New credit card churner seeks advice on next churn

[MrGreen]

I'm coming to the end of my 3 month window for Southwest's 100,000 RR point bonus. I'm almost at the $2,000 amount that triggers the bonus on both of my cards, so I need to divert some funds to another card until the end of the month when I can nudge the cards over the trigger. We've been looking at what's the next best card to sign my wife up for and we're unsure since we're just starting the credit card churning game. As soon as the new year hits, we'll want to rack up 10,000 RR points on the SW cards as quickly as possible to get companion pass status, so I'm hesitant to sign up for a card that has a big spend requirement within the first 3 months. I was considering the Chase Sapphire Preferred card but the 3k spend is a stretch, and I don't know that we are looking to get into manufactured spending yet. Most of the smaller, no annual fee cards have tiny spend requirements that hardly seem worth the effort, like $500 for 15k Chase Ultimate Rewards points. We'd hit that with the Christmas shopping we have to do and I don't want to open too many cards too fast now that most of the companies are cracking down on the number of cards opened in 2 years.

Any veteran churners on here have advice for us?

[doggyfizzle]

Go to a grocery store and buy $500 visa gift cards (either us bank or metabank).  Set the PINs and then take to a wal-mart money center, but $499.30 money order (with $.70 MO fee).  Deposit money order and pay off the credit card.  Should be easy to hit $3k spending.

[ender]

If you do go for the Sapphire Preferred, make sure you use a referral link (PM me if you want mine, or just google for someone's, they are everywhere) so that someone else gets some free points :-)

[desk_jockey]

Chase Saphire Preferred has points that convert to Southwest.  If you already have earned the companion pass from Southwest then the CSP points can be redeemed to get you 2 for 1 tickets on SWA,  which is by far the best redemption rate.

[bryan995]

Chase sapphire reserve is as good as it gets.

[Rubic]

Any veteran churners on here have advice for us?

My advice would be to defer applying for another card until you have
a plan in place to meet the minimum spend.  Especially in the early stages
of churning, you don't waste your apps on low-yield bonuses.  There will
be plenty of time later to apply for the less valuable cards when you've
maxed out on Chase 5/24, Citi 24 month, and Amex lifetime (aka 7 year)
bonus limits.  Most of the really sweet bonuses will require minimum
spend in the $3-5K range.

Almost all of my card bonuses yield > $500 of value -- some significantly
higher.

[MrGreen]

Any veteran churners on here have advice for us?

My advice would be to defer applying for another card until you have
a plan in place to meet the minimum spend.  Especially in the early stages
of churning, you don't waste your apps on low-yield bonuses.  There will
be plenty of time later to apply for the less valuable cards when you've
maxed out on Chase 5/24, Citi 24 month, and Amex lifetime (aka 7 year)
bonus limits.  Most of the really sweet bonuses will require minimum
spend in the $3-5K range.

Almost all of my card bonuses yield > $500 of value -- some significantly
higher.

This is kinda what I was thinking, that the lesser bonuses aren't worth it. We went ahead and had my wife get a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Within the next few weeks I'm starting to buy all the materials for our house. Despite the fact that I want to spend $10,000 on the SW cards ASAP in 2017, I think there will be enough money spent to have another bonus in the works. The SW cards were my first Chase cards and the CSP is my wife's first so we're not in any danger of hitting those limits any time soon. The Sapphire Reserve card is probably next on the list once we hit companion status with SW.

[Rubic]

This is kinda what I was thinking, that the lesser bonuses aren't worth it. We went ahead and had my wife get a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Within the next few weeks I'm starting to buy all the materials for our house. Despite the fact that I want to spend $10,000 on the SW cards ASAP in 2017, I think there will be enough money spent to have another bonus in the works. The SW cards were my first Chase cards and the CSP is my wife's first so we're not in any danger of hitting those limits any time soon. The Sapphire Reserve card is probably next on the list once we hit companion status with SW.

You could also purchase yourself gift cards from Lowes or Home Depot.

[fh2000]

Any veteran churners on here have advice for us?

My advice would be to defer applying for another card until you have
a plan in place to meet the minimum spend.  Especially in the early stages
of churning, you don't waste your apps on low-yield bonuses.  There will
be plenty of time later to apply for the less valuable cards when you've
maxed out on Chase 5/24, Citi 24 month, and Amex lifetime (aka 7 year)
bonus limits.  Most of the really sweet bonuses will require minimum
spend in the $3-5K range.

Almost all of my card bonuses yield > $500 of value -- some significantly
higher.

This is kinda what I was thinking, that the lesser bonuses aren't worth it. We went ahead and had my wife get a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Within the next few weeks I'm starting to buy all the materials for our house. Despite the fact that I want to spend $10,000 on the SW cards ASAP in 2017, I think there will be enough money spent to have another bonus in the works. The SW cards were my first Chase cards and the CSP is my wife's first so we're not in any danger of hitting those limits any time soon. The Sapphire Reserve card is probably next on the list once we hit companion status with SW.

For each $2000 spending on each SW card, you receive 2000 points, so you will need extra $6000 spending to receive total 110,000 points.   Correct?

[Catbert]

Another random tip:  when you buy those construction materials try to order through a shopping portal.  SWA has one which I'm sure has points for Home Depot and Lowes.  (Not sure if they count toward companion pass.)

Edited to add:  This website allows you to select a retailer and it will tell you have many points various shopping portals will give you:

www.cashbackmonitor.com

Handy once you have multiple travel loyalty programs to fund.

[MrGreen]

Any veteran churners on here have advice for us?

My advice would be to defer applying for another card until you have
a plan in place to meet the minimum spend.  Especially in the early stages
of churning, you don't waste your apps on low-yield bonuses.  There will
be plenty of time later to apply for the less valuable cards when you've
maxed out on Chase 5/24, Citi 24 month, and Amex lifetime (aka 7 year)
bonus limits.  Most of the really sweet bonuses will require minimum
spend in the $3-5K range.

Almost all of my card bonuses yield > $500 of value -- some significantly
higher.

This is kinda what I was thinking, that the lesser bonuses aren't worth it. We went ahead and had my wife get a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Within the next few weeks I'm starting to buy all the materials for our house. Despite the fact that I want to spend $10,000 on the SW cards ASAP in 2017, I think there will be enough money spent to have another bonus in the works. The SW cards were my first Chase cards and the CSP is my wife's first so we're not in any danger of hitting those limits any time soon. The Sapphire Reserve card is probably next on the list once we hit companion status with SW.

For each $2000 spending on each SW card, you receive 2000 points, so you will need extra $6000 spending to receive total 110,000 points.   Correct?

In my circumstance no. I applied for the cards in early October so my $2,000 for each card is occurring in 2016. The companion pass points roll over at the end of the year. I have it planned to the 50,000 bonus points on each card hits in January of 2017, meaning I'll still need 10,000 more points to get the companion pass. The thread that discusses the 100,000 SW point in the "Share your badassity" section advocates for applying in October so that you can get companion status as soon as possible in the new year. However, since I can generate $10,000 worth of spending on one month, I probably would have been better off applying for the cards at the end of the year so the $4,000 in spending to get the points also counted toward companion status. I'll remember this for next time, assuming this deal is still around two years from now.

[kevhook]

Check Barclay's Arrival Plus.  Increased bonus from 400.00 to 500.00 for initial minimum spend.

[Rubic]

Check Barclay's Arrival Plus.  Increased bonus from 400.00 to 500.00 for initial minimum spend.

It's a good card.  I've churned it twice by closing it the first time, waiting
six months, then reapplying for it a second time.

It's one of those cards you can product change to a non annual fee card
(Arrival Plus -> Arrival), but then you miss out on the chance to qualify for
a bonus again.

[Slee_stack]

Sapphire Reserve before Preferred.  Far better value.

I'm currently working the Amex Plat 100k offer that was only available briefly.  After that, not sure what I'll do.  Maybe the new Chase Ink 80k.

I generally don't take a card unless there's about $1000 or more of net value built in.  Churning has been fantastic this past year.  Sometimes values lull.

[tonysemail]

i would consider a premium card with lounge access as a solid next step
the ameriprise amex platinum has $0 annual fee the first year