Ask an Expert Interview Series: Will from Doctor of Credit
I know there are already a million interview series on miles and points bloggers, but my goal is to interview a handful of some of the smaller bloggers you may not be familiar with. My first interviewee is Will He writes for www.doctorofcredit.com and has written a few guest posts for me (Guest Post from Doctor of Credit: Bank Account Sign Up Bonuses and Guest Post from Doctor of Credit: Four Frequent Flyer Programs You Probably Haven’t Heard Of). Without further ado, here are Will’s answers:
1) How did you first begin to discover the power of miles and points programs?
When I got my first full time job, I was required to travel a lot. Originally, I just used the company’s credit card we were given. That was until I went away on a trip with a colleague, he used one of his credit cards to rack up miles & points and then sent in reimbursement reports.
He thought it was hilarious that I was using the company ‘s credit card and I thought he was an idiot for going to the trouble to submit so many reimbursement reports. Then he took his annual leave and went on an incredible holiday. Turns out he was able to pay for the whole thing using the miles & points he’d earned throughout the year. From that point onward, I was hooked. I started researching the best credit cards for my needs, signed up for a bunch, and then went on my own free holiday later that year.
Enjoying the Gran Bife at Las Cabras in Buenos Aires
2) What led you to start your site?
I was unhappy with the lack of in-depth articles about credit scores, which sites used which scores, and a bunch of other information, so I created my site. I got good feedback about those articles, so I decided to expand things a little bit. I also noticed that there was a lack of focus on cash back, so I thought I’d try my hand at that.
I’d love to get into consumer advocacy full time, but it’s hard to find work that has a decent pay check. If I’m able to earn some side money with the blog, I’d be able to change jobs to do something more meaningful, whilst still being able to service my mortgage.
3) What was the first trip you were able to book using miles?
It was something pretty lame unfortunately. I did a domestic trip to go and see my girlfriend who was studying in a different city than me. I think I got 1.5 cents in value and at the time I wouldn’t have been able to realistically visit her by plane if I didn’t use points, so I was ecstatic.
4) What’s the most outrageous value you’ve received by redeeming miles and points?
I usually fly economy, I’m pretty short (I like to think I’m 5’8″, but let’s be honest, I’m more like 5’7″) and would rather have extra cash in my pocket than use my miles for first class redemption. My best redemption would be sitting around 3-4 cents per mile flying business class internationally (one of the rare times I did this due to poor availability and the need to get there on specific dates for a friend’s wedding).
5) How do friends and family look at your miles and points hobby?
It’s split pretty evenly down the middle. My girlfriend is on-board now and she actually handles a lot of the non-cash redemptions now days because I’m often too impatient to find the best deals. Some of my uncles love it, one of my aunties thinks that what I’m doing is illegal and constantly tells me to stop it before I end up in jail.
It’s slowly changing though. When I first started, almost everybody thought it was ridiculous and that I was ruining my credit score. Learning about how these scores are actually calculated really helped in these debates and it probably helps that my FICO is usually sitting in the 790-820 range.
A few people were open to the idea and I asked them to let me suggest a few ideas. They took the advice and ended up reaching their goals (extra spending money, free flights, free hotels, etc.) and got addicted. It’s mostly just those that are unwilling to give it a go that aren’t addicted. Most of my friends work in banking in some shape or form, and some of them are making such ridiculous amounts of money that they simply aren’t interested.
Hammerhead shark in the Galapagos
6) What are your favorite airline and hotel programs and why?
Whichever gives me the best cash redemption rate! In all seriousness, I really like Southwest for flights. Flights are cheap and redemption is based on a fixed cash value, you also don’t need to worry about award availability. If you have the Southwest Companion Pass, it’s a perfect way to do weekend get-aways in the US with your partner. Most people don’t get enough time off to do multiple international trips each year, so this is a great way to actually use up miles without doing business or first class redemptions.
For hotels, I book whatever hotel I’m told to by work (usually based on location to the actual job). I don’t really like staying in chain hotels at all, I find they lack character and the staff are robots. When I do personal trips, I always try to stay in smaller hotels that are independently owned and run. I’m also not the type of person who’ll spend their whole holiday at the hotel. To me, a hotel is somewhere to sleep comfortably and that’s about it.
7) What is the most important piece of advice you’d offer to someone taking their first steps into the world of points and miles?
Start slowly. It’s very easy to get carried away and try to do too much too soon. This hobby will certainly change in the next few years but it’s not going to go away. If you over extend yourself, you’re going to stress yourself out and probably mess things up. If you decide to do things like manufactured spend, don’t start by buying $10,000 in gift cards. Start slowly with amounts you can afford to lose if everything goes pear shaped.
Keep in mind who has a financial incentive to push certain offers. Points & mile blogging is a business for some and a hobby for others. Just because you read a post such as “19 reasons Lufthansa is the best credit card currently available”, doesn’t mean it’s actually the best offer on the market. Do your own independent research and sign up for the best offers for you.
Sunset in Hvar, Crotia after a day of boating
Thank you Will for taking the time to answer some questions. Please check out Will’s site (www.doctorofcredit.com) for more interesting articles. If you have any questions for Will, please leave a comment below.
P.S. Will, we need to talk about how awesome the Galapagos Islands are. Truly magnificent!
Blue Footed Boobies on the Galapagos Islands
“P.S. Will, we need to talk about how awesome the Galapagos Islands are. Truly magnificent!”
I only had ten days there unfortunately. I want to go back and do a diving live aboard. The diving was pretty awesome from Santa Cruz but I definitely want to go out to Wolf & Darwin at some stage.
So many places on the diving wish list though!
You are lucky, I *only* had 5 days and no diving, just some basic snorkeling. The boat ride from Santa Cruz to Isabella was brutal (aka very sea sick :/ )
Yup, that trip sucked. Fortunately for me I was in the top section with the captain because I was trying to practice my Spanish before the boat left so he said I could come up top with him – much more bearable with the breeze. On the way back I was at the bottom because I’d taken a heap of underwater pictures that people wanted copies off, so I was scribbling down names and it was like hell on earth with all the petrol fumes.
Worst boat journey of my life will always be Turbo > Capurganá in Colombia, lots of waves and the captain just powers through it no matter what.
I guess we’ll both have to go back to Galapagos soon. Have you done much diving before? I wanna get my instructor certification, maybe I’ll have to get it and then teach you if you haven’t done any before!
I did one scuba diving dive in my life. I had a Groupon and I was in Honolulu. Enough said.
When determining credit utilization, do they look at individual cards, or your total available credit? For example, say I have 3 cards, with limits of 1k, 3k, and 6k. In one month I max out my 1k card, and spend nothing else. So at the end of the month, my total utilization is 1,000/10,000, so 10%. Would a credit bureau see this as just 10%, or something else?
I think it depends on if all three cards are from the same bank. If they are, then the bank would see $1k / $10k = 10% utilization. However, if the cards are from different banks, one bank would report 100% utilization and the other 2 would report 0% utilization. I personally try to stay under 30% utilization on every card, preferably closer to under 10% will help your credit score. To be safe, just assume that each card reports their own utilization ratio, so try to stay under 30% whenever possible.
That would make sense. Normally I wouldn’t have to worry about it but with MS it will be something I’ll have to keep an eye on.
Yes MS makes it bit harder to keep track of. You can pay off part of your balance before your statement closes too.
Remember that credit utilization has no history so you only need to really worry about it when you’re applying for new credit.
I have another question. Barclays just gave me my updated credit score, which they say is 755. The last time they gave it to me was 2 months ago, and it was 763. That makes sense, since I have opened 4 new cards since my last updated score. What I don’t understand is what Mint Credit Monitoring is telling me. They’re reporting that my scores as 725, 718, and 721, from EQ, EX, and TU respectively. I thought those were legit scores, but maybe not. I know CreditKarma and CreditSesame are FAKO scores, but it seems like one of these scores might be a FAKO as well. Unless one is using FICO 8 and one is using FICO 9. Since Barclays uses TU, I thought those scores at least would match, but they’re 34 pts different.
Ok, according to myFICO, Mint scores are FAKO. Don’t mind me. But boo them for under reporting my score so much.
Ya, I figured that was happening. Glad you found out for sure.
I think any service not attached to a credit card or credit monitoring purchased directly from a credit bureau is a FAKO score. I’m not sure how much different versions of the same score will differ, I would assume by only a small amount less than 5 points.