Steps to Take Before My Next Credit Card Applications

January 14, 2013 - Rick

Step One: When can I do it. I wait at least 91 days since my last application and check my last date by going to Truecredit.com and looking at the dates of my last two years worth of inquiries. You probably won’t use TrueCredit as I’m grandfathered in at $9.95 per month for their service and I think they are some ridiculous $34 of something now for new members. Find one that will show you your dates of previous inquiries. My last batch was 9/18/2012 and it looks like Amex slipped a check up on me in on 10/30 so I’ll wait until February 2nd just to be safe. My 12/19 report shows 104 total accounts on my report with 20 open accounts. I update my score again after 1/19/2013 which is my next available date for a free update to check my scores one last time. They are all high 700′s so no worries, other than step #2.

Step Two: Pay down my balances. I’ve been hitting the gift cards heavy due to Christmas and have a balance of over 80% of available credit on one card. That can cause concern for card issuers so I need to get that taken care of before the actual application date. I like my balances on each individual card and in aggregate at less then 50% of available credit and preferably less than 30%. In all reality when I am hitting on all cylinders my outstanding balances are usually in the 8% range of available credit, but like I said I bought lots of gift cards at one particular office supply store this last couple weeks

Step Three: Pick the card suspects. This is getting harder and harder as I’ve had almost all of them. I know in March my Amex Plat card from Mercedes Benz runs out so a new Plat card may be in order. Katy just scored on the 100K offer so we have lounge access when she is with me. My Marriott card has been closed for at least two years so that is a possibility to reapply for. I hae not had the Hilton Reserve card and that status runs out soon, but we have over 600K of Hilton points. I have a question for all of you:

Are you happy with the Club Carlson cards? Can I get personal and business at the same time? I have a Country Inn and Suites near me at the Savannah airport but really have little experience with them. How are they treating you as far as card approvals and are you happy at the hotels?

Step Three doesn’t end until the day of the applications as a new offer may show up, a new trip idea may require more points or miles in a certain program, or a friend may need points I don’t have at the time.

Its fluid. Its fun. and if well prepared, payday is soon on the way.

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Our winners from last week’s post:

XL Pajamas - Chung Sau Li
XL Pajamas - Shirley
Thai Amenity Kit - R Gage

The last amenity kit I had already promised to someone; my apologies.

Please email rick@frugaltravelguy.com with your address so I can get the prize out to you.
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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 by 11:59PM ET (with your first name, last initial, and home airport) to be eligible to win.

http://www.michaelwtravels.com/ Michael W Travels

In regards to the Club Carlson cards- do you have another US Bank card? I have the Flexperks card. I was approved for a Club Carlson Biz card but denied for a personal. The reason being was too many recent card apps plus already have the othe US Bank card. I’d also like to hear what other people’s success has been like?
James L JFK

NY-Kona, Hawaii via LAX for $473

Valid for travel from 1/8–3/6 for Monday through Thursday departures.

http://www.theflightdeal.com/2013/01/14/american-new-york-kona-hawaii-473-roundtrip-including-all-taxes/
Lauren

Southwest is offering $100 flights or less on some of their nonstop routes on February 14th
Kathryn Ivey

Starting today through Feb 15, 2013, FTD is back with its fabulous 30 AA miles per dollar for Valentine’s Day Flowers and Gifts. Make sure you go to http://www.aa.com then Aadvantage portion, news and offers there you will see the offer. Click shop now and pick up miles. Put a smile on someone’s face and your AA account. Kathryn I – OKC
Marc W, JFK

Wyndham Rewards has devalued their reward nights without any notice. Some of the new redemption rates are an astounding 45,000 points now, up from 16,000. Since the Wyndham points seemed to have lost a lot of value and many people purchased these points for very cheap from the Daily Getaways…you can redeem them for AA miles at a decent rate (probably better than a night at a Wyndham hotel). The redemption rates are:

8,000 Wyndham points = 3,200 AA miles

17,500 Wyndham points = 7,000 AA miles
30,000 Wyndham points = 12,000 AA miles

You can also buy 1,000 Wyndham points for $11 if you need to top off the account to get to the next conversion level.
Marc W, JFK

Here is a great way to save $150 when changing an award flight from one origin/destination airport to another. If you book a flight in Business SAAver for instance and want to change the airport from let’s say LGA to JFK, ordinarily there would be a $150 charge associated with the change per person. However, a clever and easy trick is to ask the agent to rebook you in Economy AAnytime at the new airport (JFK) which costs the same amount of miles for your trip as a Business SAAver most of the time and does not include the $150 change fee since no change fee is charged for an AAnytime ticket. Once your ticket is officially ticketed (pretty short wait), call back AA and have the agent just rebook you in Business SAAver instead of Economy AAnytime. This will allow you to change to your preferred airport once availability opens up and for no charge at all…just a couple of phone calls to AA.
http://www.facebook.com/billcrewsdc Bill Crews

AAdvantage related travel tip: When booking an Explorer RTW trip using miles, be sure to have the agent price the trip in a regular manner, not just the Explore rates (i.e 25K-35K flight miles for 280K AA Miles) Instead of an illegal trip (two transits thru HKG) for 280K AA Miles, I booked 32K flight miles in 4 separate OneWay segments for 250K AA Miles DCA-ORD-SFO-HKG-SIN-HKG-JNB-CPT-LHR-DFW-DCA
James C

Spirit Airlines Giving Away 20 Million Frequent Flyer Miles in New Orleans TODAY! (Monday, January 14th)

You’ll get a free 20k voucher for each person!

http://ir.spirit.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=732843

James C – MSY
disqus_MqY1uBA5Xz

Just to confirm, Rick, the follow-up inquiry on 10/30 from Amex was a hard? This would be the first time I’ve heard of them doing that. Thanks.
kpt

So, does anyone have any advice on what a great credit monitoring service is?

I’ve tried creditkarma, and I like it, but it doesn’t let me see details like the dates of various inquiries.

Rick points out that truecredit is pricey.

Creditsesame (besides hanging for a long time when I try to update things in my browser) doesn’t seem to give details like creditkarma, though they do offer to get a full report from all three agencies for nine bucks.

AnnualCreditReport.com just seems like a scam (they won’t tell you what it costs up front on the home page, they just keep talking about the teaser free trial), though maybe I’m being paranoid.

Anyone got a favorite? I’d like something that lets me check full details on a regular basis from (I guess) at least one agency, if not all three. And I’d like it to be relatively inexpensive, though I’m willing to pay some.
Pingback: Deal Of The Day – TopCashback – January 15, 2013 | Frugal Travel Guy
Justin

I’m actually typing this from a Country Inns & Suites. This is my first week staying with the chain. It’s not bad for a lone business traveler. I applied for the Personal Visa Premier Card last week and was approved (score low 700s). Gold Status won’t kick in until I’ve activated and used once. This is a great value for my circumstances!!! I plan on getting the top tier Concierge Level off of business travels this year and then using the card for the last night free redemption bonus. Elite Rollover Nights are huge in maintaining status and the card guarantees at least Gold every year (50% Bonus, upgrades, 2,000 points for online booking).
Fanfoot

@kpt – I’m using the Citi Identity Monitor Service. Pretty sure I found the trick for getting the $4.95/month rate on Mommy Points. Yes it shows the dates of inquiry and gives you real credit scores for all three services.

@FTG – I had assumed it was a little more complex, e.g. each of the 3 credit agencies looks at your credit balances etc once a month or so (I certainly don’t get the impression they change daily) and then when you apply for a bunch of cards the card companies query each of the agencies for your score. So the point would be to get your balances down well before your applications so that the credit agencies show a high score and you get approved. How much before I’m not really clear…
http://twitter.com/milesmomma1 Miles Momma

RE: Club Carlson cards. US Bank doesn’t know which end is up. I applied with double browser for both business & personal cards at the same day. Called later that day. They said business app couldn’t verify me so I was denied. Never had this explanation. I have several business cards with many other lenders. They had no report of my personal application. Called back a few days later, they said I was denied because they couldn’t verify me and gave me some random credit company to get my report which I had never heard of. Some strange company they use. I called the company and requested my report and also faxed them verification information they wanted. Called a few days later still no record of any personal application. I knew for sure it went through as I receive the same confirmation message. The phone rep tells me to just wait and see if I get a letter because it may be coming she just can’t see anything. I was very annoyed at this point. My credit scores are 780, 795 & 804 with no debit. Lots of inquires of course but rarely ever a denial in years. So I let it rest and after about 2 weeks to my surprise there is my new Club Carlson Business Visa. I call again now about the personal card. Still no record of the application. Then, again about a week later my Club Carlson personal card shows up. 10,000 credit limit on one & 17,000 on the other. See what I mean about US Bank doesn’t know what end is up. How in the world could you have a card processed and approved through the system and no one could even find it. Overall, very displeased with the application process. What a joke!

The only good thing I have to say is that they did post my first purchase 50,000 points at the close of the first statement. I met the min. spend in the first month as well and called inquiring why they didn’t post the full bonus. I was told that they don’t post the remaining 35,000 bonus points until the end of the 90 days. Lame! Anyway, I don’t give them high reviews but still happy to have the cards & points. Some deals are more work than others! Planning a couple stays in April at Radisson Blu Galway, Ireland and Radisson Blue St. Helen near Dublin. Will see how this property are. I primary and planning to use these points for international destinations where I feel they have great value. Park Inn Prague is a great property. Visited in August of last year. Wrote a review here if you’d like to check it out http://milesmomma.com/czech-republic-adventure-prague-a-beautiful-city-untouched-by-time/

Steps to Take Before My Next Credit Card Applications

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