tys90

You've got a pretty good a balance of airline miles. You could continue to pad it but I would think about racking up some hotel points. Club Carlson has a pretty decent selection of European hotels from what I can tell so if you are planning travel there it might be worth having. Can't go wrong with SPG or Sapphire so I would keep those in the AOR then determine if the airline miles or hotel nights are more important to you now. Add the Chase Ink Plus or Ink Bold for 50k UR points that would be flexible for hotels or airfare.

LetsGoToo

Hello from nearby MGM!

I'd suggest going for the most flexibility at this point, so I'd go for cards with points in Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, and/or SPG

FarMatt

First off, just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this site who offers up their expertise and advice to newbies like myself. Much appreciated!

Ok, so I'm pretty new to this, and I wanted to get some feedback on my app-o-rama strategy. I want to try to limit the number of cards per bank, and limiting spending requirements and yearly fees.

Background:
I'm in my 20s, I own a sole proprietorship (no EIN, but separate USBank checking account), and I'm a partner in an S-Corp (where I get w-2 income).. I spend about 1k/month on credit cards, but I talked to my landlord and he'll let me use amazon payments to pay my rent every month, so that will bump that up closer to 1.5k/month.

I have a 751 score on credit karma. Credit card utilization: 41% (I purchased 8k of equipment for my business on a 0% APR for 18months deal). Average age of credit ~5yrs.. Never had a late payment.. Last hard pull was November 2012 for an auto loan which I got in Dec 2012.. I have 2 credit cards currently:

1) Stanford Federal Credit Union Student Visa $2500 Limit (only reason I keep it is because i've had it for 10 years - make about 10 purchases per year on it).

2) REI Signature Visa with No Limit (this is through US Bank).. I've had it for ~6 years, started with 5k limit, bumped slowly up to 14k limit, then they just converted it to no limit.. Has an 8k 0%APR balance on it. Don't use it other than just having that balance sit on it.

I had a Chase British Air card which was my main card, but just canceled it a couple weeks ago because I didn't want to pay the annual fee… I have 50k BA miles, but I don't like the BA "fuel surcharge" fees.... I don't really have any other significant amounts of miles in any accounts.

---------------------------

About my travel/lodging preferences:

I fly a pretty even mix of domestic and international.. Domestic I make occasional trips to the east coast, but I mostly just fly around the west.. International is pretty varied - I go wherever there's good climbing/mountains.. Places like Thailand/Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, India, Spain, Germany, maybe someday I'll get to Madagascar (awesome climbing there!).

Don't really have a preferred airline, but I live in Bend Oregon, and the only airlines that fly out of our airport here are Alaska and United.. Its about a 2.5hr drive to Portland, which has a lot more options.

I've only ever flown coach, but if I could get business class seats for the same out of pocket taxes and fees (using more miles, of course) I would totally go for that.

I haven't stayed in hotels pretty much at all.. I'm more of a hostel/campground kinda person (in part because I don't have a lot of money, and in part because I mostly travel in order to go climbing, and most places with good climbing don't have hotels). Domestic, I usually just stay with friends or camp wherever I go.

----------------------------
Cards:

Ok, so I think that covers all the standard background questions that seem to come up here. So, I want to try to limit the number of cards per bank, and try to keep the annual fees to a minimum and fairly low minimum spends. Here's some of the cards I was looking at. I'm definitely getting the first two as cash back cards with no annual fee, and I plan on keeping those for the long haul. Maybe I should split the rest into two AORs a few months apart?

Pentagon Federal Credit Union:. Platinum Visa - no fees, no minimum spends, good cash back, no balance transfer fees - getting this card to keep and for the 5% cash back on all gas purchases. https://www.penfed.org/visasignaturepoints/

Fidelity: Investment Rewards Card 1.5% cash back. Getting this card to keep for good. http://personal.fidelity.com/product...rds_card.shtml

Chase: United Explorer Visa, 50k, (or maybe only 40k).. 1k minimum spend, first year no fee.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20316800-post1654.html

Chase:.United Explorer Business Visa, 50k (or maybe only 40k).. Same as personal - can you still do this? 2 applications at once?

Chase:.Sapphire Preferred 40k, $3k spend in 3 months, no fee first year, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...0k-points.html

Barclays:. US Airways MC 40k, no minimum spend, first year no fee.. http://www.mostmiles.com/apply/Landi...cellNumber=163 , http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...5k-benies.html

Barclays: 2nd US Airways 40k a few months later to "keep spending separate" for the biz.

Citi: AA Visa (personal): 50k miles after $2,500 spen the first 3 months .http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...nks-first.html

Citi: AA Visa (Business): Can you do this? 2 cards at once?

BofA: Hawaiian Air 35k with $1000 4 month spend. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hawai...5k-offers.html

BofHawaii: Hawaiian Air 35k with $1000 4 month spend

Amex: Premier Reward Gold 25k, $500 spend in 3 months, no fee first year:. https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...alidoffer=true

Amex: Delta 30k, $500 spend in 3months, first year no fee. http://www262.americanexpress.com/bu...dit-card/29789

USbank: Couldn't find anything that looked good. Anything that I should consider?

Ok, any advice? Which cards should I go for in my first AOR?. Anything I'm missing?. Anything I should watch out for or avoid?

Thanks a ton!
-Matt

KennyBSAT

My vote for first AOR, apply in this order:
Barclays USAir 35K no fee
PenFed
Fidelity
Chase United 50-55K
Citi AA personal Visa 50K
Chase Ink Plus or Bold 50K United/BA/SW, 5K points on phone, cable and internet
AMEX Business Gold 50K from your favorite frequent flier blogger, 5K spend (unless you want to wait for the next 75K for 10K deal)
BofA+BofHawaii Hawaiian, or BofA Alaska

That's pretty aggressive, you could choose as few of those as you like. I would definitely wait for a better deal on AMEX PRG, and get the USAir ASAP. Good luck!

Keep in mind you can use your Avios for Alaska airlines flights now, either for West Coast/Hawaii trips or for positioning. If AA shows the Alaska flight available as a SAAver award, you can book over the phone with BA.

ralexander

Why not apply for the Fidelity Amex instead of the Visa and get 2% all the time?

kevinwangjk

Thanks for the list terpfan101. I don't think I can get a Citi AA personal card because my last app was in Nov 2012, but I think I can go for a biz card.

Anyways, I just realized that my most recent hard pull was in late April, for my new apartment lease... Do I need to wait for 90 days now for an AOR?

deant

With a 750 credit score and 40% utilization the OP needs to go slow on the apps.

terpfan101

Nah I don't think that should matter to banks. Also as an alternative to Citi AA personal I'd go for business or Hilton Citi either free or Reserve if you can use the free nights within the time required. Also I'd recommend doing the apps in that order (USB first)

kevinwangjk

Great. If I add Barclay USair, what order should I use? I got rejected by them a few months ago. And by "applying in this order" did you mean apply to them first, and then call recon line after all application?

So I waited till today, Tuesday (normal biz days for banks as someone mentioned above), is there a specific time range I should apply today or is any time fine? I am in Seattle so by the time I get home is going to be around 10pm ET.

FarMatt

Thanks for the replies!

@Kenny - I assume that doing them in the order you listed, you would still try to do them all in the same day, right? Also, thanks for the tip on using those Avios on alaska. Didn't know I could do that!

@ralexander - thanks for the tip! Didn't notice there was a difference between them, but I'll go with the Amex I think.

@deant - is that because you think I'll get rejected, or because you think I'll be irresponsible with the extra credit?

If its irresponsibility - I pay off my cards in full each month, the only reason I have that 41% usage is because of that 8k I took out as essentially an interest free business loan to buy business equipment. Its at 0% APR for I think 16 more months, and I plan to pay it all back before any interest gets charged. It was just a much cheaper option than getting a business loan or a personal loan to expand my business...

If its because you think I'll get rejected - why would it matter if I go slow or fast then? If I do them all at once, none will see the pulls from any of the others, so it would be better to take my chances and get rejected from the ones I'm going to get rejected from and get the ones that I get, right? Why would going slow help in any way?

KennyBSAT

Credit Karma is an indication of your real credit report, not necessarily an accurate one. I would do as many as you want to (and can meet the spending for) all in one day. If your utilization actually shows up as 41% on your FICO you may get some denials. One benefit to doing 3 or 4 now and the rest after ~3 months is that you would have additional credit with the same balance or lower, giving you lower utilization %.
I have gotten 12 cards in the past 5 months, my wife has gotten 10, with the only denial being when I went for a third Barclays card. I do have a long history but short average age of accounts.

terpfan101

Seems like Barclays is harder than USB but you have to have a history with them. That is probably too late time wise.

Earthlings

Club Carlson

nrdk

I'm looking to do a churn in order to earn enough points to book a flight and hotel stay to Europe in 2014 for my girlfriend and I, the point being for the return trip I'll be able to say fiancé and I.

I've got a good idea of how I want to plan the trip (2 weeks, fly to Rome then train to Florence then on to a stop over Venice to Paris then Paris to home) which looks like it will be 200,000 points for business/first the whole way (4 CPM so that is always nice). I'm well on my way after getting the Ink Bold and transferring 72,000 points to United, but was curious what other points would transfer to United other than Chase affiliated cards and what is the best way to do an AOR?

I know between the United Explorer (55k + $100 + club + priority), a CSP (40k), and the Hyatt card (2 free nights) I could earn some good points but nervous about hitting Chase up for a lot of cards in a short period of time after reading a lot of the stories around here.

Also looking for different pointers from the veterans on hotels (definitely Vendome Hyatt for Paris but not sure for Rome/Florence/Venice) and associated cards to get in order to make it "free". Any help would be greatly appreciated

ChurnBabyChurn

You need to hit the chase ink/bold/sapphire hard in both your name and Gf's name, then combine all the points into 1 account. Can easily get a few hundred thousand this way...