Churn credit cards = constantly open and close new credit cards for the sign up bonuses but in a careful way that doesn't crash your credit score
So I've met quite a few people in tech who do this and they're literally all hardcore neoliberals. They hate any type of welfare for new immigrants, refugees, and the unemployed. They despise unions and think it's for lazy people. They worship companies and have snitched on coworkers to HR for doing stuff like stealing office supplies and abusing employee benefits
I'm wondering if all credit card hobbyists are like this or just the ones in tech because theoretically, there's nothing about having good personal finance that inherently makes you have shitty politics. I guess I can see how people who do this think poor people are poor because they don't do all this neurotic credit card min maxing shit?
like getting the credit card companies to give you free shit is good but it requires too much micromanagement to be something other than a hobby for the idle rich, when we're talking about the extremes.
It's technically not even free. The average point back is 1-2% for no annual fee cards but merchants are charged 3.25% for credit card transactions. Of course, this means that the extra 3.25% is passed onto the consumer, leaving the average credit card holder with a negative return
The only ones it benefits are the ones averaging 5% back with expensive annual fee cards. Another thing that's transferring wealth from the poor to wealthy, although in this case it's a natural consequence of the free market rather than purposeful exploitation
no, that fee is almost everywhere baked into prices and part of the contracts vendors sign actually forbids them from giving discounts for paying cash. the point of churning isn't about that anyway. it's about snagging high sign up bonuses because they can net you 10-20% on the money you spend to meet the reqs. once you've met the requirements and gotten the bonus, the card gets sock drawered, and eventually canceled before you pay any extra fees. you can make a decent chunk on money you were gonna spend anyway.
so cc companies put sign bonuses on cards expecting people to use the cards for awhile after they have them. this is basically trashing your credit score for 2 years (cause you opened a bunch of cards) to make some money. it's not enough to live on or anything but some people get a kick out of it, I guess? like they're screwing the credit card companies if they do everything perfectly and getting screwed by the credit card companies if they slip up even slightly. like paying any fee for late payment or worse taking an interest charge is going to eat away at the profit real fucking fast.
like they're screwing the credit card companies if they do everything perfectly and getting screwed by the credit card companies if they slip up even slightly. like paying any fee for late payment or worse taking an interest charge is going to eat away at the profit real fucking fast.
I mean that's exactly what I thought would be the case so I don't understand why you would bother. This seems like a lot of effort for very marginal returns.
I do not understand why people find screwing around with numbers on spreadsheets this enthralling.
there's a pleasure in working out how something operates mechanically and twisting its behavior to make it do something it's not supposed to. or that's my guess from experiencing something similar in games.
I think the mentality of "look how easy it is to game the system and make money" goes hand in hand with "the reason you're poor is because you don't work hard enough". It kinda makes sense that credit enthusiasts would be hardcore neoliberals or conservatives.
And a lot of "good personal finances" is about making passive income - which is inherently against the core values of many leftist.
I saw this posts an immediately ranted about credit scores without even addressing the topic lol.
I just can't imagine it being worth my time and mental energy. I don't know anyone well IRL who actually does this but it definitely is perfect for a slightly obsessive neoliberal subject who thinks they can game the system (and usually have a safety net/won't be totally fucked if it doesn't work and they mess up their credit/go into debt). People who think they are smarter than everyone else do tend to be dicks...
People who think they are smarter than everyone else do tend to be dicks...
The source of left wing in-fighting
Actually I think everyone else is dumber than me, massive difference
I fucking hate credit scores. I had no credit a couple years ago but was looking to buy a house. Literally impossible. So I had to do this "credit score hussle" short term. Open a bunch of cards, use a certain amount of each of them, pay em back each month. Get cards with bigger credit limits, rinse and repeat.
Now that I got the house, I dont give a shit about it. I have one card that gives me cash back and I use that for everything.
When learning about this, there its a rabbit hole of information and so many people seem legit enthusiastic about teaching it. Its fucked. Maybe one or two people I got advice from told me it was bullshit up front.
It seems like a very precarious way to live and stresses me out just thinking about it
I don't churn churn, but I have credit cards for different things, like one that gives 6% back on groceries and 5% back on streaming. I will open new cards when like I am booking a hotel and can get a big credit.
Sounds like couponing for tech shitheads then? So like with couponing, it's not a problem unless you're making it some poor customer service worker's problem by meandering through their line with a fat stack and acting like an aggressive dickhead because you couldn't be bothered to get the exact item on the 48th fucking coupon. Idk what the equivalent behavior would be in this metaphor, yelling at some poor fucker on the phone because you only got 3% cashback instead of 5% because Huel isn't a restaurant?
Taking money away from credit card companies is good. Racking up sign up bonuses is free money as long as you're careful about tracking your spending and have a good enough
socialFICO credit score to keep getting new cards.That is the most terrifying thing I've heard of today
I've had two credit cards since college and that is enough for me
I hate the idea of credit cards and they give me anxiety. I should probably start looking into them just in case I need high social credit for something though....
I'd rather max out a credit card and evade collections until they're willing to settle for a quarter of what I owe.
