8 Credit Card Applications in the Past 2 Weeks

March 12, 2013 - Howie

No, I didn’t apply for 8 cards in the past 2 weeks… in fact, I haven’t applied for a card since January when I applied for my mortgage refinance and 5 cards in the same day.

In the past 2 weeks I’ve advised my friends on cards they should get. The goal wasn’t to apply for 5 cards, and get 200,000 points and miles, but it was to get them to understand the value in their excess good credit and how to use it for their benefit. With one of the guys, he said no less than 10 times “this just doesn’t make sense… How the heck is this possible??”

Understanding how credit works and how our credit scores work can be confusing, so I made sure to break it all down. With each of the guys we had distinct goals…

Friend 1 – Needed to secure hotel rooms for honeymoon

Chase Hyatt (2 free nights)
Club Carlson Visa (up to 85k points & last night free on award reservation)
Hilton Amex (AXON awards and more Hilton points)

Friend 2 – Needed to get some quality cards and diversify his points portfolio

Chase Sapphire Preferred (everyday use with the SPG Amex he already has)
Chase Ink Bold (Leverage that massive signup bonus and separate personal/business expenses)
US Airways Barclay’s (great signup bonus)
Citi ThankYou Preferred (5x points @ gas, groceries, drug stores)

Friend 3 – Wanted to start slow and figure out how to apply for credit cards

Citi ThankYou Preferred (5x points @ gas, groceries, drug stores)

The best thing about helping these friends… They all now know their credit scores and what their credit reports look like. They’ll use CreditSesame and CreditKarma to keep track of scores, and will use AnnualCreditReport.com to check their reports at least once a year. We used a 7-day risk free trial with ScoreSense.com to get their FICO scores and reports before applying. All were safely above 700 across the board… and we even found a discrepancy in one report that we’ll be calling in about together!

Time spent explaining all the cards / benefits / etc: 4 hours
Time spent applying for the cards: 20 minutes
Joy in helping friends take steps to achieving their travel dreams: priceless

Speaking about credit scores… That was a huge part of the discussion. Expect some detailed posts on how to read and best understand your credit report and why it is important to keep track of dates!

Deal of the Day

For today’s Deal of the Day TopCashback is donating $50 cash (to be deposited to your TopCashback.com account) for the best overall travel deal submitted. A great mileage run, mistake fare, partner promo, new card sign-up offer, or the special twist you figured out on a deal today. Add it to the comments section of this post (along with your First Name, Last Initial, and Airport Code) or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post by TODAY at 11:59pm ET to be eligible to win. That gives you two days to win!

Tommy Botello

In regards to your first sentence…If a person has been holding off on churning because they’re planning on buying a house, will it be alright to finally churn the same day as applying for their mortgage?

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/ Frugal Travel Guy

I only did it because I knew they wouldn’t pull my credit again at closing and that I would be approved … some places will pull again however. Calculated risk -Howie

www.Fishing4Deals.com

Barclaycard has a great targeted sign-up offer for their new travel card, the “Arrival.” 40,000 points after spending $500, no annual fee ever, and no foreign transaction fee. Earn 2 times points on restaurants and all travel expenses. Redeem for travel expenses of $25 or greater. Earn 10 percent back in points for all point redemptions! If all transactions are for travel purchases and redeemed for travel, total value is $455.
Sung_1

SungB (SAN)

For anyone that has US Bank Flexperks card, here are some neat tips with the points:

1. You can earn 2,000 points/year on Daily Feats in less than 5 minutes per quarter.(500 points every 3 months) This can help offset the annual fee which is $69, but they let you pay that using 3,500 points instead. If you factor in Daily Feats, you only need to pay 1,500 points afterwards to cover the annual fee!
http://www.dailyfeats.com/reward/81

2. Although Flexperks is best spent on Airplane tickets since you get 2 cents/point, you could also use it toward Hotels which gives you a value of 1.5cents/point. So with 10k points, you can book up to a $150 stay(after tax). With 20k, you can book a stay up to $300(after tax).

3. Finally, when booking a hotel with Flexperks, use it toward an upgraded room or a room with breakfast! You can select the room options tab and pick a room that has upgrades. For example, the Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley lets you pick a Deluxe Room with Lounge Access for the same number of points as a regular Guest Room. As long as it’s within the point limit($150 for 10k, $300 for 20k, etc.) you should upgrade your room/benefits.
Amy

AmyN (SAN): topcashback.com is giving 100% cashback on the purchase of club-o membership at overstock.com (normally about $20, this membership gives you free shipping and 5% rewards for a year and occasional bonus rewards of much more – shipping is normally $2.95). Going though topcashback.com for other purchases on overstock.com also gives you up to 7% cashback through march 26, 2014 (the highest cashback available). i’m not including my referral link, but set up one acct and refer a friend to get the free club– membership and you can be on your way to earn a $10 referral fee too
http://twitter.com/jessontian Jesson Tian

PengT(ATL): You can save thousands of American Airlines

AAdvantage® miles on your flights. Reduced Mileage Awards allows you to fly to exciting select destinations for 7,500 fewer American Airlines AAdvantage® miles.

Enjoying Reduced Mileage Awards is simple. To start, bookmark reducedmileageawards.citicards.com and check back often to see what exciting adventures are in store. http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/beyondTravel/creditDebit/citi_reduced_mileage.jsp
http://www.facebook.com/david.i.hong David Hong

Hello I book a lot of AA flights using Avios. Could I get credit from AA (AAdvantage Points) for flying those miles?

8 Credit Card Applications in the Past 2 Weeks

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