Today, I will be doing our next churn and sign my wife up for 3 credit cards. In thinking about what cards to get, I started taking a look at what was left churning wise and what was left to meet those minimum spends. In doing so I compiled a short list of where things currently stand. It helped me organize my thoughts so I thought I would share.
While doing this exercise, the funny thing was I remembered I can use my everyday spending to help meet minimum spends. It’s been so long since I used everyday spending for minimum spend that I honestly forgot. How novel to use a credit card the way it was intended to be used?
Credit Cards
- Amex – One bonus per lifetime
- Wells Fargo – One bonus per lifetime
- Chase – 5/24 rule soon to be applied to all cards.
- Citi – 18 months, but what do recent shutdowns mean?
- Bank of America – Churnable? Yes, but not like they used to be, special thanks to MMS and Frequent Miler.
- Barclays – 6 months
Manufactured Spend
- Redbird – Dead
- Serve – Zombie (dead for some, tread lightly for others)
- Bluebird – Zombie
- Buxx – Dead
- Citigold – Dead
- Money Orders – Get a lawyer
- Other Prepaids – Short term fix be ready to float when shut down
- Paypal – Be ready to float
- Fidelity Brokerage – Need to be rich
- Reselling – Float
- Normal Everyday Spend – You mean I have to spend my own money!
As you can see not much is left. It is a pretty ugly time for this hobby. I would be lying if I said I don’t have a certain amount of frustration with those who contributed to the demise of this game. Good news is that there are still things left but I definitely have to reduce the scale.
My last churn was six cards this one will be three. Fortunately, I don’t need much to meet our goals for Hawaii this year and Ireland next year. I actually have all the miles I need for those trips but I want to pad my mileage accounts a bit, a little hoarding doesn’t hurt.
So what cards will you choose this time around?
Alaska, British Airways, NBA
Fidelity Brokerage – Need to be rich
Can you explain this one?
I guess more accurately it is not really a manufactured spend technique. It is probably closer to credit card churning. You can churn brokerage accounts to earn miles.