We had a few posts in the 2024 thread recently, but found this thread on the topic.
No so much churning, but an AMEX platinum offer came in the mail that i opened target than just ripping up and tossing. 150k points for signing up, lots of card perks that i won’t use, $695 annual fee.
The weird outlier: a Walmart+ monthly membership credit. This seemed like an odd fit among all the other upscale perks. I haven’t regularly gone near a Walmart either physically or virtually in about 15 years, usually only when it’s the only store nearby our family vacation rental.
I started looking up cards to churn last night as we plan to make a few big purchases, and it looks like I’ve used up a lot of the welcome-bonus straight cash back ones.
There are some like “Spend $4000 get $750” which isn’t terrible, but much less convenient than “Spend $1000 get $250” where I could often make 1 or 2 large purchases and have it opened, used, paid off and closed inside of 30 minutes.
Maybe I’ll bundle together buying the smoker, electric fireplace, and freezer to exhaust that larger spend need. Had planned to buy the fireplace as winter got closer and just deal with it being broken for the summer.
If you do this a lot, some companies will not want to see more than 5 credit cards opened in the last two years, or maybe you can only have a certain credit card bonus every two or four years.
So if you can only do this maybe three times per year, go for the $750. It does mean you have to keep charging purchases for a couple months, true. But I generally don’t do it for any less than $500 or a a bunch of frequent flyer points (preferably 60K+)
It just requires me to get the spouse on board, only use this credit card for a few weeks, okay now I cancelled it so I’m taking the card and cutting it up…
I know, I’m being very "Why are they making it slightly inconvenient for them to give me free money??" I try to handle finances without roping my partner in to the extent possible, it’s just cleaner to churn a card and have it fully complete almost instantly.
The only time I’ve been denied was I believe a 5th card I attempted to open in about a 3 month span. I’ll probably go ahead with the $4,000 spend-need card anyway.
Time to ditch my CSR, I just used all of my points on a rental car. The annual fee is up to $795 and I’m traveling less, plus the perks keep getting whittled away.
For now I’m just using a Fidelity card that pays me 2% unlimited into my brokerage, I applied forever ago with Robinhood but I’m still on the wait list.
I’m debating cancelling my SW card so that I’m two years I can take another run at the companion pass.
But I don’t know what I might do right now. Maybe a hotel card, I’ll need to see what the offers are. Nothing with a huge annual fee. I’m with US Bank and I should see what they might have. Any other bright ideas?
I just collected 85K from American Airlines a few months ago for spending $5K on a business card.
I will soon have 70K miles on United for spending $3K (about $300 left). After I do that my balances will be:
Balance
Expires
American
186,802
6/30/2027
Delta
17,140
United
134,086
N/A
Air France
Virgin
47,760
N/A
Marriott Bonvoy
44,060
8/1/2027
Choice Hotels
36,091
Sometimes I will spend up to $99 for a card but both of these were no fee 1st year. I don’t go in on cards that cost hundreds of dollars for megaperks. Next I would like to get a deal that gets me restaurant gift cards, love me some Olive Garden
My best two options for airlines are United and SW, I have a card from each. I should probably cancel both, so that in two years I can get them again.
The Marriott card looks decent-ish. Still poking around.
I’m done with the $$$ cards for now. If and when we retire, and if we manage to pull off some major travel that year, I might do an Amex Plat for a year.
I had my one main credit card and now a second (Robinhood) which will become my #1. I don’t hang on to any other cards longer than a year usually for the simple reason that I want to get them again down the road. Although if you read the fine print while applying (and have tracked when you got the bonuses) they will usually specify you won’t be eligible for another bonus for another 2 or 4 years, something like that. I’m not sure it has anything to do with when you last canceled the card. I’ve had Citi Aadvantage three times now but this is the first time it was business, and I also know I had United in December 2021.
I have never really considered airline mileage cards…only cash back. I don’t fly very often as we usually do summer road trips to VRBOs, so my only flying is an occasional work trip. I was able to rack up around 150k miles with United 10 years ago as I was in a role that had some international business travel that is worth a ton in miles. I have only recently translated that into a personal domestic flight. I think 25k miles maybe for a $350 ticket? I have a corporate card now for any work expenses, so that will further limit any higher mile credits for hotels or airline bookings.
A 2% Fidelity card seems like it might be a good replacement for my current AMEX.
I get around $400-500 a year on my Costco card, and maybe $200 net of the fees on the AMEX. I average maybe 4k a month spending on CCs, so around 2% in rewards.
