There is a great deal of competition between credit card companies for new customers. The more fierce they compete, the better the offers we as consumers are receiving. There is no doubt that the majority, if not all, of us have received all sorts of junk mail about free gift cards, free companion tickets, free points, or even cold hard cash in forms of statement credit just by applying and getting approved for that company's credit card!

It is not a lie either! You can actually make off relatively well from all the promotional bonus. Here we are going to go over a strategy that many of us have been using over the last few years in collecting many of the bonus. We shall call it here: playing the credit card game for their perks!

Detour: Before taking part in this game, you must be certain that you are not seeking a mortgage or any big consumer loans within the next 6 to 9 months. Otherwise, a possible APR hike can cost you much more that the benefits!

Now, to fully take advantage of this, you need to prepare ahead of time. 1 to 2 weeks of preparation will net you some very nice perks.

The 4 step procedure goes as follow:

1. Get a copy of your credit report. Make sure your credit score is at least 700 or your effort is unlikely to be fruitful. You can get a copy for free with Privacy Matter 1-2-3 provide that you cancel your membership within the first week. People in their upper 700's or higher seem to benefit the most.
2. Make a list of credit cards that are offering high application bonuses. An excel file will do for that. You can check this list of current credit card application perks.
3. Pick a night, perferrably between Tuesday and Thursday, and get ready to apply for all the cards you have listed. To be effective on this, you must apply for all the cards within a couple of hours so that you will get the promotional bonus before they know what you are doing.*
4. After you receive the cards, keep them and use them sparingly - once or twice for grocery or gas will suffice. You should be able to receive the application bonus within a couple of weeks. Feel free to cancel the cards that you don't like after you have received the bonus, but not before that.

Credit card companies are not losing out by offering such application perks either. They do charge high APR's along with merchant charges everytime you use the card. What you do are doing is no different than going into a dealership for a test drive and collect the gift card to Amazon. At the end, it is little more than a marketing scheme that they are trying to get people to come in the door and test out their products.

Tip: Always be honest with your income and personal information when you fill out the applications. If you are applying for a business card, you can use your Social Security Number as your business identification and your company type as a sole-proprietorship.

Note: Your credit score will go down as a result of this large amount of applications, but it will recover over the next 6 to 9 months.

Note: Credit card companies will pull your credit when you apply for the new card. But the drop on your credit as a result of the simultaneous applications will not show immediately. That's why you must apply for the cards over the spans of a few hours. Get the approval before getting the credit score hit!

Note: The Tuesday to Thursday logic is because credit card companies seem more loose in those times. In actual words, the systems are rarely under maintenance so your application process will go through smoothly.