I’m a week late for my next scheduled credit card applications. Why? No new offers.I’ve looked at my scores: excellent. Credit inquiries: Yeah, a few too many, but I’m not finding anything I’m interested in.I have had over 95 open accounts according to my Experian report. Many of them are closed now, but I’m still looking for new products to try out. I can’t go back to:

• Citi with the Thank You points cards: I’ve had them all.
• Amex: had them all.
• Chase: had them all.
• Bank of America: Sure, I can try for the Alaska card again, but the offer is too low, or the Hawaiian Airlines cards. There is a Virgin Atlantic or Virgin America card with a decent offer, but I’ll never fly them and I’m not familiar with the transfer options.

There is the Mercedes Benz card from American Express with a 50,000 point offer. I’d like a Mercedes , but won’t pay for it. The sign-up bonus sounds intriguing. I just bought my $200 annual airline expense in the form of AA gift cards on my Platinum card and I’m awaiting my reimbursement. The card renews in February so maybe it is time to try the MB card and not renew the Platinum card. It is a big fee, but 50,000 points, lounge access, and another $200 airline credit makes it worthwhile.


So what to do for a veteran card applicant? Should I back down to lower offers, like a Wyndham card or Airtran card? Maybe a Best Western card? I’m not going to. I value my credit too much to do that. What do I expect in the near future? I think the Chase Sapphire℠ Preferred Card will be around until the end of March (just a guess) and then a lower offer will come out for that card. I’m hoping that a new corresponding Chase Sapphire Business card is in the pipeline. I have no evidence, but it makes sense to me.

I just cancelled my Continental One Pass Plus card as the annual fee came due this week. There was not much sense in renewing even with a good retention offer. I’ve got the United Explorer card and expect the merger to happen soon. They did agree to move $4500 of my credit line over to the Explorer card of the $10,000 limit. I’m keeping those credit limits as high as I can in the event that I need some of that credit to renegotiate in the future.


What should newer card applicants do? Look for offers that fit your award needs. I list all the lower minimum spend cards on the credit card tab at the top of the blog. The higher sign-up bonus cards with higher minimum spends are in the right-hand column blog column and listed below:.

Chase Sapphire℠ Preferred Card,
The New Ink Bold® Charge Card,
Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express,
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN,
The Platinum Card® from American Express,
Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express

and don’t forget there is a link out there for a 50,000 point sign up for the Citi Thank You Premier card. (Also the Mercedes Benz card I mentioned above) Also don’t forget to log into your United Airlines account and search for a bigger than 40,000 point sign up bonuson the United Explorer card. You need miles in your UA account to see the bigger offer.

If you are not familiar with business cards read the blog post archived on August 13, 2008.. Until we start to see a new round of cards, we all need to scrounge a bit. There are new offers coming. I just don’t have all the details and could not discuss them if I had them until they are made public. I can only hint remember

And if you need a suggestion or two, send me an email at rick@frugaltravelguy.com.