Knowledge Hub · Glossary
Churning
Churning is the practice of opening credit cards mainly to collect their welcome bonuses, then often closing or downgrading them later. Done in volume, it can generate huge point balances quickly. Banks watch for it and set rules to limit how often you can earn the same bonus.
What it means in practice
A churner cycles through cards, meeting each minimum spend, banking the bonus, and moving on. The reward is a large balance built faster than ordinary spending ever could. The cost is the effort of tracking many accounts, annual fees, and the risk of tripping bank rules that shut down applications.
Churning is why some sellers hold balances far bigger than their travel needs. They earned the points for the bonuses, not for a planned trip, which leaves them with currency they would rather turn into cash.
Example
Open three cards in a year, each paying 60,000 points after meeting its spend, and you collect 180,000 points from bonuses alone.
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