Strategy question
 

Hi,

Does the following strategy (to collect miles/points) make sense or have I missed something in my thinking?

I have good credit score (780+). I would like to benefit from it and collect miles/points. I would like to keep decent credit score, but it's not my objective to keep it very strong (no long-term plans in the US).

So, my idea was to select one "loyalty" card from each of the banks (one from Citi, one from Chase, one from BofA, one from Barclays, one from AmEx, one from CapitalOne, etc.) and apply for it over next ~3-5 months. That way I will not run the risk of being rejected for applying for too many cards with the same issuer, but can capitalize quickly from multiple banks/offers. So far, I have only applied for a loyalty card once - BA Visa Chase 100k and was approved).

Does that sound reasonable?
Thanks!

It depends on what you want, and who pulls from which bureau in your area. Amex might pull from Experian while Chase may pull from Equifax. In that case they won't see each other until 60 days.

Thank you for response.

Assuming they both check with the same agency, what's the "price" of one credit inquiry? Are we talking about my score dropping from 780 to 700 after 1 inquiry, or it's more like 20-30 down (in which case even with the same rating agency provider, I should be approved for few cards).

It's more like 5-10 points each. I wouldn't worry about it if you're already at 780. After a few months it will be like it never happened. Your score might even go up.

However, don't apply over three months. Apply all on the same day, within minutes if possible. You don't want Application A to show up when you fille Application B, and for both A and B to show up when you file Application C. If you do them at once, it will look to all of them like this is your one and only card you are applying for.

Cool, thanks a lot for advice - will do that.

My experiences is they take 3-5 points for each inquiry. I usually have all the points back in 1-2 months. Just what I've noticed.

100% Agree with the points taken away and given back.

It takes different strokes for different folks but the corporate line by credit rating agency and credit score companies is about 3-5 points per app and their impact has diminishing impact over 6 months.

You can get a Biz and Personal card from Chase and AMEX at same time.

Citi you can get two personal cards on same day.

I would wait 35 days btwn Chase Personal Apps.

Keep rotating the banks and dont be shy bout lesser utilized programs or card issuers.

Citi ThankYou Points, U.S. Bank Flexperks, AMEX Blue Cash are some examples.

Good luck with your plan and if you need any help Flyertalk is the place to be!

Thank you all for responses and advise - appreciate it a lot and will follow your suggestions.

I did a similar strategy earlier this year and saw my credit score decrease by about 30. I actually applied to refinance not long after but wasn't impacted by this. Just had to show I pay off my cards monthly which I do.

That is not my recent experience. I applied for a Citibank card on June 25, and I got notified by my credit monitoring service later that same day that I had a credit pull on Experian. In the past, I usually was notified a day after I applied for a card. But this time I got notified the same day.

Many people on this board have said that the credit agencies immediately update credit pulls on your report. If that is the case, then multiple pulls on one day will hurt your chances of being approved, not help.

So if you apply for 4 cards on one day, there is a likelihood that the fourth bank will be able to see the other 3 credit pulls done on that same day if they were all from the same credit bureau.

More people on this board are spacing out applications because of this. Just something to keep in mind.

I too have a very high 700s credit score and find each application drops my score 7-9 points but it recovers in 3-6 months