Originally Posted by
bradmodelt
I need some basic help on Churning. I've read countless threads but am not sure if Churning allows me to keep the same card open (in this case a Citi Aadvantage CitiBusiness / Aadvantage World MasterCard) and Citi just gives me the sign-up bonus offer (50K miles after $3K spend in 3 months); or if I close this account and then apply for the same card again; or keep the account open and submit another application for the same type of card again? It looks like on personal cards I have to wait somewhere between 18 and 24 months before I can Churn but Business accounts are every 90 days. I also have a personal AAdvantage Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® Visa Signature® that I opened May-2012. Can I Churn that one as well? And again, does Churning mean close the account and reapply for the card or just call Citi and ask them to match the current sign-up bonus being offered for that card version?
Churning means simply aplying for credit cards repeatedly for the singup bonusses.
What the churnig rules are, however, varies from bank to bank, card to card, and even sometimes offer to offer.
In the case of personal Citi cards, you do not have to cancel before you apply for another one, you just need to satisfy the time periods between applications (which vary from card to card/offer to offer, but are bounded by at least 8+ days between successive applications,
plus no more than 2 applications in any 65 day period, which are timing limitations on
all Citi cards). The additional (12 to) 18 (to 26) month rule applies to Citi AA personal cards, but does not apply to certain other Citi cards such as the 50k Hilton HHonors Visa.
In the case business Citi cards, you not only have to cancel the card itself but also the underlying "master account" before they'll let you apply for another one. But at this point you only need to follow the generic Citi timing rules (8+ and 65 days), the (12) to 18 (to 26) month rule does not apply to Citi business AA cards as of right now.
Oh, and another rule Citi has is no more than (typically) 6 inquiries in past 6 months
on the bureau that they'll pull. (Unforutnately, it's hard to know
with certainty which bureau they'll pull in advance, or even whether they'll pull one bureau or two.)
You cannot get a signup bonus without applying for a new card "from scratch". Singup bonuses are never given for long-existing cards or for "converting" existing cards. The point of signup bonuses is to attract new customers, and it's a "loophole" that you can get a singup bonus again after having been a customer previously, but that's not the real goal, so of course if you ask to get it on an existing card they won't give it to you.