cyberkost said:Shorten the list? Group cards from the same issuer? Reduce the number of cards applied (e.g., in view of recent CITI A/A). Verify that promo terms are still available on the cards as there have been a number of changes (for the worse) reported recently.

What reason is there to shorten the list?
I ordered the applications by order of importance, not issuer.
I went through the list a few days ago and all the terms are the same.

ShaneM said:What reason is there to shorten the list?
cyberkost's ideas are if you are adverse-action-averse. Citibnk has been much touchier with recent AOR activity and lots of apps. Grouping cards for one bank at a time means they won't see one application with only 1 inquiry on the credit report, and later in the day, another app with 10 inquiries (which would arouse suspicion).

Personally, I'd still sort the apps (however many) by desirability).

cyberkost said:ShaneM said:What reason is there to shorten the list?
I ordered the applications by order of importance, not issuer.
I went through the list a few days ago and all the terms are the same.

Perhaps I'm just more conservative than the average ... and the things I suggested were just that -- suggestions (thus the question mark after each). If you've considered all of them already -- great! Unfortunately, I cannot be much more specific than those general suggestions for the reason that I'm not on top of the AOR issues at the moment. The little I think I can add is as follows:
1) do you need two BOA cards? I'd go for just the NEA card, b/c it comes with 12 mo 0% BT, b/c 2 BOA apps would mean 2 EX hards to me, b/c reallocation with BOA is usually easy, b/c you seem to be close max exposure with BOA with your IOWA card
2) grouping by issuer (not ordering by issue) -- Mark has already commented on that, but another benefit observed occasionally is that one could get more than one card on a single CRA pull
3) there have been "issues" with National Citi and Principal (the nature of which I don't recall) -- have you researched that information?

Thanks for the comments.

1) I am only applying for the 2nd BOA card if the 1st one is an instant decline.
2) Interesting. I see the advantage there but I think I'm still going to stick with ordering by desirability.
3) I have not; I'll look into it though.

ShaneM said:cyberkost said:
3) there have been "issues" with National Citi and Principal (the nature of which I don't recall) -- have you researched that information?
3) I have not; I'll look into it though.
Check my AOR thread. Somewhere in there is a post from dougneb, who National City wanted a pile of docs on for what became a $10K CL. I also documented the decline reasons behind my National City app; they may be inquiry and new account-sensitive.

dolmar and his pile 'o financial uberpower, on the other hand, had a positive experience with them (also in the thread).

I'm pulling my credit 25 times; I guess I might as well try for Nat City.

Experian posted the new balance, and my score jumped to 796. I'm going to try to do this Monday afternoon.

Pulled the trigger at 11am CST.

Long story short: 4 approvals, 0 rejections, 13 deferrals, and 4 no-apps for various reasons. I'll update later as I get more information.

Data point = National City pulled credit (TU) 2 days later. Boo on them.

Also, got approved for $6500 for Discover. Consolidated and now have 16250 for BT.

Citibank and the co-branded versions have rejected 4/6 apps. Maybe it has to do with that $30K at 0% I've still got from them ?

Data point = Juniper bank atlantic pulled experian 9 days later, yet approved me for $25K.

Shane, how long have you been at your current address? That sometimes causes problems (usually not that severe, though)