misleadmatt

Just to clarify one part of the OP's question... Can you apply for 2 totally different Citi personal cards using the two browser trick?

sdsearch

It's the total inquiries (aka hard pulls) in the past N months on whichever credit report they happen to check, checked again number X. It's not the total inquiries across all the credit bureaus over all time.

So for example, some people, years ago during the Citi AA 2-every-2-months craze, were getting hit with stuff like "you application is denied because of more than 7 inquiries in the past 6 months" (whether it said that or just said "too many" and then people looked at their credit reporrs and figured out the number, I don't remember). But 7 and 6 are no necessarily constants, which is why I said X and N instead.

I'm sure there are threads aplenty in this forum about applying for credit cards in general. You should find those and read those. This issue exists for all card issuers (not just Citi), and for all card types (not just rewards cards), but the numbers X and N can be different for you at each bank (plus at the same bank from, say, one year to another).

sdsearch

You can. But the only purpose that can achieve (over applying for them serially in the same browser) is to try to consolidate them into one "pull". However, that doesn't always work, because Citi may pull for one type of card from one bureau and for another type of card for another bureau, even if the apps are submitted "as simultaneously as possible". The "more" different they are, the more likely this is to happen. (We just had a documented case of that in one of these threads this week.)

So if you're not doing a lot of other cards apps (and thus trying to keep your pulls to a minimum), it seems unnecessary.

centrifuge41

Random data point. Not sure if it's valuable.
I've pulled up two laptops side by side, applying for V/Amex versions of the AAdvantage. I fill out both forms in just the same way. Hit "submit" on one, and wait for the spinny red circle to stop thinking, then hit "submit" on the other. Both provided me with reference number, phone to call, and card customization. So both are (likely) approved.

Friend does the same thing. He did one thing differently: he hit "submit" on one form on one computer, then submitted the second one before the first one finished hard pulling.

He gets the reference number and phone number for the first card (later approved via phone) but the second card is rejected outright.

Is there a correlation? Is it best to actually spread out the hard pulls by a minute or two, rather than having them run simultaneously?

sdsearch

What was the stated reason for the rejection on the second card?

centrifuge41

Two many lines of credit with both Chase and with other issuers (A couple of new Chase cards in the last few months etc).

ss

I don't doubt that using two browsers works fine, or that there are people
who've actually had difficulty when not using two. But FTers were routinely
applying for multiple Citi cards (at one sitting) long before "two-browser trick"
entered our lexicon.

Take this as a data point. When I apply for two Citi cards -- and
I've done it many times over many years -- I do it in one Firefox
browser. I apply for the first card, and when I'm done, I apply for
the second card. At my leisure: no rush. No clearing the cache.
No closing the browser. No Internet Explorer. No back-flips.

It's always gone smoothly for me.

sdsearch

Again, the two-broswer-type trick is not always necessary. That's well known. But it's the simplest way to avoid prolbems for everyone.

It may depend on your browser type and version and settings whether you'll have problems or not. It may depend on the specific URLs for the two card apps. It may depend on the time of day (we don't know yet how often or when the Citi system updates its cache that causes two "not simultaneous enough" card apps to fail the second one for "you already have a Citi AA card"; it's likely a schedule which would imply that you can wait longer at one of time of day but have to do it quicker at another time of day, but beyond that we dont' know specifics).

Besides, the original goal was not to have it "go smmothly". The original goal was to combine two credit card "pulls" ("hard" inquiries on your credit report) into onel. Have you checked (or do you even care) whether your "slow and steady" one-browser approach achieved that?

sdsearch

Well, there you have it. There is no correlation obviously. Obviously, your friend got rejected because of a reason totally unrelated to how fast they applied. There are various reasons they might have approved one and rejected the other, but among them might be that Citi has slightly different requirements for the Amex card vs the Visa card (having to do with its creidt department, having nothing to do with AA).

Again, the credit department check of "have you applied for a Citi card of any kind lately" is done instanteously. By the time your friend submitted the second app, it was a count of "one" higher than for the first app. That was presumably enough to push them over the edge (if different requirements for the Amex vs the Visa aren't the explanation).

Heavy churners / app-o-rama-iters face different dilemmas than people who've been "lying low" for a while, and are just interested in AA miles specifically. (There's not that many other sources of AA miles, so someone interested in only AA miles specifically has probably not done oodles of Chase apps lately, right?)

So what you've done before you did the two browser type trick is way more signficant (if a reason for rejection is not "because you already have a Citi AA card"), for at least 6 months before, than the specifics of how you applied for the Citi cards two at a time.

The only things the two browser type trick help to prevent are: (1) two separate pulls, and (2) one card being rejected because "you already have a Citi AA card", and the "other" Citi AA card they're talking about is the other one you just applied for. No other causes of rejection have anything do with whether you used the two browser type trick or used it correctly.

ss

Yes. I care, I always check, and I've always had a single pull.

The two-browser trick is the right way to do things if you want to submit two applications within seconds of one another. But I've followed the relevant FT threads very closely, and I'm unconvinced that either:

• submitting the two applications 10 minutes apart, say, has any downside, or
  
• citi's web site has a bug such that the session cookies from a completed application "live on" and interfere with the session cookies from a subsequent application

But I can't prove that this is so, and I heartily agree that the two-browser trick is as safe a method as any that's been proposed. So go ahead and use it. No harm done, and maybe my own experience is atypical in some way. I'll keep using myself as a guinea pig, and I'll report any failures. More data points -- always a good thing.

thehawk75

The term 'two browser trick' should never have entered into the FT lexicon. It's always lead to confusion of what it is, I see that misleadmatt above seems to be yet another victim. Unfortunate that it wasn't called something else like 'two browser fix' instead. 'Trick' implies you're tricking Citi, which is not what it's for. It's merely to prevent this reported caching issue (that most like myself, and you) have never experienced where Citi thinks you submitted the 'exact' same application twice. Exact as in, an application with the exact same reference number. Thus just one application despite the fact you thought you submitted two.

And, for clarification, you don't need to use two-browsers to have your credit inquiries merged into one as some (not you) have stated. If each application hits the same bureau on the same day, and the inquiry is done by the same entity (and this must be exactly the same; same name, same address, same phone number), then the bureau will merge them. It has nothing to do with using two browsers to 'trick' Citi into running only 1 inquiry.

The 'two browser fix' has merely been a 'best practices' approach to submitting two applications for credit for the same issuer in the event that their program developers didn't properly program the site to flush the cache after a first application was properly submitted.

tim2977

Today I applied for a citi AA visa and amex card, using the 2 browser method (chrome and ie). I double checked to make sure that the amex was in chrome and visa in ie. I was approved for both (with the exact same credit limit for each-two different broswer screens indicating the approval and the applications were submitted withing a second of each other). I did happen to notice that upon aplication completion there was a picture of the AA amex card for both windows, but remember the small differences between the 2 applications when filling them out. I thought that was odd. I called customer service to see if they could see my application/aaprovals. The cust service rep told me she could and that I had 2 (seperate) amex citi cards coming to me. I thought this might be due to a mistake I made and reapplied for the visa in chrome. I couldn't apply, because an error message popped us stating I had just applied. So my question is, if I really am getting to citi AA amex cards, will I still get both signup bonuses? Is this some weird event that Citi will correct and end up merging them. I appreciate any insight or advice you guys have on this.

MDtR-Chicago

Here are three insights:

#1: You're new here so you probably don't know that there is a gigantic, active thread in the MilesBuzz! forum about the AA cards, which is where your question really belongs.

#2: Never give a CSR an opportunity to "fix" something that isn't broken. I.e. never call. There wasn't really anything you could change at that point, anyway.

#3: It will almost certainly all work out just fine.

tim2977

Thanks. I'll check out the other thread. Agree with point 2, although only called to confirm my suspicion about 2 amex applications.

centrifuge41

Shouldn't have called. With Citi, if you are getting the plastic (and complete your spend), you will get the bonus. You will be ok. Plus, with two AAdvantage Amexes, think about how much more exciting next year's small business saturday will be!