It’s simple math…there are only so many credit cards. Naturally, by doing a new round of applications every 91 days, you eventually run out of choices. Of course, this is where churning comes in. At a certain point, we need to re-apply for cards and get repeat bonuses. A couple years ago, I gave a general idea of how long to safely wait. Of course, those dates can vary, but it was a pretty good basic guideline at the time. Well, apparently the times they are a-changin’. American Express seems to be “fixing” their rules on applications starting May 1st. Going forward, it looks like you’ll only be able to get the bonus on a specific Amex card once. I just did my latest round of applications, and tried to plan around this strategy. We’ll see how things actually play out, but if there’s an Amex card you want to churn, it’s probably a good time to get on it.
