My Big Churn (7 apps today!)
 

Well after reading up on the site for the past week or so, I decided to put my well earned to good use. Sadly I missed out on all the 100k's, but as I live in Bali and United has been amazing to use for to/fro with FF miles, I'm trying to max-up my United (and CO->United). So no waiting around for deals! Churn!

Since everyone here helped out, I thought I'd describe my experience

So tonight I applied for 7 cards. It was recommended to apply all in the same day, so woosh, I didn't mess around.

1. Amex Premiere Gold. Got the 10k link. Looks like there's a new code that I'll bump later. Applied and was not approved, instead it asked me to call up some number. I called, the lady was quite friendly, and said, "hold on while I sort this out." She was gone a bit. I asked her what was up and she said, "Well it wasn't approved because you had two addresses on your credit report but then your credit report only shows one address." Hm, something to look into I suppose

2. Chase Sapphire Preferred. I've already got 2 Chase cards, the last one being the One Pass from a few months ago. Woosh, this one sailed right thru. Approved. I'll bump with the $750 spend code when I get the card.

3. AA Citi Amex. I recently got the AA Visa with 75k. Perhaps I was double dipping here, but it wasn't auto-approved. We'll see. Also not sure if I'll get the miles as people said u should apply for all 3 AA cards concurrently.

4. Amtrak 30k Chase. This one wasn't auto-approved. I figured I'd gone to the well one to many times, but I do need the Amtrak->CO miles.

5. Alaska Airlines 40k Bank of America. Not sure what happened here. I've got 2 BOA cards already. It populated my stuff. Then at the end, it said something about offer not available, but it wasn't clear if it rejected the application or took it. Ah well, sort it out later. Figured I'd go for a BOA card while I was at it.

6. AirTran Barclays. Auto-approved. Hopped right into the online site and things looked funny. Only $3k? I wrote them a note and got speedy replies:

Me: "hey is this the Signature Card I applied for with 16 credits after $750 spend?"

ATB: "Your card has been approved for the level of credit as we evaluate it. You will receive 2 credits after the proper spend" (thanks for being so clear)

Me: "If this isn't the Signature account with 16 credits, I'm not interested, cancel my card."

ATB: "You may cancel your card, just reply that you want it canceled."

Others have complained about Barclay's. I might try calling in - they seem to be a bit unreasonable here. I like how AirTran is rollin into SWA, figured I'd get these while I can, tho apparently the gettin' ain't so easy.

7. Hawaiian Airlines Bank of Hawaii 35k. This one sure looked exactly like the BOA applications. It didn't auto-approve, so we'll see. I'm not a resident of Hawaii, but others have had OK luck.

So all and all pretty good. Not sure what was up with the BOA Alaska app just kinda fizzling.

But I did score 60k for sure, another 65k likely (Gold Amex bump) and who knows what else.

As for the spend - I really don't spend much so I'm just runnin' the cards thru my Google Checkout account. I lose 3%, but getting, say, 75k miles for a $1500 spend is worth the $45 transaction fee to me. Anyone had issues with this, please drop me a note as I need to know!

Any advice for next time appreciated, and I'll be happy to drop back in with an update if people are interested.....

Don't shoot your wad all on 1 day. Better to leave room to apply for the best offers when they come up IMO. Also, do your homework before applying. If you read post #2 of the Citi AA thread you would have saved yourself an inquiry there. Amtrak 30K was a waste of an inquiry. Much better Chase offers to apply for!

How funny - you've deliberately written this in the tone of voice of Frugal Travel Guy (actually it's a bit creepy) without actually following any of his advice?:D

Seriously - read the FT threads (again, if you think you have done so already) about each of the individual cards you have applied for (or will think of applying for in the future), that's my advice. (And it's good advice).

You live in Bali? What could you possibly need miles for, you are already in paradise. :)

your enthusiasm is commendable, some of your tactics need refining. As hikert said you wasted an inquiry or two, one with the citi AA card and the amtrak 30k offer is substandard.

applying in bunches works as it limits the inquiries the competition can see if all done on the same day. I try to do mine in the am so they have all day to process the apps and make sure all inquiries get pulled.

Although your info is indeed confidential it helps to know what your credit scores were and current number of inquiries before the churn so we can compare your results to our own personal situations.

I would have chosen the chase priority club 60k offer over the Amtrak card. each inquiry is worth at a minimum of $500 of value to me or the SW two flights offer which ends 8/8 at 8 am.

Are you planning rail travel in the USA? The Amtrak card is useful for that, but isn't very flexible in terms of transfer to other programs. I believe you need to have $200 in Amtrak spend (plus having the card) before they will let you transfer to another program.

^ my thoughts exactly.:D

Barclays loves to bait and switch as you found out. They did that to me on a Spirit card which I dumped as soon as I discovered the switch.

Amtrak>CO is only if you have status or spend $200 on Amtrak. They open a new route to Bali? If so I'm going by train for my next visit:p

Are you sure about this? Have you tried to pull your reports right after the apps and see if your inquires are there?

It works. Here is a churn I did for my dad July end.

Amex 25K Gold (instant approval, sent secure email, CSR made note to bump to 75K points)
Amex Hilton (instant approval)
Citi AA Business (deferred decision, eventually approved)
Citi Premier Thank you (deferred decision, denied for too many inquiries, thinking of sending recon letter but worried that may result in another pull)
Chase Sapphire (deferred, denied, called to reallocate, approved)
Chase SWA (deferred, denied, had Chase continental in feb, BA in march/april, sapphire above, and then this. When I called for the Sapphire recon, CSR said I could not get both so I took Sapphire. Thinking of calling in 10 days or so when dad will have had the Continental card for 6 months and ask if they can close the continenal card and open the SWA. Any issues?)
BOA - Alaska (deferred then denied for short credit history)
BOA - Virgin Atlantic (deferred then denied for short credit history)

For mom, I will do the same churn except that I will skip BOA since they don't like mom and dad's 1-2 year credit history. Once AMEX gold starts reporting, I think their scores might go higher. The VISA signatures are useless for improving credit scores.

The issue is the day of applications, the competition can't see the other inquiries made on the same day. They will see them several days later, when reported, but not the day you make all the apps.

That is what I am asking about. I have seen EQ inquires on my report the same day as the application. If I can see them then so can everyone else. In the AOR days you could get away with what you are talking about. It looks like it has changed at least with EQ.

I thought the hard pulls are instantaneously on your credit report, which makes sense, but there is still an advantage to doing a bunch in a single day, since the new opened lines of credit take a few days to be on your report.

Having both lots of recent hard pulls and opened lines of credit might be worse than hard pulls only.

Curious....how long are you planning on cancelling the cards after they're been issued?

Fellow mileage guru's!

I'm humbled by everyone's knowledge yet again. You can imagine its quite a lot of info to process, and pull together from about 500 threads. So surely making a few mistakes is just natural, as I get going on this process.

Hm I hadn't seen the advice that each pull is $500. That is good to know.

I didn't see the part about the Amtrak needing a $200 spend, argh. Then again, it's enough points for a cross-country train trip which I wouldn't mind doing!

As for Bali, it is very much paradise for half the year, but when the Aussie's are there en-mass (August'ish) and the rain is pouring for three days straight (Dec/Jan/Feb), I try to get to other places. 65,000 on United gets me to-fro the USA very nicely. Sadly, I can't seem to find any Delta redemption to get over there with my 160k miles....so trying to bank up my CO miles while I can.

Thanks for the advice!