I intend to apply for these 5 cards this week:

i. Chase Freedom
ii. Discover It
iii. Fidelity Investment Rewards
iv. Nusenda platinum cash rewards
v. Capital One Quicksilver Rewards

My income is $120k/yr and my scores are:

Penfed FICO NG 2: 814
DCU (EQ): 759
CK: 799 (TU), 803 (EQ)
CS: 798 (TU)

AAoA: 4yr. Last application: 10/2013

Questions:

1. Is the order of application correct/optimized for odds of approval? I really need the first 3, but perhaps the Fidelity one should be applied AFTER the Quicksilver to maximize BOTH begin approved? Should I swap ii and iv assuming Discover is not as strict as Capital One for Quicksilver while STILL getting approved for both?
2. What are the chances that I will be rejected by any of them because I am not a U.S. Citizen?
3. What are the chances that I will be rejected by any of them because I will be applying for all of them within a span of few minutes on same day?
4. How is recon for these cards? Which ones are very picky (Won't be applying for another Chase card in 2 years)
5. Would "send $ to a friend" through PayPal be a foolish way of meeting min spend on these credit cards? (Send as friend to room-mate and she withdraws to her bank?)

The reasons for apporama's are mostly gone, because pulls from one bank are now visible to the next bank within minutes if not seconds. (Back when the concept of apporamas was created, it would takes hours or even a full day for a pull from one bank to be visible to the next bank. But technology has "improved".)

So given that, why bother rushing them together?

Would you recommending doing these a few days apart?

The idea is to get the applications running in multiple browser tabs and lots of copy paste since I will be entering the same information multiple times and having paystubs, DL, tax returns etc available at hand all at the same time.

Copy paste? bother do you auto fill? There is no need to do tax return and stuff in CC apps.

Also, if you're new to credit card game, you want to rethink those credit cards. Except freedom, the rest are not the most optimal ones.

Agreed. I had to google card 4 as I'd never even heard of it. I also see zero value in getting a Cap 1 Quicksilver card if you'd get the Fidelity card, since it gets 1.5% cash back vs. 2% with Fidelity.

1. Be a long, long time before I'd waste my time on a Discover Card. Discover's roots in the Sears credit card are still showing. No bonus for you!

2. Why not focus on other cards that provide big bonuses?

3. Agree with post above that apporamas are not so useful today.

4. Don't overthink things like app order. Look (say, around FT) for good deal bonus cards and apply as needed.

+1 on several points above. App-o-ramas and ordering offer little benefit these days. If 1 HP is the straw that broke the camel's back for an approval then you had bigger issues with your credit profile than just a single HP.

Carefully reassess those cards. Why are you apping for a 1.5% card when you're also apping for a 2% card? While categories can change from year to year, would having both the Freedom and the It really help with rewards on your spend from looking at this year's calendars?

Back up and start with your spend. Identify where the majority of it is going. Use that info to find cards that maximize rewards where the majority of your spend is going.

These scores are not relevant except to creditors that use a TU or EQ VantageScore 3.0. I don't think any of the creditors/product that you've listed so.

The same consideration applies to any score. You must consider the specific scoring model and its relevance to a given creditor/product.

PenFed uses the EQ FICO NG2 but I don't think any of the ones on your list do.

Thank you everyone.

My application experience from CUs that do manual review says that it's easier to get approved if they see old INQ instead of fresh ones. The automated reviews don't seem to care.

My PenFed app required an interview because I had app'd for AmEx and CSP the same day before apping them. I chatted the underwriter up and they said it was better to not see any recent INQ, specially same day. Same is happening with Nusenda because they have manual review. Lots of questions about why I have 8 CCs already and when I am going to close a few etc. They will get back to me today.

Because the Fidelity VISA might not last. A 2% card is pa pretty good offering on VISA.

The It comes with Price protection and that itself could have saved me $620 last BF. My spreadsheet tells me Discover site would have saved me an additional $120.

How is Freedom with portals? Is the Chase portal as good a deal as the Discover portal?

Your call. They are all from different issuers. So it will be a matter of how fast will the HP hit the credit report.

You may want to consider the multiple browser trick.

None. Citizenship is not a consideration factor.

It is possible, depending on how fast the HP hit the report.

This is why the multiple browser trick may work.

I don't think you will have a chance of recon, as the reason for the denial will be too much HPs.

In that case, why not using PayPal Here?