Learning about churning

[rock86]

I started off last year with good intentions of churning. I successfully applied for various cards, mostly that didn't have an annual fee for the first year - ANZ, Nab, StG, Amex Explorer. I've now reached a point where there don't seem to be any cards without the annual fees, and thus I've come to a bit of a standstill. unless someone can suggest some cards.
Is there good value in paying for the annual fees? I'm not sure how much dollars spent on sign ups equate to.
I've now got points in QF, Virgin, Amex and Altitude.

There's probably going to be very limited cards now that will offer no annual fee's, as due to the changes by the RBA capping interbank CC charges, banks no longer have the ability to 'pay' for the much larger bonus points through increased interbank fees - therefore the annual fee will be even more crucial for the banks now.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I started off last year with good intentions of churning. I successfully applied for various cards, mostly that didn't have an annual fee for the first year - ANZ, Nab, StG, Amex Explorer. I've now reached a point where there don't seem to be any cards without the annual fees, and thus I've come to a bit of a standstill. unless someone can suggest some cards.
Is there good value in paying for the annual fees? I'm not sure how much dollars spent on sign ups equate to.
I've now got points in QF, Virgin, Amex and Altitude.

It's true that some cards have annual fees. Churning is never about paying no fees though. I'd suggest you think about it as averaging down the cost of your points.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Is there good value in paying for the annual fees? I'm not sure how much dollars spent on sign ups equate to.
.

The answer will be different for each of us.

If you cannot work out what points are worth to you, you should probably seriously consider not earning points from deals that cost money and time till you have idea of what value points actually have for you.


There are some deals I chase (and I am not just talking CC churning here) and some I just ignore as they are not worth my time and/or $ in gaining.


So I suggest that you do some hard yards in calculating what points are worth to you. Once you do that it is pretty easy to know what say a sign on bonus has to be worth to offset say a $100 fee.

 

[RAM]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I recently applied and was approved for the ANZ FF Black. Same day approval and card arrived within about 3 business days.

The $2,500 will be a piece of cake as I'm building a new house and have bulk spending to do!

Have a short trip to Tasmania planned for later this year which will tick off the status credits. Once I have those and my 75,000 points I will likely close and look for my next card.

If you happen to have an ABN or can access an ABN then you can apply for a Bunnings Powerpass which will get you discounts off nearly everything there.

Can come in very handy (money in your pocket) such as with buying tiles, door furniture (aka handles, locks, hinges) etc etc.

Provided you already have your funding set up then it may be worth getting your free credit rating report (google it) to see how you rate.

 

[RoseD]

The answer will be different for each of us.

There are some deals I chase (and I am not just talking CC churning here) and some I just ignore as they are not worth my time and/or $ in gaining.

I'm also learning about churning. So if you don't mind sharing, which one have you chased recently and which ones have you ignored?

 

[GSP]

Is this available if you're an existing customer? I have a green corporate Amex for work and I've heard they can preclude you from some offers?

Hi imightbedave,

Firstly, you need to get over your identity confusion.

I had the same question a while back as I wanted to get the Amex Platinum Velocity Card. I already had a Green corporate card like yourself but also had the David Jones amex card, so I rang Amex and they confirmed to me that the corporate card doesn't come into the equation and the DJ is also separate when applying for Amex cards.

So I got the Amex Platinum Velocity Card, and to follow up on another question of yours on the trend to decide whether a fee is worth it or not, this was a case in point. Like you and others I generally (not always) only went for the ones with no fees as there were enough around. Now not so. The Velocity card was $395 fee (ouch I thought), but 100,000 Velocity points (using a simple domestic flight purchase which I have to do several times a year equates to roughly $1k for Economy seast), good earn rate (1.5 Velocity points per dollar) but additionally a return domestic flight tossed in (say roughly $300 worth on spend I was going to do), then $395 was good value in this instance.

 

[Borisdog]

I've been on the churn bandwagon for a few years now, as a general rule if I can get 20K points for $100ono then I'm in.

In my case I use points for transcon upgrades to business, and I fly on a M class econ ticket usually ( Corporate "Flexi" - which I pay for ). 10000pts gets me into J. Upgrade to J for $50? All day everyday thanks very much.

 

[leoburla]

Hi there,

I did some digging and realised there's no good credit card on offer - that is, with 100,000 Qantas bonus points or so - for me.

I ditched my Amex early this month and now have to wait 18 months to be considered a new customer and, therefore, eligible for any bonus points.

Is there any workaround for this?

Cheers

 

[Steady]

Hi there,

I did some digging and realised there's no good credit card on offer - that is, with 100,000 Qantas bonus points or so - for me.

I ditched my Amex early this month and now have to wait 18 months to be considered a new customer and, therefore, eligible for any bonus points.

Is there any workaround for this?

Cheers

The ANZ black is 75k QFF points with a $0 fee - why do you believe this is no good?

 

[leoburla]

Let me clarify... Good = Being eligible for a large amount of bonus points.

In my case, I don't think I am eligible for those bonus points from ANZ, as I had a Visa credit card with them until recently.

The ANZ black is 75k QFF points with a $0 fee - why do you believe this is no good?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Hi there,

I did some digging and realised there's no good credit card on offer - that is, with 100,000 Qantas bonus points or so - for me.

I ditched my Amex early this month and now have to wait 18 months to be considered a new customer and, therefore, eligible for any bonus points.

Is there any workaround for this?

Cheers

Why do you need 100,000 points? Churning is about accumulating points. You shouldn't expect large amounts every time.

 

[leoburla]

Perhaps I was expecting to get too many points out of my churning strategy.

The goal I've set was to accumulate approximately 150,000 points every year, which doesn't appear to be feasible... At least not when you take into account terms & conditions for new cards and risk of hurting your credit score (by having too many credit card applications) in the long run.

Why do you need 100,000 points? Churning is about accumulating points. You shouldn't expect large amounts every time.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Perhaps I was expecting to get too many points out of my churning strategy.

The goal I've set was to accumulate approximately 150,000 points every year, which doesn't appear to be feasible... At least not when you take into account terms & conditions for new cards and risk of hurting your credit score (by having too many credit card applications) in the long run.

150,000 points in a year is very possible. 500,000 is closer to what I would expect to achieve. Churning is about accumulating points. Not just one big score.

 

[Pushka]

I accumulated 130,000 points in 3 weeks this month with the Amex card. Sign on plus refer a friend.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I accumulated 130,000 points in 3 weeks this month with the Amex card. Sign on plus refer a friend.

I think you'll find that the OP was referring to cards other than amex to accumulate points.

 

[Pushka]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I recently applied and was approved for the ANZ FF Black. Same day approval and card arrived within about 3 business days.

The $2,500 will be a piece of cake as I'm building a new house and have bulk spending to do!

Have a short trip to Tasmania planned for later this year which will tick off the status credits. Once I have those and my 75,000 points I will likely close and look for my next card.

I think you'll find that the OP was referring to cards other than amex to accumulate points.

Well, I didn't read that in the first post.
Qantas Amex ultimate 'refunds' the annual fee in flights so it's hardly a fee.

 

[CaptJCool]

Reminded me of this line from "Catch Me if you can"

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out.

Learning about churning

 

[Straubs]

Welcome imightbedave!

 

[Dr Ralph]

imightbedave, curious to see how you've got on with your plans since your first post six months ago.