Attn: Property Tax Payers

[Zkribbler]

A friend of mine pays his property tax with his credit card.

There's a $20 service fee for him to do so.

For every dollar charged on the card, his credit card company awards him one (1) airline mile.

His property tax bill is ~ $4,000.

So for $20, he gets to fly for 4,000 miles.

[Kontiki]

No credit card company that awards points does so on a $1 = 1 mile basis. He likely gets points similar to one of my cards. With me, every 5000 points = $75 off of travel.

[Zkribbler]

I thought that was what he said. I check with him tomorrow.

[Kontiki]

Common sense. If you charge, say, a sofa for $1000, your credit card company isn't going to give you a free round trip ticket from LA to San Fransisco. They'd be going out of business pretty quickly if that were the case.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Common sense. If you charge, say, a sofa for $1000, your credit card company isn't going to give you a free round trip ticket from LA to San Fransisco. They'd be going out of business pretty quickly if that were the case.

THis is a case where you both may be right.

The credit card company may give one "point" for every dollar spent but it probably takes a 30,000 to 40,000 points to get anywhere.

It can work. A buddy of mine actually did all his law firms real estate registrations on his personal credit card. It was anywhere from 500 to 10,000 per week and he would get massive trips for his whole familiy based on the points. IIRC he'd typically have 300,000 points and that was enough for him to fly 3 people from Newfoundland to Hawaii and back

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Flubber


THis is a case where you both may be right.

The credit card company may give one "point" for every dollar spent but it probably takes a 30,000 to 40,000 points to get anywhere.

It can work. A buddy of mine actually did all his law firms real estate registrations on his personal credit card. It was anywhere from 500 to 10,000 per week and he would get massive trips for his whole familiy based on the points. IIRC he'd typically have 300,000 points and that was enough for him to fly 3 people from Newfoundland to Hawaii and back

Of course - that's how most work. I get a point for every dollar spent, but like I said, 5000 points = $75 off travel for me. But that's a far cry from $1 = 1 mile, assuming miles are actual miles and not synonymous with points.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Flubber
that was enough for him to fly 3 people from Newfoundland to Hawaii and back

Why would they ever want to go back??

[mrmitchell]

This was described (rather lamented) in a Dilbert book: a company IT manager insisted on making computer purchases one at a time on his personal credit card and then getting reimbursements from the company, so he could earn frequent buyer points.

This made them only able to buy about 20 computers a year. But anything to screw credit card companies. Full steam ahead!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Common sense. If you charge, say, a sofa for $1000, your credit card company isn't going to give you a free round trip ticket from LA to San Fransisco. They'd be going out of business pretty quickly if that were the case.

Free domestic flights come at 25,000 air miles while foreign travel tickets go for any where from 45,000 to 60,000 air miles. Unfortunately, I had 21,000 air miles expire when I was in Iraq.

I still have 30,000 air miles with Alaska Airlines which never lets air miles expire.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Common sense.

Hey hey hey, remember who you're talking to! There's no chance of that here.

[Az]

I do all my bills and purchases on my CC.

Expiring points

[Sikander]

nm

[Japher]

I was think about that too, but Santa Clara County charges a percentage of the property tax not a flat rate