American Express Membership Rewards - At what point is it too many cards? "Free" stuff accumulates...

I carry the Centurion card, my Shell (5% back on gas!) cc and a debit card serving as an ATM (when no Amex machines around).... but I have a ton of other cards. Marriott gives a free hotel saty so I get one. Use the stay. And before the 12th month rolls around I cancel it. I have had 2 hilton and 2 sheraton amexes that met the same fate and just pocketed 20,000+ points from amex for a gold corporate card.... which I will dump.

Surely there is a downside to this....besides an annoyin amount of cards and the absolute necessity of a "throway" email address solely for credit cards.... Any of you really go after the points and miles?


Just curious...

Surely there is a downside to this....besides an annoyin amount of cards and the absolute necessity of a "throway" email address solely for credit cards

yea, i've heard that opening cards and closing them quickly hurts your credit score, whcih could be important for a car loan or mortgage. also, a part of the score comes from the average age of your accounts, so a bunch of recently opened accounts will bring it down

debit card serving as an ATM (when no Amex machines around)

Sorry that this is slightly off-topic, but how do you use your AMEX in ATMs? I have called a few times asking if this is possible and I haven't been able to figure out a way to make it work.

Thanks in advance!

...get one. Use the stay. And before the 12th month rolls around I cancel it....Any of you really go after the points and miles?

This is commonly called churning, and is arguably the primary topic of discussion in Flyertalk's Other Credit Cards section. See, for example, this thread...

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=583261

No, I don't ;) .

Sorry that this is slightly off-topic, but how do you use your AMEX in ATMs? I have called a few times asking if this is possible and I haven't been able to figure out a way to make it work.

Thanks in advance!

Call up the 1-800- number on the back of your card and enroll in the "express cash" program. They pull the $$ straight out of your linked checking account, and you don't get points. It's a convenience thing.

..."express cash" ...pull the $$ straight out of your linked checking account, ...don't get points. It's a convenience ....

Don't forget the fees. For U.S. Cardmembers, the fee for each cash transaction shall be the greater of $5.00 or 3% of the cash transaction, with no maximum.

Call up the 1-800- number on the back of your card and enroll in the "express cash" program. They pull the $$ straight out of your linked checking account, and you don't get points. It's a convenience thing.

My understanding is that Express Cash works only for charge card products. For credit card products (including things like the SPG Amex), ATM withdrawals would be treated as cash advances and will start to accrue a high amount of interest immediately.

Any of you really go after the points and miles?


Just curious...

Yes, but typically only when I can later consolidate the new card into an existing old one, and if I can then BT money off of it into my checking account. Free points, miles, and money, and it can all be done while I'm "working", so no real downside.

Churning is more generally paying off some prior charges with new ones isn't it? I am just talking about opening new accounts to cash in on the 25,000 miles a pop you can get for doing so.

My centurion card hasnt charged me anything to get money from an ATM

(edit: looking at the link, now I see that mia is correct in this context.... I just had heard the term otherwise employed....so I guess looking at the churning links it is obvious some people play this game hard....)