I’ve created this page as a way to introduce folks who are new to miles and points to the joys of collecting miles and points, and the cheap travel which is possible.
Emily and I pay a fraction of the retail cost to fly and stay in hotels. We do this by collecting miles and points. We participate in a number of promotions, but the main way we earn miles and points is by signing up for credit cards which offer large sign-up bonuses.
Collecting miles and points requires a bit of organization, but it is not rocket science (otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do it!).
Step 1 – Sign-up for miles and points programs
Sign-up for a few hotel and airline loyalty programs. There are many programs to choose from, but I recommend signing-up for just a few programs initially. You can always sign-up for the rest later on.
Make sure to copy and paste your account number, username, and password into an Excel or Word document to help with Step 2.
Step 2 – Manage your miles online
I use AwardWallet.com to manage our miles. AwardWallet not only tracks Emily and my miles, but also our parents’ mileage accounts. It is a free service, but with a small donation ($5 for 6 months) you get premium services such as alerts when your miles are expiring.
Simply sign-up for Awardwallet.com and enter in your username and passwords for your accounts from Step 1.
Step 3 – Credit card strategy & does applying for credit cards damage my credit score?
The easiest way to collect miles and points without flying is through credit-card mega bonuses (think 50,000 or more miles and points from just 1 credit card).
I earned over 1 million miles and points this year from credit card sign-up bonuses and my credit score is still over 700. Signing-up for credit card bonuses repeatedly is called credit card churning and is the easiest way to earn miles and points. Your credit score does decrease each time you sign-up for a credit card, but the effect of that is small (less than 5 points), and over the medium to long term your credit score improves because of the increase in available credit.
If you are not taking out a big loan in the next 2 years (equity, house, student, etc.) than apply for credit cards and build up a hotel point and air mile balance. If you are applying for a big loan in the next 2 years, than I would recommend very few or no credit card applications so as to ensure that you’re doing everything possible to get your loan.
According to MyFICO, applying for credit cards reduces your score usually by 3 to 5 points per application, but banks look at other factors such as how often you’ve applied for credit recently when they evaluate big loans. Much better in my opinion, to get that big loan first at the lowest possible interest rate, and then apply for credit cards.
If you do decide to churn credit cards make sure to pay your bills off when they are due and to not pay interest. Paying interest on credit cards is a losing proposition – even if you manage to earn miles and points.
Even if you don’t want to churn credit cards for the sign-on bonus, I recommend getting 2 of my favorite credit cards which give you a lot of flexibility. I do get a referral if you apply for these 2 cards, but Emily and I are very grateful for your support!
1) Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa & MasterCard – This is my favorite card and one of the very few cards which Emily pays an annual fee for. Basically, you earn a 40,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $3,000 within 3 months, and double points for dining and travel expenses. These points give you more flexibility since they can be transferred to different airline and hotel partners.
Here’s a link to my review of the card.
2) American Express SPG card – Another of my favorite cards and for which I’d pay an annual fee. Here’s a link to my review of the card.
3) Citi AAdvantage credit cards – I know I said get the above 2 if you don’t want to churn cards, but I can’t resist the Citi AAdvantage cards. You can apply for both the Visa and AMEX versions using the 2-browser trick and get 50,000 miles per card – 100,000 miles in total.
This is a great deal and you should consider getting these cards, even though they are not great cards to actually spend money on. You can’t go wrong with 100,000 AAdvantage miles!
Step 4 – Eat, Shop and earn miles
Put all your expenses on a credit card and sign-up for programs which give you miles for dining. Check EVReward for the best online mall to earn miles and points from.
To be continued…
I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! 
I just clicked on a link to watch a video and earn points. i didn even watch a video and it said i earned the points?? it didnt even ask for my rapid reward number or email? can i get some clarification
@maha Sughayer – It will be hard to get any miles and points if they don’t know your RR number. However, there is a spot to enter in the RR number at the end of the video.
Hi I was just reading your blog and a lot of information is US related credit cards, do you have any suggestions on Australian cc or earning points and miles
@Michelle Tan – Unfortunately, I don’t track Australian credit card offers!
Is there any information for this page?
How about Canadians interested in points/hacking?
Where can I learn about credit card churning etc…
I am 200 elite qualifying points from platinum status with american airlines. Is there anyway to call and purchase the points? I doubt that I will travel again between now and Dec 2011. Any advice is appreciated.
I’m very new to credit card churning (just applied for my first 2 cc for churning purposes) and am wondering when you cancel the cards. After the miles have posted? Later? What’s best for churning purposes and credit rating purposes?
Thanks for your very friendly and helpful advice to those of us who are new to this “game!”
I find it very difficult getting a card closed. Is there a guide anywhere that will help make it quick?
Norm
We will be traveling to China to bring home our 2nd daughter. Not being aware of the points value we didn’t have any or earn our first trip. I have opened the Chase Sapphire and received the bonus points. What else would you recommend we open? We live in PA so will fly from the NE. Our ultimate destination is Guangzhou, China. Our last trip we flew Cathay and stayed in a Holiday Inn. Any advice???
Thanks,
Jill
i got the cHASE SP 50k bonus is good for $500, otherwise i dont eat at resturants and don’t fly, should i just cancel it or ask to change to a different cahse card?
Is the Chase Shapphire and AMEX SPG still your 2 fav cards? I have two personal cards I received back in November. I am about to begin working on some others if the offer is right. Thanks!! Love your blog!
Sorry to all for the delayed response to a few comments. I just found them!
@Noah – I don’t know much about earning miles and points for Canadians, since the credit card offers aren’t that lucrative in Canada. Sorry!
@AT – I don’t think you can purchase AA elite points, but you could call and ask them to bump you up since you are only 200 points short.
@Robyn – I think I emailed you, but here’s a post on when to close your credit cards. Hope this helps!
@Norman Owens – You will get a little hard sell, but just be polite and firm with the agent and let them know you want to cancel the card. Some banks will cancel your card after sending them a secure message from your account to cancel the card.
@Jill – I’ll email you.
@jimmy – You could downgrade it to a fee free card when the annual fee comes due.
@Mike H – The Chase Sapphire Preferred and the American Express SPG card are still my favorite cards to actually keep and spend money on. But if you’re looking to churn cards for the sign-up bonus, I recommend getting the 2 Citi AAdvantage cards first using the 2 browser trick. as well. You’ll get 100K miles from the 2 cards!
I have been scouring your resource for a couple weeks. Thanks for your work, it is a great help. I stumbled into a 50,000 point Continental card last year. I had no idea a community of point hoarding card churners existed! The frugality that my family mocks me for is going to get revenge!
I have one question that I couldn’t find an answer for. I only get to take one trip per year. I am worried about accumulating more points than I can use, thus going through this effort just to have them expire.
Do I need to worry about points expiring, and do you have information on keeping points from expiring?
@Chuck – Welcome to the community of point hoarding card churners! Your family will learn to love the hobby once you start taking them on trips. It is fairly easy to keep points active by using a credit card, buying something online, searching through their toolbar, taking part in a promotion etc. I use Award Wallet to track my accounts and expiration dates.
When are the points awarded? i opened the sapphire card with bonus and know that I have to spend 3k in 3 months but thought that the purchases i already made ( around $1650) earn me 1 pt per $. When do those points get posted? Thanks.
@glenn – The points are awarded when your statement closes. So the $1650 points will post to your account when the statement in which you’ve earned them closes.
I’m new to credit cards and have found your blog to be extremely helpful. Based on what I’ve read I applied for 3 chase cards using the 3 browser meathod. I was approved for one but denied on the other two for the following reason “Too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us”. What’s the best way to get chase to reconsider?
@Aaron – Welcome! If you’re new to credit cards, you should start slow. This is a long term game! Chase almost always denies the 2nd and 3rd application within a 30 day period automatically. You can call the reconsideration line and ask them to approve you for the 2nd card, but it may be hard to get approved for the 3rd card (so I’d pick one card and call them and then hang up and call again for the 3rd card). Here’s a link to the credit card resources page which may help. Good luck!
got the citibank amex & visa back in 12/2011. just applied for citibank bus card, but got denied for with the following message: You have submitted multiple applications for credit. i called citibank’s reconsideration line, spoke to a supervisor who approved me. with all three cards. i already have 50k aa miles, should get my second 50k soon, & once i hit my 3k in spending with my new bus card, will get my last 50k …that’s a total of 150k aa miles. thanks!
with the 150k aa miles, am i able to use it for other family members ?
how many months should i wait until applying for another credit card?
how would someone find out what credit bureau a credit company uses?
when applying for credit cards, isn’t it normally better to get an airline credit card vs hotel credit card, since a decent one night hotel room would use up all the points given with the credit card promo.
i’m debating if it would be a good idea to simply wait or apply now?
i’m a fulltime 20 yr old college student with a couple of part time jobs. i’m an added cardholder on my parents americanexpress gold card & discover card for over one year. i tried applying myself for a united airlines card 5/2011, but was denied due to not enough accounts opened long enough & few revolving accounts. i received letter from chase, which noted transunion as the company they use. at that time, i ordered my free credit report, which noted i have been in their files, since 11/2009.
i’m wondering if it would simply be easier for me to apply for a college credit card.
what are your thoughts?
thank you very much.
@James – Congrats on getting approved for all those cards. You can use the miles to book tickets for anyone you want including family. I usually apply for 3 to 5 credit cards every 3.5 to 4 months. You could apply for a few more now, or wait and see if there are better offers. Here’s a post on how to find out which credit bureaus banks use. I prefer applying for both hotel and airline credit cards because I need to sleep somewhere when traveling!
@brian - I would apply for a student credit card in your name 1st and charge and pay off in full a small amount each month. After about 6 to 9 months, you may be able to get approved for the other miles and points credit cards!
Hi, I’m a virgin to this miles collection thing. Does the above trick still work? I don’t want to try it and then not be eligible for other specials in the future. Thanks.
@Chris – Welcome! Which trick are you referring to?
Oops, yes I am a beginner. I was reading about the two browser trick for the 100,000 AA points. I notice some readers tried it late January and it work, so I was just wondering if it still works now. I’m planning a trip to Ireland later this year so was hoping to earn some points to use for flights. Thanks.
@ Chris, it worked in our household in mid-January (for one spouse) and again on Feb. 20 (for the other). I believe that in both cases, we had to call and answer a few questions before being approved. Here is what we did:
1. Use “2-browser trick” to apply.
2. Get message that says, “Call [citi phone number]” or something to that effect.
3. Call immediately, regarding ONE card (don’t mention second one). Get approved.
4. Call immediately, regarding OTHER card. Get approved.
Good luck!
@Chris – Yes, it is still working to the best of my knowledge!
@jac – Thanks for helping out!
couple questions –
1. On churning Cit AA cards — had a AA Citi platinum visa card (taken out 1 year ago) that got bonus on. When came due to pay annual fee, I converted card to Bronze card with no fee and also negotiated 3,500 bonus miles (so that card is still open). SO, I now have a Bronze card and it has been year since last applied — can I apply using the double browser to get AA Citi Amex and MC? I have read that you need to wait 18 months for same type card from Citi to get bonus again BUT I never had the Amex or MC, had the Visa (remember that it has only been a year since applied for the visa that I converted but kept open)?
2. On churning Chase cards — I have the old United Mileage Plus card (taken out greater than 4 years ago) that was converted also to no fee card (so card is still active). I did get mile award when that card was originally taken out, but no additional award when converted to no fee. I have never had Chase United Explorer card. Correct me if I am wrong, but cant I now take out the newer Explorer card for miles as have never had that one (even though part of United Chase offerings). I ask b/c I know that chase is supposed to be difficult in terms of churning. I know that I can also do Chase Sapphire as other option.
3. Can you clarify if and when a present card offering from an Airlines card needs to be closed before you can apply for newer card with that airline and get bonus.
@todd – You should wait at least 18+ months before applying for a new set of Cit personal AA cards otherwise you may get denied for being an existing cardholder. Chase usually lets you get the bonus once per card type, so you should be able to get the bonus on the United Explorer, because it is a different card type from the United Mileage Plus. You can also do the Chase Ink Bold to get an extra 50K miles. For your last question, it really depends on a lot of variable and sometimes changes from person to person, so I hesitate to write more on it.
what if i already have a citibank master card and a citibank american express card, do i need to cancel my card first before apply to earn the 100,000 miles mentioned in your recommendation above? and how long do i need to wait to apply for the card again?
nevermind… i just saw the answers above… sorry for the repeated questions.
@Amy – No problem! If it has been at least 18 months (preferably 20 or more) since your last Citi AA card approval you MAY be approved again for the cards. If your existing Citi MasterCard or AMEX is not your oldest card (or older cards), it may help to close them.
when I converted from an AA platinum (annual fee and mile for every dollar spent) to AA bronze (no annual fee and 1 mile for every other dollar), did that count as new application (for the 18 months rule between applications)? If so, that card has not yet arrived, if do not activate – would that make difference?
Thank you so much for breaking it down so easily! I stumbled on your site. Anyhow, I like the idea of tracking all of my loyalties….. award wallet.com no longer tracks AA! Weird, huh? Do you have a second online award tracker? Thanks!
@todd - I’m not sure if that resets the 18 months or not.
@Aimee – AwardWallet doesn’t track American Airlines anymore as well as Southwest. You can use Go miles or other sites, but I prefer using AwardWallet and checking Southwest or American Airlines manually.
General information question about United – Lately on my account summary, miles are posted to my account with a description of “cartera” – I have no idea what that is. Thank you
@Kathleen – That is likely earning from the online shopping portal which is managed by Cartera Commerce.
Excellent blog. Found you through myfico.
VERY much look forward to your future post.
@Jayson – Thanks for stopping by!
I was trying to decide where to post my success with our 1st App-o-Rama and decided that this would be a good place. Maybe it will encourage any newbies (like me) to give travel hacking a shot!
My husband and I love to travel (frugally) but never thought we would be able to travel using miles and points because we are not big spenders. I stumbled across this blog in Nov 2011 and loved what I was reading about credit card bonuses. Our credit scores were both above 750. It seemed time for us to start putting those good scores to use! I immediately applied for the Southwest Plus Chase card for each of us because it was a no-brainer. But after reading some more of Daraius’s posts, I realized that BEFORE playing around with our credit we should take care of a couple of things. So we refinanced our mortgage and also transferred a high balance that we had from starting up a new business to a 0% card.
As a result, our 1st round of applications started out sporatically. We will be much more organized in the future. During Feb/March my husband was approved for a Chase United Mileage Plus card (he got the 60,000 point offer even though he had nothing in his Mileage Plus account) and the Chase SW Business card. He had already received the Chase SW Plus card in December (points posted Jan 4th so hopefully we will be getting the Companion pass!) and a Discover More 0% card, AND we had a pull on our credit from the mortgage, so we decided those 2 cards were enough for now.
I applied and was approved for the Citi Amex and Visa (using the 2-browser trick) and the Chase Marriott (hoping to get the 70,000 points) and the Barclay USAir card. The challenge will be meeting the spend requirement for the Citi cards but I think I have that worked out.
Including the Southwest cards we recieved back in Dec 2011 we have a total of 340,000 air miles and at least 50,000 Marriott points plus a free night and HOPING to receive the SW Companion Pass! Not bad for a rookie! I think I will do much better on our 2nd App-o-Rama since I did learn a lot this time around. BTW…the only reconsideration call I had to make was for the Southwest Business card for my husband. I was nervous, but it was completely painless. I am sure I will have lots more phone calls on our 2nd round, which is planned for this summer.
If you are hesitating and wondering if this is for you….Just do it! Daraius gives awesome advice in a clear and concise way so you really can’t go wrong.
I’m just beginning the credit card bonus binging and wanted some feedback on this. I had a southwest visa and applied for and got a business visa and the 55,000 RR points. But, then got a letter from Chase reducing the credit limit on the original card. I just put in an app for the Sapphire and wonder if they will do the same thing. If they do, I can cancel the original southwest card I suppose, but with Chase running so many programs, how do you keep from running into credit line problems with them?
I don’t suppose the same problem will apply with Amex or with the Citi cards. What do folks recommend with respect to Amex. I have both a membership rewards and Delta card, because I used to fly Delta a great deal for business; now, not so much. It would still likely be the airline of choice for anything Southwest doesn’t fly to or for international flights. I received notice of pre-approval for platinum cards for both membership rewards and Delta. The perks for the membership rewards are enticing, although expensive at $450 per year, with no free first year. Have people had good experiences with it? Should I just try and get both? Should I try to get the Citi cards on top of these – my credit score is somewhere around 720 and no issues with full payment every month.
Hi, everyone! I just want to share that I made my first redemption of miles! Daraius thanks so much for all your information. I have been reading, studying, and planning very carefully for the past month or so. I can’t believe I’m getting these flights so cheap – just the annual membership and $5 per ticket.
I booked on SW – going from Chicago to Boston in July, for my family of five – me, DH, 3 kids. I was able to buy 4.5 WGA trips total for about 48,000pts- I need a few more points for that last return ticket. How do you know how long the WGA fares are good for? I booked today because I was nervous the fares would go up.
These purchases were used on my husband’s SW Visa Sig, mine just came in the mail yesterday… so it might be another month before I can buy my return ticket with my miles. Does this all sound right to you? I am thrilled!
@Jasmine – Congrats on your app-o-rama and thanks for sharing! It is smart to complete your refinancing/mortgage approvals before applying for many credit cards. I’m pretty sure you’ll also get the Companion Pass for Southwest since you’ll earn 100K points in 2012, and can transfer Marriott points over to reach 110K points.
@Mark – You’re right that Chase has most of the good apps. I usually call their reconsideration line and offer to transfer a credit line from one card to another card to get approved or offer to close an account if it will get me approved. There is a targeted version of the American Express Platinum card available, which could make sense if you get the 50,000 point version since you could use the $200 travel credit towards travel expenses and you get free lounge access.
However, the lounge access may not be a real benefit if you don’t travel much now. The best offer for the Delta Gold card is 35K miles, but Delta miles don’t go very far (try making dummy award bookings online for routes you’d like to use your miles for). I’d suggest looking at the 2 Citi American Airlines card for 50K miles or 100K miles for both. If you already have 1 Southwest card and the points posted in 2012, you may want to try to get another Southwest card for another 50K points so that you’re within striking distance of the Southwest Companion Pass which will allow a companion to travel with you for free. But you may want to wait a bit since you just applied for a Chase card.
@mary kate – Congratulations and thanks for sharing! You can cancel your ticket made with points at any time for no penalty and the points go back into your account, so you can’t go wrong with making a booking using points. If you do get the Companion Pass later on (by applying for the business card for another 50K points and then getting an extra 10K points), you can cancel one of your existing reservations and add a companion.
Thanks for everything. I dont see us using a CP for several reasons, though I understand its value.
Quick question: I am trying to figure out if there is a limit to the number of tickets I can get on a single flight with points on Southwest. It seems like I redeemed five WGA tickets for one flight for the five of us… that’s okay, right? It still seems too good to be true.
Thanks for your notes. I’m doing comparing among a couple of different bloggers. Got the Chase SP (both for me and DH), looking for next card. Want to do the spg amex for linking/transfer daily bonus points on transactions, and to open Chase checking, get Freedom card and possible Chase Ink Bold. Thoughts on chase ink Bold? Also, at some point I’d like to build my AA miles up and will look into AA cards after i do the spy and freedom. I just cashed in a bunch For a european trip for 4.
Looking to do Argentina with my Sapphire Bold miles (after transferring to BA Avios) sometime in the next 1.5 years. Would love timeline and order for applications. THX!
@Mary Kate - That’s the great thing about Southwest – any seat which can be purchased for cash can be got using points. It is quite common to be able to get 4,5,6 or more seats using points. You just need to have enough points!
@Grouch Mama – Welcome! The Chase Ink Bold currently offers a 50K bonus after spending $5K within 3 months, but that is likely to change and will require $10K spending to get the 50K bonus. The 50K bonus on the Ink Bold can be transferred to United or Hyatt (and other partners). Depending on where you’re departing from, I’d suggest transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and using for the great Hyatts in Argentina and getting 2 Citi American Airlines cards for 50K each at the same time and using that for a business or coach roundtrip from the US to Argentina. You could do SPG, Chase Ink Bold, and Chase Freedom now (may need to call reconsideration line to get approved for the 2nd Chase card), and then after 3 or 4 months apply for the 2 Citi AA cards.
Can you please help me? I just got the southwest visa with 50,000 points. I want to sign my husband up for a card with great points. We fly southwest and united, but not very often. SO should I sign him up for the marriott rewards card and transfer points or do the southwest for 50,000. Basically just want to get some free airline tickets for our family of 4 so we can do better vacations.
@cherie- The best domestic deal for flights is certainly southwest. You should BOTH have that card. Additionally if somehow you both got both the personal and the business version of the card you would both be very close to earning free companion passes meaning each of you could then take one of your children along for free even on a free ticket of your own ! (youd have to “earn” 10,000 more points each on southwest but very doable). I would suggest that you both have at least one southwest card and you both jump at the united offer as well. That would be 2 chase applications for each of you. If you want to then stay away from chase I would suggest that you both look at the citi Hilton cards that Daraius has under hotel deals as well as the Amex Hilton cards he has there. If you have decent credit there should be no problem getting 2 chase, one citi and one amex for each of you. The net of this would be over 16oo dollar in southwest airfare (certainly enough for 4 roudtrips even more), 100k united miles again enough for 4 rouns trips in the usa with proper planning and thered be no minimum spend on ANY of those chase cards. If you then get the amex hilton card which only requires 750 in spend in 3 months and the citi hilton for 50k which requires 1500 over 6 months for each of you that would net you 180,000 hilton points. You can get decent hilton stays from 12500-25000 a night so youd be looking at roughly at least 7 hotels nights for free. If I was a family of 4 looking to go on 2 free vacations within a few months and spreading the applications arounds this is the way I would start. I will let Daraius offer his opinion as well og couse
@cherie – If you’re looking to get the Companion Pass, you may want to sign up for the Chase Southwest business card which will get you another 50K Southwest points. You’d still need another 10K points to get the Companion Pass which will let your companion travel for free – even when using points.
As Mike suggests, have your husband consider the Southwest card as well. 50K points is ~$833 in Wanna Get Away fares. It is also much easier to get 4 seats on Southwest compared to United.
@mike fein – Very nice strategy to keep the minimum spending requirements down and to get started.
Thanks for your reply. We missed the 5k spend on the Chase Ink Bold and 10k is out of the question. DH is feeling more skittish. Is it better to use the spg for daily spends/transfers or the chase freedom? We have a small chase checking account linked to a high school debit card we got for our 14 year old so I thought the Freedom might be better. I like your strategy about getting the aa cards in 3 months. I was planning to transfer my Chase UR point to Avios when it came time to book argentina (from NYC). DH can get another Chase card in the next week. I signed up to get double aa miles through 2 rooms I had to book for 4 nights in london as HH member. also will be scheduling a trip to west coast(nyc-sfo) and getting double miles. thanks
@Grouch Mama – Unless you’re a big spender, I’d prefer the Chase Freedom because you get a 10% bonus on all points earned plus up to 5X points in certain categories. I also wouldn’t transfer points to Avios unless you were sure that the award you wanted was available, because you can’t transfer the points back!
1) What is the best card with no minimum spending requirement (other than maybe making 1 purchase)?
2) Same question as #1, but that is NOT a Chase or Citi card?
3) What is the amount of time one should wait before putting in for another Chase card? Once every 65 days? Or do I recall reading you can put in for two Chase cards, and then you should wait 60 days?
Thanks!!! Awesome site.
@Andrew – Answers are subjective, but here’s my though.
1) Chase Southwest card for 50K points or $833 worth of airfare on Southwest. Or Chase United Explorer with 55K points and $50 statement credit. Chase Hyatt card with 2 free nights and $75 statement credit is also good.
2) This is tough! Probably the Barclay’s US Air for 40K points.
3) Depends on the person, length of credit, credit history etc. I got approved for 2 personal and 1 business card over the last month. You can do 1 personal and 1 business, but you’ll have to call the reconsideration line to get approved. Or 2 personal and then give it a break for a bit.
I am debating between the citi aadvantage 50,000 or chase sapphire preferred. Citi aadvantage offer expires on 4/30/2012. I have currently have 14k aadvantage miles (not much!). Should I just pull the trigger on aadvantage since the bonus has steadily been going down over the months? I can’t do both at the same time because i don’t spend enough in a month to cover the minimums.
Hey Darius,
Looking to book a ticket to Prague sometime in Sep of this year. Through AA it appears there is $700 fuel and tax surcharge!!!!! WTF??? Going through Heathrow. Can AA not offer flights avoiding this expensive airport??
Darius,
I have few newbie questions and am looking for your help.
1) Should One NOT apply for a personal and business card at the same time?
2) How many inquiries are OK (per credit reporting agency) to have per year?
3) I live in New Jersey and looks like that the only Financial Institution that do credit pulls from Transunion is Barclays. Barclays really don’t have any good offers (except 40K miles for US Airways). Any advice as to how I can take advantage of virtually having NO inquiries on Transunion?
As always, love your blog and appreciate your input!
Thanks,
Mike
@Fontane – The best deal would be to do BOTH the Visa and AMEX at the same time, since you usually can’t get another AA card for at least 18+ months.
@Anand – The $700 fee is for traveling on a British Airways flight. I suggest trying to see if you can fly AA to London and then connect to BA which will cost much less. Or try searching for a flight on Air Berlin.
@Mike – Welcome! 1) Business cards are a good way to get extra miles, so it does make sense to apply for them at the same time as personal cards provided you can meet the minimum spend on them. 2) The number of inquiries varies based on your profile, banks lending criteria etc., but I’d estimate it as 6 to 12 inquiries per year. 3) You may be able to freeze your credit report and get banks to look at the other bureaus. See this post for details or email Rapid Travel Chai.
Darius,
Thanks a lot for your prompt reply. I read the post from Rapid Travel Chai, and contacted Stephan via mail. Thanks again.
Mike
I applied at the beg of April for southwest per and bus, then about a week later citi Hilton and Amex Hilton. Is it to soon to apply for BA avois, as it is about to expire. I’m going to wait 90 days from first apps to do an app-o- ( leaving chase out if I apply for the BA avios). All pull from experian. Also what should be my next bus card? I do have a leg bus. Wanting to rack up AA, united, Hilton. And maybe another hotel chain.
@Mike – You’re welcome. Good luck!
@C – If you got 2 cards in April, I’d wait a bit before applying for the BA card. The BA card expires on June 7, and the other BA offer may still work after that. If you want AA points, the Citi AA biz card is a good bet for 50K. Or the Chase Ink Bold for 50K which can be transferred to United.
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