The Frugal RVer: A shrewd way you may be eligible for “free” tires

A while ago we began this “Frugal RVer” column with hopes of teaching you some tricks to saving money while RVing. In the first part of this series we focused on saving money on food, fuel and firewood. Today, we’ll look at a way to get “free” tires for your RV.

Even the most trouble-free RV requires some big-ticket spending at times that even the most frugal RVer cannot avoid. One of those costly items is tires. I buy quality tires and never wear them out, but they “time out” at five to seven years. I note the date on my tires in the coach maintenance log and then replace them five to seven years later.

Tires for my coach, as an example, have jumped about 20 percent in price this year. Although I am several years away from replacing them, I am already planning the purchase.

By careful planning, you can take the sting out of the $4,000 – $5,000 tire bill by a tactic that I refer to as “free” tires.

“Free” tires? How?

Some years ago, I was always too busy to read my credit card statements. At the same time, my business was booming and involved almost continuous airline travel, rental cars, Uber and Lyft rides, hotel stays, restaurant meals, etc. I was paying those credit card balances every month without realizing that I was accumulating cashback and rewards points. One day, I awoke to my oversight when ordering an item from Amazon.com and discovered thousands of dollars in credit card member rewards from American Express and Bank of America. It happened that I also had arrived at that date on the calendar when I needed to replace six large, expensive coach tires at nearly $600 each. I used the accumulated rewards. It was like getting the tires for free.

While it can (and probably will) be argued that I was spending money earned through incentives, to me, not having to write that $3,600 check to the tire shop made it seem painless and, well, like free.

It’s easy and painless to build a slush fund for planned and unplanned expenses by the simple expedient of allowing your credit card cash and rewards funds to accumulate. I checked with both American Express and Bank of America, and both companies said that the rewards funds do not expire for the life of the credit card account, and there are few restrictions on where you may spend them.

If you missed the first part of this Frugal RVer series, with tips to save on food, fuel and firewood, you can read it here.

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