Credit Card Bonuses

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Taylor Larimore
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Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Taylor Larimore »

Bogleheads:

Article about current credit card bonuses.

Best Credit Card Intro Bonuses with No Annual Fees

Happy New Year!
Taylor
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THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

Honestly those offers are fair at best. The bonuses are pretty lame but some of the awards percentages are decent. My general rule of thumb is not to sign up for a bonus unless it is $400-500 in cash or travel awards that I will use in the next year or so (a hard pull is not worth less than that in my opinion). If you are going to play the credit card bonus and rewards game I suggest you spend time over on FlyerTalk and Fat Wallet Finance to find the better offers, to learn out to play the game and to be alerted to the better offers that frequently don't last all that long.
takeshi
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by takeshi »

THY4373 wrote:Honestly those offers are fair at best.
No annual fee will limit the options. I'd +1 the FlyerTalk suggestion for those looking to chase bonuses. FT is full of experienced bonus chasers and churners.
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Rainier
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Rainier »

I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
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slow n steady
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by slow n steady »

ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
I just started playing the game and these types of cards are quite common. Most have the annual fee waived for the first year so get your money and cancel the card.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

slow n steady wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
I just started playing the game and these types of cards are quite common. Most have the annual fee waived for the first year so get your money and cancel the card.
And where are the links to them?
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bogleraw
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by bogleraw »

slow n steady wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
I just started playing the game and these types of cards are quite common. Most have the annual fee waived for the first year so get your money and cancel the card.
Doesn't canceling the card hurt your credit score??? I've always been interested in doing this but have been too afraid to try.
one
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by one »

Thank you for posting, Taylor. I appreciate the information.
Sometimes it just takes one.
tacster
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by tacster »

bogleraw wrote:
Doesn't canceling the card hurt your credit score??? I've always been interested in doing this but have been too afraid to try.
Supposedly these credit card shuffles have a small effect on credit score, but as others have said it may not matter much. I only do it if the reward is great enough, for example I recently signed up for an airline Visa with 25,000 bonus miles that put me over the top for a free flight to Europe. I'll cancel the card before the annual fee comes due.
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Sheepdog
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Sheepdog »

AARP through Chase is offering The AARP Visa Signature Card with $100 bonus after spending $500 in 3 months. It gives 3% rewards on gasoline and restaurant purchases and 1% on everything else. http://www.aarpcreditcard.com/Organic/?CELL=64XY
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bkslainte
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by bkslainte »

And where are the links to them?
I ususally check slickdeals.net under the "Money" section every few months to see if any of the offers are worthwhile. I am sure that checking some frequent flyer forums also showcase the best deals.
MnD
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by MnD »

For 2013 we pulled down 120K miles on sign-up bonuses and spending snagged another 60K.
That bought us two first class round tickets to Hawaii in 2014 with miles to spare, the 2nd year in a row we've done that on miles from sign-ups and spending.
2014 I have firm plans to get 140K miles but I need about 50K more for our 2015 planned trip - round-trip business class to Europe on miles.
I might move an account to Fidelity to snag the 50K bonus that way.

I'm a little skeptical about these people that claim they can sign up and "churn" 10-20 large bonuses a year.
We were rejected for a fourth sign-up last year with very high credit score and high income - they just said "too many sign-ups".
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origami
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by origami »

ieee488 wrote:And where are the links to them?
They are either short time or personalized offers, you need to monitor the web to catch them, but I also wouldn't go for bonuses under $400.
I received $600 and $800 in 2013 and 60K miles per card with airlines.
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by nordlead »

bogleraw wrote:Doesn't canceling the card hurt your credit score??? I've always been interested in doing this but have been too afraid to try.
It hurts by a few points unless you are doing it a lot or your credit history isn't very old. Try to keep the hard inquiries at 6 or less. They stay on your credit report for 2 years and only affect your score for 1 year with the biggest impact to your score if they are 6 months old or less. So, if you get a new card every 3 months then only 4 will be affecting your score at any one time, and 8 will be on the total history. I'd stop this 6-8 months before you are considering a mortgage/refinance or an auto-loan.

I believe only active accounts are counted against your "average age" credit score metric. So, canceling them doesn't really hurt, it is all the inquiries. Make sure you keep 1-2 old fee free cards to increase your account age.

I'm actually going to sign up for the barclay's $400 card. My last card offer was back in June, so I'll have 2 inquiries on my account.

If you want to monitor your credit score, you can use creditKarma.com. It is free, they do a lot of advertising right on their site (which is why it is free), but is useful for quick credit score monitoring.
niceguy7376
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by niceguy7376 »

We were rejected for a fourth sign-up last year with very high credit score and high income - they just said "too many sign-ups".
MnD,
If you go to the FatWallet Forum and can spend hours going through their postings, you will find some threads where they apply for multiple cards on same day within a minute or two. Thus they get 3 to 4 cards at a time and spend the req amount (dont want to dilute the quality of this forum by listing some shady tactics) to get the rewards.
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by hsv_climber »

ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Where can you find a Chase Sapphire Preferred without a $400 bonus? 8-) Actually, it is 40,000 UR points, which are better than $400.
Link is right on Chase website and you can get additional 5000 points for adding an authorized user.
https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-ca ... ?fcsplit=1
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by hsv_climber »

nordlead wrote: I believe only active accounts are counted against your "average age" credit score metric. So, canceling them doesn't really hurt, it is all the inquiries. Make sure you keep 1-2 old fee free cards to increase your account age.
All accounts count against your "average age". The only issue with the closed accounts is that they will fall off from the report after 10 years; thus, hurting your average age.
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Ketawa
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Ketawa »

I find it a lot easier to be passively notified of deals instead of having to actively navigate to a forum that I don't frequent. I'm going to add The Points Guy to my RSS feeds; are there any other good blogs to follow that will highlight short-lived credit card deals? Is The Points Guy going to be the best one?
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Hardly special at all. Every single deal I found was on a public website. The three major ones were Flyer Talk, Fat Wallet Finance and Slick Deals. If you wait for the deals to come to you then yes you will never get them. I have decent credit and spent time to educate myself on these games but otherwise nothing special at all. I applied and was approved for seven credit cards this year and my wife was for two. All were approved automatically other than one where I had to call Chase and when I agree to move some of my credit line between cards they approved it (it was the fourth chase card I had applied for in six months).
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

Ketawa wrote:I find it a lot easier to be passively notified of deals instead of having to actively navigate to a forum that I don't frequent. I'm going to add The Points Guy to my RSS feeds; are there any other good blogs to follow that will highlight short-lived credit card deals? Is The Points Guy going to be the best one?
You will get some that way but not all of them. The bloggers make money when you click through their links. If they don't get money for a particular product then tend not to blog about it. Also the bloggers tend to gloss over details. If you just want sign up bonuses with regular spend you do then the blogs are probably fine. If you want to ramp up a bit and move beyond your regular spend level then you are going to have to read and devote time to it.
nordlead
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by nordlead »

hsv_climber wrote:
nordlead wrote: I believe only active accounts are counted against your "average age" credit score metric. So, canceling them doesn't really hurt, it is all the inquiries. Make sure you keep 1-2 old fee free cards to increase your account age.
All accounts count against your "average age". The only issue with the closed accounts is that they will fall off from the report after 10 years; thus, hurting your average age.
ah, I misunderstood the credit reports I got for free then when they said they only counted active accounts.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Hardly special at all. Every single deal I found was on a public website. The three major ones were Flyer Talk, Fat Wallet Finance and Slick Deals. If you wait for the deals to come to you then yes you will never get them. I have decent credit and spent time to educate myself on these games but otherwise nothing special at all. I applied and was approved for seven credit cards this year and my wife was for two. All were approved automatically other than one where I had to call Chase and when I agree to move some of my credit line between cards they approved it (it was the fourth chase card I had applied for in six months).
I visit Slick Deals. Have not yet seen a $400 deal yet.

Again, you are indeed one special individual to get all seven credit cards approved.
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THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

MnD wrote:
I'm a little skeptical about these people that claim they can sign up and "churn" 10-20 large bonuses a year.
We were rejected for a fourth sign-up last year with very high credit score and high income - they just said "too many sign-ups".
I did seven this year and wife two. Not 10-20 but not that far off from 10. Could have used my wife more but had enough cards to churn through as is. All were automatically approved except one which required one phone call and shifting some existing credit lines around. I can see a husband and wife team getting through 10-15 in a year if they have decent credit and household income. As for churn it is pretty easy for a husband and wife team to churn through $11k in a month using the most widely known means of churning. It just depends on time which will be highly dependent on your relative location to certain types of stores.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

hsv_climber wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Where can you find a Chase Sapphire Preferred without a $400 bonus? 8-) Actually, it is 40,000 UR points, which are better than $400.
Link is right on Chase website and you can get additional 5000 points for adding an authorized user.
https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-ca ... ?fcsplit=1
Travel points are useless to me, but the $400 is immediately useable.
Too bad that I am going to find it hard to spend $3000 in 3 months.
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ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

THY4373 wrote:As for churn it is pretty easy for a husband and wife team to churn through $11k in a month using the most widely known means of churning.
Spend $11K on what?
The only thing I can think of is insurance.

You'd both have to make $20K a month to have income to spend $11K net.
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THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Hardly special at all. Every single deal I found was on a public website. The three major ones were Flyer Talk, Fat Wallet Finance and Slick Deals. If you wait for the deals to come to you then yes you will never get them. I have decent credit and spent time to educate myself on these games but otherwise nothing special at all. I applied and was approved for seven credit cards this year and my wife was for two. All were approved automatically other than one where I had to call Chase and when I agree to move some of my credit line between cards they approved it (it was the fourth chase card I had applied for in six months).
I visit Slick Deals. Have not yet seen a $400 deal yet.

Again, you are indeed one special individual to get all seven credit cards approved.
Well you aren't look hard enough:
http://slickdeals.net/f/6219168-50k-poi ... iness-card (you could cash out for $500). There was even a short lived 60k offer here: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1278976/ .

This is admittedly travel but I hit this one hard this year (got two cards in my name to get the free companion pass for wifey) Already have taken $1500 in travel after subtracting out annual fee for both cards: http://slickdeals.net/f/6534140-it-s-ba ... 50k-points .

Also the Barclays Arrival card: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1265825/ and http://slickdeals.net/f/6073528-340-00- ... tcards-com .

There were also some pretty good British Airways deals if you know how to use Avios (hint not on BA).
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
Rainier wrote:I did the $400 Chase Sapphire last January and just did the $400 Barclay card offer last month.

Agreed, needs to be $400+ for me in cash or statement credits.
If I waited for a $400 card, I'd be waiting forever.
You and THY4373 are indeed very special individual.
Hardly special at all. Every single deal I found was on a public website. The three major ones were Flyer Talk, Fat Wallet Finance and Slick Deals. If you wait for the deals to come to you then yes you will never get them. I have decent credit and spent time to educate myself on these games but otherwise nothing special at all. I applied and was approved for seven credit cards this year and my wife was for two. All were approved automatically other than one where I had to call Chase and when I agree to move some of my credit line between cards they approved it (it was the fourth chase card I had applied for in six months).
I visit Slick Deals. Have not yet seen a $400 deal yet.

Again, you are indeed one special individual to get all seven credit cards approved.
Well you aren't look hard enough:
http://slickdeals.net/f/6219168-50k-poi ... iness-card (you could cash out for $500). There was even a short lived 60k offer here: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1278976/ .

This is admittedly travel but I hit this one hard this year (got two cards in my name to get the free companion pass for wifey) Already have taken $1500 in travel after subtracting out annual fee for both cards: http://slickdeals.net/f/6534140-it-s-ba ... 50k-points .

Also the Barclays Arrival card: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1265825/ and http://slickdeals.net/f/6073528-340-00- ... tcards-com .

There were also some pretty good British Airways deals if you know how to use Avios (hint not on BA).
Like I wrote, I only visit Slick Deals. Not the other two websites.
Travel points useless to me. Spending $5K in 3 months is also more than I spend in 6 months.
I tracked my credit card expenses for 2013, and I spent about $12K total.
You and your wife must spend a lot to make these deals doable.
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wingnutty
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by wingnutty »

We did the credit card rewards thing for a while before we got too busy with twin babies. We ended up selling some points to points2rewards or something like that and got a ~ $1.25/pt return on our points, worked well and was a pretty good deal. When we were spending some time finding/using reward cards we made something like $3,000 in the year, not bad for a minimal time investment.
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:As for churn it is pretty easy for a husband and wife team to churn through $11k in a month using the most widely known means of churning.
Spend $11K on what?
The only thing I can think of is insurance.

You'd both have to make $20K a month to have income to spend $11K net.
As I said read Flyer Talk and Fat Wallet Finance if you want to learn out to play this game but you can spend without spending or at least without spending much other than some time.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:As for churn it is pretty easy for a husband and wife team to churn through $11k in a month using the most widely known means of churning.
Spend $11K on what?
The only thing I can think of is insurance.

You'd both have to make $20K a month to have income to spend $11K net.
As I said read Flyer Talk and Fat Wallet Finance if you want to learn out to play this game but you can spend without spending or at least without spending much other than some time.
Can't you just give us the Reader's Digest version?
I am lazy as you can see.
Last edited by ieee488 on Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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nordlead
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by nordlead »

ieee488 wrote:
hsv_climber wrote: Where can you find a Chase Sapphire Preferred without a $400 bonus? 8-) Actually, it is 40,000 UR points, which are better than $400.
Link is right on Chase website and you can get additional 5000 points for adding an authorized user.
https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-ca ... ?fcsplit=1
Travel points are useless to me, but the $400 is immediately useable.
Too bad that I am going to find it hard to spend $3000 in 3 months.
UR points can be used for "anything". I have UR points with my chase card and I use them for gift cards that are 20% off. So, 8000 UR points gets me $100 in Old Navy gift cards, perfect for buying clothes for the kids.

Compare that to my old City card and I can only get cash back in $50 increments.
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by nordlead »

ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:As I said read Flyer Talk and Fat Wallet Finance if you want to learn out to play this game but you can spend without spending or at least without spending much other than some time.
Can't you just give us the Reader's Digest version?
One thing I know you can do (if you go to the right stores), is buy them on one CC and return them on another CC. I've done this at a few stores, but mostly because my wife buys it on her Amex and I return it on my Amex. You could churn through $11k pretty quickly that way, but some stores will probably blacklist you from returns.
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote:
Like I wrote, I only visit Slick Deals. Not the other two websites.
Travel points useless to me. Spending $5K in 3 months is also more than I spend in 6 months.
I tracked my credit card expenses for 2013, and I spent about $12K total.
You and your wife must spend a lot to make these deals doable.
Well the first offer was for cash (I cashed it out). But if you aren't in to travel rewards then this sort of activity is necessarily going to be less interesting to you. As for spend my "real" credit card spend is about $1500 a month and that is by putting everything I can on a credit card.
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote: Can't you just give us the Reader's Digest version?
I am lazy as you can see.
Sorry no, either you care enough to read or you don't. It sounds like this activity is not for you which is fine.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

nordlead wrote:
ieee488 wrote:
hsv_climber wrote: Where can you find a Chase Sapphire Preferred without a $400 bonus? 8-) Actually, it is 40,000 UR points, which are better than $400.
Link is right on Chase website and you can get additional 5000 points for adding an authorized user.
https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-ca ... ?fcsplit=1
Travel points are useless to me, but the $400 is immediately useable.
Too bad that I am going to find it hard to spend $3000 in 3 months.
UR points can be used for "anything". I have UR points with my chase card and I use them for gift cards that are 20% off. So, 8000 UR points gets me $100 in Old Navy gift cards, perfect for buying clothes for the kids.

Compare that to my old City card and I can only get cash back in $50 increments.
I see your point about the gift cards. I got a $50 Chipotle gift card for $45 when I was trying to spend down my DIscover points.
I need to see whether they offer Panera gift cards at a discount.
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hsv_climber
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by hsv_climber »

ieee, there is no reason to become defensive. Yes, it is easy to spend any amount of money without actually spending much money ( I won't write how on the public forum).
It is also very easy to push spending into future months. For example, you could buy an AMEX Gift Card using your new Chase card and then use AMEX card later on in the year. Or buy some store gift card that you will use later in the year.

I just did a quick count and me & wife got 18-20 CC last year.
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

nordlead wrote: One thing I know you can do (if you go to the right stores), is buy them on one CC and return them on another CC. I've done this at a few stores, but mostly because my wife buys it on her Amex and I return it on my Amex. You could churn through $11k pretty quickly that way, but some stores will probably blacklist you from returns.
That method is not scalable and certainly not the one I use. I use two different methods which are very widely documented on the two forums I initially listed. It just takes some reading. The limit I run into is time.
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by hsv_climber »

nordlead wrote: One thing I know you can do (if you go to the right stores), is buy them on one CC and return them on another CC. I've done this at a few stores, but mostly because my wife buys it on her Amex and I return it on my Amex. You could churn through $11k pretty quickly that way, but some stores will probably blacklist you from returns.
... and your second Amex will blacklist you even faster than the stores for running negative balance.
ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

hsv_climber wrote:ieee, there is no reason to become defensive. Yes, it is easy to spend any amount of money without actually spending much money ( I won't write about that on this public forum).
It is also very easy to push spending into future months. For example, you could buy an AMEX Gift Card using your new Chase card and then use AMEX card later on in the year. Or buy some store gift card that you will use later in the year.

I just did a quick count and me & wife got 18-20 CC last year.
I understand about buying the gift cards - I have done that, but that still doesn't explain how you can avoid spending money using credit card #2 which also has some sort of spending requirement in the first 3 months.
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ieee488
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote: Can't you just give us the Reader's Digest version?
I am lazy as you can see.
Sorry no, either you care enough to read or you don't. It sounds like this activity is not for you which is fine.
Since I don't know what it is, how is one to know whether it is for me or not?
Okay, you don't want to help. That is fine. Don't say that is isn't for me.
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hsv_climber
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by hsv_climber »

ieee488 wrote: I understand about buying the gift cards - I have done that, but that still doesn't explain how you can avoid spending money using credit card #2 which also has some sort of spending requirement in the first 3 months.
Not sure what you mean by CC # 2.

But here it is in a nutshell - you apply for Chase Sapphire Pref.
- First month - Go & buy $2k of some GCs + $1k of real spending
- Second month - Go & buy $1k of some GCs + $1k of real spending
---> Get the bonus.
Months 3, 4, 5, - use GCs that you bought above, which matches your regular spending of $1k / month as you've written about.
ieee488
Posts: 1989
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by ieee488 »

hsv_climber wrote:
ieee488 wrote: I understand about buying the gift cards - I have done that, but that still doesn't explain how you can avoid spending money using credit card #2 which also has some sort of spending requirement in the first 3 months.
Not sure what you mean by CC # 2.

But here it is in a nutshell - you apply for Chase Sapphire Pref.
- First month - Go & buy $2k of some GCs + $1k of real spending
- Second month - Go & buy $1k of some GCs + $1k of real spending
---> Get the bonus.
Months 3, 4, 5, - use GCs that you bought above, which matches your regular spending of $1k / month as you've written about.
Oh, I was thinking that part of this "churn" was that credit card #1 was somehow interrelated with credit card #2's spending requirement.
But as you explained it, each of the credit card received is independent.
Thanks for the explanation it makes sense now.
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nordlead
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by nordlead »

hsv_climber wrote:
nordlead wrote: One thing I know you can do (if you go to the right stores), is buy them on one CC and return them on another CC. I've done this at a few stores, but mostly because my wife buys it on her Amex and I return it on my Amex. You could churn through $11k pretty quickly that way, but some stores will probably blacklist you from returns.
... and your second Amex will blacklist you even faster than the stores for running negative balance.
I never said it was a great plan, only 1 way to amplify your purchasing power... I'd actually only do this if I had to stretch for a couple hundred dollars to reach a bonus deadline and didn't feel like going the gift card route or something else.
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

ieee488 wrote:
THY4373 wrote:
ieee488 wrote: Can't you just give us the Reader's Digest version?
I am lazy as you can see.
Sorry no, either you care enough to read or you don't. It sounds like this activity is not for you which is fine.
Since I don't know what it is, how is one to know whether it is for me or not?
Okay, you don't want to help. That is fine. Don't say that is isn't for me.
Sorry I don't mean to sound short but I have helped as I have pointed you to the two forums where the answer lies. There is absolutely no incentive for me to post the details here because it will like hasten the demise of the current ways to do this so there is a reason I am being coy. Either you care enough to research yourself or you don't.
tbradnc
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by tbradnc »

May I interject a question?

I've heard that you can and that you cannot purchase gift cards with an AMEX Blue Cash Preferred at a grocery store and earn the 6% discount from the gift card purchase. Has anyone done this and verified that it does (or doesn't) work.

Assuming that you can't use the AMEX like this - does anyone know if you use ANY cash back card to purchase a gift card you earn the cash back? Or.. do all cash back cards block the cash back from gift card purchases?

Buying gift cards at a discount is about as exotic as I feel like getting with credit card who-ha.
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Ketawa
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Ketawa »

You definitely get cash back from buying gift cards at the grocery store, for example by buying Amazon gift cards with AMEX Blue Cash Preferred. I actually hit the $6,000 AMEX annual limit this year since I bought several big ticket items on Amazon this year (Weber propane grill, Neato). Strangely, it didn't seem like my rewards rate was reduced, although it is possible that I misinterpreted my bill.

After some brief research, I'm going to start this game by picking up the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard. $1,000 in 3 months is easy for me to spend and I'm planning a flight to Key West in May which will be convenient for the reward points.
THY4373
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by THY4373 »

In general your cashback is based on how the registers you make a purchase at, are coded for a particular business. Amex, Visa, etc., don't get more than that (e.g, they don't know what you are buying only where you are buying and what sort of business it is). Grocery store registers should be coded as grocery stores so you should be good to buy gift cards and get cashback. There are some wrinkles like some Walmarts I have seen have some registers coded as grocery and some as something else so you would only get grocery awards at some registers. Gas stations (pump vs. inside) can also be an issue with some gas cash back cards. As always I'd suggest you make a small test purchase to verify.
tbradnc
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by tbradnc »

Ok great to know! I'm going to try buying some gift cards at Food Lion the next time I need to buy something gift-cardish.

Certainly Food Lion will be coded as a grocery store.
Scotttheking
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Re: Credit Card Bonuses

Post by Scotttheking »

As others have said, the offers in the original link are quite weak. The better offers are for fee cards, many of which have the fee waived for the first year. To share, here's what I'm working on right now (all applied for and received in December):

AA 50k miles
us air 35k miles
barclays arrival $400
club carlson 85,000 points
AA 25k miles
United 50k miles
Alaska 50k miles

Of course, one will need to generate $13k+ in minimum spending over 3 months to receive the bonuses.
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