I'm currently a little stuck. I have multiple tanks with elite status, but I don't have enough credits to buy the next tanks in their lines. For example, the T29 costs >1.4M credits.
I know that the devs say premium tanks are good for making credits, but how true is this? Are there decent F2P tanks that are good at credit farming too?
I wouldn't be against buying a tank, but I need to make sure I will make a good investment.
Premium tanks do get a credit bonus; it's typically 130% or more of what a similar non-premium tank would get (I arrived at this number by comparing premium tank income to non-premium tanks that have a 30% or more credit bonus weekend).
The main money makers are the tier 8 premiums; a good round in one of those can clear 100,000 credits (gross; typically about 60-80,000 net, depending on ammo and repair costs) on a premium account.
You can see a great chart here that shows, over the last 30 days, the net income (after accounting for repair, reammunition, and replacement of consumables used in the match) of all tanks in the game (as if they were played on a standard account -- the chart is adjusted to account for premium bonuses etc). Premium account holders will generally double this net income due to tank costs being fixed.
If you are buying a premium tank, it's usually a good idea to buy one that shares a nationality and type with tanks you are actively working on; for you, if you're working the American heavy line, I would recommend the T34. Its playstyle will be familiar, but more importantly you can swap the M6/T29/T32/M103/T110E5 crews into the T34 and use them in that tank without retraining them in order to increase the amount of crew experience they earn.
One warning: if you have not progressed beyond tier 6 in any tank, be aware that your experience may be frustrating at first, simply because you are coming up against much more capable tanks (and much more experienced players), so it may take you a couple of hundred games in the tank to start regularly having decent matches. It may be worthwhile to buy a tier 5 or 6 premium first, use that to earn credits, and then once you have reached tier 8 "naturally", buy a tier 8 premium if you need/want to.
Another good way to earn credits is to run tier 5-6 tanks (on a standard account; premium accounts can make money at higher tiers as well), especially ones that currently have an income bonus. For these tiers I would suggest the M4 Sherman (use the 105mm with HE ammunition), the PzIV (likewise), the KV-1S (whose damage potential outweighs its ammunition costs), the Hellcat, or any other tank at tier 5 or 6 whose playstyle matches your own.
Note that tank costs are usually dominated by ammunition costs, so a tank with cheap but effective ammunition will often make more money than one that does more outright damage but has more expensive ammo.
Finally, if you are aiming to maximize credit income, do not fire premium rounds unless it may be the difference between a win and a loss (wins get 150% bonuses on XP and credits). They are very useful for maximizing experience, but will destroy your net income unless used very sparingly.
Spotting damage is also very efficient (since it costs you no ammunition), so running scouts (if you're good at them) can be very effective at bringing in credits.
Edit 9/4/2014: As of 9/12/2014, premium vehicles will receive additional bonuses. All premium vehicles will receive 1.5x normal crew XP (making them even more valuable for crew training), as well as a tier-relative bonus to all XP earned in the tank (which will stack with the crew XP bonus). Lower tier premium tanks will earn a higher percentage bonus, although this will probably not be enough to make them better on a per-game basis than higher tier (and more expensive) premium tanks (simply because higher tier tanks earn more XP on average). Prior to this update, the Churchill III (premium tier 5 Russian heavy tank) was the only premium tank in the game with an XP bonus (of 1.35) -- it will keep this additional bonus after the update, so it will still be the best crew trainer at tier 5.
Some tanks that have been mentioned are tanks I've had luck in. I find that the T29 american heavy (VII) is a good money maker and the IS russian heavy (VII) is a good money maker. With these 2 tanks I generally make a 15k - 25k profit per game. The T67 american td (tier V) is a very nice tank to use, I make again about 15k - 25k profit per game. I find that the Vk3601H german medium (VI) is a good money maker aswell, again 15k - 25k per battle.
The T14 american heavy (V) premium tank is a good and cheap purchase which I have fun in (can't remember the profit average on that).
These profits are all with a premium account rather than standard. I tend to put £10 a month onto the account and either keep the spare gold or convert xp/credits (after I buy premium for 30 days). I find letting the gold build up over time is a nice little idea incase your caught short for credits or xp (or want need a little bit extra towards a premium tank).
Good luck ;)
Kyle
My experience in World of Tanks is that most of the time when I would use the StuG III, I would get about 10k or more. It is very easy to earn money and XP with the StuG III. In about 2 or 3 days, you could get around 10k or more of XP with the StuG III.
I haven't tried any premium tanks above Tier 6, but have found that, besides being a great source of royal navy puns, the TOG II* is also a great source of credits. You'll get around 10k credits even if you pretty much do nothing.
The Dicker Max is also quite good for credits, though I find its a little less forgiving of poor rounds than the TOG.
Also, theres a couple of other German premium TDs, and another premium British heavy, so ample opportunity for powerleveling your Brit heavy/German TD crews.
As of now, I'm doing exceptionally well in the meta tier 6 strongholds preferred Cromwell. being at tier 6 with a good dpm, it can net you quite some credits. or better yet, get the cromwell B for the extra credits and crew training it can provide ;)
it serves as a good tank for you to train on effectively flanking opponents as well :D
I would say the su-100y is a pretty good money maker, I make 15k-30k credits with it per battle, with premium I even made 60k with it.
The t-150 is also a good money maker, due to low ammo costs and ~300 HP damage per shot and a nice rate of fire.
