I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[miztressuz]

Went and picked up some cookies tonight!

View attachment 471347

How many MSRs was that?
(hopefully at least one was a CIP - 3x! )

 

[thursdaystgiles]

Posting to ask advice. For the purpose of this post, I consider my wife and I as one unit--I'm a stay at home mom, so all the cards/debt are in her name. I did, unfortunately, just recently apply for a new card before coming to these boards. I wish I'd visited here first, but what can you do? We only have 2 credit cards; one is over 8 years old (Capital One Platinum Visa).

The other is 01/20 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards. We chose it for the 2x miles on all purchases, and the bonus 500,000 miles when spending at least 3k in the first 3 months (which we did immediately by paying for our Disney and Universal tickets). This will be our primary card for the foreseeable future. While not opposed to opening new cards, the most important thing is no negative impact on my wife's credit score, which is 798.

Other information:
We make generally all purchases every month on credit card. Only thing we can't put on it is mortgage, obviously.
We pay off our CC in full every month, no matter the balance.
We fly out of CMH (Columbus, OH)
No preference on FF program, Southwest does fly from CMH.
No preference on hotel rewards. We usually book through hotels.com for the free nights.
Current points between both cards is about 65,000, but will soon have 500,000 more from our new card bonus.

Goals for churning -- we have plans for a trip to Australia in fall of 2021, and a trip to Italy in spring of 2022. Besides that we take many shorter distance trips throughout the year. But honestly, more freedom and flexibility in our travel choices, and spending less money out of pocket in general is the goal. (We have mostly already paid for our Disney trip in October of this year--hotel, tickets, and rental car are already booked and paid for, and we used miles on the flight; all that remains is dining/souvenirs, but if there's a way to shave money off this trip, too, that'd be great.)

Travel party size usually consists of 2 adults, and 1 child aged 7. We do often take our nephew as well, aged 8.

I just want to stress again that this cannot have any sort of negative impact on credit score. My wife is very protective of that!

Thanks ahead of time for any tips and suggestions. I'm in awe of what you guys do here!

 

[Judique]

Wow....I think that is the longest chat I've seen to date!

It motivated me to take a look at my #/24 status, which I basically know but kind of have been ignoring since the road to under 5/24 seemed like such a long one about a year ago.

So I will be 3/24 in July. I applied for 2 cards together back 2 years ago, so I get two gone at the same time, and then another in August.

I'm looking forward to getting another UR card to round out my small collection.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Posting to ask advice. For the purpose of this post, I consider my wife and I as one unit--I'm a stay at home mom, so all the cards/debt are in her name. I did, unfortunately, just recently apply for a new card before coming to these boards. I wish I'd visited here first, but what can you do? We only have 2 credit cards; one is over 8 years old (Capital One Platinum Visa).

The other is 01/20 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards. We chose it for the 2x miles on all purchases, and the bonus 500,000 miles when spending at least 3k in the first 3 months (which we did immediately by paying for our Disney and Universal tickets). This will be our primary card for the foreseeable future. While not opposed to opening new cards, the most important thing is no negative impact on my wife's credit score, which is 798.

Other information:
We make generally all purchases every month on credit card. Only thing we can't put on it is mortgage, obviously.
We pay off our CC in full every month, no matter the balance.
We fly out of CMH (Columbus, OH)
No preference on FF program, Southwest does fly from CMH.
No preference on hotel rewards. We usually book through hotels.com for the free nights.
Current points between both cards is about 65,000, but will soon have 500,000 more from our new card bonus.

Goals for churning -- we have plans for a trip to Australia in fall of 2021, and a trip to Italy in spring of 2022. Besides that we take many shorter distance trips throughout the year. But honestly, more freedom and flexibility in our travel choices, and spending less money out of pocket in general is the goal. (We have mostly already paid for our Disney trip in October of this year--hotel, tickets, and rental car are already booked and paid for, and we used miles on the flight; all that remains is dining/souvenirs, but if there's a way to shave money off this trip, too, that'd be great.)

Travel party size usually consists of 2 adults, and 1 child aged 7. We do often take our nephew as well, aged 8.

I just want to stress again that this cannot have any sort of negative impact on credit score. My wife is very protective of that!

Thanks ahead of time for any tips and suggestions. I'm in awe of what you guys do here!

Hi and .....I don’t fly international but many here do so I’m sure they will give you great advice on cards...
When I found this thread almost 2 years ago my DH had the same concern as your wife..his credit score and it has actually gone up.....I treat my credit cards as a debit card and pay off balances weekly so they don’t close with a large balance

 

[mmmears]

Posting to ask advice. For the purpose of this post, I consider my wife and I as one unit--I'm a stay at home mom, so all the cards/debt are in her name. I did, unfortunately, just recently apply for a new card before coming to these boards. I wish I'd visited here first, but what can you do? We only have 2 credit cards; one is over 8 years old (Capital One Platinum Visa).

The other is 01/20 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards. We chose it for the 2x miles on all purchases, and the bonus 500,000 miles when spending at least 3k in the first 3 months (which we did immediately by paying for our Disney and Universal tickets). This will be our primary card for the foreseeable future. While not opposed to opening new cards, the most important thing is no negative impact on my wife's credit score, which is 798.

Other information:
We make generally all purchases every month on credit card. Only thing we can't put on it is mortgage, obviously.
We pay off our CC in full every month, no matter the balance.
We fly out of CMH (Columbus, OH)
No preference on FF program, Southwest does fly from CMH.
No preference on hotel rewards. We usually book through hotels.com for the free nights.
Current points between both cards is about 65,000, but will soon have 500,000 more from our new card bonus.

Goals for churning -- we have plans for a trip to Australia in fall of 2021, and a trip to Italy in spring of 2022. Besides that we take many shorter distance trips throughout the year. But honestly, more freedom and flexibility in our travel choices, and spending less money out of pocket in general is the goal. (We have mostly already paid for our Disney trip in October of this year--hotel, tickets, and rental car are already booked and paid for, and we used miles on the flight; all that remains is dining/souvenirs, but if there's a way to shave money off this trip, too, that'd be great.)

Travel party size usually consists of 2 adults, and 1 child aged 7. We do often take our nephew as well, aged 8.

I just want to stress again that this cannot have any sort of negative impact on credit score. My wife is very protective of that!

Thanks ahead of time for any tips and suggestions. I'm in awe of what you guys do here!

Welcome! I just want to let you know that I was worried about our credit scores, but signing up for credit cards really hasn't hurt it at all. Also, I never thought I could get a new card on my own (SAHM for years here) but I have applied for a few and haven't had any issues with either Chase or Amex.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

A Fireside Chat on EARNING, BURNING and HOARDING...
This seems to be a topic of interest to a lot of people lately in light of a lot of doom and gloom of 2019 that brought us clawbacks and shutdowns galore! I'm going to attempt to organize some thoughts around this subject that hopefully will be helpful to a lot of you here and also spark some discussion (I'd love to hear from you all on this topic too!!)

Should I participate in [insert name here] advanced strategy (a.k.a. loophole)?

• First off...I prefer to call them "advanced strategies" instead of loopholes. I don't really like the undertones that come with the word loophole!
• "Advanced Strategies" are a part of the churning game, and we are always looking for new ways to bolster our points earning potential!
• Even back in the days before 5/24, churners would find and implement advanced strategies that allowed them to earn more points than appeared possible on the surface.

It is very important that you understand the risks of implementing any advanced strategy. Card issuers and rewards programs have been known to take the following actions in response to this: closing specific cards that were opened as a result of the strategy; closing ALL cards with that issuer; clawing back points (even if that leaves you with a negative balance); denying bonus points or future card bonuses; shutting off the ability to generate support links; cancelling award travel (flights/hotels/etc) booked using points or methods deemed illegitimate.

This sounds super scary...maybe I should avoid all Advanced Strategies???

• Well...first off...yeah, maybe you should...but that could severely limit your ability to earn enough points to travel for free all the time.
• The banks, rewards programs and card issuers will continue to find ways to restrict the ability to earn multiple SUBs. This is inevitable! Churners are not profitable...so if you aren't willing to push the envelope, you're going to find that your churning results are closer to that of a non-churner vs. a hardcore churner.

So it all comes down to risk vs. reward and knowing your risk tolerance. Each issuer and program is different as well...

• AMERICAN EXPRESS: notably the most hardcore when it comes to taking adverse action against churners retroactively. Shutdowns are more rare with them, but claw-backs are their favorite. And they will put you on a list as a "gamer"...and it's hard to get off that list!
• CHASE: most commonly noted as the issuer that will shut you down...but it's pretty easy to avoid this fate. Don't get cards too fast, don't attempt to get cards if you're well over 5/24, don't apply for multiple cards with them on the same day... Chase is also known for rarely (never?) clawing back points and they frequently have issued warnings in the past to people who have done something that they feel was an abuse of their programs.
• AMERICAN AIRLINES: the new sheriff in town who will shutdown your miles, your hopes, and your dreams... enough said there...

So you've decided to implement one of the numerous advanced strategies...what should I be thinking about now?

• If you're playing in a fairly safe space...(i.e. you did 1 MDD)...don't panic. As the saying goes: "Act like you've been there before!"
• Hoarding points earned in a legitimate fashion brings with it the risks of devaluation but the risks of lowing your points to a claw-back are far less and if you have a specific redemption in mind, then by all means hoard away until you get there!
• That said...IF you are in deep, and you are PRINTING points faster than you can use them using some of our favorite advanced strategies...you gotta do something about it!
• Hoarding points earned in this fashion is NOT a good plan! First off, your large points balance could put a clear target on your account when they come for the "abusers"... Secondly, as long as said strategy continues, you can replace the points you have today in a mere number of months! So stop looking for the optimal redemption, stop waiting for the perfect trip to pop up...find a way to convert those points into something of value in your pocket and just do it!
• I'm not saying you should cash out to $0 every month, but don't be the person who gets shutdown with 2 million miles and you never used a single one of them!
• If you're earning more points than you can use, and you don't see a clear path on how to cash them out or convert them to some cash-like value, it might be time to move in a different direction and diversify your points.

So should I "Earn and Burn" like everybody says?
Oh yes, the old r/churning mantra "Earn and Burn"... look, don't let ANYBODY (even me) tell you what you should or should not do with your points!!

I had this crazy stupid goal of having a million URs last year...and so I went for it... and in retrospect it was stupid because I should've been cashing them out...BUT it made me happy to see it once and I don't regret it!

I have a stash of over a million Marriott points, I attempt to keep my Southwest stash above 500k at all times: I'm certainly not earning and burning those currencies.

• Marriott is my safety stash, I totally acknowledge it will be devalued over time and I'm ok with that - I like knowing that in any circumstance (random stop-over trip, long weekend trip, wedding hotel needed, unfortunate death of a loved one, etc.) that I can get a convenient free hotel! That is what it's there for and it serves me well! I never earned those points hoping for some aspirational safari in the jungles of Africa...they are doing exactly what I want them to do!
• Southwest is my ticket to all of my travel dreams! They fly exactly where I want to go, non-stop! Have I lost some value over the years with devaluations...sure! But keeping a significant stash of SW points ensures that I will have MANY years of free flights at my disposal even if all of my SW points earning strategies dry up!
• Some of you might be chasing something aspirational...maybe an awesome trip to Hawaii! Well, you aren't going to earn all of those points overnight... so you're going to have to hoard some until you get there...and that's ok!!

So there are two examples of where my points strategy flies in the face of "earn and burn" and a third strategy where hoarding might be required. But to my earlier comment, if you are hoarding points that you are earning using one of the more dangerous "advanced strategies" you might be playing with fire...

So what does this all mean @SouthFayetteFan?? You know what...I truthfully don't know!

These are just the ramblings of a crazy churner guy who has been at this game for almost 7 years...

What I can tell you is that if you are in this game deep enough to implement an "advanced strategy" then you better be able to think for yourself!! Nobody here can tell you if "you're safe"... Nobody here can tell you if you should pull the trigger on that next card. They can tell you what THEY did...they can tell you WHY they did it... but they can't tell YOU what YOU should do! So earn and burn my friends...or earn and hoard...do whatever you think is best! But understand your risks, understand your goals, and make logical decisions!

I think this could be an awesome discussion point for our thread in the next few days. I'd really love to hear what others think on this topic. How are you earning, burning and hoarding in this strange churning world we operate in here in 2020...

I'll also mention as a side note that the days of openly bragging of your "advanced strategy conquests" on the internet should probably be over...those types of comments are probably best left to DISchurners and other more private settings.

Thanks in advance to anybody willing to share some thoughts on this important topic!!

Great fireside! We diversified a few years ago from mostly URs and United to MRs when I clued into the great transfer bonuses with BA and VS. Fortunately for us this was well timed. We almost never travel on United anymore since they screwed with their award charts and moved to the dreaded dynamic pricing. We burn through a lot of miles (over a million each of the past two years) so we never have big stores. I plan ahead pretty well so I know what’s coming down the pipe.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Ooh I see a new PP lounge opened at MSY! We have a 5 pm flight home from MSY in April. Hoping we can get some dinner there.

 

[GusGus16]

I'm completely in the camp of earn and burn. I like to get a good redemption value but I'm not super caught up on getting the greatest redemption value. Many times for me using points make more sense then cash. Points give me an excuse to take trips that I otherwise wouldn't take, so when I have points I'm looking for a way to spend them Right now I'm in a weird place where I don't have any big trips planned and likely not be able to commit for some time to any travel plans. Hoping to make the last minute trip later this month work, but that is still a work in progress.

 

[Judique]

Posting to ask advice. For the purpose of this post, I consider my wife and I as one unit--I'm a stay at home mom, so all the cards/debt are in her name. I did, unfortunately, just recently apply for a new card before coming to these boards. I wish I'd visited here first, but what can you do? We only have 2 credit cards; one is over 8 years old (Capital One Platinum Visa).

The other is 01/20 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards. We chose it for the 2x miles on all purchases, and the bonus 500,000 miles when spending at least 3k in the first 3 months (which we did immediately by paying for our Disney and Universal tickets). This will be our primary card for the foreseeable future. While not opposed to opening new cards, the most important thing is no negative impact on my wife's credit score, which is 798.

Other information:
We make generally all purchases every month on credit card. Only thing we can't put on it is mortgage, obviously.
We pay off our CC in full every month, no matter the balance.
We fly out of CMH (Columbus, OH)
No preference on FF program, Southwest does fly from CMH.
No preference on hotel rewards. We usually book through hotels.com for the free nights.
Current points between both cards is about 65,000, but will soon have 500,000 more from our new card bonus.

Goals for churning -- we have plans for a trip to Australia in fall of 2021, and a trip to Italy in spring of 2022. Besides that we take many shorter distance trips throughout the year. But honestly, more freedom and flexibility in our travel choices, and spending less money out of pocket in general is the goal. (We have mostly already paid for our Disney trip in October of this year--hotel, tickets, and rental car are already booked and paid for, and we used miles on the flight; all that remains is dining/souvenirs, but if there's a way to shave money off this trip, too, that'd be great.)

Travel party size usually consists of 2 adults, and 1 child aged 7. We do often take our nephew as well, aged 8.

I just want to stress again that this cannot have any sort of negative impact on credit score. My wife is very protective of that!

Thanks ahead of time for any tips and suggestions. I'm in awe of what you guys do here!

The venture rewards bonus is 50k miles.

The one thing I will ask directly - is there a reason you are not applying for a card in your own name?

We have lots of stay at home moms and dads here who get their own cards. When applying you put household income down as annual income. Your job is very important and it contributes to earning the household income.

Since it appears you have no card in your own name it is a good idea to start the process with a 'beginner' card such as Discover. With two players you can build points balances or cash back faster. If you've had credit problems in the past and that is the reason for no cards, it's important also to start the process of rebuilding it.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Great fireside! We diversified a few years ago from mostly URs and United to MRs when I clued into the great transfer bonuses with BA and VS. Fortunately for us this was well timed. We almost never travel on United anymore since they screwed with their award charts and moved to the dreaded dynamic pricing. We burn through a lot of miles (over a million each of the past two years) so we never have big stores. I plan ahead pretty well so I know what’s coming down the pipe.

Thanks for your thoughts! One thing that I failed to mention that sort of sparked this "chat" was a lot of the recent shutdown activity. I know not everybody can see that subreddit, the thing that has been very shocking to me was the number of people who are losing over a million miles!! Even more shocking is that many of them seem to LOSE way more miles than they were able to USE! That's just sad...and unfortunately speaks somewhat to poor planning on their part. If you're playing in the danger zone you gotta find a use for those miles my friends!!!

 

[WVMomof3]

Posting to ask advice. For the purpose of this post, I consider my wife and I as one unit--I'm a stay at home mom, so all the cards/debt are in her name. I did, unfortunately, just recently apply for a new card before coming to these boards. I wish I'd visited here first, but what can you do? We only have 2 credit cards; one is over 8 years old (Capital One Platinum Visa).

The other is 01/20 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards. We chose it for the 2x miles on all purchases, and the bonus 500,000 miles when spending at least 3k in the first 3 months (which we did immediately by paying for our Disney and Universal tickets). This will be our primary card for the foreseeable future. While not opposed to opening new cards, the most important thing is no negative impact on my wife's credit score, which is 798.

Other information:
We make generally all purchases every month on credit card. Only thing we can't put on it is mortgage, obviously.
We pay off our CC in full every month, no matter the balance.
We fly out of CMH (Columbus, OH)
No preference on FF program, Southwest does fly from CMH.
No preference on hotel rewards. We usually book through hotels.com for the free nights.
Current points between both cards is about 65,000, but will soon have 500,000 more from our new card bonus.

Goals for churning -- we have plans for a trip to Australia in fall of 2021, and a trip to Italy in spring of 2022. Besides that we take many shorter distance trips throughout the year. But honestly, more freedom and flexibility in our travel choices, and spending less money out of pocket in general is the goal. (We have mostly already paid for our Disney trip in October of this year--hotel, tickets, and rental car are already booked and paid for, and we used miles on the flight; all that remains is dining/souvenirs, but if there's a way to shave money off this trip, too, that'd be great.)

Travel party size usually consists of 2 adults, and 1 child aged 7. We do often take our nephew as well, aged 8.

I just want to stress again that this cannot have any sort of negative impact on credit score. My wife is very protective of that!

Thanks ahead of time for any tips and suggestions. I'm in awe of what you guys do here!

Welcome! I just wanted to say don’t discount yourself as a card getter just because you are a stay at home mom. I am also and have opened up 12 cards in the last 3 years. And I think I am a slow churned compared to most here. My DH has probably opened up about the same number. And our credit scores sometimes dip but they come back up. They are both over 800 so I think we are doing fine. I am a little confused by your post, you have churning goals but then say maybe you will open a new card. Churning is literally opening many cards. So you need to be open to that. And doing it in 2 player mode is way faster and more lucrative. What do you want from your trip, free hotels? Free flights? Knowing what you want will help you decide what cards to get. Most people start with Chase UR cards because they are easy but Amex MR points might be helpful too, depending on your goals.

 

[Haley R]

I’m getting kind of nervous about our chase points. We have over 500k and DO have a plan for them but not until May or June (flights to Japan). I don’t think we’ll see any issues with chase between now and then but it’s possible. If people do start getting shut down, we will probably just cash out our points and deal with it. The points are in Dh’s account so idk if that makes any difference or not. My goal is to MDD in April and then be done with chase for a long time, at least with my name. I would really like to branch out to Amex or something different to diversify our points.

 

[bernina]

A Fireside Chat on EARNING, BURNING and HOARDING...
This seems to be a topic of interest to a lot of people lately in light of a lot of doom and gloom of 2019 that brought us clawbacks and shutdowns galore! I'm going to attempt to organize some thoughts around this subject that hopefully will be helpful to a lot of you here and also spark some discussion (I'd love to hear from you all on this topic too!!)

Should I participate in [insert name here] advanced strategy (a.k.a. loophole)?

• First off...I prefer to call them "advanced strategies" instead of loopholes. I don't really like the undertones that come with the word loophole!
• "Advanced Strategies" are a part of the churning game, and we are always looking for new ways to bolster our points earning potential!
• Even back in the days before 5/24, churners would find and implement advanced strategies that allowed them to earn more points than appeared possible on the surface.

It is very important that you understand the risks of implementing any advanced strategy. Card issuers and rewards programs have been known to take the following actions in response to this: closing specific cards that were opened as a result of the strategy; closing ALL cards with that issuer; clawing back points (even if that leaves you with a negative balance); denying bonus points or future card bonuses; shutting off the ability to generate support links; cancelling award travel (flights/hotels/etc) booked using points or methods deemed illegitimate.

This sounds super scary...maybe I should avoid all Advanced Strategies???

• Well...first off...yeah, maybe you should...but that could severely limit your ability to earn enough points to travel for free all the time.
• The banks, rewards programs and card issuers will continue to find ways to restrict the ability to earn multiple SUBs. This is inevitable! Churners are not profitable...so if you aren't willing to push the envelope, you're going to find that your churning results are closer to that of a non-churner vs. a hardcore churner.

So it all comes down to risk vs. reward and knowing your risk tolerance. Each issuer and program is different as well...

• AMERICAN EXPRESS: notably the most hardcore when it comes to taking adverse action against churners retroactively. Shutdowns are more rare with them, but claw-backs are their favorite. And they will put you on a list as a "gamer"...and it's hard to get off that list!
• CHASE: most commonly noted as the issuer that will shut you down...but it's pretty easy to avoid this fate. Don't get cards too fast, don't attempt to get cards if you're well over 5/24, don't apply for multiple cards with them on the same day... Chase is also known for rarely (never?) clawing back points and they frequently have issued warnings in the past to people who have done something that they feel was an abuse of their programs.
• AMERICAN AIRLINES: the new sheriff in town who will shutdown your miles, your hopes, and your dreams... enough said there...

So you've decided to implement one of the numerous advanced strategies...what should I be thinking about now?

• If you're playing in a fairly safe space...(i.e. you did 1 MDD)...don't panic. As the saying goes: "Act like you've been there before!"
• Hoarding points earned in a legitimate fashion brings with it the risks of devaluation but the risks of lowing your points to a claw-back are far less and if you have a specific redemption in mind, then by all means hoard away until you get there!
• That said...IF you are in deep, and you are PRINTING points faster than you can use them using some of our favorite advanced strategies...you gotta do something about it!
• Hoarding points earned in this fashion is NOT a good plan! First off, your large points balance could put a clear target on your account when they come for the "abusers"... Secondly, as long as said strategy continues, you can replace the points you have today in a mere number of months! So stop looking for the optimal redemption, stop waiting for the perfect trip to pop up...find a way to convert those points into something of value in your pocket and just do it!
• I'm not saying you should cash out to $0 every month, but don't be the person who gets shutdown with 2 million miles and you never used a single one of them!
• If you're earning more points than you can use, and you don't see a clear path on how to cash them out or convert them to some cash-like value, it might be time to move in a different direction and diversify your points.

So should I "Earn and Burn" like everybody says?
Oh yes, the old r/churning mantra "Earn and Burn"... look, don't let ANYBODY (even me) tell you what you should or should not do with your points!!

I had this crazy stupid goal of having a million URs last year...and so I went for it... and in retrospect it was stupid because I should've been cashing them out...BUT it made me happy to see it once and I don't regret it!

I have a stash of over a million Marriott points, I attempt to keep my Southwest stash above 500k at all times: I'm certainly not earning and burning those currencies.

• Marriott is my safety stash, I totally acknowledge it will be devalued over time and I'm ok with that - I like knowing that in any circumstance (random stop-over trip, long weekend trip, wedding hotel needed, unfortunate death of a loved one, etc.) that I can get a convenient free hotel! That is what it's there for and it serves me well! I never earned those points hoping for some aspirational safari in the jungles of Africa...they are doing exactly what I want them to do!
• Southwest is my ticket to all of my travel dreams! They fly exactly where I want to go, non-stop! Have I lost some value over the years with devaluations...sure! But keeping a significant stash of SW points ensures that I will have MANY years of free flights at my disposal even if all of my SW points earning strategies dry up!
• Some of you might be chasing something aspirational...maybe an awesome trip to Hawaii! Well, you aren't going to earn all of those points overnight... so you're going to have to hoard some until you get there...and that's ok!!

So there are two examples of where my points strategy flies in the face of "earn and burn" and a third strategy where hoarding might be required. But to my earlier comment, if you are hoarding points that you are earning using one of the more dangerous "advanced strategies" you might be playing with fire...

So what does this all mean @SouthFayetteFan?? You know what...I truthfully don't know!

These are just the ramblings of a crazy churner guy who has been at this game for almost 7 years...

What I can tell you is that if you are in this game deep enough to implement an "advanced strategy" then you better be able to think for yourself!! Nobody here can tell you if "you're safe"... Nobody here can tell you if you should pull the trigger on that next card. They can tell you what THEY did...they can tell you WHY they did it... but they can't tell YOU what YOU should do! So earn and burn my friends...or earn and hoard...do whatever you think is best! But understand your risks, understand your goals, and make logical decisions!

I think this could be an awesome discussion point for our thread in the next few days. I'd really love to hear what others think on this topic. How are you earning, burning and hoarding in this strange churning world we operate in here in 2020...

I'll also mention as a side note that the days of openly bragging of your "advanced strategy conquests" on the internet should probably be over...those types of comments are probably best left to DISchurners and other more private settings.

Thanks in advance to anybody willing to share some thoughts on this important topic!!

Oh SFF I love your fireside chats and your use of memes/gifs. I feel like if FDR was doing his chats today he would adopt much the same style. He'd have fun with the memes!!

I agree with all of this and will add in what I wish I would have known/understood when I jumped into this game more than 7 years ago. This thread wasn't around and I mostly learned on flyertalk and a few other message board and forums (much less friendly than than our favorite cc thread!).

Know your currency and what value YOU will get out of it. Sure the points bloggers place insane value on those overwater bungalows in the Maldives, but if that's not a realistic option for you and the hotel footprint isn't in places you want to visit, then it may be a very poor use of a 5/24 slot or MSR. I've been guilty of jumping into a currency because there was a good sign up offer but had no real plans on how I was going to utilize. At best it caused a distraction from earning currencies I knew more about and could get much better redemptions on, at worst it caused me to get frustrated and settle for redemptions that I really had no excitement over. I've learned to research a currency first and have a general idea of where we plan to go in the next 24 months.

Don't be afraid to step back, slow down, take a break and reevaluate. And don't feel like you have to keep up with the crazy fast churners. Many have been in the game for years. I've personally been in the game and then out of the game and then back into the game. Life happens and it's ok to take a step back and focus on other things. Sometimes the organization and energy required can become overwhelming. And if you're feeling like this, ask questions, use this thread to vent. We've probably all been there at some point and can share how we adapted.

Have a backup plan for your backup plan (just like @calypso726!!) If you're jumping in the deep end with advanced strategies, not only do you need to know how to swim, but you also need a plan B (and sometimes C and D). A certain airline has taught us anything is on the table when it comes to how far banks and travel providers will go to shut down and penalize those using advanced strategies.

And lastly, have fun and enjoy the ride. Rules change, points and miles are devalued, and if you play long enough you'll probably get at least one shutdown or clawback or warning email. Roll with it, learn, and adjust your approach based on your own personal risk tolerances and what you feel comfortable with. Enjoy looking back on some pretty sweet redemptions, shed a tear for the opportunities that are no more, and look forward to the next advanced strategy (and hope the blogs take a long time to catch on and kill it).

 

[thursdaystgiles]

To answer the question about why I don't have cards, it's just because I'm a stay at home mom, and figured I probably wouldn't get approved. My credit isn't bad, but not great, either, probably around 680-700. I'm not opposed to opening cards for myself. I just need to understand what to do, and what the benefit is of doing so.

Like you're saying that having multiple cards is better for churning points--and I believe you, this is what you guys do, and you're good at it! But I'm having trouble understanding how. I mean, if the amount we spend isn't going to increase, regardless of number of cards open. I get that there are the initial bonuses for applying to a new card, but beyond that, is there a benefit to having multiple cards.

And yes, I understand what churning is, but I need to have some good information to take to my wife as to why this is a good idea, since she is so wary of opening new cards.

 

[thursdaystgiles]

Welcome! I just wanted to say don’t discount yourself as a card getter just because you are a stay at home mom. I am also and have opened up 12 cards in the last 3 years. And I think I am a slow churned compared to most here. My DH has probably opened up about the same number. And our credit scores sometimes dip but they come back up. They are both over 800 so I think we are doing fine. I am a little confused by your post, you have churning goals but then say maybe you will open a new card. Churning is literally opening many cards. So you need to be open to that. And doing it in 2 player mode is way faster and more lucrative. What do you want from your trip, free hotels? Free flights? Knowing what you want will help you decide what cards to get. Most people start with Chase UR cards because they are easy but Amex MR points might be helpful too, depending on your goals.

What I meant is that I'm opening to churning, I just need to make sure it's a good idea for us, personally, before going ahead with it. (Esp. since we just opened a card this past month). And I'm not adverse to opening a card for myself, if they'd approve it! I'll have to look at those you mentioned, thanks!

 

[miztressuz]

Oh SFF I love your fireside chats and your use of memes/gifs. I feel like if FDR was doing his chats today he would adopt much the same style. He'd have fun with the memes!!

I agree with all of this and will add in what I wish I would have known/understood when I jumped into this game more than 7 years ago. This thread wasn't around and I mostly learned on flyertalk and a few other message board and forums (much less friendly than than our favorite cc thread!).

Know your currency and what value YOU will get out of it. Sure the points bloggers place insane value on those overwater bungalows in the Maldives, but if that's not a realistic option for you and the hotel footprint isn't in places you want to visit, then it may be a very poor use of a 5/24 slot or MSR. I've been guilty of jumping into a currency because there was a good sign up offer but had no real plans on how I was going to utilize. At best it caused a distraction from earning currencies I knew more about and could get much better redemptions on, at worst it caused me to get frustrated and settle for redemptions that I really had no excitement over. I've learned to research a currency first and have a general idea of where we plan to go in the next 24 months.

Don't be afraid to step back, slow down, take a break and reevaluate. And don't feel like you have to keep up with the crazy fast churners. Many have been in the game for years. I've personally been in the game and then out of the game and then back into the game. Life happens and it's ok to take a step back and focus on other things. Sometimes the organization and energy required can become overwhelming. And if you're feeling like this, ask questions, use this thread to vent. We've probably all been there at some point and can share how we adapted.

Have a backup plan for your backup plan (just like @calypso726!!) If you're jumping in the deep end with advanced strategies, not only do you need to know how to swim, but you also need a plan B (and sometimes C and D). A certain airline has taught us anything is on the table when it comes to how far banks and travel providers will go to shut down and penalize those using advanced strategies.

And lastly, have fun and enjoy the ride. Rules change, points and miles are devalued, and if you play long enough you'll probably get at least one shutdown or clawback or warning email. Roll with it, learn, and adjust your approach based on your own personal risk tolerances and what you feel comfortable with. Enjoy looking back on some pretty sweet redemptions, shed a tear for the opportunities that are no more, and look forward to the next advanced strategy (and hope the blogs take a long time to catch on and kill it).

 

[DaveL]

How many MSRs was that?
(hopefully at least one was a CIP - 3x! )

Its a direct pull from the troops bank account.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for your thoughts! One thing that I failed to mention that sort of sparked this "chat" was a lot of the recent shutdown activity. I know not everybody can see that subreddit, the thing that has been very shocking to me was the number of people who are losing over a million miles!! Even more shocking is that many of them seem to LOSE way more miles than they were able to USE! That's just sad...and unfortunately speaks somewhat to poor planning on their part. If you're playing in the danger zone you gotta find a use for those miles my friends!!!

I'm not a huge fan of the reddit format, but I do pop over there occasionally to see what is going on. The most recent shutdowns have been pretty brutal. I travel too much to ever be a hoarder of miles, but it's definitely a big wake up call. I also don't push the boundaries too much with the game. I'm pretty risk averse in general and that holds true for this as well. We spend a lot every year so I've been able to accumulate the points I need with occasional card pickups here and there. My problem is we end up keeping them because we end up liking them and my husband complains about his George Costanza wallet (Seinfeld reference for the kids in the group ).

Know your currency and what value YOU will get out of it. Sure the points bloggers place insane value on those overwater bungalows in the Maldives, but if that's not a realistic option for you and the hotel footprint isn't in places you want to visit, then it may be a very poor use of a 5/24 slot or MSR. I've been guilty of jumping into a currency because there was a good sign up offer but had no real plans on how I was going to utilize. At best it caused a distraction from earning currencies I knew more about and could get much better redemptions on, at worst it caused me to get frustrated and settle for redemptions that I really had no excitement over. I've learned to research a currency first and have a general idea of where we plan to go in the next 24 months.

This!! That is one of the reasons I've never cashed out URs for travel on the Chase portal. We save our miles for business or first class redemptions that typically get way better than 1.5 a point. Last year's trip to Japan with all four of us in first was something like 12 cents a point. But even when the point cost is close if redeemed on Chase, I will do an award ticket for the flexibility. Because we travel to the UK so much (DD is at University over there), we value URs and MRs highly because of BA and VS.

 

[miztressuz]

Its a direct pull from the troops bank account.

Crushed. Utterly crushed.

Where's that reaction when you need it...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm not a huge fan of the reddit format, but I do pop over there occasionally to see what is going on. The most recent shutdowns have been pretty brutal. I travel too much to ever be a hoarder of miles, but it's definitely a big wake up call. I also don't push the boundaries too much with the game. I'm pretty risk averse in general and that holds true for this as well. We spend a lot every year so I've been able to accumulate the points I need with occasional card pickups here and there. My problem is we end up keeping them because we end up liking them and my husband complains about his George Costanza wallet (Seinfeld reference for the kids in the group ).


This!! That is one of the reasons I've never cashed out URs for travel on the Chase portal. We save our miles for business or first class redemptions that typically get way better than 1.5 a point. Last year's trip to Japan with all four of us in first was something like 12 cents a point. But even when the point cost is close if redeemed on Chase, I will do an award ticket for the flexibility. Because we travel to the UK so much (DD is at University over there), we value URs and MRs highly because of BA and VS.

Are you in the shutdown sub by chance? I’m referencing the private one the mods setup...it’s a BLOODBATH in there daily! Millions and millions of lost miles every single day!!! One guy lost 600k butt in seat miles because he got mixed up in this, sounds like he barely ever used any of his 1.3MM miles! So. Many. Sad. Stories.