Loyal Only To Next Big Sign Up Bonus
Are you that person that has one or two credit cards that you opened years ago? Perhaps there was a great promotion to good for you to pass up? It captured your attention and got you to take action. If you were approved, perhaps you had to spend x dollars in x months to get x amount of points. You do that one or two times, but once you got those promotional offer bonus, you then rested on your laurels. Those are probably the same credit cards you use to this day though they don’t still offer you oversized value. Don’t worry, I’ve been there too, but I’m here to snap you out of that. So, the question is why so loyal? Do you not see any opportunities out there that grab you like once before? These banks are very competitive for your business. I am always seeing offers that make me loyal only to next big sign up bonus.
Push It To The Limit
These days I am loyal only to the next big sign-up bonus irregardless of what bank is offering it. I’m using the one(s) that helps me achieve award travel to a destination I’m planning on going to. In addition, I’ll stockpile points/miles for future travel and experiences. I wasn’t always thinking like this, but thanks to Alex and Brad over at Travel Miles 101 via His and Her Money Podcast with Talaat & Tai, they hipped me on how I could push this award travel to the limit. I haven’t looked back since and I signed up for my first credit cards of this year over this weekend. They were the American Express business cards Business Gold Rewards that offers 50,000 Membership Rewards after $5,000 spend in 3 months and the Blue Business Plus Credit Card offers 20,000 Membership Rewards after $3,000 in 3 months.
When There Are Lulls
I’ll start working towards hitting these spending limits to get 70,000 Membership Rewards points using the technique I outlined in the post, “How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred”. One thing about Membership Rewards points is that they are a transferable points to a lot of other loyalty programs. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments when you have lulls when applying for credit card bonus. That’s because the banks impose restrictions on how many or what category of cards you can have at any one time. When this happens, I usually focus on directing spend on points in transferable currencies until I can crank it up again. Those like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints, or Citi Thank You Points. Usually, if you are working this system between a couple where each of you can sign up for the same cards, you can accumulate enough points for at least two free award travel vacations per year.
Loyal For No Other Reason
Other than that reason, I am not loyal to any particular bank unless they are offering me something of value such as points/miles, cashback, and service benefits. Resting on your laurels could mean you are leaving $500 on the table every 3 months are so. These promotional offers you see for 50,000 points are usually worth about $0.01 each($500/50,000=$500). If you have $3,000 – $5,000 in expenses every 3 months, you could potentially be getting a different card with a new sign up bonus every 3 months. That is equivalent to the banks giving you $2,000 over a year for cashback, award travel, and/or experiences. Each of these bonuses is a reduction to your out of pocket expense. If you have been following my blog, you will know this is common theme I preach.
In Closing
Next time you see an offer x points for spending x dollars in x months, consider what has the current card you have been spending on offered you lately. If nothing, perhaps you should take advantage of the offer. That card you are using now will still offer you the same thing after you take advantage of that new promotional offer, am I right. But don’t stop there, keep taking advantage of the next big sign up bonus.
Check out my Affiliate and Referral links here for products in services to help with investment, cashback, and award travel. Also you can find more of my blog post on Start Here.
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