Is the end near? - What are your thoughts
 

While scouring the web archives (this site included) to get smarter on the churning game, I see comments here and there about the "end being near" for the great credit card bonuses. In posts/articles from 2008, 2009, and 2010, I've seen someone mention this.

But then I wonder, why have there been such great offers this year? 100k BA card, 50k United/Chase, 75k-to-100k AA/Chase, etc, to name a few.

So this is to all the well-experienced people out there. What are your thoughts on the credit-churning market?
- Are we well past the peak?
- Have we just hit a peak?
- Is it on it's way out for good? Or just for a swell, similar to year XXX?
- Has nothing changed at all?

No idea - I've only been doing this for a couple of years, so I have no historical perspective.

All I know is that I hope it keeps going!

I am by no means an expert, but it seems that while there will be good deals to be had, the rules are stricter, and I think would be so for a while. Hard to imagine CC companies relaxing the rules they've recently put into place, but hey if they do, all the better for everyone!

Bonuses are getting bigger and spreading to more companies.

Card companies are desperate- Their balances are down 13% from last year.

Citi has finally stopped churning, as others did long ago.

I have to assume these 100K bonuses are the peak.

I think the end is near at least for churning. The reason there are 100K bonuses is b/c of all the unused miles left. Even once this is used up, we might see 100K bonuses, but since they are only 1/lifetime, its not as great as it used to be. I will now apply for an offer only if there is something special. 25K/card isn't.

I'm pretty new here so if you don't mind, how do you define churning?

I know what you mean in theory but what makes it a churn? Do you dump the card after netting the bonus? Or wait until the (assumed) free year is nearly over?

Just curious as to what the 'good old days' were like vs the situation currently

Either or. Basically it means the ability to get multiple bonuses i.e. reapply and get another 30K bonus for a new acct.

Oh, I dunno.

I recently took advantage of the SPG offer. I had an SPG card, cancelled it, and applied next day for another and got it. Same with wife's card.

Not as good as it used to be, but on the other hand, the bonuses weren't as big back then either. My first bonus was 10K with BA - earlier this year I did three of them for a total of 300K, and they weren't my first Chase/BA cards either.

Yeah, it can't go on forever, but then neither can I. Do it while you can!

AMEX is churnable now? How long ago did you get your first SPG card? Aside for their 30K offer, they're not as good as Citi bonuses, but, the card itself is better. In the least it'd be nice to churn it to escape the annual fees.

SPG allowed people with existing SPG cards to cancel and reapply. I believe that this rarely happens, but there are exceptions to every "rule".....:o

If your goal is just to escape the annual fees, I think you could have always done that with the Amex cards, and I think the Citi cards as well. (Without sign-up bonuses.)

For this latest SPG round, I had an open biz account (about 11.5 months old), applied for a new personal and a new biz, then cancelled my old biz card after the statement closed to make sure I would get the points from that month's spending.

I got both the bonuses for the new cards, 70,000 bonus points total -- and, upon canceling my old biz card, they said they'd refund a prorated portion of my annual fee that I'd paid a year earlier -- somehow, this resulted in a $31 refund! I told the CSR I didn't think I was due a refund, "but I'm not going to argue with you if you want to give me one." :)

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It makes me sad to hear stories of "the good ol' days" since I never got to experience them. Makes me wish I got into the game sooner.

I hear ya! I look at it as ANY free airfare I can manage to get is better than none!

^^

Churning? I opened this expecting to hear about "the end times" or at least global warming.

;)