What credit cards have a referral bonus?

The Chase Freedom Flex Refer a Friend bonus is $100 cash back for each friend who applies with your link and gets approved. You can get the Freedom Flex referral bonus 5 times per calendar year, for a total of $500. To refer a friend for Chase Freedom Flex, go to chase.com/referafriend/ and enter your last name, your zip code and the last 4 digits of your card number. You’ll get a link to share with your friends through email or social media. Then, all you have to do is sit back and let the referral bonuses roll in.… read full answer

How to get the Chase Freedom Refer a Friend bonus:

1. Go to Chase’s referral page: chase.com/referafriend/.
2. Enter your last name, zip code and card number (last 4 digits).
3. Click “Continue,” then enter your friends’ names and email addresses.
4. Use the Facebook and Twitter icons to generate a referral link for social media.
5. Click “Submit.”

You can send Chase Freedom Flex Refer a Friend links to as many people as you want, but you’re limited to 25 per 24 hours. If someone applies for the card but isn’t accepted, you don’t get a bonus. But denied applications don’t count against your five yearly referrals.

Chase won’t tell you if someone used your link, or whether they were approved or denied. So you’ll have to hear it from your friends. If you know you’ve earned a bonus, you should expect to wait up to 8 weeks for the bonus cash back to post to your account.

A Citi credit card referral is an incentive program for existing Citi credit cardholders. A cardholder earns bonus points for every direct referral whose application is approved.

Known as the Refer-a-Friend program, it is offered in countries such as India and the Philippines, but is not currently available in the U.S. You can refer someone for a Citi credit card in the U.S., but Citi does not reward cardholders if the referral’s application is ultimately accepted.… read full answer

There are three major banks in the U.S. that have credit card referrals in the U.S. American Express, Chase, and Discover all have programs that follow the same basic format, but each has its own specific rewards terms and conditions and rewards. The common denominator is that bonuses are awarded in some form of cash back rewards.

To avoid credit card fraud, you should know which banks have and do not offer credit card referrals. In addition to Citi, Capital One and Bank of America are among those which do not offer such programs.

That’s because a credit card referral program often involves entering personal information such as your name and credit card number when sending referral messages. Those are done through secured landing pages that are clearly identifiable and are completely safe.

If an unsecured website requests your personal information, ignore the request. Instead, forward your referrals a copy of the link to the referral program’s secure landing page.

“Too many” credit cards could be anywhere from 2 to 5 or more, depending on the individual. Everyone should have at least 1 credit card for credit-building purposes, even if they don’t use it to make purchases. But it’s hard to say exactly how many credit cards is too many because the … read full answernumber of cards you should have differs from person to person. It depends on how well you can manage 1 credit card, then 2, and so on.

So while 3 credit cards could be too many for one person, someone else might be able to comfortably manage 6. The average adult has 4 credit cards, according to a 2019 Experian report.

If you’re not sure how many credit cards is too many for you, there are a number of factors you can think about when making your decision. In particular, consider your recent spending and payment history. If you’re having trouble paying the full statement balance by the due date on each account you already have open, think twice about applying for another credit card account.

How to determine how many credit cards is too many for you:

1. Look at your credit report and score. If you have a history of financial mistakes, such as missed payments, you probably don’t want to get more than one card until you prove yourself to be a responsible borrower. Besides, it may be hard to get more than one worthwhile cards with damaged credit, anyway.
2. Review your utilization and payment history. If you’re maxing out all the cards you have, credit card companies probably won’t want to give you more spending power. Plus, credit card debt can be very expensive, and you don’t want to rack up balances that exceed what you can repay comfortably.
3. What does the credit card company think? Some issuers have unofficial rules regarding how many credit cards is too many for an applicant to have. If you have too many cards – either overall, or with that specific card issuer – they may deny your application. There are lots of rumors floating around that Chase will deny a credit card application if you have too many credit cards, for example.
4. Determine how well you’re keeping track of your credit cards. Even if your credit is good and you’ve never forgotten to pay a bill, that doesn’t mean you never will. Having too many open accounts to keep track of can lead to forgotten due dates, interest charges from simply forgetting to pay a credit card in full, and other issues. If you have trouble listing your credit cards from memory, you’re likely to forget to pay one at some point.

There are benefits to having more than one credit card account. Having several credit cards can help you save money by allowing you to get the best collection of rates and rewards for your biggest transactions. For example, you could get a flat-rate cash back credit card for everyday expenses, a bonus rewards card for travel, and a balance transfer card to reduce the cost of existing debt. Having multiple cards can also help your credit score if you keep your utilization low and your payments on time.

What you should watch out for is applying for too many credit cards too quickly. It’s best to not apply for more than one or two per year, as each application puts a hard inquiry on your credit report and temporarily hurts your credit score.

The more data that’s at your disposal, the easier it will be to decide how many credit cards you should have. WalletHub can help with free daily credit score updates and personalized credit-improvement advice.