To the seasoned churners out there, how do you structure you credit card applications in terms of frequency? What insights have you gained through doing it and do you have any rules you set for yourselves to keep your score good and avoid rejections?
I'm young, 6-figure income and have no mortgage, very small car loan. I applied for my first card in early January but not sure when it's reasonable to go for the next one…
Spend criteria's are getting higher, but there's still a few decent deals going.
Westpac have 90k points for the $75 QFF fee for the first year. NAB have a large cashback promo with their 90k points card, which also brings the overall first annual fee down to a similar $75 or so fee.
I think the general consensus is that the CC churning boat has sailed.
I wouldn't say sailed completely Probably at 60-70% value of what it was 24 months ago.
I hear people saying that, but for example, this NAB card is still being offered, and it’s given me the best net benefit of any credit card I’ve churned over the last couple of years.
@MS Paint is alluding to the excessive 18-24 month cooldown periods which have well and truly nerfed the benefits.
Health cover churning is the new meta
The qualifying period is now two years.
I have never been very aggressive at churning. My Citibank Premier (Free for Lyfe) is my back up.
I normally go to Bank A, get card, use for 6-11 months before renewal, cancel.
Then go back to Citibank until another good deal presents itself for another institution.
Repeat for Bank B, C, D
Nowadays it is more likely I will just keep it for 11 months then cancel unless there is a really good offer on between.
Same here- I only apply max 2 cards per year and use for 11 months before I cancel, then rinse and repeat.
I only have one card at a time and as soon as it shows as closed on my credit report I apply for a new one. A couple of years ago I did five or six in the year but with almost all cards now having a two year cool down it's hard to punch through too many.
If you're gonna start churning get an AmEx first as they reject churners immediately.
Yes I 100% agree. If you don’t apply for Amex first then you’re NEVER getting it unless you wait literally 5 years for all enquiries to drop off. Also if you’ve held something like Explorer and closed in <1 year then I suspect you’re on a lifetime ban.
While waiting during the 24 months sit-out of the high tier cards, I'm just signup for the low rate/low fee cards. They have enough cashback with lower spending requirements.
I still have to pay my daily expenses with CC anyway so may as well make use of those promos to get something back.
I'm not too worry with credit score or multiple applications within short period. Admittedly I have applied less recently in last two years than before, only 2 applications in last 6 months.
Is this 2023 or something?
I constantly have 3 card slots, 1-2 of which I churn depending on what’s around and I keep them open for more than 6 months but less than a year
So I’d say one new card every 9 months or so
6m or 3m if rotating between partners… regardless serviceability and credit score are largely irrelevant. Banks only look at profitability and if they suspect you're too good at this, it's an auto decline.
Interestingly I was told by a Home Loan advisor at Bank Australia I should probably stop churning cards as it's affecting my credit. When I applied we both had 0 credit cards open, but probably churn 3 or so each per year.
I had the opposite. My credit score would go back up as soon as i closed it.
I would churn maybe 6 a year (before the crackdown) and my credit score sat in the 700's consistently. Had zero issues getting a mortgage - it's more to do with your income.
Yes closing is a good thing from a responsible borrowing POV but banks don’t want you to be too responsible. With CC surcharges ending the only revenue is annual fee which is very limited and interest payments. So how are they supposed to make $$$ especially with interest rates so high.
Isn't 700 pretty low? im currently at 920, was over 1000 before I started chruning. This is equifax out of 1200.
I agree it should purely be income, ability to service and history of payments etc. so was surprised to hear it
@Brick50: Yeah
The broker did say that they didn’t really care much about the score as long as it’s in good standing and above 600 it’s fine. America on the other hand is highly dependent on credit
Yes, I have 1000+ score in Wisr but my broker said Veda score is very poor due to churning. They either operate 2 very different models or something else is going on. I haven’t hard clear information on this anywhere.
So a rejection is a compliment?
It's not you, it's me
Yes you don’t want to be too good or too bad. I’d say if you don’t have anything adverse then yes, it’s not you it’s them.
Depends on the card promos available at the time. Most banks have an exclusion period of 24 months now which is quite a while. Work out what banks have reasonable cards that you'd get value out of and churn through them so there's some available after 24 months again.
As others have said, the good years on churning are past us and I'd say it's only going to get worse from here. During 2023 I went through about 6 or more cards in 12 months. I often applied for 2 on the same day, both would get approved, split spending across both to meet spend criteria. Racked up a ton of QFF points over that 12 month period.
I apply as soon as I complete a bonus on one card.
Doesn't really matter how long you wait, sooner you can close it the better.
Still easy to earn lots of points, at least 300,000 Velocity or QFF per year.
/S?
I try to wait until the previous card is closed and it's reflected as closed on a credit report check
12 to 24 months as per the T&C
depend on your income, and credit history, if do churn regular energy stuff or mobile post paid providers etc etc.
I think 9-18 months is a okay for lot of people. I am more near the 12 month range i think, aka just before the annual fee comes up
I usually have about 3-4 cards at the same time, keep my 2 main ones open always and churn out 2 other ones as good offers come up
Only ever been rejected once by ANZ.
When the time comes I usually try to apply for 2-4 cards within a roughly 24-48 hour period. The reporting system isn't instantaneous.
keep your score good
Credit "score" is not a score. Ignore it.
avoid rejections?
Don't worry about rejections, keep playing the game and move on. (Although you can try name-dropping AFCA if you really want to.)
I was going to start a new thread as kinda an odd predicament but I had kept a notes on my phone as to when my cards cancelled etc. and as of today it has dissapeared in to the ether and I’m not sure of my churn cards
Any suggestions and or advice to get clarity on when I’m eligible to apply and get bonus points again?
I’ve scanned emails and similar but have deleted whole email accounts due to a hack attempt so my guess is I have to go to branches to find out when I closed accounts?
They’re not going to say I’m ineligible upfront are they?
Could check with your credit history. It should have all closed account in last 2yrs or so.
Also, banks are required to keep your statements at least 5-7 yrs. If you can still log into your account, you can find out when was the last $0 statement.
this was a difficult process and turns out asking the banks if your eligible for the promo's they won't reply or answer.
I've saved up a few bills that would likely hit the min for a bonus and now feels like there's no deals as well.
Depends on your appetite, volume of expenses, and/or willingness to artificially increase expenses by paying regular bills via platforms like Sniip (which will take surcharge for their service). I suggest to start slow and increase as you progress through this journey:
- Slow start - 1 enquiry every 6 months.
- Medium pace - every 3 months.
- Seasoned churner - more frequent when you know the game inside out, as mentioned in some comments above.
NB. I specifically mention credit enquiry (ie application for credit), not when your card/s are opened/closed. They are different things, and this is a part of learning.
Yup, churning no longer worth it. The problems are
* You normally have to pay an annual fee to get decent number of FF points
* Amex introduced the 18 month wait in between churns. Now that has been adopted by most banks & seems to be 24 months.
* Amex actually block suspected churners. After a few years of churning Black cards, suddenly they refuse to issue them anymore.
* Used to be possible to get through 4 or 5 cards a year & max out points, but the lack of offers & new rules now make that difficult