What is pros and cons for 2 browser trick?
 

I usually apply credit cards at the same days by using two browser method. However, I dont know how browser method works.

For ex: Chase Ink, Chase Freedom, amex SPG, and Citi AAdvantage visa on 10/03/13

Chase InK pulls Experian
Chase Freedom pulls Experian

SPG pulls Experian
Citi advantage pulls Experian and Trans


So on 10/03/13, I will have 2 pulls on Experian with Chase, 1 pull on Experian from SPG, and 1 pull on Experian and 1 pull on Trans from Citibank.

As a result, on 10/03/13, I have 4 pulls on Experian, and 1 pull on Transunion. So I dont see the advantage of 2 browser here. Anyone can explain the pros and cons please!

Thanks!

The 2 browser method is used to apply for 2 identical cards at the same time. The cookies are key to your specific bonus so if you were to apply for 2 cards, one through IE and one through Firefox, you would be able to get instant approval for both (assuming you qualify). Normally, credit card companies don't allow you to have more than one of the same product so the 2 browser method is a way to get around it by submitting 2 apps at once each with unique identifiers

Sometimes it won't do much of anything for you, sometimes it can help you get more cards than you would otherwise. Like the old Citi AA card experience that does not work anymore. Like a lot of things I think it is less useful now than it used to be because like anything else it becomes less effective over time as banks adjust.

From what you wrote it sounds like you were expecting to use it to have fewer inquiries after your applications. Inquires are only merged if they look identical like possible duplicates and even then sometimes they are not. For Chase usually business cards and personal cards inquiries will have different bank addresses so they will not merge. If you applied for two Chase personal cards on the same day the odds would be better for merging.

The two browser method refers to the ability to get 2 cards that would otherwise make you ineligible for the second one, such as this blog post from 2011, for an opportunity that worked until January 2013 http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/1...vantage-50000/

The pros were that you might save a pull while getting twice as many miles as you could without it.

The cons are that it doesn't work anymore.

There is a chance that you may have saved a pull by getting 2 Chase personal cards on the same day.

It doesn't work much any more.

What happens is that if a particular bureau sees two pulls come in on the same day which look "too similar", it may merge them into one, because it thinks they might be duplicates of each other.

But that can only happen if you are applying for two "very similar" cards from the same bank on the same day.

It was most commonly used back in the days when Citi would let you apply for two personal cards of the same type on the same day (but would not let you apply for them a day apart or a week apart or a month apart) and give both bonuses. But earlier this year that trick ended, and Citi no longer lets you apply for two cards of any type on the same day.

Two Citi personal AA cards looked "similar enough" to the bureaus that they would typically merge them.

But there are few other examples of two "similar enough" cards that you can apply for from any other bank on the same day and get both bonuses. Most banks have "different enough" cards that the bureaus don't get confused. (And without the bureau "getting confused" about whether you two pulls are "duplicates", there's no pull merging and thus no advantage to the 2-browser trick, now that no bank allows you to apply for 2 of the very same card on the same day.)

To expand just a bit further sdsearch said, one of the more common instances of the two-browser trick being used was the Citi AA personal cards. Citi issued an AA Visa and an AA Amex, both essentially the same card, but just on a different network.

Having one would disqualify one from getting a sign up bonus on the other. So using the "two-browser trick" would make Citi think you are a first time cardholder on EACH card, getting you the sign up bonus on BOTH cards. This I thought was the main benefit of the two-browser trick, to double your sign up bonus.

Yes, usually the credit bureaus think it's an identical application so the pulls get merged, but I always considered that a secondary benefit to the extra miles (or rather, a lack of a con because you wouldn't get an extra pull for doing this for the extra miles)

so if a person applies Chase Freedom (using IE), SPG amex (using Firefox), and citi Visa AA on the same day(using Google Chrome), will this person use the method of 3 browser trick (IE, Firefox,Chrome) on the same day? Will this method consider 1 pull?

No. These are different banks. You will have one pull from Chase, one from AMEX, and one from Citibank.

To be considered possible duplicates the Bank and address need to be the same. So two Chase personal cards maybe. AMEX tends to pull on separate days for me now. So if I apply for two AMEX personal cards on the same day which used to resolve to one pull they now pull once on the app day and then again a couple days later for two pulls. Citi is now limiting you to one app per day so that kills combining two Citi pulls into one.

So you are not "getting" the comments made by others above. Perhaps you read something about separate mortgage pulls counting as one for FICO scoring but these are credit card pulls which are coded different. Maybe read through all the replies above again.

And that's a very big maybe.

I remember reading that back in the days when it would work for 2 Citi AA cards, it did not work for a personal Citi AA card mixed with a personal Citi ThankYou-earning card. Those were "different enough" to the bureaus for whatever reason. Obviously, the bureaus do not see what points/miles the card earns, so that's not the difference they saw. It was something different from the Citi credit department for those cards. Was it just a different Citi address or something else? And if it was, how many addresses does Chase use?

Do you think it may be ok if I use 2 browsers trick to apply for Citi Executive AA (100K) and Citi dividend at the same time or in the same day? thanks. my CK score is 760.

8 days between citi apps these days. Wait on that Dividend card.

Or scrap it all together. Why waste a pull on Dividend? I've had it for years, but I got it back in a day when it was really something.