700K+ Miles Earned in 7 weeks. Should I cool it a bit?
 

Ok, so since I joined this great place 2 months ago here is what I've done to get my projected 700K miles.

AA Citi visa me = 75K
AA Citi visa mom = 75K
BA Chase = 100K
CO Chase = 50
Amex gold = 75K (if use 50% bonus on BA = 112K)
Amex gold for mom = 75K (if use 50% bonus on BA = 112K)
Amex gold Business = 75K (if use 50% bonus on BA = 112K)
Fidelity account = 50K
BankDirect .... will get 7-9K / mo AA miles

I am waiting a bit (1-2 more months) to apply for;
AA Citi Biz = 75K
Chase Sapphire = 50K

Should I cool it a bit? Am I close to going a bit overboard or is everyone here as aggressive if not more? I have not booked a single trip so far but believe me ... I'll fly Business and First very soon.

I would sign up for a free credit monitoring service to check your inquiries (make sure it's one that shows you all 3 agencies). If you don't have many hits on transunion I would try the Barclays no fee US Airways card.

yea I know it kind of kills the score but it will go up shortly. I am not planning on getting a mortgage in the next 6-12 months.

just curious to know if I am being too aggressive or if it's all good and average on this forum

I got a Citi AA card, Citi AA business card, Capital One card, and Chase CO card over about a 3 month period. I'll probably still keep getting more if good offers come along.

I think you should go for 1Mil. As long as you keep getting approved, keep going. Once you hit your first decline, then stop.

Igor, I'm not talking about the small impact on your credit score. I'm talking about the number of inquiries showing up on your credit report for each of the agencies. If you have good credit, inquiries do not impact your score much. What's more important is how many inquiries you have with the agency they pull to check your credit. Assuming there are no other issues with your credit, the number of inquires can be deciding factor vs. approval or denial. The more inquiries you have and the more recent they are, the less likely you will be approved. If you have a small number of inquiries showing up for a given agency you should look at applying for cards that are likely to pull that agency. It is an educated guess as to what agency will be pulled but it's a good bet that barclays will pull transunion.

I actually got denied once on my 2nd app for AA Citi Amex right after I applied for Visa. Other then that, I am getting approved.

just thinking that maybe it's a bit too aggressive. I mean I am holding myself back right now from doing the AA Citi Business card app. Want to give it 3 more weeks, so that it would be a clean 2 months between apps.

If you refer to bragging then yes.

Why?

BankDirect, Fidelity, cc's for you mom dont go on your report. So thats only 5 inq's I see for you. I doubt they are all on the same report... find out which reports have inq's, and which dont, then find cc's that you can apply for that would pull your other bureau's.

Until you check your credit and inquiries with all 3 agencies there's no way to tell if you're being too aggressive. There isn't one answer for everyone.

For that time Mr. Pickles picked up 1.6 Million miles and banned from Chase forever. :)

Should have applied for 2 Citi cards for yourself for more miles, and made them 100k cards- supported by coin purchases. You would have been closer to 850k. :)

Are you getting the miles for your moms cards? If so, PM me how that works.

Use creditkarma.com to see what it does with your score and make decission based on that.

If his mom agrees, she can always book a ticket for him with her account. Other than BA I don't know anyway of combining airline accounts.

I really wish my DH would apply or let me apply for these offers for him. Stubborn man :sigh:

This is excellent advice, Hiker T! And may I suggest to you Igor, that if you do not already follow Frugal Travel Guy's blog, that you do so. There is invaluable information to be had there about credit, cards, churning, etc. As Rick says, your credit is your most valuable asset!