If I can offer any advice it's not to hang onto any card once the points have posted. Don't feel any sense of obligation or loyalty to the bank. Cancel and move on instantly.
You obviously have a strategy that suits your circumstances and requirements. However I believe that in the FF world that it is not a one size fits all approach. There is no one best approach, but yes there is a best approach for each of us.
I do believe that virtually all, if not all, FF Point Hunters should churn at least to some degree, and for many in a major way. However there are reasons why that for some holding on to particular cards makes sense. Churning in minimum time may be good, but not always and not on all cards. And indeed for many Point Hunters there will be cards that should be kept and not churned. So for many cards can be divided into "Keepers" and "Churners". These reasons include both "earn" and "burn" of points, but not just points are important.
So I would suggest to all the FF Point Hunters out there to consider their circumstances and to develop a card strategy tailored to their requirements.
Such reasons include, but are not limited to:
- Promotion wise Amex at present has many cashback promotions. These can be quite lucrative. So for example to hold an Amex issued card, with Supps maximised can be quite lucrative.
- Credit Card Insurance:
- One might use this to save the expense of paid insurance. some cards are easily activated. But regardless you need to hold the card from first significant non-refundable expense till return from trip
- Particular travel expenses such as Car Hire in Europe are bettered covered by some cards
- Taking advantage of point transfer promotions
- Warehousing points
- Keeping points on some cards can allow one to take advantage of different airline redemption promotions
- Some people such as myself make use of FF programs where the points once transferred have a limited life. Warehousing allows one to keep that clock on hold
- Point earn from spend. Various cards and types of spend allow one to maximise one earn. Some people have particular spend such as ATO which needs certain cards to optimise that spend
- Referrals. If you are new to Amex you may well have a number of family, friends and work colleagues that may generate referral points for you (as well as larger sign-on bonii for them).
- Preferred FF Program. Some are hard to get points to. So keeping cards that allow earn for that can attractive.
- Other financial aspects of you life. About to seeka major home loan, start a business etc? If so think carefully about very high churning of cards.
And there are various other reasons such as lower international transaction cost, lounge access, hotel memberships etc.
So to the Point Hunters out there, and in particular to those new at the game, I would suggest that you consider what YOU value, and develop a card strategy that works best on balance for all of YOUR requirements.
, ive used them at places like kmart/bigw to buy prepaids and also stack on flybuys/woolies points. Not much but easy way to burn them through, especially with any added statement offers etc
