About to leave the garden, want a strategy

[Anonymous]

A spree like that would likely drop you below 700. And your credit profile will ultimately determine what kind of limits you get. Not sure why you'd need CSP as well as Venture since they're both travel cards. And are those inquiries over 2 years new accounts? CSP would be out if so. AMEX is also very inquiry sensitive.

Lots of unanswered questions, really the only way to find out is to go through with it and see what happens, but don't be shocked to find a few denials.

[Dalmus]

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@mccallb wrote:
I am currently considering getting some new cards with specific rewards for the new year.
.
I'd love amex plat, bcp, the csp and perhaps venture.

I'm around a 720 score now and wanting to keep my app spread between ex and eq equally.

Util is 15 aaoa is 3.5. 0 INQ last 12 mo 5 INQ last 2 yr.

How bad would it be to app/open all 4 of those on the same mo? Would it hurt too bad or be fine? I'm going to get enough purchases overy the next two months to justify it. (Wife is 7 mo preg) so it'd louver top rack up ppints on my spending spree.

I would love to stay above 700, and after a month or so do some cli on my existing cards (boa/usaa)

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  Do you plan on financing anything in the next 12 months, like a car or house?  I only ask because babies change household priorites!  If so, it would be best to avoid an app spree until after you've secured financing.  4 cards in one month will probably drop you below 700.

 How many cards do you have now?   Your score would take a bigger hit if you want to open 4 new cards and you only have 2 cards now... But if you have, say, 10 cards, your AAOA wouldn't be hurt as much.

 Any particular reason you can't ask for a CLI on your existing cards now?

If you're not planning on any financing anytime soon, then your score really doesn't matter (within reason!).  If you get all four cards in one month, your AAoA will take a hit, but garden for a year and the damage will repair itself and then some.  If you only have two cards, don't be surprised to get a denial or two, though.

[mccallb]

I have six cards right now. I am not doing any thing new next year. I just bought my house and new car a year ago so I'm good to hold off. All our spending wI'll be on the nursery or stuff for the little one.

I can ask for cli but the boa and usaa don't have great rewards. I don't need money, I just want to capitalize on earning bonus points on the 10k or so I'm going to spend in the next 3 months. Hence two similar cards but each with min spend for bonus points.

[mccallb]

I'll have to double check the inqs but they are all from las year when i bought my house, car and one credit card.

I know there is some INQ sensitivity which is why I was hoping to split up the inqs between cras

[tntexans72]

If you are truly concerned about getting a big hit if you do a spree, why not just app 1, wait 3-4 months and app another? Spread them out, I know it's easier said than done but at least you will know how your score will be effected by the new accounts.

If you look at the fico scoring model, the two most important factors account for 65% of your scores....amounts owed/payment history. The other 2 factors are 25% of your scores...new credit/length of history. The remaining 10% is credit mix. I would say expect at least a 15% drop in your scores if you decide to go on a spree. Just my speculation so good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@mccallb wrote:
I am currently considering getting some new cards with specific rewards for the new year.
.
I'd love amex plat, bcp, the csp and perhaps venture.

I'm around a 720 score now and wanting to keep my app spread between ex and eq equally.

Util is 15 aaoa is 3.5. 0 INQ last 12 mo 5 INQ last 2 yr.

How bad would it be to app/open all 4 of those on the same mo? Would it hurt too bad or be fine? I'm going to get enough purchases overy the next two months to justify it. (Wife is 7 mo preg) so it'd louver top rack up ppints on my spending spree.

I would love to stay above 700, and after a month or so do some cli on my existing cards (boa/usaa)

---

Sure you'd take a short-term hit to your score if you opened four cards around the same time.  But as others have pointed out, if you're not going to apply for a mortgage loan in the next 6 to 12 months who cares?  In my own experience, my scores were around the 680 - 690 range back when I opened a few new accounts in July, then dropped below 650 (one of them hit 628 at one point) in September.  But here we are in December and they've climbed up to the 719 - 728 range, which is higher than ever for me.

Of the cards you've mentioned, I've had experience with the BCP and the Venture.  I like them both.  BCP is great for gas and groceries (think about all the diapers and formula!), and the $250 opening bonus pays 3 or 4 years of the AF.  We also got something like 18 months of 0% APR on purchases and transfers.  For the Venture, you'll need to be able to use the $400 opening bonus on travel expenses, which might be difficult in your situation with a new baby.  Same for redeeming the 2% cash back towards travel expenses.  The generally larger SLs with Venture also help pad the UTIL while you pay down all those expenses -- I got a $20k SL last week with a pretty similar profile.

Since you said you're going to spend a lot on the nursery in your home, how about the Lowe's or Home Depot cards?  Folks have reported getting huge CLIs on the Lowe's card upon getting approved.  Not sure about their rewards structures though.

[mccallb]

Awesome advice.  Perhaps I will stick with the BCP and venture only for now and see how it affects the score.  I don't really care for store cards if I can help it, I already have 2, Best Buy Store and Overstock (comenity).  They are fine, 3500 and 7500 respectively, but I like getting targeted points that I can redeem.  I've put $40K through my cap 1 qs in the last year and I'd love to get more than 1.5% since I'm spending the money anyway.

I actually travel 15% of the time for work and am able to use personal cards and get reimbursed, so using the travel points will be no problem.

I think I can hold off on the amex plat if I get the BCP (what I really want).  So maybe BCP, Venture and cli's across the board.

I should mention I'm not really planning on going in to debt with this, I have the cash to cover my expenses it just felt silly to waste perfectly good signing bonuses and points when I need certain things.

[tntexans72]

You won't have any problems getting approvals for BCP or Venture...both great choices, GL. 

[Kenny]

My vote would be: to not.

[NRB525]

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@mccallb wrote:
I am currently considering getting some new cards with specific rewards for the new year.
.
I'd love amex plat, bcp, the csp and perhaps venture.

I'm around a 720 score now and wanting to keep my app spread between ex and eq equally.

Util is 15 aaoa is 3.5. 0 INQ last 12 mo 5 INQ last 2 yr.

How bad would it be to app/open all 4 of those on the same mo? Would it hurt too bad or be fine? I'm going to get enough purchases overy the next two months to justify it. (Wife is 7 mo preg) so it'd louver top rack up ppints on my spending spree.

I would love to stay above 700, and after a month or so do some cli on my existing cards (boa/usaa)

---

1) If not going for any other new credit products in the next year, do the spree. However:

2) CSP should be first due to the 5/24 rule. Do you have Chase Freedom already? In order to run UR points to CSP, Freedom for your Category spend in Q1 (Gas) Q2-Q3 Dining or Groceries, will be the place to route $1,500 spend in those periods. Freedom and CSP are both subject to the 5/24 rule.

3) BCP likely has a pedestrian bonus right now. There were some higher bonuses a few months ago, those seem to be gone for the time being. With AMEX, you get one bonus on each card in your lifetime, so do you want to wait for the better BCP bonus?

4) Platinum is usually only a 40,000 point bonus for now. Again, you only get one chance at the Platinum bonus, and that comes around as 100,000 points from time to time, so for that kind of an additional bonus, I'd wait. I took the 50,000 PRG bonus when I stumbled on it a few months ago, and glad I did, because I can't get it to reappear now.

5) Venture is a good card to have, a nice bonus to get, 2 cents straight up for everything. Do you have any Capital One cards already?

6) Have you looked at the Citi Thank You Premier or Prestige?

7) AMEX SPG, with the merger of SPG into Marriott, is most likely a card that will be gone before too long. The 25,000 SPG Points is a fine reward, goes nearly anywhere, and will not be available for long.