The good news: the are many “best ever” opportunities to earn points from home right now.
The bad news: they probably won’t last much longer, and they’ll soon be harder to get.
Last week saw the rise of exciting rewards card bonuses, including some over 125,000 points, or even 140,000 points, just from just one card!
This isn’t a time for immediate travel, but having a bank vault full of rewards points when the world gets moving again is a brilliant move, and during a time without distraction to spend those points left and right, more people will learn how to maximize their bounty.
Plus, offers will be coming left and right and availability will be fantastic as airlines and hotels try to get people back out into the world.
First One Mile At A Time wrote these bonuses won’t last, then View From The Wing followed on with further reason why this is true. Really, it is. If you’re eyeing up these lucrative offers, some of which are at all time highs, now is the time to do so, because it may be a while until we see anything similar, and there are tangible reasons for that.
Limited Marketing Budgets
Huge card welcome bonuses are effectively marketing. They do the talking to get the card into your conversation and when uncertainty such as the present looms, marketing budgets are often among the first things cut in any business.
If you were strongly considering one of these bonuses, and only if, you may want to actually go for it, while its there. Following trends of card issuers introducing lenient policies to help customers during these times, money and resources will likely be diverted to other parts of the business.
There’s no hard sales pitch, just a heads up. It’s not to say these bonuses won’t come back around when things rebound, but since no one knows for sure when that will be, it could be a while, and the offers are simply fantastic right now, even for low annual fee cards which aren’t justified by the travel benefits alone.
Gary Leff notes a key point here as well: applications will soon face additional scrutiny. In times of recession, or even talk of the “d” word, banks typically end up writing off lots of “bad debt” and we’re about to see stricter measures introduced.
To prevent too many write offs, banks cull lofty credit limits and tighten application criteria to protect against further losses. This means many people who are in stable positions may find applications rejected for things as simple as having too much credit.
Never, ever, take out a new card if you plan to carry a balance, since it invalidates the entire point of earning “free points”, but if you’re in a stable position and are looking to boost points balances to take advantage of fantastic offers to get people traveling again, it’s a wise time to jump in.
Like most blogs, this blog is paid when people do sign up for cards, but it’s never been a primary focus of this particular site. Sometimes offers are just too good to pass up, and we try to only jump in and highlight times when it’s really worth saying “ok, maybe it’s time”.
If any of these offers were things you were seriously considering, like the 7 cards offering 100,000 points or more right now, or our top picks, give it some thought.
@ Gilbert — It is bs. There is no urgency to apply for credit cards. Banks are going to be even more in need of good customers.
Do banks need good customers? Yes. Will banks maintain extremely high marketing offers? History would say no.
@ Gilbert — Bonuses have never been higher, so history says that they go up over time with inflation, and airline inflation is closer to Zimbabwe’s rate than the USA’s rate!
@ Ryan,
In your subjective view, what does “very wealthy” mean?
Wealthy is when you can retire or lose your job without braking a sweat and continue to live a middle class or higher lifestyle with no changes to spending habits. That’s my perception. If that’s not you …. you certainly shouldn’t be getting points cards right now. But to each his own. These websites are trying to make $$ and will feed you whatever necessary to convince you now is that time to apply. Now is the worst time to apply for credit you don’t need.
@ Ryan — What does one’s wealth have to do with obtaining a credit card? I am not wealthy by your definition, but I NEVER carry a balance on a credit card, so I never pay interest and face no risk of default. What is the harm of obtaining them for the sign up bonuses if you aren’t borrowing money?
Ryan, I’m nowhere near retirement level wealthy, but I know how to behave responsibly and have already taken advantage of some of these offers.
I will earn 100,000’s of points from these offers and pay the balances in full every month. I have the funds safely set aside to meet the spending, and no one is advocating someone who can’t do that to get a card. People have expenses, cards can cover them, might as well earn huge rewards.
If I do that, I’m acquiring thousands in travel or benefits for little or nothing. I don’t see what the problem is, though I know you have a fundamental hate of a blogger ever making a living.
Ryan your comment “ Now is the worst time to apply for credit you don’t need” makes no sense at all and no I am not a blogger. If you apply for new cards with high SUB, meet the SUB requirement and are not carrying a balance than you are being a smart consumer!
Absolute BS. How stupid can you be to worry about stockpiling points right now. They could be useless in a few months. Absolutely terrible advice to get new credit cards. Anyone who reads your article can do as they please but no financial advisor on earth would tell someone to go get new points credit cards right now. I haven’t used a points card since this started. Anything that gives me cash back is all I care about. Savor card is the real winner for all that food ordering on the road. As an airline pilot I can’t really bring enough food for 4 days and everything’s closed out there. People need to think how can I get CASH in my pocket or how do I avoid paying annual fees. No one should be thinking. How can I get more airline / hotel points.