Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky & One Mile At A Time community,

First off, thanks for this awesome guide on maximizing your points collection and using them efficiently. I always thought I was pretty good at getting the most out of my credit card, but this has opened up a few more lucrative opportunities!

My question is, once you’ve already applied for, an Amex for example and taken advantage of their bonus miles, what then? You can’t cancel and re-apply to receive more bonus miles. Correct me if I’m wrong but you’ve kind of used up your Amex bonus points forever, right? I’m asking because I’m a recent graduate and got my Amex gold which gave me 25,000 points up front. Great! Although if I had waited to increase my household income, I could have taken advantage of receiving +40,000 points for a more prestige card.

All in all, should I wait a year so that my household income goes up and try and maximize my one time chance at getting bonus points from each credit card or just apply for all of them right now?

Thanks and keep up the great content!

Scott

You should take a look at historic offers for the card and try to apply when bonus offers are at or near their high levels. Once you have an established credit history you should be eligible for most of their available cards. If you get rejected you do not lose your eligibility for the sign up offer. You can get it if you apply later and get approved. Also there are data points that if the offers go up you can get the difference if you apply again but this is not worth it for most people.