Here is a thought: Opening a 0% credit card and running the balance (while making the minimum payments and saving/investing the cash you would have used to pay off each monthly bill) amounts to free money so long at the 0% is in effect. I opened a card with a two-year 0% window last month. Looking just now, the best I can find is an 18-month version of the same thing. Which would you rather have, a meager 1% - 2% cash reward on whatever card you're using or free money for two years in a 7% inflationary environment? Sure, it is not a so-called 'rewards' card and you need strong willpower to remain disciplined, but I'll take a 0% loan for two years, thank you very much.
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Do you hoard credit card points? (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter fantasycurse42
- Start date
culdeus
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
I mean these 0% APR cards typically have some drawbacks. The largest of which showing a steady balance on a card without paying it down will reduce your credit score. This may not be a huge concern to all.
The shark move is taking a large earning card then finding a 0% card that will also charge you 0% on balance transfers.
This is the have your cake and eat it too plan.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
This is certainly a strategy, but it isn't the one I'd choose. Leverage has risks and I tend to be conservative about it. I don't get too hung up on inflation numbers mattering for me because so much of it is in transportation costs and I really don't spend much at all there.
Also, if you are only getting 1-2% back on your rewards strategy you are certainly doing it wrong.
fred_1_15301
Footballguy
Well I'm showing up as platinum now. I tried doing the match on the Caesars total rewards site. It said that it would take 7 days to update but I never received any type of email confirmation. It's been more than 7 days and I'm still showing up as platinum. When I called customer support, they said it would take 30 days to update.
![[icon]](/data/avatars/m/5/5167.jpg?1660313464){kind=avatar}
[icon]
Insoxicated
Thanks to Chase Sapphire Reserve's 1.5x "pay yourself back" structure, I apparently got over $1800 in cash back in 2021.
When coupled with travel benefits, and having to use the trip interruption insurance once then (and about to use it again)... I LOVE this card. VERY worth the Net $250 annual fee.
When coupled with travel benefits, and having to use the trip interruption insurance once then (and about to use it again)... I LOVE this card. VERY worth the Net $250 annual fee.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Yeah. I cashed out at the 1.5x pay yourself back and closed it (should have downgraded to a Freedom but was lazy) at some point earlish in Covid. Just got it back last week and am working on a new 70k bonus.
Picked up the Capital One Venture X and it has been pretty solid so far. 100k bonus points and some quite nice offers through their shopping portal. Have read their travel portal is equivalent or better than Chase for hotels, but haven't booked any myself.
SFBayDuck
Footballguy
I just tried to open a Delta Amex as I had to book a flight, but I got turned down - "you are not eligible for this promotion, would you still like to submit your application" type of message. Credit score over 800, I only have one other Amex (Hilton), and the last card of any type I opened was probably 2 years ago. Are you not allowed to have more than one Amex? Is there some other limit I may have triggered? I'm not even trying to churn cards, I just moved to a town with a small airport and with Delta as one of the primary options, so kind of bummed if I'm not going to be able to get a card from them and the associated perks. Or is it that I can get a card, they just aren't going to give me the sign-up bonus?
culdeus
Footballguy
You hit their velocity-spend limit. You aren't getting any more bonuses without putting decent amount of charges on the cards you have. If you instead have been spending and have a big balance on the ones you do, the best practice is pay them off in full and try again.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
That is an interesting datapoint, particularly with how much Amex is giving away Membership Rewards right now.
Working on my rose Gold signup bonus
Working on my rose Gold signup bonus
SFBayDuck
Footballguy
Thanks for weighing in, I know you're the in-house expert. Interesting, as I pay off all my cards monthly and don't carry a balance pretty much ever. And the Amex I do have I typically only use for Hilton and rental cars, so especially over the past 2 years with no work travel it hasn't gotten much spend.
Is it worth trying to up the spend on that for a few months and try again, or just bite the bullet and get the Delta card without any sign up bonus so that I can at least get the benefits of having it when I fly Delta? I'm not a road warrior but pre-pandemic was on the road once-twice a month, so it's not enough travel to get any sort of status or perks without the associated card, but enough that it sucks not to get any status or perks! Or am I thinking about this the wrong way and should be looking at one of those Chase Sapphire cards?
McBokonon
Footballguy
Did you get any kind of retention bonuses or anything else somewhat recently? I couldn’t get the Hilton sign up bonuses but it was because I took some retention points to keep my gold. I’m about due to try again.
SFBayDuck
Footballguy
Not that I know of, no. I'm not really focused on churning or maximizing this stuff, just like to have cards for the airlines I fly and the hotels I use.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Looks like you should really get the Delta cards for status. Personally, I would do the signup on something else like the CSR/CSP and try again in a bit. I've also opened 4 cards since Oct so am more into churning.
culdeus
Footballguy
Which Amex Hilton is it? They had a FNC for 8k spend offer towards the beginning of the year on the Surpass, which stacked with the 15k yearly FNC on it so it's a shame if you missed that. They aren't MS sensitive or anything on ongoing spends. I'd just put $15k on it and get the FNC, pay it off and try again.
And as far as balance, they are even sensitive to current balance. It's a general best practice to 0 out all Amex cards prior to applying for any of them.
Have you tried a dummy booking for it? Which specific Delta card are you after? Some you can backdoor like that.
culdeus
Footballguy
Flowchart was updated in Jan, most of it is still useful advice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/s07cfp/credit_card_recommendation_flowchart_jan2022/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=churning&utm_content=t5_2vrf0
The elevated offer for the Cap1VX is gone, but you can still get most of these.
dkp993
Footballguy
Best of luck! We did IVF to get my daughter. If you have any questions please feel free to pm me.
SouthJersey
Footballguy
[icon]
Insoxicated
details on their site but the benefit I use is if your flight is delayed more then 6 hours they will start covering lodging, transport, clothes, toiletries, etc.
With airlines as jacked up as they are, it's invaluable. I've got a claim in from this past trip for ~$450 due to American bumping our flight back 8 hours making us miss our flight to Nicaragua and having to scramble to reroute/book.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
There are some public nll golds floating around. I wouldn't do that under 5/24 but over it's a no brainer.
culdeus
Footballguy
SouthJersey
Footballguy
Thanks. I know about the benefit, but have never used it. What did you need to submit when you filed your claim? Can you go out and buy new Jordans if your flight is delayed 6 hours and they'll reimburse you? Or do they check that you're buying necessities for a day like a toothbrush and underwear?
They just ended their seasonal 30k points + one year Companion Pass offer 2 weeks ago so may be a little while until their next big offer. 100k was an all time high this past 4th qtr, no telling if it may come back.
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Desert_Power
Footballguy
I dunno. Contrary to the chart, I just don't think the Chase cards are super valuable right now. Particularly wasn't interested in the co-branded cards without travel I know I'm going to do in the next year or so. Value more flexible points over certificates.
I took the last 5/24 slot recently with the Amex Gold 90k + $250 dining credit out there. My analysis showed a gap in grocery earning so that fit right in for me.
I like the breakdown Frequent Miler has: https://frequentmiler.com/best-credit-card-sign-up-offers/
culdeus
Footballguy
Uhhh the inks are probably the best card with af or no af going. The fact you can easily get 4x a year is a miracle
Desert_Power
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
Have a boatload of organic spend right now (remodeling a house) so racking up what I can with out going too nuts on velocity. Would love to get another NLL Biz Platinum offer if I could.
I have a way to get you a spark if you want, it's not the elevated offer they ran in March, but it's still solid. Will cost you a $100 tip that will be refunded if you don't get it.
culdeus
Footballguy
https://dxpcardappv3.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card-application/apply/business-platinum-charge-card/59371-104-1-WOCBUND001
This link is worth trying, maybe daily, if looking for a NLL BP.
This link is worth trying, maybe daily, if looking for a NLL BP.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Nothing close to anything that people seem to use to qualify as a business and (usually) plenty of space for personal cards between the wife and I.
culdeus
Footballguy
The extent of the information I use to get biz cards consists of an EIN letter from the IRS that says that I do in fact have an EIN. Not having biz cards would and still locks you out of what is the all time largest free money bonanza in history that is running right now in the 99AU Amex offer.
Al Czervik
Not wearing pants
What do you mean by getting 4x a year? I have a Chase Ink and not sure what that means.culdeus said:
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culdeus
Footballguy
While Chase Ink's supposedly have a 24 month wait period to get another SUB, you can get them more frequently than that. Some space them out one every 3 months, some hit as hard as they can on sign-ups until Chase says no more.
So I just used a bunch of Microsoft credit to get a 'free' Xbox Series X. These were built up from using Dell Credits you get from Business Platinum's. Not truly free as it comes out of the credit card fee you pay, but AMEX has been very generous lately on giving out bonuses if you threaten to cancel that usually covers the cost of the annual fee. So any credits you use can often be just gravy on top.
culdeus
Footballguy
Step 1 have an Amex Biz card
Step 2 get targeted for an AU bonus
Step 3 Get 99 of them
https://onemileatatime.com/deals/amex-authorized-user-bonus/
matuski
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
If you want to know what the state of things are for filthy casuals I still think it boils down to:
Stay under 5/24, or at least keep one player under.
-Chase is still the most vulnerable bank. They are still not enforcing the 24 month rule on Inks, nor are they enforcing the two sapphire rule as long as you apply 1 day apart. If you aren't taking advantage of this, then you aren't really in this game.
-Chase has the easiest and most profitable cash out option with PYB, and the highest value transfer partner in Hyatt.
-With Chase you are shutdown safe provided you keep velocity to 4/year on cards which for casuals is plenty. Beyond that it's risky depending on credit lines, and other factors. You were warned.
If you have more spend or MS outs then, MS Chase, and spend on Amex.
Amex needs to be hit as often as you can when you can. They will pop you up and limit you on velocity/spend so try to keep your daily driving on Amex and expect to keep cards longer and pay a few AF along the way.
Other banks are easy to dribble in with a decent relationship BOA still has Alaska Biz cards that can be hit every 6 months and some other cash back biz cards that are no brainers to get. Barclays is tougher at times, but has some good stuff and can be had if you stay under 5/24 rather easily.
The most valuable currencies
Hyatt has the best redemption value and the easiest status to hit with spend, plus you can go UR->WOH. I feel like WOH points even with the latest deval are still about 1.8CPP
With most every other currency going cash value (Bonvoy being the most recent) this IMO increase the value of cash back outs. Hitting MR/UR to PYB now makes far more sense than waiting for some redemption. So leave a slot for Schwab Plat somewhere in your mix, even at 1.15CPP it's still worth cashing out MR there rather than waiting for some dreamer redemption.
It's nearly never about getting exactly the right card anymore, it's more about scaling your MS and the rest falls into place so don't sweat getting things perfect inside 5/24. If you can't scale MS or don't even have any, then just stick with a 10 card rotation every 24 months per player across all the banks, still should be able to earn $10k/year easy with 2P, and cast a shadow on 20k. With MS outs this year I'm targeting maybe $45k in earn and maybe another $5k in bank bonuses.
Stay under 5/24, or at least keep one player under.
-Chase is still the most vulnerable bank. They are still not enforcing the 24 month rule on Inks, nor are they enforcing the two sapphire rule as long as you apply 1 day apart. If you aren't taking advantage of this, then you aren't really in this game.
-Chase has the easiest and most profitable cash out option with PYB, and the highest value transfer partner in Hyatt.
-With Chase you are shutdown safe provided you keep velocity to 4/year on cards which for casuals is plenty. Beyond that it's risky depending on credit lines, and other factors. You were warned.
If you have more spend or MS outs then, MS Chase, and spend on Amex.
Amex needs to be hit as often as you can when you can. They will pop you up and limit you on velocity/spend so try to keep your daily driving on Amex and expect to keep cards longer and pay a few AF along the way.
Other banks are easy to dribble in with a decent relationship BOA still has Alaska Biz cards that can be hit every 6 months and some other cash back biz cards that are no brainers to get. Barclays is tougher at times, but has some good stuff and can be had if you stay under 5/24 rather easily.
The most valuable currencies
Hyatt has the best redemption value and the easiest status to hit with spend, plus you can go UR->WOH. I feel like WOH points even with the latest deval are still about 1.8CPP
With most every other currency going cash value (Bonvoy being the most recent) this IMO increase the value of cash back outs. Hitting MR/UR to PYB now makes far more sense than waiting for some redemption. So leave a slot for Schwab Plat somewhere in your mix, even at 1.15CPP it's still worth cashing out MR there rather than waiting for some dreamer redemption.
It's nearly never about getting exactly the right card anymore, it's more about scaling your MS and the rest falls into place so don't sweat getting things perfect inside 5/24. If you can't scale MS or don't even have any, then just stick with a 10 card rotation every 24 months per player across all the banks, still should be able to earn $10k/year easy with 2P, and cast a shadow on 20k. With MS outs this year I'm targeting maybe $45k in earn and maybe another $5k in bank bonuses.
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fred_1_15301
Footballguy
Well I was apparently wrong. I've been downgraded to Platinum. I called Caesars and they've temporarily discontinued the Caesars/Wyndham match program.
