Hey guys, I'm looking to get another CC, not because I need more money at my disposal, but because I want the sign up bonus. I'm looking for something that has no/low spending requirements. I am not looking to keep this card, only to get the sign up bonus and then cancel it in 11 months.

My recent application history:

Late April - Amex BCE approved
Early May - Penfed Cash Rewards approved / Chase Freedom CLI
Early June - Chase Sapphire approved / Barclays US Airways approved
Late July - Barclays Black denied (I know, I know), called for recon twice, denied / Citi Thank You Premier denied, did not write snail mail for recon

My score is in the mid/high 700's.

I'm hoping to use my 30K+ Dividend Miles to travel to Vegas in October, so I'll need some points for hotels. Airline miles will also be useful as I plan to travel to Orlando as well some time this year or early next year.

As of churning, I don't want to risk getting blacklisted by Chase, because I bank with them and use my CSP and Freedom heavily (but with low % utilization). Same goes for Amex, I don't want to risk getting blacklisted because I love the protection they offer on big purchases. But it seems as if people have had lots of success churning the SPG? I would be interested in that, potentially.

Any recommendations on what I can do?

In general I would not advise using points for hotels. Compared to the points required, Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" function will give you much better value.

This is doubly true in Vegas. Most of the casino hotels are not affiliated with the big chains that have loyalty programs, and Priceline does give you pretty good value in Vegas.

One warning about Priceline and Vegas is resort fees. Too complicated a subject to go into here, but in general, when you bid for a casino hotel on Priceline, expect to pay an extra $10-$20 a day when you get there. Unfair, a rip-off, but at the moment still legal.

I would not worry about being "blacklisted." It's probably good to spread your business around different financial firms though.

I would go for two Citi cards (use the two-browser trick and make sure you find a 50K signup link if they are still available), United Mileage Plus Explorer, and an Amex card. You might want to wait until the next promotion where they have a 75K signup bonuses for the Amex Gold Biz card. They just had one last week, but they seem to come along about every two months.

I'm hesitant to do business with Citi again because they already denied me one application due to "too many inquiries." I'm afraid that if I apply for more I will just get the same, and there's basically no way to recon.

As with the United card, I won't be meeting the $25000 spending requirement, so I'll only have 30K miles, which I guess is not bad since it's enough for a round trip in CONUS. And I'm still thinking about the Amex. I know it's a great card with great rewards, maybe I can meet the $5000 spending requirement if I get some gift cards. I will probably apply for the United and SPG cards since recon with Chase and Amex are easier than Barclays and Citi.

There is a United Explorer offer for 55k after only $1000 spend in three months. I think you have to have some existing miles in your united account, but if you don't, there are some easy ways to earn a few miles (some for free even).

Do you know how many miles I have to have? Because I can just ask my friend to transfer me 100 miles if there's no required minimum.

Not 100% certain, but I applied (for my mom) with only 750 miles in her account. Got those miles for free by signing up for MyPoints.

Also, I think you only can transfer miles in increments of 1000.

Don't think you need any minimum miles balance in the acct, just as long as the acct have miles.

Correct, need to transfer in blocks of 1000.

Just an observation from the sidelines (an observer and not a player in the game), you seem to be applying for cards once a month. The "pros" seem to apply once every quarter (max) and for all cards at once.

The net reason is that each card application pulls and scans your credit, sees nothing for the past few months, and thinks it is the only action being taken. If you spread them out, the application can see the multiple inquiries for the past few months, raises a red flag, and causes you angst.

Just an observation as to why you may not be getting approved.

I would "sit" out for a while. You need to let your recent cards "season".

My advice would depend on how established your credit file is. If you have a number of old accounts in your report, and these cards are just the ones you recently applied for, maybe you could try for AMEX SPG but your chances of approval may not be great. The 30K bonus for the last few years only come around in the late summer. (July/August).

I would wait at least 6 months and apply for 3-4 cards at one time. The creditors do not like alot of recent accounts--give it time & be patient.

Okay thanks for all the advice. I guess I should wait until year end or the new year to apply for more cards.

Sorry guys, but I'm completely new to the whole airline mileage game. When you say to apply for 3-4 cards at one time, do you mean like in the same day or same month or what?

Thanks!

Keep reading. Most are the same day, spread around amongst different banks. Each bank has its own policies, so in some cases you want same day (e.g. Citi allows two cards w/i 60-65 days, but if you do two on the same day the credit bureau may combine the two inquiries into a single ding). Others limit this, for example I went for two credit cards issued by Amex on the same day and one was held for 5 days (then approved). Some suggest you can get a credit and a charge card on the same day from Amex.

Read here for about a week or so and make a plan before you file your first app. Assuming you pay in full each month and have a decent credit score and aren't planning on getting a mortgage in the near future.

Hi folks. I'm in the same position as the OP. I'd like to apply for the Citi HH Reserve Visa, as I'm not going to retain my Hilton Gold status on stays alone this year. However, in the past two months, I've been approved for two new Chase cards, the MP Explorer and Sapphire Preferred. In order to get approved, I had to reduce the credit limits on my two existing Chase cards.

As I have no other CITI cards, would they hold the Chase applications against me? I have good credit (FICO scores in the 760-780 range), have never missed or been late with a payment, and pay my cards in full almost every month; the exception being a 0% balance transfer which I paid off over the course of six months or so. My current utilization is below 5%.

If this were another Chase card, I wouldn't even consider applying, but I'm not sure if Citi takes other credit issuers into account when making a decision.

Any words of wisdom would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks!

Your Chase cards will have little impact on your citi application.

This year I have gotten 3 amex, 3 chase, 3 citi, 1 Barclay, 2 BoA cards.

Applied and accepted. Thanks for the advice!