Best thing is credit card rewards are not taxed because they are considered a rebate, which is quite amazing especially in a high tax state like CA!
Well, sort of. Enough bad publicity and public shaming has some impact on corporate bad behavior.
> it makes no sense to "protest" by using cash
I agree — I never suggested that.
I also churn. After an initial investment of learning the concepts, I spend very little time. I can go onto a major issuer's site and spot a good deal in minutes. I have a small text file where I note offers I see on Reddit that may be of future note.
I don't recall how long it took to "learn churning" but it was small chunks spread out over a long period.
I periodically take breaks when coding to rest my brain. I'm taking one right now in fact :)
So I'd argue the time cost was zero/near zero since I wasn't going to be "productive" during those breaks anyways.
Then again, I'm not an extremeist - I mostly keep an eye out for destinations I'd like to vacation to, what airlines service them, then sign up with a card that can get me points to pay for that flight.
In the end, I'd estimate I save 1-2k on airfare per year plus some spare change in cashback. (Credit card rewards are treated as discounts and thus not taxable income, so getting tax free airfare then putting the money into an IRA or 401K is +EV).
I don't let myself get wrapped up in getting an extra percent back on my tacos or something though - in fact through analysis I've found that keeping entertainment money as cash reduces spending to a point it's better to use cash than use a CC and get rewards for spending at bars, restaurants, and the like.
The reason is because on the legacy airlines, international business class seats usually cost 4+ times more than the economy class seat on the same flight but you can redeem just 2-3 times more miles for a business class seat rather than a economy class seat.
One of the issues with this hobby is that the reward redemption flights are typically not as good as the non-redemption flights (i.e. you might have a layover as opposed to a direct flight).
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For instance, the United/Lufthansa/Swiss alliance has flights from NYC to Paris departing May 27 and returning June 5.
Economy seats are ~$650 or (60k United miles + $105). For economy, those miles would have a valuation of ~$0.0091/mile (($650 - $105) / 60k miles). Chase somewhat regularly offers signup bonuses on their United credit cards of 70k United miles if you spend $3k within 3 months (you are charged a $95 annual fee in this case). So the ROI is ~$450 ($650 - $105 - $95) in exchange for spending $3k on that new credit card.
Business seats are ~$2900 or (140k United miles + $161). For business, those miles would have a valuation of ~$0.0196/mile (($2900 - $161) / 140k miles). The same Chase offer as before applies. But you have to open the card, meet the spending requirement, get the bonus, close the account, and reopen the account and repeat once more. The ROI in this case would be ~$2549 ($2900 - $161 - $95 - $95) if you spend $6k on those two new credit cards.
In either case, it shouldn't take you more than a ~10 hours of active work to get those kinds of returns. You do need to occasionally check the banks' websites to see if they're offering any special deals, occasionally check the airlines to see if there's any favorable redemptions available, etc. In the case of economy, the ROI is ~$45/hr. For business it's ~$255/hr.
Edit: Also, I consider it a hobby. It's fun to try to beat the system. And the reward for "beating it" is incredible experiences (i.e. Singapore Suites) that would be far out of reach if I didn't play. Would you ask the same question of someone who cooks or plays video games what their ROI is?
(IME, CC bonuses are less time intensive than checking/saving bonuses. You just sign up for a new card off one of the blogs that tracks current offers as soon as your min-spend is met on the last one, and put your ordinary spending on the new card.)
If you spend $250,000 a year on credit card purchases and get 4% back on everything you've cashed in on $10,000 bonuses, but you had to spend $250,000 to get that.
It sounds like one of those conversations where it's like "yeah, just buy a car because you can write it off on your business account", so while you do get a discount on your taxes, you still had to pay for the car which is a net negative on how much $ you have in your pocket at the end vs not buying the car and paying more taxes.
Also I'm not sure about "higher prices", in my town there's two convenience stores across from each other, one with CC fee and one with no fee, same prices otherwise, so I just go to the no fee one. Maybe it gets worked in somewhere but it's not as fair/efficient as it could be.