How to Develop a Credit Card Churning Strategy (2024)

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by Elizabeth Aldrich

No idea what churning is? Start here.

Now, if you’ve read my other articles, you’ll remember I mentioned the importance of doing research on credit card churning before jumping in blindly. After getting an understanding of what churning is and if it’s right for you , the next step in your research is to develop a churning strategy. Which cards should you apply for, and when?

The answer is, as always: it depends.

What are your goals?

The first step in choosing cards is to figure out what your churning goals are. Yes, they need to be a little more specific than “I want free stuff”.

What are you trying to achieve with your rewards? Most people churn for travel and vacation rewards, so that’s what we’ll focus on. Where do you want to travel? Do you want to fly first-class, or is coach sufficient? Do you need hotel points or do you plan on traveling to places where you can stay with friends and family?

Set up clear goals for yourself. If you’ve got a trip planned in the next 6-12 months that you haven’t yet booked, a perfect first churning goal is to try and get the flights and hotels for that trip free. If it’s a domestic trip with you and a partner for less than a week, this is totally doable with a moderate or even slow churning strategy. Bigger trips are feasible with a more aggressive churning strategy, but that’s not always advisable for beginners.

Fixed Value vs. Branded Cards

Fixed value cards are cards that aren’t associated with a specific airline or hotel chain and instead offer their own point system that can apply to a variety of different brands. These are great because they offer flexibility, and they maintain their value over time. If an airline changes its award redemption system to make flights more expensive (which happens often), your branded miles are suddenly devalued, while fixed value points are not.

However, fixed value cards tend to have slightly less appealing sign-on bonuses and promotional offers. Additionally, f you are loyal to a specific airline or hotel chain, you miss out on some extra perks that branded cards often offer, such as free checked luggage or a bump in your frequent flyer status.

Airline or hotel branded cards are tied to a specific airline or hotel chain and can only be used with that company. If you have to travel on specific dates, this can be pretty limiting because of the black-out dates and price jumps that you encounter when trying to redeem awards. However, if you travel is flexible, you can easily squeeze a lot of value out of your points and miles, especially if you do your research.

If you’re going for a branded card, however, be sure it’s with an airline or hotel chain to which you want to be loyal. Consider which airlines frequently serve your home airport and what routes they offer. If you want to go to Chile, which airlines offer good deals on flights to South America from your airport. Pick a handful of airlines and hotel chains to frequent. Loyalty in the churning game is like investing – you want to diversify, but you don’t want to spread your rewards so thin that each one is nearly worthless. To learn more about award redemption, spend some time browsing Flyer Talk, a forum filled with priceless tips and tricks from frequent flyers and million-milers.

In the end, you’ll probably end up with both kinds of cards, but it’s important to understand the difference.

Promotional offers

This is important: pay attention to promotional offers. Altogether now: PAY ATTENTION TO PROMOTIONAL OFFERS.

These will get you the jackpot sign-on bonuses, and you want to plan your credit card applications around them. Its’ how you’ll churn out the big rewards. I’ve seen these offers reach upwards of 100,000 points. Anything at 75,000 or above is very good. 50,000 or more is still pretty good. For most cards, 25,000-30,000 is pretty typical, and you could probably find a better offer.

Follow credit card promotions posted in the master-thread on Flyer Talk, where the latest offers are highlighted in maroon. Another way to find promotions is by frequenting the churning subreddit, r/churning, and filtering to threads with the “New CC offer” flair.

An important new rule from Chase bank

In early 2016, Chase bank instituted a new rule that changes the game for credit card churners everywhere. It’s something that you need to consider now when developing your strategy.

Deemed the 5/24 rule, Chase’s policy now states that they will not approve anyone for a Chase credit card if they have already opened 5 or more credit cards within the past 24 months regardless of what bank issued them. In other words, if you’ve opened more than 5 credit cards in the past two years, even if none of them are Chase credit cards, you will likely not be approved for a new Chase card.

This is kind of a big deal, because Chase issues some of the most coveted credit cards for rewards-hunters. What does it mean for your strategy? Get ‘em while they’re hot. You want to apply for any Chase cards you think you might want in the next two years first.

Stay tuned for my next article on the best credit cards to start churning with, including a couple Chase cards that you’ll likely want to prioritize. You’re almost ready to start applying!

About the author

How to Develop a Credit Card Churning Strategy (4)

Elizabeth Aldrich

Elizabeth is a freelance writer and “digital nomad” specializing in small business, entrepreneurship, career advice, real estate, travel, arts, and culture. She’s written for outlets as varied as Rawckus Music and Arts Magazine, Itcher Entertainment, Sweden Tips, Houzz, Hometalk, JobHero, Tico Times, and Eugene Weekly. Thanks to a three-year stint in a travel job, a knack for mining great deals, and credit card churning, she has not paid for a single flight since 2012, despite her constant travels. You can find her on Twitter @LizzieAldrich or her website, www.elizabethaldrich.com.

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How to Develop a Credit Card Churning Strategy (2024)

FAQs

How to Develop a Credit Card Churning Strategy? ›

Credit card churn is a strategy consumers use to gain the maximum rewards and other benefits from these companies. The most common methods are signing up for the cards with the best rewards, receiving sign-up bonuses, and canceling the card before any annual fees are due.

What are the steps for credit card churning? ›

You apply for those cards, and once you receive them you spend enough to get the bonus points or miles. You then stop using the cards and cancel them, sometimes before you have to pay an annual fee. (Many annual fees are waived in the first year.) Repeat the process.

Is credit card churning profitable? ›

You get a new card, maximize as many benefits as possible, pay off your balance each month, cancel before the annual fee is due again and move on to the next card. Since credit card churners don't pay any interest and minimal fees, they are some of the bank's least profitable customers.

Is credit card churning bad for credit score? ›

How Does Churning Affect Your Credit? Your credit score is only part of your financial profile. Credit card churning may not impact your score by more than a few points, but it can significantly impact how a current or future card issuer perceives you as a customer.

What are the problems of credit card churning? ›

While earning a welcome bonus on more than one credit card within a year can be a smart move, churning cards just to earn new bonuses will eventually lead to a dead end. Not only can your credit score sustain damage, but card issuer policies can prevent you from signing up for new cards down the road.

What is the 5 24 rule? ›

What is the 5/24 rule? Many card issuers have criteria for who can qualify for new accounts, but Chase is perhaps the most strict. Chase's 5/24 rule means that you can't be approved for most Chase cards if you've opened five or more personal credit cards (from any card issuer) within the past 24 months.

What are the steps of churning? ›

Better buttermaking also depends upon other factors, such as the fat content of the cream and its acidity. The process has three steps: Churning physically agitates the cream until it ruptures the fragile membranes surrounding the milk fat. Once broken, the fat droplets can join with each other and form clumps of fat.

Is Stoozing still worth it? ›

Stoozing is a money hack that can help to maximise the interest you earn on your savings. It involves using 0% interest credit cards for your spending to allow you to put more money into a savings account. However, stoozing can be risky if you don't manage your credit card and finances effectively.

How to churn credit cards without affecting credit score? ›

Scores may go down if you apply for too many cards in a short time, rack up debt or quickly close out cards. Instead, only apply for a new card every six months, keep cards with no annual fee or look into downgrading to cards without fees.

Is bank churning legal? ›

Churning is prohibited by federal laws, industry rules, and an investment adviser's fiduciary duty to his or her clients.

What are the disadvantages of churning? ›

What Are The Disadvantages? There are several drawbacks of churn rates that should be considered. One drawback of the churn rate is its failure to consider specific characteristics of the departing customers. Customer attrition tends to primarily affect recently acquired customers, a phenomenon known as customer decay.

Is credit churning illegal? ›

Card issuers often offer large intro bonuses to new cardholders, and some people try to game the system by opening cards, earning the bonus and moving on to the next card. Churning isn't illegal, but it is controversial and sometimes leads to repercussions by card issuers.

Is it bad to use 90% of your credit card? ›

Lower utilization rates are better for your credit scores, and 30% could be better than 50%, 70% or 90%. However, a lower utilization rate might be even better for your credit scores. People in the highest credit score range tend to have utilization rates in the single digits.

How to make money churning credit cards? ›

Credit card churn is a strategy consumers use to gain the maximum rewards and other benefits from these companies. The most common methods are signing up for the cards with the best rewards, receiving sign-up bonuses, and canceling the card before any annual fees are due.

What is cycling a credit card? ›

Credit cycling is when you charge your credit card to its limit, pay the balance down, and then charge more within the same billing cycle. This can come in handy in certain situations, but isn't without its risks.

Is churning worth it? ›

Credit card churning doesn't work well for everyone. While you could potentially end up with great rewards, you could do serious damage to your credit score if you're not careful. Plus, having so many rewards could be pointless if you slip up and have to waste money paying for fees and interest.

What are the 4 steps of credit card processing? ›

What are the four steps in order for a credit card transaction? The four steps involved in a credit card transaction are authorization, authentication, batching, clearing and settlement, and funding.

What is the churning process in banking? ›

In the banking sector, churn occurs when customers close their accounts, cease using banking services, or transfer their funds to another institution. This churn could be triggered by various factors such as dissatisfaction with service quality, better offerings by competitors, or changes in financial circ*mstances.

How many credit cards can you churn a year? ›

There are technically no limits to how many cards you can apply for and get in a year. However, there are limits as too many could be a sign for financial stress which then leads to you getting rejected for credit cards in return. Most churners, as we call them, usually get a new card every 2-4 months.

What are the 3 steps in credit card management? ›

What are the 3 Steps in Credit Card Processing?
  • Step 1: Payment Authorization. The first step to cc processing is payment authorization. ...
  • Step 2: Payment Authentication. The payment authentication stage for small businesses is the second credit card processing stage. ...
  • Step 3: Clearing.
Jul 12, 2022

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