Which Signup Bonuses to Get First

From Travel Strategies
Revision as of 01:12, 11 January 2019 by Editor (talk | contribs) (→‎Other guidelines)
Jump to: navigation, search

  Home

CardCloseup.jpg

There are dozens of cards that have valuable signup bonuses. Which ones should you get first? Unfortunately, the same list doesn't work for everyone. It depends on the promotional offers the banks make available, the types of points you find valuable, how easily you can meet spending requirements, and which cards you want to quickly obtain so you can start to take advantage of their unique travel benefits.

Even though there isn't a fixed list, there are some guidelines you can follow.


Jump to *xxx

Chase 5/24

You need to get any of Chase's Ultimate Reward, airline, or hotel credit cards, before you reach the limit of 5 new personal credit cards (from any bank) over the last 24 months. Dealing with the Chase 5/24 Rule.

  • You probably want to limit the total number of Chase cards you get. Each time you apply for a Chase card, they look at your credit report, and there is a chance they will decide that you are a credit risk. The main thing they are worried about is "bust out" fraud, where someone rapidly expands their credit, maxes out all their credit cards, and disappears. If you trigger some not-well-understood algorithm, Chase will wind up closing down all of your existing Chase credit card accounts, and give you a short amount of time to use all your Ultimate Reward points. In most cases, you will be able to appeal and get your accounts reinstated, but it's not something you want to deal with.

    • There are no hard and fast rules, but we'd keep the total amount of Chase cards (personal and business) to 8, and we wouldn't get more than one new card every month or two. This won't guarantee that you won't get shut-down, but feels like a reasonable trade off between being too cautious and too aggressive.

  • You need to make sure to get any cards that are important to you before you hit the limit. Depending on your plans, that may mean the Sapphire Reserve, the Ink Unlimited or Freedom Unlimited, a business and personal Southwest Airlines card, the United card, the Hyatt card, and perhaps the IHG card.
  • Apply for the Ink Preferred card before the Ink Cash card. You may not get approved for both, and the Preferred card has a much better signup bonus. Then, at the end of the first year, you can convert it to the Ink cash card (if you want).
  • Collect as many additional Chase signup bonuses as you are comfortable with (before you hit the 5/24 limit). Once your sure you can have room to get any critical cards, fill in any remaining slots with the Chase cards that have the most attractive signup bonuses. You can get a maximum of 2 personal cards and 1 business card per month.
    • Most people will want to prioritize any remaining large Ultimate Reward signup offers. The Ink Preferred has a normal signup offer of 80,000 points, the Sapphire cards have an normal offer of 50,000 points, as does the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited card. You can't get both versions of the Sapphire Card, so get the Sapphire Reserve if you want to hold onto it, or the Sapphire Preferred if you're only interested in the signup offer. You can get multiple versions of the business cards if you apply for one with an EIN and the other with your SSN, and you can easily get a free EIN online.
    • Bigger spenders may want to collect the larger signup offers on one or more of the Avios cards. If you spend a total of $20,000, you can receive 100,000 bonus points with the British Airways, Iberia and/or Aer Lingus cards.
    • The other Chase signup offers are generally less attractive, but still worthwhile. For example, 100,000 IHG points or 40,000 Southwest Airlines miles are valuable enough to justify getting a card, just not as useful as 50,000 Ultimate Reward points or 100,000 Avios.
  • You can mix in business cards from other banks while you are under 5/24. With the exception of Capital One, none of the major banks list your business cards on your personal credit report, so they won't be counted against your 5 card limit. You can also mix in other personal cards, if you don't need the 5/24 slots for important Chase personal cards. Just shift your Chase signups to additional business cards, or live without one of the Chase signup bonuses.

Other guidelines

  • Get the Barclay Arrival card as soon as your finished with the Chase cards. According to the web, they have a 6/24 policy, so now's the time. Their 50,000 point standard offer is valuable and easy to use on a very broad range of travel expenses, and higher offers are sometimes available.
  • Once you've reduced your credit utilization percentage, you are generally better off collecting business cards. As you start to expand the number of personal cards you have, your credit limit will rise. Since the amount you spend is fixed, your credit utilization will wind up dropping, and your credit rating will typically rise. Once your credit utilization is reliably below 10%, additional cards won't improve your score. You should probably already be there by the time you are done with the Chase 5/24 cards and Arrival card. If not, keep getting personal cards to drop your utilization further.

    • Otherwise business cards are a better option. With all of the major banks, with the exception of Capital One, business cards won't be listed on your personal credit report. This makes it more likely that you'll get approved for additional new cards. But business cards aren't a free lunch. When you apply for the card, the banks will generally do a "hard pull" on your personal credit report. These inquiries are visible to other banks, and do affect your future approval chances.

  • You want to get the clock started on any Citibank and Bank of America cards.
    • Citibank limits you to one signup bonus per family every two years. More precisely, to qualify for a bonus, you may not have opened or cancelled a card in the same family in the last 24 months. Personal and business cards are tracked separately. It is useful to apply for a ThankYou rewards card, a personal Citibank American Airlines card, and a business Citibank American Airlines card relatively quickly, so you can get the clock started on your next set of signups. You are limited to one card every 8 days, two personal cards every 65 days, and one business card every 95 days.
    • Bank of America limits you to a total of four personal cards every two years. The sooner you apply for your first one or two cards, the sooner you can get more. You want to get on a pace of about two new Bank of America cards per year. Choose the Bank of America cards that are most valuable for your individual circumstances. With Bank of America, you can even get multiple copies of the same card (except for the Premium Rewards and the personal version of the Alaska Airlines cards). You are limited to 2 personal cards in a two month period, 3 cards in a year, and 4 cards every two years.
  • Then, get your favorite cards from other major banks (except Amex). Since Capital One, Barclays, and US Bank are more likely to deny your application due to too many cards or inquiries, you've got a better chance of approval if you apply earlier in the process. But, there are no guarantees either way.

    • With less popular credit card issuers, there are no hard and fast rules. Some are reluctant to approve you if you've been actively collecting signup bonuses. Some don't care.

  • Save most American Express cards till later—unless you you can take advantage of a great promotional offer. Amex is relatively indifferent to the total number of cards you have or applied for. Since you can only receive each American Express bonus once per lifetime, there is no rush. But, if a great promotional offer is available, or one of their cards is being discontinued, you'll want to fit it into your plans, rather than waiting. There also isn't much reason to hesitate to get a card that you need for other reasons, such as a Delta Airlines card.

    • Keep in mind that you can only have 4-6 Amex credit cards at one time, but the different flavors of their Platinum, Gold and Green cards are "charge" cards and don't count against that limit; and you can only two new credit cards every 90 days.

  • Prioritize earning the points you need. Despite any other advice, if you need a certain type of points for an upcoming trip, prioritize any associated signup bonuses. Don't forget that you may be able to covert Membership Rewards, or other transferable points, to the points you need.
  • Don't hesitate to prioritize cards to start taking advantage of their ongoing benefits. If some card has a benefit that you want to start using, such as the Alaska Airlines companion certificate or the Hilton card's free breakfast benefit, you'll want to get it more quickly, so you can take advantage of the benefit sooner.
  • Take advantage of good promotional offers when they are available. We will try to keep you updated on our best offers page.
The Amex Platinum Card

The Amex Platinum card has valuable benefits, including gold status at Hilton and access to Amex's Centurion Lounges and Fine Hotels and Resort Program, but has a high annual fee.

The good news is that there are several different versions of the card, and by the terms of Amex's "Once per lifetime" policy, you can earn the signup bonus on each one.

If you spread out your applications ver time, you can maintain nearly continuous access to Amex's Platinum benefits, while earning a series of signup bonuses that offset the expensive annual fees. Since the offer on the regular and business versions of the cards can vary, you should ideally wait to signup for these versions until a good promotional offer becomes available.

A sample list

Here is a possible list of cards to get. It assumes that you are willing and able to get business credit cards, that you are happy to earn points that will be eventually used for frequent flyer tickets, and that you going to stick with the 8 card Chase limit. It is going to ignore the availability of any promotional offers.

Our list of signup offers provides up-to-date information on the cards with the highest "net signup value".

Trophies.png
The Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses

If you have room to get any critical Chase cards before hitting the limit, get

Before you hit the Chase 5/24 limit, get the following cards. The order can be shuffled around as necessary.

Fill in any remaining Chase cards until you are at a total of eight. Make sure you don't get your fifth personal credit card until you are done.

Then get the

Start mixing in additional Amex cards:

Keep going




Lua error in Module:Link at line 366: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Send comments or suggestions to editor@travelstrategies.com or leave a comment below.



blog comments powered by Disqus
Retrieved from "https://www.travelstrategies.com/index.php?title=Bonuses_to_get_first&oldid=24209"