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Why Credit Card Churning Can Be So Valuable for Vacationers and Everyday Spenders.


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Credit card churning is the ‘art’ of applying for and receiving multiple credit card approvals for their hefty sign-up bonuses for the purpose of earning miles and points toward personal, business or family vacations.

Say, for example, credit card X offers you an initial signup bonus of 50,000 airline miles when you spend $2,000 within three months, and credit card Y offers you 30,000 hotel points when you spend $1,000 within the first three months, a churner would sign up for the first card, spend the necessary money to earn the bonus miles, put aside or cancel that first credit card, and then move on to the next card with the hotel points bonus offer.

Credit card churning is so popular that there are a number of educational forums, blogs and even a Frequent Traveler University that are geared toward helping people understand how to churn credit cards towards specific travel goals. We attended one in Washington DC last year, where close to 1,000 people attended a two-day event.

The banks are pretty lenient when it comes to allowing consumers to apply for multiple credit cards and don’t restrict the bonus offers on the continuous usage of the credit card.

However, earlier this year, Chase issued a new approval policy, which does not address one’s credit score, debt-to-income ratio or length of credit history. Chase’s policy change dealt specifically with consumers who had opened five or more credit card accounts across all banks (not just Chase credit cards) over the past two years – anyone who applied for multiple cards during this team period would be denied for specific Chase credit cards, namely Chase cards that qualify for Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

One Chase representative confirmed: “If you’ve opened 5 or more new credit card accounts with any bank over the past 24 months you will NOT be approved for a Chase branded card.”

It looks like for the time being, consumers like us will no longer be allowed to churn, earn and burn Chase Ultimate Reward credit card offers. The cards included in this new policy are: Chase Freedom; Chase Ink Cash; Chase Ink Plus; Chase Sapphire Preferred; Chase Slate.

We expected Chase to start cracking down on bonus offer freebies, as Chase is known for their strict financial policies, and individuals and business have reported having their personal and business bank accounts shut down due to internal regulating policies that Chase representatives ultimately never discloses. It’s no secret that Chase is taking the lead in restricting consumers from opening cards purely for the sake of earning credit card bonuses, which ultimately cost Chase money.

We guess the $25 billion bailout of taxpayer funds during the financial crisis and the approximately $3.1 billion returned to shareholders in the first quarter of 2015 wasn’t and isn’t enough money for executives and shareholders at the financial behemoth.

The good news is that as of yet, Chase hasn’t restricted the policy to co-branded credit cards, which are cards with specific mileage or point programs, that are backed by Chase Bank. So for the time being, this policy change does NOT seem to apply to other Chase cards, including: Chase British Airways; Chase Fairmont; Chase Hyatt; Chase IHG; Chase Marriott Rewards Premier (Personal); Chase Marriott Rewards Premier (Business); Chase Ritz-Carlton; Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier (Personal); Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier (Business); Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus; Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (Personal); Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (Business); Chase United Club.

Eli Schreiber is a partner and director of marketing at Get PEYD. For more information visit PEYD360.com



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