misterno

If I average my 3 credit scores it is over 780. Yet when I do APORAMA every 90 days, more than half of my applications are denied all the time.
So I call the reconsideration lines, this analyst on the otherside approves that I have vey high income (150K) and no bankruptcies in the past no problems at all, yet he can see several applications in the past week or so and so I have to come up with stories to convince him.

But at the end 90% of the time, they are not convinced and the application is still denied.

There used to be a way to push down the soft inquiries in credit history so that companies can not see that I applied to several credit cards. Is this over and not doable anymore?

How do we get around these problems?

isle-hawg

I have no experience with the app-o-rama's that the bloggers push. I also have yet to be turned down for a credit card since I got into this game over 10 years ago and have 14 new cards opened in the last 2 years.

I recommend you consider slowing down a 'lil since you are getting rejected often. This hobby is best played IMO as a marathon not a sprint.

coffee18

I've never done an AOR before, I just apply to whatever that suited my needs at the moment-- 1-2 cards/month. Generally, no problems getting approved unless its an app for a card I already have (i.e. US Air).

If slow and steady truly wins the race, then it doesn't mean anything to do an AOR.

isle-hawg

Agree with you coffee, and have done the same with 100% success. Despite what the bloggers post (or at least used to more frequently). My thought is people got approved for AORs despite doing them, not because they were doing them when the banks seemed to be more desperate for new customers.

I never considered doing one, because I see no good answer to the following question. Isle-Hawg, I see that you have excellent credit, but can't help wonder why are you applying for multiple cards today when you already have so many other cards open with available credit?

I would either be just gaming their card for the sign-up bonus (guilty) or a huge credit risk as someone who claims to make a good some of money (I do) and have excellent credit (ENRON ownership I presume also had both right up to the end).

In either case it seems to me that I would come off easily as an obvious unprofitable at best if not extremely costly customer.

ctbarron

If you're getting denied because the banks are unhappy with the number of recent applications, the only real solution is to take a break for a year or so.

philemer

Switch strategies for a year or two and apply for 1 card every other month (after taking 3 or 4 month break). Works for us.

garykung

Stop applying and allow your credit to be healed.

1. As I always say - excellent credit does not mean you will get approved. It simply means your chance of approval is higher.

2. You have way too much inquiries. It is a risk that no creditor will take.

For a successful AOR, you must plan ahead and apply carefully. Most people know that practicing AOR will make them credit-not-worthy for a while.

Freckles68

You need to do your research to see which report each card pulls before you apply (Capital One tends to pull three, so they're an exception). If you apply for three cards that pulled Experian, any card you apply for that also pulls Experian is going to see all those pulls. If you apply for a card that pulls Equifax, they're not going to see those Experian pulls, so they won't even know you applied for those other cards. They don't see soft inquiries (that's why they're called "soft") so that has no effect on your situation. It's the hard pulls they see, and the way around that is to not rack up multiple inquiries on the same "Big Three" report.

The average of your scores doesn't matter. Especially if you're going by free services like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, etc. All scores don't even use the same range. For instance, a 780 FICO is decent. A 780 Vantage Score... notsomuch (it goes up to 990). Except for Vantage 3.0, which goes to 850. See? Not as simple as you think! A common misconception is that you have one "credit score" and that's the one all lenders use. NO.

Every card will likely pull one report (which can differ by region...) and use the FICO score associated with that report. Some will also use an internal score that weighs certain factors in your file differently, and that formula is not public knowledge. Even the FICO you buy is not necessarily the model they will use, but it's the closest you'll get.

Get your real reports. Find out what your real FICOs are. See how many hard inquiries are on each one, and track when they're due to drop off (they stay for 2 years). Determine which of your reports presents you in the best light—highest score, longest history, lowest utilization, fewest inquiries. Then find a card that pulls that report. Google is your friend.

Freckles68

People think high credit scores mean you have excellent credit. Nope. You can have one card and have a high score (especially if you have been able to take advantage of someone else's good credit history as an authorized user--"piggybacking"), but lenders look at more than score alone. They look at history, income, utilization, inquiries...

sdsearch

Have you not heard? Among the people who know (just not the people who read "stale" blogs), APORAMA is dead.

What killed it? The arrival of the "instant" pull visibility. The whole concept of APORAMA used to be that if you applied for multiple cards from different banks on the same day, they would not see each other's pulls. That's because pulls used to take a day or so to show up.

But now, pulls from one bank are visible to another bank within minutes. And so the later applications you're doing on the same day are "dinged" for the fact that you did other applications for credit on the same day?

Why would you not expect a bank to decline you when the bank can see that you tried to apply at three or four other banks earlier that same day!???

Please stop reading "stale" blogs. Bloggers leave no-longer-valid blogs up because they make money from the "link clicks", but that doesn't mean that every blog page you find is accurate any more (if it ever was). Find unbiased sources of information, please. (A blogger who makes money on eyeballs and link clicks, regardless of content, is not "unbiased" in my book. They're biased toward "interesting" stuff, that will get eyeballs, not accurate stuff.)

NYCRuss

I got approved for 5 cards in one day in December, and then another 5 cards in June.

Most banks simply don't care about inquiries, unless it's an absurd amount. They care about new accounts, but those typically don't show up on the day of approval.

As for AoRs, I'd do one every six months, not every 90 days.

rev

Like most others said, you may want to stick to applying for only one cards every so often when the bonus is higher. It may seems like apporama is the way to go for tons of points, but I'd bet far more people do it the 'apply for one or two when the bonus is worthit' way. People who do apporamas love posting their lineup of new cards, methods/reasons for applying to them, and success/failure. It's exciting for them. I get it. But those of us who don't do that typically only mention approvals when they're pertinent to a conversation happening at the time, so apporama people take front stage and it seems like that's the best and most rewarding way to go. Keep it slow and steady...

It's good to track your score so you can manage your credit, but scores are a poor way to deem if you should be approved or not, especially with Credit Karma/Sesame.

Here's a few examples:
My friend had a score over 800 and was denied for a TYP
My girlfriend had a score under 690 and was approved for a CSP
My Karma score is 40 points HIGHER than my real FICO.

Do you keep track of your apps? Look to see in the past 6-12 months, which bank you hit least as well as which credit borough was pulled the least for your past apps - both approved and denied. For your next app a few months down the road, find a suitable card fitting that bank/borough least commonly used. In the future I would continue this strategy so no one bank or borough is being pulled too much and you may have more success; but apply less frequently than you are now to help recover your credit a bit.

livestrongforever

is this true? I didnt know banks can see the applications you already applied for. Whats the point of doing APP-O-Rama's if they can see your current pulls in real time?

Freckles68

They'll only see the pulls on the report they pulled. So if you applied for a card with Bank #1 and they pulled Experian, Bank #2 will see that pull if they also pull Experian. If Bank #2 pulls your Transunion report, however, they won't see that you applied to Bank #1. That's why it's wise to ascertain who pulls what before you go applying willy nilly. Spread out your pulls.

bobert24

That's very interesting. I hadn't heard that. When did that start? It wouldn't be the worst thing ever - I've found myself drifting away from strict AORs recently because of things like Citi's 8/65 "rule", larger bonuses (like the current Amex SPG boost), and things like that.
Same here. My couple of previously-mentioned points aside, we've been doing mostly AORs for the past couple years. Same 6-month schedule as you, and we've each gotten roughly 30 cards in that 2-year timeframe. Usually 6-7 cards in a day. That's why I'm so curious about when the instant pull visibility began.

To the OP, your solution is obvious. If you're getting denied for too many applications, apply less often. You've got to learn what your credit score/history will allow, and work within that framework. Everyone's situation is different - don't take someone else's strategy as law for yourself.