Author Topic: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?  (Read 2331 times)

AK

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How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« on: December 30, 2017, 09:28:09 AM »
I have about $45K in student loans and expect to be able to pay them off in the next 6 months. I'd like to get into travel hacking through credit card sign-up bonuses but My Great Lakes doesn't accept credit cards anymore or at least the last time I checked. Is there another way to pay down my student loans but accumulate travel benefits while doing it?

westtoeast

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Re: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2017, 12:32:25 PM »
There is a service called Plastiq that you can use to pay Great Lakes. You link your credit card and they'll send the payment for you. There is a fee, however. You'll want to do the math to see if the Plastiq fee is still worth it to get those miles!

kpd905

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Re: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2017, 12:44:52 PM »
You can use Gift of College gift cards to send money to Great Lakes.  The gift cards are sold at Toys r us and Baby's R Us stores, with a $5.95 fee for a $500 card.  You can also buy the cards online, but I believe they have a $300 maximum value, for the same $5.95 fee.

lexde

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Re: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2017, 12:46:52 PM »
You can use Gift of College gift cards to send money to Great Lakes.  The gift cards are sold at Toys r us and Baby's R Us stores, with a $5.95 fee for a $500 card.  You can also buy the cards online, but I believe they have a $300 maximum value, for the same $5.95 fee.
+1 on this. Made 3 travel card minimum spends this morning. 


Paul der Krake

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Re: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2017, 12:49:28 PM »
Woot! I had no idea these cards existed.

I'm almost sad to not have any student loans.

AK

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Re: How To Travel Hack By Paying Down Student Loans?
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2017, 06:06:50 PM »
I feel like I just hit the lottery. Thank you guys so much for this info! Gift of College apparently can be used to fund 529 plans too which is great for future opportunities.

Our family travels to Orlando Florida annually to see the mouse and we usually fly on Southwest. Based on that and our ability to pay off about 45K in student loans, what's your recommendations to maximize travel rewards?

For example, I thought about researching the Southwest companion pass and some hotel cards. Also, should we prolong paying off the student loans and just hit the normal, minimum spend on CCs to take advantage of CCs that are only available certain times of the year?