Thanks UncleB I appreciate the kind words =D
We'll let you know our opinion of Vantage West after a few months, I am really only comfortable using them because my spend on that card will be hyper limited to only one or two 501(c)3's. Too far away and too small for me to really spend on it everywhere like restaurants/travel which would give it a much higher probability of fraud.
Looks like they list of CU's that were pulled were:
TU: US Bank, Chase
EQ: 0, zero, nada
EXP: Chase, Vantage West, FNBO, Amex
USAA used to pull EQ so that might help my score in the future with them, there won't be many new inq's on there (currently 4, 2 within last 12 months). Also strange, is that I think all of the applications I filled out asked for my employer, and someone told the CB's that information, because now my reports actually list my Employer.
I'll be back to let you know what happened to my scores when the accounts drop =D
@digitek wrote:Thanks UncleB I appreciate the kind words =D
We'll let you know our opinion of Vantage West after a few months, I am really only comfortable using them because my spend on that card will be hyper limited to only one or two 501(c)3's. Too far away and too small for me to really spend on it everywhere like restaurants/travel which would give it a much higher probability of fraud.
Looks like they list of CU's that were pulled were:
TU: US Bank, Chase
EQ: 0, zero, nada
EXP: Chase, Vantage West, FNBO, Amex
USAA used to pull EQ so that might help my score in the future with them, there won't be many new inq's on there (currently 4, 2 within last 12 months). Also strange, is that I think all of the applications I filled out asked for my employer, and someone told the CB's that information, because now my reports actually list my Employer.
I'll be back to let you know what happened to my scores when the accounts drop =D
That sounds like a great plan! Please keep us updated with how things go with VW... who knows when I might get the 'itch' again! 
I had the same 'employer' CB experience after my last spree... in my case it was Wells Fargo that updated EX. Not a big deal in my case, but I prefer to have as little 'extra' info there as possible. When I get around to it I plan to have it (and my phone number) removed.
About USAA... you're right that they are known to pull EQ, however for my recent CLI they pulled EX, which was a surprise for me (you'll find occasional reports of EX for a new account, but I had never known them to pull EX for a CLI until my own). I'm not sure if the recent EQ issues with the data breach had any impact or if they would have pulled EX anyway, but I figured I would mention it here just in case (it might have just been a fluke). 
Well that was fast. My CC was approved on Friday, funded once I opened my account and logged in for the first time late on Monday and then on Saturday, I received notification that it had reported to my EX account. It then reported to TU and EQ on Sunday. I've yet to receive the card and it's already reporting. If it's not here today, I may have to contact them. Seems a little long. How long did it take for you to receive your card?
I actually got my card last Monday, it was really fast and one of the first to arrive with Amex on that day.
I logged into their bank portal and initiated a transfer from my main checking to my CU savings account on Wednesday of last week. It arrived in that account this morning, 6 days later. I was able to pay my CC bill immediately at that point though and it was reflected in both accounts instantly.
They do not have an Autopay feature that I could find, but it does look like you can pay the CC bill with an external account without first transferring it to a savings or checking account there. You can setup recurring payments of a set amount on a specific date, which is close to Autopay but not quite the same thing.
Utilities is one of the 5% Categories and I figure it saves me about $100 a year using this card to pay for mine than a 2% card. Not actually sure it is worth it or not yet, but the lack of Autopay kind of wigs me out.
Hope your card is already there or comes soon.
I logged into their bank portal and initiated a transfer from my main checking to my CU savings account on Wednesday of last week. It arrived in that account this morning, 6 days later. I was able to pay my CC bill immediately at that point though and it was reflected in both accounts instantly.
They do not have an Autopay feature that I could find, but it does look like you can pay the CC bill with an external account without first transferring it to a savings or checking account there. You can setup recurring payments of a set amount on a specific date, which is close to Autopay but not quite the same thing.
Utilities is one of the 5% Categories and I figure it saves me about $100 a year using this card to pay for mine than a 2% card. Not actually sure it is worth it or not yet, but the lack of Autopay kind of wigs me out.
Hope your card is already there or comes soon.
I said I would come back here and update the thread with the fall out of this app spree.
After all new Inquiries and Accounts reported I had no Adverse Action or reductions from any lenders, no one freaked. FICO 08 from Amex says 755 just five days ago. The hit was barely noticeable on my credit score, I thought it would be worse.
Still kind of undecided about Vantage West. I talked to a representative on chat and this was the best I could work out for Autopay. They have an option to pay the CC bill automatically from one of their accounts on the due date. You have to call them to set that up, it is not an option on the website that I could find. I had to setup a "Regular Share" savings account when I got the card anyway, so that part was already taken care of. I set my 5% category to Utilities for the card. I have monthly sanitation and gas/electric bill and quarterly water bill. I setup an automatic transfer from my main USAA checking account to the Vantage West Regular share for the amount of my sanitation bill every month, and the amount of water bill every 3 months. My gas/electric company charges me a flat $1.50 fee to use a CC so I just paid them $1k with the Vantage West CC and transfered $1k to the "Regular Share" in order to pay it off. The gas/electric will be credited enough for about 6 months of bills. This is about as good as "Autopay" that I could get when using an external checking account to pay the bill. I'll be keeping tabs on it that the system works for the first few months, though =D
Thanks for the update digitek. I suspected that you wouldn't have had too much of a credit score hit with the new additions.
As far as VW goes, I like them so far. I have yet to use the card however, so haven't had to pay a bill (although I push all my payments), so I'll have to see how easy (or hard) that is to set up through one of my banks. While the card is really nothing to write home about (very fake looking to be honest), I love that I can set up my 5% categories for a whole year. I hate having to select my categories every quarter like I do with US Bank. I haven't tried it yet, but I wonder if I can set up for 2018 second quarter, and then change it before the start of the quarter. Or would I be stuck with whatever category I select. If one can change it, then that would be a great way to plan ahead, and should something change, you can go back and select another category. I also like that I received the lowest interest rate on the CC, even though my FICO 9 score was in the low to mid 720s.