Major Banks CRACKING DOWN on Churning - New Rules

churning. It's the practice of opening a credit card, getting the welcome bonus, which could be something like $1,000 or more in value, and then closing the card after one year, so you don't have to keep on paying the annual fee if there is one, and then doing the whole thing again with another card, and then a year or two later coming back to the original card, the first one that you got the bonus on, and getting that card again and getting the bonus again. It's also the name of a popular subreddit that shares information on the topic. But over the past few years, we've noticed that banks are really cracking down on this practice. And there is a worrying shift away from clear rules into more opaque, vaguely worded terms that basically let the bank decide whether you are eligible for a bonus or not. In the past couple of weeks, two banks have tightened their rules around welcome bonuses on two different series of credit cards and thus crack down on the potential to churn those cards for their welcome bonuses. And in this video, we're going to go through it all. Hey credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges aka the credit shifu and on this channel I cover US credit cards, personal finance and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into it. Oh, and this video is brought to you by Silo, but more on that later. So, with American Express, they have long had a so-called once-ina-lifetime rule where you can't get the welcome bonus on a credit card twice. So, if you had the MX Platinum before and then cancelled it, waited a couple of years, and then applied again, you would not be eligible for a new card member bonus. You'd need to reincarnate and then get the bonus in your next lifetime. Yeah, we've probably made that joke before. But there was a way around this in the past for the Platinum card specifically because different versions of the platinum card were treated as different products. So, if you had the vanilla platinum, which is the most basic one previously, you could apply for the Charles Schwab Platinum and get a bonus because that was treated as a different product. But that was then and they have now closed this loophole by adding this sentence to the Charles Schwab Platinum's terms and conditions. You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer. If you have or have had this card, the Platinum card, the Platinum card from American Express exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these cards. So basically, all of the platinum cards are now treated as the same product. They then went further and forced you to apply for their charge cards in order if you want to get the bonuses on each one, adding this sentence to the green cards terms and conditions, for example. You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this card, the platinum card, the platinum card from American Express exclusively for Morgan Stanley, the platinum card of American Express exclusively for Charles Schwab, the American Express gold card, or previous versions of these cards. So to get the bonus on the green, you cannot have had a platinum card of any kind or a gold card. To get the bonus on the gold, you cannot have had the platinum card of any kind, etc. So AMX has been at this for a while, tweaking the rules to make it harder for churners. But now we have two more banks tweaking their rules to make it harder to churn. The first one is Capital One. So Capital 1 added the 48-month rule to their welcome bonuses back in 2023. This means that if you had a bonus on a certain card, cancelled it, and then went on to open it again, you would not be eligible to open that card again if you had a new card member bonus on the same card in the past 48 months, which is 4 years. And it's kind of a less strict version of AMX's once in a-lifetime rule. This is the once in 48 months rule. But now, Capital 1 has gone a step further on its very popular series of cards, the venture cards. As of the end of October, they added the dreaded family language, forcing applicants to apply only in one direction. So, here is what we see on the Venture X, their top card with a $395 annual fee. Existing or previous card members are not eligible for this product if they have received a new card member bonus for this product in the past 48 months. So, that is the 48-month rule. If you had a bonus on a Venture X, you have to wait 48 months to get it again. But on the venture, their mid-tier travel card, you now have this. You are not eligible for this product if you have received a new card member bonus for the Capital 1 Venture card or the Capital 1 Venture X card in the past 48 months. So, this forces upward movement. You have to apply for the cards in order. If you had a Venture X, canceled it, and then later on applied for the Venture, you wouldn't be eligible unless it's been more than 4 years since you got the bonus on the Venture X. And then on the Venture One card, which is an even lower card in the Venture series with no annual fee, you have this. You are not eligible for this product if you have received a new card member bonus for the Capital 1 Venture 1 card, the Capital 1 Venture card, or the Capital 1 Venture X card in the past 48 months. So, you have to go in order. Get the Venture One first, get the bonus, cancel it, get the Venture, get the bonus, cancel it, and then get the Venture X. That's if you want the bonus on all of them. If you went the other way getting the venture X first, the same process would take eight years to get all the bonuses if you did it in reverse because you'd have to wait four years in between. So that is Capital One. But now Chase has brought in a similar thing. Let's go through that now. But first, I know that you are a credit card enthusiast. >> Credit card, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Card. >> You love rewards points and cash back. >> I bought credit cards only for broke people. >> No, not at all. Actually, I make thousands doing it this way as I earn points that I can exchange for free flights and cash back. >> But your bedroom perhaps looks like this because you're also spending a lot of your time investing. And perhaps you always wished that you could get more from those investments, perhaps rewards on your investing balances, like you can earn points on credit card transactions. Well, now you can. You may have heard me talk about Silo in previous videos. Silo is an investing app where you can buy US stocks, ETFs, and both corporate and government bonds. Silo is working with Interactive Brokers to bring in their first ever credit card star rewards program for brokerage accounts. You can earn up to one point per dollar up to 500,000 points per year on your portfolio balance paid out monthly. For the launch of this program, only until the end of the month, they're offering an insane 300,000 point welcome bonus for new members. Right now, these points are redeemable for cash back at a 1 cent per point rate, but Silo is currently working to bring on a suite of transfer partners. Think Hyatt Points, Delta Sky Miles, etc. This launch offer is only available until the end of the month. So, if you want to get a 300,000 point welcome bonus and earn up to 500,000 points every year, go to siloarket.com/ben or click the link below. So, Chase has now brought in some similar language on a very popular series of their small business credit cards, and that would be the ink cards, specifically the no annual fee ink cards, such as the Inc. Unlimited, which is a favorite of mine. It earns 1.5 Chase points per dollar on everything. It's one of my favorite cards to use just cuz it's so simple. Now, on this card and also the other no annual fee Chase business card, the Chase Inc. Cash, they just added this to the terms and conditions. The new card member bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card or any other Chase for Business card without an annual fee. So, if you've had either of these cards, you probably won't get the bonus on the other ever. Chase is enforcing this with a popup, which is one of those things when you apply, it pops up and it tells you that you're not eligible and you can continue the application or cancel it with no impact to your credit score. I haven't seen this pop up myself yet, but one Reddit user saw it and posted this. A quick update about your application. It looks like you're not eligible for a bonus for a Chase Inc. business cash credit card. This can happen if you currently have this card or have had it previously. Customers who are applying for a Chase business card without an annual fee or have held this card are also ineligible. So notice the way they say this can happen. So it's not set in stone that you can't get the bonus if you'd already applied, you know, and had the bonus in previously. Um, but it's one of those opaque things where Chase decides if they want to give you the bonus or not if you happen to have had the card before. Now, this is really disappointing since Chase Inc. business cards used to be the most flexible. You could have more than one of each of them. Like, if you had different businesses, you could have more than one, one for each business, and you could get the bonuses on all of them multiple times. There were really no restrictions. And some of these bonuses were pretty lucrative. Like, currently, it's $750 in cash back or 75,000 points on the ones with no annual fee. and a 100,000 points on the Inc. preferred which has a $95 annual fee. And actually, even on the preferred, they brought in more restrictive language saying the new card member bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card. So, that is basically a once- ina-lifetime rule similar to AMX. So, it looks like the time of churning Chase business credit cards or just having multiple business credit cards from Chase at the same time and getting the bonus on all of them is over. And in general, card issuers are getting more and more strict. But there are still some sweet spots. And when new cards come out, they normally exist with more relaxed restrictions for a few years until they get devalued. So there will always be opportunities to pick up great value. All right, guys. That is the video for today. Don't forget to earn up to 300,000 points as a welcome bonus and up to 500,000 points every year with Silo in the links down below. Please subscribe to the channel if you're new and we'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.