Self-employed taxpayers have another quarterly tax payment due January 15, 2021. While paying the IRS is never fun, it does present a fantastic opportunity to earn points and miles by paying taxes with a credit card. In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about paying taxes with a credit card so you can build up those points balances.

With everyone stuck at home, the last thing award travelers want is for their hard-earned points to expire while they’re unable to use them. Thankfully, at least 24 loyalty programs have temporarily paused point expirations—at least so far. In this post, we’ve rounded up all of the updated expiration policies to create a one-stop resource.

United miles are incredibly useful. You can use them for award travel on 35+ partner airlines with some of the lowest out-of-pocket costs of any program. In this post, I cover some of the best ways to maximize United Miles for amazing award travel.

Low cash prices and increased earning opportunities are making flexible points more valuable than ever before. With these points, you have a choice between transferring to airline and hotel partners or redeeming for a fixed, cash value. The conventional wisdom is to transfer points for higher value. Today, I’ll explain why that advice might not be true right now—and how to make the right choice on your next redemption.

Hilton just announced several positive changes to the 2021 Hilton Honors program in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The changes include reducing the qualifications needed to earn elite status in 2021, extending the pause on Hilton points expiration, and extending the validity of credit card benefits. Here’s what members need to know about the most recent round of changes.

Marriott just announced another extension to Bonvoy Free Night Awards. Any certificates that were originally scheduled to expire in 2020 or anytime before July 31, 2021 have been extended by 6 months. Now, members have until August 1, 2021 to use their rewards. Even better, Marriott is also pausing points expirations until August 1, 2021 as well.

Trusted Traveler Program Enrollment Centers have not conducted interviews for new applicants since March 19th. But, after months of delays, the centers finally reopened on September 8, 2020. Interview slots are wide-open in some locations meaning now is the time to schedule your appointment if you’ve been unable to get one in the past few months.

Hilton Honors announces updates to Elite Rollover Nights for the 2020 calendar year. The new changes will allow members to roll over all of their qualifying stays from 2020 into 2021. Use this to maintain or upgrade your Hilton elite status through March 31, 2023!

COVID-19 all but shuttered the travel industry in March, but just how bad did things get and how have AwardWallet members been affected? We recently took a look at how many reservations AwardWallet users added to their timelines before and after the pandemic took hold. Check out the results for yourself with the interactive tool we built to track air, hotel and auto reservations.

Using the best credit card for groceries can mean a lot of extra points each year. Here’s our roundup of the best cards to maximize your rewards. If you’re curious about whether a specific store will earn a bonus, our merchant lookup tool lets you check how many points were earned in recent transactions by other AwardWallet members.