When To Churn

Churning (verb): When you apply for a credit card you’ve already had and earn the bonus again.

I was asked about my “churn schedule.” Again, this means re-applying for an identical card. Your credit history and relationships with banks can make this vary, but based on emails and my history:

  • Citibank cards seem to be churnable 18 months after the original application.
  • Chase cards have to be closed 2 years before getting another bonus on the same card.
  • American Express cards need to be closed a year to get a bonus on the identical card.
  • Bank of America can be much more churnable if you have a good history there. I’ve gotten a card, closed it after 6 months, and collected another bonus a month later. With my Hawaiian Airlines card, I actually forgot to close the original and still got another one within 9 months. 

(I did the same thing with the Bank of Hawaii version of the Hawaiian Airlines card)

  • Barclays can be easy. I had my US Airways card closed 3 months before applying again. I’ve seen people get the card, not even close it, and get a second one within 6 months.

Reminder: It’s a good rule-of-thumb to keep cards open at least 6 months. I close most of mine between the 6-month mark and the 1-year mark.

Hump Day Hustle

  • Get up to 3,000 British Airways miles for a Hilton stay here.
  • 100 free United miles here. PointsHound is a new way to earn miles from hotel bookings. 
  • Meet minimum spends even if you can’t find Vanilla Reload cards. How?
    1. Make sure you have a BigCrumbs account
    2. Find a Target that sells American Express For Target prepaid cards.
    3. Buy one for around $3 and load it with a few bucks.
    4. Your permanent card arrives in a few days.
    5. Go back to BigCrumbs and search for “American Express”
    6. Using any non-Citibank credit card, buy a $3,000 American Express gift card.
    7. Go to Target and load the Target prepaid card with $1,000 (the max).
    8. Unload the Target card at an ATM machine ($400 per day max).
    9. You also get 1.4% back from BigCrumbs ($42) which earns you a little profit.

Hotel Points And Netflix

  • Get 500 Priority Club hotel points by changing your account settings here. Under “Edit Email Subscriptions,” select eStatements and save changes. Done.
  • 1,500 Club Carlson hotel points for $7 here. With the 50% bonus, get 60,000 points for $280.
  • A couple weeks left to get 2,500 American Airlines miles from Netflix here
  • Some people are collecting United Airlines miles from Netflix over and over here.

Attention: Wusses

I get a lot of emails that start the same way:

“Hey MileNerd, I love your blog. I really want to start doing this, but I’m worried about messing up my credit…blah blah blah”

Lets be honest, your credit score doesn’t matter to me. I get nothing from you applying for credit cards. I made tons of miles doing it, I shared tips with loved ones, and other cool people started reading. But I am annoyed by your worries. Instead of assuming terrible things will happen to your credit, wouldn’t it make sense to ask someone with experience? Most of us have a very limited credit education. It’s mostly based on fear from incorrect facts. Personally, I’d feel silly if my worrying was based on nothing.

So, I’ll be the first one to answer this question for you. I was a wuss too. But, to give you an idea, here’s a list of credit cards I’ve had since January 2011:

  • American Airlines (closed)
  • United Airlines (closed)
  • US Air (closed)
  • US Air debit card (closed)
  • Hilton Amex (no annual fee, so no need to close)
  • Continental Airlines (closed)
  • Virgin Atlantic (downgraded to a no-fee card)
  • Capital One (closed)
  • American Express Premier (closed)
  • British Air (closed)
  • American Airlines business card (closed)
  • Starwood (closed)
  • Alaska Air (closed)
  • Citibank Hilton (no annual fee, so no need to close)
  • Bank of America Hawaiian Air (closed)
  • Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Air (closed)
  • Choice hotel (no annual fee, so no need to close)
  • Citi Thank You (downgraded to a no-fee card)
  • American Express Business Gold Rewards (closed)
  • Marriott
  • Southwest
  • B of A Hawaiian Air for the 2nd time
  • B of H Hawaiian Air for the 2nd time
  • US Air for the 2nd time
  • Ritz Carlton
  • Delta
  • American Airlines again
  • Alaska Air for the 2nd time
  • Starwood business card
  • Hyatt
  • Virgin America
I must be in credit hell, right? I’ve had 30 credit cards since last year…I apply for a new batch every 3 months…I close accounts before the 1-year mark…I was denied 4 or 5 times along the way…AHHH, MAKE IT STOP!!
Actually, my credit is fine. I started out at around 770, and it moves between 735 and 785. If your score sucks, then fix your credit. If you can’t pay cards off every month, then fix your financial maturity. If you’re getting a mortgage, wait until the loan funds. But if you don’t want to do it because it hurts your credit score, talk to a few people and ask instead of assuming.
Oh, and my biggest pet peeve of all. If it “seems like too much work” to have a spreadsheet, to close credit cards, to open new ones…then pull out a calculator immediately. When your miles save you $20,000 on a trip, calculate how many hours you’d have to spend at work to save up an extra 20k.End of rant.

Bluebird

One of my most loyal readers, Dan, helped me out as a guest writer today. Keep in mind that Bluebird is very new and a lot of things could still go wrong. On the other hand, I ordered dollar coins from the US Mint and made thousands of miles before that went away. You never know.

  1. What credit card do I need? You can use any mile or point credit card you want, but this process works best with a Chase Ink Bold or Ink Plus. If you don’t have either, it’s getting more and more important that your next Chase card be an Ink card.
  2. Why is it so important? Ink cards earn 5 times the points at office supply stores (including Office Depot). These Ultimate Rewards points are some of the most valuable points in the game (transfer to United, British, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, etc).
  3. Why do we care about office supply stores? At Office Depot, you can buy Vanilla Reload cards. These cool little cards cost $3.95 to “load” with $500.
  4. Why would I spend $3.95? Because you’re getting 500 miles. And if you’re using an Ink card, you’re getting 2,500 miles. See why the Ink cards are so important now? It’s a crazy cheap way to rack up miles. Plus, meeting your minimum spend is no longer a problem.
  5. How many miles are we talking about? If you have an Ink card and you’re doing $2,000 per month, it’s about 120,000 points in a year!
  6. So, what’s the deal with this Bluebird card? This is the really fun part. You can order it free from American Express online. Then you can easily load it with Vanilla Reload cards. You can use Bluebird to pay bills you never earned miles for before.
  7. What kinds of things? Mortgage payments, rent, maintenance guys working on your house, utilities, student loans, and pretty much anything you can think of! Even credit card bills!!!
  8. No way. How is that possible? Their billpay feature is GREAT. You just log in and they can mail a check to anyone you want. Again, if you have an Ink card, you’re getting 5 miles per dollar for EVERYTHING.
  9. You’re blowing my mind. Is anything else possible? Yes! You can also go to Walmart and use your mileage debit card (see yesterday) to load your Bluebird and rack up miles that way.
  10. I need to sit down. How about fees? No transaction fees, no fees for loading, and no fees for billpay! Ahhhhh! Ok MileNerd, calm down. There are some limits you should know:
    • You can load $1,000 per day
    • You can load $5,000 per month
    • You can’t hold more than $10,000 on the card at one time
    • Your limit for check payments per month is $5,000

Look guys, nobody is more excited about this than me. Playing this little game at $5,000 per month could be worth an extra 250,000+ miles per year. If you’re married, you could double that total. That being said, there’s a chance this will come to an end soon. And people who go absolutely crazy with it can have their Chase accounts closed. This should be obvious, but when you don’t use your Ink card for anything but buying Vanilla Reload cards, you’re shining a very bright light on your activities. Anyway, it’s really early in the game for this, so more updates to come.

**Edit: Vanilla Reload cards have been pulled from Office Depot but can be found at many CVS and Walgreens locations.**