Two player mode involves working with someone you are close with (almost always a spouse or partner) to double the rewards that you get from credit card bonuses. With referral bonuses, you can actually increase your points even more! The first thing you need is a partner, which we call P2, that you can trust and that will work with you. You want to be very careful with casual relationships as things can go wrong in a hurry if it isn’t managed properly. That’s why we suggest you do this with a partner or spouse.
For whatever reason, P2s are often a little reluctant. I’ve talked to many travel hackers who have said that they had to work on P2 to get them on board. My wife found it all hard to believe so I had to show it to her. I think it really helps to teach your P2 how this all works even if you are the one that is going to handle everything. You could pull your credit report and your credit score to show P2 that this hobby will not have a negative impact on your credit score. But the most important thing is to make sure that there is comfort and trust. You don’t want to force anything. Travel points is not more important than your relationship.
Even if your P2 doesn’t give you that much of a problem, quite often they don’t really want to get involved for whatever reason but as long as they give you permission to handle everything, that works too. I don’t think that’s an issue and it can actually be better sometimes for one person to manage everything. Regardless, it’s important to stay on top of this because now you’re going to be doubling the amount of cards you’ll get so there’s more to keep track of.
While I suggest that everyone use a spreadsheet to keep track of their credit cards, sign up bonuses, payment due dates, etc, this is especially important when you are in two-player mode. You don’t want to screw anything up here that could hurt your credit scores. Travel hackers don’t pay late fees and interest. That defeats the entire point of what we are trying to do here.
Even if your P2 doesn’t want to get involved that much, they are still going to have a role to play and it’s important that you discuss this ahead of time. No matter how much you want to handle things yourself, P2 is still going to have expenses that have to get paid. P2 is going to have to use the right card for the right transactions. This can get a bit annoying, especially if P2 isn’t that into this hobby. Some people use labels for their credit cards to keep it simple while others pick one card for basic everyday spending.
Whatever your case is, I suggest that you discuss everything with P2 ahead of time. Explain how this works, why it works, that is legal (yes, some P2s questions if this is legal), what your role will be and what their role will be. Some P2s will be gung ho, some will be confused and some will be very reluctant. Just be patient and work within P2’s comfort level. Also remember that opinions change so what might sound ridiculous today is normal a few weeks later.
Once you have all of that ironed out, it’s time to set up a plan. In the next post, I’m going to discuss how to handle the Chase Trifecta in two player mode. That’s probably your best plan at this point.