consequences of churning?
 

hi

first off, im a flyertalk noob. i am looking at all these good offers and whatnot, and i can get a lot of ff by opening and closing cards with different offers. im not a road-warrior, but i really like to travel recreationally.

however im concerned about pursuing offers and whatnot on flyertalk, i want to take advantage of them, but at the same time ive seen posts that people have been declined for cc's because of churn. if i churn, does it damage my credit rating? will churning hurt my ability to get home and auto loans? while i want to maximize my ff miles, im concerned about bad outcomes in other financial aspects.

how many cc's i should apply for/open/close in 1 year to be on the safe side of churning?

another aspect is that it seems on flyertalk the SPG is *the* card that everyone uses... is this true??? so at the moment i have a costco amex, and im waiting to sign my wife up for a nice SPG amex promotion... are there SPG amex promotions every year, or should i sign her up on a regular SPG amex?

thanks for any advice!!!

Signing up for a credit card does have a small effect on your credit (FICO) score. If I were planning to seek a large loan (a mortgage, for example) soon, I would be somewhat reluctant to sign up for new cards.

One step you can take is to get an idea of your current credit score and then to track it. Banks use the FICO score, but you can't monitor that without signing up for a paid service. The large credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Transunion) offer limited term free trials. I did sign up for a free 3 month Equifax trial, but found that the number of times I could check my credit score at Equifax without fees was limited.

So I am currenly using CreditKarma (www.creditkarma.com) to monitor my credit score. CreditKarma does not give you a true FICO score. Instead, it provides a Transunion score that is related to your FICO score. In comparing my score at CreditKarma to my FICO score during the Equifax trial, I found that it was generally in the same ballpark. You can check your score at CreditKarma as often as you wish without incurring fees and I think it will be a reasonable approximation of your true FICO score.

So, what I'm suggesting you consider: if you wish to sign up for credit card offers but are concerned about what effect this may have on your creditworthiness, you can monitor the effect on your credit score by tracking what happens via CreditKarma.

Churning is kinda over (at least for the moment) due to the great credit crunch. Banks have changed policy to make it much more difficult. The last big opportunity was Citibank's American Airlines cards, but, Citi has recently changed the rules to limit what can be done.

If you are just getting going, don't get carried away with the stories of past glory you can read on FT. While it is certainly still possible to get bonus miles for credit cards, IMHO, getting 10-12 cards a year at 30K bonus each is history.

Try applying for a Citi AA personal MC and Amex and Citi AA biz card if you don't already have. There are currently 25-30K bonus offers on these with first year fee waived.

As to Starwood, AFAIK, best you can do is 10K bonus for first purchase, 15K more if you spend $15K in first 4 months.

Typo? The current offer gives you 6 months to do $15K in spend for the extra 15K points.

AFAIR, it was 4 months when I did this a year or so ago, but, obviously, 6 months is even better.

This is a good use for the President coins which are discussed here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-shipping.html

You probably have not kept updated on both the coins and the issuers, AMEX in particular.

suggestions?
 

well in a way im glad that the churning 'era' is over... and i'd never have thought that 10-12 cards in a year was even possible -- i thought churning meant opening and closing maybe 3-4 cards in a year!

i see the suggestions to do AA. i live near EWR and have my miles on CO, so i applied my wife for the current CO CC promo.. right now im waiting for my BA CC miles to post, so i havent done CO CC myself.

ive never liked budget hotel chains, nor could afford staying at nice hotel chains like sheraton. most of my trips have been out of "let's go italy" and the like, with small independent hotels, and i've developed a liking for that style of hotel.. so im thinking maybe i should not take the SPG? is it an indispensible "long-term" card, or should i sign up for something else?

overall my question is: right now, for a somewhat infrequent, recreational traveler near EWR, who doesn't necessarily go for budget chain hotels, are there any cards which might be worth having as 'long term' cards?

thanks!

Have you actually done some research on what SPG pts can do?

SPG card is not just valued for the hotel stays, but also its flexibility for transferring the SPG pts to many airline programs. Unfortunately CO is not the ideal program to transfer to due to the poor ratio. A good many other airlines are though.

As far as I know, you still get the points for the coins. I am still getting presidents trickling in. I hear that there will be more NA coins available soon.
Why not try to hit bonus goals with this method?

Yes and No.

You may want to read this post before the OP edits it out : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13069064-post7134.html

A FR has been triggered based on his subsequent posts which were edited out already.

And this post someone replied with his own experience :
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13070209-post7142.html

It depends on how aggressive a person is doing this, especially whether the person has had OTHER meaningful non coin charges on their cards.

Chase is the latest being reported to close cards 'Not used for intended purposes" with the Mint being the majority charges on the OP's cards. The data point is reported on the coin thread if you want to find it.

AMEX has been looking at the charges closely - yes pts still posted but again, if majority of the charges is from the coins, reportedly you will receive a warning call, followed by request of 4506-T because a Financial Review is triggered. If you dont compile with the request, be prepared to see involuntary closure of your cards. Someone just has experienced such on the coin thread as well as asking questions in the AMEX forum trying to bypass the 4506-T request. Based on his original post, he would no doubt fail the FR. He has since deleted his original posts regarding the FR.

I am sure you understand the meaning of Financial Review by AMEX and its consequence if you does not pass the muster.

There is a long running thread in AMEX forum about credit lines being cut. In it you would find reports related to FR being triggered by coin orders. In fact a few months ago someone's AMEX cards, incl the SPG were all suddenly closed with his wife traveling and the AMEX cards were the only cards she had with her. The poster has started a thread to report this saga. You can do your own search to find it and read thru it.