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Unless you travel a lot for business, credit card signup bonuses are the only realistic path to lots of free travel. Instead of waiting years for points to accumulate through paid flights and stays, or day-to-day credit card spending, you can quickly earn multiple credit card bonuses with very little effort. There are dozens of cards that offer signup bonuses worth $500 each or more.
If you want to frequently take advantage of free airplane tickets and hotel nights, the best strategy is to continuously sign up for new credit cards, meet their initial spending requirements, and collect their signup bonuses. Most people are surprised at the number of credit cards that banks are willing to give, and that they can do this without hurting their credit rating.
Typical bonuses for signing up for good travel and reward credit cards are very generous. Collecting the signup bonus for a typical hotel-branded credit card provides enough points for 2-3 nights at a nice downtown hotel in a typical city, 1 night at one of their fanciest hotels, or 8-20 nights at one of their less expensive hotels. The signup bonus on a typical airline credit card gives you enough points for 2 free economy tickets in the US, or a free economy ticket to Europe.
And it isn't very hard to signup for a dozen or more card every year, almost effortlessly earning hundreds of thousands of reward points per year. Probably the most valuable advice we have for most travelers is to start collecting credit card signup bonuses.
Signing up for credit cards, just to collect their signup bonuses (or receive their travel benefits) is a good strategy for most people. Contrary to popular belief, it won't kill your credit rating—it is more likely to improve it. But, it is not for everyone. If getting a bunch of credit cards is going to cause you to spend more money, or you are too disorganized to avoid paying fees and interest, you'll need to avoid this approach, and focus on just getting good deals for airline and hotel reservations. For more detailed information, see our Credit Cards 101 guide.
Managing the signup process
Our recommended approach for collecting signup bonuses is relatively straightforward.
- Decide on which card you want to get next. In general, you are going to start with the best available signup offers and start making your way down the list to less valuable offers. However, there are several other considerations that are discussed in more detail below.
- Apply for the card. Especially as you are getting started, sign up for one card at a time.
- After you receive the card, set up automatic payments, so you are never late with a payment. And pay off the entire balance every month, so you don't have to pay interest expenses. If you can't pay off the balance each month, you want to focus on reducing your credit card debt and not on getting new cards. If you don't like setting up automatic payments, just make sure you don't miss any of your manual payments.
- Until you've met the initial spending requirement, switch ALL of your credit card spending to your new card. You wan to be make sure you meet the initial spending requirement.
- If, for some reason, it looks like you won't naturally meet the spending requirement during the allotted time (almost always the first three months), don't worry. There are some "tricks" that you can use to meet the requirement and not miss out on the bonus. Tips to Easily Meet the Initial Spending Requirements of New Credit Cards.
- Collect your bonus.
- Start the process over again. Ideally, you would apply for your next card a couple of weeks before you finish spending on the previous card, as it can take some time to receive your new card.
- After the initial year, cancel the card. To preserve the best possible relationship with the bank, don't cancel as soon as you receive your bonus. But, you don't want to pay the second year's annual fee, unless you really want to keep the card to take advantage of its ongoing benefits. We like to set up a calendar appointment as soon as we get the card, to remind us to cancel at the end of the initial year.
For more details and tips for managing the signup process, see our step by step guides:
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Signup bonus tips
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