Why My Coverage of Credit Card Offers Has Grown
A few days ago I received an email from reader Alex K:
Hi Gary,
Just wanted to say thanks for the great Koh Samui trip report and all the posts over the years. I booked our trip to Hong Kong / Krabi / Samui this week. Free business class flights via CX & JL and 11 free nights total split at the W Hong Kong, Sheraton Krabi and Conrad Koh Samui – all via credit card sign ups. Ridiculous. I cannot wait to get to the Conrad – what an incredible base level room. 4 nts in a pool villa at 145k pts axon award, plus free breakfast as an Amex Surpass gold? Simply awesome.
Thanks again,
Alex
The banks truly do want to send you around the world in a premium class of service for free. Credit cards represent a plurality of mileage earning. And signup bonuses are the easiest and quickest way to generate large amount of miles quickly.
Back in October I wrote on this blog that I had signed up for an online service that would provide me with referral credits for using links to credit card offers.
For years I’ve been writing about credit card signup bonuses, and recommending specific cards, and sending thousands of people to the card companies to apply for their offerings. Those companies are willing to pay a referral for this, but I was just letting Chase, Citibank, and American Express keep it.
I’ve been writing this blog for nearly 10 years and it’s a tremendous labor of love, for most of that time there hasn’t even been advertising revenue, I’m grateful to the folks at BoardingArea for setting this up so that the banner ads on this site at least send me a small check in the mail each month. It’s not a ton, but every little bit extra helps.
So it is with credit card referral bonuses, you don’t have to use my links of course but I’m asked pretty regularly what readers can do to say thank you for the advice and offers I’ve highlighted over the years. I’ve generally just said that helping their travel be better is thanks enough and it is, but when GoogleAds or a bank credit card offer wants to do the thanking for folks I’m happy for that to happen! I’ve had two or three readers over the years insist on sending gifts, the very best one was the Playmobil airport security play set.
But honestly, I have found writing the blog rewarding enough and instead of sending me a gift I’d rather you use the funds to pay fuel surcharges on an award ticket or maybe buy some upgrade stickers for yourself.
I do want folks to know, though, that when I post a link to a credit card offer that sometimes I’ll benefit from your signup using that link. That’s why nearly every time I include a link to a credit card that offers a referral bonus, I write so in the past. I’ve also included this information in the ‘About Me’ page on this blog.
While I do offer these ‘disclosures’ I also think that readers deserve quite a lot of credit. It’s clear to most what is a good offer and not a good offer, what works for an individual circumstance and what doesn’t. I want folks to know they can trust me, and I don’t hide when there’s a referral, but I’m not sure the referral matters as much as I even thought initially. I think that most television and newspaper pundits and columnists who write about miles or finance issues ought to be required to disclose, “Don’t listen to me because I have no idea what I’m talking about.” What matters most is the strength of the offer, the explanation, the argument.
I never recommend a card that I wouldn’t get myself or that I wouldn’t have recommended before doing affiliate links. I’ve also continued to recommend plenty of cards that don’t offer anything to me. And when there’s a link that will offer something to me, and an offer that will not, I always highlight the better offer for my readers. If I post a link, it’s to the best offer I’m aware of. If you ever know of a better offer than the one I post, I very much appreciate your bringing it to my attention either in the comments or by email and I’m happy to substitute the better offer for whatever I’ve linked to in my post.
What I have realized is that I think about credit cards more than I used to, thus I write about credit cards more than I used to. I actually think that’s better for my readers, I used to post a new link when there was a big credit card bonus but I didn’t explain the ins and outs of churning cards for bonuses, how to negotiate to get approvals, which cards to keep, which to put what spending on versus get just for the bonuses, etc. So far most have found that worthwhile, but it is a change to my blogging and I recognize that.
I’ve never been in this to get rich and I certainly won’t get rich. But a little bit extra means I might take an extra trip and it also means I’m able to make some extra charitable donations at the end of this year.
Still, it’s important to draw lines. I want to offer useful comment, and with how lucrative credit card offers are and years of experience in maximizing them I think I do. I also don’t want to become too unbalanced, I want to offer all of the other sorts of content that I always have.
And it’s important to draw lines. Some of the banks that will offer to credit me for applications have also offered to pay for posts on a specific topic. I decline without any discussion. Even when they were topics I might have posted on anyway. I’ve also been offered money to place a specific credit card at the top of my list of best current offers. I declined. It is very important to draw lines and stick to those lines I think.
Regular readers also know that companies offer me things all the time to promote their products, if I think they might be fun or interesting I just ask if I can give the products away here on the blog. They still get their product written about, I’m not after a free night’s stay at a Hyatt Place or Marriott Courtyard, I’ve given away high-end luggage and even Visa gift cards.
Some blogs have become less useful and interesting, I think, because of their focus on credit cards and because they are no longer about providing the best information for frequent flyers. I write what I do here to memorialize my thoughts, I frequently look up my own posts to find deals that I remember or strategies from the past, it’s my own reference and journal that I also share with the world. I’ve put too much into my blog for the last 10 years to change the way I think about what I post, it’s about getting the most out of miles, points, and travel and I get all the joy in the world out of notes like Alex K’s. Which is why I don’t promote things I don’t find useful myself.
By giving away the products that are offered to me, and sticking to the most useful offers, I try to make sure you get value out of reading this blog and it isn’t too commercialized.