Credit card bonus whoring

[PLOL]

http://slickdeals.net/f/8256561-chas...mos?src=sticky

"Chase is offering 50k Bonus Points ($625 towards travel) w/ $4000 Spent in First 3 Months of Account Opening (normally 40k points) for their Sapphire Preferred Credit Card with $0 Intro Annual Fee for the first year, then $95."

it was bumped to 100k points aka $1k cash or $1500 travel.

nabbed mine in late december, apparently they just dropped it back to 50k point but appear to have lowered the yearly fee...

disregard, bottomset big upped it a few posts later.

but yeah i got mine while the offer lasted and its hot fucking fire.

shout out to infinite airport lounge access.

You're thinking of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Chase Sapphire Preferred has never had a 100k bonus. The CSR still has the same annual fee, just a lower bonus.

[PLOL]

Are you sure the Priority Pass membership with CSR is the basic membership? I have the Citi Prestige and Amex Plat and they both come with Priority pass(the citi one allows me to bring a guest for free) and neither has to pay a fee to get into the lounges. The lounges aren't anything special though, compared to the centurion lounges or flagship admirals clubs.

You know what, you're probably right. I saw priority pass and assumed it was their basic membership, but you're probably right.

[Dan Druff]

I keep hearing about Ultimate Rewards and how they can be used for 1.8c each or whatever.

Does this apply to Chase points earned with things like the Freedom card? I had always thought that the only viable option with those points was to cash them at 1c each, because everything else I see tends to be things like fail gift cards which you would buy at 1c also.

[PLOL]

I keep hearing about Ultimate Rewards and how they can be used for 1.8c each or whatever.

Does this apply to Chase points earned with things like the Freedom card? I had always thought that the only viable option with those points was to cash them at 1c each, because everything else I see tends to be things like fail gift cards which you would buy at 1c also.

Yes, this applies to your Chase Freedom card since that utilizes the Ultimate Rewards syste. DO NOT cash in your Chase Freedom points for 1 cent on the dollar. You can transfer them to travel partners where you can earn much more than 1c. You can convert them to the following point systems:
Airlines — British Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic
Hotels — Hyatt, IHG Hotels, Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton
Other — Amtrak

[Dan Druff]

I keep hearing about Ultimate Rewards and how they can be used for 1.8c each or whatever.

Does this apply to Chase points earned with things like the Freedom card? I had always thought that the only viable option with those points was to cash them at 1c each, because everything else I see tends to be things like fail gift cards which you would buy at 1c also.

Yes, this applies to your Chase Freedom card since that utilizes the Ultimate Rewards syste. DO NOT cash in your Chase Freedom points for 1 cent on the dollar. You can transfer them to travel partners where you can earn much more than 1c. You can convert them to the following point systems:
Airlines — British Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic
Hotels — Hyatt, IHG Hotels, Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton
Other — Amtrak

So you're saying that when I earn 5% on the Freedom card (and I have an Ink card which gives me 5% on my cell phone and internet bills), I actually can get like 9% through the UR program?

[monsterj]

Yes, this applies to your Chase Freedom card since that utilizes the Ultimate Rewards syste. DO NOT cash in your Chase Freedom points for 1 cent on the dollar. You can transfer them to travel partners where you can earn much more than 1c. You can convert them to the following point systems:
Airlines — British Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic
Hotels — Hyatt, IHG Hotels, Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton
Other — Amtrak

So you're saying that when I earn 5% on the Freedom card (and I have an Ink card which gives me 5% on my cell phone and internet bills), I actually can get like 9% through the UR program?

Yes, it's a very nice perk if you have one of the high end chase card. Also one of the reasons Chase Freedom Unlimited might be the best card for non category purchases.

[PLOL]

Quick tip: If you have Chase UR points and you use Amtrak, they have a really good conversion rate (and they transfer at 1:1). I usually go to Milwaukee once or twice a year on Amtrak. Buying a ticket would be $25 each way, but it's only 863 points. That's a conversion rate of 2.9c/pt. All of a sudden your 3pts per dollar spending was really 8.7% back. Of course the one downside is you have to convert it in blocks of 1k points like with all the programs, but that's still a really good conversion most of the time. Also, when you first sign up with Amtrak you get a 500 point sign-up bonus.

Edit: Ugh, Chase took away Amtrak

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

I wanted to post a warning regarding Chase Bank and what appears to be an attempt to thwart credit card bonus whoring.

They are now DECLINING applications for most (and perhaps all) credit cards if you have a certain number of new credit cards opened WITH ANY BANK in the past 24 months.

I spoke to the lending department, and was told that this was a hard rule handed down by corporate, with zero exceptions allowed.

In my case, I opened 8 credit cards between July 2015 and today.

That is considered excessive by Chase, even though most of those cards were NOT Chase cards, and my credit/payment history is virtually perfect.

I was told that I will be shut out from all new Chase cards until at least late July 2017, at which point two cards I opened in July 2015 will "fall off" the new list. However, they will not tell me the "magic number" of cards they're looking for in the past 24 months, so even with 6 cards in 24 months (instead of my current 8), that might still be too much.

This is very disappointing.

They did not state that this is about thwarting bonus whoring, but I believe it probably is. The reason is that they don't seem to care in this case regarding the amount of total credit held, or your ability to pay your existing cards. This does not seem to be a matter of preventing risk, but rather turning away customers who seem to open a whole lot of cards in a short time, which is a sure sign of bonus whores. I could be wrong, but either way I'm shut out of anything new with Chase for another 5-6 months, and perhaps longer.

In fact, if I bonus whore with any other card, again I will screw myself with Chase, as that will add to my "new cards opened within 24 months".

As Chase provides a lot of the best cards for bonus whoring, I would advise NOT opening low-value credit cards in the future, as this will screw you later when attempting to apply for Chase cards.

Annoyingly, two of those eight cards include the MGM M-Life credit card (which I only got so I could get free parking at MGM properties) and a fail HSBC card which was "sold" to me under false pretenses by an incompetent banker.

[handicapme]

Magic # unfortunately is 4 new credit cards (this was told to a buddy of my mine who has a highend account with them). Also, not done to thwart credit card bonus whoring but more to thwart someone getting excessive credit quickly which from a risk perspective is not something the bank doesn't want much exposure to. It just unfortunately has a bad affect on anyone who is bonus whoring but is otherwise a perfect client. They are also not the only bank to start this, unfortunately from my experience just the worst to get around this. I had similar issues with another bank I won't mention here.

[PLOL]

Actually it's 5. This is called the 5/24 rule and has been in place for a little while now. You should always check to see if your card falls under the 5/24 rule before applying otherwise you will be auto-denied and you can not get them to reverse their decision. This applies to most Chase cards, but not all. For instance, the Amazon Prime Chase card does not fall under the 5/24 rule. But any card you've opened within 24 months will count towards your 5 cards, even if it's not a Chase card or a card that falls under the 5/24 rule. And you are correct that a big reason they instituted this policy is because of bonus whoring.

[Dan Druff]

Magic # unfortunately is 4 new credit cards (this was told to a buddy of my mine who has a highend account with them). Also, not done to thwart credit card bonus whoring but more to thwart someone getting excessive credit quickly which from a risk perspective is not something the bank doesn't want much exposure to. It just unfortunately has a bad affect on anyone who is bonus whoring but is otherwise a perfect client. They are also not the only bank to start this, unfortunately from my experience just the worst to get around this. I had similar issues with another bank I won't mention here.

If it's really 4, then I'm screwed for awhile -- probably until 2018 or very close to it.

Initially I also thought this was a risk thing, but I offered to transfer credit from another card (so they're not giving me any new credit), and they declined, telling me this is a hard rule.

Keep in mind that I was declined many times in the past by Chase, and then got around it by the "transfer credit from another card" trick.

This time it didn't work, and they honestly were not interested in all in my credit history (aside from # of new accounts opened), total recent new credit acquired, or additional risk to their bank (in which I was offering none). In the past I was able to talk them into it (sometimes requiring a bit of effort, admittedly) by citing these factors. This time I was shut down and told that it was a super-hard-line corporate rule.

I guess it's possible this is some poorly-conceived anti-fraud measure which happens to screw bonus whores, but I also think it's possible this is a no-exceptions policy specifically because they don't want anyone opening a lot of cards quickly, figuring them to either be fraudsters or bonus whores.

In general, Chase does seem to be the bank with the most hardline corporate rules.

For example, they are one of the few banks not to allow ANY third party cash deposits into accounts. Doesn't matter if you show ID. You cannot deposit cash into personal accounts unless it's your own (business accounts yes, personal no).

They are also the hardest line against online gambling. If they get even a whiff that you're using your account to make or receive online gambling payments, they will close it.

[Dan Druff]

Actually it's 5. This is called the 5/24 rule and has been in place for a little while now. You should always check to see if your card falls under the 5/24 rule before applying otherwise you will be auto-denied and you can not get them to reverse their decision. This applies to most Chase cards, but not all. For instance, the Amazon Prime Chase card does not fall under the 5/24 rule. But any card you've opened within 24 months will count towards your 5 cards, even if it's not a Chase card or a card that falls under the 5/24 rule. And you are correct that a big reason they instituted this policy is because of bonus whoring.

Well, now we're getting somewhere. Not that I'm happy to find out it's 5, which probably bans me from Chase until October or something.

This is the first time I've been affected by the 5/24 rule.

Can you post any links to the discussion of this on other sites?

[PLOL]

Actually it's 5. This is called the 5/24 rule and has been in place for a little while now. You should always check to see if your card falls under the 5/24 rule before applying otherwise you will be auto-denied and you can not get them to reverse their decision. This applies to most Chase cards, but not all. For instance, the Amazon Prime Chase card does not fall under the 5/24 rule. But any card you've opened within 24 months will count towards your 5 cards, even if it's not a Chase card or a card that falls under the 5/24 rule. And you are correct that a big reason they instituted this policy is because of bonus whoring.

Well, now we're getting somewhere. Not that I'm happy to find out it's 5, which probably bans me from Chase until October or something.

This is the first time I've been affected by the 5/24 rule.

Can you post any links to the discussion of this on other sites?

http://thepointsguy.com/2016/07/unfo...hase-524-rule/

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/cred...e-written-out/

Affected credit cards:
Chase Slate
Chase Freedom
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Ink Cash (Business)
Chase Ink Plus (Business)
Chase Ink Preferred (Business)
Chase United Explorer
Chase United Club
Chase United Explorer Business
Chase Marriott
Chase Southwest Plus
Chase Southwest Premier
Chase Southwest Premier Business


Not affected:
Chase IHG
Chase Hyatt
Chase Fairmont
Chase Ritz-Carlton
Chase Marriott Business
Chase British Airways
Chase Disney Rewards
Chase Disney Premier
Chase Amazon
Chase AARP

[handicapme]

Magic # unfortunately is 4 new credit cards (this was told to a buddy of my mine who has a highend account with them). Also, not done to thwart credit card bonus whoring but more to thwart someone getting excessive credit quickly which from a risk perspective is not something the bank doesn't want much exposure to. It just unfortunately has a bad affect on anyone who is bonus whoring but is otherwise a perfect client. They are also not the only bank to start this, unfortunately from my experience just the worst to get around this. I had similar issues with another bank I won't mention here.

If it's really 4, then I'm screwed for awhile -- probably until 2018 or very close to it.

Initially I also thought this was a risk thing, but I offered to transfer credit from another card (so they're not giving me any new credit), and they declined, telling me this is a hard rule.

Keep in mind that I was declined many times in the past by Chase, and then got around it by the "transfer credit from another card" trick.

This time it didn't work, and they honestly were not interested in all in my credit history (aside from # of new accounts opened), total recent new credit acquired, or additional risk to their bank (in which I was offering none). In the past I was able to talk them into it (sometimes requiring a bit of effort, admittedly) by citing these factors. This time I was shut down and told that it was a super-hard-line corporate rule.

I guess it's possible this is some poorly-conceived anti-fraud measure which happens to screw bonus whores, but I also think it's possible this is a no-exceptions policy specifically because they don't want anyone opening a lot of cards quickly, figuring them to either be fraudsters or bonus whores.

In general, Chase does seem to be the bank with the most hardline corporate rules.

For example, they are one of the few banks not to allow ANY third party cash deposits into accounts. Doesn't matter if you show ID. You cannot deposit cash into personal accounts unless it's your own (business accounts yes, personal no).

They are also the hardest line against online gambling. If they get even a whiff that you're using your account to make or receive online gambling payments, they will close it.

Again it really has to do with the credit risk they're taking. Think of it like this, what person needs 4-5 (thanks plol) new credit cards in 24 months? Obv we are bonus whoring, but if you exclude this population of people all that is left are people who need leverage in 1 form or another. It just screams bad underwriting practices. It sucks because people like us will get screwed, but from a risk standpoint it is a great decision by the bank.

[Dan Druff]

This was on the Chase Sapphire signup webpage in 2016:



They took it down after word started getting around on the various bonus whoring advisory sites.

So looks like I'm screwed for awhile, since the language states that you will be auto-declined if you have 5 or more new accounts in the past 24 months, meaning that I would need 4 or fewer.

At the moment I have 8. I don't think four will fall off until 2018.

[PLOL]

Anybody know if there's a way to look at the average credit limit given for a given card? CreditKarma used to show stats on Average Credit Limit, Average Credit Score, and a bunch of other stats, but they took this feature away for some reason. Just curious if there's another site out there that has aggregated this data.

[Dan Druff]

Anybody know if there's a way to look at the average credit limit given for a given card? CreditKarma used to show stats on Average Credit Limit, Average Credit Score, and a bunch of other stats, but they took this feature away for some reason. Just curious if there's another site out there that has aggregated this data.

If you're bonus whoring, why does this really matter?

[WillieMcFML]

Actually it's 5. This is called the 5/24 rule and has been in place for a little while now. You should always check to see if your card falls under the 5/24 rule before applying otherwise you will be auto-denied and you can not get them to reverse their decision. This applies to most Chase cards, but not all. For instance, the Amazon Prime Chase card does not fall under the 5/24 rule. But any card you've opened within 24 months will count towards your 5 cards, even if it's not a Chase card or a card that falls under the 5/24 rule. And you are correct that a big reason they instituted this policy is because of bonus whoring.

how do you get credit in the first place? does backpage report to the credit bureaus?

seriously, what do you put under employment and annual salary?

being a twink is like the new skinny, blonde, suburban pro-athlete chaser

i mean, druff at least reports (some?) ALL of his income, how the fuck do you get the best cc's despite never having a job (besides owning me)

[PLOL]

Anybody know if there's a way to look at the average credit limit given for a given card? CreditKarma used to show stats on Average Credit Limit, Average Credit Score, and a bunch of other stats, but they took this feature away for some reason. Just curious if there's another site out there that has aggregated this data.

If you're bonus whoring, why does this really matter?

I'm trying to keep my credit as high as possible and keeping my utilization as low as possible. Two of my existing cards offered me 0% interest for like 18 months and I could just write myself a cash check. I took advantage and gave myself a 0% int loan but now my utilization is kinda high

Weird this is I now see this data on CreditKarma, but it doesn't display when I'm logged in. Only when I'm viewing as a guest.

seriously, what do you put under employment and annual salary?

i mean, druff at least reports (some?) ALL of his income, how the fuck do you get the best cc's despite never having a job (besides owning me)

I'd rather not disclose that.

[Dan Druff]

For those of you who think CC bonus whoring is a credit score killer, my score right now is 817.

Admittedly it's been several months since I last opened up a new card, but as you can see, this whoring isn't negatively affecting me.