I don’t think I ever did more than three cards in a year and I’m pretty sure my credit score (which started around 820-830) never fell below 800. I did see a note in my credit report that it was dragging the average age of my lines of credit down and that was hurting me a bit.
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refi the refi
Just calculate the fixed cost of another refi divided by the average interest saving in a month. Then figure out how many months is a break even. If you plan on being there longer than that, it pays for itself eventually
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I don’t exactly know what you are saying, because it sounds like you are disagreeing with me. And then I disagree with you.
I am talking about the 2nd refi from now if rates continue to drop. I would calculate the breakeven on the second refi from now, not reflecting a 3rd refi from now.
I think about doing this, and then I see my 827 credit score and want it to get as close to 850 as possible and think “if I try the credit card churn thing, I’ll never get there and I’ll fall down through 800 and that will come back to bite me at some point.”
Open business credit cards
It won’t impact your precious credit score
Hard inquires fall off after 2 years, and fade before then. And by my lay understanding the first 2-3 are virtually free without corroborating bad marks. May as well open one or two and see what it does, then give it a year and try another if you think so.
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Nah, I think the lowest my credit score went down was 75-100 points and that’s only because I was carrying 10K on my Discover Card at no interest for 15 months (I assumed an implied value $500, so worth it). Otherwise just churning I was probably still at least 775 or even 800. Currently 815 and I finished the Virgin Rewards card a month ago.
You’re likely only going to do one at a time, and 2-3 per year. It really doesn’t take much time either, you just have to know you’re going to be spending money. Groceries, eating out. Heck I even pay $300 to State Farm every month on my card, I could switch that over if I were desperate. You baller actuaries can figure out a way to do the spend, even if means building a pergola… Make sure you’ve spent the amount, then I just leave the card open but make sure I cancel before the year is up.
It’s like 30-60 minutes of work in exchange for tons of dining out or a roundtrip flight to Europe. My Air France rewards, smartly spent, got me Mpls => Budapest and Berlin => Mpls in late April and I can get over there again with my remaining points and then Virgin will get me back. Between the two cards I should get at least 3 Europe round trips. It can take some planning to verify that there are flights that will get you there with low enough cost. All part of the fun.
Plus my spouse isn’t interested, she doesn’t travel. Your spouse can duplicate the effort (if you have 2x the spend) and you can both go.
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for what purpose exactly? what’s the gain/value in that compared to 827 or 800?
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Bragging rights
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This. I’m not expecting it to make sense to anyone else, either.
This quotation from Ezra Klein’s interview with Kyla Scanlon caught my attention. Full interview at the link that follows the quote.
“We used to need things to raise money or move through the world. But now you can just have attention. The idea is that attention is increasingly becoming an infrastructure that people have to build upon.
So no longer is the economic foundation something like land — which is very physical labor, a person, capital or actual money. It’s attention, then narrative. The story that you tell to gain that attention is the capital that inflates the attention itself.
And then increasingly now we have speculation on top of both of those. Speculation is the operating layer. It operationalizes the attention and makes it move throughout the world because now you can attach actual dollar signs to how much attention you’re gathering.”
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850 seems unachievable unless you have 0 balances on everything. My score drops 10-20 points simply from having an extra 2k on one of my cards because I paid for a larger expense.
People can definitely hit 850, it’s just irrelevant. I recall reading that loans (mortgages, auto, etc.) begin hitting their best rates around 740+.
My biggest uncertainty over how much an extremely high credit score may matter is for insurance scoring. Lots of auto/home insurers have curves that continue discounting as insurance score gets extremely high, but even then many start capping it perhaps around 900 or 950 (where 997 is often the max.) I don’t know if there’s a cutoff point where higher credit no longer matters or matters less.
Going to take the thread in a bit different direction for a moment.
Cracking down on student loan debt repayments…
Increasing inflation…
Reduced government benefits…
Reduced international trade…
Reduced limits on corporations…
Higher food costs…
AI cutting into jobs…
These all seem like they’re going to harm consumer spending. I suspect that reduces consumers free cash more than any tax cut frees up cash. This probably isn’t good for the economy or the stock market.
Wealth has been concentrating up unsustainably. I hope there is a solution that isn’t catastrophic. Corporations aren’t so simple to break up anymore.
My cards have gotten me a couple trips to Europe and one to DC/Philly later this month and three times I’ve gotten $600 in gift cards spent primarily on restaurants. Here’s what I have left…
| Balance | Expires | |
|---|---|---|
| American | 133,351 | 8/28/2026 |
| Delta | 17,140 | |
| United | 64,086 | N/A |
| Air France | 33,419 | 10/14/2025 |
| Virgin | 66,207 | N/A |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 85,560 | 7/23/2026 |
| Choice Hotels | 36,091 |
Expiration dates can be pushed out with activity. I need to see if a flight later this month pushes Air France (KLM) back or if I need to start booking my next Europe trip.
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Trump is very Gen Z.
