2. Signup bonuses are the only aspect of churning that is worth it to most people. If you can manage to spend $3000 on a credit card in 3 months, you can get signup bonuses that are definitely worth your time. $4000 or $5000 levels in 3 months exist as well and are better. Typical signup bonuses can be worth $500 at the $3000 level, representing a 16% discount on everything you buy.
3. You can pay your federal taxes on a credit card for a 2% surcharge, and most state taxes as well for a similar charge. This is best done as estimated quarterly taxes. Minimize your withholding at work to maximize the value of this. You can pay your utility bills ahead of time for free as well.
4. If you don't go for airline miles, the other option is cash back rewards.
5. An easy way to keep track of the cards: every time you apply for a card, take screenshots of the date and bonus criteria from the signup website. Save this in a google drive folder with the date in YYYY-MM-DD as the start of the folder name. Now you can easily track cards by date, and cancel them as needed.
Well now I hope I've made a few people a bit more savvy.
You get points you can use for vacation or travel.
If you NEED to vacation or travel, it IS simply a smart transaction. But if you weren't spending money on travel before than it can still result in increased expenditure even if managed perfectly.
All the customers who don't pay their credit card bill in full every month, yes. Do that (i.e., don't spend money you don't have) and you too can benefit.