Ok, so let's start at the begining...
I got my first card right before I went off to school, a USAA Platinum card with a lowly $600 limit, at some point they bumped that to $1000. I've had that card for about 4 years now. For a while there I ended up unemployed and ended up maxing the card out, but I always managed to make my minimum payments.
Recently I started a good job and finally have the money to pay it down.
So around 2 weeks ago my brother applied for the same USAA Platinum card and got approved, and it got me thinking about what my credit score was, I happened upon this site and saw I could get my score for free, so I signed up and was shocked to find my score was 717.
Now I want to buy a newer car in the next year or so, so I decided I was going to app for a few credit cards to diversify my credit and reduce my utilization.
First card:
APPROVED
CREDIT CARD: Citi Forward
BUREAU PULLED: EX I believe
CREDIT SCORE: EQ: 717 TU(CK FAKO): 713
CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE: TX
AAOA: 3 Years 10 Months
UTILIZATION: 80% (lol)
HHI: $28080 (That's what I report, currently living at home so the actual household is much higher...)
CREDIT LIMIT: $2300
So after that my EQ score droped down a point to 716 (I knew it would go up once the new card reported and my util dropped) but then I got impatient and I made my first mistake.
I waited for a few days and then apped for my next card:
DECLINED
CREDIT CARD: AMEX Blue Cash
BUREAU PULLED: EX
CREDIT SCORE: EQ: 716 TU(CK FAKO): 713
CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE: TX
AAOA: 3 Years 10 Months
UTILIZATION: 80% (lol)
HHI: $28080 (That's what I report, currently living at home so the actual household is much higher...)
The four reasons I was given:
Proportion of revolving balances to revolving credit limits is too high.
Length of time accounts have been established.
Proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high.
Too many inquiries last 12 months.
Of the four, I'm fairly certain the one that killed me is the first one.
I pulled CR from quizzle a few days later, and while I know the score isn't accurate it does get the Experian CR, and I was looking at my listed accounts and while the Citi card had shown up, it wasn't currently showing a CL... so I was still at my rediculous utilization. Unfortunately the card being listed still dinged my AAOA.
I really wish I had read on here more and had apped the Zync card instead of the blue, o well, will probably be the next card I app for in 6-24 months.
Anyways then I decided I was going to do one more thing and then end my apping for at least 6 months. I was going to try and get a CLI for my USAA card. Seemed easy enough. I put my entire paycheck onto my card and then didn't spend a sent of it (I had my new Citi card by then so I was able to use that since it won't report until january, and yes I plan to PIF) My statement date was last tuesday, so I waited until saturday, still hadn't gotten a scorewatch alert, but I saw my TU FAKO from CreditKarma had gone up and I got impatient again.
DECLINED
CREDIT CARD: USAA CLI
BUREAU PULLED: EX
CREDIT SCORE: EQ: 716 TU(CK FAKO): 742
CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE: TX
AAOA: 3 Years 2 Months
UTILIZATION: 30% (lol)
HHI: $28080 (That's what I report, currently living at home so the actual household is much higher...)
At that point I was totally bummed, and then I notice on my desk a Discover Pre Approval leter, and I decide **bleep** it, might as well get one last app in before this inquiry reports and I figure it's best to get them close to the same time, so they will all fall off at once.
So I go for it:
DECLINED
CREDIT CARD: Discover More
BUREAU PULLED: EQ
CREDIT SCORE: EQ: 716 TU(CK FAKO): 742
CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE: TX
AAOA: 3 Years 10 Months
UTILIZATION: 30% (lol)
HHI: $28080 (That's what I report, currently living at home so the actual household is much higher...)
But there was hope, I notice the only listed reason for my being declined was too many inquiries, of the ones that were currently listed on my CR, one was ATT (srsly), so I figured why not and called to try for recon (did this with AMEX too but that was pointless)
So I called later that saturday, and talked to someone, she said she was going to refer it to a supervisor and I should hear back within 24 hours.
Then I waited, Sunday... Nothing... Monday... Nothing... So now it's today, tuesday, and I figure it probably means they still declined it, but why not call and confirm.
I call and the woman tells me that it doesn't look like a supervisor ever looked at it (it kinda sounded like the first woman never even noted my account or had forgotten to do something), she puts me on hold for 3-4 minutes and comes back and says she had a supervisor review it, and he was able to overturn the decision... I was APPROVED with a $4000 CL (and she asked if that was enough rofl)
So here I am 2 weeks later with 8x the credit I started with, a slightly higher score, much better utilization, and a whole lot better educated.
Definately learned my lesson, when it comes to credit patience is a virtue. I'm just so glad that this last one got approved, kinda takes away that bad taste in my mouth like the whole ordeal was a failure, plus it made the apping itch go away. No more wondering if I apply for just one more then maybe I'll get approved. Now I can comfortably say I won't be apping anything else for at least 6 months, probably at least a year or more.
All in all I think it worked out okay, ended up with 2 new prime cards without totally ruining my credit, and for anyone else apping for Discover, it's definately worth attempting recon. 
