Originally Posted by
MumblesBadly
Interesting article, and yes, this is basically what I do.
I don't believe this guy's numbers, however. He claims that he took $195,000 worth of trips while spending $14,000. First off, I believe he is playing fast and loose with the "retail value" of his trips to make himself feel better. For example, occasionally an airline will charge outrageous money for a first class seat -- something you wouldn't pay unless you were ridiculously rich. So let's say they are charging $10,000 for a seat actually normally costing $3,000. If you get that same seat for free (via bonus whoring), it doesn't mean you just saved $10,000. It means you just saved $3,000, because there's no way you would have actually paid $10k for that seat, nor was it actually worth that on most other comparable flights or itineraries.
Second, he did this over a period of 6 years. So that makes his accomplishments a bit less exciting, as the trips were spread over a long period of time.
Third, I believe he is just inflating numbers to sound cool in the article.
I can tell you the big hurdle in credit card bonus whoring: You run out of worthwhile offers. I've almost hit that wall myself, and I haven't reaped anywhere NEAR $195,000 in benefits.
There are only a finite number of cards with lucrative signup bonuses, whether travel or cash. Once you've used those up, you have to either wait for new offers, or wait for enough time to pass (usually 18-24 months) from the time you redeemed your last offer on that particular card.
In fact, I try not to overdo getting too many hotel bonuses at once, because they sometimes expire after a year, and I won't be traveling enough to use them all. For example, I got the Hilton and IHG credit cards for their bonuses, but held off on the Marriott one.
But soon enough I will have used up everything, and will only occasionally be able to bonus whore when I find a new product that I haven't signed up for yet. And keep in mind that I have the ability to sign up for BOTH personal and business cards.
My personal threshold is $250. That is, if the bonus isn't worth $250 or more, I don't bother, because it's to much hassle. The only exception is if it's a credit card which has features I would otherwise use. For example, I got a card which gives 3% at gas stations, which also came with a $100 bonus. If it were just the $100 bonus, I wouldn't have bothered.
Anyway, this guy is exaggerating his results, but he is otherwise correct with most of his advice.
I found that credit card bonus whoring doesn't hurt your credit score much. I was ready to take the hit anyway, but it turned out that my FICO score stayed fairly constant.