Credit Card Churning or Crypto Cards?

gentlecrack on 17/11/2021 - 22:18
Last edited 17/11/2021 - 22:21

Thanks to OzB, I have been successfully churning credit cards for past 8-10 years, mostly between ANZ Black/FF, Qantas, Westpac, Citi, Virgin, NAB. Except for the last two years, I did consistently get 1-2K back or used them for travel.

My yearly churning involves 1-3 cards where I use the below method

Card 1) Rego/CTP/Insurance renewals
Card 2) Prepay Health insurance + Purchases
Card 3) Travel / Holiday / Other bills

Off late without travel, meeting the spend requirements for the third card is getting difficult with the only other option being online bills for services. And it takes a lot of effort due to the sheer number of places where you need to (sometimes even call and) update.

Also with Crypto card and upcoming Coinbase card, I am looking at what fellow OzBians’ views are.

  1. Do you think it’s worth churning credit cards anymore or should I move all non-fee items to Crypto card and go down to 1 card / yr?
  2. If answer is no, what is the best way to reduce the manual CC updates? Do any of you use a “frontdoor” card/service such as Curve card or BeamIt to circumvent this situation?
Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • ComfortablyNumb on 17/11/2021 - 23:08
    +1

    I've been considering this too, the 3% cashback rate (CDC) is a very appealing card - way outperforms any matter of points you can get in a year.

    Only trouble is the $5k initial stake - as we all say, wish we got in earlier. On a positive, CRO keeps rising… (but for how long?)…. but this too makes the $5k requirement a little riskier. The other option is a smaller $500 for 2% back.

    Even at say a $60k spend a year, 2% $1200 cashback in crypto = Would never have to churn again…
    I'll be interested to see what Coinbase release.

    Sure 100k bonus qantas points on signup is great, but you are locked to using them with Qantas - Cash is cash (and dare I say it… king again?)

    Now as for point 2 - I keep a spreadsheet of all my subscriptions, when I churn, I go through and update each one, got the transition perfected, I use 12 various service providers for all manners of transactions - I can do it all in an hour (various login sites, password, techniques - heck even can do my AnytimeFitness gym).

    • Slippery Otter on 18/11/2021 - 10:12
      +4

      Been using CDC platform for over a year now (signed up in July 2020) and upgraded to Icy White on Monday for free thanks to all the CRO earned from Visa card cashbacks, gift card cashback, staking rewards and DEFI wallet. Use for everything apart from Eletronics.

      Use my Coles Platium Mastercard for electronic purchases or items that will go down in price in 24 months for price protection.

      Amex wherever accepted. I still value QFF.

      • SeVeN11 on 08/12/2021 - 16:01

        you can't get cashback on insurance, rates, rego, utilities etc.
        I also noticed I can't add the CDC to pay my afterpay too…

        what are you using it for apart from online shopping and eating out?

        • supersabroso on 31/01/2022 - 00:26

          That's true, definitely gotta watch out. I think it even rules out software programs/designs which means you won't get cashback on your office 365 subscription etc. So many things that don't get cashback.

          So it's definitely limited. I just found out about the curve card, this is very interesting but it's benefits are limited to a few select stores, get 1% cashback ontop of your standard cashback with the added magical feature of changing your purchase to a different card if you find out that it didn't result in cashback.

    • ComfortablyNumb on 18/11/2021 - 10:16
      +4

      I forgot to add another benefit, no more damn credit checks!

    • idjces on 18/11/2021 - 11:57
      +1

      Seems like the cashback can only be paid back in CRO tokens. I guess you are free to do what you wish with those tokens after the fact, just makes the process a bit more cumbersome (not to mention tracking taxable events lol).

      Still, certainly has it's benefits

  • Shadowsfury on 18/11/2021 - 10:05
    +2

    Still churn cards but only do so for sign up bonuses. After that cut it and go back to CDC card

    • coffeeinmyveins on 09/12/2021 - 15:07

      This. Accumulating points via spend is useless. Only use CC's for the signup bonus (eg AMEX for 250,000 points means you'd have to spend $125,000 to get that many!)

      • rektrading on 09/12/2021 - 15:42

        Accumulating funny points from airlines are useless. They dilute the points so that people have to get more points every year to buy the same good or service.

        CDC on the other hand rewards magic internet money that goes up in buying power. Less token for more good and service.

        • bobwokeup on 09/12/2021 - 17:41

          That is a very good point, as always, I need to use my CDC card more often. Do you keep a large number in your Fiat Wallet or top it up every couples of weeks?

          Also what have you found don’t earn CRO cashback?

          • coffeeinmyveins on 09/12/2021 - 22:39

            @bobwokeup: Someone worked out that u can get CRO cashback on sportsbet, so I'm guessing quite a lot of things.

        • coffeeinmyveins on 09/12/2021 - 19:15

          from airlines are useless

          I wasn't referring to them specifically. That 250k amex points is worth approx $1200 in GC's

          Less token for more good and service.

          for $3000 spend on the recent Amex deal you get $1200 in GC's . CDC will get you $90 in CRO which would need to go up in value more than 1000% to be worth the same (and not accounting for GCT).

          The CDC card is great for when you aren't reaching the min spend of these sign up deals, which is what I use it for.

    • bobwokeup on 09/12/2021 - 15:13

      I like the CDC card but how do I compare 3% cashback to 1 QFF reward point per dollar spent?

      • coffeeinmyveins on 09/12/2021 - 19:12

        1 QFF point is worth approx 1.9cents.

        • bobwokeup on 09/12/2021 - 19:49

          When you put it like that it makes sense to use CDC.

          Correct me if I’m wrong, so if $100 spend on CDC that is 3 CRO back (on my 3% cashback card) and say CRO is worth $1 that is worth $3 AUD. With QFF the 1.9cents is worth $1.90 for $100 spend, is that maths right?

          • coffeeinmyveins on 09/12/2021 - 22:38

            @bobwokeup: you'd get more CRO at the moment due to its rate (it's not worth $1AUD) but yeah, your maths is right.

            however, it makes an assumption about a QFF being worth 1.9cents. I got that from the pointshack website which generally rings true.

            It makes sense to use a CC to get the initial bonus points. eg: Look at the recent ANZ Rewards Black. Spend (I think) $2000 and get $800 in gift vouchers. You can't spend $2000 on CDC and get that much in rewards. See my other post about an even better deal with AMEX.

            • bobwokeup on 10/12/2021 - 15:17

              @coffeeinmyveins: Cheers for confirming and as we won’t be flying freely for a while there is that too.

              Yeah even if it was double the 1.9c I would still prefer CRO so that answers my question. Just hope they allow Apple Pay soon but everything at CDC is about waiting a long time haha

              Yeah I’ll do that get the bonus points (doing St George now) and then go back to CDC.

  • tajid on 10/12/2021 - 11:30

    You don't get cashbacks on Insurance payments using CDC card as an FYI.

    Saying that, why not both?

  • [Deactivated] on 16/12/2021 - 14:59

    has anyone tried funding "etoro" with CDC card? I do it with my BOM card, and get the credit card reward points without any issues :)

    • tajid on 16/12/2021 - 15:38

      etoro will most likely be considered under financials and will be one of the exclusions. Happy to be corrected.

      • [Deactivated] on 17/12/2021 - 12:05

        dang too bad! Love collecting points on my BOM card…

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