Churning Life Podcast

October had its ups and downs. I missed an opportunity on the echo dots, but was able to get some more iPhones with a few more trips to the Apple store. I also experimented with Walmart and Target this month with some success.

In the second half of the episode, I talk about our surfing trip to Siargao, flying on Philippine Airlines for the first time!

Portland meetup reminder - 11/16 @ 4pm 

In this episode I talk about two trips I did in September in central Italy and Kauai. Both were really amazing trips! Highlights include Turkish, ITA, and Hawaiian business class, WA Rome, GH Kauai & Vacasa as always.

Important podcast update: Starting 12/1/24, most episodes will be moved from the public channels over to the Patreon. The latest episode will always remain public for at least 30 days from the publishing date. 

I bought 258 iPhones this month! While the market was not as good as I was hoping for, I still racked up a good amount of points and learned a lot about how to both buy and sell. It was quite the ride!

The meetup is going to be on 11/16 from 4-8pm at the following location:
Level Beer (level 1)
5211 NE 148th Ave
Portland OR 97230

I am collecting a small payment of $10 for non-Patreon members to cover the cost of the event space, which can be made here. If you are a Patreon member, you can let me know you're coming by checking out at that link and using promo code "PATREON". Hope to see you there!

This is the long awaited tax episode! In this episode I have a special guest Tonei Glavinic, who is a tax professional and long-time churner. We do a deep dive into taxes on reselling and manufactured spending for miles and points, discuss how various methods of earning points should be treated, and also discuss tax ethics and tax-preparer responsibility. 

To connect with Tonei, visit their website https://travelhackertaxes.com/. You can also find them in the Slack :)

This was another breakout month for me as I was able to take full advantage of the best Echo Dot sale of the year. My wife had some issues with BoA and I have been rethinking my MS strategies going forward. Good luck to everyone with iPhones this Friday!

This month was a big month for buying groups with a lot of Amazon deals for Prime Day. On the travel side I talk about a quick trip to Cabo to visit the Waldorf Astoria and my experience with Starlink internet. 

This is a beginner focused episode and is part one of a two part series: Part one is focused on the making money side of churning and part two will be more geared towards points and award travel. Topics include a rundown of the credit card issuers to start churning sign-up bonuses with, some basic methods for manufactured spending, and the types of skills that a churner should develop.

Amex:

• Can hold up to 5 credit cards at a time.
• Can hold up to 10 charge (pay over time) cards at a time.
• Maximum of 2 credit card approvals every 90 days (2/90). No restriction on charge cards.
• Only one approval per product every 90 days (1/90). Upgrades and downgrades don't count.
• Must keep a card open for 12 months to avoid clawback of the sign-up bonus.

Chase:

• You can't get approved for any credit card if you have had more than 4 personal card approvals in the last 24 months - stay at less than 5 (5/24). 
• There's no hard limit, but there tends to be a max of 3-4 ink business cards before they won't approve any more.

US Bank:

• Applications made on the same day will only have one hard pull (most of the time).
• LLCs can help scale duplicate applications.

Bank of America:

• Applications within 30 days will only have one hard pull.
• LLCs can help scale duplicate applications.

Amazon:

• Accounts need to be well-seasoned (6-12 months is ideal).
• Up to 3 accounts can make the same order with the same credit card every 7 days.
• One prime account can add one additional household member account and up to 6 teen accounts that share prime benefits (teens must still be seasoned).
• Address jig is not required, but if you don't jig then you can't get a refund for lost items.

Walmart:

• Accounts need to be somewhat seasoned.
• It helps to avoid changing payment methods prior to making large orders.
• Limits reset overnight (usually limited to two orders per day of the same product).
• Hard to get a refund for missing items.

Best Buy:

• No seasoning required.
• Once a credit card has had a canceled order, that card will no longer work.
• Limits reset every 24 hours.
• Very hard to buy apple products and streaming sticks.
• Hard to get a refund for missing items.

The 12th monthly recap episode! Echo dots went on sale again and I had success with some smaller buying groups, which made for another great month. This episode also has a mini-trip report to Colorado to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park.

A quick episode to recap our trips to LA to visit Universal Studios Hollywood and a week-long trip to Guatemala. 

This was another breakout month for me for buying groups as I was able to order over $200k worth of product, mostly from echo dots. I am very happy with the automation tools that I've set up for BGs and hoping for more deals like this in the future!