Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (2024)

Table of Contents

  • What is credit card churning?
  • How credit card churning can hurt your credit
  • Banking rules restricting churning
  • Is credit card churning worth the risk?
  • The bottom line
  • FAQs

Article updated on Feb 2, 2024

Though technically legal, you may want to rethink churning

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Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (1)Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (2)

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Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (3)

Holly Johnson

Contributor

Holly Johnson is a credit card expert and writer who covers rewards and loyalty programs, budgeting, and all things personal finance. In addition to writing for publications like Bankrate, CreditCards.com, Forbes Advisor and Investopedia, Johnson owns Club Thrifty and is the co-author of "Zero Down Your Debt: Reclaim Your Income and Build a Life You'll Love."

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Edited by

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (4)

Evan Zimmer

Staff Writer

Evan Zimmer has been writing about finance for years. After graduating with a journalism degree from SUNY Oswego, he wrote credit card content for Credit Card Insider (now Money Tips) before moving to ZDNET Finance to cover credit card, banking and blockchain news. He currently works with CNET Money to bring readers the most accurate and up-to-date financial information. Otherwise, you can find him reading, rock climbing, snowboarding and enjoying the outdoors.

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CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid.

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Our Experts

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (5)Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (6)

Written by

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (7)

Holly Johnson

Contributor

Holly Johnson is a credit card expert and writer who covers rewards and loyalty programs, budgeting, and all things personal finance. In addition to writing for publications like Bankrate, CreditCards.com, Forbes Advisor and Investopedia, Johnson owns Club Thrifty and is the co-author of "Zero Down Your Debt: Reclaim Your Income and Build a Life You'll Love."

See full bio

Edited by

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (8)

Evan Zimmer

Staff Writer

Evan Zimmer has been writing about finance for years. After graduating with a journalism degree from SUNY Oswego, he wrote credit card content for Credit Card Insider (now Money Tips) before moving to ZDNET Finance to cover credit card, banking and blockchain news. He currently works with CNET Money to bring readers the most accurate and up-to-date financial information. Otherwise, you can find him reading, rock climbing, snowboarding and enjoying the outdoors.

See full bio

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid.

Reviews ethics statement

Why You Can Trust CNET Money

Table of Contents

  • What is credit card churning?
  • How credit card churning can hurt your credit
  • Banking rules restricting churning
  • Is credit card churning worth the risk?
  • The bottom line
  • FAQs
Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (9)

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (10)

Written by

Holly Johnson

Contributor

Holly Johnson is a credit card expert and writer who covers rewards and loyalty programs, budgeting, and all things personal finance. In addition to writing for publications like Bankrate, CreditCards.com, Forbes Advisor and Investopedia, Johnson owns Club Thrifty and is the co-author of "Zero Down Your Debt: Reclaim Your Income and Build a Life You'll Love."

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CNET editors independently choose every product and service we cover. Though we can’t review every available financial company or offer, we strive to make comprehensive, rigorous comparisons in order to highlight the best of them. For many of these products and services, we earn a commission. The compensation we receive may impact how products and links appear on our site.

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk (2024)

FAQs

Credit Card Churning May Offer High Rewards -- But It's Also High Risk? ›

While churning can be rewarding, it also has numerous risks. The long-term impacts it could have on your credit could leave you struggling financially for years. Credit card debt is never something you want to get into, and credit card churning is a fast track toward that.

Is there a downside to credit card churning? ›

Credit card churning can be risky—although you may earn an extra welcome bonus, you are also putting your credit on the line. Your existing accounts could be closed, leaving you without access to credit. Additionally, you could forfeit your accumulated points and be denied from opening future credit cards.

What is a credit card churning? ›

Credit card churning happens when a person opens multiple credit card accounts solely to get welcome and sign-up bonuses. Credit card churning can have a serious impact on your credit score and can lead to excess credit card debt.

What makes a credit card high risk? ›

High-risk transactions refer to credit card payments associated with significant risks of chargebacks, fraud, and other potential issues, like money laundering.

What are the cons of bank churning? ›

But account churning can be risky. You could lose your bank account bonus, incur extra fees, and even lose your ability to open new bank accounts in the future. Don't let a few hundred dollars trip you up and hurt your financial reputation.

What are the disadvantages of churning? ›

Disadvantages
  • Oversimplification: Churn rate alone may be unable to capture complex customer dynamics or underlying reasons for leaving.
  • Lack of context: Without additional data, churn rate may not account for factors like seasonal fluctuations or industry-wide trends.
Aug 22, 2024

Why churning is considered bad for a customer? ›

This would mean that the business is doing something wrong, whether that be delivering a poor product, having poor customer service, or a host of other negative reasons that would explain why it is losing customers fast. A high churn rate would most likely mean a company is suffering significant losses.

What is the churning rule? ›

the churning measure prevents the tax costs of a joining entity's assets from being uplifted in certain circ*mstances where no tax is payable by a foreign resident owner when it ceases to hold membership interests in the joining entity by switching off the entry tax cost setting rules when there has been no change in ...

What is illegal churning? ›

Key Takeaways. Churning is excessive trading of assets in a client's brokerage account in order to generate commissions. Churning is illegal and unethical and is subject to severe fines and sanctions. Brokerages may charge a commission on trades or a flat percentage fee for managed accounts.

What are two examples of churning? ›

Verb The motorboats churned the water. The water churned all around us. The wheels began to slowly churn.

Which type of credit card carries the most risk? ›

Among the types of credit card, the one that carries the most risk are: Unsecured credit cards that have variable interest rate. Unsecured credit cards are a type of credit card that would not require applicants for collateral.

What is considered a high risk merchant? ›

Common high-risk industries

These businesses include travel agencies, tour operators, and airline ticketing businesses. Gambling and casinos: The gambling industry is deemed high risk because of regulatory concerns, the potential for fraud, and high chargeback rates.

Which has highest credit risk? ›

Usually, instruments with a credit rating below AA are considered to carry a higher credit risk. The fund managers of Credit Risk Funds also select securities that might get a boost in rating (as per their analysis).

Is credit card churning bad? ›

Credit card churning is when you repeatedly open credit cards to game the system and earn multiple intro bonuses. This is a risky behavior and can jeopardize your accounts and credit.

What is high risk of churning? ›

Churn risk is the likelihood that a customer will cancel their subscription. A customer that is a high churn-risk is very likely to cancel.

Is credit card churning a hobby? ›

It sounds cray cray but it's true, and there is a small but vocal community of people who do this as a hobby and earn thousands of dollars in rewards each year in the process. If you recall, I used my credit card points to fly first class a few times, and I don't regret it at all.

What are the consequences of churning? ›

Legal Consequences of Churning

Regulatory agencies are often authorized to impose fines, suspend brokers, or even bar them indefinitely if caught churning accounts. The investor can legally claim the return of excessive commissions paid and of any losses resulting from the broker's choice of stocks.

How to churn credit cards without affecting credit score? ›

Scores may go down if you apply for too many cards in a short time, rack up debt or quickly close out cards. Instead, only apply for a new card every six months, keep cards with no annual fee or look into downgrading to cards without fees.

What is the 5 24 rule? ›

The 5/24 rule is an unofficial policy that dictates that Chase won't approve you for its cards if you've opened five or more personal credit card accounts from any issuer in the last 24 months.

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