First Post - First Churn - Total Newbie - Help?
Dec 16, 2011, 8:27 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 87
First Post - First Churn - Total Newbie - Help?
For the last 5 years I was happy with my annual trip to Europe in First Class (Amex Plat) last year Bus Class to OZ, but now I am hungry for more!!! Having read through this forum, the other forum and hundreds and hundreds of blogs til my head was smoking, I started paying attention to the opportunities out there. In the last 4 weeks I was able to...
Get 30k Membership Reward points for signing up to Amex Fx International Payments
Get 5k for signing up to "Pay over time" plan from Amex
Get 75k bonus miles for transferring to Aeroplan
Pay attention to bonus miles and use cards that pay 2x for gas and groceries.
Sign up for silly surveys, play games, opening bonuses, etc etc
Get a 90k First Class ticket for my upcoming trip to Europe next year
etc etc.
Tomorrow is the day I will apply for some new cards and this is what I have on paper:
1. Invitation for Amex Business Platinum - 100k miles
2. Another invitation for Amex Business Platinum - 100k miles (different RSVP #)
3. Letter from Spark Business/Capital One. 50% bonus miles
4. Invitation for Citi Diamond Preferred Card ( don't see no points only $ 100 statement credit)
5.Pre Approval for Citi/AAdvantage Amex Card with 25k miles plus 20% addt'l miles for 18 month
6.Application for Citi Business with 25k Bonus points, 3x points for qualified purchases, 0 % APR
7. Application for Citi Thank You Preferred Card, 50k bonus points, 26% addtl points first 12 month
8. Two letters from Discover with some cash back offers
9. I know I did receive letters from the Ink Bold card offer, but threw them away. This was prior to "Realization of the Potential".
No 1. and 2. expire tomorrow, any suggestions are appreciated.
PS. Oh yeah, and through all this I found out that Comcast put me into collections for a stupid Cable Modem that they where supposed to pick up and never did....I disputed the Derogatory with all 3 bureaus and returned the modem to them personally....
Get 30k Membership Reward points for signing up to Amex Fx International Payments
Get 5k for signing up to "Pay over time" plan from Amex
Get 75k bonus miles for transferring to Aeroplan
Pay attention to bonus miles and use cards that pay 2x for gas and groceries.
Sign up for silly surveys, play games, opening bonuses, etc etc
Get a 90k First Class ticket for my upcoming trip to Europe next year
etc etc.
Tomorrow is the day I will apply for some new cards and this is what I have on paper:
1. Invitation for Amex Business Platinum - 100k miles
2. Another invitation for Amex Business Platinum - 100k miles (different RSVP #)
3. Letter from Spark Business/Capital One. 50% bonus miles
4. Invitation for Citi Diamond Preferred Card ( don't see no points only $ 100 statement credit)
5.Pre Approval for Citi/AAdvantage Amex Card with 25k miles plus 20% addt'l miles for 18 month
6.Application for Citi Business with 25k Bonus points, 3x points for qualified purchases, 0 % APR
7. Application for Citi Thank You Preferred Card, 50k bonus points, 26% addtl points first 12 month
8. Two letters from Discover with some cash back offers
9. I know I did receive letters from the Ink Bold card offer, but threw them away. This was prior to "Realization of the Potential".
No 1. and 2. expire tomorrow, any suggestions are appreciated.
PS. Oh yeah, and through all this I found out that Comcast put me into collections for a stupid Cable Modem that they where supposed to pick up and never did....I disputed the Derogatory with all 3 bureaus and returned the modem to them personally....
Last edited by exsea; Dec 16, 2011 at 9:13 pm Reason: Forgot to mention
Dec 16, 2011, 8:47 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: NYC
Posts: 511
Welcome to FT! Once you get the taste of the good life you never want to go back!
First the obligatory "always research your credit score and how it works" question. So I'm guessing you did all of that?
First you do not always need to be targeted to apply for a card. Was that the only reason you chose those cards?
Before choosing which cards you should choose which airlines are best for you. Do any have your local airport(s) as their hub? Where do you want to travel? What class?
Answering those questions and more will give you a better idea of what cards would be best.
Now, about your list.
1. I do not think you can get two AmEx Business Platinum at the same time. This might cause a red flag unless they are for two different companies.
2. Skip the no/low point cards.
3. You can not get 3 Citi Cards at the same time. Instead I would focus on this thread where you get 50k AAdvantage Miles after $3k spend or this special offer for 50k AA miles after $2500 spend.
You should be able to do the two browser trick and apply for both personal cards at the same time then wait 60 days and apply for the CitiBusiness AA card. Read about that here.
Everything I haven't covered can be found on this site with a bit of searching. Also check out "The Special Credit Card Offers Thread" that is at the top of MileBuzz.
First the obligatory "always research your credit score and how it works" question. So I'm guessing you did all of that?
First you do not always need to be targeted to apply for a card. Was that the only reason you chose those cards?
Before choosing which cards you should choose which airlines are best for you. Do any have your local airport(s) as their hub? Where do you want to travel? What class?
Answering those questions and more will give you a better idea of what cards would be best.
Now, about your list.
1. I do not think you can get two AmEx Business Platinum at the same time. This might cause a red flag unless they are for two different companies.
2. Skip the no/low point cards.
3. You can not get 3 Citi Cards at the same time. Instead I would focus on this thread where you get 50k AAdvantage Miles after $3k spend or this special offer for 50k AA miles after $2500 spend.
You should be able to do the two browser trick and apply for both personal cards at the same time then wait 60 days and apply for the CitiBusiness AA card. Read about that here.
Everything I haven't covered can be found on this site with a bit of searching. Also check out "The Special Credit Card Offers Thread" that is at the top of MileBuzz.
Dec 16, 2011, 9:28 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 87
Welcome to FT! Once you get the taste of the good life you never want to go back!
First the obligatory "always research your credit score and how it works" question. So I'm guessing you did all of that?
First you do not always need to be targeted to apply for a card. Was that the only reason you chose those cards?
Before choosing which cards you should choose which airlines are best for you. Do any have your local airport(s) as their hub? Where do you want to travel? What class?
Answering those questions and more will give you a better idea of what cards would be best.
Now, about your list.
1. I do not think you can get two AmEx Business Platinum at the same time. This might cause a red flag unless they are for two different companies.
2. Skip the no/low point cards.
3. You can not get 3 Citi Cards at the same time. Instead I would focus on this thread where you get 50k AAdvantage Miles after $3k spend or this special offer for 50k AA miles after $2500 spend.
You should be able to do the two browser trick and apply for both personal cards at the same time then wait 60 days and apply for the CitiBusiness AA card. Read about that here.
Everything I haven't covered can be found on this site with a bit of searching. Also check out "The Special Credit Card Offers Thread" that is at the top of MileBuzz.
First the obligatory "always research your credit score and how it works" question. So I'm guessing you did all of that?
First you do not always need to be targeted to apply for a card. Was that the only reason you chose those cards?
Before choosing which cards you should choose which airlines are best for you. Do any have your local airport(s) as their hub? Where do you want to travel? What class?
Answering those questions and more will give you a better idea of what cards would be best.
Now, about your list.
1. I do not think you can get two AmEx Business Platinum at the same time. This might cause a red flag unless they are for two different companies.
2. Skip the no/low point cards.
3. You can not get 3 Citi Cards at the same time. Instead I would focus on this thread where you get 50k AAdvantage Miles after $3k spend or this special offer for 50k AA miles after $2500 spend.
You should be able to do the two browser trick and apply for both personal cards at the same time then wait 60 days and apply for the CitiBusiness AA card. Read about that here.
Everything I haven't covered can be found on this site with a bit of searching. Also check out "The Special Credit Card Offers Thread" that is at the top of MileBuzz.
Credit 854 on Vantage
I just listed what I have in hand.
I have been sticking with Star Alliance but AA (for Qantas needs) would be nice. Both have lots of flights out of FLL and MIA
I actually own two companies but I don't want to push my luck.
I have also had a AA Citi Card for about 15 years or so, that shouldn't matter?
Thanks
Dec 16, 2011, 11:12 pm
#4
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 63
I wonder why you are not moving on the INK Bold. Gives 5x points on expenses. I have only one business but the cell phones, landlines, etc. alone are $600/month x 5 x 12 = 36k points/year. That plus the 50k bonus plus another 50k for the personal Sapphire and you have a lot of very usable points.
EARN UP TO 5X POINTS PER $1 ON BUSINESS EXPENSES*
Earn 5X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, on cable and wireless service, and landline communications
Earn 2X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually on gas and hotels
Earn 1X point per $1 on all other purchases, with no limits on how much you can earn- redeem your points for what you want through Ultimate Rewards
EARN UP TO 5X POINTS PER $1 ON BUSINESS EXPENSES*
Earn 5X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, on cable and wireless service, and landline communications
Earn 2X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually on gas and hotels
Earn 1X point per $1 on all other purchases, with no limits on how much you can earn- redeem your points for what you want through Ultimate Rewards
Dec 17, 2011, 12:11 am
#5
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 425
I would apply for the two AA cards, and the Ink Bold; if you can meet the spend for all of them, apply for all of them on the same day. You can space out the applications by a couple months if necessary. You can apply for the Citi AA Business Visa 61 days after applying for the two personal AA cards (only 2 applications permitted within a 60 day period).
Dec 17, 2011, 10:10 am
#8
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: NYC
Posts: 511
The Citi Personal AA Visa and Amex cards will only work if you do the two browser trick. MIA is a hub for AA. So the miles would go far.
I would also consider getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Bold (biz) cards. You can apply for a Chase personal and business card at the same time.
They give you 50k Ultimate Rewards points each which transfer to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio. Obvio good for Star Alliance; the two cards would net you 100k MileagePlus miles!
Also give yourself some extra room if you are unsure about meeting the min. spend. If you don't get the miles the hard pull on your credit score was wasted.
Dec 17, 2011, 10:40 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 425
Basic churning theory is that you should do a mini app-o-rama (apply for 2-5 credit cards on one day) every 90 days. Credit inquiries hurt your credit score most in the first 90 days. After 90 days, your credit will have bounced back enough to handle another app-o-rama, assuming you pay your bills on time.
When deciding which cards to apply for, consider the reward programs you are interested in, whether you can meet the minimum spend, and consider spreading out applications between different credit card companies. There are lots of great reward cards out there (I was approved for 10 new accounts this year) so only you can decide what is best for you.
I doubt Amex would let you get two Platinum accounts at the same time unless one was personal and one was business. You could get a Platinum and a PR Gold card at the same time. Or you could apply for the Citi AA Visa and Amex the same day using the 2-Browser Trick. The SPG Amex is good because you can transfer points to AA or Delta. The Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold are great cards as well.
One theory is to go after the highest sign up bonuses first (right now, the 2 AA cards give you the highest bonus for one credit inquiry, followed by the 50,000 point Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold, and the Amex Platinum 50,000 points if you can afford the annual fee). Another is to focus on a few programs, especially those that work together (like Amex Membership Rewards and Delta or BA, AA and SPG, UA and Sapphire Preferred). Others say to diversify because you never know when one program will devalue (like BA and Aeroplan recently did).
The Ultimate Rewards program is passing the Membership Rewards program in popularity because UR points are easier to redeem on flight rewards when transferred to United and have a stronger value for hotel redemptions when transferred to Hyatt as well. I have both but I like Ultimate Rewards better.
When deciding which cards to apply for, consider the reward programs you are interested in, whether you can meet the minimum spend, and consider spreading out applications between different credit card companies. There are lots of great reward cards out there (I was approved for 10 new accounts this year) so only you can decide what is best for you.
I doubt Amex would let you get two Platinum accounts at the same time unless one was personal and one was business. You could get a Platinum and a PR Gold card at the same time. Or you could apply for the Citi AA Visa and Amex the same day using the 2-Browser Trick. The SPG Amex is good because you can transfer points to AA or Delta. The Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold are great cards as well.
One theory is to go after the highest sign up bonuses first (right now, the 2 AA cards give you the highest bonus for one credit inquiry, followed by the 50,000 point Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold, and the Amex Platinum 50,000 points if you can afford the annual fee). Another is to focus on a few programs, especially those that work together (like Amex Membership Rewards and Delta or BA, AA and SPG, UA and Sapphire Preferred). Others say to diversify because you never know when one program will devalue (like BA and Aeroplan recently did).
The Ultimate Rewards program is passing the Membership Rewards program in popularity because UR points are easier to redeem on flight rewards when transferred to United and have a stronger value for hotel redemptions when transferred to Hyatt as well. I have both but I like Ultimate Rewards better.
Dec 17, 2011, 12:01 pm
#10
Formerly known as iahsumr
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 520
The 100K Plat is clearly a great deal. I agree with the suggestions for the 50K Citi AA cards using the two browser trick. I also agree with the Chase suggestion for 50K Ink Bold and Sapphire Preferred apps. Just make sure you can meet the minimum spending requirements for all the cards you go for. You may have to adjust some for that if monthly spending is an issue. Good luck!
Dec 17, 2011, 6:17 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 87
And the results are.....
Amex Platinum Business 100k Bonus Reward Points: Approved
AA Citibank Amex 50k Bonus Miles: Approved with 2 browser technique AND subsequent telephone call, Credit Limit 15k
AA Citibank Visa: Approved with 2 browser technique AND subsequent telephone call, Credit Limit 15k
I was sweating that one for a brief moment on the second call I had to make but all went smooth.
Ink Bold: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
Sapphire Preferred: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
On a roll now, any suggestion what to apply for next?
Amex Platinum Business 100k Bonus Reward Points: Approved
AA Citibank Amex 50k Bonus Miles: Approved with 2 browser technique AND subsequent telephone call, Credit Limit 15k
AA Citibank Visa: Approved with 2 browser technique AND subsequent telephone call, Credit Limit 15k
I was sweating that one for a brief moment on the second call I had to make but all went smooth.
Ink Bold: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
Sapphire Preferred: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
On a roll now, any suggestion what to apply for next?
Dec 17, 2011, 6:28 pm
#12
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: MSN
Programs: IC Plat Amb, Kimpton Inner Circle, BW Diamond
Posts: 83
Ink Bold: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
Sapphire Preferred: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
Sapphire Preferred: We have received your application. Our analysts are currently reviewing your application, and our goal is to notify you within 10 days of this application. Notifications are usually sent within this time, but in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days for processing.
Dec 17, 2011, 8:24 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 87
Feeling very froggy, lol. Just came home from taking care of this one:
MileagePlus Dining
You are now eligible to earn 1,000 bonus award miles when you spend $50 or more in one dine at a participating restaurant, bar or club in the next 30 days.
Guess I am an addict now?
I already have a Amex Platinum Personal and a Premium Rewards Gold, not sure if another Amex would fly?
MileagePlus Dining
You are now eligible to earn 1,000 bonus award miles when you spend $50 or more in one dine at a participating restaurant, bar or club in the next 30 days.
Guess I am an addict now?
I already have a Amex Platinum Personal and a Premium Rewards Gold, not sure if another Amex would fly?
Last edited by exsea; Dec 17, 2011 at 8:25 pm Reason: Forgot to mention