I used to hate credit cards. After paying off my credit card debt wracked up from my college years, I vowed to never use a credit card again. But once I became financially stable, I realized that I could take back what was stolen from me by using credit cards to my advantage.

If you are financially stable enough to pay your credit card in full every month, no exception, this is the post for you. And because it's a travel blog, I'm going to specifically targeted travel rewards.

Choose the right card.

This is often the hardest part, because it all depends on your preferences. These are the questions that you need to consider when choosing a card:

• What airlines do I use the most? (or want to use for a big trip)
• Which airline alliance is it part of? (Star, Oneworld, or Sky Team)
• What is the annual fee?
• How many points do I earn per dollar spent?
• What is the value of the points compared to other cards?
• Do I prefer miles, hotels, or cash back?
• Is it travel friendly (no overseas transaction fees)?
• How do I earn the big points allotment for signing up? (often times if you spend a certain amount within the first few months, you'll earn a giant stock of points)
• Is there a companion ticket offered?

The most popular cards that travelers recommend currently are Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture, and Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite. WalletHub is a helpful place to start, with extensive reviews of the top cards based on categories like "overall", "hotel rewards", and "road trip rewards", so you can narrow down your choices to your priorities. If you can't decide between a few choices, Nerd Wallet makes card comparisons easy. Click "compare this card" to compare your top choices. Both websites are kept up to date weekly.

Earn those points!

Once you have your card, make sure you earn that big allotment of points. Without that first big allotment, it's hard to earn enough points to make it worth your time. Make sure you get those free points! 

You also may want to rearrange how you do your daily spending. If possible, I recommend putting as much of your expenditures on your card each month, paying your bill in full. Groceries, gas, shopping, and restaurants are no-brainers, but it's also helpful to see if it's possible to set up any of your bills through the card without fees. If you are able to pay your mortgage/rent and car payments using your card without any fees, that's an easy way to rack up tons of points!

Want to take it a step up? Check out your credit card's websites for more ways to earn. You can usually get extra points by shopping through their online store, using their choice of car rental or hotel, or other fairly simple measures. 

Use those points!

Earning all of those points is pointless if you aren't going to use them! But, it can surprisingly be kind of hard to see them go, so it's good to know that you're getting the best deal. Any deal is technically a good deal because, let's be honest, those points are basically free miles. But if you're like me and want to stretch them out as much as possible, it's helpful to know when to use your points and when to just pay out of pocket. This one took me a while to find the calculations, but here's the math.

I have Avios through British Airways (BTW Don't get this card if you plan to use it to fly to Europe from the States! British Airways are notorious for their really high gas tax. This card is best for flying within the states, to South America, or within Europe.) Because I have Avios, I'll demonstrate the math with these points. 

According to The Points Guy, I want to make sure that the value of each point is over $0.015, anything less than that, and I have a better deal on just paying the price of the flight. I start by going to either my British Airways website or Milez.biz to find the number of Avios it costs to fly on different routes. So for example, it costs 16,000 Avios to fly roundtrip Berlin to Paris. If I multiply 16,000 x 0.015 = 240, I get $240 as my cutoff price. So if I find a flight for less than that (most likely through a budget airline), I might as well just pay out of pocket. Berlin to London round trip, however is only 8,000 Avios. 8,000 x 0.015 is $120. The cutoff is much lower here. I will most likely get my best deal by just using my Avios! 

You can also calculate by starting with the price of the ticket. To do this, you divide the price of the ticket by the number of Avios it costs to fly. For example, I just looked at Google Flights to see the cost of a March flight roundtrip Seattle to NYC. Prices average around $400 (the cheapest being $363). Then, according to Milez.biz, it would cost 20,000 Avios during off-peak season. 400 / 20,000 = 0.02. Because the value of each Avios (0.02) is higher than the cutoff value of 0.015, this would be a good flight to use my Avios on. Better value per Avios. Not unless I see the flight drop below $300 will it be better value to just pay out of pocket (0.015 x 20,000 = 300).

Did I lose you? Don't worry. Most people don't go through all of this trouble, but I can kind of geek out on these calculations sometimes. Let's recap with the formulas:

ticket price / # of points = value of each point (Avios cutoff is 0.015, so use points if higher than 0.015)

value of each point x # of points = ticket price cutoff (If ticket price goes above cutoff, use your points.)

From basic to advanced.

You can decide how much effort you want to put into your rewards. There are levels of travel hackers, so let's take a look at how different people use their cards:

Basic: Some people are quite happy just to choose a card, earn their allotment, and continue to earn points by using their card for basic expenditures (shopping, groceries, gas, etc). These people probably don't pay much attention to how many points they have earned until it's time for them to use them for a flight. They end up getting free or highly discounted flights, and are very happy!

Intermediate: People at one step up from basic look into how best to earn points by calculating credit card processing fees, earning extra points online from time to time, and transferring some bills to the card. These people also like to calculate out the best ways to use points. People in the intermediate level almost always get free or highly discounted flights, and even upgrade to better seats. I consider myself in the intermediate stage.

Advanced: These are the real travel hackers. These are the people who will open multiple cards in order to earn the initial allotment, combine points, and really work the system. These people have a diverse portfolio of travel points through different airlines and hotels. Most of these people travel very frequently and pay little to nothing for it. I don't know if I'll ever have the energy for this level, but I envy those who do!

If you want to travel more and spend less, it might be time for you to start getting into travel hacking! Do you already have a travel card that you love? Which one and why?