Military Travel Hacking: Taking advantage of waived annual fees and maximizing credit card points

[00:00:00] Alison: Today we are sitting down with Chelsea and Chelsea is a, what do we want to call you? Like a expert military travel hacker. I don't know, like a travel hacker that I don't know how it sounds. It's got like kind of a negative connotation to us. It's not a bad thing, but it's how can we.

[00:00:17] Alison: Use our military lifestyle. There's a lot of benefits that we get in that a lot of people don't know about. And so I came across your page. It's called camouflage and perks on Instagram. So if you don't follow that, you need to check that out and you share all kinds of tips and things like that on there.

[00:00:33] Alison: So so we're going to go through all of that stuff. How can, what are some of the, you know, some of the benefits and some of the. The cool things that you might not be aware of that military are that are available to military families from credit card companies. So Chelsea, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.

[00:00:51] Alison: And thank you. I always like to start off with just like, what has your military life looked like so far? Yeah, so 

[00:01:00] Chelsey: I met my husband at his first duty station. He had been there maybe like six months when we met, and then we dated for like two years and got married, and then it was kind of rapid fire from there.

[00:01:15] Chelsey: So he retrained into a different job, and so within three years we had like four PCSs, and it was kind of crazy. Yeah. So... We've done, you know, the whole thing and deployments and I guess our Like, most military experience was probably I gave birth to my son while my husband was TDY. I went with him, but we, like, gave birth at the hospital, random hospital in the middle of nowhere, and, like, brought our baby back to a hotel.

[00:01:50] Chelsey: Oh! Oh my! For a few months. 

[00:01:54] Alison: Holy cow! Oh, that's, that's brutal! Goodness gracious! Oh That's a lot. So how long have you guys been in for? My 

[00:02:02] Chelsey: husband's coming up 

[00:02:03] Alison: on 10 years. Nice. Very good. So what has been, what has been your favorite duty station so far that you guys have had? Oh, 

[00:02:12] Chelsey: that is such a good question.

[00:02:14] Chelsey: Okay. For the people, it was probably in Mississippi. Like that had like such a great community and friendships were. Really easy to come by 

[00:02:28] Alison: there. Yeah, in Mississippi. I get it. We have lived. We had an experience. We've had both. So we lived in housing in Monterey. And that was like, nobody taught. And that was our first time living in housing.

[00:02:40] Alison: Nobody talked to anybody. And I was like, what? I thought it was going to be this great, like Kumbaya. We're all in the same boat. Like, yeah. No, like nobody, like, there's no eye contact when you're walking your dogs. Like it was, I was like, what in the world is this? And then we got stationed in DC and lived on base again, and that was similar to what you're talking about.

[00:03:00] Alison: It was so, we have, we still have friends that we are still in contact with from when we lived, when we lived on Bowling Air Force Base and housing. So I totally feel you on that one. What's been your least favorite duty station so far? 

[00:03:13] Chelsey: Oh well, it wasn't an official duty station. That was my husband's long TDY, but we were, like, in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, and there was literally, like, nothing for hours, and that 

[00:03:26] Alison: was fun.

[00:03:27] Alison: That's, yeah, that's not fun. How long were you guys there for? Six months ish, yeah. Yeah. And is that where you had your baby in the middle of that? Oh my gosh, that's brutal. Holy cow. That's totally brutal. Okay. So so then getting into, so how do you become like a connoisseur of military, like travel hacks?

[00:03:51] Alison: Like how, how does that come about? What does that look like? 

[00:03:54] Chelsey: So I think it's a mixture of, I'm a very financial oriented person. My dad and my grandpa were both accountants, , that was something that I considered studying in school was just finances. It's always really interested in me.

[00:04:07] Chelsey: And also I call them research black holes. If I have like a topic that I want to research, I can just end up researching it for days and months at a time, I just get really sucked into things. Yeah, and so one day before my husband's second deployment, we were like, Oh, I wonder how we can take advantage of the special savings deposit program that they have when you're deployed.

[00:04:31] Chelsey: And I came across this member's blog and he was sharing how they had. He had five Amex Platinums, and his wife had five Amex Platinums. , total, they had, like, 50 credit cards, and I was like, What the heck kind of craziness is this? , that is the most insane thing I've ever heard. And so, that's kind of how I got started.

[00:04:53] Chelsey: And then I also would just tend to be , Very, organized, logical person, so I started, , writing things out and making lists, and, , I was starting to share them with my friends, just, they're like, oh, how are you guys traveling all the time? , I don't get it, and so I started sharing with my friends, and they're like, This is amazing.

[00:05:13] Alison: Yeah. I, I feel like there's a lot of us that can relate to that where it's like, you just you pick a thread and you just start pulling right and pulling and pulling and then all of a sudden you're like, Oh my gosh, it's been like three hours.

[00:05:25] Alison: Okay. Here, you know, like I, I totally get that. I think a lot of us can relate. So, so you found this blog and this guy or whatever, this man member forum and this person, they have like 50, which seems bananas to me. So how does that go from, so then were you like, okay, well, I'm intrigued. Why do you have so many cards?

[00:05:42] Alison: , so walk us through that process. , what did you find? And then , what are some of the benefits that you've discovered that's been really helpful for you? guys. 

[00:05:49] Chelsey: Yeah. So like I said, I came across this while we're preparing for my husband's deployment.

[00:05:54] Chelsey: And , at the time we were at a new base and it was 2020, so we're meeting no one. And it was the first deployment as a mom. And so, you know, you have all those new feelings of an increased workload and you feel unseen and unsupported and. So during that time, , I just made a, commitment that if I saw a resource for military families, I would test it out, try it out.

[00:06:20] Chelsey: And if I liked it, I was going to share it with someone. So I came across this crazy information and I was like, okay, you know what? , I had one credit card because my husband was very pro, , we need to build your credit so we can, , buy a house and all these things. And we had taken one free trip with my hotel points from that card already.

[00:06:41] Chelsey: And so I was like, I need to figure this out and So basically, through a federal protection act, the Military Lending Act, American Express and Chase have decided to waive their annual fees for active duty military members and their spouses. And so that's kind of the how you can access these benefits and there are some big cards, right?

[00:07:07] Chelsey: Because they want you to be using their card and spending money and paying interest, which you don't want to do, right? You're going to pay it off in full every month. It's not a good finance program, right? You're going to be paying like 25 percent plus interest on these cards. So, I found the MX Platinum.

[00:07:31] Chelsey: We did more research on it and I said, you know what, if we get this card, we don't have to pay for Hulu anymore and you can get your Uber Eats delivered to you for free. I was like, that would be so nice to just once a month, get a free meal delivered to me. I need that during deployment.

[00:07:47] Chelsey: And so, yeah. We just started looking at all of the perks that would either reduce our bill or let us travel more. And then we just started from there picking what cards fit into our goals the best. 

[00:08:01] Alison: Yeah. Okay. So I think that, and you kind of touched on it a little bit because we talked about this beforehand.

[00:08:06] Alison: So there's some cards that are really great, like the American Express Platinum card. That's a bougie card. Like, that's like the annual, the annual fee for that card is like... 700 a year. People would pay an annual fee for that, which is bananas. And I would never pay that, but they do waive it for military, for active duty and their spouses.

[00:08:26] Alison: So you could each get one. And, but you're right. The interest rates on those cards is in the 20 percent range, which is incredibly high. So it is not a card. That you want to get and just start using and using and using and using and using, like you need to be. So, so I don't want to be like a proponent of go get these cards.

[00:08:50] Alison: They're great. Cause they're, there are a lot of benefits, but please, please, please be financially responsible. And if you know yourself and you know, you don't have control, American express is going to be like approved, approved, approved. Right. But you're going to be paying. A lot of interest on that stuff if you're not careful.

[00:09:10] Alison: So please be careful. That's the disclaimer. Okay. So then so the, so the, the big ones that have kind of the best benefits that you have found is that the American express platinum and then the chase Sapphire rewards, is that what that card is called? Yeah, 

[00:09:26] Chelsey: so there's two Chase Sapphires. So just to be very specific, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is the card you want.

[00:09:32] Chelsey: Okay. You'll know the difference based off the annual fee. Like it's again Oh, gotcha. $600 a year card. But they, that one is really, I love that one for beginners if you're looking to travel because it has a $300 annual travel benefit. Mm-Hmm. And it's way easier to use than other benefits. It doesn't have any rules 

[00:09:54] Alison: around it.

[00:09:56] Alison: Right. So then so then you guys start using the, and, and, and again, I was telling you before we started recording that I came across your page on Instagram. And then I started seeing all these posts and I'm like, what, I had no idea that maybe I, and so I started, I just like you, right. Okay, now let's go do some research, like what's going on here.

[00:10:17] Alison: And I was like, holy cow, there's. There's a lot of really great benefits. Like you were just saying with like our Hulu is pretty much paid for every month because they give you like a 20 credit and Hulu's like 22. Right. So like that's, it's paid for every month, but you charge it to the card. And there's a ton that are offered every month of different discounts on clothing and restaurants and hotels and travel and different things like that.

[00:10:41] Alison: So if you're kind of keeping up with that stuff, it makes it a really good. Way to take advantage of deals, right? My husband just used one not that long ago. He's a golfer and they had this big golf. I can't even remember what it was, but it was like 250 off of this thing. And then the other place, then the actual facility was offering something too.

[00:11:01] Alison: So when you combine those things, it was like almost like getting golf clubs for 50 percent off, which was like. They're expensive. So that was like, that's a big deal, you know? So there's some cool stuff in there. So then okay. So one of, and then one of the other big, big benefits I'm, I haven't looked into chase at all, so I don't know about theirs, but I do know about the American express that they offer when you sign up for their card.

[00:11:24] Alison: I think we got like 150, 000 points. If you spend 6, 000 within the first six months, I don't know what it is right now, but that's what it was then. And then, you have all of these points, right? 

[00:11:36] Alison: , do you have any tips or tricks for how to maximize the benefit of those points? Because like, for example, you know, if you want to take your family to Hawaii and you want to go at this time of year and the points are like. 80, 000. You know what I'm saying? Like they're not 8, 000, but like how, how do you have any tips on how to maximize using those points?

[00:12:00] Chelsey: Yes. Okay. Really great question. So when you look to start booking with points, you're probably starting in the Amex travel portal, which is. It's a pretty good place to start. You could kind of use it like Google flights to see which airlines are flying at the time that you want and who has the better price, but you can actually transfer your points directly to the airline and that 99 percent of the time will give you way more value per point.

[00:12:29] Chelsey: Like we're talking at least double your value. So I would always transfer, and then every month they have different transfer bonuses. So I don't remember which airline it is this month, but let's say... They have like a 30 percent transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic, and you transfer 10, 000 points to Virgin Atlantic, and your Virgin Atlantic Rewards account, you're going to now have, is it 13, 000 points?

[00:13:00] Chelsey: Wow. Yeah, if you can transfer and use those transfer bonuses, you can usually find a great deal. And then if there's a specific, like, big trip you're looking for, I actually subscribe to, it's called Thrifty Traveler. Mm hmm. And you tell them which... Airport you fly out of and they will send you email alerts when they find awesome deals.

[00:13:24] Chelsey: So that is how we found our deal to Germany and to New Zealand for about half the cost of like in points of what it usually is. So that is another really great tool you can use. 

[00:13:37] Alison: And is Thrifty Traveler, is that something that you pay a fee to be a part of or it's, it is a fee for one? Okay. 

[00:13:43] Chelsey: I, I think that it's 60.

[00:13:46] Chelsey: They usually have a really good deal for your first year. And they also have a guarantee. I can't remember if it's a one month guarantee or a one year guarantee. But if you use their services and they never send you a deal that you like, you can get refunded in full. Oh, nice. Yeah, really easy to use. I really enjoyed them.

[00:14:06] Alison: Okay. Okay. That's good to know. Cause I feel like I was part of one that was like, what was it? Scott's cheap flights. I think that was like what yeah that I saw and then I think now it's called going. com but it's a similar kind of thing where you pay a fee, and then they send you deals and stuff, which honestly I'm always like, Oh, Scotland in, you know, but then it's like, there's those are so hard because it's like, oh, that's great but the kids have school and.

[00:14:38] Alison: You know, it's like, 

[00:14:40] Chelsey: yeah, those tools are way better if you, they're better suited if your travel can be flexible. If you're looking at specific days, I would just say, start very early. You can even set a Google alert they came out with that feature this year where you can track certain flights and they'll let you know when there's a deal going on 

[00:14:59] Alison: Okay, so how do you know it when what airline because I had no idea that American Express offers like or we're talking about American Express, right? That offers the where you can get 30 percent more you get the incentivized transferring points. How do you know what airline it is? 

[00:15:18] Chelsey: Sure. So if you go to just the transfer page on American Express's website, and I, it is kind of hard to get to because they don't think they want you transferring points.

[00:15:28] Chelsey: So I just search it in their search bar is the easiest way to find this page. Okay. It will tell you like the normal ratio and I think it's in red. And it'll probably be at the top if there's a transfer bonus. I also share monthly, like, at the beginning of a month, I'll share who has transferred deals to which airline or which hotel.

[00:15:50] Chelsey: And that's saved in a highlight called Monthly Deals on my Instagram. 

[00:15:55] Alison: Oh, nice. Okay, cool. Yeah, we'll have to check. So again, if you, if this is intriguing to you, which it probably is because you know, when you're like, we all want to travel, right? Like we, it's all our lifestyles hard. Right? So we're like, let's enjoy some things.

[00:16:10] Alison: And so this is a, and if you can, again, if you can kind of, you know, work the system a little bit to get yourself, you know, you can find some really good deals and be able to, but again, The, the caveat to that is a lot of it that is, that is the best deals are, you need to be flexible. Like, it can't be like, okay, well, I need to go on this day and this day.

[00:16:33] Alison: And right. It's just like space, a flights, right? You know, it's like, those are great. If you're maybe retired or, you know, like, but if you've got a timeline of like, I want to be here, here at this time and this, this time, it's not, that's not an idea. That's not an ideal situation. So what are some of the other so, okay.

[00:16:53] Alison: So if you want to use, so when we're talking about like the big bonus of points that you get for like American Express specifically, does, does Chase offer something similar to that with the points? 

[00:17:04] Chelsey: Yes. Almost every credit card will have them. They're called signup bonuses or welcome bonuses. And They just are trying to encourage you to use your card and so we just look at, well, I'll just stop there because that kind of could be a long thing.

[00:17:23] Chelsey: You just want to make sure that you don't have to spend more money than you're planning on to reach that bonus. So, like you said, this is no longer the Amex Platinum offer, but it was 6, 000 in six months. So, as long as you already, in your normal daily spending, are going to spend 1, 000 a month, , those are, , free points to you.

[00:17:45] Chelsey: You wouldn't have to, stretch your spending to reach that 

[00:17:48] Alison: minimum. Yeah, so so then when you're trying to be really effective with utilizing those points, so for flight specifically, you're saying that it tends to be better, more beneficial to you to transfer those American Express points to an airline that you're a frequent flyer of, as opposed to booking it through the American Express travel portal?

[00:18:09] Alison: Yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah, because I, I know I've looked through that before. And again, they're what they're offering you are all of the super, because that's who their customer is right there. Their customers, not the military family on a budget. They got the car. They got the car because the things waved the they're really like they're really catering to the higher end.

[00:18:37] Alison: You know, people that are okay paying 700 a year to have a card. Yeah. 

[00:18:43] Chelsey: And like you're saying, so when I, before I had the AmEx platinum card, my husband had it and I had a different American express card. And if we both logged onto our portals and looked at the same flights, it would charge him more money.

[00:18:56] Chelsey: for that same flight because they just know their consumer is gonna pay more if they have this card versus this card. So 99 percent of the time it is always better to transfer. 

[00:19:09] Alison: Yeah. Maybe we should get away from I think that we talked enough about American Express and how enticing that is to have all those things and again using the points.

[00:19:19] Alison: Okay, so that's good. So then what other benefits have you found for military families specifically that are your favorites? 

[00:19:25] Chelsey: Some things that I've recently found and shared is Caesar's Palace has a hotel in the Bahamas and if you sign up for their rewards program because you're military, they'll bump you up to a higher tier and that higher tier during certain months of the year gets five nights for free at this hotel in the Bahamas.

[00:19:50] Alison: Oh, wow. Right? And 

[00:19:52] Chelsey: yeah, Dallas can get a card and you like the service member can get a card. So you're looking up to 10 free nights in the Bahamas every year for free. 

[00:20:04] Alison: Is that a credit card or it's their like rewards program? It's not a credit 

[00:20:08] Chelsey: card, Yeah. Yep. So I will actually be sharing about that this week on Instagram and I'll share a lot more details and how you can sign up.

[00:20:17] Chelsey: Similarly, so Florida, I guess is the place to be. Cause they're nice and close to the Bahamas, but yeah there's also the Margaritaville at sea, which is a cruise. They allow service members to cruise with them for free. And again, that's like a three day, two night cruise to the Bahamas. You do have to be staying in the same room with a paying traveler, but you can also bring up to two kids with you for free.

[00:20:48] Chelsey: Oh, so it's kind of like buy one, get three free. 

[00:20:52] Alison: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:20:55] Chelsey: And so that is kind of a cool one. 

[00:20:58] Alison: I thought I saw a post on your page not that long ago that was talking about different MWR hotels and things like that. What are, what are some of the things that you have found? Cause again, and I talked to Stephanie who runs the pop and smoke blog and that's all like space, a travel and stuff like that.

[00:21:17] Alison: She was talking about that. There's a lot of of hotels that are beautiful that are for the military that a lot of people don't even know that they're there and different. What have you found in that space? Yeah. So 

[00:21:29] Chelsey: the MWR has hotels that are a lot more similar to resorts.

[00:21:33] Chelsey: They're not the hotel you're staying at on base or on post. Right. Years old. And their rates are based off of your rank and so you can get really good deals in amazing places. They have one in Disney World, and then they have one in Hawaii, and then they have a bunch of international ones that are really good options if you are looking for that.

[00:21:58] Chelsey: And then the Coast Guard actually has little cabins. It's kind of more for rural adventures, but they have cabins and yurts in Alaska that you can go stay at and all. Oh, neat. 

[00:22:10] Alison: I feel like I don't know that it's coast guard, but I feel like there's cabins of some sort in Hawaii as well that are military owned that are, again, it's not super bougie. Like it's, they're like. Cabins, you know, you're not , it's not a five star resort, but they're right on the water. I can't remember what the place is called, but I know that I had a friend that stayed there before, but then again, yeah, I've stayed at the Holly Koa before, which is the military hotel.

[00:22:39] Alison: That's right there on Waikiki. The it's right there. And then shades of green is the one in Orlando. I've stayed at that one before too. That's the military one, which is nice because it's on. Property so you can use the transport to be able to get to magic. It's like right outside Magic Kingdom. So that's really convenient if you're there.

[00:22:58] Alison: Are there any other cool, hacks and things that you have discovered that you're excited about? 

[00:23:03] Chelsey: I'd say those are the big ones for, getting to and staying at your traveling. When we go to new places, I used to always forget to check out the local MWR to see what kind of events.

[00:23:19] Chelsey: They have, but we've booked to horseback riding through the mountains and they have all these, and they call them R for R and I can't remember what that stands for, but you can get really cool activities booked through them. And then if you haven't heard of vet ticks. org that's a great one where you can get.

[00:23:42] Chelsey: Concert and event tickets for free. We actually use some points to fly out to Ohio to see my husband's favorite band. Cause he got tickets through vet ticks. And so we just went out there just for that concert. And so you can find really fun activities through there. And then of course the free national parks pass that they do for military is always great as well.

[00:24:12] Alison: Yeah, that's another if, if you don't know that, that, that military it get it, you get in free to national parks, which a lot of them charge, like, like, I think Rocky mountain national park is like 40 something dollars to get in. Right. So you can get in them for, I went, they used to, I felt like there used to be.

[00:24:33] Alison: Like a lifetime one because it's it's only for a year so like every year you gotta go it which is kind of a pain, and then I think if you go to if you go to National Parks a lot like we were in Washington State, we were in, we were in Rainier. All the time, like when you're, you know, and, and so that's like, it's, it's kind of a pain to have to, you know, read, read, I guess it's only once a year, quit complaining, but I wish you could be like, okay, like we're, we're, I don't know.

[00:25:03] Alison: I feel like I remember seeing, flying and upgrading your flights getting upgraded flights. Is that something that you found using the thrifty traveler thing? Or is that something that is there something that you have figured out with points to try and in get, upgrades.

[00:25:24] Chelsey: We've done both ways. Through Thrifty Traveler, we got a great deal on first class seats from Seattle to Frankfurt, Germany. And that was an amazing experience. But we have also done...

[00:25:38] Chelsey: My husband has the Delta Amex their highest one, I think, is either the platinum or reserve, but he has the highest card and With their card that is a perk that you get and so we've actually gotten a lot of perks or a lot of upgrades from Delta we got one to our trip to Mexico from the way home and I think to Texas before it's a really fun fun perk comes with free bags and 

[00:26:12] Alison: yeah I've never had an airline credit card before but is that like because so my husband Travels all the time right now at this job that he's in like he's TDY like Every week.

[00:26:26] Alison: Like the mile of miles that he has is bananas. So is it, is it, do you get more benefits from their credit cards than from their frequent flyer program? Do you know the answer to that? I'm just curious. 

[00:26:39] Chelsey: Yeah. Well, often their credit card will have automatic upgrades to higher ranks in their rewards program.

[00:26:50] Alison: Interesting. Okay, so we might have to look into that because he flies. He's a United flyer just because that is tends to be 

[00:26:58] Chelsey: who that's a chase card, and they have a fantastic one. I'll send you some info on 

[00:27:04] Alison: it. Okay. Yeah. Okay, that's because, because it's so funny because he's really high, I can't remember what he is with.

[00:27:13] Alison: So it's United and Hilton like those are two. And he's like, he's super high in in both of them, but in, in the United, but he hardly ever gets upgraded. He gets, he gets the extra room seats. He always gets that, but , he's been upgraded the first class, once, , it hardly ever happens.

[00:27:31] Alison: And he's like, how, how am I so far down the list when he's got so many miles, we got to get the credit card. Okay. All right. Okay. We'll have to look into that one. Okay. So then it's like, you have to, so then it's like thinking about what it does to your credit though. Right. Because if you have a lot of cards open, right, that's like the more cards you have open, the worse it is for your credit.

[00:27:58] Alison: I can't remember what I need. I don't know all the ins and outs of, but I know you don't want to have a lot, right. And, having a lot of new cards, that's also not a great thing either. Is that accurate? 

[00:28:08] Chelsey: Yeah, so credit scores you should be rightly concerned about and it's worth your time researching how that's going to affect your credit score.

[00:28:16] Chelsey: So there is five factors to your credit score. The one that opening a new card negatively affects is your new lines of credit. This makes up 10 percent of your credit score, and you will see a small dip it's going to be a bigger dip if you already have poor credit, but it is temporary, and they go back up after two to three months, which you don't want to be opening a card more often than that anyways, the banks do not like that.

[00:28:48] Chelsey: However, if you are opening more than one card and you are fiscally responsible, you're paying off your card on time in full, the opening more than one card can actually really benefit your credit score. One of the bigger factors is credit utilization. So that means if you have a 10, 000 credit limit, you're not maxing that out.

[00:29:12] Chelsey: You're only using. 30%. Some people even say 5 to 10 percent of your available credit. So if you have more than one card open and you have larger credit available to you, it can really help your score increase by keeping your credit utilization low. It also helps you to vary your credit mix, which is another.

[00:29:35] Chelsey: factor. So if you have like a co branded card with a hotel or an airline, that's going to be a different credit mix than your Amex Platinum or your Chase Sapphire Reserve. So those factors can really help. And it all just comes down to how you're using your cards. If you are making good financial choices, it can really benefit you.

[00:30:00] Chelsey: It is not an automatic. The more cards I have, the worse my credit score is going to be. Yeah. And then I both have seen increases in our credit score after opening more than one card. 

[00:30:11] Alison: Yeah. Okay. So that's, you know, be, do some research on your own, right? But it's not necessarily the case, but like you were saying, you know, if you, you don't want to open too many too often and and then if you can, if you keep what you've spent, like, so like you were saying, if you are, have a 10, 000 limit, but you only use 30 percent of that 10, 000, then.

[00:30:35] Alison: That's going to positively affect your credit score vice. If you've got three cards and they're all maxed out, that's going to negatively affect your credit score. Right. Okay. So then so then just kind of summing up, what would your best advice be? If there's a mill spouse that's listening to the show, that's like, okay, I'm really intrigued by this.

[00:30:53] Alison: Where should I start to figure out what's. That's the best thing for me. 

[00:30:56] Chelsey: Yeah. So I put together that that is a very common question and getting started can feel overwhelming, but don't let that stop you from getting started. So I put together, it's a four page it's in an email now, but it has every benefit and perk that you can get from all of the cards.

[00:31:16] Chelsey: that have annual fees waived. So I put it together and what you can do is go look at the perks that would help you reach your goals and then research one or two of those cards that would be the best for your family. And I, if you sign up for my emails, I have a whole guide to walk you through the process where I answer those frequently asked questions.

[00:31:37] Chelsey: You can read in depth about your credit score, like what you're the cards when it comes. time to retire and separate, like all of those really good questions. I know you have, yeah, figure 

[00:31:50] Alison: that out. Yeah. So, and so how would people get that email or get on your email list? 

[00:31:57] Chelsey: So I have a little sign up on Instagram.

[00:32:00] Chelsey: You just go click on the link in my bio. Okay. So I have a website. Oh, perfect. Okay. Hard to find, but it's just camouflage perks. com. Okay. Camouflage can be tricky to spell, so if you don't find it, that might be why, but you can look at all of those articles and I even have guides on how to get hotel status, perks you get at the airlines for just being military, or if you're looking for a certain perk with a certain airline, there's all sorts of guides there.

[00:32:32] Alison: Yeah. Okay, cool. All right. Well, I appreciate your time, Chelsea. And, there's a, I made a lot of notes and again, again, if you, if you are on Instagram, follow camouflage and perks, because you post like it's so informative, right? You're like, Hey, there's this thing and you can do this. And I just, I think it's just one of those things that, again, you need to be really careful, be financially responsible.

[00:32:59] Alison: But if you know, we all want a break, right? We all want to travel and enjoy ourselves. And if you can kind of work the system a little bit and use the benefits of these amazing cards that waive the fee for military, then so just out of curiosity, sorry, this is kind of random. Does the do the do the airline cards?

[00:33:20] Alison: Do they have annual fees? And do they waive those for military as well? Yes. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. 

[00:33:27] Chelsey: So my good to know we have just my husband, he has the Delta, which is dynamics and he got their highest card and that is waived. That one's another like 500 a year card. You said your husband loves United, so Chase has a United card.

[00:33:46] Chelsey: That's fantastic. Yeah. And on that, , four page email, you'll see a list of all the cards that waive their fees. It's mainly American Express and Chase, but there are a couple other, like, one off cards. Nice. 

[00:34:01] Alison: Okay, cool. All right, Chelsea. Well, I appreciate you, and thanks for being on the show. 

[00:34:06] Chelsey: All right.

[00:34:07] Chelsey: Thanks, Allison.