Words by Michelle Higgins, New York Times News Service
After surviving the ups and downs that inevitably come with a major renovation, you deserve a vacation. But how can you afford one after blowing your budget on the kitchen of your dreams? Here’s one strategy: Pay for all those appliances, cabinets and other big-ticket items with a credit card that earns rewards.
But first, let’s be clear: No one is advocating charging a home renovation to a credit card unless you have the wherewithal to pay it off. Credit cards are an expensive way to borrow money. And racking up high-interest debt you can’t afford is a recipe for disaster.
Having said that, with a little planning — and the cash on hand to pay off the balance so you don’t incur interest charges — using a credit card to make big-ticket purchases could turn your renovation spending into a free vacation.
That is how Jon and Jaimie Clark ended up on the beach in the Seychelles followed by a 10-day safari in Kenya earlier this year. With the assistance of Juicy Miles, a company that helps people figure out how to earn miles and points for free trips, the couple tactically spent about $40,000 on kitchen appliances, tile, bathroom supplies and other home improvements using new American Express Platinum Delta SkyMiles and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards. The points they earned — roughly 250,000, including sign-up bonuses — paid for first-class tickets to the Seychelles, three-nights in a private bungalow and nonstop flights to Nairobi for the safari, which Jon Clark had received as compensation from a client.
‘In scenarios where you’re already going to spend that money, you might as well get something in return,’ said Clark, who owns a digital marketing agency in New York. His wife, Jaimie Clark, works for The Wirecutter, a New York Times company. ‘The only thing we didn’t buy on the card was the cost of the contractor, who required check or cash payments.’
If that sounds appealing, here are some strategies to obtain a free vacation through your home renovation spending — or, at least, to offset your costs.
A kitchen renovation in New York, March 15, 2018. The $40,000 kitchen renovation earned Jon and Jaimie Clark enough credit card points to pay for first-class tickets to the Seychelles, three nights in a private bungalow and nonstop flights to Nairobi. (Brad Dickson/The New York Times)
Look For Cards With Sign-Up Bonuses
Last year, Ken Helman, a musician and an educator who has worked with Sting, among other artists, completed a $150,000 gut renovation of a three-bedroom house he rents through Airbnb in Puna, Hawaii. Helman overhauled the kitchen and bathrooms, raised the ceiling height in the living room, added an outdoor lanai and splurged on Karndean flooring and lighting fixtures from Lumens and Design Within Reach. To accumulate points and miles, he used a combination of credit cards, including the American Express Platinum card, the Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard and the IHG Rewards Club Mastercard.
“All came with hefty sign-up bonuses,” said Helman, who worked with Juicy Miles to help maximize his renovation spending to earn points and miles. “I just said to myself, ‘I’m doing all this shopping’ — not only for furniture and stuff, I was also buying wood and fixtures and tile — ‘why not spend the money with these cards, paying them off each month so there was no interest?’”
The living room in Ken Helman’s home in Puna, Hawaii, March 15, 2018. When Helman did a gut renovation of the three-bedroom house, he put much of it on new credit cards with generous sign-up bonuses, earning enough points to pay for business-class tickets to Germany, Croatia and Italy for his 65th birthday. (Marco Garcia/The New York Times)
Shop Airline Mall Sites
That’s how Tiffany Funk ended up with enough miles to fly first class to Asia, after buying a bunch of doorknobs while renovating a midcentury-style four-bedroom with her husband in Spokane, Washington, last year. “None of the doorknobs in the house matched, and those can be surprisingly expensive,” said Funk, the managing editor for the website One Mile at a Time.
By buying them in several transactions, when the airline shopping sites were offering back-to-school bonuses, she said, “the doorknobs alone earned enough miles for a one-way first-class ticket to Asia.”
Check Your Junk Mail
“I always check Amex offers to see where I can save $100 to $250 on purchases, and any bonus points I can earn,” said Jonathan Wizman, a real estate agent in Los Angeles who specializes in high-end house flips. Since the homes’ developers reimburse him for his purchases, using a credit card that earns points or miles is a no-brainer. Outfitting a four-bedroom house in Los Angeles, now listed for nearly $4 million, he racked up enough points and miles buying things like cabinetry, lighting and Miele kitchen appliances to take a three-week, mult-icountry vacation over New Year’s, with stops in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Maldives, Singapore, Bali and Thailand.
In a photo provided by Don Lewis, a renovated home in Los Angeles. Jonathan Wizman, a real estate agent in Los Angeles who specializes in high-end flips of homes like the one above, puts major renovation expenses on credit cards to earn bonus points and cash back — so “any time I ever have a break,” he said, traveling “is always free.” (Don Lewis via The New York Times)
Featured Image: Don Lewis via The New York Times
