"Pound Foolish" is a pretty good book

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I recently finished "Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry" by Helaine Olen, and thought I'd share some of my initial reactions to the book, since it's a topic that's related to travel hacking in odd ways.

Personal Finance is a fantastically lucrative industry

As someone who has never had the good fortune to pick up one of Suze Orman's exhortations to "stand in my truth" or "own the power to control my destiny," I had no idea this industry really existed at all.

I thought "personal" finance was just meant as a juxtaposition to corporate finance or government finance. It turns out it's something of a term of art for "charismatic salesmen telling you how to live – with an emphasis on buying more personal finance products."

While there are certainly people who need help organizing their finances, the only personal finance advice I've ever followed is pretty simple:

  1. Don't pay interest if you're earning less interest on your investments than you're paying on your debt;
  2. Max out your IRA contributions;
  3. and invest in Vanguard target retirement date funds.

If really hard-pressed, I might add something like "spread your IRA contributions throughout the year to account for natural fluctuations in prices."

That would add up to a medium-length article, but it would make for a pretty short book. Nonetheless, these hucksters write countless books, host popular TV shows, and exhort their followers to engage in unbelievably convoluted schemes, the riskiest of which involve buying real estate speculatively and engaging in options trading with borrowed money (what my brother refers to as "unlimited downside" trading).

No one shares easy ways to get rich on the stock market

The "efficient markets hypothesis" gets a pretty bad rap, but at its core contains a basic truth: opportunities to take advantage of differences between public information and asset prices are vanishingly short-lived.

If a person really knew a sure-fire way to pick stocks or design stock-picking algorithms that invariably resulted in profitable trades, that person would receive a huge salary and even bigger annual bonus implementing that strategy for any one of thousands of investment banks, hedge funds, or sovereign wealth funds – not writing a monthly newsletter or hosting a TV show on a fourth-rate cable channel.

Of course, the real problem is that even if the schemes of personal finance "experts" worked for some or even most people, there's no way to know in advance if you're one of those people.

Olen is right about the little things and wrong about the big things

Olen is absolutely right about all this, as far as it goes. There is, however, an odd current running through the book, of hopelessness in the face of the massed forces of banks, publishing houses, cable news channels, and in-person appeals.

In fact, she more or less endorses a fanciful scheme by Teresa Ghilarducci to replace individual retirement savings with a universal forced savings program. Here's a rundown of the program in Olen's words:

  • "create a pension plan for all of us by having workers and their employers contribute a minimum of 5 percent of pay into a guaranteed account via mandatory automatic deduction;"
  • "all this money would be placed in United States bonds which would promise an annual minimum return of 3 percent above the rate of inflation, so participants would be protected from market downturns;"
  • "And who would manage all this money? Ghilarducci would shift the funds from the retail/commercial sector...to the institutional sector, and to hedge funds that mange our nation's pension monies at a significantly lower cost."

Well, did you see the slight of hand there? The same money that was just invested in United States bonds with a guaranteed rate of return was suddenly being "managed" by the "institutional sector." So which is it: is the money in risk-free Treasuries with a special, higher interest rate, or is the money being "managed" by hedge funds, i.e., invested into markets that fluctuate over time?

What do travel hacking and personal finance have in common?

I view travel hacking as the antidote to the madness that is the personal finance industrial complex. That's because when we manufacture spend, we aren't guessing about the performance of our rental properties or scrambling to find money to pay the mortgage: we see our costs up front and we see our returns every time a credit card statement closes.

When we book award tickets, we easily calculate the value we receive per mile redeemed and compare it to our acquisition (and opportunity) costs, to make adjustments to our miles and points strategy.

So I struggled while reading Olen's book to find the best way to express this fundamental fact: the house can be beat, it just can't be beat through magic. It can be beat through a clear-eyed and thorough evaluation of all the tools available, good organization, and a willingness to change along with the game.

Conclusion

With all that said, "Pound Foolish" is a rollicking good and often funny trip through every part of the personal finance industrial complex, from advisors who are paid based on the number of times they churn their clients' investments each year to the television channels that promote day-trading as a get-rich-quick scheme for the struggling middle class. Pick up a copy at your public library (like I did) or order a copy through Amazon.

Twitter feeds worth following

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Last week I mentioned that I've come to rely on Twitter more and more, while simultaneously cutting down my consumption of blog posts. In response, a reader asked me to suggest some Twitter handles that are worth following.

To be clear, these are not necessarily reviews or endorsements of the underlying blogs or bloggers behind these feeds; just Twitter feeds I happen to follow, and why.

To be clear, these aren't all the Twitter handles I follow, which you can find here. But they are the folks that I consider part of any well-rounded travel hacking diet, for the reasons explained above.

Are there any I'm missing? Let me know in the comments.

Update on life/career changes

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Back in April I announced that I was leaving my pretty casual employment in New England to move halfway across the country. I'd been in a long-distance relationship for way too long and it was time to cut down the distance. Rather than look for a new job, I decided to rededicate myself to my two favorite pastimes: blogging and taking money from banks.

My original announcement was titled "Everything (nothing) is changing," and I think I hit the nail squarely on the head. In case readers hadn't noticed my somewhat-more-frequent posts lately, I'm now settled into my new lifestyle, and I'm loving it. Three weeks into the move, here's where things stand.

What's changed

One (the only) good thing about my former position was that, besides giving me a flexible schedule and plenty of time to both travel and hack, it also gave me a regular paycheck. The money was enough to live on, which meant I could manufacture spend on miles- and points-earning credit cards "opportunistically," as Frequent Miler put it in the comments here. That is to say, I didn't mind foregoing cash back speculatively, since I knew I would be able to pay my rent no matter what happened to my American Airlines balance.

While manufactured spend gives me access to unlimited liquidity, given the constantly changing nature of the game I'm unwilling to use that liquidity to pay actual expenses. That means I've set myself the goal of earning enough cash back each month to meet my (honestly, pretty minimal) expenses. Fortunately, I'll still be receiving a nominal sum from my former employer for the next month or two, so I'm not leaping in completely without a parachute. It sure feels that way, though!

And in case you're wondering why I would have trouble manufacturing enough cash back to live on, I'm happy to share: my American Express gift card orders have been declined ever since the move, presumably because my new billing information hasn't populated to whatever database they use to validate orders. Unless those orders start being approved in the next few months, I'll be relying on brute force to earn enough to pay the rent.

What hasn't changed

My impression is that most people who quit their day jobs to write travel blogs full-time do so because they realize how much they're earning from credit card affiliate links, and decide it's enough to live in the manner they're accustomed to. Of course, the really big players earn enough to hire employees and merely phone in the occasional (16-part) post. 

I don't have any credit card affiliate links. This site is entirely reader-supported, by readers who buy or borrow my ebook from Amazon, use my signup links for travel-hacking-related services, and most importantly sign up for PayPal subscriptions using the subscription button on every page of the website.

Why do I say PayPal subscriptions are the most important, when a single Uber signup might offer $10 or $20 in referral credit? Simple: the trivial amounts you sign up to contribute each month (subscriptions start at $2 per month, and top out at $10 per month) add up, and give me a kind of base income I can more-or-less rely on each month. You probably won't notice PayPal deduct your $2 subscription each week or month, but if just 200 readers like you subscribe, that's $400 in rent I can worry a little less about manufacturing each month. In other words, it's a small thing to you that makes a big difference to me.

Plus it gives you access to my occasional subscribers-only newsletters and the recently-launched complete archive of past newsletters.

Other developments

As my readership has grown, a number of readers have reached out to me for one-off help consulting with them on how to develop or refine their own miles-and-points strategy. That's been a really exciting development and I've been able to help a few people out now, in addition to the help I'm always happy to provide readers here on the blog and through Twitter or e-mail.

Meanwhile I guess I've entered into the same summer funk I was in last year when I asked "Has affiliate blogging gotten worse?" because I've cut way back on my consumption of other travel hacking blogs. The simultaneous disappearance of both American Express affiliate links and articles about American Express cards is the kind of "coincidence" that helps you realize just how shameless many of those blogs can be. Of course there are exceptions (the crew over at Saverocity are still putting out great content), but I'd rather be hacking than reading most bloggers writing today.

Finally, one thing that's been fun about the renewed intensity of my manufactured spend is that it's put me on the front lines of recent changes that I've been able to share with my readers in real time. While the biggest news eventually makes its way to the blog, I've come to rely on Twitter for real-time reporting of developments, and there's really no substitute for a great Twitter feed.

I want to thank all my readers for reading, and for giving me the courage to take this pretty radical step with my life. See you in the comments!

Manufacturing spend with low credit limits

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My impression is that most people get into travel hacking the same way I did: by accident. Either by accidentally triggering elite status, getting an operational upgrade to first or business class, or discovering a lucrative but unadvertised feature of a card they already carry. Then — if they have the right personality type — they get hooked.

A straightforward consequence of that fact is that most travel hackers are middle or upper class. It simply doesn't occur very often that the working poor fly 25,000 miles on the same airline during a single calendar year (and think to credit their flights to a frequent flyer account), or carry credit cards that can offer outsized rewards.

But as I never hesitate to remind people, I myself am a poor person, and that means low credit limits. Nonetheless, I have a miles and points strategy that's comprehensive enough for me. Here's how I do it.

Have perfect credit

When I was growing up, my mom always referred to herself as a person with "perfect credit." What she meant was that she paid off all her credit card bills on time each month, and had never missed a payment.

And when my mom was growing up, that may have been what "perfect credit" meant. Nowadays, of course, we could critique her credit history for not having students loans, car loans, or home mortgages: she was fortunate enough to be educated when student loans were in their infancy, and to never have to take out a loan for a car or house.

Nonetheless, the single most important thing you can do to develop your miles and points strategy is avoid scrutiny by banks, and that means at least having a spotless credit profile, if not a perfect one: pay your bills on time.

Miles-earning debit cards

For years, Bank of America would issue Alaska Airlines debit cards to anyone with a checking account — they didn't ask your annual income and they didn't check your credit history.

Sure, that card's no longer being offered, but rather than pine for lost opportunities, why not go sign up for a Suntrust Delta Skymiles World Check Card?

Diversity is strength

I don't have a credit limit over $10,000 on any of my 2% cash back credit cards.

But I have three of them:

  • Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express;
  • US Bank Cash+;
  • and Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard.

Between the 3, I have over $20,000 in credit limits, which I can deploy to earn over $200 in cash back each month without spending over my credit limit on any one of the cards.

Take risks

I would never give this advice to someone who makes a lot of money and enjoys high limits on all their credit card accounts. But this post isn't for them, it's for the rest of us.

As I shared back in January, my "old" Blue Cash card was approved with a credit limit of just $1,000. If I limited my spend on that card to my credit limit each month, I'd be earning just $340 per year, minus my costs. And that would be a total waste.

So I cycle my credit limit many, many times each month.

Is that a good idea? Of course not. But you probably have higher credit limits than I do.

Conclusion

What I'm trying to say is that you don't need to think about manufacturing $50,000 per month as requiring a single card with a $50,000 credit limit, or even multiple cards with credit limits that add up to $50,000. $25,000 in money orders deposited into a checking account with a linked miles-earning debit card can double your value at a trivial additional cost, and aggressively paying off your credit cards mid-cycle can free up additional credit limits as well.

In which I go to FTU so you don't have to

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If you've been following me on Twitter this weekend, you know I've been attending the Frequent Traveler University event in Seattle, Washington. To paint in broad strokes, these are periodic events where people associated with Randy Peterson's points-and-miles empire give presentations to a paying audience of frequent flyers. Many, but not all, of the speakers are Boarding Area bloggers, along with miscellaneous folk like Scott from Hack my Trip and Daraius of bow-tie fame.

Getting there

To get to Seattle, I redeemed 20,000 US Bank Flexpoints for a non-stop Alaska Airlines flight from Boston Friday morning. The flight cost about $380, making it pretty close to the ideal Flexperks redemption.

Whenever you make a Flexperks flight redemption, you also receive a $25 credit that can be used for incidentals on the ticketing airline during your trip. Since Alaska sells online gift certificates starting at $25, my original plan was to buy one of those, and then call in to have a statement credit applied to my account.

Then I got on my flight at 8 am Friday morning and realized I hadn't had breakfast, so I bought one of the Alaska Airlines breakfast sandwiches, instead. It was a good plan, though.

I'll be flying back on the red eye tonight, and ordering enough junk from the flight attendant to max out my $25 credit!

Staying there

I booked the event's group rate at the Seattle Airport Marriott with my Barclaycard Arrival. Thanks to my having booked a stay for my mom a month or so ago, I actually have an odd number of stays with Marriott during the current MegaBonus promotion, which means this paid stay will trigger the payout of another free night certificate. Lucky me.

The community

Let's start with the good: travel hacking can obviously be a pretty lonesome hobby. Sure, we have online communities like FlyerTalk, and there are lots of discussions that take place in the comments section of this blog and others, but most travel hackers don't know more than one or two other people in real life who have the slightest interest in this game.

The genius of Frequent Traveler University is letting people pay to be a part of a real world community. Just like a trade conference, everyone is walking around with name tags, talking, asking each other questions, and so on. And the fact that people pay to do it may make them more comfortable striking up conversations with strangers. There are free or semi-free alternatives, like the DO's which are regularly organized on FlyerTalk, but some people may be more comfortable in a more structured environment, and it's great that this option exists.

The Presentations

Now the bad.

The fundamental problem with FTU, for me, is that it's a conference of bloggers. Bloggers, for good and for ill, are great at writing blog posts. And every presentation I went to gave me the extremely vivid impression of hearing someone read a blog post out loud.

I'm trying to keep this post focused on FTU and save my comments on affiliate blogging and affiliate bloggers for a later post, but here is the crux of the issue: affiliate bloggers are businessmen and women – but their business is not giving good advice to their readers. Giving advice to readers is a modality by which they conduct their business: selling credit card products.

And that was painfully obvious in (almost) every FTU presentation I went to. If you could insert an affiliate link into a PowerPoint presentation, these guys would have done it.

I do want to highlight one amazing exception to that: Sam Weiler did a dynamite presentation on dialing in Priceline "Name Your Own Price" bids. It was information I suppose I already new, but his presentation was an incredible summary of literally dozens of tips and tricks for paying the absolute minimum price possible for hotel stays, and there was time for a live demo at the end which was very fun to watch.

Then on the other side, Gary and Lucky spent two sessions of "Advanced Q&A" doing...well, I'm not sure what they were doing. I called it "banter" on Twitter. My favorite line came from Lucky about halfway through the first session, regarding the numerous, well-known vulnerabilities in the AvianaTaca Lifemiles program:

"Most of us are trying not to talk too openly about it."

I can totally appreciate that sentiment. I don't talk too openly about it either. But I also don't charge people a hundred bucks to hear me tell them I don't talk too openly about it. So that struck me as weird and offensive as a thing to say to an audience that in principle came to hear you share your unique insight and knowledge. Or whatever.

The Goodies

Alright, enough of that. The presentations weren't very dense with new information, but people did mention a number of things I either didn't know, had forgotten, or was just pleasantly surprised to be reminded of. I may or may not turn some of these into full blog posts later, depending on reader interest:

  • Make Evolve Money bill payments to the same payee from multiple accounts;
  • You can buy gift cards with gift cards at Staples (I used to do this to turn un-resellable gift cards into resellable gift cards – some sites won't allow you to resell cards you originally bought through their site);
  • The Fare Deal Alert and Skyscanner are competitors of The Flight Deal, and offer slightly different services, but both seem fun and useful at first glance;
  • Use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/?showPricePerMile=true to view CPM on revenue flights (I don't use this often since it doesn't compute 500-mile minimums);
  • Wideroe still apparently allows flights to be booked without fuel surcharges – sometimes;
  • Lufthansa, Delta, and AviancaTaca all process their own mileage sale transactions, meaning they trigger airline category bonuses and are eligible for Barclaycard Arrival redemptions (be careful of foreign transaction fees though);
  • Speaking of which, Barclaycard allows Arrival redemptions against purchases that are later refunded (tread lightly here);
  • American Airlines will give original routing credit for "trips in vain;"
  • Amex for Target: still a thing;
  • Kiva: still a thing;
  • If a Starwood Preferred Guest upgrade certificate doesn't clear 5 days out, it'll still put you at the front of the upgrade queue (maybe);
  • Earn Ultimate Rewards points for reservations made at hotels.com (if you want);
  • Companions on Alaska companion tickets can credit their miles to a different program (kind of obvious, but good to know);
  • Are you an IBM partner (Starwood corporate rate code: 18000; Hyatt corporate rate code: 13717)?

Conclusion

One of the things Matt really stressed when he was putting together the idea for our get together in Charlotte in two weeks was keeping the event small. Well, the word he used was "intimate," but you get the idea.

I don't dare predict that the Charlotte DO is going to be some kind of fantastical success – I'm still nervous about presenting there! But now that I've made it through one of these sprawling FTU events, I think the general idea – that an event should be small enough that bloggers and readers can learn from each other – is a good one.

And I hope that Charlotte is an amazing success! If it is, I'll start hounding Matt to hold another event or two for folks who aren't able to make it out in May.

Mid-week roundup from around the web

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I periodically like to clear out my RSS reader and pass along the most interesting news that has recently crossed my desk. Here's today's roundup:

You call it a slow news week, I say no news is good news. See you in the comments.

    Everything (nothing) is changing

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    Why I started travel hacking

    The year my father died, I accidentally got elite status. I was living in Russia and flew back to the US for my brother's wedding. A few months later, my father passed and I flew back again for his funeral and to be with my family. Aeroflot, the Russian national carrier, is a member of Skyteam, and together with a few other domestic flights, those Medallion Qualifying Miles were enough to get me Silver Medallion status.

    And I loved it. I was upgraded on my first flight after making Silver Medallion, and have always kind of suspected that Delta makes sure every newly-minted Silver Medallion is upgraded on their first flight, to cement in their mind the benefits of loyalty.

    Curiously, my father was also a "travel hacker," but of the old school. He always wore beautiful suits to the airport and politely asked if there was any space available in first class. He never hesitated to add a stopover in order to get more segments hopping around on short-hauls in the Pacific Northwest.

    I suspect a lot of people get started like I did. They see they've just made entry-level elite status and start searching the web to find out what the benefits are. And naturally, they come across the carefully search-engine-optimized blog posts telling them what credit cards they have to sign up for in order to maximize their rewards.

    And I played that version of the game for perhaps a year.

    Why I started blogging

    It was only after I had dutifully followed the instructions of the "top" blogs for a few months, and had signed up for their recommended credit cards, and took a look around, that I realized it was all a con.

    Not that travel hacking is a con – travel hacking is amazing. But that blogging in the travel hacking space is dominated by people whose interests don't align with the interests of their readers.

    You can laugh at my naïveté, but I promise you, it really isn't obvious to someone doing a search for "Medallion Qualifying Miles" that someone like René promotes the American Express Delta cards whether their signup bonuses are unusually high or unusually low – or even if there's a better signup bonus available elsewhere.

    Fortunately, it's the 21st century. So I wrote an ebook, and I started a website, and I started blogging.

    And, as incredible as it sounds, people started reading.

    What's next

    So far, this blog has been a labor of love. I saw a need, and I did my best to meet it. I write what I want to write, whenever I want to write it, and I love it.

    Last year, I think I just about broke even – financially – between book sales, $1 Venmo referrals, and my lonely few PayPal subscriptions. In other words, I donated a few thousand hours of my time to this site.

    But in a few weeks, I'm going to be leaving my current lightly-paid position to move halfway across the country to be with my partner. And frankly, I like blogging and travel hacking a whole hell of a lot more than I like any other job I've ever had. So I'm going to see if I can't make a go of it doing this full-time.

    Usually when a travel blogger tells you he's going to start blogging full-time, it means he's earning enough from affiliate revenue that he can afford to quit his day job.

    Needless to say, that's not the case around here. I'm just making a bet: that I can produce enough original content, and attract enough readers willing to voluntarily pay for that content, that I can afford to pay the rent.

    The Cylons had a plan; me, not so much

    While I've given this a lot of thought, I frankly have no idea whether it's going to work out. Here's my general plan for how I'll make ends meet:

    • Recently I've gotten a lot of enthusiasm for my PayPal and Amazon Payments subscriptions (which I appreciate tremendously!). Hopefully that enthusiasm will continue and more readers will find what I write to be worth paying for;
    • As I passed along on April 14th, I've been able to write a couple paid pieces for a website called "Credit Card Insider." If that continues, it'll provide some kind of occasional income (and I'll be open to any other paid writing gigs that come along!);
    • Unlike in my current New England residence, Amazon allows affiliate links in the state I'm moving to. My guess is that there's only a minimal chance of me being corrupted by the awesome power of Amazon affiliate links ("Read more books!"), so hopefully some readers will click through an Amazon link and that will provide some kind of revenue stream as well;
    • And of course my income from travel hacking itself.

    Suggestions needed

    But I also need suggestions from my readers: are there ways you think I can make money from my expertise, analysis, and honesty that won't detract from the experience of coming here and getting my straightforward reporting on everything taking place in this game we play?

    Let me make one point up front: I love hearing from my readers, and I love answering questions, and I love helping them optimize their strategies. I do this by e-mail, in the comments to the blog, and on FlyerTalk. None of these suggestions would replace that, because I love doing that!

    Having said that, would any of these ideas have any appeal to any of my readers?

    • Some kind of e-mail or phone or Skype consultancy. You're getting started, you want some advice, you pay an hourly fee or a monthly/yearly "retainer" to be able to get in touch with me and bounce ideas around.
    • Some kind of in-person consultancy. Firms that have a lot of employees who travel for work might pay me to do a presentation about the best ways to maximize their travel rewards. Crazier things have happened.
    • Some kind of "premium" content. This could be a forum where subscribers can chat with each other and me about lesser-known techniques, or a more expensive and comprehensive version of my subscriber newsletter.

    Conclusion

    So, that's it!

    Sometime in the middle of next month, you can expect to see more frequent posts here on the blog and perhaps some other announcements, depending on how ridiculous you folks find my suggestions and how awesome your suggestions are.

    See you in the comments!

    I don't know much about Credit Card Insider, but they seem to like me

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    Background: Using a Balance Transfer Offer to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
    Background: Best Travel Credit Cards for Airlines, Hotels, and Gas

    A few months ago, one of my long-time readers reached out to me with a sort of tentative offer to write some guest posts on a website she works for. That hasn't ended up working out, but it did lead to an unrelated gig writing guest posts for a website called Credit Card Insider. I've now written a couple posts for them (above), and while no one has asked, I thought I would preemptively answer a couple potential questions my readers might have if they stumbled across one of those posts.

    I have no idea what Credit Card Insider's business model is

    A cursory examination of the way they insert application links into my posts suggests it probably has something to do with credit card affiliate links. But that has never entered into any discussion I have had with anyone at the site.

    I get no cut of affiliate revenue (if any)

    As I explained last month, I have no affiliate links here on the site (although many of the signup links for cash back portals, useful services like Venmo, Plink, and Uber, etc., do give me some nominal referral bonus – and thanks for using those links if you're so inclined!), and 100% of my remaining revenue comes from subscriptions, one-time gratuities (thanks Thomas!), and book sales.

    In other words, people who like my work and want to see me continue cover my expenses, and I only answer to my readers.

    Credit Card Insider pays me a flat fee per post. I find it fair and I consider it good publicity for this site.

    And hey, if anybody else wants to sponsor blog posts, you know how to reach me!

    Credit Card Insider exercises no editorial control over my content

    There's a small group of folks at the site who come up with general post topics and assign them to writers. But no one at any time has implied that there are certain cards that need to be included in any given post, or that some cards need to be pushed harder than others. Frankly I suspect they had never even heard of the BankAmericard Cash Rewards card, which offers a healthy 3% cash back at gas stations. Good card!

    Of course that could change at any time, and I'd certainly stop writing for them if my voice was ever compromised in that way.

    Further, my feelings about cards like the Sapphire Preferred are well-known, so I'm not going to write a post on some other website praising its value or flexibility or whatever.

    Credit Card Insider comes up with the headlines

    The one piece of "editorial control" they do exercise is over the headlines. For example, my column "Best Travel Credit Cards for Airlines, Hotels, and Gas" is about thinking about your spending patterns and travel needs before deciding on the credit card that's right for you. In fact, I probably would have titled it "think about your spending patterns and travel needs before deciding on the credit card that's right for you."

    But that's why they get paid the big bucks.

    I suspect our audiences are very different

    When my reader first suggested I write some guest posts, I worried about diluting my web presence by writing in bits and pieces in various places all over the web.

    But if you visit Credit Card Insider you'll see that broadly speaking they're aimed at a very different audience than I am here. My blog has, over time, grown increasingly focused on a fairly niche subset of travelers: those who are seeking to maximize their value and minimize their costs when traveling — and who are willing to put in some serious work to do so.

    While I try to write without the jargon and codes so many people in our hobby use, the techniques I describe are frankly inaccessible to the vast majority of the population, whether it's from lack of interest or lack of time. So I don't think I'm cannibalizing any content that I would post here by writing guest spots for Credit Card Insider. That is an issue I'm sensitive to, however.

    With all that out of the way:

    Those are the answers to the questions I had before I started writing for them. But if you have any specific questions about the situation (or anything else), the comments, as always, are open.

    A quick note on comments

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    For some reason, I've never experienced any problems with "trolls" in the comments on this blog. I think I've only deleted maybe 3 or 4 comments since I started blogging, twice at the poster's request and once or twice for a comment that was double-posted.

    That doesn't mean I've never come under criticism in the comments. On the contrary, my comments are full of people telling me I'm an idiot, a terrible blogger, and a lousy travel hacker. 

    But that's not trolling; what if they're right? It would be pretty irresponsible for me to delete those comments and deny my readers those dissenting views. 

    Anyway, all this is just to say that I had a good laugh reading through the comments to my "Unleash" series from September of last year as I went through and retagged them this afternoon for ease of reference.

    To this day, those are some of my most popular posts, and among the most heavily-commented-upon.

    And it sure seems like I did not make many friends that week!

    Reader m commented:

    "agree with others- better to keep mum just because if you add the minor wrinkles re incompetent cashiers, split tender, customers asking too many questions, words like "using GC" instead of "using deb card"- throw it all in the mix, results in too much scrutiny and it dies. which is why bloggers should leave it alone and just go about their business.
    have been a fan of yours, but disappointed that you chose to blog about this one."

    Reader Piecerate commented:

    "Can't say I'm happy to see you blog about this. I think this a deal that many know about but it is not utilized by enough people to draw unwelcome attention. Let's hope this doesn't go south."

    Of course, history has been kind to my decision to go to press with the "Unleash" series. Over 6 months later, I've liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars in PIN-enabled debit cards, and my readers have no doubt liquidated many millions more.

    I sometimes refer to my readers as my "force multipliers:" if one of my blog posts kills a deal 1 month early, but 100 of my readers get to take advantage of it for the remaining 8 months, I don't lose any sleep over the lost month.

    So this is just a quick note thanking ALL my commenters for your feedback and for reading this blog, whether you love it or use the opportunity to decompress your angst at the whole messy world of travel blogging.