Originally Posted by
Tr60
I am a bit confused and have few questions as I have been churning for only a bit more than 1 year. Sorry for this long message. But you guys offer great help. I have learned everything from reading the forum before finally joining.
Keep reading and keep asking questions. There are a lot of people giving advice who are misinformed, but also a lot of people who are very well informed (MDtR-Chicago is one). You'll have to learn to sort through what's good and bad for yourself by learning.
I have cancelled only one so far. However, I am about cancel some:
-Got Amex SPG and Amex SPG Business: I got the 30K bonus for each after meeting the minimum spend on both. I am thinking of cancelling the Amex SPG business before the 1 year anniversary so that I can re-apply after 12 months from closure. I thought that the account has to be closed for 12 months before I am eligible for the bonus again.
-Got the Amex Hilton with 40 K bonus only
(could not get Amex give me the extra 25K) and will be upgrading to surpass soon.
-Got Chase Marriott with the 70K bonus (50K + 20K when I called in customer service). I am thinking of cancelling it also so that I can re-apply after 1 year.
-Got the Chase Priority with the 80K bonus (60K +20K after I sent a message through the website. I am thinking of cancelling it also so that I can re-apply after 1 year.
-Got the Chase Freedom with $300 cash back after first use. I am thinking of cancelling it also so that I can re-apply after 1 year.
-Got the Chase continental prior to the merger (got the 30 K bonus) and closed it almost a year ago.
-Got the Amex business, working on meeting the $10K spending to get the 75K bonus
-I cancelled the Amex Gold that I had for a very long time (probably that was a mistake) after getting the Amex business. I will re-apply in 12 month year to get the 25K bonus (and then cancel the Amex Business).
Cards on my list to churn: Amex Delta, Amex Delta business, upgrade to Surpass, then all the Citi cards AA and hotels.
I would keep and cancel differently than what you've listed above. Here's what I would do:
-SPG personal and biz: cancel both. I barely spend anything on those cards because I'm always meeting the minimum spend on other cards.
-Amex HH: keep. This is a no fee card that I'll always keep with Amex mainly to establish a longterm relationship with Amex, plus it gets me access to AXON awards with HH. I believe you can have both this and the Surpass card at the same time.
-Chase PC: keep. This card is more than worth it's annual fee because you get a free night in any PC hotel worldwide. $49 for a night in almost any decent hotel is a bargain, how much more so in some of the awesome InterContinental or Crowne Plaza that are apart of PC. On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily discourage you from canceling this card if you're planning on getting the sign up bonus again. Just be prepared to wait 2+ years with Chase.
-Chase Freedom: keep. Now way I would cancel this card. You got the best offer that there was. You also get 30k UR points/yr by taking advantage of the 5x categories, all without a credit pull. 10k UR points isn't worth a credit pull. Definitely keep this one.
-Chase Continental: cancel. I canceled mine too. Not worth the annual fee. Hopefully you canceled before Chase merged this card with the UA card, so you can get the UA card later.
-Amex business gold: downgrade or cancel. Given that this was your oldest card, you shouldn't have canceled it.....except that it was an Amex so it's less of a big deal because Amex has a small little quirk about how they report the age of your accounts. It's likely that each of your Amex accounts will show an age equal to the age of your oldest account. So if you had this card for 10 years, even new Amex cards that you sign up for will show as 10 years old on your credit report. Even so, I still would have probably downgraded to one of the no fee business cards just to keep an ongoing relationship with Amex.
I have been monitoring closely my credit score (still in the 700s) and never carry a balance on the card.
If the card has no annual fee, I can have multiple cards for the exact same type (2 or 3 Amex hilton and 2 or 3 Freedom cards as they don't have annual fees)?
In the case of Citi, we have to close the account for 90 days before re-applying?
Should I be cancelling per the above?
Thanks for your advice.
First, MDtR-Chicago was suggesting more that just not carrying a balance. He/She was suggesting that you pay your balance in full before your statement closes to keep utilization % low.
Second, a card's annual fee has nothing to do with how many you can have. Each bank (and each card even) has it's own idiosyncrasies that determine whether or not you can have multiple cards of the same brand. Citi seems to be the most liberal (careless?), allowing you to have multiples of the same card. Chase and Amex, however, are much more strict.