flyer4512

I have 5 open right now, I have had as many as 7 open.

isle-hawg

The rule I use for this and all cards I no longer want to keep after reaping the benefits of the sign-up bonus is to keep the card open for a min of 8 months max of 11.5 regardless of whether or not an AF is involved.

This hobby is a marathon not a sprint, no reason in my line of thinking to risk getting blacklisted by a bank for closing cards right after cashing in on the sign-up bonus over and over again, especially the exact same card.

How long have you been keeping yours open before closing?

VegasGambler

This is my approach too. If I'm not willing to pay the AF and it is not waived for the first year then I will not get the card. I would not mind so much if it was a smaller bank, but I would not want to get blacklisted from a lender like Citi, Chase, or BoA. Just because they don't care now, does not mean that they will not care in the future.

There are enough cards with waived first-year AFs that I do not need to resort to this, IMO.

arlflyer

I have only closed a couple of these cards; had had them open about 8-12 months beforehand. Like I had mentioned, the reason for one of these closures was due to an agent basically forcing it (for no apparent reason) during an approval. I then did it for one more of them. So, not a huge number.

Good advice; when I apply next I'll do so with all my current cards still open and see how it goes.

I don't regularly close other CC products like airline cards, etc. I just had the strange occurrence where they closed this one for me. Honestly, knowing when to close or not close cards for various purposes and trade-offs (total CL vs. # of inquiries vs. utilization vs. age of credit vs. accounts open vs. etc., etc.) has been one of the biggest grey areas in this game for me.

That said, for blacklisting purposes, if a bank really cared, I wonder if it really would distinguish between opening and closing a bunch of cards right after getting the bonus and opening a bunch of cards and ceasing to put spend on them right after getting the bonus? They're not really any different.

isle-hawg

Your point/logic is spot on for any particular lender other then intentions of the former being much more blatant than the later. Don't forget or discount though that other banks see the opening and closing date of accounts on your credit report and do not see past history of monthly spend other than the high water mark of each card for closed accounts that goes back at least 10 years.

If a manual review is required this could be a red flag for an issuer - Barclays comes to mind for me when asked why I had 9 new credit cards (from various issuers in the last year). Glad because I follow my rule that I did not have to answer a follow up question of why did I close them two months after opening.

arlflyer

Good points from experience. I hadn't gotten too deeply into the account closing business across the board, and I'll keep this in mind going forward.

sdsearch

Banks tend to use computers for this, and the algorithms are not as sophisticated as humans are. If you're concerned about this, throw another wrinkle into it: Use the card for some small stuff (that you'd buy anway, not artificial purchases) one or biling cycles scattered across the time after you complete the signup bonus spend and the time you cancel the card. A simple algorithm will look at that and see "not just spent on the bonus, did other spend before cancelling the card". The algorithm would have to be written to specifically look for "token" spending to be able to determine that that was all you did. (But how do you get a computer to judge what is "token" spending and what is "real" spending?) Credit departments live in a world with lots of 1s and 0s, and a statement with a balance, no matter how small, is a statement with a balance, as opposed to a statement with no balance (ie, a 1 instead of a 0, a true instead of a false). It's much simpler (and least arbitrary) to divide the statement balance world in two as zero vs non-zero than any other dividing line. (And that zero/non-zero dividing line already exists, for determining whether a payment is needed or not.)

VegasGambler

If they wanted to devote time and money to this, it would be easy to find churners / point chasers. You don't even need to program to look for specific things like "token spending"; that's what machine learning is for.

However, they don't seem to be interested in that... for now.

flyer4512

Exactly ! I have had 17 of these ( 40K, 50K, 60K plus $50 Hilton statement credits on some ) Hilton Visas over the at 27 months........I spend the $1000 ( actually it used to be $1500) and never use the card(s) again.

With the exception of the first Hilton Visa I opened ( which is still open ) they all get closed at 8 months to 1 year.

As soon as I complete the spend I lower the CL to $2K.

To date I have never even had to call recon.

txflyer77

I think reducing the CLs is key with Citi. The last 3-4 Citi apps I've done have all given me pending but with the additional card options. Each time I called in and was approved for a very low limit but could shift credit from existing cards.

I reduced my limits by $10k yesterday before applying for an AA card today but still had to call (though I was approved).

Thinking about cutting my Citi limits in half over the next few weeks. I never use their cards past the minimum spend anyways.

flyer4512

I had had 2 apps like that but I never called ( the cards just came) and I think the lowest CL was $8K.

I don't think you gave it enough time for the lowered CL's to kick in.

SPLP007

Do not want to get rejected and waste a pull

from WIKI ===================== I APPLIED ALL HILTONS

Example:
Day 0 - Citi HHonors Card #1======= Oct 3 2014
Day 8 - Citi AA Personal Card ======= Oct 16 2014
Day 65 - Citi AA Business Card ===== Dec 13 2014
Day 73 - Citi HHonors Card #2 ====== Jan 12 2015
Day 130 - Citi TY Card----------------- is next application Feb 9th? if Hilton

IF not HILTON CAN I "now" apply for a A.A. CITI business Platinum Select card ? as I have not had any business cards in 33 months and cancelled last one in Feb 2013 that is 23 months ago -- are business cards treated different?

Brugge

You know, I pretty much do that too. But it doesn't seem to matter with Citi. I've gone thru 4 or 5 EXEC cards, all canceled within 2 months or less to avoid the AF. Quite a few people on the EXEC thread have done that 8 times now, with no sign of Citi even noticing. I wouldn't think of trying that with Barclays, but Citi doesn't seem to care.

Happy

You need to use examples that meet your current situation because -

In your above example No you cannot apply the AA Biz card. The rule has always been, need 90+ days between Business Cards application. Go back to the AA thread's wiki - it is clearly spelled out there. The rule never changes.

65 days applies to ALL Citi cards. 95 days is a subset of the 65 days that applies to AA Biz cards. It has not been 95 days from Dec 13 2014.

However if you do not have any business card as you say, then my guess is you could apply the business card on the 65 days rule because this would be your first business card from enough long time ago.

Superorb

Happy, does the Biz application reset the clock for further Biz cards AND personal cards, or does it only affect Biz card future applications? I thought the 95 day rule meant that you couldn't apply for another Biz card for 95 days, but personal cards were good after 65.