mintcilantro

It's been almost 6 months since my last round of apps. Any feedback on my upcoming churn would be appreciated. I've picked up quite a few cards so I couldn't go for the usual suspects. Objective this time is to balance cashback with miles earning & manufacturing spend. Not applying to Chase this time.

FICO scorewatch gave me 747 EQ. CK is 750. My history is only 6 yr 8 mo though so I'm trying to be extra careful. I've tried to limit inquiries by freezing EXP for last year. Only 1 card is reporting balance with $782 on $3000 CL

Inquiries (6mo/1yr/2yr)Cards I'd like to get

• US Bank Flexperks ( ~$300, ~4% grocery, EQ)
• Barclays Travelocity (10% travel bookings, 4% grocery, TU)
• Barclays Arrival ($440, 2.2% everywhere, TU)
• Amex BCP ($250, 6% grocery, EX)
• Citi AA 50k (mainly for 50k bonus, EQ)

I may do these because I maybe able to make money on the 0% rate by putting money elsewhere. I welcome other suggestions

• Discover IT (rotating 5% , Cashback portal, 0% BT for 18mo)
• Alliant CU for 0% intro/BT, EQ from

US Bank and Citi have pulled EQ fo rme in the past, so I'm hoping they do the same again. Amex has pulled EXP and I don't mind that since I have 0 INQs in last 12 mo.

Any order in which I should do my apps to limit inquiries and increase chances of approval?

I thought this:

• Freeze EQ/EX
  • apply travelocity
  • if instant apply arrival
• unlock EX and lock TU
  • apply Amex BCP
• unlock EQ and lock EX
  • apply Flexperks
  • apply Citi AA
  • apply Alliant

Other cards
2012

20112008
Chase Freedom

2006
1st Credit union card

thehawk75

They are only offering credit to those within the specific regions they do business in. Not only that, it appears they want you to be a customer as well (and no, apparently being a TD Ameritrade customer does not qualify).

phdtomd

Personal

bensim

Did you apply for all the cards online?

nrdk

This was my first official AOR, I've had a Chase Freedom card for about 3 years now, and an Ink Bold for about 3 months. All of the applications were submitted online, approved for between 5k - 6k on each card.

My credit score is around ~770, with my average account age is just shy of 5 years, some student loan debt, and a first mortgage within the last 4 months. Have 4 open CC other than the ones just opened, with hard pulls going 4 - 3 - 3 before applying. I'll run my report here after my statements close at the first of the month and let you know what kind of inquiries I got and how it affected my scores.

DallasEsq

Any advice would be appreciated. I want to apply for a few cards in July but don't want to do manufactured spend. What are the best 3 or 4 sign-up offers with low (~$1K or less) spend requirements? I'm thinking Club Carlson and Citi AA, any others?

PainCorp

Do the Arrival first.

Locking and unlocking bureaus during an AoR is going to be time consuming and annoying, at least IMO.

What is your goal, do you have a trip in mind? Have you looked at the UA card?

mintcilantro

My current travel plans are to visit NYC in Fall (paid Y tickets, staying with a friend), Hawaii in Winter (HA miles, UR->Hyatt), Japan in May (US DM, club carlson), Alaska in July'14 (AA miles on alaska). My plan for hotels is manufacturing spend on club carlson and free nights from cards and promos (marriott, priority club).

I saw the UA 55k offer. I plan on getting it early next year. I'm cooling off with chase as I have 6 cards with them already. I redeemed 400k UA miles in last year and have low UA balance. I want to liquidate my AA balance (15k) and use cash back type programs to buy paid tickets (hate searching for award availability). With cards I'm getting, I will manufacture spend for revenue tickets with reward points.

I plan to get to the Citi TYP combos later when sign ups are better (Premier, Preferred, Forward etc)

Thanks for the bureau info.. what I realized is they see inquiries within minutes so last time even though I did apps quickly (<15 min total), Amex denied me for too many inquiries. I will have wife helping me with the lock unlock and submitting same bureau apps together. Not sure how it will work but it will take a lot of coordination. Hopefully the banks won't see other bureas and I can finish this off in 2 hours. I'll report how it goes

PainCorp

Once the VX card comes back, it might be worth a look, I would research their redemptions now while their card is in limbo to a new provider. Their redemptions on their own flights aren't amazing, but their partner redemptions are pretty good.

As an example, you can do LAX-HNL for 20k RT on HA using Elevate points, 40k RT to SYD. All in Y, but usually Y redemptions are double that on legacy carriers.

mintcilantro

That definitely looks interesting esp as VX has a hub in SFO and HA has a lot of flights as well. I'd love direct flights to alaska/mexico/hawaii. I'm glad it's not barclays anymore as they don't like us churners. Hope they go with somebody like wells fargo.

PainCorp

If they do I'll be dropping their card. Wells Fargo doesn't do co-branded cards, at least not yet.

FlightNurse

Where are you finding a 50K citi AA link that works?

mintcilantro

Email from AA. Same link without landing page is also discussed in this thread.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...ost-first.html

FlightNurse

Interesting, this changes everything for me, thanks.

mileman41

Here are my results from my churn about two weeks ago:

Chase Ink Bold: Approved after quick call to reconsideration (no credit swaps, no closing of cards!) - 60K UR Points

Citi AAdvantage World: Approved after quick online chat session: 40K AA Miles

Hilton AMEX: Instant Approval. 40K Hilton Points.

Barclays World Arrival: Declined. Called reconsideration. They asked lots of questions and then told me I had too many inquires over the past 12 months (Including both the NFL Card and US Airways - although I hadn't had any inquiries since Jan 1). I was polite, thanked them and hung up. I called back 4 hours later, and the first thing the agent said was: "I see you called this morning." I think at this point it's not going to happen.

After a successful 17 CC Apps in a row, this was the first one I don't think I will be able to move to the "approved" column!