Want to get started churning credit cards, but not sure where to begin? Learn how here!
What is Credit Card Churning?
Before I even knew what churning credit cards was, I was doing it. Credit card offers such as “$300 cash back when you spend $3,000 in the first three months” would arrive in the mail, and I would take advantage of them. If there were any big bills or purchases coming up, I’d start looking for another credit card to churn.
Essentially, credit card churning means opening a credit card you don’t plan on keeping in order to take advantage of the rewards. The key is to keep track of how much you have on the card, then cancel once you have redeemed the rewards. I have done this multiple times without any change in my credit score.
Why Would I Want to Do It?
You may be thinking that churning credit cards is too much of a hassle. True, it is more time consuming than having only one card on which you put all of your purchases. However, the rewards make it worth it. Jason and I used a $500 cash back reward to help bring the cost of our road trip down to $287. You can read about that trip here. We also used the travel rewards from churning our Chase card to pay for the majority of our flights to Texas last Christmas. Without the rewards, we would have paid around $1,000 for both of us to fly. Using the travel credit, we only ended up spending about $325, making our trip much more affordable.
What Credit Cards Have the Best Offers, and How Do I Find Them?
Some of the cards we have used in the past include the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the Chase Freedom card, the Capitol One Savor card, the Capital One Venture Card, and the Citi Premier Card.
Chase Sapphire Rewards:
This card offers 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. This equals $750 in travel rewards. There is a $95 annual fee, which is offset by the amount of rewards in my opinion.
Chase Freedom:
This is a great all-around card since it offers revolving 5% off categories, and a minimum of 1% off on everything else. We use this card and our Discover when we aren’t taking advantage of a churning opportunity. The Chase Freedom card offers a $200 cash back bonus after spending $500 in the first three months, making it a great card for those with low spending.
Capital One Savor:
The Capital One Savor card offers 4% back on dining and entertainment purchases, and $300 cash back when you spend $3,000 in the first three months. Unfortunately, this is down from $500, but it is still a good deal.
Capital One Venture Card:
With this card, you can receive 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in the first three months. That is equal to $500 in travel. You are able to use the points to erase travel charges, making it as though they never happened!
Citi Premier Card:
This card offers 60,000 in bonus points after making $4,000 of purchases in the first three months. This is equal to $600 in rewards that can be redeemed on Amazon or at Best Buy.com, or exchanged for gift cards. Note that this card does have a $95 annual fee.
Where to Find the Best Credit Card Offers?
10xtravel.com is a website devoted to churning credit cards in order to reap the best travel rewards. They have a section called “Best Credit Cards” in which they share the best credit card offers currently available. You may see that they list the best cards under 5/24 and the best cards over 5/24. This refers to Chase’s 5/24 rule, which essentially means that you can’t be approved for the majority of Chase cards if you have opened more than five credit cards in the past 24 months. Don’t worry, there are still plenty of options if you have! Check out 10x Travel’s “Best Credit Cards Over 5/24” to see which ones that are still available to you have the best offers.
Have you tried churning credit cards in the past? Which ones did you find that had the best offers? Feel free to share below!
Traveling with Pennies 