Do you chase travel credit card signup bonuses?

[Carpediem]

Just curious if others sign up for (i.e., 'chase') different travel reward credit cards to get the sign up bonuses. I never had a travel related credit card until a few months ago when I signed up for the Barclays Arrival Plus after reading about it here. As a result, we basically got 2 free tickets for a trip later this year after receiving the 70,000 point bonus. Today I noticed Chase is offering a 60,000 point bonus. I was thinking about closing the Barclays card and applying for the Chase card. Are there any negatives to me doing this - other than any credit score hits I might take? Do others do this?

 

[GrayHare]

The more you put your personal info Out There, such as by applying for a new card, the greater the risk of fraud. Exactly how much additional risk you take on is difficult to know.

 

[audreyh1]

I did for a couple of years - preferably for cash bonuses - then that was enough.

 

[Souschef]

Until we stopped flying transatlantic, we had a Chase card tied to British Airways. The best part was if you spent X dollars, you got a free companion ticket.

This brought the number of miles for Business Class for one the same as Coach for 2.
Plus the lounges were fantastic, especially the ones at LAX and Heathrow.

 

[marko]

Not for a signup bonus per se, but we did convert our Amex card (member since 1972!) to a Delta Amex last year. Got a nice 75K bonus (something like that).

We bounce back and forth from Boston to Fort Lauderdale all winter and we use the miles to upgrade to First.

Funny: Just this morning I was notified by Amex that I had just passed a spending threshold and got additional miles and positioning as a result.

 

[calmloki]

Gal and I have been doing 2-3 matching cards/year for the last few years. We had a dual head mini-split installed for about $5500 and paid for it with matching Southwest cards that gave us about $1200 in Amazon gift cards. Matching Navy credit cards will give us about $1000 for expenditures we would have made on the rentals anyway. We used the heck out of several Chase Sapphire card iterations. I only get cards that are worth $500 or better in bonus and find doing 4-6 extra cards in Quicken is pretty easy if I have a few lumpy expenses. Normally stop using the card after the bonus spend is met and cancel before any annual fee hits.

 

[RunningBum]

I've done a few. I got rejected for a Barclay's card. I think the reason given was that I had too much outstanding debt potential, perhaps too much of a recent increase? I also was turned down for a credit limit increase on the PenFed card I've been carrying, but was able to move the limit from another PenFed card and close that one.

The Chase Sapphire card was the best. I'd definitely go for a deal like that again. I'd rather have money than points, but as long as the points aren't hard to use I'll take them. I think I'm done piddling around for $50 or $75 though.

 

[cbo111]

With my credit locked, I would have to pay $10 each to temporarily unlock Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. Last time I attempted this, I could not locate my pin for one of them and it was painful to resolve. Not worth my time.

 

[Dtail]

I did for a couple of years - preferably for cash bonuses - then that was enough.

Same here. Now just maximize the points each month/quarter.

 

[REWahoo]

With my credit locked, I would have to pay $10 each to temporarily unlock Equifax, Transunion, and Experian.

You sure about that?

Starting September 21, 2018, you can freeze and unfreeze your credit file for free.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/09/free-credit-freezes-are-here

 

[audreyh1]

With my credit locked, I would have to pay $10 each to temporarily unlock Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. Last time I attempted this, I could not locate my pin for one of them and it was painful to resolve. Not worth my time.

No longer, it’s free now.

 

[audreyh1]

Same here. Now just maximize the points each month/quarter.

I mainly picked cards I really would use. And I have. Several had super generous sign up bonuses. American Express Blue 10% rebate on all telecom charges for a year - even bought a new iPhone and got the rebate. Free United club membership for a year - decided to downgrade my other cards. DH got 100,000 miles on a separate card and downgraded after a year to avoid annual fee.

 

[Dtail]

Only one card of 5 that I own has an annual fee and the reimbursement for baggage fees makes up for it.

 

[athena53]

With my credit locked, I would have to pay $10 each to temporarily unlock Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. Last time I attempted this, I could not locate my pin for one of them and it was painful to resolve. Not worth my time.

As others have said it's now free. I got an AA MC a year ago and all they did was send me a snail mail letter and tell me which one to unlock. I did, I called the number in the letter and was approved immediately.

Seriously considering dropping it at renewal since they eliminated the 10% rebate on redeeming miles. I'm planning to use mine to go to Europe in Business Class next year, likely requiring 100,000+ miles, so that was a major decrease in perks. I'm already lifetime Gold on AA so I get the free checked bag, seat selection and (sort of) priority boarding regardless.

I'm looking at the Chase Sapphire Reserve but of course the Annual Fee is around $500 and I have my doubts about PriorityPass lounge access. I used The Club at DFW last year by buying a day pass and it was jammed. I've read that that's happening in a lot of clubs.

 

[nwsteve]

We have found good value from our Chase Sapphire. Since we are usually going Business, the Priority Club is not that critical. We did find it helpful on a couple of tours where we were in economy flying in country. Got us admission in airports in Ecuador, Panama, Argentina and Prague. $300 of the fee is credited to your account when you spend that amount or more on travel. We usually get it back on the first billing cycle. It also has one of the best benefit bundles of any card on the market. We have used the points (3xspend on travel) to pay for hotels which you can book at a substantial discount. In fact, we have found with hotels, our point spend is usually 70-80% of points hotels want from their membership system.

 

[marko]

I've done a few. I got rejected for a Barclay's card. I think the reason given was that I had too much outstanding debt potential, perhaps too much of a recent increase? .

Now that you mention it, we originally applied for Barclays/JetBlue. They rejected us saying " Your stated income is quite high for a retired person, please forward your tax documents so we can review and proceed..."
We went to Amex/Delta

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Just curious if others sign up for (i.e., 'chase') different travel reward credit cards to get the sign up bonuses. I never had a travel related credit card until a few months ago when I signed up for the Barclays Arrival Plus after reading about it here. As a result, we basically got 2 free tickets for a trip later this year after receiving the 70,000 point bonus. Today I noticed Chase is offering a 60,000 point bonus. I was thinking about closing the Barclays card and applying for the Chase card. Are there any negatives to me doing this - other than any credit score hits I might take? Do others do this?

We did this for awhile and made thousands in travel points and gift cards. I'm on break now but plan to start up again next year. This is the first year in over 5 years I had to actually use my own money to buy anything at Home Depot as I had so many gift cards stockpiled up.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We kind of do it. There were couple of cards that we've signed up, earned the sign-up bonus, and cancelled before the next year fees kick in. That really helped refill our Aeroplan account to a good level. I'm looking to do this again with other cards.
We also signed up for a few other non-primary cards that we keep and pay the annual fees because they provide us with enough annual and miscellaneous benefits (baggage fees waived, companions fares, a tier of status for easier upgrades, etc.)

Generally do not want to cancel credit cards that you've had for many years as cards/accounts that you have a long (positive) credit history with should benefit your credit score. And of course, every time you apply for a new credit card, the credit inquiry causes your credit score takes a small temporary (6 month?) hit.

 

[RunningBum]

Generally do not want to cancel credit cards that you've had for many years as cards/accounts that you have a long (positive) credit history with should benefit your credit score.

That's a good point. I recently cancelled a couple of old cards I don't use anymore, thinking it was just a nuisance and perhaps I could free up some credit limit space if that was the issue. Then I read about this factor. I can't recall if I checked to see if it really brought down my credit score any.

 

[BeachOrCity]

If you can use the points for international business class airline tickets the bonuses can be an incredible value. 80k points can sometimes be used for a $3000 ow ticket. That’s 3.5 cents per point vs a 25k point domestic rt redemption which might be a cash equivalent of 300 to max 400 bucks. (Or about 1.5 cents per point)

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I have a family member who not only travels many times a year in first class on miles/points, but runs a blog about doing it. Me? I like my credit card like I like my investments: straightforward, and easily measurable and comparable. I stick to cash back cards and index funds because I know what I'm getting, and the yardstick for success is pretty simple. I have no idea how much those miles are worth, but I can buy a plane ticket with my cash back...or not! Maybe once I'm actually retired I'll give it a shot, I could see spending a lot of my free time on racking up miles IF I had a lot of free time!

 

[Montecfo]

We have a base card that we dont change, and then we rotate getting additional cards for bonus points.

It seems to work fairly well.

 

[ls99]

No. I have better things to do with my life.

 

[Sojourner]

I wouldn't say I "chase" travel credit card sign-up bonuses, but I do keep an eye out for ones that have bonuses of $500 or more. I recently got a Barclays Arrival Plus for its $800 signup bonus. Having $800 in travel credits to lower my costs for things like airfare, hotels, and rental cars is significant to me, equating to roughly 7% of my entire travel budget for the year. I always make sure to use the bonuses and then cancel the cards before the annual fee is due, so it's essentially free money for very little effort.

 

[Carpediem]

I wouldn't say I "chase" travel credit card sign-up bonuses, but I do keep an eye out for ones that have bonuses of $500 or more. I recently got a Barclays Arrival Plus for its $800 signup bonus. Having $800 in travel credits to lower my costs for things like airfare, hotels, and rental cars is significant to me, equating to roughly 7% of my entire travel budget for the year. I always make sure to use the bonuses and then cancel the cards before the annual fee is due, so it's essentially free money for very little effort.

I agree - very little effort involved with the Barclays card. I was very surprised that receiving $700 in free air travel could be so easy. Based on the replies in this thread, I'll probably apply for the Chase card this week to get the 60,000 bonus.