Why go on an App Spree?

[Open123]

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@fungoman wrote:

And what do you do with the cards after you meet the 20 sign up bonuses?

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What I do is just close the ones which have no long term value for me before the annual fee is due the following year.  I only have about 3 or 4 cards I use for spending, the rest are all sign-up bonuses awaiting to be purges.

[clocktick]

Mine are usually for sign-up bonuses.  Store cards are for the % off/coupons.  Some are my every day and some are for no foreign exchange fees.  A couple are just to have a Mastercard.  I could probably close the majority of mine now and still be happy (planning on closing some soon).  However, more cards does not automatically equate to more debt. 

[Anonymous]

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@fungoman wrote:

I am not discarding anyone's view on anything. I am trying to understand what the reasoning is behind the decisions. I feel like I am still missing the point, however. There arent even 20 rewards categories!

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Well of course there are more than 20 reward categories!  Cash Plus alone offers 15 categories.  And many categories aren't covered there.

In addition to Open's point about sign up, you might also want cards that cover the same category to overcome spending caps, or because you want the choice of different types of reward, e.g. cash back, UR and MR points for gas purchases.

To maximize total rewards, you need a lot of cards for sign up bonuses and to get the biggest reward for each transaction.   Most will stop at a certain point, either because getting new cards becomes hard, or just too many cards to juggle.  

[clocktick]

Here's an example.  I applied for 7 cards specifically only to get the sign-up bonuses for Hilton HHonors points.  4 of them are now closed.  It got me a nice free week's vacation and then some.  I plan to do it again either with more HHH cards, or another rewards program.

[Anonymous]

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@clocktick wrote:

Here's an example.  I applied for 7 cards specifically only to get the sign-up bonuses for Hilton HHonors points.  4 of them are now closed.  It got me a nice free week's vacation and then some.  I plan to do it again either with more HHH cards, or another rewards program.

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Might have to do it fairly soon with all the rumors of "one per lifetime" bonuses!

[clocktick]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@clocktick wrote:

Here's an example.  I applied for 7 cards specifically only to get the sign-up bonuses for Hilton HHonors points.  4 of them are now closed.  It got me a nice free week's vacation and then some.  I plan to do it again either with more HHH cards, or another rewards program.

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Might have to do it fairly soon with all the rumors of "one per lifetime" bonuses!

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True.  There are some cards I haven't had yet though so hopefully I'll be able to get them.  One is the Amex Hilton (not the Surpass, I closed that one).  Another is Barclays Hawaiian Airlines - can transfer to double HHH points.  I also signed up for Virgin Atlantic cards and transferred them to HHH points too.  I think there are other VA cards out there too but haven't looked yet.