What Is Credit Card Churning?

Enough bonus miles to make booking that latest vacation less expensive, thousands of points to offset your new purchase, or just straight-up cash back. Credit card companies often offer big bonuses to get people to sign up for their cards, and most responsible people would respond, “Thanks, but I have enough credit cards already.” Credit card churners, meanwhile, would ask, “How many accounts are too many to open this year?”

Credit card churning is a practice in which people open multiple credit cards to earn lucrative welcome bonuses, then cancel or downgrade the cards before annual fees come due. While this can yield hundreds or even thousands of dollars in rewards, it carries significant risks for most people, including potential credit score damage, denied applications, and even account closures.

What Is Credit Card Churning?

Credit card churning is when an individual opens multiple new credit cards to earn lucrative sign-up bonuses, such as cash rewards, travel points, or airline miles. Unlike ordinary rewards card use, where the goal is to build credit and benefit from ongoing perks, churning depends on constantly opening and closing accounts to maximize sign-up bonuses and offset travel costs or earn cash-equivalent rewards.

Once a churner meets the minimum-spending requirement for a credit card account, the individual would close or downgrade it before annual fees come due. For example, a typical churner might open a travel card offering 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in three months, use the rewards for flights, then cancel the card before paying the annual fee.

It’s unknown how many people are engaging in credit card churning, but many are interested in it. There’s a community on Reddit dedicated to churning, where tens of thousands of users visit every week to learn the best strategies on timing new credit card applications and maximizing rewards.

How Credit Card Churning Works

Credit card churning typically follows this pattern:

1. An individual finds cards with large sign-up bonuses and applies.
2. They spend enough on that card within the required time frame to earn the bonus.
3. The churner redeems the points, miles, or cash back.
4. They then cancel or downgrade the card before the annual fee posts.

Some churners apply for four or more cards per year to maximize rewards, which is a pattern most issuers flag as risky or excessive. For example, Chase has an unwritten 5/24 rule that denies new personal credit cards to anyone who has opened five or more credit cards with any issuer in the past 24 months. 

Other card issuers have restrictions on how often applicants can receive bonuses on the same card. American Express is strict, enforcing a one bonus per individual card policy. Most other issuers can limit sign-on bonuses to once every 24 or 48 months.

Risks and Downsides of Churning

While the potential for high-value rewards is tempting, these two downsides of churning are significant, especially for the typical person who doesn’t have the time or discipline to manage multiple accounts:

1. Credit score damage: Each new credit card application triggers a hard inquiry, which can temporarily lower your credit score by several points. Opening multiple accounts in a short amount of time can reduce the average age of your credit history, which also impacts your credit score. Closing accounts soon after opening them can also raise your credit utilization ratio if it reduces total available credit, further lowering your score.

2. Bigger potential for missed payments: Managing several cards means juggling multiple due dates, bonus deadlines, and spending thresholds. Missing one due date can trigger interest charges and late fees that wipe out any earned rewards. Churners may also overspend just to meet minimums, leading to a higher risk of late payments.

Who Should Avoid This Strategy?

For most people, credit card churning is not worth the potential downsides. You should especially avoid the practice if:

• You plan to apply for a mortgage, auto loan, or personal loan soon. The hard inquiries and lower average account age could affect your approval odds and interest rate, as lenders may believe you lack the equity to pay off the loan.
• You have an average or below-average credit score, since issuers generally reserve premium cards for those with strong credit.
• You tend to stretch your budget thin or go into debt when spending with credit cards. Churners often have to spend more than they otherwise would just to qualify for bonuses.
• You don’t have time to track multiple statements and deadlines. Remember, a single missed payment could erase the value of your bonuses.

Safer Alternatives To Churning

If you’re looking to earn rewards but don’t want to risk your credit health, there are safer, more sustainable approaches than churning:

• Stick with one or two strong cards. A long-term relationship with a travel or cash-back card yields consistent value and helps build credit. A low-maintenance approach is to use one flat-rate cash-back card for most purchases and a second card that earns higher rewards in common categories such as groceries or gas.
• Adopt a one-new-card-per-year rule. This lets you occasionally take advantage of new offers while maintaining a stable credit profile.
• Leverage built-in perks. Many premium cards include travel insurance or TSA PreCheck credit. Leverage these perks along with category bonuses fully rather than chasing sign-up bonuses.

The Bottom Line

Credit card churning can be profitable for a small group of disciplined users, but for most people, it’s risky and unsustainable. Churning can harm your credit, lead to new card denials, and even account shutdowns. A focused, long-term rewards strategy using one or two well-chosen cards is a safer and more sustainable way to earn perks while maintaining a healthy credit profile.