In our previous article on “Is Credit Card Churning Illegal?” we explained Credit churning and its effect on banks and individuals.
However, in this article, we will brief you mainly on the Pros and Cons of credit card churning.
Hence, read closely to get every piece of info that will be spilled out in this article.
Having said that, let begin.
Credit card churning is an approach used by most people to benefit from the welcome bonuses offered by credit card issuers.
Have you ever thought of enjoying constant welcome bonuses from many credit cards?
If yes you might find this article interesting.
However, about half of American adults have credit card debt.
Thus, these people are turning the tables and gaining from applying for many credit cards.
Having said that, this is a practice you shouldn’t engage in without thinking of the risks involved.
What Is Credit Card Churning?
However, if you’ve heard of this practice, it’s worth learning more about it before jumping to start applying for many credit cards.
What exactly is Credit card churning you may ask?
However, we have the answer to that question in this article.
Credit Card churning is simply when you open and close many credit cards to earn the reward linked with the credit card.
Hence, these rewards can be in the form of cash, rewards points, or miles.
However, if credit churning is done in a careful and orderly manner, it can get you a good amount of cashback or rewards for a short time period.
Hence, for some wise people, this approach can be quite helpful.
However, there are also risks linked with this practice and these risks should be understood before jumping into the practice.
How Does It Work?
Most credit card issuers offer sign-up bonuses to the new cardholder, these bonuses are linked to the credit cards.
This approach is used by credit card issuers to clients to apply and make use of the card after they’ve opened the account.
Hence, to get these signup bonuses, you must spend a certain amount of money within a period of time to enjoy these bonuses.
However, credit churners apply for many credit cards offers to sign up for bonuses within a short period of time.
Then, they will spend the amount of money for the required period of time to get this bonuses.
Hence, once they’ve gotten these bonuses, they’ll stop using the cards or even cancel them.
Once they’re done, they proceed to start the whole process over again.
What Are the Benefits of Churning?
Churning can be a gainful way to get extra cash and high-value rewards when done in a careful and orderly manner.
On the other hand, credit card churning is not an illegal practice and it’s worth the time of wise churners.
Credit churners mostly benefit from more rewards than they could with just one card.
Hence, when you sign up with sign-up bonuses, you can add up even if you’re after cash back, points, or miles.
Aside from that, you can earn these rewards faster when using many cards, rather than when you’re using only a single credit card.
On the other hand, another benefit is that you get to keep the card after you’ve got the signup bonus without any requirement.
Also, you can decide or not to keep the account open.
Hence, you’re not stuck with every card you sign up for.
However, credit card churning is not for everyone, hence can be done if:
- You have a good or great credit score.
- Also, if you’re a reliable credit cardholder.
- You have the interest and time to keep churning
- And if you’re a big spender
Hence, if you don’t meet up with the above, you might want to avoid churning.
Credit Card Churning is a practice that takes planning and skill to execute.
Also, it requires you to spend a bit of money to get qualified for the bonuses.
Hence, it means that your normal spending habits need to be quite high to make it gainful.
What Are the Drawbacks of Churning?
As mentioned earlier, there are also risks linked with credit card churning and these risks should be understood before jumping into the practice.
However, below are some drawbacks and potential risks of credit card churning:
- It can affect your credit score badly
- Also, it can increase the risk of credit denial
- It can increase your debt
- Annual fees can make churning less gainful
- It requires a car and an interest
- also, most card issuers have made rules to limit churning
Hence, these cons to churning are to be thought of before engaging in the practice.
However, if fall under the set of people below, you should stay clear of this practice:
- Those who have a spending problem
- Also, those who never had a credit card
- Those with a poor credit score.
- Also, those who are not big spenders.
- On the other, if you’re preparing for a major loan avoid this practice
- Also, those who would rather keep things simple
Hence, with this, you can see churning is not for everyone.
So, before jumping in to this practice, you might want to consider if it’s really something you want to engage in.
Is Credit Card Churning Dead?
Now, most card issuers have are wiser and understand the practice of churning.
Hence, gone is the time when cardholders can sign up, collect bonuses, cancel, and repeat the process with same credit card issuer or another credit card issuer.
However, most issuers have put policies in place in order to limit churning.
Hence, they might be limited to the number of bonuses you can get or the number of cards you can open in a certain period of time.
That being said, while credit card churning isn’t dead, churners might have to come up with a better and more orderly way to keep churning to make sure the practice doesn’t affect their fiscal state.
Summary
In summary, credit card churning is not for everyone.
Hence, be sure not to end up affecting your credit score with this practice.
Having said that, we hope this article was a great guide on the Pros and Cons of Churning.
Hence, for questions about Churning, please leave a comment and we will be glad to help you out.