anonymous4a

curious about yearly spending amount of OP or just in general about reaping rewards from credit cards. So OP's monthly spending is about 1500 , is that right ? If you churn for a lot of cards, don't they generally need you to use the card within the first 3 months to get the reward? So can op afford to hit all the minimum requirements for the rewards if he churns for too many cards at once ? Am i missing something here.

Tiki

I'm due for another AOR next week or maybe by Friday. I want to leave 6 months since the last one to hopefully get more instant approvals.

Last AOR in Jan 2013 I got:
Chase United - approved on recon an hour later
SPG Amex - instant approval
Citi AA Amex - approved after a few days
US Bank Club Carlson - instant approval

Denied: Citi AA Visa (tried 2BM in Jan) and Barclay's Wyndham Visa 30k - claimed I have sufficient credit with them and they could see all my other apps.

This AOR I want in order of importance:

Chase Ink Bold or Plus
Chase Freedom (for 5x)
Amex PRG 25k unless something better comes along. I need MR for Flying Blue.
Citi Visa or MC, probably the 35k with $1500 spend as I can't manufacture spend easily.
Barclays Arrival

*************
Total cards I have:

Chase - Priority Club, CSP Visa, BA, United. Plenty of credit to spare, willing to close BA Visa to gain Ink card.
Citi - AA Amex
Barclays - USDM. Had BW from Grand Slam days, cancelled it because last denial with Barclays was "sufficient credit exists".
Amex - SPG
B of A - regular Visa since over 25 years ago.
US Bank - LifeMiles Visa, Club Carlson Visa.

Special requirements: US Expat lives in Australia, non US spouse so can't do most manufactured spending. I can pre-pay regular bills like electricity, internet, phone, etc and will have some natural expenses with upcoming travel and shopping in the USA. I prefer to keep minimum spends down.

I prefer to avoid high fees so that lets out Amex Plt or Mercedes Benz card.

Goals: Maximize Ultimate Rewards for United & Avios; need about 50k AAdvantage & 35K Flying Blue for specific award. Barclays Arrival would go towards cruise.

Any advice? This is probably my last AOR as family situation in USA is getting complicated.

FlightNurse

If you are going to be in the US, then you will have ways of doing manufacture spend (MS)... Think about that. Get yourself a BB card now, and while in the US you will be able to do at least 5K of MS, plus you could do more if you want to go the money order route.

flo7002

Hi all,

I’ve been reading through various threads on here, but I’d like a little advice for my situation, if someone can spare a few minutes.

Here’s my situation:
Me, wife and 7mo. old

We have two trips in mind:
Scandinavian cruise from Copenhagen – June 2014 or
Dubai – Christmas 2014 (baby will be 2 by then so they’ll need their own seat)

My main goal would be to use miles/points to fly business class, to either destination, or both if possible, from the east coast.

Here’s the current cards I have:
Barclays arrival – June 2013 – 45k points
Chase Sapphire preferred – December 2012 – 8k points left
Amex Delta Skymiles platinum – January 2008 – about 30k miles
Citi TY preferred – December 2011 – (this was the premier card, but downgraded so not to pay fee) – used all points on amazon gift cards a few months back
Chase Amazon – Summer 2012
Credit score ~770

Wife:
Barclays Apple store card
Macy’s store card
Chase Sapphire and Amex Delta as additional card holder from my accounts
Credit score ~710

What would be the best combo of cards for us to try to get enough point/miles for some business class seats? Or is it even doable in the time frame? I’ve mainly flown Delta the past few years so I don’t have any experience with other airline programs.

Thanks!

Rommie2k6

Ok, it was a pretty sweet round this time, got decent high value offers (50k pts) from Chase and Citi, and picked up the AMEX BCP and a generic BoA card that has no AF, so I will keep that for aging.

With 4 new cards this churn, and my last churn was in Mar 2013, do you guys think one should call it a day? How many new cards do you churn each AoR? I'm afraid that applying 1-2 more new cards might cause FR or Citi/Chase to close my accounts without reason.

Daniel on the way

During past 12 months I got more than 20 credit cards. But recently there is no credit cards deal i like. I have got all chase cards I like.

I am waiting for these deals:

1. AME personal PRG, only 25k now and i am waiting for 50k or more.
2. Citi premier thank you card. There were many 50k offers last year but no luck this year. I have tons of thank you points waiting for this card.
3. AME business platinum card, I am waiting for 100k offer.

Any other recommendation?

PainCorp

Without knowing what cards you have, you're going to get a lot of useless responses....

FlightNurse

There are links for a 50K Citi AA cards here on FT, if you and your wife each get one, plus the business cards each, that is 90K each. With those cards, you should be able to manufacture spend enough to get the additional points for J ticket for the each of you. You can also try for the Citi Thank You cards, to help with more AA points for Jr.

UA card from Chase for each of you, there are 50K links for that too on FT, again if you and wife go after this card and used your UR points from your CSP card. Do a one way ticket on AA and UA for your trip you should have enough miles.

You can also go after the Amex SPG card and Business Card for a total of 50K MR points which can transfer to UA and or AA.

If you haven't read any of the bloggers I suggest you do it, they have articles on all the cards and the pro's and con's of the cards. The info is very valuable.

Daniel on the way

Chase, I got all i want.
Citi: AA visa, AA AME, AA business master card, Hilton reserve, Thank you preferred

BOA: virgin

US bank: club carlson visa

AME: SPG personal, business, AME personal platinum, AME business PRG, AME hilton

Barkeley, they turned me down twice because of too many inquires.

PainCorp

Here's what I see that you don't have:

Citi: Hilton Signature

BOA: Alaska

Amex: BCP/BCE, Delta

Barclays: They're a PITA, if you want their cards, it takes a while of nothing.

On a side note: my family keeps getting the 50k Amex PRG offers, but not me....I'm gonna have to steal one!

Daniel on the way

Thanks!

50000 hilton points are not worth a hard pull.

BOA alaska is a candidate. But it is difficult to accumulate huge amount of alaska miles. My mileage and hotel accounts usually have half a million points.

AME: I have fly delta for 3 years and do not know how to use 50k miles in my account. I have no interest in sky peso.

BCE/BCP? Is that blue? 6K limit for 6%? Not worth a hard pull.

barclays, I wait for them...I like its virgin american card.

PainCorp

Virgin America is being taken to a new provider. You can't find a working application for it anymore.

Rick471

Why not jump on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum 50K Churn train?

smitty06

Probably best to take a break from applying for credit cards. It's good not to be a one trick pony in this hobby. Work on manufactured spend or mileage running while you give the cards a break. Then in 6 months or so you will qualify for us bank and Barclay cards. Good luck.

sharka

I agree with others as just wait and let your credit inquiries cool down a bit. Having OVER 20 cards in just 12 months will have some banks ready for a quick denial. Forget about Barclay as just having 7-8 cards in 12mts got my wife turned down for too many inquiries. You got OVER 20 cards so forget Barclay or US Bank.