How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[WildcatNkilt]

Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa is nice.  

Use it on anything, and use it towards a southwest purchase and it doubles your credits.

Each dollar is worth 1 credit. (double if it is towards southwest purchase)

1200 credits is 1 point.

16 points for a free roundtrip flight to any Southwest destination.

When you sign up for Rapid Rewards Visa, you automatically get 8 points, and you get 2 points for creating a Rapid Rewards account on southwest.com. (10 points total)

This leaves only 6 points for your first free rountrip flight.  Each one-way flight is 1 point.

Pretty badass IMO.  I use it as a company card, and some of my coworkers have over 13 free roundtrip flights waiting to be used.

[steve dave]

Actually, I owe RD a huge thank you for kicking my ass into gear on this stuff. 

[ChiComCat]

How is that Starwood Amex treating you SD?  Been looking at the one but hate the though of a yearly fee being tacked on after the first year

[steve dave]

How is that Starwood Amex treating you SD?  Been looking at the one but hate the though of a yearly fee being tacked on after the first year

If you spend a good amount on it they will waive the fee.  Come fee time just call them and tell them that you are going to cancel unless they waive it.  If they don't waive it they will offer to reduce it.  It all depends on how much you spend on it.  If they won't waive it you can just cancel it and re-apply.  Bonus is you get the re-apply bonus miles each time.  You may have to wait a while after cancelling to re-apply though.  Don't know for sure.  I cencelled the delta amex because of an upcoming annual fee and re applyed the next day and got all the bonus miles and everything.  The SPG is the best because their points transfer to any airline at 1:1 or 25k if you transfer 20k. 

[Dr Rick Daris]

Actually, I owe RD a huge thank you for kicking my ass into gear on this stuff. 

we need to fire up another bank/credit card: miles, points, free cash thread. i saw a chase bank promo where a new checking business account that deposits five hundred dollars gets two hundred added to the account for free. wonder if that on could come in handy anytime soon?  

[hemmy]

0.

[steve dave]

Actually, I owe RD a huge thank you for kicking my ass into gear on this stuff. 

we need to fire up another bank/credit card: miles, points, free cash thread. i saw a chase bank promo where a new checking business account that deposits five hundred dollars gets two hundred added to the account for free. wonder if that on could come in handy anytime soon?  

BOOM!

[Kat Kid]

Actually, I owe RD a huge thank you for kicking my ass into gear on this stuff. 

we need to fire up another bank/credit card: miles, points, free cash thread. i saw a chase bank promo where a new checking business account that deposits five hundred dollars gets two hundred added to the account for free. wonder if that on could come in handy anytime soon?  

OMG!  Yes, I need to delve deeply in to this sub-culture.

[steve dave]

I check this every morning.  Updates once a day.  Usually garbage stuff but occasionally some nice tips.  Plus a good overview of credit card churning and best travel deals on the right:
http://frugaltravelguy.blogspot.com/

In depth and about everything you could ever want to know.  Takes a lot of time and is intimidating though:
http://www.flyertalk.com/

[Jeffy]

None.

My debit card and cash works just fine.

It was a euphoric feeling when I destroyed the last one.

I chose not to reward banks that have already received my tax dollars in bailouts.

How did I know this was coming from Jeffy.   

Can't wait for my credit score to be down to zero as well.

[KSU176]

I chose not to reward banks that have already received my tax dollars in bailouts.

that's your fault then. i rewarded a lot of them by letting them give me tons of free crap. thanks citibank!  

This.  Slu and I make $500 to $700 a year on citibank and discover.  Never have paid a penny in interest.  I guess we are smart enough not to reward the banks and have them reward us.

[steve dave]

I chose not to reward banks that have already received my tax dollars in bailouts.

that's your fault then. i rewarded a lot of them by letting them give me tons of free crap. thanks citibank!  

This.  Slu and I make $500 to $700 a year on citibank and discover.  Never have paid a penny in interest.  I guess we are smart enough not to reward the banks and have them reward us.

That's the key bro.  If you are not a dumbass it's basically free money.   

[SuperG]

I have 3 debit cards but only one of them works and 3 cards that give me rewards whenever I buy enough liquor.

[yoga-like_abana]

One and it sucks. Guide me Fellas.

[steve dave]

One and it sucks. Guide me Fellas.

Sign up for all of these:
American Airlines Citi Visa
American Airlines Business Visa
Starwood Amex
Starwood Business Amex
Delta Amex
Delta Business Amex

Use them each once and then cancel all of them except for the Starwood Amex.  Use the Starwood Amex for every purchase you make and pay it off in full each month so you don't pay any interest.  In a year call them and tell them you will cancel unless they waive the annual fee.  Here is a database on what you get and what you have to spend along with links to each:  http://bit.ly/frugal-database  You will end up with a free American Airlines fligh, free Delta flight and anywhere from 2-6 nights at a starwood hotel depending on where you are going.

[sys]

wouldn't it be better to put all charges on a single card with a good rewards program (whatever one is best for you) than scattering charges among multiple cards?

[steve dave]

wouldn't it be better to put all charges on a single card with a good rewards program (whatever one is best for you) than scattering charges among multiple cards?

You get huge signup bonuses for each.  That's the benefit.  You can use an airline card once and get a free flight.  Some airlines/hotels have multiple cards you can sign up for and get multiple sign up bonuses.  You can then cancel them and sign up again after a certain amount of time.  You used to be able to sign up for the AA cards every three months.  People got millions of miles just by doing this.  British Airways just ran a special on their Visa card where you got 100k miles for signing up and spending $2k on it. Most ridiculous signup bonus OAT.  Mrs. dave and I both got one and now have 210k british airways miles.  I could fly round trip to London 4 times and it didn't cost me a thing.

[sys]

gotcha.  should have connected the dots from the cc churning thread.

[steve dave]

Yeah, I just basically made this the goEMAW credit card churning thread.  Here is a link that talks about the British Airways deal.  I am kind of kicking myself for not forcing everyone on here to do it when it was available.

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/the-best-credit-card-signup-bonus-ever/?hp

[Dr Rick Daris]

wouldn't it be better to put all charges on a single card with a good rewards program (whatever one is best for you) than scattering charges among multiple cards?

You get huge signup bonuses for each.  That's the benefit.  You can use an airline card once and get a free flight.  Some airlines/hotels have multiple cards you can sign up for and get multiple sign up bonuses.  You can then cancel them and sign up again after a certain amount of time.  You used to be able to sign up for the AA cards every three months.  People got millions of miles just by doing this.  British Airways just ran a special on their Visa card where you got 100k miles for signing up and spending $2k on it. Most ridiculous signup bonus OAT.  Mrs. dave and I both got one and now have 210k british airways miles.  I could fly round trip to London 4 times and it didn't cost me a thing.

yeah. the big thing is the sign up bonuses. sign up and get get free hotel nights or free flights when you use the card and then just cancel the card once you've been awarded your stuff. like sd said, you used to be able to get two roudtrip american airlines flights every three months by doing this. eight free roundtrip flights a year. this stopped a few months ago. now it's like one flight a year or something i think. there are so many airlines and so many cards though that it's still basically free travel whenever if you are consistent with it and sign up for good deals (like the sd british airways deal) when they come up. prob not a good idea for someone who is thinking about buying a house or something in the near future though. like within the next year or so. as long as you have a decent history of credit it only effects your credit score by a little. somewhere around 10 to 20 points for most people but then it goes back up a month or two after you cancel the cards provided you are not signing up for new ones again.

[steve dave]

Another blog I nerd out on

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/

[Trim]

Dumb question here.  How do you bank the points when you're cancelling the cards?  Do you have to be signed up for British Airways, Starwood, etc. prior to getting the credit card and then associate your existing airline/hotel accounts with the credit card?

[Dr Rick Daris]

Another blog I nerd out on

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/

yeah. that's good. i did my big cc stuff about a year ago. and only one since. getting ready for a big round 2 though in march (over one year so i should be able to get the AA cards). all this boardingarea.com/cc bonus talk is getting me super excited though.  

[Dr Rick Daris]

Dumb question here.  How do you bank the points when you're cancelling the cards?  Do you have to be signed up for British Airways, Starwood, etc. prior to getting the credit card and then associate your existing airline/hotel accounts with the credit card?

yes. sign up for starwood account online. then give your starwood account # when getting the card. then your points go to you starwood account. then you just cancel the credit card. same for airlines miles, etc.

[sys]

please prominently update this thread in mid to late april, to remind me to sign up for a ton of cards at that time.  tia.