jatink129

I'm actually not even sure if I want to do them.
When I applied for the personal card in February, I got approved no problemo, without having to freeze ARS or IDA.
Now with 13 inquiries on Experian, 5 of which are within the last 5 months, I'm wary of trying.

PainCorp

For US Bank and Barclays I try to leave longer than 90 days between my AOR. I did one in January, got the Amex BGR with the 50k offer in April (matched to 75k), and haven't done anything since. My combined CL between all accounts grew probably 150% in a week, so I "need to show I can handle it."

jatink129

USbank is a tough cookie to crack.
Not too sure I want to mess with them.

I could use the points but I'll manage if I don't get it.
At this point, I'd rather not waste an inquiry.
I would have felt much more confident if I had been able to freeze ARS and IDA in time.

jatink129

And to be really honest, I'm even thinking of just scrapping this AOR all together.
What the heck, it's only an extra 10k.

I've given myself till tomorrow afternoon to ponder over this.

PainCorp

10k is very easy to manufacture...especially on Ink cards....

psychoandy

Working on my next AoR, wondering if anyone can chime in and critique my plan. To preface all of this, I might be delirious from reading so many threads and wrong about it. Hence why I'm posting here for critique...

Goals: I have a ton of airline miles, so I'm mainly looking for good offers with transferable points or hotel points (my main weakness, although I don't mind hostel/airbnb type stuff). As a secondary objective, my credit file is somewhat thin, so would like to work on solid cards before I start churning.

Current rewards cards:
Amex Plat & 2 biz (backdated 10 years...so I should probably get more Amex)
2 Barclays
Chase Freedom
2 other crappy no-fee cards I plan on holding to extend AAoA (currently ~3 years)

Current pulls: 9 EX, 3 TU, maybe 1 EQ. Last EX pull was from January, all others are over 6 months old. Unfortunately in the northeast most pulls are EX.

Potential plans:
I'm really interested in 2BM method to possibly reduce/consolidate credit pulls, but not much info on FT and poor/low quality data on "other forums".

WRT Chase, I've seen conflicting info regarding doing 1 biz/1 personal and having luck with only 1 pull. While getting both IB and IP would be nice, I am not sure I can swing both cards since my chase history is lacking (although I do have a legit business). And I would like to save Ink Plus for later (using the "i would like to have a credit line in case I need to finance" line). I really want a CSP though; travel/dining 2x is valuable, and once I get the bonus I plan on attempting the CSP visa -> MC switcheroo, and then applying again for the CSP visa in the future.

In terms of Amex, the backdating would really strengthen my credit history by boosting AAoA. Additionally, I now know that Amex generally combines pulls even for personal & biz, so that would be even better. I really want SPG, but I remember last summer there was a 30k SPG offer, so should I hold out for that? And for other additions to an Amex app, should I just get a no-AF Hilton card as just a keeper to extend my history? I considered DL and B6 but they're not as compelling.

I already have 2 barclays cards, but the Lufthansa card and getting another US card is too juicy to pass up, and I don't mind risking 2 TU pulls if I can get another 35k US or 50k LH miles. And I've been running decent spend on US (25k spend = 10k elite miles) so I could legitimately use the "i need a 2nd card for biz expenses" argument on recon.

WRT Citi, FT says they pull EQ, but there is not much data on creditboards pull database or whogavemecredit to corroborate. In any case, the Hilton Reserve looks great, the no AF Hilton appears churnable, and Citi now holds the keys to AA/US post merger, so I should probably get something started with them.

TL;DR: my tentative app spree:

Chase: 2BM Ink Bold/CSP, or maybe the UA biz card to make a combined biz/personal 3BM?
Amex: Definitely want SPG, maybe the no AF HHonors card as a keeper
Barclays: 2BM LH & US cards
Citi: Hilton Reserve + Citi AA (on 2 consecutive days, hopefully will pull EQ so getting 2 pulls would be irrelevant).

Questions:
1.) since my credit file is relatively thin, should I only app for cards that would build credit (eg no biz cards since they don't report to credit report, get more Amex to take advantage of backdating)? Or should I swing for the Ink bold since I do have some biz spend.
2.) should I go all out with Chase, or limit myself to just a 2BM?
3.) any other thoughts/advice? tia!

PainCorp

You've done some research...thank you....

With that being said, I would only do the IB or IP, not both. I highly doubt you can get 3 cards from Chase in 1 day with a limited credit history.

SPG is good, 30k potential bonus is something to consider, as is the fact that it also usually lowers spending requirements. I would look at the Blue Cash or Blue Sky cards, as the Hilton program is pretty worthless, and if you just want the age, those will work too.

Barclays is a tough cookie to crack, if you do both of these cards, do them first or you'll likely get rejected or have to deal with reconsideration, which isn't as easy with Barclays.

As for Citi, same comment about the HHonors card, and the AA card is a good one.

If I was to narrow it down, and this is only me looking at what I value (on top of what I already have in programs, see my signature), I would kill the Citi Hilton and get the Amex Hilton since you can upgrade that for a bonus in a year, downgrade then upgrade again, and repeat. Other than that it looks good.

The real decision you have to make is if 5k SPG points is worth waiting until summer.

StartinSanDiego

I think you should look carefully at the hotel card offerings and pick the program that you are likely to actually use. If that's Hilton, great, Citi is wide open for you. Otherwise look at the programs, analyse them, choose what's best for you.

I have not heard of the 2 browser method for Chase... this was a Citi AA card trick that died earlier in the year. Browsers don't matter for Chase, so save yourself the extra hassle. I think 3 Chase cards in one app spree is too many. Choose your best options and work down from there.

Just an FYI-- Barclays is cracking down on churners and you already have two cards with them. Read the US Airways thread for more details and report to us all how it goes for you.

If you got all the cards above that you're hoping for in an App fest Eden, that would be 8 cards. That's a lot of cards by any standards. I'd say pick your best 3 or 4, and start at the top, then work your way down the list.

webazoid

Ended up getting Lexus Financing. Strange thing is that Lexus Financial did three credit pulls...uggh. Why did Toyota pull my credit?

Experian - Lexus Dealer, Toyota
Transunion - Lexus Dealer

Funny thing is that my Experian score was 30 points higher from dealer than from Credit Sesame.

PainCorp

They should all combine since they are all auto loan pulls, at least in the eyes of the CC companies.

phdtomd

I financed a car through gmc. They ran my credit, a day later they ran it through 3 banks. 1 car four INQs. Thinking about just letting my wife sign up this time instead of both of us getting hit again

cuebert

Just a data point....

This sounds about where I was back in April, about to buy a new car.

Credit Karma said my score was about 750 so I figured I had around a 720 in reality.

I went to the dealer for the loan (they had a special APR deal), they ran my credit and got 680 for a score.

They reserve the special rate for 700+ scores so this meant I was no longer looking at the best rate. They took a second inquiry from another CRA and came up with the same number.

They gave me the special rate anyway.

oshelef

Working on my first AoR. How does this sound:

About me:
Current cards:
Fidelity (held a while)
Chase freedom (long held, since "perfectcard"). ~35k point balance
Amex blue student (long held)
Discover (long held).

No pulls on the credit history in 2+ years
Fako-scores of ~780.
Naturally spend $2k a month. Can up that if needed.

Uses: 3 at a time domestic (transcon) economy tickets
Building for 2 at a time trans atlantic (maybe pacific?) F. Possible 3 at a time us to middle east economy.

Status:
Skyteam elite plus: Airfrance/KLM gold. Through 2/2014. Zero balance on AF/KLM. Won't renew without some sort of status match.
Star Alliance elite plus: TK Gold. Through 3/2015. Zero balance. Drops to Star Alliance elite through 3/2017. And United Silver (will be, through 3/2015. Could/would likely earn silver again, even with PQD)



The AOR Plan:
Chase/Southwest Companion
- Personal Premier card. $99 fee, $2k spend
- Personal Plus card. $69 fee, $2k spend.
(i could potentially do Business plus card, but saw a recommendation to do both)

Barclays USair, 35k., fee waived, no spend.

Citi american 40k, fee waived, $3k spend.

Delta Amex gold. 30k. fee waived, $500 spend

Total: $7.5k spend, 5 pulls.

Last 3 are not super high value, but I figure I should do USair now. Happy to take suggestions for other cards. Most of my trips involve no hotel stay, no choice in hotel, and/or non-chain hotels, so I tend to have little value for hotel points.

Options:
If not the Chase/Southwest cards, then Ink bold. Or chase united (but little benefit from the card beyond miles given status). Really, given a current (long standing account), how many chase cards can I apply for at once? If I could do a 3rd, it could easily replace citi/american in terms of spend.

Thanks!

FlightNurse

What is your goal, this is the first question you need to ask yourself before looking to get cards. You should have a plan, on what your plans are for these cards.

The southwest cards are great if you want to do lot of travel with in the US, and work towards your companion pass, however, you should wait until the end of the year to get these cards, then your companion pass will be good for 2 years.

Ink Bold cards have a high bouns right now, and they are good cards to have.

Chase Freedom card is a cash back card which is good to have if you want to do manufactured spend. Chase Ssppire Perfered Card is a good one to get with the Freedom card, they work well together.

AMEX SPG is a good card to get, the points are flexable, just as the Chase Sappire card is.

oshelef

My goal? Really, value on travel I'd already do. Much of that is domestic US economy. I don't mind earning towards a pair of international F ticket in, say, a year, but that might be 18 months until we try and redeem. Once I'm done with meeting spend, my significant other can start. No particular airline allegiance for those at the moment.

I could wait for the companion pass, but will the offers be around by then? How long would I need to wait to get 2 years? Into January? (Two cards and existing points pretty much gets me there this year, but I'd need to do a bit of extra spend to get there next year.) There are enough opportunities to use it between now and then that it doesn't seem worth waiting.

I already have the chase freedom (Most of the spend goes on the 2cent/$ fidelity, but I use chase for the categories). One of the benefits of eventually doing sapphire is the ability to transfer the points. But no rush. (I thought I might be able to transfer Freedom to Ink Bold).

But can I really expect to get 4 chase cards in one AoR? If not, I'm down to choosing. If I can only get two, I think I get more value from the two southwest cards than the ink bold + sapphire, but it's close. If I can choose 1, then ink bold it is. What's the sense of how many chase cards I can include in one round?

SPG is useful, but the 25k offer isn't particularly exciting. Does it make sense to add it to my earlier list (as a 6th app)?