BTW, this is one example of why I love my AMEX SPG card. I like to go snowboarding and Starwood have a great place at Steamboat. https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=220. If I want to go from 3/20 to 3/29, the night rate would be $439/night. But if I would use cash & points, it would cost $110 + 6k points a night. So, over that 9 days, I would either spend $3951 or $990 + 54k points. So, I would save $2961 for 54k points (you get 1 point for every dollar you spend). So, that calculate out to 5.5% return on every dollar I spend. This is just an OK return as well. I’ve had return in the past that exceed 9%. Also, because I spent a lot on that card (it’s my primary card), I can gold status with SPG, which also give me free upgrade to their best rooms. For trips where I can’t get above 5% return, I would just save my points and pay cash. If I happen to stay at a Starwood hotel for cash, every dollar I spend, I will get 3 points for it. So it racks up fast for places that gives low return so I can use those points for places with high returns. But you have to do proper planning.
flu, it’s no so much as how much it’ll affect your credit score as much as having say 5 new credit card open w/in the same year, a few months before you refi. Some lender might view that as as risk. I’ve had a lender asked me about all the credit pull I got when I did a refi. Luckily, it was only two and one is a corporate card and the other is for AT&T uverse. But I don’t know what their response would be if I said it’s all credit cards.
