Churning Credit Cards
- Thread starter pfgemployee
- Start date
Credit card churning is a no brainer if you are financially responsible. I have flown 10+ free round trip flights on United, Delta, American, and Southwest. I just got the Marriott rewards card that is offering a limited time 100,000 point bonus (good for at least 5-6 nights). DO NOT do this if you don't have the money to repay the minimum spend. There is a reason credit card companies do this, they plan on a certain percentage of people carrying high interest balances on the minimum spend.
If you cancel your credit card, you don't lose points you already accumulated and posted to your Rapid Rewards account. I opened 2x SWA cards (each worth 60,000 points) to get the free companion pass, cancelled both cards last month and still have all of my miles.
The main ones:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve - earn 3% on dining and travel, $300 annual travel credit
- Chase Freedom Unlimited - earn 1.5% on everything else
- United Mileage+ - use for booking flights, get free checked bags
Also have had the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and have dabbled with a couple American Airlines Aadvantage cards.
You can earn a lot of points through spending, but where you really make the gains is from the sign-up bonuses. Generally anywhere from 50,000-100,000 miles. I strategically churn through cards, keeping in mind effects on my credit score, and maintaining point transferability, etc.
I've been actively doing it for about 3 years. I keep a big spreadsheet to track everything. In that time, my wife and I have flown roundtrip from Cedar Rapids to Hawaii three times for free. And I have accumulated enough points at this point to do so another 4 or 5 times.
In my mind, if you don't use credit cards, you are losing money. You can gain an incredible amount of value through credit card rewards. I essentially do all my spending on CC. Of course, you need to be responsible with your spending, and pay off your CC balance every single month.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve - earn 3% on dining and travel, $300 annual travel credit
- Chase Freedom Unlimited - earn 1.5% on everything else
- United Mileage+ - use for booking flights, get free checked bags
Also have had the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and have dabbled with a couple American Airlines Aadvantage cards.
You can earn a lot of points through spending, but where you really make the gains is from the sign-up bonuses. Generally anywhere from 50,000-100,000 miles. I strategically churn through cards, keeping in mind effects on my credit score, and maintaining point transferability, etc.
I've been actively doing it for about 3 years. I keep a big spreadsheet to track everything. In that time, my wife and I have flown roundtrip from Cedar Rapids to Hawaii three times for free. And I have accumulated enough points at this point to do so another 4 or 5 times.
In my mind, if you don't use credit cards, you are losing money. You can gain an incredible amount of value through credit card rewards. I essentially do all my spending on CC. Of course, you need to be responsible with your spending, and pay off your CC balance every single month.
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It fluctuates from month to month, but on average around $2000 a month. If you pay internet, TV, cell phone bills with credit card, there is a decent amount each month right there.
Like I said, the major gains are made via the sign-up bonuses, which can having spending requirements of up to $4,000 in the first 3 months. This can definitely be a challenge, but if you strategically time your sign-up, it can be done fairly easily. For instance, pay medical bills with credit card (then reimburse yourself from your HSA). Or pay your auto insurance premiums a little early to help you meet the spending requirement. Worst case, you can buy some Hy-Vee gift cards or something to help you hit your spending requirement -- money you will eventually spend anyway. What you want to avoid doing is spending money you wouldn't otherwise be spending, just for the sake up hitting your spending requirement.
I need to check, this was true 10 years ago but not sure if it still is, but one place that Ramsey falls on his face is his statement that a good credit score only costs you. My insurance agent told me that they factor in credit score when it comes to rating my insurance. This is a large company. A good score lowers my insurance. Not sure why, but what he told me.
I was just worried that you were spending $6-7k per month to get that. $2k is close to what we are spending. I was looking at the chase reserve. Also I’m trying to find another business CC to load up on points. I’ve just been doing 1.5% cash back but might just move to getting points for trips now that the kids are getting a bit older.
I'd say it's definitely worth doing. It takes a little bit of time and attention to detail, but the benefits are more than worth it.
http://www.thepointsguy.com is a great resource that I have used. The site it a little more click-baity than it used to be, and you have to sift through the fluff articles a little bit, but there is still some really good info available to help someone who is just getting started in the points game.
You won't lose the points when you cancel the card, I recently canceled and they are still in the account.
Figured this might be the closest thread to bump as you would keep a close eye on credit scores. I recently noticed a large jump on my wife's credit score (via Credit Karma). It had been very steady for almost a year between good and excellent but then jumped 60 points for no apparent reason. Has anyone else noticed a recent jump? I am wondering how much they are really needing more people to "qualify" to take on more debt.
I'd be interested to see if her real FICO score went up by a similar amount as the one from Credit Karma. I was going to suggest getting a report from one of the big 3 but then I remembered that the score isn't displayed for free. My credit card company gives me my transunion score every month and it never moves more than 5 points. I've closed a bunch of old accounts so my oldest account is only 7 years old by my score is still really high.
I have 3 cards but I don't really churn.
Sam's Mastercard: 5% on gas; 3% on travel/restaurants; 1 % on all else
BoA Visa: 3% groceries
Discover: rotating rebates (usually 5%)
Sam's Mastercard: 5% on gas; 3% on travel/restaurants; 1 % on all else
BoA Visa: 3% groceries
Discover: rotating rebates (usually 5%)
Nope, still at least 5 months away from moving up there. Literally nothing changed other than one credit card account had about a $200 larger balance. Very odd. I think it may be related to them using the new vantage 3.0 score but I thought that changed some time ago.
Anyone have the Uber Visa card? Thinking about picking it up. 4% dinning, 3% travel, 2% online purchases, 1% everything else. No annual fee, no foreign transaction fees. Also have a $600 say.. "insurance", if you will, for your cell phone if you pay your phone bill with their card.
I couple the Chase Freedom unlimited with the Sapphire preferred. If you have to use rentals frequently, the Sapphire preferred is primary car insurance - big perk for traveling.
