An interesting phenomenon in churning that ostensibly surfaced in 2026 is weaponized FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). I suppose that’s probably been true in many circles for years; but churning, an industry built on trust, has been largely immune. Something’s absolutely changed recently, and discussion of intentional misinformation campaigns is spreading.
When you apply for a credit card, there are generally up to three payouts from the bank after an approval:
Affiliate commission
Referral bonus
Sign-up bonus
It’s hard to get both a referral bonus and an affiliate commission on the same application, though gamers gonna game and it can be possible in certain cases. It’s also getting harder to get a referral bonus period (thanks Chase).
I think we have a good idea of how much sign-up bonuses and referral bonuses pay, but there’s a lack of transparency in affiliate link pay. It’s probably higher than you think though. Current payouts, for example, look like:
Low end: tens of dollars
Medium end: hundreds of dollars
High end: $1,000+
Yes, you read that right, there are high end cards that pay more than $1,000 in commission, and sometimes not even just a little more.
Maximizing Your Pay
Churners generally think of affiliate commission as something they’ll never earn, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The most obvious example is the one we led with: Rakuten effectively gives you a rebate on their commission. This is definitely the most public example, but seeking other affiliates may lead to much higher rebates on commission. Always be networking, and always be probing. Before anyone asks me, I refund 100% of the $0 affiliate I get for every credit card application, so 100% is the high bar to beat.
Good luck, and happy Wednesday!
A couple springs for a nice dinner with extra affiliate income.
– No annual fee – 5x at gas and EV charging – 3x at grocery, restaurants, sporting goods, military commissaries, and base exchanges
Before you get too excited, PenFed is really good with gas pump versus gas store coding, and their points are worth about 0.8-0.9 cents each. (Thanks to MattyB)
For those playing only casually: Watch out, Kroger stole bonus points and is now requiring ID and a social security number for BestBuy gift card purchases over $200.
A favorite grocery manufactured spend technique has been, shall we say, in a tight spot for the last week. There were dozens of reported shutdowns, and generally speaking each of those reports had lots of affected accounts. The scale is, shall we say, large.
I don’t have any direct solution for this volley between big grocery and big spender, but I do have some advice for not looking like the same person when you’re juggling multiple accounts:
Use incognito or separate browser profiles for each account, and be consistent
Use a different IP address every time
Create bulk accounts over time, not all at once
Vary device profiles, such as: Android, iPhone, Mac, and PC, and use varying browsers on each too
Use public Wi-Fi, or even better maybe an in-store Wi-Fi
Avoid using the same credit card for multiple accounts, Apple Pay is a great way to do this
When scripting account creation, use a solution like camoufox, or use Chrome CDP. Selenium is probably a bad idea.
Try not to have the same store participate in the same transaction patterns on every single account
In other words, don’t do what, shall we say, Ralph would do.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the specifics don’t matter. But the general advice, inertia kills, always applies.
Did you get a letter from Bank of America in the mail over the weekend, yesterday, or maybe in Informed Delivery today about that automatic thing? You’re definitely not the only one, they’re showing up in batches and in theory the jig is up on May 2.
What do you do if you’re affected?
Hit it as hard as you can until you can’t, the downside of doing so is minimal now
Find other regional versions of the thing, ideally more than one
Send (more) sirens in every chat room, but only if your name starts with a J and ends with an immy
But thinking bigger picture, remember that inertia kills and you were just its latest victim if you don’t have other plays waiting in the wings. Fortunately you can fix that going forward if you’re scrappy. Always be probing.
In the early days of churning, there was a popular blog named Million Mile Secrets. It’s long gone now, at least inasmuch as it’s been effectively inactive since 2021 (and it was effectively useless years before that). There was a time, however, that the blog was great for newbies and also for bringing new voices into the community every week. At some point though it morphed into a churning reality TV show turned credit card article, and then just abruptly stopped. (Curious about the reality TV aspect? I guess google MMS Darius Emily or wait for the Netflix mini-series.)
It’s an interesting case study because from the site’s early days until it’s implosion, it went from having a codified rule saying they’d always present the best offer available card whether or not it paid them (they called it the mother-in-law rule and later mostly scrubbed that from the internet until only vestiges remained), and ended up as the kind of site that had 27 links to an affiliate Chase Sapphire Preferred link, all of which were worse than the publicly available bonus. Basically the site’s progression evolved like:
Always show the best offer
Hold off on posting about a best offer until an affiliate link comes in
Show an affiliate link, but note in small print that there’s a better offer elsewhere
Only show affiliate links, but tag some of them as best offer
On Monday night, the Chase IHG Business card released a highest ever 200,000 point sign-up bonus. Cool I guess, right? Yes, but that’s not the point. The point is that basically every big blog out there didn’t write about it until yesterday, even some of the “good ones”. Why did they wait until yesterday? I’ll give you a hint, it starts with an “a” and ends with “ffiliate link”. In other words, they’re on step (2) of the MMS playbook.
Now do I think the “good ones” are headed for step (3)? Generally speaking, no I don’t. But I do think you should know the motivations of the content you’re consuming, and you should know exactly how much your favorite affiliate blog is willing to withhold about a deal until they can be paid for it. But don’t take my word for it, it’s easy to go look around and see when your favorite sources wrote about the offer. For bonus points, check and see if they told you that the offer’s available via referral from P2 or another churner, or whether that’s a causal omission.
Mr. T and I share a lot of common beliefs about churning, and this event was no exception. I interviewed him for more insight (special thanks for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat):
[MEAB]: Is it actually broken? [Mr. T]: It might be, fool! Or it might not be. Nobody knows yet.
[MEAB]: Has this happened before? [Mr. T]: Yes, I seen this movie before! :Late 2020, in early 2024, and in late 2024. This ain’t our first rodeo.
[MEAB]: How many times has it been declared dead? [Mr. T]: In the last day? Or you talking lifetime? Either way, a whole lot.
[MEAB]: If it is dead, is that the end? [Mr. T]: There are other options even for Newark and San Francisco chumps. I pity the fool who doesn’t think so!
[MEAB]: Should I use other options ASAP? [Mr. T]: Unless you gotta close that card down in a couple of weeks, how about just sit tight and see how it shakes out?
[MEAB]: Should I write my own 2,000 word post declaring it dead? [Mr. T]: Only if you stretch first, that’s a lot of reaching!
Have a nice Tuesday, and “never dig a grave before the deal’s even cold”.
Next up: Turning American Express Airline Incidental credits into cereal.
The point of this article isn’t really about Bilt’s somewhat successful censorship though. Instead, my goal is to rehash how their 2.0v2 program can be beneficial for card holders, especially so for cardholders that have flexible leases with, for example, their P2 landlord. Earning under 2.0v2 “Option 1” for rent payments has four tiers, two of which are useful for us:
1x points earned when your card spend is 75%+ of your monthly rent
1.25x points earned when your card spend is 100%+ of your monthly rent
Cool I guess. But let’s say that you spend $5,000 monthly on your Bilt credit card before switching to other cards for the rest of your spend. Let’s also say you’re an expert negotiator with your P2 landlord. Under 2.0v2 Option 1, you can earn more points than with a higher rent. Let’s compare a negotiated rent of $5,000 and a negotiated rent of $5,500. Your $5,000 in monthly Bilt card spend would earn:
$5,000 * 1.25 = 6,250 points
$5,500 * 1.00 = 5,500 points
The punchline: You can earn more with a smaller rent. In fact, to optimize this completely, your monthly rent should be exactly your monthly spend / 1.25.
