Credit Card Churning: 1.5 Years In

I posted back when I began to dip my toes into the vast world of credit card churning in October of 2017. (For those of you who don’t know, it’s the practice of signing up for credit cards that have attractive incentive offers (tens of thousands of points for spending $3,000 in the first three months, typically), and then chaining those offers together to gets tons of free points for, well, free.) I posted another update about four months later, saying that so far, it had been going well.

How are things looking now?

Still peachy keen. Really, my only regret is that I didn’t start this a long time ago. Though, as always, that comes with a huge disclaimer. To make this work, you need to be hyper-organized. You need to keep track of what cards need to be used when and for what. You *need* to pay off each card in full every month. You also need to have a steady stream of purchases you put on a credit card anyway. If you start making purchases just to meet a minimum spending goal, then you’re spending money you wouldn’t have spent otherwise. And that means you’re likely losing money . . .

Denisa and I have some purchases we know will go on a card every month: groceries, phone, utilities, gas. We know how much we spend on those each month, and so we’ve gotten a new card about every 2-3 months. Since I started this, I have gotten 10 new credit cards. With those credit cards, I have gotten 260,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, 325,000 Marriott Points, and I’m coming up on 275,000 Hilton Points. All earned on purchases we were going to make anyway. In addition, I have Gold status with Marriott and Diamond status with Hilton.

Of course, some of the nicer card offers come on cards that have annual fees. If you don’t watch yourself, you’re going to lose some of your “profits” by paying those, but if you swing it right, it actually works out very well. Some examples:

• My Marriott cards typically cost about $95/year. However, they each come with a free night each year. If I’m planning on staying at a Marriott one night/year anyway (per card), then as long as the Marriott I was planning on staying at would cost more than $95, I’m ahead of the game on this one. With my family, when we stay at Marriotts, the cheapest we can find them is usually around $120, so this is just fine. And we travel often.
• My Hilton card costs $450/year(!) When I was starting out, this would have been a deal breaker for me. However, I realize there are ways to make this work as well. For example, it comes with $250 of Southwest gift cards, which knocks that annual price down to $200. It comes with a free weekend night at almost any Hilton. (This year, I’m hoping to take Denisa to stay at a Hilton right off Central Park. It would usually cost $450 for the room. I’ll stay there for “free.”) In addition, I get automatic Diamond status at Hilton, which comes with free upgrades to rooms when I say there, free breakfasts, and other perks. If you don’t travel and stay at hotels enough, it’s hard for these perks to counterbalance the $450 you’re paying for them, but if you *do* travel anyway, they’re an excellent bonus.
• My Chase Sapphire Reserve card is also $450/year. But again, there are benefits. If I spend Chase points to travel, I get a 50% bonus. The first $300 I spend on travel with that card each year is refunded. I get extra buyers protection on purchases, automatic trip insurance, and more. It all depends on whether these bonuses work for what you’re already doing or what you want to do anyway.

I’m to the point now where I’m being more selective on what cards I get, and where I use which card, as some of them give you bonus points for spending in a particular category. For example, my Chase Freedom card gives me 5% points at grocery stores and home improvement stores this quarter. That means I get back about 8-10% of what I spend there if I use those points in travel. If I was going to buy groceries anyway (spoiler alert: I was), then which would be better: buying them for $100 and getting nothing back, or buying them for $100 and getting $8 in travel credits?

My biggest concern going into all of this had been for my credit score. I needn’t have worried. It’s still at the highest level possible, even with all these cards.

Would I do it again? Of course. But only within the constraints I’ve outlined. This morning I just bought round trip tickets to San Antonio for my family, all with points. They would have been over $1,500 for cash. I spent 96,000 Chase points, transferring them over to Southwest. It really felt like a cheat code for travel.

Honestly, my biggest “problem” at this point is that I’m so used to saving money, my natural inclination is to save points as well. They’re no good to me if I don’t use them, so I’m having to look for ways to spend the points to have fun, which is why I got into all of this in the first place. Next up? I’m hoping to stay in Orlando for a week with the fam for free, and there’s another trip to Boston I’d like to take.

Life’s rough.

If any of this sounds like it’s something that’s up your alley (with the disclaimers I gave), then let me know. I can give you some referral links to good cards . . .

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