isle-hawg

This is an excellent point. I do not plan to keep all mine open for the next 17 months from my last card (a month ago). But will move up my planned closure date to close out the rest after I have held them at least 8 months.

groundzero2121

man i jinxed us....

anyone know if we can get the 40k bonus if we've already gotten the 50k multiple times?

beltway

As explained in the wiki, yes, but after an 18-month wait.

LWT3

Wow, I'm very sorry to see this churn end, but it was inevitable. And I was really lucky to get two apps in yesterday while it was still alive. I think I've got enough points to pay for a full week in London and a full week in the Caribbean next spring, so I can't complain. Thank you, Citi!

Also, this reinforces the established pattern when churnable links die: Several days ago the link started acting funny. People were getting partway through, and then the app crashed. For example, see post 533. People were abe to confirm over the phone that the apps went through, but the process became glitchy. And now, the link has died completely.

LWT3

Is the rationale behind keeping them open 8 months to make it look slightly less abusive? For people who have opened and closed double digits of these, I wonder if that matters at all.

Happy

I doubt it matters.

In the process of booking multiple hotel nights now, this makes the decision easier on whether to use Hilton FCO or to pay for a HIE in an inconvenient part of town for 2 nights pre-cruise stay.

isle-hawg

YES. - For Citi I cannot remember ever being auto-approved. To date I have always been approved, but should I ever be asked I would have no good answer as to why did I have X number of these cards and close them within just a couple months after opening them.

Barclays and now Chase also look at all new and closed accounts (from all issuers) during manual review.

LWT3

Makes sense, but for anyone who has been signing up for a new card monthly (it sounds like you haven't been doing them so frequently), then keeping them open for 8 months just means you'd have 8 of them open when you're up for manual review. Which is why I do everything possible to get auto-approved. Through 9 Execs and 6 of these, I've never had to call in.

isle-hawg

Right -I am not saying what is right for me is right for you or most on FT - the following is just but one data point - I opened 20 Citi cards (AA, TY and HH) in the last decade:

Credit score 800+, long credit history, own (2) homes free and clear, 0 debt, make 6 figure income ---- never approved by Citi without having to call.

My best guess as to why is that it has to do with my mailing address and all my financial accounts being tied to a PO Box. Each and every time I called to date I get approved. I put my primary residence as my address during apps since a PO Box is not allowed.

Not a problem to date, but I noticed that especially during my most recent apps that the CSR mentioned my other Citi HH cards.

I don't want to try and explain why I am applying for a card (again) that I canx right after I got the sign up bonus.

EDIT: Or more on topic as to why I close vice keep open, I don't want to have to answer a CSR's question as to why I need another card while I already have multiple copies of this card open at the same time that I am not using.

beltway

Per a brand new report,

• still available over the phone
• still a PITA

sdsearch

For the record: While a true PO Box (from the US Postal Service) is not allowed, a "personal mail box" at a private company can be, if the address doesn't say "PO Box". For example, my mailing address at a UPS Store (which is inside a mini-mall) is in the form "1234 Street Name, Ste 101-222", where "1234 Street Name" is the address of the mini-mall, "Ste 101" is the UPS Store location within the mini-mall, and "222" is my box number inside the UPS Store. I have no problem with banks accepting my address in that form on applications.

(I have not tested whether they accept "PMB". Some non-banks have changed my mailing address from "Ste 101-222" to "Ste 101 PMB 222", but no banks have yet.)

Now, Citi hasn't given me an instant approval since I did this. But I did this at the same time that I moved (a couple years ago), so time at residence (which I noticed they didn't ask for in my latest app, which was for the HH 50k card last week) went from very high to very low. And furthermore, even before that, Citi only sometimes gave me instant approvals.

SPLP007

The U.S. Post office allows the following
street address of post office followed by# of box
city zip

address will look like this

Bill Smith
100 main street #50
New York 11666

flyer4512

What a bummer.........we grabbed 2 last week but I use the points in 160K or 190K lots we should be good until April 2017.

Since I applied last week I will probably cancel every open HH card ( 8 I believe) this week and just keep the one I am making the spend on..............in reality 50 or 60K HH every 18 months is basically useless to us unless it was topping off a AXON or 5th night free award

Now what do I put my spend on, I need hotel points not airline

I have 170K spg, time to cancel my SPG business so I can churn it in a year and get going on Marriott again

LWT3

Amex has had some good offers with a lot of MR points lately, so you can keep your eyes out for those and convert the points to HH. And you can get some TYP cards from Citi. Also, while I've never looked at the details too closely, you can convert AA miles into HH points. No idea how favorable or unfavorable the exchange rate is.

Chase is clamping down and denying apps for some cards from people who have more than 4 or 5 applications with any issuer over the previous two years. So your 24 HH apps may be a problem. But the rule for now seems to be that they'll deny you for UR cards; co-branded cards like Mariott might not have been hit by the new rule yet.

sdsearch

That may or may not work. I've seen some websites that refuse to accept a pound sign (#) in an address, so you must be ready to substitute a legal word (that both the recipient post office and the bank will accept) in place of the pound sign. So if you can't use "#" because the bank won't take it, and you can't use "PO BOX" because the bank will reject your application for it, and those are the only two that the post office itself accepts, what do you do???

I can't remember whether Citi's was one of those sites that rejected the pound sign in addresses or not. But I'm pretty sure some bank I've gotten credit cards from repeatedly was (back when I used my residence address and typically types #5 instead of APT 5).