Delta2010

I am relatively new here and just recently got into collecting freq flier miles. I am learning a lot through this forum and have collected more than 100k miles already in last couple of months or so. Thanks for that! Obviously now I am getting addicted to this and want to earn miles for every $ I spend. My major 3 expenses are monthly home mortage through Wells Fargo, tuition fee (for my evening graduate school coursework) and monthly rent payments for my wife's apt (she had to move to pursue her medical school). Unfortunately, WF doesnot let me charge mortgage through CC, my univ and wife's apt charge 2.5% convenience fee if charged through CC which doesnot make the mile worth the fee. Is there some round about or some trick that I can earn miles through these major expenses without incurring any fee?

Astrophsx

If you overpaid your tuition you might get a check in the mail for refund of overpayment, not sure if they would refund the "technology" fee. Not exactly fair to your university though!

I don't believe there is anyway around the 2.5% fees, as they are just passing on the credit card fee they would have to pay down to you.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Order 8K of coins for each household from the us mint over a few months and circulate them by paying the mortgage, rent or tuition? Get a miles debit card and pay the tuition by (Chase Bank-Continental 25K bonus?) debit card?

Delta2010

I read about the coins thing on this website but this is just not my thing. I want to stay away from it. As far as Debit card is concerned, I have a Continental Chase Debit Card but I guess univ and apt complex charges 2.5% fee on any form of plastic whether CC or debit card.
Well, if there is no way out, so be it. At least I am still earning miles on utilities, food and other daily expenses.

Astrophsx

I would read some of the frequent flyer blogs like frugal travel guy for mile opportunities. If you have spare time you could do surveys over at e-rewards as well. If you are in school you would probably want to stay away from anything that might disrupt your credit.

dyrewolf31

I'm lucky that my school does take cards for tuition payments, without charging a fee. In fact I can pay even the portion covered by student loans, and then get a check for that overpayment.

wrxmom

Not sure what other airlines offer, but WF has a deal with AA, if you refinance you get 1,000 miles for every $10,000 financed - http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...wellsFargo.jsp

agsoccer32

In addition to e-rewards you can go to opinionplace.com to take a survey a week for miles. You can also play games at clubbing.com to earn tickets and redeem those for airline miles. I just finished playing enough games to redeem all the mileage offers on that site and I think it came out to about 11k miles. It takes a while, but it's entertaining if sitting in a boring lecture.

Jazzop

I do pretty much the same thing, with a couple of twists:

1. Register for the maximum number of credits allowed by default.
2. Pay tuition with CC immediately after registration. My school charges a flat $10 CC fee.
3. After a couple of days, but still during the drop/add period, drop the filler courses I used just to hike up the tuition bill.
4. When the scholarship money comes in about 3 weeks later, receive a fat refund check from the university.

Not all schools will issue refund by check. Most probably will charge back to the CC the portion that was originally paid that way. My university uses some kind of third-party system to process the CC payments, so it's a one-way transaction for them.

dnfuss

For those of us who live to accumulate non-flying miles, this remains the Holy Grail.

aaron1262

Don't know if this will help the OP any since he's speaking of mileage earning cards, but I have the chase freedom award card and they have the cycling category 3% back. so some months i get 3% back on groceries others on dining..etc. Next 3 months getting 3% back on Education which is perfect for me since im a student...albeit my school charges 2.5% fee..still..every penny counts..

kakadufl

I have the same dilemma with the mortgage company not accepting credit cards and found a company called chargesmart.com They also charge a fee, but to me it's well worth it to get CO miles. Too bad they don't accept payment for health insurance companies - or at least not for ours - that would really rack up some miles.

Scooby3597

Never heard of them. Are the fees comparable to the fees charged by the credit card (2-3%) ?

kakadufl

On our particular mortage payment to Chase they charge me 2.18 %. This might be different with other lenders or it might depend on the amount as well, don't know about that.

tondoleo

Is the cost per mile you spend less than $ .02/mile?