/r/churning is notoriously unfriendly to newbies. They have absolute no tolerance for basic questions whose answer can be found via search. If anyone is reading this recommendation, just be a lurker there.
When I first applied for my CSR card many years ago, I was rejected by the web app. But a perusal of /r/churning led me to some powerful phone numbers where human customer service reps can override such rejections.
How much do you estimate you make off of it? It feels like the intersection of marginals gains and a high level of attention you need to pay to sniff out good deals, not hurt your credit score, remember how to balance charges across cards. I feel like it would need to be a fair amount to be worth the "time".
It is hard to say and we often debate how to value things in the churning community.
I take 3-4 transcontinental business class trips a year and heavily exploit the sweet spots of airline programs. The cash equivalent price (booked well in advance, so not just last-minute flights) of my travel is probably $30,000 a year. I just Australia on points, with lots of little stopovers in a few other countries.
Whether you value it as much as $30K is debated, as some people say you should value it at what you would otherwise have been willing to pay for the experience. You also have to factor in that award availability is limited, so it is nowhere near the same as picking dates and going. Your points and availability heavily shape where you go and when, which is fine for a curious about everything person like me, but messier for those with specific needs.
I have a colleague who does the same thing, but is lucky to get $4000 a year from a similar pile of points as he wants to use them all for his family to Hawaii for Christmas and he is just flying economy. The variably in value is tremendous.
Plenty of cards can also be churned for straight up cash. There are people pulling 5-8K in cash off of them a year.
The other advantage is that is all after tax. You don't pay tax on any of this.
> attention you need to pay to sniff out good deals
That is why you join a community like /r/churning. There are also lots of Facebook groups as well. Crowdsource the work!
> not hurt your credit score
Depends on whether you need it. Also, I found that my credit score became pretty stable after I got some 15 cards. New applications change it by 10-20 points now.
> remember how to balance charges across cards.
I personally got the hang of this rather quickly, as you just have 3-4 at any given time (the rest are "sock drawered" until it is time to cancel) and pull out the appropriate one. Some put post-it notes on what each card is good for.
As for the billing, companies send digital reminders now.
When I was really into it, between $5-10k a year depending on effort, which was largely not taxable. I figured I was making around $30 an hour post-tax, which was less than my day job paid, even after accounting for tax.
These days I understand it is probably harder to hit those numbers. When I was doing it in earnest (2014-2016, roughly), it was already regarded as "late" in the sense that issuers had started to take notice and crack down. I'd read people reminisce about the "golden days" (pre-GFC, I guess) when you could get a card with something like a 5%-for-6-months signup perk and just absolutely go to town, we're talking literal millions in manufactured spend.
