Endorphins hit differently when you get a big sign-up bonus, make a great redemption, or get a great deal. Each of these can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, and everyone likes to see a hockey-stick chart on their points balance right?
Sometimes though, you can “find churning money or points” by dealing with the sludge of churning. In just the last couple of months, I’ve had to:
- Figure out how to get my Flexperks points back after an airline cancelled booking
- Get refunded for stolen in shipping items for reselling
- Find every hidden unsubscribe from the Motley Fool (after kicking myself for going for the portal bonus again)
- Work with giftcards.com for e-gift cards that showed the CVV as “Error retrieving CVV”
- Bug Alaska for missing travel credits
None of those things are fun, none of them give me the same endorphin hit of an initial churn. They’re all worth real, sizable money though. And if I didn’t do them, I’d negate plenty of the endorphin-laden kind of churning. So, the lesson:
Earning $1,000 from housekeeping is as good as $1,000 from a bank bonus. Also taxes something something.
– MEAB
Have a nice weekend friends!
Sometimes the hockey stick goes in the wrong direction.