How I got into Credit Card churning in college
Written By: Nick Nguyen | Read full profile
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I learned about credit card churning without even realizing it was called credit card churning! It happened when I decided it was time to open my own personal credit card. I was doing a ton of research looking for one that had great rewards and had perks for students.
I stumbled across the Discover It Student Cash Back card and instantly applied. They gave me a $20 statement credit each school year if my GPA was above a 3.0 and offered to match my cashback after the first year. And on top of that, I had a referral bonus for another $50!
Now, I was late to the game, because I signed up in October 2015, so that only left me with 2 years of that $20 statement credit, but it was perfect, because I used that credit card for some airplane tickets and A LOT of amazon purchases that I was making for Christmas gifts that year.
Did I mention, they had calendar rewards when I signed for 5% cashback on Restaurants, Gas, and Amazon? Gas in California at the time was around $3.50/gallon, and we were driving my gas guzzling Honda Pilot around, so that cashback reward money piled up FAST!
But it didn’t stop there. My research led me to stumble upon the Chase Freedom Card, which had a similar 5% calendar cashback system but was offset from the Discover card! This one didn’t have any perks for students, but was boasting a $200 rewards bonus at the time! So 6 months after I opened the Discover card, I applied and was approved for the Chase Freedom Card.
Here’s how much I made in Credit Card Churning that year:
This was a total of about $800 from just these 2 credit cards, some strategic planning for buying plane tickets, Christmas presents, gas, car insurance, and car repairs.
I made sure to use these cards to buy things that I already had enough money saved up to pay for. So I paid off my balance in full each month, avoiding any potential hits to my credit score from having a high credit utilization and preventing any interest charges from accruing.
*PROCEED WITH CAUTION. DON’T JUST OPEN A BUNCH OF CREDIT CARDS TO SPEND MONEY ON THINGS THAT YOU DON’T NEED. I’M TALKING ABOUT STUFF THAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOU’LL CEASE TO EXIST OR COMFORTS IN LIFE THAT ARE NECESSARY LIKE PLUSHY CHARMIN TP. CREDIT CARD CHURNING IS MEANT FOR PEOPLE WHO ALREADY KNOW THEY’LL SPEND XX AMOUNT OF MONEY ON SOMETHING, AND PUT IT TOWARDS A CARD THAT’LL GIVE THEM A LITTLE EXTRA sum’-sum’in FOR THEIR PURCHASE.
**Nguyening Lifestyles is not a registered financial service provider and is not liable for any decisions you make regarding credit cards or managing your debt. We are simply here to entertain and provide content for educational purposes only. Therefore, we are not liable in any capacity for any actions that may result from reading this post. Proceed with using any type of credit card, credit line, debt, credit reporting company, etc. with caution.
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