15 replies to this topic

[dead head jed]

Wondering if there are any other points/miles cc churners here.

 

Started playing the CC points game about 6-7 years ago when me and the Ex lived on the west coast and both families back east. At the time was only MSing ~$1k a month for rent to try save money on the inevitable trips back east. Really wish I had gotten deeper into it back then when I hear stories of the good old days.

 

Of course this year was the first year I had accumulated enough  points to do some traveling, just in time to lose my travel partner and covid to throw any hope of going anywhere out the window.

 

But still applying for new cards and looking to pad the accounts for when things finally do open back up.

 

Would love to share some ideas and strategies

[TVCasualty]

Churning sounds interesting, and after a quick search it sounds even more interesting.

 

So I'm following this thread to learn more (and reading some stuff on Reddit).

[dead head jed]

Reddit churning is the best place to pick up info and ask questions.

I’ve also found doctorofcredit.com to be a fantastic resource for the lastest and greatest news. The comment section is a great place for data points.

You have to be financially responsible, getting a 4% bonus does no good if you carry a balance and have to pay 21% interest, but assuming you can do that there is some juice to be squeezed.
So far this year I’m up about $1.5k in bank account bonuses and have enough CC points to fly wherever i want.
And the fact that its coming from the banks is my tiny little thumb in their collective eye.

If you got any questions hit me up TV

[Juthro]

The closest thing to churning that we do here is harvesting a cash back card that we use to pay utilities, mortgage, and groceries.    By putting the bills on it that we had to pay that month anyway, we end up with a modest bonus of maybe 4 or 5 hundred a year straight off our mortgage principal.

 

(BTW, its good to see you alive and kicking, Jed :)

[dead head jed]

Thanks Juthro
Happy to see some old faces still hanging around.
Gonna try to hang around for a bit.... but ain’t promising nothin ;)

You are paying your mortgage with a credit card? Or is it some type of $-back debit card?

I put everything (and then some) on the credit cards, but I’m lucky in that I’m in an area where its pretty easy to manufacture spend (buy cash equivalents via CC) and just pay rent with money orders
I’m sure my landlord thinks I’m weird because I pay my rent with a mix of money orders and a personal check to make up the difference.

[TVCasualty]

Reddit churning is the best place to pick up info and ask questions.

I’ve also found doctorofcredit.com to be a fantastic resource for the lastest and greatest news. The comment section is a great place for data points.

You have to be financially responsible, getting a 4% bonus does no good if you carry a balance and have to pay 21% interest, but assuming you can do that there is some juice to be squeezed.
So far this year I’m up about $1.5k in bank account bonuses and have enough CC points to fly wherever i want.
And the fact that its coming from the banks is my tiny little thumb in their collective eye.

If you got any questions hit me up TV

 

 

Thanks, and I won't trouble you with any questions unless and until I've done enough homework on my own so that anything I might ask won't be beginner stuff I could have learned on my own.

[dead head jed]

Ya I know you prefer to do your own research

 

I am wondering what angle of this you find interesting.

Like I said I'm mostly interested in racking up CC points for travel, but still try to take advantage of $ bonuses and deals when they come up

 

If anybody else is interested here are a few links that might be helpful

https://frequentmile...com/start-here/

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/

https://www.middleag...velocity-rules/

https://www.doctorof...ccount-bonuses/

[TVCasualty]

 

 

I am wondering what angle of this you find interesting.

 

The one where I make money! 

 

I'm still a total rookie with all this, so I can't be more specific than that yet.

 

Thanks for the links.

[Juthro]

Thanks Juthro
Happy to see some old faces still hanging around.
Gonna try to hang around for a bit.... but ain’t promising nothin ;)

You are paying your mortgage with a credit card? Or is it some type of $-back debit card?

I put everything (and then some) on the credit cards, but I’m lucky in that I’m in an area where its pretty easy to manufacture spend (buy cash equivalents via CC) and just pay rent with money orders
I’m sure my landlord thinks I’m weird because I pay my rent with a mix of money orders and a personal check to make up the difference.

 

It's a bank issued CC, it only kicks back 1.5% cash, but there is no annual fee, and no minimum balance.  And it is issued from the same bank our mortgage is from, so it's real easy to auto pay with the CC, and then just shuffle the money between our other accounts to pay it off.    I know we could work it with other cards for greater cash back, but our system is so easy, and we don't ever screw it up and get stuck with additional interest charges.  I look at it more as a bonus for doing all our banking in one place

 

Lots of activity, and paying it off every month has also given us a really nice boost to our credit rating.

 

And I'm with TV, we do it for the money :)

[dead head jed]

1.5% cash is actually pretty good if they allow you to pay your mortgage with no fee since that is probably one of the bigger expenses. Any of the other options that I know of that allows you to pay rent/mortgage with a CC comes with a pretty steep fee that cuts into any potential benefit.

 

There is certainly something to be said for keeping things simple.

I have to keep everything tracked in an excel sheet which I update about once a week so I can track all of it

but given the current situation I honestly don't have much else to do.

 

I know there are people out there who either do this as a full time job, or a full time retirement gig, MSing $10k's a week.

[dead head jed]

Did this deal back in june. Cost was $10 with shipping, got $100 worth of “points” (see below). Very easy $90, they will end up mailing you junk mail of course, but thats good for USPS i guess
https://www.doctorof...60-money-maker/

Swagbucks and mypoints are sites that give you points for shopping online, those points can be cashed for gift cards (like amazon or digital visas) or cashed put theough paypal cash.

[dead head jed]

https://www.doctorof...posit-required/

Another easy $100. Will be doing this one this weekend.
I wish I had known about shit like this when I was in school, $100 would have been almost a weeks pay, and easily groceries for 2-3 weeks

[dead head jed]

https://www.doctorof...t-not-required/

 

this is an easy $400 if you can redirect $1k worth of direct deposits with in 60 days. Figured this one would be worth sharing because of the low deposit amount, account doesn't have any service fees to worry about, and no early closing fee (so you can close immediately after collecting the bonus)

 

If anybody is actually following this, I'll digress and say that this particular account should probably be kept open. Just leave $5 in it if not actively using it. I say that because it has no monthly fee, and this specific account can be very useful for spoofing Direct Deposits (DD) for other bank bonuses.(more info on that here https://www.doctorof...-bonuses-page/)

but basically some banks think that transfers from certain banks are actually direct deposits (like getting a paycheck or SS).

This is useful because most bank bonuses have a direct deposit requirement.

So say Bank A has a requirement for a bonus of a total of 2 DD totaling $5000 within 60 days. If the CAP-1 account looks like a DD to Bank A you can simply transfer $5000 (either 2 x $2500, or 5 x $1000, etc...) and collect some free $. This way you can not have to mess around with changing your normal direct deposit from work or what not, and you don't even need $5000 in the bank since you can simply move the same $$$ back and forth several times to meet the $5000 deposit.

 

For example I plan on doing a PNC bonus for $400 and an HSBC bonus for $600. The PNC requires $5000 DD total, and the HSBC requires $5000 DD for 2 months. In this case Cap-1 should count as DD for PNC and PNC should count as DD for HSBC according to the DOC bank deposit page.  So in order to meet 2 bank account bonuses I can just transfer $5000 from Cap-1 to PNC, and then transfer that to HSBC, then back to PNC for next month, then back to HSBC a 2nd time, and I'm done. $1k in bonuses for passing around some savings.

[dead head jed]

https://www.doctorof...posit-required/

 

same account as ^^^^^ but only $100 but does not require any direct deposit. Just deposit $300, go to grocery store or walmarts and get a money order for $300 dollars and re-deposit it back into which ever account you want. or do $100  x 3 .

[thafunkyone]

man I looked at the title and wondered what kind of butter you were making...

 

I was disappointed when I saw what this was really about.

[dead head jed]

Disappointed...?
You of all people I would think would appreciate the hustle, especially when the banks are the ones left holding an empty bag.

Also. WTF is up man?
you taking buckaroobonzi like naps over there?