In the last week there have been consistent datapoints of two types of shutdowns:
Citi AT&T Access More card holders having that card and all other ThankYou linked cards axed
Synchrony cards with lots of dining activity, especially if using targeted a dining promotion axed
In both cases there was no early warning from a know your customer (KYC) call, so the once reliable Citi indicator isn’t as reliable right now.
If you still have an AT&T Access More card and have any creative charges in recent history, or if you’ve been hitting the Synchrony portfolio with dining promotions, it might be wise to close those accounts before you end up with the issuer closing them for you and potentially banning you in the process. In other words, it might be time for the sneak attack strike back. Live to fight another day!
Live footage of Citi, post sneak attack strike back.
– $350 annual fee, 4x single use AA lounge passes – 90,000 AA miles after $5,000 spend in four months – 2x earning at restaurants, taxis, and rideshare – 3x earning with AA, 6x with AA Hotels (also lulz) – 1x everywhere else – 1x Loyalty Points regardless of mileage earning – $100 inflight purchase rebate, which practically means inflight booze because AA doesn’t really cater buy-on-board food as a general rule – Companion certificate, but not until your second year
This card gives United Quest vibes, a card which I (in)famously hate. I guess the sign-up bonus is moderately acceptable, but let’s just say I disagree with anyone who says this card belongs with other “best sign-up bonus” list cards.
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 10x points on Zift Zillions gift cards through Thursday, and apparently there’s no limit on earn at Stop & Shop, but a limit on $2,000 spend at the other stores. Little brother Giant Food only earns 8x.
One of the “endearing quirks” of churners is the uncanny ability to assign a (probably incorrect) cash value to non-cash instruments. For example, I’ll do it right now:
What’s the value of a Hyatt point? 2.0 cents
What about a Delta SkyMile? 1.1 cents, but only if you fly Delta and have a Delta credit card
What’s about an AAdvantage mile that never gets redeemed? 0.0 cents
Ok smart guy, what about a Bud Light in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal? -$46 per can, *waves hands* because something something opportunity cost
How about a hard credit pull? This could be a complex calculation involving things like the average credit card sign-up bonus value, the opportunity cost of minimum spend on a 2% card, the loss of a potential 5/24 slot, the small probability that it causes eyes to end up on your account, how much more an incremental sign-up bonus will increase your happiness, and the mental overhead of additional accounting.
But, I like to keep things simple to make it easy to decide if any particular deal is worth a hard pull:
I’d always trade $800 for a hard pull on my credit report (and yes, I’d trade $800,000,000 for one million pulls on my report, interested parties can reach out). The further below $800 I get, the less interesting a deal is for me.
So, my expectation value for a hard pull is $800.
What’s the point of this article? Great question and I’m not sure I know (exactly what you wanted to hear from a, uhh “trusted”, source), but it does serve as a measuring stick: it’s pretty easy to find credit cards that require a hard pull and have a sign-up bonus or ongoing value worth at least $800. If you’re not getting that, perhaps question why and whether or not you should do something different.
Happy Thursday!
Other churner focused endearing quirks? Mismatched socks.
– Rakuten portal: 4x up to $7,000 spend per year – Rakuten restaurants: 5x – Groceries and dining: 2x – Everywhere else: 1x
The card definitely isn’t an unsung hero, but it is a card that earns unlimited 2x Membership Rewards at grocery without RAT concerns, and possibly soon unlimited 2x Bilt points at grocery too. It’s also a third party AmEx. Finally, it’s time for your annual reminder that Rakuten used to be called buy.com, but that was too hard to say and spell, or something.
This one won’t work with the above targeted upgrade offers in the first year though, thanks to CARD act, also known as the fried twinkee of credit card regulations.
Vanilla Gift has fee-free Visa gift cards with promo code VISA100. I’d be surprised if other Incomm sites don’t also have promotions running, but they’re not advertising them in the same ways that they normally do so I can’t tell. Purchase limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours per account.
These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
– Five bonus elite nights, usable 2x for stays through January 31, 2026 – Extra elite night for all stays through December 31 – 15,000 bonus points every five stays, up to 3x through January 31, 2026 – 2,000 bonus per stay at AC, Courtyard, or Four Points properties through February 16, 2026 – 2,025 bonus points per stay, up to 3x through January 10, 2026 – 2,000 bonus points per stay, up to 3x at Outdoors properties through January 10, 2026
Some of those numbers look big, but remember they’re still Bonvoy points.
– Virgin Atlantic: $250 off of $1,800+ – Hilton Cards (variation 1): Earn 6,000 bonus points for a $3,000+ purchase (up to 3x) – Hilton Cards (variation 2): Earn 20,000 bonus points for a $10,000+ purchase (up to 3x) – Qatar: $200 off of $850+ through AmEx Travel
I’m told “gamers gonna (allegedly) game”. (Thanks to Stowe)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Look – yes it’s cryptic, but it’s also actionable. #teamcrypticallyactionable
Let’s start with the captain obvious statement for the day: Certain plays only work at a single place, but other plays work at hundreds or thousands of places. Let’s give two concrete examples:
gift card purchases at Food Lion won’t work for Kroger fuel point resellers
account bonus funding with a credit card works at many banks and credit unions
As you get deeper into the stack of manufactured spend plays, you’ll often find that many of them fall into the second category, there are plenty of entities where a particular play will work.
Because churners are often working in small groups, everyone in the group will hit the same entity at the same time and drive themselves collectively to a quick shutdown because the group’s volume became too big to ignore. The corollary is that plays are often longer lived when the group spreads out its targets for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
So, today’s wisdom: If you can run a play somewhere different than everyone else, you’re probably going to be a lot better off for it. Don’t follow the herd when you don’t have to.
Happy Monday!
Did you know? Avoid following herds of pickles too because reasons.
Stop & Shop, Giant, Giant Food, and Martins have 2x point earning on Mastercards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or $1,500 for Giant Food because sibling spite).
These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
New no-lifetime language (NLL) Hilton card offers are available and they’ve been shared by DDG (note that DDG says that these are hacked links, but at least the Aspire and Honors links are generally available at hotels on Hilton WiFi):
– Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months – Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months – Honors: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months
These are good offers, and they’re great offers for NLL cards, but Hilton’s recent devaluations are significant so make sure you know the award prices for a booking you have in mind rather than blindly signing up for one of these bonuses.
Ether.fi is cluster bombing travel influencers promoting their crypto backed 3% everywhere debit card and crypto account. It’s cool on the surface and by all means please try and work it into your churning portfolio, but you should know:
Why? Because somehow a Qatar+Hilton partnership gives you bonus earnings on Qatar and exactly nothing with Hilton except their name in a promo code. #marketingfail
