When Max Frankel graduated from American University's School of International Service in 2014, he didn't expect to become a startup founder. He had interned with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Secret Service. The signs pointed towards a completely different career.
Frankel graduated from American in three years, instead of the normal four. With the extra year, he decided to do something he might not have: focus on a startup idea he had. People don't really know how to maximize their credit card reward systems, he thought, and as a result they're missing out on possible free air flights and other rewards.
That idea is now his full-time job, Max Points.
"I wanted to travel constantly, but I realized that I couldn't afford—especially as a young college student—to spend a thousand dollars on a ticket, hundreds of dollars on hotel rooms. There had to be a better way, and I knew there was this world of credit card points," Frankel told DC Inno.
"This massive industry is surprisingly not well tapped into for the average consumer. So, for me, it started as I had a lot of time, I plugged away at my computer, and as a college student I used my gas and my grocery bill, turning that into flights around the world."
Here's how Max Points works: Users go to the company's website and input their current credit card information—what kind of cards they use, what the current rewards system looks like and so on—then lay out what they would like to gain from their rewards, whether that be more travel points or cash back. Within 24 hours, Max Points will send you a customized recommendation.
Max Points is a free service. Whenever a user decides to apply for a credit card suggested to them, Max Points gets a bit of cash sent their way. However, Frankel said that he never knows how much he's going to get from a company for the suggestion because he works with a third-party app. He says that removes any bias that a few of his competitors might have who only feature a set group of credit cards each month and whose recommendations aren't consistent across users.
Right now, Frankel goes through each request manually to decide which credit card is the best for his users, or even to see how they can maximize their current rewards. He said, on average, he looks through 5-10 requests a day. However, by the New Year, he hopes to have the process be completely automated and to get responses to users within minutes.
"Changing up this industry and putting the power in the consumers' hands is something more people should be adopting," he said.
Max Points started at American's incubator in July, and the team consists of a few new interns and contractors Frankel hires out to help with some code and other maintenance. But he spent about a year and a half researching all the different credit cards out there and learned more about how simple grocery store purchases could lead to free flights. Just by buying his cat food, Frankel was able to fly roundtrip to South America for next year.
That's not the only time Frankel has personally taken advantage of the rewards his cards offer. In 2016 alone, he was able to travel to 10 different countries. For a lot of his trips, he only had to pay the tax for his airline ticket.
This massive industry is surprisingly not well tapped into for the average consumer.
"What I get most excited about is when I can help the college student book a roundtrip ticket, and they can go on spring break every year of college. Or when I talk to young professionals, who just got their first job and are strapped for student loans," he said.
Going into 2017, Frankel suggest that while people are planning, or maybe re-aligning, their budgets, they should make sure they have a picture perfect idea of what they're spending their money on. He suggested using free budget tracking services like Mint.com.
"I'm a big proponent of making a switch and doing whatever works for you, especially going into the New Year," he said. "Having these goals is a great way to go through and keep a separate budget and say 'I do get to travel each year.'"
"When it comes to travel, in general, one thing that I don't like is this misconception that it's really really expensive," he said. "It's really not."
Image used via CC BY-SA 3.0 – credit NY Photographic
