Back story..... I applied and was approved for these cards from end of Jan2013 to mid Feb2013:
Discover IT
Amex Surpass
Chase HHonors Reserve
Express
Now I have a 2 year old FNBO Platinum Max Rewards card with a limit of 10k with no balance for about 3 months with a 2k increase back in Sept 2012. I went on their site last Monday and saw a Limit Increase request button and saw what I needed to fill out. Nowhere does it mention that there would be a hard pull if required and like a dummy I assumed for some reason they would do a soft pull and at least ask my permission if they need to do a hard pull. Not to mention, I broke a cardinal rule, which is never ever, evereverevereverever, do anything credit related without consulting the MyFico Forum shrine! Anyways it was too late, I requested an additional 6K and submitted it and got the 5-10 day letter. Then I realized why I didn’t research this before I submitted. I didn’t really need the increase but thought maybe I’d give it a shot and enhance my util further. Anyways, I have read from numerous experiences that FNBO is inq sensitive, picky about new accounts, etc etc, and that they always do hard pulls for CLI’s on their website. Not less than 10 minutes did I call a rep to confirm if it was a hard pull, which it was. I felt like slapping myself. She asked if I wanted to cancel the request but told her that it might as well go through since I already took the hit. I was pretty confident I wouldn’t get that increase, and after 3 days of checking online to see if maybe it went through, it felt more and more futile……….until today when I saw the increase! Ahh now the hit feels justified. Anyways, the point is, I added 4 new accounts with 3 inquiries and FNBO was able to grant my request, but most importantly, do the research before getting hit, but most of you know this. Good luck!
