Originally Posted by
Nekamah7
Assuming you have access to US credit cards, keep in mind the relative value of the miles you can earn there, vs the value of the miles here.
Obviously it depends on your flying habits, but if you're offloading your miles, LY is worth around 50 cents per, which is a much lower value than corresponding miles earned on US credit cards.
I do, however I live in Israel and earn in shekels deposited to an Israeli bank.
I actually posted in the stickied Israeli credit cards thread some musings about the feasibility of wiring my pay to a US account and moving my spend to US cards instead. I found that an Etrade online checking account offers free incoming international wires and no monthly fees. Wiring up to $2000 via Israel Post only costs $15...
Despite that, I'm not sure of any possible manufactured spend opportunities in Israel with non-Israeli cards. The 2 methods I discovered both require Israeli cards. I think 11,000 shekels (22,000 for the household if counting my wife) in free spend in addition to my regular monthly expenditures would put me in a better position than using a US card with no opportunity for inflated spending.
Any insights??