Are you a single parent? Or does it seem that all your joint income, if you have a spouse, goes towards the necessities and that there is never enough left for traveling? Do you often think, “If only I could take my family on a vacation?” We hear you. With the expenses of housing, groceries, medical expenses, utilities, car expenses, etc., etc., etc. there is not much left over for most families. We were there. We had a desire to travel and not enough left in the wallet to do what we wanted to do.

The main reason we got into the points and miles game was to travel more and create some family memories together. When we heard about using credit card points and miles for nearly free travel, we were a little skeptical it could work but we were all in on checking it out. Four years later, we have had family travel, couples travel, and girl’s travel and are no longer skeptical. It is truly the answer to vacations we never could have dreamed could happen.

 

Credit Card Offers

Credit card companies want your business. They hope that you will get a card from them and they can make money from the interest you have to pay them. In return for your business, they give you a welcome offer. They might say, ” Sign up for XYZ card and we will give you 100,000 miles if you spend $3,000 in three months.” You then take those miles and use them towards booking a vacation for your family. Realistically, in 6-9 months you can have the points you need, depending on the size of your family.

If you want to do it again for another trip, you do this over and over again. Using these points and miles from credit card welcome offers for travel has allowed us to have multiple family vacations.

 

Meeting Minimum Spend

That $3,000 you have to spend is just your normal, everyday spending. You just use your credit card like a debit card or cash and pay all your expenses with that credit card that you are trying to earn the bonus on. Be sure and read our post on minimum spending to learn how you can do this.

Occasionally, people get confused and think that we are just arbitrarily spending to meet that welcome offer bonus. That is just the opposite of what we do. We don’t buy items on a whim to meet our spending requirements. Most households spend $1,000 or more on monthly expenses. By just switching out how you pay for your normal purchases, you can meet that minimum spend. We don’t use cash, checks, or debit cards to pay for our everyday spending. Instead, we use credit cards. And we don’t ever pay interest. We pay those bills off in full and on time every single month.

 

Booking Your Trip

You’ve got the card, completed minimum spend, and have been awarded those points or miles – let’s book a trip. We have a  post where we talk all about how we go about finding airline tickets.  For hotels, we book directly with the hotel. Let us know if you need a little guidance.

Review these hints about family travel and learn about some of the best credit cards for families. You can do this! Let us know how we can help – we can’t wait to hear of your successes!

 

Bottom Line

With credit card points and miles,  you won’t ever need to say again, “if only I could take my family on a vacation.” Instead, you can make it a reality with credit card points and miles. Read our reader success stories on our blog to learn how our readers have done just that!