14 Signs You’re Obsessed With Earning Points and Miles

This morning I was setting up a new online account with a credit card provider and I had the biggest sense of deja vu. It occurred to me that I have done this many times before as I used my 10-key to pound in my bank routing number in about 0.002 seconds.

Many of you are in the same boat – you are proudly obsessed with earning points and miles! While obsession can become a bad thing if it goes unchecked, I find that it is justified when the results of obsession land you on a tropical island or a bustling metropolis half way around the world.

Using the routing number as a starting point, I thought it would be fun to post a list of personal reasons why I know that I am addicted to this game. Note: while many of these points are taken from my own experiences, the goal of this post is to be humorous / entertaining and not to be taken literally. 

Here are 14 signs that you’re obsessed with earning points and miles.

1) You memorized the routing number for your bank account after growing too tired to look it up

Is it sad when you remember the routing number of your bank and don’t know the phone numbers of family members?

2) Chase has made you create at least two logins to access the cards you have with them (personal, business, family, etc.)

I currently have 3 Chase online accounts and have a hard time keeping them straight. Why can’t I just have one, Chase?

3) When you clean out your desk you find a prepaid credit card with over $100 left on it

There was a time where the clutter on my desk at home buried a $500 Visa gift card for a solid 3-4 months. While it was not good to lose the money for this time period, it felt like Christmas when I finally found it!

4) You find yourself making travel arrangements for trips and then trying to come up with a legitimate business reason to use your 2x American Express card

Sure I’m going to Florida to visit family, but the Minnesota Twins have their spring training games there and they might become a client at some point. This is clearly a business expense, right?

5) A payment is due on your new credit card so you scramble to go online and pay the bill, only to realize that you already set up automatic payments months ago!

I’m guilty of this pretty much every month when mint.com sends me a “payment is due” reminder.

6) There exists, somewhere in a private location, a reminder of what login username you used to sign up with each account

Not telling you where mine is hidden of course.

7) If a friend tries to pay for dinner with cash, you scold them for being so primitive and missing miles. Then you take their cash for your wallet and plop down a Chase Sapphire Preferred card to pay for both of your meals

Done and done.

8) You visit Europe and shuffle the cards in your wallet to only include those with 0 foreign transaction fees or co-branded credit cards that you are staying in

Each time I go abroad I completely overhaul the cards kept in my wallet. Then I come back home and try to use a card I normally carry only to find it was taken out of the rotation on the last trip.

9) On that same visit to Europe, while bleary eyed and travel wary, you think way too hard about which credit card you should use to cover your incidentals at the hotel

Not saying that this has happened to me at least 10 times in the past few years. Not saying that at all.

10) While still on the same visit to Europe, you realize midway through your stay that you used the wrong card and can’t sleep until you visit the front desk to switch to the best earning card for your situation

In my defense, I only have to do this half of the time (when I choose the wrong card in #9 above).

11) All of your christmas gifts are gift cards

At one point in late 2012 while buying multiple $500 gift cards at the Office Depot, I remarked to the employee at the cash register “these will make great gifts for my employees!” I have no employees, but how else was I to explain buying so many gift cards at one time? The holiday season makes for some great “no questions asked” manufactured spending.

12) You have booked a hotel room that you didn’t need in order to earn elite qualifying nights with a particular chain

Did this in Houston last year when a room was unexpectedly comped at another hotel. Instead of canceling the reservation I drove across town, checked in and left without entering the room. One more qualifying stay baby!

13) Too much time is spent trying to convince businesses that they would benefit from a rewards credit card

After years of trying, I convinced a former employer that using points and miles to fund employee travel was a good idea. They proceeded to spend millions a year on credit cards and shave $100k+ a year off the travel budget. Rewards cards are a greatidea for businesses.

14) Credit card anniversaries (when the annual fee kicks in) have a permanent place on your calendar, replacing the birthdays of friends and family

While I don’t currently do this, it seems to make a lot of sense moving forward!

Bonus: You Write a post with 14 obsessions and neglect to even mention earning frequent flyer miles by actually flying