Underpants Gnomes Not Required

Step 1: Have good credit and $yyy money to spend.

Step 2: Get credit card offer from Company A offering free miles for signing up after spending a certain amount less than $yyy.

Step 3: Apply for and be granted free miles card.

Step 4: Buy Stuff(tm) work $yyy you were planning on buying anyway via the card.

Step 5: Pay off card prior to billing cycle.

Step 6: Collect miles.

Step 7: Let card sit on shelf for 12 months, then cancel card.

Step 8: Get new credit card offer from Company B offering free miles...


... You know, even as I'm taking advantage of the system, I know it's skewed horribly: those who have continue to receive with little effort, and those who have not struggle to get a chance. This is a pretty simple example; some might argue that something like "airline miles" is a trivial form of privilege. But my execution of this plan over the next few weeks is going to net me about 50k miles - that's enough for a round-trip flight pretty much anywhere in the US essentially for free. That means that I won't have to spend money to fly, which I can use towards other things (including more of this kind of activity).

(For the record, I'm modifying Step 7 a little: I'm actually going to use the card instead of my debit that gets me miles on the same program, since for 18 months I'll get double miles via the card and I can have it auto-pay from my checking account, thus avoiding any balance fees. Which just means even more miles.)

My parents have been doing this kind of thing for years; it's always felt a little weird to me, so this is the first time I'm doing it. However, the convergence of a few things - the offer at the same time that I'm about to spend exactly the amount they want - makes it too convenient to pass up. Plus, I trust myself a lot more with credit now that I did even two years ago.

Now I just feel weird because I'm exploiting privilege.