Originally Posted by
bklgafly
I understand. I am not looking for reassurance - I am hoping to get some ideas from you guys on how to reduce my risk as I am not a churnner but you are right - if Chase will decide that I am - it will be hard to sway them otherwise.
One good tip I got already is to use portal where I can when it is not so far off from 5x. BTW... b/c I have the CSR those 5 points are really 7.5% if I redeem in travel portal. Which is why I do want to take advantage of it.
I would love to hear what other steps I can take to reduce it....
Some of my thoughts are: should I close unused non chase cards now? Should I call Chase before starting work and tell them I will be using my cards much more? is buying e gift card better than physical in my quest to not be flagged a churner? (in other words - are churners using more physical vs e gift or is it the same...? ) should I move around my cl so my cards are more even? (I have two cards with 5k each then one card with 25k...)
I am not sure how you churners do it but I am hoping that chase can see that I am not redepositing into my accounts. I only have bank accounts with one more bank which I never use really.
Hopefully algo will see that I am not a churner but you are indeed correct that Chase has an incentive to shut me down nonetheless.
First of all, I am not in the category of your definition of churners. But I am mindful of being inadvertently caught in the random fires of Chase' shoot first policy. Hence I read the DPs and make my list of things to avoid.
Besides, you cannot churn Chase cards anyway. So the "churner" concept does not really apply here.
I understand your argument on the CSR - that only works if you can always use the 1.5x travel booked thru UR portal. In reality personally I have found that is near impossible, especially if one has hotel status therefore booking direct is mandatory in order to enjoy the benefits that come with the statuses. Flights - only work for domestic coach fares. Everything else does not work for us. Would not risk forfeiting rental car CDW coverage to use UR pts versus use the CSR card itself. YMMV though.
Managing your CLs definitely should be one action you should take. $5K CL is too low for what you want to do because you dont want to use up the CL each billing cycle even you pay it in full before statement closes. If you have other business cards, you can reallocate CL to the Ink Cash cards.
Hardly used personal cards should not take up large CLs due to the issue of "exposure" to the banks. The old school of "higher CLs would only improve the utilization ratio" is outdated in the current environment when banks are looking more at their exposures than the card member's utilization ratio. Some banks actually would CUT the credit lines on cards that hardly used, or only used for smallish purchases now and then. The trend tends to put the emphasis to the UNSECURED credit line exposure, than monitoring the cardholder's overall utilization ratio. After all, the available credit line can promptly be used up in the case when the cardholder is in financial distress, even the cardholder usually has a very low utilization ratio.