Originally Posted by
joer1212
Actually, nothing worked for me in the way it had in the past. I simply settled for less.
But doesn't
trying App-o-Ramas that just keeping failing (1 out of 7 approved) just make it harder to get approved by banks who count inquiries?
It's still working for me in that I only apply for a handful of cards a year, one at a time, and am still getting approved for almost all of them. But I only apply for "real value" bonuses, I don't bother with the typical low cashback bonus or low points bonus.
In fact, I detoured to virtually-only business cards a couple years ago (to get below 5/24 at Chase), and that worked for me, with only one bank (FNBO) not wanting to give me a business card. And while I'm getting closer now to running out of business cards that I want with good bonuses, I've reached my 1/24 goal.
So it depends how hard you were pushing that might determine how much this has changed for you in recent years. For me it's changed
a bit regarding which cards I have to do in what order, but it hasn't changed my strategy of only applying for high-value bonuses and doing all spend "organically" and of "spacing out" card applications. And so after more than dozen years, I'm still spending most of each year putting "other spend" on minimum spend requirements, only on "real" points or miles (no cash back, hardly ever even cash-back equivalent)..