$4,292 Credit Card Application Spree

Posted by Madison on February 8, 2017

It’s time for an application spree! Sign up bonuses from credit cards continue to be a big money maker for us. In addition, I pick up points that allow our family to travel on trips we wouldn’t otherwise take.

Usually I alternate each spree with my husband. I’m trying something new this time around. After my Huge $5,325+ Credit Card Application Spree in the fall, I’m going to apply using my credit again.

Many of you don’t have a spouse or significant other to alternate between, so I thought it would be helpful to see how it works when you are focusing on just one person.

Credit Card Application Spree

In the fall I took advantage of some of the biggest bonuses including the 100k Amex bonuses, the Citi Prestige Sign Up Bonus Worth Over $1,000 and the Barclaycard Arrival Plus $525+ Sign Up Bonus.

This time around I’m focusing on list of complementary cards, issuers I skipped last time, and some extra cards to cash out other bonuses.

Don’t forget this strategy isn’t for everyone and it has to be done very carefully!

Credit Card Application List

  1. Capital One Venture Rewards. $460 bonus. I downgraded my Venture Rewards to a Venture One (with no annual fee) last summer, so I’m going to try picking up another Venture rewards for 40,000 miles. I love this card to redeem for theme park credits for free tickets to Disney World.
  2. Wells Fargo Cash Wise. $150 bonus. After picking up a $250 Sign Up Bonus on the checking account for Wells Fargo, I figured I might as well pick up a $150 bonus on their credit card too!
  3. American Express Every Day Credit Card. $100+ bonus. After picking up the American Express Platinum and Business Platinum cards this fall I need a free storage place for the points. The everyday card has 10,000 points, the ability to pool MR points and no annual fee.
  4. BOA cash rewards. $100 bonus. While I picked this one up for the $100 bonus, I’m still holding out hope we will be able to convert these cards to the Better Balance card for automatic annual $120 bonuses in the near future!
  5. American Express Platinum Schwab. $500+ bonus. 40,000 Membership Rewards. In addition to the everyday card to store points, the Schwab card has the ability to cash out membership points with a 25% bonus! This card is a great way to convert the MR points to cash via a Schwab Brokerage account.
  6. American Express Gold. $250+ bonus. American Express has easily become my favorite issuer over the last four months! I’m going to pick up 25,000 more Membership Rewards from the Ameriprise Gold card. With the Schwab card above, I can cash out the bonus for $312.
  7. Citi American Airlines Platinum. 50,000 miles. It’s time to pick up another personal version of the American Airlines card for easy miles and free bags. The mileage is increased to 50,000 miles for a limited time.
  8. Barclaycard Aviator Red. 40,000 miles. This is a good one to pair with the American card because you can get 40,000 miles for just 1 purchase!
  9. Marriott Premier Business. 80,000 points. I finally decided to give up on my pursuit of the 5/24 cards for now and pick up 80,000 points which can be transferred to Starwood.
  10. Amazon Prime Rewards. $70+ bonus. The Amazon card now offers 5% cash back at Amazon when you have a Prime membership. There’s also a $70 gift card sign up bonus. It’ll be much easier than waiting for 5% Rotating Cash Rewards each quarter!
  11. BOA Alaska. 30,000 miles. We’re banking Alaska miles and this is an easy way to add to it!
  12. Barclaycard Wyndham Rewards. 45,000 points. There’s a link floating around for the increased 45,000 points right now on reddit.
  13. Citi Thank You Preferred. $150 bonus. Finally, for my Citi 8th day application, I’m going to pick up another Citi Thank You card for 15,000 bonus points. The Citi Thank You bonus is restricted to not opening or closing another Thank you card in the last 24 months. I did just successfully get Prestige points after closing another card within 24 months, but it was a bizarre situation that I’m not sure could be repeated. However, DoC found a link without the 24 month language!

Overall Value

The total for all of the sign up bonuses is: $1,842 bonuses + 120,000 miles + 125,000 hotel points. Redeeming the miles and points at even a minimum 1 cent/point makes those worth at least $2,450 worth of miles for flights and nights when we travel.

Total value: $4,292+. The actual value of this application spree will be much higher, but I’m trying to calculate the minimum we’d be able to redeem all the points for!

Credit Card Application Links

All of the links I used for the application spree (unless noted above) are now listed in our credit card directory.

Credit Card Application Rules

I plan all of my application sprees within the constraints for each issuer including:

  • American Express: one signup bonus per lifetime on each card; maximum of five credit cards at a time (unlimited charge cards); one credit card application plus unlimited charge card applications in one day.
  • Citi: won’t allow a bonus if you’ve opened or closed a card in the same brand in the last 24 months; 2 applications per 65 days (1 every 8 days).
  • Capital One: One application per day. 1 application every 6 months.

Previous Application Sprees

Here are some of my previous application sprees if you are looking to target different cards:
5,325, $4,500 $4,420, $3,000, $2,075, $1,525, $750, $1,720, $1,800, $2,000 and $2,325.

More on Credit Card Application Sprees



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Comments to $4,292 Credit Card Application Spree

  1. Do you close all these accounts after a certain amount of time?

    Ted


    • Hi Ted,
      It depends on each individual card. Some of them I will close when the annual fee gets charged in a year, some I keep open if they don’t have an annual fee and provide rewards beyond the sign up bonus. Some I will close if they are cards that I could open again in the future for another bonus.

      Madison



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