Check Out My Inbox - Credit Relief!

ID theft is a real thing. It's always a good reminder especially if you are using credit cards for FREE travel to utilize the services of various credit monitoring services. Even if you don't open credit cards on a regular basis, data breaches are becoming more and more common. For example, just recently, Toyota, Facebook, and Aerogarden announced breaches. Of course, in 2017, Equifax, one of the three credit reporting agencies, revealed that it had also been breached. 

In 2018, it is estimated that 4.5 billion records were exposed and already in 2019, a collection of 2.7 billion records were found for sale on the dark web. 

You might be surprised to find that credit card issuers will actually offer free monitoring services and free credit score checks. In 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged all issuers to offer this service. 

Bank of America, Discover, Capital One, Chase, Barclaycard, Citi and American Express each offer some credit information on at least some of their cards. Capital One and Discover offer free services and you don't even have to be a customer to use them. 

Love that right after I applied for a Capital One Venture card, all of these emails showed up in the inbox. Remember even if you use a service or a few of them, monitor your credit cards for unusual activity and examine your credit report a few times a year. 

Did You Activate Your New Chase FREEDOM Categories?

Hopefully, last quarter you maxed out the Chase FREEDOM 5% bonus cash back at gas stations! I did and earned a whopping $36. That's FREE money! That's like getting an entire tank of gas FREE just for using that credit card to buy gas. 

I called it "leveraged spending". I was going to buy the gas anyway and by using the right credit card, I got more bang for my buck. Since I was not trying to hit the bonus on another card, I chose to use my Chase FREEDOM card and earn 5% cash back with every fill up. 

Check out the rewards breakdown. You can see I earned a bonus of $25.17 for gas and $11.08 on everything else. Pretty awesome!

Chase actually breaks it down even further so you can see how much you earned for each purchase. Check out the gas stations and pharmacy. You can see how the bonus points really add up. Now just a reminder, we were on a road trip. That's my excuse for all the Starbucks too! 
And the rewards never expire so you can save them and then use them for a FREE trip, car rental or just cash back. 
This quarter, the bonus categories are grocery stores and home improvement stores. Now if you don't have a Chase FREEDOM credit card yet, please use my link to sign up. You will get $150 cash back if you spend $500 in the first 3 months and it will help me pay for the blog. I have had my Chase FREEDOM card forever, it's my go-to no annual fee card. 
If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, you can even transfer your points to different hotels and airlines for FREE travel. 
That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

What Its Like To Eat At One Of The Top 50 Best Restaurants In The World

Behind an unidentified door in the Casco Viejo section of Panama City lies one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, according to The World's 50 Best Restaurants. A panel of 1,000 culinary experts votes to come up with the annual list. 

So what is it like to dine at one of these exclusive top dining spots? We wanted to find out on our recent trip to Panama City. Donde Jose has two seatings, an early one at 7pm and a late seating at 9:30pm.  We were able to make a reservation about two months ahead of time. The restaurant only has 16 seats so you need to reserve early. It is a set menu, but you are able to let them know in advance about any dietary restrictions. Be very specific because if you say no red meat, they will still serve you pork. 

Since there is no sign or address, it's a bit tricky to find the restaurant. But once you find it, you are welcomed into a small dining room with tall ceilings. It is cold inside so bring a sweater. 

Your set menu price does not include alcohol and the drinks are pricey. The menu price is approximately $100 per person with a $100 deposit. 

The 10-course menu features unique and innovative dishes that use fresh ingredients. Check out the menu from our meal. Obviously, the menu changes depending on what is in season. And to be totally honest, the menu doesn't really tell you what the dish is and some listed dishes actually include several plates. But the server explains the meaning behind each dish, the ingredients and what the chef was trying to do. 

 Each dish is supposed to tell a story about Panama. Some I understood, others not so much. Check out some of the dishes below. Most notable, the one on the far right. Since we do not eat pork or red meat, they created this dish with fish and edible sand. 

The main dish was actually quite unimpressive. It was a very small bony half chicken with a sauce. But the chef redeemed himself with dessert. The courses were equally as creative with a delicious shaved ice and a course called Coffee With My Grandpa. It was made with the famous and super expensive Geisha coffee, chocolate and cake or brownie. It was delicious! 

So was it worth the high price tag? Maybe. Yes, we can say we ate at a top 50 restaurant. The food was creative. Was it the best meal I've ever had? Probably not. Would I go back? Probably not, but I'm pretty frugal. Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes. 

La Quinta - Transfer Your Points By March 30th

If you have La Quinta rewards points, you will want to pay attention. On April 2nd, La Quinta will officially merge with Wyndham and end its reward program. 

According to the La Quinta website, 

• Now through March 31st, you can continue to earn and redeem La Quinta Returns points. 
• You can match your La Quinta Returns status to a Wyndham Rewards members level
• You can transfer your La Quinta Returns points to Wyndham at a 1:1 ratio (After March 31st, Silver members will receive 1 Wyndham Rewards point for every 2 La Quinta Returns points

On April 3rd: 

• La Quinta Returns account will be closed 
• Any remaining La Quinta Returns points will be converted to Wyndham points at a 2:1 ratio
• You can start redeeming Wyndham Rewards at La Quinta hotels

To transfer your points:

• just login to your La Quinta account
• click on La Quinta Returns
• enter your Wyndham account information (your name and email must match on both accounts)
• click submit (it takes about 48 hours for the transfer to complete)

Wyndham Rewards is changing its redemption system on April 3rd to a three-tier system. Right now, all hotels are 15,000 points per night. The three-tier system will change some hotels to 7,500, 15,000 and 30,000. Check out my post for more details. 

Find Out How Starbucks Is Changing Its Star Rewards

Starbucks is overhauling its reward system so you will earn and be able to spend your stars faster. 

Starting April 16th, you can cash in your stars as soon as you earn them. You don't have to get Gold status first. Stars are still worth 2 per dollar spent. 

But then you can spend the stars on different things:

25 stars = shot of espresso, a pump of flavor or any non-dairy milk substitute

50 stars = brewed coffee, baked good or tea 

150 stars = specialty handcrafted drink, breakfast sandwich or yogurt parfait

200 stars = lunch on Starbucks

400 stars = packaged coffee and merch

The new categories make it a bit more difficult to earn a frap since it was 125 stars before and now it will be 150 stars. 

If you are a Chase credit card or debit card holder, your stars will not expire. 

But don't worry, the complimentary birthday drink lives on. 

Top Things You Need To Know If You Plan To Check Out The Superbloom

Due to all the rains in California, now the Superbloom is amazing. That's a short period of time in March/April that the wildflowers bloom in the desert. So if you are in Southern California or plan to be in the next few weeks, you may want to head to the desert to check it out. 

Here are the things you need to know: 

1. Best viewing is in Anza Borrego and Lake Elsinore, but I have also seen fabulous photos from Lake Poway and Mission Trails. 

2. Take water, food and good walking shoes. The flowers are not next to the highway. In most cases, you need to hike a bit. 

3. Check online or visit the visitor's center to see where the best places are to view flowers on the particular day you visit. 

4. Go early in the day to avoid the crowds 

5. Do not pick or step on the flowers

We headed out to Borrego Springs on a Monday due to a staff day at school. Borrego Springs is about 2 hours east of San Diego. The best part is you can drive through the small town of Julian which is known for the best pie in the world. YUM! 

First stop is the Visitors Center at Anza Borrego State Park. There is a $10 day parking fee, but it is worth it just to run in and get the map of the best places to view the flowers plus there are bathrooms, water fountains and picnic tables. 

There are also some trails where you can view flowers, but I would suggest moving onto some of the other viewing sites. On the way to the visitors center, you will see the giant sculptures in the desert called Galleta Meadows. 

We drove to the recommended viewing site at Ocotillo Wells, about 5 miles southeast. There is another visitor center there where the ranger gave us a flower guide and another map to two nearby viewing areas. 

No charge to park the car. We could walk to the first viewing area which featured several different flowers, some giant beetles and caterpillars plus big rocks for the kids to climb on. 

 To get to the second viewing area, we drove through a wash and had to dodge the sand. An adventure in itself. 

But once we arrived, it was a short walk up the hill and we were rewarded with fields of color plus sand dunes to roll in. 

On the way back, a beautiful desert sunset as if the desert was saying thank you to us for visiting, but really we were thanking mother nature for a beautiful day.

More Ways To Earn Southwest Points Without Flying

Hotels at Kaanapali, Maui 

Now that Southwest Airlines flies to Hawaii, let's talk about some other ways you can boost your Southwest points balance. 

Here are some awesome ways to earn points without flying:

1. Shopping Portal - Never buy anything online without going through a shopping portal! It's FREE money if you use a cashback site and its FREE points (FREE travel) if you use an airline shopping portal. 

Find the store you want to shop at and get rewarded 1x, 2x, 3x or 4x bonus points per dollar. Charge the purchase to your Southwest credit card and earn 1x points for your purchase. So let's say you spend $100 at 1-800 Pet Meds, you would be rewarded 400 bonus points for using the portal and another 100 points from using your Southwest credit card for a total of 500 bonus points for something you were going to buy anyway. Wow! 

2. Rocketmiles.com  - Same idea, but with hotels. We had a layover in Houston, TX on our way back from Panama. I looked on Rocketmiles.com and found a hotel near the airport that offered free breakfast and 2,000 Southwest bonus points per room. I booked two rooms and got 4,000 bonus points. I used my Southwest credit card and got another 200 points. 

3. Dining Program - You can join Southwest dining program, link your credit or debit card and then when you dine you will earn bonus points. This is not going to rack you up a lot of points, but they will trickle in. 

4. If you live in certain states, you may be eligible to earn more Southwest points by enrolling in NRG, Reliant or buying gas at Marathon. Check out the home and lifestyle offers on Southwest.com. 

5. You can take surveys too to boost your points balance. Again, these are small amounts, but if you just need more points, it might work for you. Check out this page to enroll.