Bump the bonus: A great strategy for getting more out of bonus offers!

I go through a lot of credit card offers and rewards programs in my endless search to get my airfare and other travel needs for (nearly) free. They all offer varying degrees of bonus points and hurdles to jump through in order to get the extra points. I feel a great sense of achievement when I actually get the bonus. Then, two months later, they offer a higher bonus for the same thing--ugh. You feel robbed/cheated/stupid for not getting the extra points.

Then I learned of a method called "bumping the bonus" from other blogs I follow. The basic idea is that if a better offer comes along for the same thing you can contact customer service. I usually do this by email and it works well. You explain that you really like the program and the benefits. Ask for them to match the current offer as a measure of good will. I have about a 50% success rate on this as a lot of factors go into.

You will not always get the extra points but it costs nothing to ask except for a few minutes of time. This can really pay off if they have an offer twice as good as the one you got (such as 100,000 points instead of 50,000). This can go a long way to more free travel and rewards! Don't leave points (money) on the table!