two thousand dollars when transferred over to a Transfer Partner Now these cards do have an annual fee, but with benefits like 120 in Uber credits and 120 in dining credits on the gold card, that 250 annual fee becomes a lot easier to justify. So if you've made it this far into the video, this is where you'll want to start considering building out your strategy. Credit cards all have different benefits and you don't want to overextend yourself and do things like Miss welcome bonuses or spend in the wrong category or using the wrong card I'll get to that at the end, so don't worry. But let's talk about what comes after those mid-tier cards which is what I'd consider Elite and tier cards without going into too much detail.

these cards are the ones with the highest Annual fees like the 695 Amex Platinum fee or even the Chase Sapphire Reserve that costs 550 or even the Capital One Venture X at 395 dollars. All that to some people that may sound crazy for spending that amount in a single year. The benefits and the perks that you get on these cards, including the welcome bonus offers, makes them very, very worth it. Perks such as free TSA pre-check Global Entry lounge access or more.

A lot of people who frequently travel to really find enormous value, so at this point, look, we've pretty much just covered the rundown. Beginner cards Mid-tier cards Elite tier cards It's not that hard, it's not too far I Feel like a lot of people can complete and become an expert within the space within a Max of even two years if you do it right. But before you even get started with anything else, there are some things that you need to know which I would consider to be the Cardinal rules of credit cards. So first of all, don't ever carry a balance month to month.

If you ever want to succeed within the whole credit card game, you need to make sure that you are not paying interest because a 15 to even 20 interest rate on your credit card debt is never going to amount to the positive value that you're gonna get from three to even five percent back that you would get from spending on that card. There are some exceptions though if a certain credit card like the Chase Freedom Flex or the Capital One Saver One card that will offer you a zero percent intro APR promotion for 15 months, but generally that will still take a hit on your score because you're carrying a balance and usually if you aren't on top of things then 15 months happens to fly by quick. then you would start paying interest on your money and it could take a little bit for you to come out to that break-even point. The second thing that you want to avoid doing is to make sure that you ever close a credit card.

There are certain exceptions for this, but generally if you get a credit card, especially one that has no annual fee, you never want to close it. I've seen a lot of people who are excited to get into the credit card game and the space they want to be like. Okay, time to get rid of all my old crappy credit cards and start on a brand new slate. But you don't want to do that because those credit cards are going to keep a lot of history that's going to keep your score high.

The third thing that is so important ladies and gents, is to make sure that when it comes to your credit cards that you have either automatic payments set up or you're keeping track of all your credit card statements with those due dates within your Google calendar or a physical calendar that you might have. This is because once you start having more than just one credit card, if you have five credit cards 10 or 15 and all of them are set up with manual payments, at some point, it could be easy for you to slip up just because not all of them will fall on that due date at the same exact time, Automatic payments are generally going to save you a lot more money and it's going to force you to use these credit cards like a debit card. By the way, when it comes to that rule, if you're holding a credit card like in a to your card and you find that you're not traveling, it does make sense to cancel those. But generally the rule of thumb is try not to cancel cards.

You can always downgrade a card so you can get a no annual fee version or you can product change over into something else too. Most important above all, just don't be afraid of credit cards. If you're able to stay disciplined and organized and you put the right spend on certain credit cards, these can really change your life. Now you're probably asking yourself, well what's next if you are committed to taking action I have a full free 45-minute guide video where I walk you through the details of everything I mentioned in this video.

On top of that, if you guys want to join my free Facebook group If you're a newbie a beginner, you're trying to get into the space, you're overwhelmed or intimidated. We have over 30 000 members, a lot of people willing to help all the time, so be sure to join our group with the link Down Below in the description and you'll also be added to our newsletter too. So anytime I see a fire credit card deal or a new limited time promotional offer on some of these welcome bonus offers, make sure to notify you guys there And on top of that, if you guys are ever looking to sign up for a credit card, be sure to check out the links Down Below on this channel. Thank you all so much again for watching this video and until next time! Peace out.