Are you under 5/24 ?

This flowchart obviously won't cover every situation, and it doesn't take into consideration reaching a specific destination; the advice here aims to maximize your points and miles in general (particularly flexible points) with an eye toward travel, especially international F and J travel. But, it will not account for every increased sign-up bonus promo going on at any given time - this is a general (and subjective) guide, not absolute truth.

To be clear about my point of view, this guide treats flexible, transferable points (URs and MRs) as the most desirable currencies. (Citi TYs are also desirable, but with Citi's 24 month rule, it's hard to acquire large numbers of TY points easily, so TY points don't feature prominently in this guide.)

With the move to dynamic pricing in awards, this guide treats all airlines miles as roughly equally (un)desirable. Valuation of airline miles is personal, highly subjective, and very dependent on your individual travel goals, so you should take this list as a general guide but customize your plan based on your travel goals.

Also, this guide assumes that you have no problems meeting any minimum spends - if meeting minimum spends is an issue for you, you have additional value considerations to make that are beyond the scope of this flowchart. The guide also assumes you're fine with grabbing business cards - there's really no reason to avoid them, so this guide doesn't.

It is your responsibility to evaluate the pros/cons of any particular credit card for yourself and to plan to meet the minimum spend - you shouldn't be applying for credit cards just because some guy on the internet told you to.

Keep in mind that credit card churning is a marathon, not a sprint - it will take multiple years to grab most/all of the cards listed on this page.

It's also your responsibility to ensure you're applying for the best bonus available, especially for Amex cards.

Also, if you're in Amex pop-up jail and can't get Amex bonuses, there's not much you can do except put more spend on your existing Amex cards and hope to get out of jail sometime.

If there are terms, jargon, etc. that you don't understand, read the /r/churning wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index

And be sure to use someone's referral links where possible, to pay it forward to a member of the sub - find someone who has helped you personally, or someone who has contributed something to the sub and grab a referral link from their profile page, or grab a random referral link from churning.rankt.com!

Send any comments on or improvements to the flowchart to /u/kevlarlover - and good luck with your apps!

-/u/kevlarlover

If you are new to credit card churning: Please go read all of the resources on the /r/churning sidebar before starting to apply for cards. If churning in 2-player mode, don't add your partner as an authorized user while under 5/24!

If you are just starting out with CCs in general/have a thin credit file, you will need to build credit history before going for the bigger cards listed in this guide.

In that case, the best starter cards (in my opinion) are the Chase Freedom and Discover It - get one (or both), use them responsibly for a year to build your credit history, and then you can start with the other cards in this guide.

If you're a student and need to build credit history, the best starter cards are the Discover It Student and/or a Capital One student card. You might also be approved for a Chase Freedom, but you're almost guaranteed to be approved for Discover and Capital One student cards. (There's also a new Chase Freedom Student card, but it's definitely not as good as the Discover, and maybe not even as good as the Capital One.)

If denied, call recon. If denied again, HUCA!

For a while, Chase shutdowns were becoming more common (see http://redd.it/8qi6aa/ - the main causes appeared to be 1. applying for too many Chase cards too quickly, and 2. applying for a new Chase card if 12+/24, including non-Chase cards). However, there have been far fewer shutdowns reported recently, so it is likely safe to apply for cards faster than in the recent past - 1 new Chase card every 2-3 months, depending on offer availability and your risk tolerance. If you want to increase your card velocity while going after Chase cards, you can sprinkle in biz card apps from Amex, BoA, Citi, and the Barclay AA Biz while chasing Chase 5/24 cards, since those don't count against 5/24.

Chase biz card approvals are very YMMV at the moment - some people are now being approved with sole prop applications, while others continue to get denied - so keep that in mind when reading the below notes and when deciding whether to go for Chase biz cards right now or not.

Also, if you're going for cashback, you may want to get some Capital One cards before getting Chase personal cards, as Capital One cards can be very difficult to get once you pass 5/24.

* Though Chase used to not allow you to have more than 1 biz card at a time, many (most?) people are now reporting success, so you can decide how many additional biz card apps you want to add before you hit 5/24 (Ink Preferred, SW, United, Ink Cash, maybe Marriott, and/or Ink Unlimited).

** If you are 0 or 1/24, you may want to start with the Chase Marriott Boundless first. Getting the Chase Marriott Boundless means that you can't get the Amex Marriott cards for 24 months after receiving your last Chase Marriott card bonus, but since churning is a marathon, there are enough cards for someone who is just starting out to get to occupy 24 months of CC apps, so it may make sense to grab the Marriott card first to get your 24 month clock ticking and then move on to the other Chase cards, and then onto the non-Amex banks, so you can then get the Amex Marriott cards down the road.

The Ink Preferred (and other Chase biz cards) don't count against 5/24.

If you're focusing on cashback, note that URs can be redeemed for 1 cent each (or more, with Pay Yourself Back); SW points can be redeemed for 1 Amazon cent per mile (5/14/2020 note - this is currently not true, but I expect this option to come back eventually); and United miles can be redeemed for 0.6 Amazon cents per mile.

Be sure to respect Chase's 2/30 rule. Chase may deny you for too many apps even if you respect 2/30.

Finally - there are more advanced aspects to CC churning that are outside the scope of this flowchart, (e.g., MS, MDD, credit triple-dipping) that you must research on your own if you're interested. Start by reading a few What Card Wednesday threads.

If you are near 5/24, it might be worth waiting until you are under 5/24 again, instead of grabbing a ton of new cards immediately. It's up to you how long a wait is worth it - personally, I would definitely wait at least a few months - maybe even several, since you can grab many biz cards while waiting.

You might decide to (regularly?) check in a Chase branch for any Chase CC preapprovals - these get around the 5/24 rule (but do not appear to get around the "one Sapphire" bonus rule).

Amex sends out targeted mailers / emails / Amex offers that don't have the once-per-lifetime limitation.

The optimal time to get the SW cards is so that all bonuses post in Jan/Feb, giving you the CP for almost 2 years.

Some of the premium cards (Amex Platinum, Amex PRG, Citi Prestige, Ritz, CNB Crystal Visa, etc.) offer calendar-year airline/travel credits - if you apply at just the right time (usually late Nov.-ish / early Dec.-ish, depending), you can triple-dip the credit in your first card year before downgrading/canceling.