How to use Credit Card Reward Points

Once you’ve found that amazing limited time offer your next challenge will be figuring out how to maximize the benefits. Obviously it makes sense to apply for that card for yourself but if you’re married or manage your parents’ finances for example, you could also apply for cards for them too.

Applying for multiple cards is one of the best ways to take advantage of a limited time offer. Additionally, a lot of points and miles programs allow transfers within family members or members of the same household so combining the points should be relatively easy.

Leverage Multiple Points and Miles Accounts

I don’t have any kids yet but I know that once I do, I will definitely look to leverage their credit once they’re old enough. Children can’t apply for cards until they’re 18 but they can be added as authorized users. This would come in handy with a card like the Chase Ink or Chase Bold that gives authorized users (employees) two free Lounge Club Passes. You could earn two extra free lounge passes each year for every child you add.

Which Cards Are Churnable?

Many people want to make money with credit card rewards, and one way they do this is to apply for many cards and take advantage of different offers at once. In fact, one of the credit card myths that persists to this day is that you can only get a sign up bonus once. Often, that is not the case. In fact, there are lots of churnable cards out there where you can get a sign-up bonus again after a certain waiting period. This practice isn’t for beginners though since you’ll need to be able to explain your application activities to the banks.

Bank of America

The Alaska Visa card from Bank of America is a great example of a card that is churnable since I myself have applied for this card on two separate occasions and gotten the sign-up bonus both times. Many of the B of A cards can actually be churned every 90 days. When it comes to how to use credit card reward points to make money, this is one way.

Barclaycard

Since US Airways and American Airlines are merging in 2015, the US Airways card is a great one to snag before it goes away. The card is churn-able but there are conflicting reports about whether you need to cancel your old one or not. I actually have one of these cards myself and I plan to get another before the end of the year.

Amex

Amex recently changed their sign-up bonus policy so that you can only get one sign-up bonus per card. In the past, you could apply for the same card after the account was closed for 12 months. This new policy essentially means that Amex cards are no longer churnable. But you can still apply for a personal and business version of cards like the Premier Rewards Gold and get two bonuses that way.

Lastly, you can earn multiple bonuses by applying for variations of cards within the same program. For example, you could get one bonus by applying for the Gold Delta Miles card and then another with the Platinum Delta Miles card.

Chase

Similar to Amex, Chase has some pretty strict rules when it comes to churning. You should generally wait 3 years from your application date before churning. But they also offer the widest variety of cards so it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run out of cards to apply for. I especially like to churn business cards like the Ink Plus or the Ink Bold with Chase since every time you start a new business you can apply for a new card and get the sign-up bonus again.

One thing that you’ll need to be aware of though is with a card like the Chase Marriott that offers a sign-up bonus and a free night you won’t get the free night the second time around. Since that free night is linked to your Marriott Rewards Membership, you will only get that part of the sign-up bonus once. But the points are still churnable.

How’s Your Credit Look?

You should always ask yourself, do you have the credit for this card? A lot of these limited time offers are for top of the line products which require a good to great credit score. For example, you might be tempted by the 40,000 point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but if you’re just starting to establish credit, the Chase Freedom card would probably be a better fit. And even though the Freedom card normally comes with a $100 bonus, you can wait for a higher offer with that card too. It’s been known to go as high as $250 during promotional periods. This is one way to make money from credit card offers – choosing the right offer at the right time!

Give Yourself the Best Chance to Get Approved

Did you know that you can actually manipulate certain parts of your credit score? Here is one of the most important credit card utilization tips: pay off all your balances a couple weeks before applying for a card. This will lower your overall utilization rate and give a temporary boost to your score. Doing this can allow you to make money from credit card offers by picking offers for balance transfers and opening new cards. You aren’t going to get rich off of such offers, but you can make a couple hundred bucks here and there!

Can You Meet The Terms of the Card?

Limited time offers can give your points and miles balances a nice boost but you also need to ensure that you can meet the terms of the offer. Some limited time offers will give you more points but they’ll also require you to spend more money to get the bonus offer. One way to spend more money without actually spending it is through manufactured spending techniques.

Either way, make sure that you don’t get too excited by the bonus points and forget to read through the terms of the card. It would be a shame to apply for a limited time offer but not be able to hit the spend requirement.

Limited Time Offers Can Help With Annual Fees

I don’t normally like paying annual fees but if there’s a card with a limited time offer, those extra points could offset that fee. A recent example of that would be the Citi Executive Advantage card. The standard offer comes with 50,000 bonus miles when you sign-up but there is also a hefty $450 annual fee.

Normally, I wouldn’t even consider paying that high of a fee but when they bumped their offer up to 100,000 points, the extra 50,000 points made up for that fee and then some. I actually liked the card so much, I ended up applying for one for my wife too.

To Make Money from Credit Card Offers You have to Get Cards Before They’re Gone

Another example of a great limited time offer is the Barclaycard US Airways card. The current sign up bonus is 40,000 points but since US Airways and American Airlines will be merging in 2015, there are only a few months left to apply for this card. We aren’t sure exactly when this card will be going off the market but since American Airlines has an exclusive partnership with Citi, new cardholders won’t be able to get this card once the merger is complete so you should apply now before it goes away.