[benmccann]

A lot of cards have sign up bonuses. I'll sign up for a card, use it once, get 25,000 points, and close the card. This has helped my credit quite a bit too, which I've been tracking with free credit reports on creditkarma.com (and less often Quizzle). A higher number of closed account has surprisingly made a large positive effect on my credit as the Credit Karma reports suggested, which is why I opened accounts. I figure as long as I'm opening accounts to improve my credit I might as well go for the ones with good bonuses.