I accidentally discovered that it is possible -- in fact, quite easy -- to get multiple accounts with the same credit card, together with all signup bonuses.

When UAL offered double miles this summer, I signed up for the 1-for-1 annual fee card, and registered it for the promotion. I got 10,000 miles for signing up. Then last week, to my surprise, I received another statement from Mileage Plus Visa charging me for another $60 annual fee. The kicker: it was a different account number! I don't recall signing up twice, but somehow they think I did, and they gave me two cards with two annual fees and yes -- two 10,000 mile signup bonuses.

But wait -- it gets better.

One of the two cards had a limit of X dollars, the second a (larger) limit of Y. Although I technically qualified for it, the issuer would not have normally given me a limit of X+Y, due to my lack of "previous experience" with such a line. But once both cards were approved, it was trivial to combine the credit line of both accounts! They also waived the second annual fee.

I asked the CSR supervisor about this. She was very friendly and totally unfazed. Didn't they have a problem with people doing this intentionally? "It's fine with us," she said. "We figure we're happy to have a customer who plans to give us that much business." But what about the multiple signup bonuses, etc? "We'd obviously rather not have to award multiple bonuses, but if that's what it takes to get the business, we'll do it."

No doubt to many of you wise guys, this is not news. But do you realize all the (positive) implications of this? Assuming other issuers share this supervisor's view, this is quite a discovery.