Time for the garden?

[cjradinfo]

Hey guys,

Been reading these forums for a while and finally decided to jump in.  Long story short, I've been applying for lots of cards over the course of the past 9 or 10 months and for the most part have been pretty successful (every card in my sig except for the Discover card has been added in the past 10 months).  Now I'm at the point where I've got quite a lot of hard inquiries and I think it's time to cool off. 

A little bit of info:

I keep my utilization around or below 10% across all my cards

I try to pay off my balances every month with priority on the rewards cards with interest (still in the intro period with the freedom)

I don't plan on taking out any loans in the near future

I was wondering about how long would be good to hold off until my next app (going to upgrade my AMEX once that offer becomes available, but it sounds like that's a soft check).  Not sure if this is really an answerable question, but I'm just curious as to how long I should plan on waiting for as I'm kind of a points junkie and I hate missing out on really big sign-up bonuses : /

Thanks in advance for any info and thanks for all the great posts that've helped me already!

[Jbb2788]

Those are great cards. What else could you possibly need? I'd hold off at least 6 months before applying for anything else. Then maybe try for CLI's on the cards you already have. 

[myjourney]

Welcome to the forum even tho you've been here but this is your first post

Depending on when your last app was I would say garden 6-9 months from there but it could be longer depending on how many INQ's you have 

[grinlikechelsea]

Welcome to the forums!

I definitely understand being a bit bummed about missing out on sign-up bonuses, but remember that in addition to adding inquiries, each new TL decreases your AAoA, which will make it harder to get credit down the road.

You have some great cards already, just garden those for a bit and work on bringing your AAoA up and maybe scoring some CLIs along the way.

[cjradinfo]

Thanks for the advice guys! 

In response to which cards I'd like to get in the future: I'm hoping to get some more Hilton cards/cards with Hilton transferrable points as well as another airline card to replace my Southwest card (again, I'm a points junkie so I really get excited about sign-up bonuses)

As for how many INQ's: I'm at 10 hard inquiries right now. 

To the garden I go

[myjourney]

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@cjradinfo wrote:

Thanks for the advice guys! 

In response to which cards I'd like to get in the future: I'm hoping to get some more Hilton cards/cards with Hilton transferrable points as well as another airline card to replace my Southwest card (again, I'm a points junkie so I really get excited about sign-up bonuses)

As for how many INQ's: I'm at 10 hard inquiries right now. 

To the garden I go

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The garden crew would love to have your company and age some of those INQ's 

[Luscher]

try and get your discover student upgraded to the regular discover it. you have some other cards that are really good so this shouldn't be too hard

[grinlikechelsea]

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@cjradinfo wrote:

Thanks for the advice guys! 

In response to which cards I'd like to get in the future: I'm hoping to get some more Hilton cards/cards with Hilton transferrable points as well as another airline card to replace my Southwest card (again, I'm a points junkie so I really get excited about sign-up bonuses)

As for how many INQ's: I'm at 10 hard inquiries right now. 

To the garden I go

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Gardening your accounts will do wonders for you. It's just hard for me to stay in the garden with all the tempting offers floating around.

Also, if you want a travel card, I highly recommend the Amex SPG once you finish gardening. I recently was approved for it, and its great! It has a good sign up bonus and Starpoints transfer pretty well imo. The only downside is the foreign transcation fee.

[09Lexie]

I concur, we have a nice tilled plot waiting for you.

[cjradinfo]

Is Discover upgrading like AMEX upgrading (no hard INQ)?  Also, what would the benefits be of upgrading it?

Thanks!