Booking with an expired/cancelled card or low-balance ($10 or less) prepaid credit card can be a good strategy to lock-in a low rate far in advance while removing the risk of no-show/cancellation fees in case of unexpected change of plans or you end up being unable to attend the reservation. This is because many hotels don't immediately charge the card even for non-cancellable reservations and wait until one week or so before check-in date before trying to charge the card