topic Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun in General Credit Topics

CC Pursuing lost it's fun

Wavester64 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:02:54 GMT

I recall several years ago when I found MyFico, my credit, to put it bluntly, was crap.
I learned a lot on here, my credit got better and better, I started to get the cards
I desired and I was saving money. Lately, the good CCs are few and far between.
Businesses charging 3%-4% for using a CC kills the CB you would have earned using any
CC. Annual FEEs going up all over. CC benefits getting NERFed all the time, Cards closing
or adding stupid fees to use their CC when it was FREE before (I am looking at you SoFi )
I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but to me CC Pursuing lost it's fun.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:29:18 GMT

Even if those trends weren't true, the "game" IMO loses its luster over time regardless. All of the negative points you made just speed up the process for many.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

Wavester64 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:01:18 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
Even if those trends weren't true, the "game" IMO loses its luster over time regardless. All of the negative points you made just speed up the process for many.

Well put 👍 Though if there was steady influx of new cards giving good deals and business not hitting the consumer with CC fees, the luster would still be strong

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

Realist — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:22:36 GMT

It starts to get boring if you do it long enough, and you choose not to evolve with it.

Acquire enough credit, and it becomes as plentiful as the air around you. Having more credit doesn't really do anything more for you - business credit and business opportunities aside.

CC welcome bonuses are still valuable, as you can earn still earn a weeks worth of hotel stays, or travel to locations on a single offer alone. You can stack multiple cards, and multiple offers to accumulate a significant number of weeks and months of free hotel stays, as well as multiple free airline trips. However, the caveat to this, is that these offers are typically either a one and done deal, or a once per 24-48 month timeframe. You can extend and amplify these results if you incorporate a P2 into the equation. Additionally, unless you plan to use cash for every transaction, it just makes sense to have a daily driver or two. How you choose to receive your payout is up to you, whether points for hotels, flights, or just cash back. I prefer free hotel stays personally - with free breakfast.

In an advanced situation like this, where having too much credit is just a whatever, and securing welcome offers that are becoming sparce because you've used up most offers, what do you do next? That was the point where I had reached, where I had to formulate a solution that elevated the stay and travel game. Granted it wasn't FREE any longer, but it did provide for premium stays and travel on the cheap and affordable side - in place of free. That revelation, I will keep close to my chest, but when you arrive at this point, I hope you too can find something that work well for your situation. The free welcome bonus signup game isn't dead for me, but it's been replaced - evolved, and now serves as a supplement to a new strategy moving forward.

There's still fun in the game, and things to look forward to. Although like anything in life, the more mature and knowledgable you become within the activity, the more you have to modify or elevate the experience - as your own personal experience and knowledge grows.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:27:57 GMT

Not for me.

I never really participated in the CC game. In the now distant past I did relish getting FF mileage rewards and accumulating points for hotel stays (could even convert points to cash). Back in the day I travelled all the time. Returned "home" every other weekend. Spent 300 days in hotels/motels one year.

Now I have zero interest in free hotel stays and primarily limit travel to visiting family and friends. No travel cards for me.

Not happy about the surprise fees for CC use at many "upscale" restaurants. Where possible I use CCs for insurance premiums, property taxes, utility bills, subscriptions, home improvements: (new deck, windows, garage doors furnace, water heater, A/C and furniture), appliances and recreational transportation (such as ebikes) where there is no surcharge for CC use.

JC Penney extracted a fee on a recent CC in store purchase. I won't be shopping there again.

There should be a category of no frills CCs with minimal swipe fees where merchants won't up charge. I don't like the push toward debit cards which shift fraud risk to the user - imo.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

SeanA — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:02:11 GMT

I feel ya, in a sense. What you say is true, but that can also make the search more fun - since you have to hunt a little harder, and you can really put your skills to use.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

crystal626 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 06:03:59 GMT

Yeah, I'm there too.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

TrapLine — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:49:59 GMT

Pretty well captured my path without the travel. In fact, I have been slowly closing cards over the last five years focusing on those cards that actually fit my spend. Further, the credit card charges for usage is a turn off and living in the outback limits my saying I will just not go there any more (understand that) but there are limitations to it.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

hdporter — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:59:28 GMT

The thrill of applying and being approved for new cards diminish about my 6th card in (about 35 years ago).

Since then the exercise has been all about utility (and no more cc's with $25 subs I still realize a tremendous satisfaction from acquiring a card that has a large payback!

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

disdreamin — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:02:51 GMT

Recently I've found fewer cards I am tempted by as the sign up bonuses aren't as easy to come by as they used to be and card benefits keep being adjusted in ways that aren't a good fit for me. I am still keeping an eye out for good offers (for me), but increasing annual fees, credit vendor card usage fees, and lack of card benefits that suit my lifestyle and spending habits have me considering closing quite a few cards in the not too distant future.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

Tiggr — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:43:57 GMT

The better you get at playing the game, the more you find that time is the determining factor, and waiting around isn't any fun.

Once you're a couple years in you can get any card you want and then all you do is nothing.

Now the fun part is helping others and friends in my age group start their journeys.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

DONZI — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:16:29 GMT

My first 21st century card was kind of on a whim.

Looking for a bank when my local credit union was bought/merged by an outsider, I found Fifth Third and they had all sorts of new and strange things! I moved a bit of cash there and was happy with all the perks, including a whopping 1% interest on a money market account.

Later I got some sort of offer for a 5/3rd card in the mail, or grabbed an info leaflet in the branch. After telling them my interest in a card the branch manager set me up with a secured revolving loan, a secured installment loan and a 'Trio Rewards' card. It's actually a nice card IMO.. just not a very workable thing @ a $1000 SL. All hard pulls for anything though last I checked and AFAIK no auto CLI @ 5/3rd.

Very nice that she knew what to do and jumpstart my credit standing right out of the gate.

I kind of sabotaged it though I guess. I couldn't fight the urge to pay off the installment loan for very long. Still have the secured revolving loan but only used it once.. soon the be axed.

..the credit card rewards hook sunk in. Then I got offers not too long after resurrecting my credit use and nearly empty profile. The remainder of the story is spread around this forum.

I've had computers & cell phones since they became a thing in the 20th century. However, I have very little need for a cell phone now and just couldn't find a useful niche for it..and I don't like carrying around anything for long that isn't an fountain pen, wallet or keys.

..so my credit card options are somewhat limited because phone insurance, apps and digital wallets mean nothing to me. As such, a bit of fun still lingers in that finding cards that are better tuned for me is a challenge...similar to what @SeanA mentioned.

Re: CC Pursuing lost it's fun

AndrewF — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:56:22 GMT

Lately I noticed that many of the banks, albeit not all, have dramatically slashed the value of the SUB or have massively increased the amount of spend required to trigger it.

In the case of American Express I notice that a lot of their cards have done, for example $3000 of spend instead of $2000, and still have the same SUB of $250 or so, and Barclays has kept the spend requirements low but changed the SUBs from $200 or $150 to only $100.

Capital One has also started denying things, so I've heard, to too many recent inquiries or too many recent credit cards opened, particularly the VentureX, which is their flagship.

Somehow, don't ask me why, they approved me a couple months ago for a huge limit on that card.

The next one on my target list is a Credit One Omni Rewards. They approved my spouse but not me so while we're working on his bonus, I'm going to try for early exclusion again on Experian for four old bankruptcy accounts since they only seem to soft pull and hard pull Experian and in a few days I'll be in that three month window between when they're known to do EE and the removal date.

Since I'm in the doghouse for a few months on new credit card sign ups I'm going after bank account bonuses for the time being.