Churn, churn, churn

That may be an interesting article but I won't click through a link with no idea of what I will find when I get there.

A little context please?

You are right Nigel about not clicking on a link with no context. But, we can tell this person has posted 34 times, so probably not spam and a virus. The title is from Bloomberg and is about getting and canceling credit cards, churn, for points and miles. We can also see there's a warning as the word risky is in the title. Enough to click or interested?

I have seen people on other travel forums boast openly of how many miles they have earned by repeatedly signing up for and then canceling credit cards---before the annual fee is due. Some airlines are notoriously lenient about this, allowing one to sign up, get the signing bonus ( maybe 25-35k) miles, cancel, and then immediately sign up for another. Ad infinitum. One can suggest to these people that they are damaging their credit rating, but they do not seem to care. Maybe they have so much money they do not need to think about mortgages or car loans.

I thought it was going to be an article on making butter. :-/

And it's got me humming a Byrds song that I can't get out of my head now!

Now you got me doing it too!!

Just applying for cards is not enough to damage your credit rating - it is highly dependent on your overall circumstances and credit profile. Other variables like length of credit history, history of payments, and line of credit relative to debt have more to do with damaging your credit (you do need some baseline score to even rent an apartment but I don't think the bar is too high). Most people only buy a house and car (very) infrequently so there's no need to be constantly worried about credit ratings except before one of those major purchases. I'm not a churner but I have leveraged credit cards without any major risk to my credit. People who are able to qualify for the best terms (like 0% APR for 15 months), by definition, already have excellent credit and can take small hits to it, if necessary. Folks that play the credit cards games usually can afford to pay off all their bills when due, but they're taking advantage of every possible float to leverage their money.

Some people's credit is so good this has ZERO effect on it.

I have been doing this strategy for years, could not travel the with the frequency and in the past several years flying business class on long haul flights without the bonus miles.
I do some research on which cards benefit me on the airlines I fly. Never had a application declined and see absolutely no effect on my credit rating,on the contrary, my credit rating is higher now than 10 years ago when I started this strategy.
Latest great discovery is that British airlines allows family members to generate a family account, which means that I can cycle through the 50,000 miles offers every 18 months to 24 months depending on specific offers. Currently have 100,00 miles in the BA account and waiting for the next 50,000 for my husband's card.
I follow all the rules for both credit card and airlines, but will very rarely keep a card through the annual fee. This is a legitimate use of credit cards and airline offers.

Yes it's legit to do this, they make up the rules so if they allow it, it's legit. If you have good credit this won't hurt you.

One day the issuers will wake up and say we no longer want to do this. But until then, if you can do and want to do it, do it. It's like a store with a generous return policy - it's their policy, no one forced them to adopt it, and with reasonable notice they can dump it.

The Byrds? You are dating youselves. Far out, man.