Sign-up Bonuses

[Anonymous]

The attraction or otherwise depends on your goals and credit status (and on your valuation of the rewards in the case of points).

So in theory, those into "free money" with a sufficiently strong credir report might choose to apply for a card with say a $50 sign on bonus.   Others wouldn't want to use a HP (and get a new account) for less than say $400.    And those that value simplicity won't do it all, as to them the rewards are not worth the trouble.

Personally, I don't get all that excited about doing this, I am somewhat amused when people wait for the Freedom bonus to go from $100 to $200, because in the scheme of things even $100 difference in "free money" is going to make almost no difference to your life, and getting the card now and using it for the reward categories might prove more profitable than waiting.

[red259]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The attraction or otherwise depends on your goals and credit status (and on your valuation of the rewards in the case of points).

So in theory, those into "free money" with a sufficiently strong credir report might choose to apply for a card with say a $50 sign on bonus.   Others wouldn't want to use a HP (and get a new account) for less than say $400.    And those that value simplicity won't do it all, as to them the rewards are not worth the trouble.

Personally, I don't get all that excited about doing this, I am somewhat amused when people wait for the Freedom bonus to go from $100 to $200, because in the scheme of things even $100 difference in "free money" is going to make almost no difference to your life, and getting the card now and using it for the reward categories might prove more profitable than waiting.

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+1 Some cards I'll wait until a better bonus comes around like with the amex plat. I don't need the plat benefits really because I have other cards that cover them and I would have preferred to wait several months for when those benefits expired to get the plat, but the signup was just too good to pass up.  Other cards like the freedom or amex everyday I'm not going to wait on, because those cards have value in the spending categories and I'll likely lose points for spend I could have made on the card waiting around for an extra large signup that may never come. 

[Callandra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The attraction or otherwise depends on your goals and credit status (and on your valuation of the rewards in the case of points).

So in theory, those into "free money" with a sufficiently strong credir report might choose to apply for a card with say a $50 sign on bonus.   Others wouldn't want to use a HP (and get a new account) for less than say $400.    And those that value simplicity won't do it all, as to them the rewards are not worth the trouble.

Personally, I don't get all that excited about doing this, I am somewhat amused when people wait for the Freedom bonus to go from $100 to $200, because in the scheme of things even $100 difference in "free money" is going to make almost no difference to your life, and getting the card now and using it for the reward categories might prove more profitable than waiting.

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I feel the same way; if it's a card that's really going to work for you, may as well get it right away and start earning points (especially if it's a card with 5% categories you will use like Freedom or Discover It -- you could be earning a lot!). 

I've never gotten a card for the bonus (the only real bonus I've gotten was the $100 from Freedom and the $25 from Sallie Mae if that counts); I try to look in the long term now to see if the card will yield me the best cashback for my spending habits. Yes, I only got $25 as a sign-up bonus from Sallie Mae but I can easily cash out $25 every other month or so with this card (and I'm a low spender!!) so the lack of a $100 sign-up bonus doesn't bother me at all since I get so much cashback on things I was going to buy anyway. 

I can see why some would be "bonus chasers" especially with travel cards since those sign up bonuses tend to be pretty lucrative but I personally don't like cluttering up my reports with accounts I won't use in the long term. 

[yfan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have several CC offers sitting on my desk now, but I dont see myself ever using the cards again after I met the spend requirements and got the sign-up bonuses. I am not a big fan of keeping a CC sitting around unless it fulfills a need.

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Just out of curiosity, what are some of the cards you have bonus offers for and what are the bonus offers?

[Anonymous]

I used to have the US Airways card when it was offered as a 50,000 mile bonus after paying the AF and making ANY purchase. I had no intention of keeping the card and didn't use it once after I got the miles.

I signed up for AmEx solely to get a util cushion and get a $250 bonus after $1000 spent in 3 months. This was easy, as I just paid my rent. I dislike their CS, so I doubt i'll ever use the AmEx again, but the $23,000 limit is nice.

I initially signed up for CSP thinking it would be my everyday card. Instead, I found it in my SD after I got the required bonus points and transfered them to United.

The only cards I have that I genuinely use are:

- DC as everyday spend

- Discover if their category is good or I want cash back

- United for when I fly United and to utilize Visa Signature benefits

The honest truth is that you may apply for a card because you think it suits your needs, only to find out that it either ultimately doesn't or those needs change.

[Chaselover]

you can find many here including myself getting the IHG card just for the annual free night and not for using the credit. Obviously v use it just for not going dormant. I dont think I actually need a little more credit from a particular card when I apply for it. 

But having credit is always good, in case of emergency.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The honest truth is that you may apply for a card because you think it suits your needs, only to find out that it either ultimately doesn't or those needs change.

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I can relate to that. I got the PenFed Defender Visa to transfer some existing balances to at 4.99%. My plan was to make it my daily spend card once those balances were paid off. A few months later I got a local CU card offering a 1.99% BT deal, and now I have the Citi DC card as well. The PenFed card is now useless to me.

I am considering trying to PC it to the PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards card and use it for gas instead of letting the Defender sit in my sock drawer unused.

[Kb109]

The only card I've done this with is PRG. All my hotel/airline cards with signup bonuses I use all the time since I travel for business so often.

[Anonymous]

I've done this before.  I really like signup bonuses that are easy to clear even if I can get more rewards with another card.  I'm probably not going to do it much more, but the BOA cash rewards is a card I basically never use anymore with a signup bonus as is the quicksilver.  It's still easy money.  It's not going to make anyone a millionare, but a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks.  Having some super high credit score isn't that important to me and I over around 770 anyways which is high enough to get the cards I have applied for.  Yeah, you may have to carry some cards you never use in your wallet, but how many of us really use each card we have? 

It takes you 2000 dollars of spend on gas to hit 100 bucks with my Sallie Mae Card.  For many of the cards you can get that 100 with just 500 dollar spends on top of rewards given in those categories like 3% or 2% on gas.   I just did one this summer for Blue Cash Everyday which I will never use again that netted 150. 

[yfan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've done this before.  I really like signup bonuses that are easy to clear even if I can get more rewards with another card.  I'm probably not going to do it much more, but the BOA cash rewards is a card I basically never use anymore with a signup bonus as is the quicksilver.  It's still easy money.  It's not going to make anyone a millionare, but a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks.  Having some super high credit score isn't that important to me and I over around 770 anyways which is high enough to get the cards I have applied for.  Yeah, you may have to carry some cards you never use in your wallet, but how many of us really use each card we have? 

It takes you 2000 dollars of spend on gas to hit 100 bucks with my Sallie Mae Card.  For many of the cards you can get that 100 with just 500 dollar spends on top of rewards given in those categories like 3% or 2% on gas.   I just did one this summer for Blue Cash Everyday which I will never use again that netted 150. 

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Actually, Bank of America cash rewards (and other BofA credit and debit cards) can take advantage of BankAmeriDeal offers, which has saved me a lot of money. It's 10-15% at a time and the caps for each merchant is small, but it adds up without a relatively large spend threshold. Other cards have promotional offers like this too. I don't have the Sallie Mae card but my Orbitz Visa often runs double bonus (making it a 4% card for those category, which for example this April was all non-Orbitz purchases), and then there's of course the current Discover promo to double all cashback at the end of a year - which if you use Discover Deals can often meet or surpass the 20% threshold of sign-up bonuses (like $100 bonus for $500 spend).  There's also Amex Offers.

So yes, $100 is $100, but pitted against rewards maximization with existing cards, it may only end up being $50 extra, or even less.

I guess what I am saying is that staying with a card has its own benefits, including in rewards, even if banks weren't already in the process of shutting the doors to bonus chasing the best they can. I have also had better luck growing my existing lines when there wasn't a bunch of recent inquiries weighing down my credit reports.