Credit Profile: 25 Years Old, 7 years credit history, $50K/year income, single, rent
Gameplan: Hit as many creditors as possible for 2-3 cards each, hopefully get the sign up bonuses then transfer the limits onto one card from which I can get a 0% BT offer.
Potential Problems: I was past due 60 days 3 years ago (not my fault but direct loans will not budge and I can't prove otherwise to the credit bureaus) but have since been approved for all the cards I currently own
Recent Move (2 months ago) = Address Problem
Credit Bureaus not showing me as being employed
Fico: ~700
Cards I own:
Chase Cash Plus (Original Limit: $500, CLI Increased to: $4,500 limit-no hard pull) - 10% utilization, 1 Year Bank of America Plat: (Original Limit: $2,000 CLI Increased to: $4,500 limit) - 0% utilization, 2 1/2 Years Bank of America Choice Privledges: (Original Limit: $4,000, CLI Increased to: $8,600 limit) - 0% utilization, 4 Months Citi AAdvantage ($8,500 limit - Does not report CL, CLI Increase denied without hard pull) - 0% utilization, 10 Months + Student Loans: Direct Loans $26,000 Citi Loans $10,000 AES: $8,000
Cards I applied for in the following format (Cards appear in the order I applied for them):
1) Chase United, 25,000 miles & 0% APR for 6 months, Deferred->Approved, CL: $10,000 2) Juniper US Airways, 25,000 miles + 0% BT offer for 6 months Instant Approval, CL: $7,500 3) Citi AAdvantage Business, 20,000 miles, Deferred->Approved, but citi needs proof of address, CL: Unknown 4) Juniper Midwest, 30,000 miles + 0% BT offer for 6 months (FYI: $69 annual fee) - Deferred->Denied: "Sufficient Credit with Juniper" 5) Bank of America USAirways Signature, 25,000 miles + 0% APR for 6 months, $40 card offers ($90 annual fee), Deferred->Approved, CL: $8,000 6) AMEX Starwood, 10,000 Starwood Points, Instant Approval, CL: $3,000 7) First USA Bank NWA Worldperks - 20,000 miles (FYI: $90 annual fee), Deferred->Approved, CL: $10,000 8) Citi Pimier Pass Elite, 15,000 TY Points (30,000 when matched by flight points) + 0% BT w/ no BT fee, Deferred->Approved, but citi needs proof of address, CL: Unknown 9) Chase Sony Card, $100 statement credit & 0% for 12 months, Deferred->Approved, CL: $0, had to move Balance from other cards to open 10) AMEXDelta Gold, 17,500 Miles, Deferred->Approved, CL: $2,400 11) Discover Miles Card - 12,000 "miles" (good for $100 credit & 0% BT for 12 months w/ NO BT FEE & $40 card offers, Deferred->Approved, CL: $5,000 12) Bank of America Platinum Plus, Free Ipod + $50 statement Credit, Deferred->Approved, CL: $0, had to move CL from other cards 13) Chase Marriat, Category 1-4 Free Night voucher + 15,000 points good enough for another free night & $40 from cardoffers, Deferred->Approved, CL: $5,000 14) Citi MTVU Card, 5% on restaurants (hoping Citi will think I'm still enrolled seeing as I am a recent graduate) & $33 Cardoffers, Deferred->Approved, but need to confirm student status, which I will be unable to do 15) Juniper Spirit Airlines, 25,000 miles + 0% BT for 6 months, Deferred->Denied: "Sufficient Credit with Juniper" 16) Providian/Wamu, Access to credit score + 0% APR for 12 months, Instant Approval, CL: $750 17) (Tiger Direct) AMEX Business Gold, $150 Gift Card + $100 Statement Credit + 5,000 points (to be transfered into miles), Deferred->Approved, CL: None, Cha
New Credit so far: $48,950 + Citicards that have yet to come in
Summary: 3/17 for instant approval 15/17 total approval rate
The instant approval rate had me worried, however after the fact I must consider this app-o-rama a major success.
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I think the Spirit Onyx card is also through Juniper.
I believe there is a US Air card offer through Juniper for the annual fee waived for two years. Search here or Flyertalk for it.
The Juniper Travelocity card might also be looking into. I don't know what Juniper's deal is when you AOR cards, although I've heard they like to limit the number of cards you get and they like very low risk users (which I don't know if you really fit the profile of).
AMEX SPG or HHonors? There's a big HHonors bonus offer right now (40k points bonus plus some 10k stay bonus or something like that).
I would definitely apply for the Citi Business AAdvantage card while you are at it, just tell them you are a sole proprietor.
You have some pretty low lines already and some significant installment balances on top of the one 60 day late, so I'm not sure how this will go for you.
The Juniper Travelocity card might also be looking into. I don't know what Juniper's deal is when you AOR cards, although I've heard they like to limit the number of cards you get and they like very low risk users (which I don't know if you really fit the profile of).
I got this card a few weeks after doing my recent AOR and after a lot of inquiries...instant approval for what it is worth...
Try to bump up your CLs before you start. Try to get CLIs online from Citi & BofA (saw a thread w/a link for BofA online CLI somewhere). And call Chase and ask for a CLI WITHOUT doing a hard pull.
I was gonna say you should get a Citi Premierpass Elite (15k bonus pts) and some other Citi card (that offers 10k bonus pts) so that you would have enough to get a free domestic airline ticket (25k required, right?).. but you already have 2 Citi cards picked, and yea, I'd rather go to Europe too. Than again, with all the travelling you plan to do, a Premierpass might do you good with its flight pts bonus thing.
AMEX SPG is good too. 20k starwood pts = 25k airline miles for a lot of carriers. you should check it out.
maddybeagle said: I got this card a few weeks after doing my recent AOR and after a lot of inquiries...instant approval for what it is worth...
Good to know! Speaking of which, what would be the order people would apply for these? If I applied in the order of which I want the cards I would go with:
1) United 2) US Airways (Juniper) 3) AAdvantage 4) Midwest 5) US Airways (BofA) 6) MTVU 7) Delta Skypoints/Skymiles 8) Spirit 9) NWA 10) Providian/Wamu 11) Marriat 12) Discover Miles
On the other hand I know that some cards would be harder to get approved for than others. Pehaps juniper (at least US Airways and Midwest) and AMEX should be first? It's really hard to guess at this. Any experiences App-o-ramers?
Khabibul35 said:Just graduated, plus I heard they don't enforce the student rule.They asked me for a letter from my registrar when I applied last month.
Well, I think the important thing to think of is how you want to manage your various miles and points programs (and flyertalk may be a better place for that than here).
If you get miles on 5 different airlines, is that going to help you much if you do most of your flying with one? (and if you do a lot of flying, then sticking with one airline can get you some nice status perks).
Then you have the additional wrinkle of "external" points that can be used for travel, Thankyou points, Discover points, Travelocity, Membership Rewards, whatever. I've heard that, especially for non-elite flyers, these external systems can be a better value, since they often have more seats available.
Some random tips:
1) There's no such thing as applying for too many cards in an AOR (until you get lots of instant rejections).
2) I like your odds of getting a lot of apps accepted, but maybe not huge credit limits.
3) Like others, if you can get soft CLIs on your existing cards, try, and then wait a month for that to be reflected on your credit report.
4) The business AAdvantage card is a good idea since you've already got a personal one. I did the sole proprietorship thing as well. You can then get a business premierpass while you're at it.
5) If you stay at Hiltons, the AMEX Hilton card is very excellent (no fee, lots of points). I got one just for paying for hotel stays with (other cards for everything else). If you don't stay at Hiltons, it's pretty worthless. As mentioned, there's a promo out there for 40k hilton points if you spend a lot on it in a year.
6) After the credit apps, consider opening a Fidelity account, and double-dipping the $100 cash, and up to 25,000 miles on either United or American. You should have enough cash floating around after a couple of 0% BT's.
charliek said:Try to bump up your CLs before you start. Try to get CLIs online from Citi & BofA (saw a thread w/a link for BofA online CLI somewhere). And call Chase and ask for a CLI WITHOUT doing a hard pull.
Chase is the only one I have had a problem with the pulls. They refuse me everytime and tell me that a hard pull is necessary for ANY credit increase. Bastards
OK guys, thanks. I successfully got 3/4 cards to increate Credit Limit.(And updated thread) Will hold off on the app-o-rama for a month. Hopefully the bonuses don't expire between now and then.
By the way, what do you guys think of the bonuses? I think it's pretty good stuff. In my opinion the 7 RT tickets + bonuses + 0% BT offers will be worth ~$4,000 which I think is good for a first App-o-rama (crossing my fingers that I get approved for most of them).
Anyway, I'll update within the month to tell you the order I applied and approved CLs, etc. Thanks for the tips, but keep em coming if you have more.
Try disputing the account with the neg on it the day before the app-orama. Apparently others have found that if you have a dispute open on an account that nothing regarding the account will show up on pulls at that point. Combine this with a couple of pulls from yourself to make sure it is off the record before app-o-rama for better success
With a high credit score and the problem being almost 3 years away, I just assumed this wouldn't be a problem and it looks like it was a correct assumption.
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Than again, with all the travelling you plan to do, a Premierpass might do you good with its flight pts bonus thing.
