Client News and Media Recognition

As the go-to blog for credit card sign-up bonuses for frequent flier miles 

November 1, 2011 (Hilton Head Island, SC) – “Do you want 500,000 frequent-flier miles for free? It can be done, fairly easily,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney in his WSJ blog “The Middle Seat,” recently. “Hard-core frequent-flier junkies are churning credit card sign-up bonuses into first-class trips to exquisite destinations.”

To learn how to do this while keeping your credit score intact, McCartney suggests following Rick Ingersoll, author of the award-winning blog The Frugal Travel Guy, who “tracks card bonus offers closely.”

In the article, entitled “Miles For Nothing and Your Trips Are Free,” Ingersoll is the only frugal travel blogger McCartney mentions as an expert at amassing frequent flier miles “where [credit card] promotions can be churned into free miles or at least very inexpensive miles that can be turned into expensive tickets,” he notes.

While there are a host of other ways to garner frequent flier miles and rewards points, credit card sign-up bonuses offer the most miles in one move, sometimes as many as 100,000 in one application. And Ingersoll is the recognized expert in that type of travel hacking.

A retired mortgage banker, Ingersoll is perhaps naturally aware of the benefits and pit-falls of credit cards in general and “card churning” to amass miles in particular. As a former banker, he knows how to make sure credit card applications have a minimal negative impact on someone’s credit score and how to meet the minimum spend in the required time to receive the bonuses. And he consistently cautions his readers to remember, “Your good credit is your most important asset.”

Ingersoll began travel hacking as a hobby and was so successful at it (he has a “bankroll” of over a million miles) that he “just decided to start spreading the word,” he said, by blogging. Today, his blog averages 6000 views per day and has received the Budget Travel Award for travel blogs from Tripbase.com for the past three years.

Ingersoll has been interviewed on CNN and by a host of travel media. He runs the successful “Chicago Seminar” on travel hacking each year with other leaders in “the game,” as he calls it, which has now become the largest single gathering of frequent travel enthusiasts in the nation. Scott McCartney’s endorsement in the Wall Street Journal is a welcomed addition to his accolades.

“It’s quite an honor to be singled out by a writer for the highly respected Wall Street Journal,” Ingersoll said.

For more information on Rick Ingersoll and The Frugal Travel Guy, visit www.frugaltravelguy.com.

About Rick Ingersoll:

Rick Ingersoll, author of The Frugal Travel Guy blog and The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook, is constantly on the lookout for the best credit card and debit card sign-up bonuses. He posts travel tips daily on debit and credit card deals and on other interesting promotions with the goal of reducing his readers’ travel costs today and for the rest of their lives. He is also available for seminars and speaking engagements. A retired mortgage banker, Ingersoll and his wife live in Hilton Head Island, SC, and Traverse City, MI, when they’re not traveling the globe. www.frugaltravelguy.com.