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Quick $2,000+ Springtime Credit Card Application Spree

Happy May Day! As springtime rolls in, it’s time for my semi-annual credit card application spree. We finished up the spending requirements for my husband’s holiday credit card application spree [1], so it’s back to my turn. If you are following along, here are the details from our other application [2] sprees [3] over the past year.

You’ll notice my list is a little shorter this time around. Normally, I wait until I have at least a dozen target cards. However, because there are two limited time offers for free money [4] I want to take advantage of as soon as possible, I’m planning a quick application spree to pick up the following cards:

Credit Card Application List

  1. Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard [5] $440 sign up bonus. I want to get the $400 bonus (plus the $40 bonus on redemptions) on this card before the offer ends and it goes back to the normal $200 bonus.
  2. Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express. $500 sign up bonus Offer now expired. This is another limited time offer that I want to pick up before they take it away again.
  3. Chase Ink Bold Business Card. $500+ sign up bonus. The sign up bonus is worth $625 towards travel when you redeem through Ultimate Rewards. If you remember correctly, I already have this card, but I heard a rumor that you can have a second Ink Bold card if you apply for it under a different business. Since I have various businesses to choose from, I’ll go ahead give it a shot under another business and let you know if it’s a go.
  4. U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards [6]. $175 bonus. I have the personal version [7] of this card and redeeming the bonus via statement credit is easy, so I want to pick up the business version for an easy $175.
  5. Citi Dividend Platinum Select [8] $100 cash back. I had to skip this Citi card during my last application spree, since it fell to my 3rd choice (and Citi limits you to 2 new cards at a time). It’s time to circle back and pick up this card along with the $100 sign up bonus.
  6. Chase Freedom Visa. $100 cash back bonus. I have a Chase Freedom MasterCard already which I use for the rotating cash back [9]. Can I have both versions of this card? Time to find out. This card also has a 0% balance transfer. More on that below.
  7. Priceline Rewards Visa [10]. $50 sign up bonus. Anytime companies offer a 2% cash back card, I like to scoop it up. My 2% cards make up most of my default purchases that aren’t gift card or category specific.
  8. USAA Rewards American Express [11] The USAA card only has a $25 sign up bonus, but I want to pick up this USAA card to open up some other options for cash back at the grocery store since my Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express [12] will be capped soon. The USAA card has tiered earnings up to 2.25% cash back on gas and grocery purchases. It’s not the best cash back card, but I also like to diversify across banks, and I don’t currently have a USAA card.

More Application Spree Offers for 0% Balance Transfers

In addition to the sign up bonuses, I also continue to play the credit card 0% balance transfer game [13]. I’m planning to scoop up the following cards to flip a few balance transfers expiring soon (in addition to the Chase Freedom card mentioned above):

  • Discover it [14]. 0% intro APR for 18 months from the date of the first transfer made by June 10, 2013. There is a 3% balance transfer fee.
  • Citi Diamond Preferred Card [15]. 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 18 months. There is a balance transfer fee of 3%.

Overall Value

The total for all of the sign up bonuses is: $2015 (at the time of writing; bonus amounts change over time). Not bad for a quick 8 card application spree, especially since you can get over $1500 of it with just the first three cards!

More on Credit Card Application Sprees