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Cindy Greenstein

Chappaqua’s Points Mom Offers Travel-for-Free Tips

April 18, 2022 by The Inside Press

Points Mom Cindy Greenstein

By the time most families step off planes for vacations, they’ve spent thousands of dollars getting to their destinations–but not Cindy Greenstein.

As The Points Mom, the Chappaqua-based mother of three has turned her dexterity with credit card reward programs into a small business advising neighbors and small business owners on how to reap the biggest rewards using the right cards. At the same time, she has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in free travel for her family.

“Every month, I counsel credit card users who missed out on significant free travel and benefits because they made simple, avoidable errors,” said Greenstein, who began The Points Mom consulting four years ago. “These errors fall into several categories, and they are easily avoidable with a bit of planning and awareness.”

One of the most common errors Greenstein sees is a failure to hit a minimum charge amount within a given period, say $6,000 within the first three months of sign-up. Failing to hit that minimum spend means a credit card can cancel a 50,000-point sign-up bonus, which negates the reason for applying for that card.

“Credit card users might think the card’s annual fee counts towards the minimum spend–it doesn’t. If you charged $500 on a new coat and then return it for a refund, then that $500 doesn’t count either,” said Greenstein, whose free, five-figure family trips include Aspen, Greece and London.

Another mistake is redeeming points on Amazon.

“It looks appealing, but you’re not getting one cent per point, often you’re getting 0.7 cents and we want at least one cent per point or mile redemption,” said Greenstein, whose favorite cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture X and Amex Gold Card.

Making a reservation without comparing ticket-redemption costs is a mistake. For example, a $500 ticket on Delta might cost 50,000 American Express points, but on the Delta rewards site it may cost 40,000 miles. Instead of redeeming the points on American Express, Greenstein advises transferring 40,000 of those points to the Delta rewards program.

This error seems counter intuitive: Airlines’ frequent flyer credit cards are not always best for free plane tickets.

“Even if you live in Atlanta–Delta’s hub–you’ll do much better with an Amex flexible rewards card. You might earn four Amex points for every dollar spent, which can be better than Delta’s card,” said Greenstein, who has joined every airline’s frequent flier program to maximize her points-transfer and redemption options.

 

Filed Under: Health and Wellness with our Sponsors Tagged With: Cindy Greenstein, Credit, Points Mom, Travel for Free

‘The Points Daughter’ Tells All!

August 24, 2020 by Jessie Greenstein

 

The author and Cindy Greenstein, aka The Points Mom

It’s not easy being the daughter of The Points Mom. Whether I must snap tons of photos for my mom’s Instagram or listen to my mom talk shop constantly, my job as “The Points Daughter” is somewhat difficult. At restaurants with my friends, before COVID-19, I was fearful that I would pull the wrong card out of my wallet. I always prayed that I was not the family member that must plead guilty to my mom’s text “who used the blue card for dinner”? It’s hard to hide the mistakes when the bill comes. Luckily, the extra time with quarantine has pushed me to memorize which card to use when: gold for food, blue for everything else. Needless to say, she makes us use our credit cards for everything. I don’t mind though, she pays my credit card bill!!

My mom is always looking to expand her audience, especially with teenagers. She would insist my friends follow her on Instagram (thepointsmom_) and like her Facebook page. My mom has also been spotted in her prized t-shirt donning The Points Mom logo. She often wears this shirt at big tourist attractions, but now on Zoom calls. Can someone else walk next to her please?

My mom is always looking for more content for her website. She loves stealing articles from my website, kiddingaroundtheglobe.com, for her website, www.thepointsmom.com. I think that’s plagiarism.   

People are always asking my mom for advice. She does Zoom consultations and gives lectures and her clients never hold back to shoot her texts and calls. I don’t know how anyone can listen to her talk about points for so long. However, she does seem to know what she’s talking about. I have picked up on some of her lingo like “maximizing points” so that whenever my friends ask why I use this or that card, I can truly answer as ‘The Points Daughter’.

My mom even offers advice to strangers when she sees them using the wrong card at the supermarket, or, pre COVID-19, at the airport paying for bags. She makes sure to offer advice about using “the right card.” My brothers and I make sure to run away or hide when my mom does this.

Travel is one of many things that I miss. My mom alleviates lots of the stress that comes with travel. TSA PreCheck and Clear offers us expedited security checks. My family no longer needs to yell at one another to rush out of the house, or wake up 30 minutes earlier to beat the line. Airport lounges are also the best; we get them for free. My family gets to stock up on nuts and pretzels, recharge our devices, and relax before our flight. But, I mostly like them for the free food.

Unfortunately, airplane seats are never favorable. We often arrive at the airport with “no seats,” a price you may pay for booking using miles. We frequently end up sitting far apart. In fact, we often have one person in row 5, while another is in the back row in a middle seat; this person is usually my dad. However, sitting alone taught me at a young age to fare for myself on a plane. I have even mustered up the courage to order my own snack box. I know what card to use and exactly how much I need to spend on each plane ride. My brothers and I always have to buy snacks on the plane to use up free airline credits–even if we aren’t hungry.

My mom is always doing things for “credit.” On one trip, we had to order breakfast from a hotel down the road to use up my mom’s free hotel credit. And when I go to my yearly swim meet in Florida, we stay at a Hyatt, while the rest of my team stays at the Hilton, because we get free nights with my mom’s Hyatt credit card. Luckily, over the years, my mom has convinced other swim moms to get a Hyatt credit card too.

As annoying as her know-it-all remarks are, she knows her stuff. One day, I hope I am as passionate about something as my mom is about credit card points and travel. I am inspired by her commitment in helping other families travel for free. It goes without saying, but thank you mom. Our family vacations have been great, even if you take way too many pictures. I am excited to see what you have to bring in the future and I am proud to be The Points Daughter.

Filed Under: Inside Thoughts Tagged With: airport, Cindy Greenstein, credit card, Humor, Hyatt, Personal Essay, plane ride, Points, The Points Daughter, The Points Mom, thepointsmom_, Zoom consultations

The Points Mom: Making Travel Affordable–and Even FREE

April 23, 2017 by Molly Alexander

Cindy Greenstein

Cindy Greenstein and her family have traveled just about everywhere you can imagine–London, Israel, Hawaii, the Canadian Rockies, Las Vegas–and most of the time, they’re traveling for free!

Cindy and her husband, Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein, felt they were spending too much on vacations for themselves and their three children. And that’s what inspired her to begin her business, The Points Mom, in 2013.

Running her business online, www.thepointsmom.com is a website that helps families apply for specific credit cards to get the most rewards possible, and in her words, “beat the system.” Rewards and bonuses include travel points, free hotel rooms, free plane tickets and more. Working independently, Cindy balances taking care of her kids and her business life. She finds the most time to work in the summer–a busy season of trip planning for many families. Cindy said she thoroughly enjoys her business because she likes to hear about families’ vacations and where they visited.

Hearing about other families’ adventures inspires some of her family’s own trips.  Meanwhile, she continues to be delighted to share ways to save money for other families interested, too. When she’s not working directly with clients, Cindy spends time maintaining the website and keeping it modern and up to date, and of course, spending quality time with her family.

– Molly Alexander

Filed Under: Momprenuers Tagged With: Cindy Greenstein, The Points Mom, Travel

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