My Next Round of Credit Card Applications

When people ask me what the best credit card to use is, I usually tell them that there’s no specific card but that they should be continuously applying for new credit cards to get sign-up bonuses. There’s not as much talk about churning on blogs nowadays (perhaps because banks don’t like it when the bigger blogs use that word?), but I still regularly apply for new credit cards.

So what’s next on my list? The card that I most want right now is the Citi Prestige card. It’s kind of like Citi’s answer to the Amex Platinum, and it comes with a Priority Pass membership that allows guests for free, American Admirals Club access, and a $250 annual airline credit. But I’m mostly interested in this card because I have a Citi Forward card that gets 5x Thank You points on restaurants and bookstores, so with the Citi Prestige, I can then redeem those points for 1.6 cents each toward AA flights. That means I can get about 8% back on restaurant spending all year round. Crazy good deal, right?

I’ll probably try to pick up another US Airways credit card before Barclays has to stop issuing them and perhaps an Alaska Airlines credit card. I’ve had the US Airways card three times before, so I’m not optimistic about my approval chances, but it’s been 6 months since my last application, so I might as well try. I don’t know how many times I’ve had the Bank of America Alaska credit card, but they keep approving me, so might as well keep on getting those miles, as I recently used 100k to book a first class Emirates ticket.

Another card that’s been in the back of my mind for a while is the Chase IHG card. Low annual fee for a free night certificate, and you get a redemption rebate, so it’s worth keeping around. I haven’t gotten to it yet since I haven’t really focused on IHG, and I probably will continue to wait until the 80k point offer comes back (if it does).

So not the most ambitious set of credit card applications, but if I get approved for them all, it’ll be about 125k miles/points which I value at over $1800. Not too shabby for minimal effort.