Short-lived, low-bonus accounts

[Anonymous]

I see threads where people with reasonably good credit open cards (with no annual fee, no special perks, and a tiny signup bonus) and then close them a few days/weeks/months later. Some accounts get closed with less than a year of history and minimal total rewards.

Does anyone else have an "each of those accounts could have provided a nice signup bonus" reaction? With or without a good bonus, AAoA grows more slowly, and the reports will look similar under manual review.

Obviously a person would have to meet minimum spend to get those bonuses, but a lot of decent ones only require $1k spending over three months.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see threads where people with reasonably good credit open cards (with no annual fee, no special perks, and a tiny signup bonus) and then close them a few days/weeks/months later. Some accounts get closed with less than a year of history and minimal total rewards.

Does anyone else have an "each of those accounts could have provided a nice signup bonus" reaction? With or without a good bonus, AAoA grows more slowly, and the reports will look similar under manual review.

Obviously a person would have to meet minimum spend to get those bonuses, but a lot of decent ones only require $1k spending over three months.

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Personally, I only app for cards that I know I will definitely keep open and actually use. 

Doesn't matter if they have a bonus or not, it is just an incentive to app for them (ie AARP $200 bonus) 

[Callandra]

^I agree with above. A bonus is nice but not a deal-maker for me. I like cards that I will use over the long term. Of all my cards, the only ones with "real" bonuses have been QS and Freedom. While I sock drawered Freedom (no use for it anymore due to useless/uninteresting categories), it was a card I planned to use for the long term. I did get a $25 bonus with Sallie Mae but I've gotten the most cash back out of that card that the bonus was just icing on the cake. I can't be bothered to manage a ton of accounts and I guess I'm just not the type to bonus chase. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see threads where people with reasonably good credit open cards (with no annual fee, no special perks, and a tiny signup bonus) and then close them a few days/weeks/months later. Some accounts get closed with less than a year of history and minimal total rewards.

Does anyone else have an "each of those accounts could have provided a nice signup bonus" reaction? With or without a good bonus, AAoA grows more slowly, and the reports will look similar under manual review.

Obviously a person would have to meet minimum spend to get those bonuses, but a lot of decent ones only require $1k spending over three months.

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Personally, I only app for cards that I know I will definitely keep open and actually use. 

Doesn't matter if they have a bonus or not, it is just an incentive to app for them (ie AARP $200 bonus) 

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I'm not sure which cards you're the primary vs. an AU on, but how do you allocate spending across two 2% cards and two 1.5% cards (all Visas)? If you want to keep a Venture (good rewards, a good CL, and no FTFs), the other three would seem to be useless.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see threads where people with reasonably good credit open cards (with no annual fee, no special perks, and a tiny signup bonus) and then close them a few days/weeks/months later. Some accounts get closed with less than a year of history and minimal total rewards.

Does anyone else have an "each of those accounts could have provided a nice signup bonus" reaction? With or without a good bonus, AAoA grows more slowly, and the reports will look similar under manual review.

Obviously a person would have to meet minimum spend to get those bonuses, but a lot of decent ones only require $1k spending over three months.

---

Personally, I only app for cards that I know I will definitely keep open and actually use. 

Doesn't matter if they have a bonus or not, it is just an incentive to app for them (ie AARP $200 bonus) 

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I'm not sure which cards you're the primary vs. an AU on, but how do you allocate spending across two 2% cards and two 1.5% cards (all Visas)? If you want to keep a Venture (good rewards, a good CL, and no FTFs), the other three would seem to be useless.

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Good question! (btw all cards in my sig are my own, not AU) 

The cap one cards I just got to combine them into my first QS. 

I plan to use it for any form of traveling, where there is no FTF and credit limit to worry about. It also serves as a backup in case my 2% FNBO goes away. 

[Anonymous]

Discover IT has no bonus minimum spend to meet, but it's one of my most-used cards because of the double cash back. 

The other two wish list cards have varying degrees of spending difficulty to achieve, EDP I could wipe out that $1000 bonus pretty easily with one trip to the Apple Store.  CSP is a little trickier, to the point where it might be worth it to not try for it right away or at all.  Even though it is one of the better travel cards out there.  I could accomplish better bonus spending with the PRG, and you could make the argument the PRG is better in most departments. 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see threads where people with reasonably good credit open cards (with no annual fee, no special perks, and a tiny signup bonus) and then close them a few days/weeks/months later. Some accounts get closed with less than a year of history and minimal total rewards.

Does anyone else have an "each of those accounts could have provided a nice signup bonus" reaction? With or without a good bonus, AAoA grows more slowly, and the reports will look similar under manual review.

Obviously a person would have to meet minimum spend to get those bonuses, but a lot of decent ones only require $1k spending over three months.

---

Personally, I only app for cards that I know I will definitely keep open and actually use. 

Doesn't matter if they have a bonus or not, it is just an incentive to app for them (ie AARP $200 bonus) 

---

I'm not sure which cards you're the primary vs. an AU on, but how do you allocate spending across two 2% cards and two 1.5% cards (all Visas)? If you want to keep a Venture (good rewards, a good CL, and no FTFs), the other three would seem to be useless.

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Good question! (btw all cards in my sig are my own, not AU) 

The cap one cards I just got to combine them into my first QS. 

I plan to use it for any form of traveling, where there is no FTF and credit limit to worry about. It also serves as a backup in case my 2% FNBO goes away. 

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What do you mean by this??

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Discover IT has no bonus minimum spend to meet, but it's one of my most-used cards because of the double cash back. 

The other two wish list cards have varying degrees of spending difficulty to achieve, EDP I could wipe out that $1000 bonus pretty easily with one trip to the Apple Store.  CSP is a little trickier, to the point where it might be worth it to not try for it right away or at all.  Even though it is one of the better travel cards out there.  I could accomplish better bonus spending with the PRG, and you could make the argument the PRG is better in most departments. 

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If you buy from Apple.com with your Discover, using the portal:

(1% base rewards + 5% Dicover Deals cashback bonus) * Double Rewards promo = 12% cash back

Discover says the 5% bonus excludes MacBooks, but I got it on a MacBook, anyway.

Edit: The "excluded items" list changes from time to time, and bonus rewards on officially excluded items may or may not be honored.

[UncleB]

I don't really pay that much attention to bonuses at all, with the exception of the BCP - it's an 'exception' since I consider the $150 bonus the equivalent of a 'rebate' of the first two year's annual fee.  In the event that my rewards from the BCP were less than I anticipated, the bonus still made giving it a try 'worth it' (the BCP does not waive the first year fee).  As it turns out it would still be worth it even without the bonus, but it was nice knowing it wouldn't cost me anything if that hadn't been the case.

The card that is my most valuable rewards-wise is the Sam's Club MasterCard, and it's reward was a paltry $20 (and due to a glitch, I had to contact customer service twice even to get that).  My Quicksilver provided a $100 bonus, which was nice considering I would have made the purchases anyway.  The other cards I have either had a very small bonus (USAA Visa was $25) or none at all (Discover), but I got each of them because I actually wanted the account, not for a one-time payout.

Basically, I consider my wallet precious real estate and each of my cards has to 'earn' it's place - bonuses don't count.

I'm not a bonus chaser, but I don't judge folks who are.  To me, though, it's just not a fit (for me) at this time.  I'm just coming out of rebuilding mode (my last baddie drops this year), so doing anything to lower my already fragile AAoA would be foolish.  Once my AAoA is nice and stable, I might be a bit more adventurous and 'harvest' a few bonuses, but for now I'm very pleased with what I have.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Discover IT has no bonus minimum spend to meet, but it's one of my most-used cards because of the double cash back. 

The other two wish list cards have varying degrees of spending difficulty to achieve, EDP I could wipe out that $1000 bonus pretty easily with one trip to the Apple Store.  CSP is a little trickier, to the point where it might be worth it to not try for it right away or at all.  Even though it is one of the better travel cards out there.  I could accomplish better bonus spending with the PRG, and you could make the argument the PRG is better in most departments. 

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If you buy from Apple.com with your Discover, using the portal:

(1% base rewards + 5% Dicover Deals cashback bonus) * Double Rewards promo = 12% cash back

Discover says the 5% bonus excludes MacBooks, but I got it on a MacBook, anyway.

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I've seen that, and it's the iPad Pro they exclude.  The Macbook Pro is included in the deal.  The Discover card is primarily a bill pay card, and it's only at $1400 CL.  Not useful for buying a Macbook since that would put it at  or near the limit rather quickly.  If nothing else I'm hoping for an Amazon CLI from $800 and I'll use that, or put it on the Chase Freedom or AMEX.