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How to maximize points and virtue through Kiva loans

ABOUT KIVA

Kiva is a nonprofit organization that provides micro-loans to enterprising individuals around the world so that they may earn their own way out of poverty.  By making loans through the Kiva website, you can be part of the solution to poverty AND earn points and miles.  This post will show you how to do the most good and earn the most points and miles along the way.

The trick is simply to use a rewards credit card to "purchase" loans.  When you receive payments back from your loans, cash them out and make new loans of the same amount, but again with your credit card.  The following steps give more detail:

STEP 1: SIGN UP AT KIVA.ORG

Kiva loans are not tax deductible, but almost all loans pay back 100% of what you put in. 

STEP 2: (OPTIONAL) JOIN THE KIVA MILEPOINT TEAM

This is a group of like-minded frequent travelers who are eager to pay it forward via Kiva.  By joining, you will help this group meet its ambitious donation goals, and you may even be rewarded with a team shirt!  For help with joining the team, check out this MilePoint link.

STEP 3: DECIDE HOW MUCH TO "BANK"

You can think of Kiva as a savings account where, instead of interest, you earn credit card rewards, and you help make the world a better place.  How many banks can offer that?  Note that, if you choose to, you will have the option to withdraw the money once the loans are repaid, but it can take as long as a year for all of the repayments to complete.

STEP 4: FIND THE "BEST" LOANS

Really, the best loans are the ones you feel best about giving!  However, it is a good idea to find loans that are safest (e.g. most likely to pay back) and pay back soonest.  The reason for preferring earlier payback is that the more often you are paid back, the more often you can use that same money to fund new loans.  This will both help more people and give you more chances to earn credit card rewards.  For many great tips on how to find the best loans, checkout this MilePoint forum.  If you'd prefer to figure it out on your own, this site will help: http://www.kivalens.org/.

STEP 5: FUND YOUR LOANS VIA REWARDS CREDIT CARD

After adding loans to your Kiva "shopping cart", it is time to check out.  You might notice that Kiva will, by default, add a suggested donation amount to your tab to cover operational expenses.  Unlike the loans, this amount is truly a tax deductible donation (at least in the US), but it is up to you whether or not to donate this or any other amount.  If you have a US Bank Flexperks card, I'd suggest you decline giving a donation as part of this transaction and separately donate to Kiva (if you're inclined to) via Flexperk's charity link which will give you 3 Flexperks points per dollar.  See my related post "Give to Charity, Fly Free".

In order to use your credit card to pay Kiva, click the link under "Don't have a PayPal account?" (even if you do).  See below:

Then, if PayPal finds your account anyway, select "Continue to pay as guest and do not use my PayPal account".  See below:

STEP 6: WITHDRAW AND RE-LOAN

As loans get paid back, you can keep the cash in your Kiva account and re-loan the money at any time.  This is the easiest way to do it, but it won't earn you any more credit card rewards.  To maximize your credit card rewards, withdraw your funds each month and purchase new loans with your credit card.  Loans are paid back on the 15th of each month, so consider making this a monthly ritual and you will continually earn points for yourself and loans for those who need them.

FEEDBACK

Do you have other suggestions for maximizing rewards and virtue from Kiva loans?  If so, please comment below.  I would love to enhance this post over time with your best suggestions.

40,000 AA miles for $2000 Sears spend!

Last week I posted a way to earn 30,000 Continental Airlines miles by spending $2000 at Sears. Now, there's an even better opportunity.  Through the Aadvantage shopping mall, you can now (for a limited time) get 10 miles per dollar spent at Sears.  On it's own, that means that a $2000 spend at Sears would get you 20,000 AA miles.  However, if you follow this plan, you can get 40,000 miles!

1. Browse to the Aadvantage Shopping Mall and find Sears.  Currently, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 miles per dollar.  Go to Sears from this portal and buy a e-gift card for $2000 (or whatever amount you need).  Note that it may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.  From this step alone, you will have earned 20,000 Aadvantage miles.

2. Return to the Aadvantage shopping mall and click through to Sears again.  Find what you need and add it to your shopping cart.  This step will earn you the additional 20,000 miles giving you a total of 40,000 miles for this purchase!  But, wait, there's still more bonus available:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears' Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of Sears.com, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  For your $2000, you will earn 20,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points!  Don't get too excited, though.  Each point is only worth 1/10 of a penny.  Still, that comes to $20 worth of points.  You might as well take it.

Chase Sapphire: 43% off Land's End Purchase + Free Shipping!

For those of you who love to get stuff from Land's End, here's an outstanding deal.  If you shop Land's End online by going first through the Mr. Rebates shopping portal, you can get 30% off the highest regular priced item, free shipping, AND 5% cash back.  But it gets even better (much better):  If you have a Chase rewards card with access to Chase's Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can get an additional 12.5% back (in travel rewards).  Then, you can get another 1% back through Sears' Shop Your Way rewards!  That means, if you purchase a single regular priced item, you will get back 30% + 5% (of 70%) + 12.5% (of 70%) + 1% (of 70%) = 42.95%!

Follow these steps:

1. Browse to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears.  At the time of this writing, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.  With UR points worth at least 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel, that's equivalent to a 12.5% rebate.  However,you want to buy from Land's End, not Sears.  So, go to Sears from this portal and buy an e-gift card in the amount you need at Land's End.  Sears owns Lands End, so a gift card from Sears will work at Land's End.  It may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.

2. Go to Mr Rebates and log in (if you don't already have an acount with Mr Rebates, you can do me a huge favor by signing up via this link.  Thanks!).  Find Land's End, and notice they are offering a 5% rebate.  Also notice, there are some links for special deals.  The best deal, at the time of this writing, is one that says "30% off Highest Regular Priced Item + Free Shipping on $50+ Order".  Click through that link to shop at Land's End.  When shopping at Land's End, make sure to pick a large item that is not on sale in order to get 30% off that item.  Before you checkout, though, read step 3:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears' Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of Land's End, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  You will earn 1% back.  Note: you won't earn Shop Your Way Rewards for the e-gift card, but you will earn for your final purchase.  Don't forget to use your e-gift card to make your final purchase.

If you bought just a single regular priced item from Land's End, you should now have the equivalent of 42.95% off! 


To make things clearer, let's walk through a scenario:


Suppose you see a nice jacket at Land's End listing at $259.  Here's what to do:

STEP 1: Figure out how much Sears credit you need.  $259 - 30% = $181.3 + tax.  I don't think they will let you buy a gift card for exactly that much, so instead, buy one for $200.  By going through the Ultimate


 Rewards mall, you have now earned 2000 UR points worth at least $25 in travel.
 
STEP 2: Via Mr Rebates, click through the 30% off link to get to Land's End.  Find the jacket and add it to your shopping cart.  Thanks to the 30% discount, you save $77.70 right away.  The checkout amount should be approximately $181.30 (I say "approximately" because tax isn't accounted for in this example).   Because you went through Mr. Rebates, this purchase will get you 5% cash back ($181.30 * .05 = $9.07 cash back)

STEP 3: Checkout.  Use your Sears e-gift card to pay.  Make sure to enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number to get an additional 1% back ($1.81)

So, let's look at the final tally:

• You spent $200 to get a gift card
• You received $25 + $9.07 + $1.81 = $35.88 back in cash and travel
• Your total outlay for the $259 jacket is $200 - $35.88 = $164.12
• Depending on how much tax you were charged, you still have some Sears' credit to spend!

Buy Samsung Tablet & Get 25,000 Delta Miles Free!

Quick deal alert:

Until Sunday, September 18th, make $500 in SkyMall purchases through this link, and you'll receive 25,000 Delta miles.  That's a pretty great deal:  Even if you value Delta miles at only a penny each, its like getting $250 back from a $500 spend. 

One of the best items I've found on SkyMall for $500 is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.  If you don't yet have a tablet of your own (or you want to gift one to someone), this might be the time to do it!  There are two versions of the tablet: one for $499 and one for $599.  If you go for the $499 one, make sure to also purchase something else to get over the $500 threshold.  Taxes and shipping don't count.  You can find the tablet by searching for Galaxy Tab in the SkyMall search box.

If you don't need a tablet, you might also checkout Samsung TVs and monitors.  I own both a Samsung monitor and TV myself and they're both great!

Give to charity, fly free

Using a travel rewards credit card to give to your favorite charities is a great way to do good in the world and earn points and miles.  With most cards, you will earn 1 point per dollar donated.  Depending on how much you value those points, that could mean more than 2 cents value per dollar donated. 

I recently discovered, though, that you can do even better with the FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature credit card.  With this card, you can earn 3 points per dollar when giving to charity!  Even better, FlexPerks points can be worth as much as 2 cents each when used for travel.  So, with this card, donate to charity and you can earn up to 6 cents per dollar in travel rewards!

FlexPerks rewards works like this for travel rewards:  Go through the FlexPerks rewards site to search for travel (using Travelocity's search engine) and it will let you know how many points are needed for your flight, hotel, or travel package.  For travel priced at $400 or less, you need 20,000 points; for $401 to $600, you need 30,000 points; for $601 to $800, you need 40,000 points; etc.  You also get $25 credit towards airline fees (such as checked bags).

I expect that there are other cards with charitable donation bonuses.  Let me know if you find them!

FYI, here are some of my favorite charities:

• Doctors Without Borders
• Habitat for Humanity
• Food Gatherers
• Kiva (not technically a charity, but Kiva does great work by providing micro-loans to people around the world)

Amazon.com: earn 4 Hilton points per dollar!

Others have previously posted this, but I think this is worth a reminder.  Both US Airways and Hawaiian Airlines have shopping portals that award miles for Amazon.com purchases that are initiated through their portal.  US Airways gives 1 mile per dollar spent at Amazon, whereas Hawaiian Airlines offers 2 miles per dollar.  These bonuses are over and above any miles earned from using a reward credit card for the purchases.

The Hawaiian Airlines deal has a few benefits worth noting beyond the double miles:

1. Hawaiian Airlines miles can be used for booking award flights on other airlines: Delta, Continental, Virgin Atlantic, and Korean Air
2. Hawaiian Airlines miles can be transferred from person to person for free if you have a Hawaiian Airlines credit card.  This can be a huge benefit if you have multiple family members or friends with small account balances.  Combine them together for an award flight!
3. Hawaiian Airlines miles can be transferred to Hilton points: two Hilton points per mile! So, since you get two miles per dollar from shopping at Amazon.com, you will essentially get 4 Hilton points per dollar if you choose to use your miles this way.

So, before shopping at Amazon, remember to go through one of these portals to earn extra points!

Hawaiian Airlines portal link: http://emarket.hawaiianair.com/mall/info/hawaiian/Amazon?afsrc=1&search_query=amazon

US Airways link: http://usairways.skymall.com/mall/info/usairways/Amazon?afsrc=1

Delta: International business class for the price of coach! Hurry...

Until the end of September, Delta is offering to double SkyMiles that are transferred from one person to another.  This is the perfect time to make use of little pockets of miles in different family members’ accounts by consolidating all in one place, and doubling miles as you do so.  Unfortunately, transferring miles isn’t free: Delta charges a penny per mile plus a $30 transaction fee (up to 30K miles per person per transaction).  However, the result is that by shuffling miles around from one person to another you can effectively buy SkyMiles for just over a penny each. 

Is this a good deal?  It definitely can be if you know you’ll use the extra miles.  Recently, when I looked into a few potential personal trips (to Europe and to Central America), I found that if I used this trick to buy my way into First/Business class, I would pay about the same as the best coach ticket I could find with a similar itinerary.  Or, I could use half the miles to travel in coach and pay far less than I would have by buying tickets outright.  Note that if you use SkyMiles awards to book your travel you won’t earn miles or status from the flight so you need to factor that in to your situation to determine if it’s really a good deal.

30,000 Continental Airlines miles for $2,000 Sears spend!

In an earlier post I described how to "triple dip" to earn rewards from Sears' purchases.  In that post, the "second dip" was to use Big Crumbs for a cash rebate.  In this post I'll describe how to earn tons of Continental Airlines miles from Sears' purchases.  The main trick is that you'll need a Chase Sapphire card (or another Chase card with access to Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping).  Until the end of September, Chase is offering 10 points per dollar spent at Sears and they allow gift card purchases!

You don't really have to spend $2000 to benefit from this approach, I just thought that 30,000 miles might get your attention.  However, if you do have a large purchase in mind anyway (TV?  New fridge? Washer and Dryer?) this might be the time to pull the trigger (at least on purchasing the gift card -- you can take your time with spending it).  The following steps assume you're planning to spend $2000 at Sears, but please adjust to your situation.

1. Browse to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears.  Until the end of September 2011, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.  Go to Sears from this portal and buy a e-gift card for $2000 (or whatever amount you need).  Make sure to use your Chase card for the purchase or you won't get credit!  Note that it may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.  From this step alone, you will have earned 20,000 UR points which can be converted directly to Continental Miles.

2. Go to Continental Airlines shopping portal and click through to Sears.  Continental is currently offering 5 miles per dollar spent at Sears.  Find what you need from Sears.com and add it to your shopping cart.  This step will earn you the additional 10,000 Continental Miles giving you a total of 30,000 miles for this purchase!  But, wait, there's still more bonus available:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears' Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of Sears.com, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  For your $2000, you will earn 20,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points!  Don't get too excited, though.  Each point is only worth 1/10 of a penny.  Still, that comes to $20 worth of points.  You might as well take it.

Save money with one way flights

A few days ago I decided that it would be fun to join my wife on her business trip to DC.  She already had her trip booked on United and I wanted to join her on the outbound flight (for various reasons we'll be on our own for the return).  The round trip fair for this trip, for me, would have been close to $500.  This is more than I wanted to pay for a short trip.  After a bit of investigation, though, I found that I could make this much more affordable by splitting the trip into two one-ways:

For the flight out to DC, I was able to use my small bank of United Miles to book a one way trip on my wife's United flight (only 10K miles for the one way!).  For the return trip, I found a one way on Delta for only $69.  I could have saved a few more dollars by flying Southwest, but my status is on Delta and so I always welcome chances to earn more MQMs.

So, the point is that even though airlines usually discount round trip fairs it sometimes pays to look into one-ways instead.

Triple Dip shopping at Sears, Lands End, KMart with Chase Sapphire

If you have the Chase Sapphire card and are interested in buying anything from Sears, Kmart, or Lands End, consider the following opportunity to earn Chase Sapphire points, cash back, and Sears' Shop Your Way rewards.  Altogether, you will receive the equivalent of between 16.7% to 18.3% rebate!

1. Browse to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears.  At the time of this writing, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.  With UR points worth at least 1.25 cents each, that's a 12.5% rebate right off the top.  However,you can do even better.  Rather than buying what you want from Sears, go to Sears from this portal and buy a e-gift card in the amount you need.  Note that it may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.

2. Go to Big Crumbs and log in (if you don't already have an acount with Big Crumbs, you can do me a huge favor by signing up via this link.  Thanks!).  Find Sears, Lands End, or Kmart on Big Crumbs and click through to buy what you want.  Currently, Big Crumbs is offering 3.2% cash back for Sears and Lands End, and 4.8% back for KMart.  Let's say you go with Sears, you now have another 3.2% back for a total of 15.7% rebate!  Before you checkout, though, read step 3:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears' Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of any of the 3 stores, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  You will earn 1% back.  Note: you won't earn Shop Your Way Rewards for the e-gift card, but you will earn for your final purchase.  Don't forget to use your e-gift card to make your final purchase.  You now have a 16.7% rebate if your final purchase was from Sears or Lands End, or 18.3% rebate from KMart!  This is in addition to any discounts or coupons you use anyway.

Note: if you need to earn a few more airline miles, go to your favorite airline's shopping portal instead of Big Crumbs in step 2, above.  This could be a great opportunity to earn a US Airways "Hit".

Introduction

I recently stumbled upon a new hobby sometimes called "travel hacking".  I started by reading blogs from the Frugal Travel Guy, and then quickly branched out to The Points Guy, One Mile at a Time, Nerd Wallet, and many others.  Since starting this hobby about 6 weeks ago, I've accumulated over 200,000 airline miles and hotel points and I've increased my (and my wife's) elite status in multiple hotel and airline programs.  The goal of this blog is to help make all of this as simple as possible for you so that you too can benefit in all of the ways I have without having to do as much homework!