May 29, 2025 • 11 mins
Host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to talk about credit card companies devaluing rewards points, loyalty to a specific airline might be costing you, and how tariffs are affecting the used car market.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for Joel lars Guard and how to Money.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Joel.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good Morning every Sunday, twelve to two pm right here
on K five Morning Morning Bill. Okay, by the way,
very excited about coming to the Anaheim White House.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There is no chance you're going to be invited. I
just want to let you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Know that I figured, I figured, oh yeah, please. Credit
card points. Now, I happen to be a big fan
of credit card points. I like points towards travel. And
the problem is, if I, let's say, have fifty thousand
points tomorrow morning, I can wake up and have forty
thousand points.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Can they do that?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yes they can, Yes they can, and they are doing that.
This is a problem that's like escalating too. So I too,
am a fan of credit card points for people who
follow what I call the golden rules of plastic, Like
if you're using your credit card appropriately, you're not buying
more stuff than you otherwise would, and you're paying your
balance off on time and in full every single month.
(00:57):
Credit card points, cash back or travel points can, like
you know, can help make it a worthwhile endeavor to
use credit cards for the purchases you're already making. But
it's really important to know a couple things. One, you
got to use your credit card properly to make credit
card points worth it. If you don't, sorry, the interest
rate you're paying is far than far more exceeding the
(01:18):
value you're getting. And then on top of that, pay
attention to the points you have and use them quickly
after getting them. Because I hear some people bill brag
about I've got four hundred thousand points racked up from
this one credit card company. How awesome am I? I
can't wait to use these one day in the future. Well,
the problem is, yes, credit card issuers are devaluing those
(01:38):
points over time. City just announced, Hey, in August, we're
going to be value our points by twenty five percent.
We're just gonna give a swift haircut to everybody who
has built up City points. And so yeah, the longer
you hold on to them, the less valuable they're going
to become.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Who One of the things about credit cards point well,
first of all, if you the people who own businesses
are very lucky because you can run virtually your entire
business on a credit card, and all of a sudden,
those points start racking up very quickly, and so that's
what that's luck or sort of. The other one is
(02:12):
paying them off, so you get all. I pay mine
off every month. I don't go too crazy, which means
I get the benefit and there's no downside because effectively
someone is subsidizing my points.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The other thing for me and it doesn't make.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Any sense financially is I use them for air travel,
even though I can do better with money cards cash
back cards.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If you look at the actual figures, you.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Know, money goes back into your account or in your pocket,
and you spend it and it sort of disappears. You know,
it's sort of gone because you have money coming in
all the time, because you know, we get.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Paid with points for travel.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Man, you book a flight and all of a sudden
it costs you half as much or nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
That to me is a real joy.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I tend to super exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, I upgrade.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I will buy coach and then I'll upgrade into business
or I'll buy a business plus and upgrade into uh
business class uh, And man, I love it. As you know, people,
I'm first at the front of the airplane and then
people go past me and I look at them and
I go thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
As they're going to the back of the plane.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
There's love you for that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh yeah, absolutely, or I'll say, oh the food is great.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh no, you're in coach.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Well you mentioned you mentioned two things there that are
important to recognize, and yeah, if you if you own
a run a business, even if it's like this part
time side hustle, like oh, I have an Etsy store
that I occasionally sell stuff at. You, you can qualify
for a business credit card. You don't have to have
like employees or anything like that to get a business
credit card. And some of those business credit cards offer
(03:54):
even better returns. They have better sign up bonuses. So
it's important to note that, yeah, you might qualify or
a business card, even if you maybe thought you didn't
because you're like, I don't know, my business feels like
it's just this kind of side hustle. That doesn't mean
that you can't qualify for one. And yeah, I think
the other thing too. Travel points have become really common.
People are excited about it, just like you. And it
(04:16):
started with like this guy, the Points guy, who I've
actually talked to on the podcast before, and he started
running everything through his business and he was shocked at
the amount of miles that he was racking up. And
then he was like, how can I optimize these and
use them to their fullest extent? So in some cases,
if you're really smart about how you use those points,
they can far exceed the value of a straight up
(04:38):
two percent cash back card.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You just have to play the game right.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
And again, this is one of those things where you like,
you got to have your ducks in a row.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You can do really well with some.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Of these travel cards as long as you're a using them,
you know, more quickly than you otherwise would if you
had your druthers.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
If you're like I might hold on to some of these.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
If you use them more quickly, they don't get the
value as quickly, right, and you're able to actually get
the full value that you hoped for. And then if
you're optimizing in when you're booking and you're flexible, you
can you can get like much better value actually than
you would with just a traditional cash back card. But
you've got to be willing to kind of gain the
system and jump through the hoops. If not a cashback
card's better for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm assuming there has to be one or two websites
out there that help you do exactly that. Oh, yeah,
oh yeah, you know how to game the credit card,
you know, system dot com or whatever the hell it is.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Just do a Google search and throw in those those words.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
All right, the points guy started it. But then there's
many other apps and stuff like that have launched, and
you plug in some of your information and they'll try
to help you optimize the redemption of those rewards.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, always good stuff, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Connecting tariffs, I mean tariffs, we don't even know how
far they're going to go, but already we're starting to
see the used car market based on what's going on
tariff Why is explain that?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So, I mean back during COVID, everybody remembers the supply
shock of new cards being built, which impact to the
used car market, and people were like, who are trying
to buy a car? We're like, wait a second, it's
getting far more expensive to buy the car I want.
And then people who owned a used car were like,
wait a second, this thing's going up in value. Those
things cars are typically depreciating assets, and so to see
(06:15):
your car actually go up in value when they're supposed
to go down, it's kind of shocking. And then we
saw over the past few years things start to level
out and correct themselves and go back to quote unquote normal. Well,
normal is being upended again by tariffs. And so because
of tariff, the impact of tariffs on new cars, we're
(06:36):
seeing again a very similar pattern of used cars starting
to go up in value and go up in price.
So if you're in the market for a used car,
just know the supply is dwindling and they're getting more
expensive right now.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, and I'm assuming they're going to be far more
expensive to repair because you have a Japanese car, I
have a German car, which means the parts of the
German car comes in come in from Germany, and it's
X dollars, and it's going to be that more expensive
assuming that the well, if with the fifty percent European
tariff kicks in, Oh Man, I'm going to be paying
(07:11):
some dollars for repairs.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Well, and that brings up the recent court ruling right
about the president's tariff policies, and so like there's there's
been obviously this just back and forth and like, hey,
no fifty percent tariffs here, one hundred and forty five
percent tariffs here, and then a pretty quick rollback on
many of those tariffs to much lower levels. Will this
(07:35):
recent Federal Trade Court ruling basically said that, hey, this
tariff policy is instituted by the president, it's it's not legal,
and so he's going to have to go back to
the drawing board when it comes to imposing tariffs if
he wants to do that, or Congress is actually going
to have to step in and do that. But then
there are some tariffs that will remain. Specifically, it looks
(07:55):
like on cars and which which again.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but I did that topic at seven
am this morning, talking specifically about that, and so if
you want to listen to it on demand, and Joel
explained it much more succinctly and makes a lot more
sense about it than I do. And as far as
new terrorists are concerned, you know they change so often.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Let me see, it's eight thirty on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Okay, we'll see what happens by three o'clock this afternoon
if Terry's going to change or not.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Now, one quick one, let's finish this up.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And that is, loyalty to a specific airline can end
up costing you.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Although it's easier not.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
To have loyalty to a specific airline today with the
alliances a moment or two about that.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Joel, Yeah, So, I mean what kicked off this topic
in my mind was just to see that this week yesterday.
Actually Southwest, Man, they're much storied and loved policy of
free check bags win away, and on top of that,
Southwest is changing the way they do seating and fares.
(09:02):
And then in addition, Southwest, just to punish their customers
even more, has said, actually flight credits are gonna expire
within six months now instead of never expiring like they
used to. And so this just just makes me think
that the consumers out there. I get why consumers might
have been loyal to Southwest, and I get why some
business travels travelers are incredibly loyal to a particular airline
(09:25):
because the more loyal you are, if you're a frequent traveler,
you gain status and the perks can be significant. But
for most every day normal folks who travel, you know,
a few times a year, loyalty is going to hurt
you because you're going to pay more. And so what
you should be doing, if you're just a regular Joe
who travels every once in a while is you should
be going to a site like Google flights and you
(09:45):
should be plugging in the itinerary and then you should
be you should be shopping around with different airlines. Maybe
it's Southwest offering the best deal today, maybe it's Delta tomorrow,
maybe it's United next week. And so I just want
people to be less loyal because the perks aren't as
good if you are loyal and you're just the biggest
thing you should be caring about is how much you're
paying for the fare that you're looking to buy.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, a quick prognostication, because this is your wheelhouse. Clearly
Southwest made this decision about paying for baggage and boarding
and just charging for you know, the junk fies like
everybody else. Obviously they weigh the economics of it, do you.
And they're going to lose customers. I mean, there's no
question the loyalty is going to disappear. Do you think
(10:26):
their decision is are they're going to be hurt more
or do you think they're.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Going to win on this one.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I think they're going to be hurt more. I think
it's what made them stand out. They had a lot
of loyalty. They were consistently rated one of the top
airlines and I just think people are going to be
less enthusiastic about jumping on a Southwest flight because if
they don't stand out in any way, any meaningful way
these days.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Right now, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It certainly makes sense to me, all right, Joel Sunday
twelve to two pm right here on KFI How to
Money Joel and the How to Money Podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Uh three, three times a week. God, you work your
ass off. Okay, we'll catch you this weekend and next week.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I have a good one, all right, Thanks Bill,
It's time for Joel lars Guard and how to Money.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Joel.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good Morning every Sunday, twelve to two pm right here
on K five Morning Morning Bill. Okay, by the way,
very excited about coming to the Anaheim White House.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There is no chance you're going to be invited. I
just want to let you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Know that I figured, I figured, oh yeah, please. Credit
card points. Now, I happen to be a big fan
of credit card points. I like points towards travel. And
the problem is, if I, let's say, have fifty thousand
points tomorrow morning, I can wake up and have forty
thousand points.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Can they do that?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yes they can, Yes they can, and they are doing that.
This is a problem that's like escalating too. So I too,
am a fan of credit card points for people who
follow what I call the golden rules of plastic, Like
if you're using your credit card appropriately, you're not buying
more stuff than you otherwise would, and you're paying your
balance off on time and in full every single month.
(00:57):
Credit card points, cash back or travel points can, like
you know, can help make it a worthwhile endeavor to
use credit cards for the purchases you're already making. But
it's really important to know a couple things. One, you
got to use your credit card properly to make credit
card points worth it. If you don't, sorry, the interest
rate you're paying is far than far more exceeding the
(01:18):
value you're getting. And then on top of that, pay
attention to the points you have and use them quickly
after getting them. Because I hear some people bill brag
about I've got four hundred thousand points racked up from
this one credit card company. How awesome am I? I
can't wait to use these one day in the future. Well,
the problem is, yes, credit card issuers are devaluing those
(01:38):
points over time. City just announced, Hey, in August, we're
going to be value our points by twenty five percent.
We're just gonna give a swift haircut to everybody who
has built up City points. And so yeah, the longer
you hold on to them, the less valuable they're going
to become.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Who One of the things about credit cards point well,
first of all, if you the people who own businesses
are very lucky because you can run virtually your entire
business on a credit card, and all of a sudden,
those points start racking up very quickly, and so that's
what that's luck or sort of. The other one is
(02:12):
paying them off, so you get all. I pay mine
off every month. I don't go too crazy, which means
I get the benefit and there's no downside because effectively
someone is subsidizing my points.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The other thing for me and it doesn't make.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Any sense financially is I use them for air travel,
even though I can do better with money cards cash
back cards.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If you look at the actual figures, you.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Know, money goes back into your account or in your pocket,
and you spend it and it sort of disappears. You know,
it's sort of gone because you have money coming in
all the time, because you know, we get.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Paid with points for travel.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Man, you book a flight and all of a sudden
it costs you half as much or nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
That to me is a real joy.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I tend to super exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, I upgrade.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I will buy coach and then I'll upgrade into business
or I'll buy a business plus and upgrade into uh
business class uh, And man, I love it. As you know, people,
I'm first at the front of the airplane and then
people go past me and I look at them and
I go thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
As they're going to the back of the plane.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
There's love you for that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh yeah, absolutely, or I'll say, oh the food is great.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh no, you're in coach.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Well you mentioned you mentioned two things there that are
important to recognize, and yeah, if you if you own
a run a business, even if it's like this part
time side hustle, like oh, I have an Etsy store
that I occasionally sell stuff at. You, you can qualify
for a business credit card. You don't have to have
like employees or anything like that to get a business
credit card. And some of those business credit cards offer
(03:54):
even better returns. They have better sign up bonuses. So
it's important to note that, yeah, you might qualify or
a business card, even if you maybe thought you didn't
because you're like, I don't know, my business feels like
it's just this kind of side hustle. That doesn't mean
that you can't qualify for one. And yeah, I think
the other thing too. Travel points have become really common.
People are excited about it, just like you. And it
(04:16):
started with like this guy, the Points guy, who I've
actually talked to on the podcast before, and he started
running everything through his business and he was shocked at
the amount of miles that he was racking up. And
then he was like, how can I optimize these and
use them to their fullest extent? So in some cases,
if you're really smart about how you use those points,
they can far exceed the value of a straight up
(04:38):
two percent cash back card.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You just have to play the game right.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
And again, this is one of those things where you like,
you got to have your ducks in a row.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You can do really well with some.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Of these travel cards as long as you're a using them,
you know, more quickly than you otherwise would if you
had your druthers.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
If you're like I might hold on to some of these.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
If you use them more quickly, they don't get the
value as quickly, right, and you're able to actually get
the full value that you hoped for. And then if
you're optimizing in when you're booking and you're flexible, you
can you can get like much better value actually than
you would with just a traditional cash back card. But
you've got to be willing to kind of gain the
system and jump through the hoops. If not a cashback
card's better for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm assuming there has to be one or two websites
out there that help you do exactly that. Oh, yeah,
oh yeah, you know how to game the credit card,
you know, system dot com or whatever the hell it is.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Just do a Google search and throw in those those words.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
All right, the points guy started it. But then there's
many other apps and stuff like that have launched, and
you plug in some of your information and they'll try
to help you optimize the redemption of those rewards.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, always good stuff, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Connecting tariffs, I mean tariffs, we don't even know how
far they're going to go, but already we're starting to
see the used car market based on what's going on
tariff Why is explain that?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So, I mean back during COVID, everybody remembers the supply
shock of new cards being built, which impact to the
used car market, and people were like, who are trying
to buy a car? We're like, wait a second, it's
getting far more expensive to buy the car I want.
And then people who owned a used car were like,
wait a second, this thing's going up in value. Those
things cars are typically depreciating assets, and so to see
(06:15):
your car actually go up in value when they're supposed
to go down, it's kind of shocking. And then we
saw over the past few years things start to level
out and correct themselves and go back to quote unquote normal. Well,
normal is being upended again by tariffs. And so because
of tariff, the impact of tariffs on new cars, we're
(06:36):
seeing again a very similar pattern of used cars starting
to go up in value and go up in price.
So if you're in the market for a used car,
just know the supply is dwindling and they're getting more
expensive right now.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, and I'm assuming they're going to be far more
expensive to repair because you have a Japanese car, I
have a German car, which means the parts of the
German car comes in come in from Germany, and it's
X dollars, and it's going to be that more expensive
assuming that the well, if with the fifty percent European
tariff kicks in, Oh Man, I'm going to be paying
(07:11):
some dollars for repairs.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Well, and that brings up the recent court ruling right
about the president's tariff policies, and so like there's there's
been obviously this just back and forth and like, hey,
no fifty percent tariffs here, one hundred and forty five
percent tariffs here, and then a pretty quick rollback on
many of those tariffs to much lower levels. Will this
(07:35):
recent Federal Trade Court ruling basically said that, hey, this
tariff policy is instituted by the president, it's it's not legal,
and so he's going to have to go back to
the drawing board when it comes to imposing tariffs if
he wants to do that, or Congress is actually going
to have to step in and do that. But then
there are some tariffs that will remain. Specifically, it looks
(07:55):
like on cars and which which again.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but I did that topic at seven
am this morning, talking specifically about that, and so if
you want to listen to it on demand, and Joel
explained it much more succinctly and makes a lot more
sense about it than I do. And as far as
new terrorists are concerned, you know they change so often.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Let me see, it's eight thirty on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Okay, we'll see what happens by three o'clock this afternoon
if Terry's going to change or not.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Now, one quick one, let's finish this up.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And that is, loyalty to a specific airline can end
up costing you.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Although it's easier not.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
To have loyalty to a specific airline today with the
alliances a moment or two about that.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Joel, Yeah, So, I mean what kicked off this topic
in my mind was just to see that this week yesterday.
Actually Southwest, Man, they're much storied and loved policy of
free check bags win away, and on top of that,
Southwest is changing the way they do seating and fares.
(09:02):
And then in addition, Southwest, just to punish their customers
even more, has said, actually flight credits are gonna expire
within six months now instead of never expiring like they
used to. And so this just just makes me think
that the consumers out there. I get why consumers might
have been loyal to Southwest, and I get why some
business travels travelers are incredibly loyal to a particular airline
(09:25):
because the more loyal you are, if you're a frequent traveler,
you gain status and the perks can be significant. But
for most every day normal folks who travel, you know,
a few times a year, loyalty is going to hurt
you because you're going to pay more. And so what
you should be doing, if you're just a regular Joe
who travels every once in a while is you should
be going to a site like Google flights and you
(09:45):
should be plugging in the itinerary and then you should
be you should be shopping around with different airlines. Maybe
it's Southwest offering the best deal today, maybe it's Delta tomorrow,
maybe it's United next week. And so I just want
people to be less loyal because the perks aren't as
good if you are loyal and you're just the biggest
thing you should be caring about is how much you're
paying for the fare that you're looking to buy.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, a quick prognostication, because this is your wheelhouse. Clearly
Southwest made this decision about paying for baggage and boarding
and just charging for you know, the junk fies like
everybody else. Obviously they weigh the economics of it, do you.
And they're going to lose customers. I mean, there's no
question the loyalty is going to disappear. Do you think
(10:26):
their decision is are they're going to be hurt more
or do you think they're.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Going to win on this one.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I think they're going to be hurt more. I think
it's what made them stand out. They had a lot
of loyalty. They were consistently rated one of the top
airlines and I just think people are going to be
less enthusiastic about jumping on a Southwest flight because if
they don't stand out in any way, any meaningful way
these days.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Right now, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It certainly makes sense to me, all right, Joel Sunday
twelve to two pm right here on KFI How to
Money Joel and the How to Money Podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Uh three, three times a week. God, you work your
ass off. Okay, we'll catch you this weekend and next week.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I have a good one, all right, Thanks Bill,
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