Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. Over the last few weeks, Cardless has introduced 4 new credit cards from Avianca Airlines and Qatar Airways. The credit cards have various designs, annual fees, sign up bonuses, earning categories, and card benefits. So what’s the problem? It’s been reported many times that Cardless has a “1 Card Rule” that says:
Can I select a different Cardless product?
No. It is not currently possible to move between Cardless products, nor are you able to close your account and open a new one.
I have “Cardless FOMO”, but in this case, the fear of missing out (FOMO) is not missing out on the opportunity to get one of the existing Cardless credit cards below, but rather the fear of missing out on a great future Cardless credit card that has yet to be released.
To make an analogy, let’s go back to the year 2007 when the first iPhone came out. At the time, it was the greatest mobile phone available and much better than my old Motorola RAZR. If Apple had a “1 iPhone Rule”, you wouldn’t have been able to purchase any of the newer iPhones to come out over the last 17 years (and any iPhones that may come out in future years). That sounds pretty silly, right? Why would a company restrict you from getting more of their products? But that is what Cardless is doing.
Cardless Catch 22: If we assume that each new Cardless credit card is better than the last Cardless credit card, wouldn’t you rather wait for the next Cardless credit card to be released? If each subsequent newer Cardless credit card is better than the last, there will never be an optimal time to pull the trigger and get a Cardless credit card. You will sit on the sidelines forever, like me, until Cardless changes the “1 Card Rule.”
As it stands right now, I do not plan on applying for any of the above Cardless credit cards, even though I was on the waitlists for both the Avianca Airlines and Qatar Airways cards which provide a minor 5K – 10K mile bonus. I do not want to “waste” my 1 Cardless application. If the “1 Card Rule” did not exist, I would probably apply for 1 or 2 of the currently available Cardless credit cards. Travel hackers, like myself, are probably the perfect only demographic for people who would be interested in these Cardless credit cards since 99.9% of consumers would not have the slightly clue what to do with Avianca Airlines miles or Qatar Airways Avios.
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my Cardless FOMO logic. If you have any questions about Cardless, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
I got one of the new Cardless cards (one scorned by most bloggers, but oh well…). My reasoning is that Cardless is not on my shortlist of offers who might produce a truly wonderful card, and if they do, there is a good chance they will change or relax their restrictive rule. At least I know I won’t be one who sat on the sidelines forever!
Hi Mike, I’m cautiously optimistic that Cardless will relax their policy in the coming months when they introduce more new cards, but until then, I’m gunna sit this out.
Out of curiosity, which Cardless credit card did you get and what was the main reason you wanted that card?
I’ve never flown on Qatar Air, but they and Emirates have always intrigued me. A couple of months ago, I made a Qatar booking for a Business class trip to Singapore to board a Far East cruise. Then the Qatar card was released giving Oneworld Sapphire status for a year, and according to their calculator, my existing booking will extend the status for another year even with no more flights with them. Of course I’ll have to pay the card fee for this year. I may or may not keep the card after year one. I have two other trips in mind for late 2025 and early 2026 where flying Qatar Airways is a possibility. Based on my experience with my existing reservation and doing some speculative test bookings, it looks like their prices are usually high, but occasionally reasonable prices can be found. I’ll decide whether I want to try to fly to maintain the status after I have more experience. I am a free range chicken of a flyer, not usually bound to one airline, but The OneWorld status will give me some nice benefits for flying American and Alaska which I do moderately often. And I will be able to credit those flights to Qatar if I wish, helping maintain the status. I hadn’t thought of it until writing this out, but for the benefit of access to a future Cardless card after the rules have been relaxed I might be smart to keep the Qatar card more than a year.
Hi Mike, that sounds like a pretty good plan since the Qatar Airways card will fit in nicely with your existing trips and future AA and AS flights.
I got a TAP card andhave aleady got my round trip in Bz out of it ith all the miles
So I am fine with closing and never opening another Cardless product
That’s a really good use of TAP miles. I’ve seen they have some cheap business class flights to/through LIS. How did you like the business class flight experience?
TAP business class is awful. The seats are fine I suppose, but the service is basically non-existent. If you want to be generally ignored and then made to feel like a degenerate alcoholic for ordering a second glass of wine then TAP is for you! For a late-departing eastbound transatlantic I would consider flying them again given their often attractive fares (or the 35K LifeMiles JFK-LIS anomaly) and the fact that all I’m looking for in that case is a place to lay down and try to get a bit of sleep. For a westbound flight where you actually might want to enjoy a meal and see the flight attendants more than twice, I’d suggest looking elsewhere.
Hi Mikey, thanks for sharing your experience with TAP Air business class. I agree with you on the red eye flights. I just want a comfortable flat bed, I’m not looking for much else. I think as long as you set your expectations low for service, you should be fine.
I think what happens is: your current cardless card stops working or becomes really slow – out of the blue. You call and they tell you that the chip is old and that there’s no replacement. They do send an update, but all that does is reduce the credit limit so that you have to ‘charge it up’ way more often – almost constantly! Pretty soon, the card stops working at certain places, while working as usual at others, but the list of these ‘non-updating’ entities continues to grow. A few months later, it only works in one or two places and then the only solution, they inform you, is to try to trade it in for a new one, at which point you are right back on the merry-go-round, plus you need a new card case, and of course your unused ‘card cover’ to prevent scratches – they come in packs of two remember – doesn’t quite fit the new card for some reason.
Haha, this story sounds oddly familiar :)
Found this writing interesting in regards to 1 per lifetime rule:
https://viewfromthewing.com/step-up-your-travel-game-100000-miles-and-elite-status-with-new-avianca-card/#:~:text=Cardless%20has%20had%20a%20%E2%80%98one%20card%20per%20person%E2%80%99%20policy.%20However%20they%20tell%20me%20that%20they%20plan%20to%20introduce%20the%20ability%20for%20people%20to%20have%20multiple%20Cardless%20products%20%E2%80%9Cin%20the%20coming%20months.%E2%80%9D
Good read, there is some promising news in the post:
Cardless has had a ‘one card per person’ policy. However they tell me that they plan to introduce the ability for people to have multiple Cardless products “in the coming months.”
Cardless tells me they’re implementing their own rule that is largely similar to the Chase approach. So you can only expect approvals if your number of new cards in the last 24 months is 4 or less.