Credit Card Churning

[Bernard]

Hi 'yall!
I watched several You Tube videos about credit card churning, and consider to do the same, in moderation, to get free airline miles for the next vacation.

I have a good income, no debt outside the mortgage, haven't opened a new credit card in probably 15 to 18 years, and my FICO score is 841, the wife's 802.

Naturally, those who enthusiastically promote credit card churning are seeing this from their side only. I'd be interested in hearing from those in this community who have done that or are actively doing it. I know about Chase's 5/24 rule, and it doesn't apply to me.

[marshmallowaddict]

I love getting a good sign on bonus. Three pieces of advice for you:

1) The interest rates on the cards are very high... only get cards that you can pay off in full.
2) You and your wife will get the best sign on bonuses if you apply for cards individually rather than add eachother as authorized users. For example.. if a card has a 50k sign on bonus, and offers 5k per authorized user then you would get 55k total points if you signed up and added your wife as an authorized user, but 100k points if you both opened your own card.
3)I'd start with Chase due to the 5/24 rule. Points are addicting and now that I've started, I'm always over the 5 card limit. I would start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It has a low annual fee, 60k sign on bonus and the points are easy to redeem.

[jamaicaspanish]

Travel Miles 101
Great course.
Perfect introduction to the game.
https://www.travelmiles101.com/

[Saving in Austin]

I've churned about 10 cards per year for the last 3 years.

Make sure you can complete the minimum spend in time to get the bonus.

Keep track of the cards so you can cancel if need be to avoid annual fees.

Pay off the balances in full each month.

In addition to the Chase cards, Barclay Arrival+ is a good travel card with a generous bonus.

[secondcor521]

I'd be interested in hearing from those in this community who have done that or are actively doing it.

Have done it and am actively doing it.  What do you want to know?

[kpd905]

I know about Chase's 5/24 rule, and it doesn't apply to me.

It applies to everyone.  Do you mean you are under 5/24?  That is another story.

As someone else posted, Travelmiles101 is a good start. 

This flowchart was also created on Reddit/churning and is a pretty good guide: https://i.imgur.com/Fl0KgFF.png

[startingsmall]

Travel Miles 101
Great course.
Perfect introduction to the game.
https://www.travelmiles101.com/

Ditto this. Travel Miles 101 course & Facebook group are amazing.

My husband & I just returned from 10 days in London/Paris, with flights & hotels paid for with credit card points/miles.

[The_Big_H]

www.doctorofcredit.com

I'm a mild churner and I only do it for sign up dollars/statement credit (ie, not travel/airfare or points, unless points directly equal dollars).

Typically I'll "aim" to only do 1-3 a year.   $1000/yr is a good year.

Nice thing about credit card cash back/sign up bonuses is they are not taxed on 1099's like bank account bonuses are, they are effectively 22% more valuable, and bank accounts can be a bigger hassle to change.

Generally I don't bother with cards <$200 or bank accounts <$300, goal is ~$1000 a year

[Bernard]

Thank you all for your valuable input.
I signed up for the travelmiles101 course and it's indeed great.
Also got approved for a Chase Sapphire Preferred at a $17,600 credit limit.

My plan is to use this card exclusively 'til I have met the conditions, most likely 10 to 12 weeks down the road. Then I'll do a referral to my wife and we use her card. Thereafter, with 120K miles in the account, we switch to Chase Ink, play the same game one more time. Only when we have exhausted Chase, we'll be switching to another card. Given the constant changes, I don't know how long we will be able to play this game, but we'll try to get what we can.

[firestarter2018]

If you are organized, conscientious and would never ever DREAM of carrying a balance on your credit card month to month, then you're a good candidate for churning. Two recommendations in particular:

1) Set up a system up front that ensures you'll succeed.  Review your credit report before you start and make sure everything's ship-shape.

Then develop a spreadsheet with several tabs:
- one tab for tracking your credit card sign-up's including bonus criteria, annual fees, progress towards minimum spend for bonus, date when you need to cancel the card by, etc.
- one for tracking your point balances (you can also use Award Wallet for this)
- one where you keep details on all your loyalty accounts (airlines, hotels, etc.)
- one for keeping a list of all the cards you've ever had with info on when you opened and/or closed them, credit limit, etc. You'll need that last one so you can know, at a glance, whether you're still under Chase's 5/24 rule (or any other similar restriction).

When you sign up for a new card, immediately establish online access to the bank/credit card company and set up automatic payments so you never get hit with a late fee for missing the first payment (I've had this happen once or twice and learned my lesson). Note that sometimes autopay won't kick in until the second cycle so you need to pay the first bill manually.

2) Figure out how to accrue points and miles in a way that makes sense for you and your lifestyle.  The big points bloggers are all about using miles for luxury long-haul flights to Asia, for example, and while one of those can be fun to try, if that's not your scene then don't waste your time chasing those redemptions.  If you mostly travel domestically and have a spouse you want to travel with, for example, working towards getting the Southwest companion pass is probably your best bet.  If you love visiting Hawaii every year, google blog posts on the best strategies to get to Hawaii on miles. Don't play someone else's churning game, play yours.

And good luck! I've had a lot of success churning and sometimes it feels too good to be true, but it's not!

[daverobev]

@OP, if you haven't opened a new card for years, I'd say go easy to begin with - the banks may look at you a bit oddly if you go from zero to 7 new accounts in a month.

Chase really is the place to start, til you hit 5/24. Check the flowchart from reddit's churning sub as has already been mentioned; if nothing else you can easily get Southwest points and a) get a companion pass and b) convert them to Amazon gift cards at 1 cent/each.

It still blows my mind how 'nice' they are - and I don't even do the manufactured spending thing, I only pick up 1-2 cards a year. Free hotel nights, free/very cheap flights.. the US credit card sign up scene is just amazingly good.

[Padonak]

I was going to open a new thread about credit card churning but would rather bump this existing old thread that I found.

I'd like to use this thread to share ideas, ask questions and exchange knowledge about credit card churning and rewards.

I use the following resources to find new credit cards:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/

https://10xtravel.com/best-credit-cards/ I'm not affiliated with them but I think they make money on affiliate links. They also have a pretty good FB group which i use as well.

r/churning on reddit. I don't ask questions there but the subreddit has a pretty good wiki page.

[tj]

https://10xtravel.com/best-credit-cards/ I'm not affiliated with them but I think they make money on affiliate links. They also have a pretty good FB group which i use as well.

I have to laugh at that site. The "Best card under 5/24" is probably every Chase card that there is, and there's no distinction on which ones to prioritize.

[Padonak]

https://10xtravel.com/best-credit-cards/ I'm not affiliated with them but I think they make money on affiliate links. They also have a pretty good FB group which i use as well.

I have to laugh at that site. The "Best card under 5/24" is probably every Chase card that there is, and there's no distinction on which ones to prioritize.

I think they do prioritize but they use their own criteria (mainly getting first/biz class tickets for miles) which, like i explained in the other thread, may not be suitable for everyone.

Anyway, I'll stop trying to resurrect this thread and keep posting in the bank account churning thread about credit cards too

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/bank-account-churning-how-to-make-$1600-in-a-year-by-being-organized/

[tj]

https://10xtravel.com/best-credit-cards/ I'm not affiliated with them but I think they make money on affiliate links. They also have a pretty good FB group which i use as well.

I have to laugh at that site. The "Best card under 5/24" is probably every Chase card that there is, and there's no distinction on which ones to prioritize.

I think they do prioritize but they use their own criteria (mainly getting first/biz class tickets for miles) which, like i explained in the other thread, may not be suitable for everyone.

Anyway, I'll stop trying to resurrect this thread and keep posting in the bank account churning thread about credit cards too

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/bank-account-churning-how-to-make-$1600-in-a-year-by-being-organized/

This thread is current:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/which-credit-card-bonus-to-chase/msg3237880/#msg3237880