How buying Tesla Solar paid for my $20k Trip to Europe and more!

Yes, you heard that right. Buying Tesla Solar has paid for my $20,000 trip to Europe and over $25,000 of other trips making it over $45,000 of free travel.

Credit card subs, benefits and costs are constantly changing and the specific details in this article may not match the current credit card offerings. Please refer to the bank websites for updated offers and details.

If you guessed that it was paid through credit card points, you would be correct! One advantage to using Tesla as the solar provider is that they accept credit cards. Not only that, you can break up your payments into as many payments as you want and spread out the payments throughout the installation process. The downside? The installation process is so so slow.

This is not a Tesla solar review, it’s strictly about how I utilized credit card sign up bonuses (SUBs) to build over one million points in a 6 month period. The only reason I was able to gather that many points is because Tesla installation was insanely slow and their policy of allowing customers to call in and make small payments with credit cards was so easy and simple. Not all of the solar installers will let you do that, and if they do, they charge you 2-3% fee (which defeats the purpose) and most will want it on one card all at once (or a deposit and balance) There isn’t any additional fees when paying with a credit card to Tesla.

I will say that I fumbled a bit at first, mostly because I didn’t realize how long the process was going to be to get solar fully installed, so I didn’t expect to go as fast and hard on the credit card signups. And I was new to credit card point hacking so I made a few mistakes. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes and figure out if this is worth your time and effort. And yes, this takes calculated time and being careful with your money.

How many points did I earn?

As of this article, my husband and I have earned over 1,800,000 points from SUBs since starting this journey in August 2021 (we are in April 2023, so over 1.5 years). This isn’t including the point values of the spending we’ve done on all these cards, which I would probably guess is around 200,000 points (I haven’t done a full audit on this part of the points). This is a little unusually high since we had a $50k solar project, minor home improvement projects, several appliance purchases, and generally overall high monthly spend in general. Most families likely wouldn’t be able to go this fast on the points since the SUBs for these cards were likely well over $100,000 when added up.

A simple guide to determining the cash value of points is $1 for every 1000 points. So 1.8 million points would be about $18,000 minimum value. This value is the minimum expected value. There are some redemptions that are as low as $.25 per 1000 points, which would make it a bad choice to use them in that way. However, using the points when you need them always holds a higher value for me. There are some people that will pay cash for travel because they aren’t getting a high enough redemption rate. I’m the opposite. But, I do try to shop around to find the best deals for sure.

When you consider that we spent $53,000 on our solar project, then received a $16,000 tax credit on our 2022 tax return and since took $45,000 of vacations, the solar has paid for itself as we have received $61,000 in value. In reality, I would not have spent that much money on travel and I instead I would have only spent $5,000-$10,000. Even using those numbers, the solar costs are reduced in half. Not a bad choice.

How we have used the points so far

So far we have paid for over $45,000 of trips and we still have approximately 700,000 points available spread across Chase URs, hotels and airlines. It definitely would be best if it was all on Chase, but I’m ok with it as these branded cards have given us some security that we like.

These are the things we’ve paid for with points since August 2021:

That is almost 60 hotel nights and over 30 airline flights all done with points. Full disclosure: there are some minor taxes and fees in there.

I am trying to plan our next trips after our Europe trip. Things I’m planning for are: Bahamas (since the nights are free at an amazing resort), Ireland (girlfriend trip), Yellowstone, Spain and then probably several more years from now, an Alaskan Cruise. I don’t think I’ll be able to do business/first class for all these trips, but I’ll sure try!

Caution…

First things first: Do not do this if you can’t pay off your credit cards 100% every month. That means you should have a healthy savings account “just in case” so you never carry a balance.

The next thing is, you will need a minimum spend of $5,000 – $every 2-3 months or so to fully utilize these credit card sign up bonuses. You can be creative in how you spend the $5,000, but you will need to be able to spend that and pay it off to get the best value. There are a few cards that have low required spending limits, but to get the best bonuses, you will need to have a decent amount of spending.

Be sure to only sign up for cards where you can easily meet the spend AND pay it off. I know, I’m repeating myself, but I don’t want anyone getting in over their head as this is a very tricky game and can cause a severe financial hardship if done incorrectly.

Do your research first

The next thing you want to do is find some good resources. My favorite is “10x Travel” since they have a free course you can take (online videos), a full website with tons of articles, and a very active Facebook Groups community. Take the time to do the full course before going onto the other articles or facebook group as you may get confused on certain topics which are covered in the course. Not everything is there, so that’s when you fall back to the website and facebook groups:

Another resource that has provided a lot of good information is “The Points Guy.” This site doesn’t have a course or tutorial, but they have an app, tons of articles, and a lot of other tools to help you learn more about point hacking. Tools like an Awards vs. Cash Calculator which allows you to easily understand if using the points for a particular purchase is a good value. Their website is a little more updated and with the app and other tools, in some ways is more superior to 10x Travel. But the personal information in 10x travel and the way it’s presented works for me. But I still reference both sites.

There are ton of other sites that offer information about credit cards like the above sites. These are just ones that I find have the most up to date information. I strongly suggest reviewing different perspectives before diving headfirst. Information is power.

Flexible points

The biggest thread in 10x Travel is to use credit cards that allow you to transfer your points to travel partners and 10x definitely pushes the Chase family of cards. There is a reason for that as they have high SUBs (sign up bonuses) and transfer to a ton of airlines and hotels. I haven’t ventured too far away from the Chase family, but I did for a couple specific cards. The other credit card families like VentureX are worth reviewing. I just found the Chase path to be easy to follow.

One of the hardest lessons to learn is the different rules for the different credit card brands. For example, the Chase credit cards have a 5/24 rule. You will hear that a lot. That means that once you have opened 5 credit cards or revolving accounts (this includes things like HELOC, student loans, etc) in 24 months, Chase will no longer approve your credit cards. Once you get under 5/24, then you can resume your credit card applications. The most difficult concept here is that the 5/24 rule is half about personal cards and half about business cards.

Chase 5/24 Rule

Let me explain. The 5 part of the 5/24 is based on things that show up on your credit report. All personal cards show up on your credit report. HELOCs show up on your credit report. And some business cards will show up on your credit card. Chase business cards will not, but I have heard that there are a few cases where a business credit card was added to a credit report causing the 5/24 to get out of wack. The next part is just annoying. If you go over the 5/24 rule, meaning you open 5 accounts within a 24 month period, you will not get approved for a Chase business credit card. I made this mistake and I still have 3 Chase Ink cards that I could get if I was under 5/24, so I’ll have to wait until September once I’m at 4/24 to apply for the next set of Ink cards.

Be cautious with giving Authorized Users to Personal Cards

This one is a tough one for me. When you add an authorized user to your card, like for your P2, that person will wind up with that credit card on their Credit report seemingly taking up one of their 5/24 spots. Unless your P2 needs to be on the card, do not do it as it will complicate your 5/24 status with Chase and will be counted by the computer and immediately rejected making you have to go through the process of calling to get a reconsideration, which you might not get. It’s usually not worth it.

The first case I think it might be worth it is for the Chase Sapphire card. With the Sapphire card family, you can transfer to travel partners for loyalty accounts belonging to up to 2 users on each travel partner program. This makes it easier to transfer points from both P1 and P2 sapphire cards to a single travel partner when larger points are required in a single transaction). Just keep this in mind.

The second case isn’t really about P1 and P2, it’s about adding your children. Definitely add your children as Authorized users to your personal cards as early as you want to. My son turned 18 and had a 750 credit score and a credit history. That is invaluable. He was approved for his first Chase card (Freedom) immediately and is already building his own credit.

Maximize referral links

One other thing, for the first person in your family to sign up for a credit card, be sure use your favorite website’s links since that’s where the site makes their money making all this information free for us. I think 10x Travel is the best for me, so those are the links I use. If you can use mine, I’d appreciate it.

Maximizing your partner’s credit card SUBs is a big part of this. It’s two fold. Obviously when they sign up for cards and meet the minimum spend you will get a lot of points. That’s a given. But the P2 will give you points when you provide them the referral link to open up the credit card. Most referral links are 10k-20k points. Unfortunately, not all cards have referral links. So try to remember to look for the referral link before having your P2 sign up. One caveat, there have been a few times where the referral link gave a significantly lower SUB than what was offered publicly.

And in case you were wondering, NO, YOU CANNOT REFER YOURSELF. Even if you are referring to a different business you own, that isn’t allowed. Even though there’s a business ID associated, in the end, it is still tied to you personally. So, find a P2 (person or player 2) that can bounce the referrals back and forth with you.

Easy peasy first card: Chase Sapphire

The first card recommended by most of these travel point sites is to sign up for is the Chase Sapphire card since they have great travel partners. There are two cards, either the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) or the Chase Sapphire Reserved (CSR). The CSR card is a much higher annual fee, $500 vs $99, but it comes with a lot of valuable benefits if you can utilize them. I opted for the CSP since I didn’t see me using $400 of additional card benefits, at least not for a while. You can at any time upgrade or downgrade once you have your card. The thing to remember is that the Chase Sapphire family of cards is where you get the ability to transfer to travel partners. The other cards (Ink) will be used to transfer the points to the Sapphire cards making the Sapphire the center of the universe for travel transfers.

After that, it’s usually sign up for the Ink business cards and then move on to cards like American Express, etc. It is generally discouraged to do Hotel or Airline cards when starting out. Honestly, I did do both of those because I had specific plans. This is one of the reasons why I went over 5/24 too quickly. Oh well, I was able to make sure not to let my P2 get over 5/24.

But, since I had specific hotels I needed for trips I planned, I did sign up for IHG, Marriott and Hilton hotels. Their bonuses were insane. But, I did mess up so now I am locked out of more Chase Ink cards for a bit.

Details on specific cards with referral links

Here’s a list of the cards we have my take on them. Most are actually business cards. If you don’t think you can do a business card, please watch the 10x Travel course as there’s a lot of good information about business cards. You can also look at their list of top cards and follow the list to be sure you have the best cards offered at the moment.

Chase Sapphire Transfer Partners

(not for the Chase Ink Premier card) – other Ink cards can transfer the points to Chase sapphire which then can transfer to partners.

These are the list of transfer partners (as of 4/25/2023) for Chase Sapphire cards:

Airlines:

Hotels:

Capital One travel transfer partners

These are the list of transfer partners (as of 4/25/2023) for Capital one credit cards:

Airlines:

Hotels:

American Express MR travel transfer partners

These are the list of transfer partners (as of 4/25/2023) for American Express MR points:

Airlines

Hotels:

Citi cards transfer travel partners

These are the list of transfer partners (as of 4/25/2023) for City ThankYou points:

Airlines:

Hotels:

Last thoughts

This credit card point game isn’t for everyone and it really isn’t a one size fits all (although sites like 10x Travel try to make it that way). Know your limits financially, understand how you manage your finances, and make sure you have enough time to manage all the credit cards and track the subs. This can be a very lucrative way to travel and allow you to travel more and with better benefits (like flying business class or getting hotel upgrades).

Tagged

One Response

  1. Pingback: Cost per Point (CPP) Hotel and Airline Point Redemptions – Travel Ditty

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *