Can the 91 day rule be broken?
 

I April, I applied for the Barclays US Airways card, the US Bank FlexPerks Biz card, and the Amex Biz Gold. It was my first AOR and I was approved for all three cards.

A week later, I refinanced my car through lending tree (five hard pulls) and secured a home loan through BNC Bank (a couple more hard pulls). I will be closing on my house next Friday and have exceeded the minimum spends on all my cards. I'd like to sign up for 2-3 more cards to take advantage of all the spend I will have coming up with the new house. In particular, I'd like to get in on the Delta Plat Biz card with 55k bonus, which expires on July 7.

The way I see it, I have three options. First, I could apply this weekend for the Delta Plat, the Chase Ink Bold (60k bonus offer expires on Saturday), and one other card. Secondly, I could wait until after the closing and apply on July 6 for the Delta Plat and a couple other cards. Finally, I could wait until August, after my 91 days has passed and apply for whatever is hot at the time, but that will mean I missed a huge opportunity to rake in big bonuses during a large spend period.

Any thoughts? My loan has already come back from underwriting with final approval. Will they pull my credit one last time before closing? What would you do in my situation? Thanks!

If i were you, i would be paying more attention to your closing then this. I remember my underwriter told me NOT to apply until everything is closed and i had signed the papers - they did one pull the day before i signed.

Offers come and go - but i think a home loan trumps any churn/AOR. That is just my opinion, others might disagree.

Normally they will pull one last time before closing. I would without a doubt hold off. YMMV.

I wouldnt do anything more until after your closing or the lender may not approve the mortgage based on their final credit pull right before closing.

Thanks for the input everyone. The consensus seems clear. I will wait until after closing next Friday before proceeding with any CC apps.

Knowing that, do you think I could still apply for the Delta Plat immediately after closing before the offer expires? I will be at around 60 days since my last AOR (3 cards in April). Or do I need to wait the full 91 days? I've been looking, but I can't find a definitive answer on the reason for 91 days vs. some other amount.

Thanks again!

DutchRyan,

I'll go a step further than most and say that you should wait until your mortgage funds, which is typically 3 business days after closing. This is being conservative on my part, but I think it is best not to mess with these things. A mortgage is worth far more, and on the off chance something goes wrong far more of a problem.

After funding it's up to you whether you wait until Aug. The 91 days is a guideline based on information that hard pulls have less of a credit impact after 90 days. It is not a hard rule, but seems to be a solid guideline. Keep in mind that CC banks will see the additional pull(s) your mortgage lender will likely do at closing. If there is a card you really want/need, I would try this card in July. If there are just some "nice to have" cards, I'd wait until August.

I agree to wait until your mortgage funds. Mortgage companies can and do sometimes pull an updated report right before funding, even though you've already signed the papers. A new inquiry for a CC is highly unlikely to lead to a serious problem, maybe a delay of a day or 2, but no reason mess around.

And as previously stated the 90 day thing is just a general guideline. Twice this year I applied for an AMEX card about 6-7 weeks after a previous AOR (one of which included an AMEX card) and got approved without an issue (the 100k plat offer in Jan and the 75k biz gold in May). So I'd likely go for the Delta card if I were you.

+1 wait until funding. Rates have gone up a lot in just a few weeks. Depending on when you locked, you could lose thousands of dollars over time to do anything to cause the mortgage to blow up. Extra caution this time is advised.

Lots of good advice here in this thread.

Perspective...

Patience, there is no big problem waiting 91 days, think if this as a marathon, not a mad dash....

I agree 100%. Although I'm still a novice on this board, I've been around the travel game for a long time and *thought* I knew everything. Boy was I wrong. I continue to learn so much from this board. Thanks to everyone who responded.

We did a mini-app o rama while waiting and waiting for a cash out re-fi on a rental property. The underwriter nearly flipped when they discovered 3 brand new open lines of credit that were not on the original app. If it hadn't been a small, local lender with personal knowledge of us/our finances, I think it would have killed our loan, just because it's too off the norm for the underwriter to cope with. ymmv

Personally, I would apply for the cards this weekend, the sooner the better.

There will always be a 'boogeyman" out to get you for your AOR.


You need to learn to not fear the "boogeyman", and maximize your miles/points.

Anything less is allowing the credit card companies to control you through fear.


They know that if you get your new card, the bonus is headed your way...so they would love nothing more than make you fear a new card.


If you're playing this game right, the credit card companies will fear you...not the other way around...

just my 2 cents...

Possibly one of the worst pieces of advice on FT and a clear demonstration that you didn't even read the question.

This thread has nothing to do with CC issuers and the circumstances under which they and do not extend credit. It is about mortgage underwriting standards and the fact that losing a closing date and a rate at a time when rates are rising can cost tens of thousands of dollars in additional interest payments over time.

It's worth remembering that if a credit pull causes the underwriter to withold funding, everything might be able to be straightened out. But, that can take time and the likelihood that you get the same rate later is slim to none in this market.

Yes, this is it in a nutshell.

In the wake of "over exuberant" lending of 2005/2006, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. Any one in the middle of a re-fi or home purchase would be crazy to put the benefits of an AOR over a mortgage loan. Myself included! My story was a little different because we had a back up plan that was as good as the conventional loan, so I was willing to gamble.

But we are only talking about 1) waiting until underwriting has approved the mortgage loan or 2) waiting until said loan has funded . The consensus is, wait until the loan funds!