No, sorry.. I was talking about those Amex invitations for 75K.
I got shafted by Barclays with lower card and closed that one already.

IMHO, prohibition on playing poker in most of the USA is a good thing - I don't think you can get a lot of wealth out of gambling (unless you're an owner of a gambling outlet of course).

I'd keep going until the first rejection. Might as well do it all at once.

Then, a couple years down the road, blow through another big cycle again.

I just posted on the AA deals yesterday and advised to do 2 personal and 1 business later :)

Very true. Your posts are by far the most realistic ones - especially about the "score in other areas."

The caveat is - that is Your Experience, but not necessarily apply to all others.

For a good number of people, this is the general case. However for folks that are younger, or not have a long credit history, they may be subject to more restrict rules.

One thing that is a bit of misleading is, people reading the posts on internet and often fall into a "cookie cutter" mentality - in reality, more often than not the general rules may not apply.

I definitely have seen denials with only 3 inquiries in 6 months from helping others in playing this game.

Or you can do the business first, then the 2 personals later - if you are denied by the "first time customer only" on the personal cards - wait long enough to do the pair of personal and you may get it. Worked for me, in the exact reverse sequence.

(QUOTE) Rick has has a good blog for newcomers but I'm not that impressed with his expertise. About a year ago I asked his advice on signing up for multiple AA citi cards and he just said "who knows, give it a try". Someone who knew their stuff would have recommended to do the 2 personal, then 1 business later. Lesson learned and it cost me a lot of miles. TPG's blog is more useful IMO.[/QUOTE]

I respectfully disagree with your characterization of our discussion. About one year ago we were all in a quandry as to Citi's current position on multi card applications. I will always give information I believe to be correct and not suggest plays that I am not sure of. At the time, no one was aware of what Citi was doing. That same situation exists today, although evidence is mounting that the 2 personal on one day and 1 business later is the correct play. It is easy to give correct advice when there is a body of evidence.

For those of you that believe you have Citi definitely figured out, congratulations, you know more than their own employees.

Don't take it personally Rick, I take your advice as just another datapoint (I suppose my opinion of expertise is all relative to the bar set by those I considered experts back in the days of the BT offers). You seemed surprised when Capital One pulled all 3 bureaus. That's been established for a very long time. You have a good blog and one of the reasons I got back into the CC signup game to accumulate miles after the 0% balance transfer game dried up. FWIW, I don't consider myself an expert either.

BTW, in regards to Citi, the rule of thumb back in the day was 2 apps every 60 days. To be safe, I would advise the OP to wait at least 60 days for the business app.

That is funny.

I'm glad to see these summaries of rules, even if there is still some YMMV.

I don't think you should cool it on earning miles... you should cool it on letting everyone on Flyertalk, and the world, know who you are and how much you are earning. You are setting yourself up to be a target by announcing how many miles you have in your accts.

So far, everyone knows: You handle, what city you are from, and how many miles you have in different accounts.

Don't be surprised if you are a victim of identity fraud sometime soon.

Word to the wise: Keep your mouth shut!

Must have a lot of money laying around to reach those spending amounts on all those cards...

Hmmm after reading through this thread, I would say this:

Keep going on the apps until you get denials and then keep trying even still.

For example:
I applied for 3 cards on 5/13 and got initially denied on all the them. But I researched and contacted the back offices of them all once 'the letters' came and was able to get approvals on all 3.

In my case, we have no mortgages but we do have a sizable equity line with one major bank. I established that this is our only debt and because of that, the card companies were able to reconsider things in terms of assets and debts. (It actually would be better for one's credit to have a mortgage than an EQ line, btw, but that's what we got for now and so be it)

In one above case, I got a denial from Chase on a card app and so I called them back and asked them to simply approve this new card and do so by taking some of the credit line from an existing Chase card. While they were about to do just that, they ended up instead just giving me the new card with an added limit. To my delight on that phone call, they did not end up even needing to take credit from the other Chase card to make it happen. In terms of what cards have which limits, I have since been able to change the credit limits on my Chase cards by simply calling in and asking them to move the availability around. Chase lets one do this sometimes.

In terms of money and miles...
Well, let's say for the sake of argument that on all your cards combined, you could potentially max out or nearly max out all of them in one day purchases on things like coins, gift cards and a bunch of other things buried within the many threads of this fine forum...

Let's also say that you could do this 3x per month...

Let's say that figure is about $50,000 x3, rendering a combined 150,000 points & miles per month...

Well, then, by God man! I say go for it! And keep it up til ya cant no more!
That's what this place is all about, ryt?

Just don't tell too many outside friends or family. They'll either want your miles or think you're crazy for doing all this or both.

After all, wasn't it the famed ski film maker Warren Miller who once said:

"Ski it, and ski it now, because if you don't, you'll be one year older when ya do!"

:)MM!

Not go for more miles? This is the kind of comment that could get you thrown out of FlyerTalk! :p

To summarize HikerT somewhat:
- banks care about the number of hard inquires a lot (too many in a short period and they worry you've befallen some financial hardship)
- banks look at the percentage of your total credit usage/credit limit ratio. Too high and they worry what additional credit will do to your ability to pay
- average age of accounts matters a little- keep all your old no-fee cards.
- above all: pay your bills on time!

Also remember if you are initially declined you can call or write for reconsideration. I applied for and was approved for the SPG, Chase CO, US Air, AA Citi Personal, Chase BA, and Cap One Venture card in a 3 month period.

After 3 months (last week), I applied for the Sapphire card and was initially declined. I called the reconsideration line and after being denied again twice by the agent and once more by his supervisor, she finally relented and gave me the card.
** she wouldn't give it to me without closing another card, but since I had already cashed in the CO Chase points, I closed that one to get the Sapphire card.