My wife did her five card round of applications on the 17th. Going in her scores were 750 on CreditSesame and the FICO style scale and on Truecredit with the VantageScore scale her numbers were: 949 and 4 inquiries with Transunion, a perfect 990 with 14 inquiries on Experian and 925 with 8 inquiries on Equifax.
Katy currently has 17 open credit cards.
Her scores tend to be slightly higher than mine although she did have a 30 day late in August 2006. She usually applies for just a few less cards than I do and she has cosigned on a student loan for her son so it diversifies her file more than mine. I only have credit card debt.
Our picks for her were:
- Chase United Explorer for 55K – Delayed decision, then approved!
- Chase INK Plus for 50K - Delayed decision, then approved!
- US Airways for 40K - Instant approval
- American Express Gold Business Card for 50K - Instant approval
- Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines card for 35K miles to be transferred to 70K Hilton - Delayed decision
Now lets look at the economic value of this bunch of applications. I’ll assign the value I give for each point earned based on the price where I will use points or miles instead of paying cash for a hotel or flight.
United Explorer 55K x 1.7 cents each = $935
Ink Plus (Ultimate Rewards) 50K x 1.9 cents = $950 (UR are versitile)
US Airways 40K x 1.6 cents = $640
American Express Membership Rewards 50K x 1.6 = $800
Hawaiian card to Hilton x2 =70K Hilton x .5 cents each= $350
The total value of these applications= $3670 of NON taxable income … Not bad 
Deal of the Day
For today’s Deal of the Day American Airlines AAdvantage® has provided 2500 AAdvantage® miles for the best deals, fares, promotions, anything related to American Airlines, their oneworld partners or AAdvantage® partners. Add it to the comments section of this post or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post (with your first name, last initial, and home airport) to be eligible to win.
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