• You have great credit: Every time you apply for a new credit card, your credit score decreases slightly. This is because “the amount of new credit” is a factor on your credit report that impacts your overall credit score. While this factor only constitutes 10% of your credit score, as Experian states, “opening several new credit accounts in a short period of time indicates greater credit risk.” In other words, opening new cards to chase rewards points will end up harming your credit score. Therefore, if you are going to attempt this strategy, it’s better to wait until you have great credit. Not only will this help you preserve your overall credit when you apply for new cards, but you will also have access to the best rewards cards out there. By starting your credit card maximization journey before you are ready, you may end up decreasing your future rewards potential.
• You are financially disciplined: In addition to having great credit, you should only attempt this strategy if you have financial discipline. This means you are going to pay off your credit card each and every month. You will not carry a balance and you will not pay interest charges. I can tell you right now that no rewards points are worth going into debt and paying 20% for your money. If you haven’t demonstrated financial discipline, then wait until you have before you become a credit card maximizer.
• You travel often: While there are many categories you can use rewards points on, travel is one of the most common. If you don’t travel often recreationally or for work, then getting all of these points/miles may not be as fruitful as you initially imagined. Don’t get me wrong, getting cash back on your cards is still definitely worth it. However, those who really maximize their credit card rewards potential like to travel.
• You don’t have a high income: This might be a bit controversial, but I don’t think chasing credit card rewards is worth it for people who have a high income. What is considered “high income” is debatable, but if I had to guess, if you earn over $100 an hour ($200k a year), then you shouldn’t spend much time on trying to maximize your credit card rewards. Yes, get the right cards setup, but then stop worrying about it and focus on your career instead.
  • My guess is that most high income people can make far more money through work than trying to go after another 100,000 rewards points. While it varies by program, 1 reward point is worth roughly 1 cent. This means that 100,000 points is worth $1,000 and 1 million points is worth $10,000. So even if you can somehow earn 1 million points a year, which is a lot, that’s still only $10,000. If you divide that $10,000 by all the time you spent to get those points, you may realize that your time would be better spent doing something else instead. 
  • Note that high earners will benefit from some of the premium perks offered by luxury credit cards, however, they shouldn’t spend much time getting this setup.
• You are well organized: If you want to go down the credit card reward rabbit hole, then it’s essential that you are well organized. While it’s easy to juggle a few cards, as you apply for more and more programs, it can be a lot to manage. For example, travel blogger and reward maximizer George Papadopoulos has 107 credit cards that he keeps track of across him and his family. While George is on the extreme end of the credit card rewards spectrum, he demonstrates the importance of staying organized to maximize your rewards. George recommends getting a password manager and tracking which programs you are in, when payments are due, and when you will need to cancel your cards (to avoid annual fees). I’m not an expert here, but I recommend George’s blog if you want to dig deeper on this hobby.
• You love deals/rewards: The last thing that you need to have if you want to be a credit card rewards maximizer is a love for deals and rewards. If the idea of free flights and free hotel stays is worth the annoyance of tracking, then this might be the perfect hobby for you. Travel blogger George Papadopoulos is a self-confessed addict when it comes to chasing credit card rewards/miles and so are many in the credit card reward community. If this doesn’t sound like you, then you might want to find a different hobby to chase after.

When it comes to going after credit card rewards and miles, the perks can definitely be worth it. In fact, when a Redditor ranked which side hustles worked the best, maximizing credit card rewards were in his top 3. While I don’t recommend this strategy for everyone, if you are financially disciplined, organized, not high income, have good credit, and love getting deals, then this might be right for you. 

• You need a higher credit score: If you plan on borrowing money anytime in the immediate future, you will want to keep your credit score as high as possible to get the best rate. As a result, you shouldn’t be applying for credit cards, which will decrease your score to some extent. While rewards points are nice, they aren’t as nice as a lower interest rate.
• You have high demands on your time: If you don’t have the time or energy to track payment dates, cancellation dates, and the organization of your points, then you might be better off sitting this one out until you do. While it’s easy to sign up for a few credit cards, managing them is another story altogether. Unless you have the time to do this, you may slip up, miss a payment, and end up owing interest.
  • This is what happened to me once when I thought I had setup autopay on a new card but I hadn’t. I noticed that my first payment didn’t go through on the due date and I was charged interest as a result. Thankfully, I explained the issue to the credit card company and they removed most of the interest charges and fees. This was during a time when I was quite busy in my career and I overlooked this during my signup process.
• You don’t spend much money: If you are someone who doesn’t spend a lot money, then you may make less on your credit card rewards than you think. While sign up bonuses are great, I’d estimate that over 70% of my lifetime credit card rewards have come from my actual spending. Unfortunately, if you don’t spend a lot of money, then you won’t earn much in rewards. More importantly, if you sign up for a bunch of credit cards and then don’t use them, they may end up getting shut down and taken off your credit report. This is why it’s generally recommend to charge something on each of your cards every so often so that they don’t get shut down. This allows you to increase your average account age which improves your overall credit score.
• You’re in financial trouble: Much like those who are financially undisciplined, if you’re in financial trouble, signing up for rewards programs probably isn’t what you need right now. While some of the signup bonuses can provide temporarily relief, if you end up falling further behind, a credit card will only make things worse. My philosophy is to not add risk to your financial life when things are already risky. This is especially true when it comes to credit cards.

The best way to get credit card rewards is set it and forget it. Once you’ve gotten your few signup bonuses and have a great card for your most common purchase categories (e.g. dining, travel, groceries, etc.), then you can put your rewards on autopilot. As long as you are paying off your credit card balance every month, the monthly upkeep on this strategy is quite low. All you have to do is know which card to use in which situation and then not worry about it anymore. You’ve gotten most of the benefits of credit card rewards programs with a fraction of the cost.

And that’s what I did. I downgraded to a different card and haven’t looked back. Will I sign up for more rewards cards in the future? Probably. However, for now I am trying to keep my credit score high in case I ever decide to buy a house. Until then, I will be using my set it and forget it approach to credit card rewards and focus my efforts where I can make the biggest impact. I hope you agree with me and follow suit.