How to play the credit card game (spin off)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Picking one credit card and sticking with it gives you some points, but the people getting lots of free travel are doing it with sign up bonuses. You need to sign up for a new card or two each year.

Now that VISA and Mastercard have settled the anti trust case, you can expect interchange fees to come down and the value of points to collapse

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the "is this the new normal" thread.

Can someone explain to me (in great detail!) or point me to a resource for how you all maximize traveling on points? We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really do anything with it other than use it as a normal credit card. We've got some points but not the way people on here seem to have. How do we maximize points? Tell me the tricks!

Get a Freedom Flex card, or Freedom Unlimited - or whichever Freedom card gives 1.5x points on all purchases - and use that alongside your Sapphire card. Put the Sapphire bonus categories in that (travel, restaurants, etc) and everything else on the freedom card. It makes no sense to put everything on the sapphire card.

You can then freely move points between the two so your freedom points can be used to transfer to travel partners.

And ignore the points guy. Worst thing to ever happen to travel points and all they care about is credit card referrals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you missed the boat for this by about 10 years.

Definitely better 10 years ago (especially in getting award tickets), but the game is still alive and well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't that tank your credit? I've heard to try to keep your cards open long and close infrequently.

No, not as long as do it the right way. Good to maintain a couple of older no fee cards so you have long credit history from them. The additional credit lines from the new cards balance out the minor score loss from new inquiries.
This is one of the major fallacies from people who don't understand the nuances of how credit scores are calculated.

https://onemileatatime.com/guides/applying-credit-cards-hurt-credit-score/

Thank you for this link. Hoping to buy a house in about a year so trying to be very careful with my credit score.

One thing to note is that there is a different FICO score that mortgage companies pull. It will probably be a bit.lower if you have gotten a bunch of cards recently - I think the scoring model counts inquiries as a bigger hit. My score was 25 points lower on the mortgage FICO than what Experian told me. It didn't matter because it was still around 800, and the best mortgage rates require you to be above 780.

The other substantive mortgage issue is that they will note any inquiries from the 3 months before you apply for.the mortgage. They don't want to see you as being "credit seeking", so you have to fill out a form explaining why you applied for anything in the last 3 months. Just put "to get credit card bonus" if that happens. They just need to "paper the file" with an explanation. If you don't want to deal with this, just don't get any new cards within 3 months of applying for a mortgage, but it's really not a big deal.

The common advice is "don't apply for a credit card a year before buying a house", and that's another fallacy/overstatement.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a suggested strategy if you are interested in United points and you have a good credit score. This should get you up to 245,000 points just on sign on and referral bonuses.

1. The Sapphire card holder refers the other one of you for their own Sapphire card. They should get a referral fee of about 7,500 points. The new cardholder will get 60,000 points after meeting the minimum spend (but sometimes they have offers for 80,000 points). After meeting the spend, use the new card for travel, restaurants and any spending categories with at least 2x points.

2. If the old Sapphire cardholder has had their card at least 4 years, they should cancel it. They can be added as authorised user to the newer card for no fee. Six months later, the new Sapphire cardholder should refer them for a new card and get the 7,500 referral bonus. You can get a new sign on bonus provided 48 months have passed since last bonus. Earn the 60,000 point sign up bonus.

3. At same time, one of you applies for United Mileage card for 50,000 point sign on bonus. Spend minimum $3,000 (?) in first 3 months to qualify for bonus. Put the card in a drawer and only use it for special offers or booking United flights.

4. That person refers the other one of you for their own United Mileage card. The referrer will get a referral bonus of 10,000 (check?) points. Repeat steps above. 1 and 2 should get you 110,000 points. There is no fee the first year but $95 the second year so you may want to downgrade the cards to a fee-free United Gateway card.

5. If you have reached your capacity for juggling cards, just use the Sapphire cards for other spending. Otherwise, apply for a new credit card which gives good points or cashback for your other spending. I use the Wells Fargo 2% cash back card with no fee for the bulk of my spending. It has a $200 cash sign on bonus. I also use the Amazon Prime card for its 5% cash back on Amazon and Wholefoods purchases.

After 24 months, you are eligible for a new United Mileage card and welcome bonus. In theory, you could cancel one card after about 1.5 years and then reapply 6 months later (with other cardholder referring you of course!). That should net about 60,000 in welcome and referral points. I have not tested this yet but will in next six months. Could Chase see this as a ploy and deny yet another card? I guess I’ll find out.

[Anonymous]

Why complicate your life. There are many ways to make money. Save up $50k, put it in the investment app that pays 5% while waiting to be invested. Wait for the dip on the stock you want to buy, sell it when it goes up. The difference in 1-2 months is 10% easily. If it doesn't go up fast enough, make sure it's a good long term stock.
Take your other $50k and do it again. Someone with CS card surely has that much sitting around. I'm poor and I have that much cash sitting around, but that's my game. The best part is learning about the stock price movements. NIA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why complicate your life. There are many ways to make money. Save up $50k, put it in the investment app that pays 5% while waiting to be invested. Wait for the dip on the stock you want to buy, sell it when it goes up. The difference in 1-2 months is 10% easily. If it doesn't go up fast enough, make sure it's a good long term stock.
Take your other $50k and do it again. Someone with CS card surely has that much sitting around. I'm poor and I have that much cash sitting around, but that's my game. The best part is learning about the stock price movements. NIA.

Yes and

(For those who have the inclination/interest, definitely not for everyone)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a free self-paced online course at 10x Travel.

This is the way. The other stuff is for amateurs.