Went App Spree

[kulamrazool82]

A month ago, I had a cumulative sum of $2050 as a limit and almost my util percent hit 90%. As a result, my fico went deep down to 555. Since I planned to get a Auto Loan, I paid off all the debt and waited for the score to go up. Here is the summary of my score as of last week.

EQ FICO - 677 (08/09/2012)
TU FICO - 620 (Lender pull on 08/08/2012)
EX - 670 (Lender Pull on 08/08/2012)
EQ Fako - 643 (08/12/2012)
CK - 672 (08/12/2012)

No	Date	Company	Type	EQ	TU	EX	Decision	Limit
1	08/01/2012	Genisys CU	CLI		1		Approved Instantly	CL increased to 2000.00
2	08/08/2012	Page Toyota - Dealer	Auto Loan		1	1	NA	NA
3	08/09/2012	Toyota Financial	Auto Loan			1	Approved after submitting so many docs	17662.00
4	08/08/2012	DCU Visa	Credit Card	1			Approved instantly	5000.00
5	08/09/2012	Discover More	Credit Card	1	1		Approved after calling	1000.00
6	08/09/2012	Kohls	Store Card			1	Approved instantly	300.00
7	08/10/2012	Amex – Costco	Credit Card		1	1	Denied upfront	NA
8	08/12/2012	Walmart	Store Card		1		Approved	500.00
9	08/12/2012	Chase Freedom	Credit Card		1		Received 7-10 day msg. Denied when called.	NA
10	08/12/2012	Capital One Cash Rewards MC	Credit Card	1	1	1	Approved instantly.	500.00
			Total	3	7	5		CC - 8300.00 AutoLoan - 17662

Total inquiries in last 2 years:
EQ Inq Count - 16
TU Inq Count - 15
EX Inq Count - 12

Util under 25% in all 3 bureaus. But no. of hard inquiries spoiled me the chance of getting approved for Chase Freedom & Amex Costco. I tried recon line for Freedom, convince the credit analyst in all possible way but of no use.

Updated Cards collection:

DCU Visa - $5000.00 Genisys CU Visa - $2000.00 Discover More - $1000.00 Cap One Platinum - $750.00 Cap One Cash Rewards MC - $500.00
Household MC - $300.00 Walmart Store Card - $500.00 Kohls Store Card - $300.00 Macys Store Card - $200.00

Will be closing household within a week to keep my portfolio as clean as possible.i.e. 2 Visa 2 MC & 1 Discover. Once approved for Freedom, plan to close Cap One platinum. I know Walmart store card is a less useful one but I opened that account for getting TU FICO.

My next app will be after a year. By the time, my score should be around 720(hopefully) to qualify for Freedom and Amex.

[ntx]

Hi kulamrazool82,

Congratulations! And thank you for posting this. I've done much the same since the beginning of August, and have made some decent progress.
 

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Date	Company	Type	Decision	Limit
Oct. 2011	Wells Fargo Dealer Services	Car Loan	Approved, $1K down, 5.2%	~$20K
Feb. 2012	USAA	Visa Cash Rewards	Approved	$3,000
Aug. 7, 2012	Discover	More card	Approved w/ call	$1,200
Aug. 8, 2012	GE/Walmart	Store Card	Approved	$400
Aug. 8, 2012	GE/Amazon	Store Card	Approved	$600
Aug. 10, 2012	Barclay	Mastercard	Denied
Aug. 11, 2012	Bank of America	Basic Visa	Denied
Aug. 11, 2012	US Bank	Visa	Denied
Aug. 12, 2012	USAA	Mastercard Cash Rewards	Approved	$4,000
Aug. 13, 2012	Chase	Freedom Card	Denied, but approved on recon	$1,000

So, within a week:

From $3,000 to $10,200 total CL
From 1 major card by one lender to 4 major cards by three lenders

5 out of 8 apps successul  ( 2 w/ call and recon )
Two store cards added ( because: 1) Frequent CLI increases, 2) Discounts/offers, and 3) That's where I shop the most )

I know it was a gamble doing this. I also know I will likely take a FICO hit for inquiries and AAoA, but that's OK. I'm not applying for anything else until I'm ready for a mortgage sometime next year. I don't want to push my luck, so I'm in the garden until then, but very pleased now.

NTX

[john398]

Congrats, that just goes to show that Credit Unions are the way to go Vs banks  like Capital One

[kulamrazool82]

Congrats. Your portfolio looks impressive than mine  Best thing happend for you is the Chase Freedom card approval!

I completely agree with you that this strategy is a pure gamble. I am eager to know my score after a month, by the time all the accounts will be reported to CRAs. I know, AAoA is an issue, but it's OK for me. My concern is I have too many account with lower limits which I should work on. Discover promised me for CLI every 6 months. Hope CU will give me frequent CLIs. But getting CLI from cap one is really hectic. So, I may close a cap one account If I get approved for Freedom(after a yr).

My short term goal is to reach 700-720 within a year. Right now, full focus is on Chase Freedom(denied 3 times in the past!) & an Amex card and I understood US Bank Visa card has so many rewards and for approval they will expect arond 720-750 range, so may be I ll target that too.

May I know your score while apply for the car loan? and while beginning the app spree? Also, I would like to know the chances of getting USAA cards. What will be the expected score to get it approved?

Thanks,

Syed

[ntx]

Hi Syed,

I agree, I think the Chase Freedom card is a good one to get. I applied for that one solely on the info that all the wonderful members here have posted.

Your portfolio looks great - you have some nice CL cards in there!

I filed BK in 2005, no baddies since then, but also very little credit use. I got a Credit One card a short while after BK, and closed that when I got an HSBC card a few years later. I closed HSBC in Feb. 2012 when I got the USAA Visa.  Hindsight is 20/20 - I now know that closing both cards was a mistake, as it affected AAoA.

I'm sorry, I don't actually know my credit score from when I got the car in Oct. 2011. I'm assuming it was in the low to mid 600s though. I can tell you that when I applied for my USAA Visa in Feb. 2012 (4 months after car loan) they said it was 674 at EQ.

Discover reported my EQ score at 657 when I applied Aug. 7th. That was the first app in my spree, so I'm not sure why it was lower now than in Feb. All I can think of is that in February I still had the HSBC card which I had for a couple of years before, so my AAoA was probably longer then than now. That's just a guess though.

I can't really help much re. USAA. The only thing I've had with them up until now is various insurance policies ( homeowner, renter, auto ). I've had that for 14 years, and have never been late on a payment, so maybe that helped with getting my credit cards there. Even so, I was still shocked by the limits on both of them. I will definitely open a savings account with them now (I'm self-employed and will put my money for income taxes there). When I'm ready for a mortgage, I will also certainly give them preferred status for an FHA loan and homeowner's insurance.

NTX

[Middleswarth]

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@ntx wrote:

Hi Syed,

I agree, I think the Chase Freedom card is a good one to get. I applied for that one solely on the info that all the wonderful members here have posted.

Your portfolio looks great - you have some nice CL cards in there!

I filed BK in 2005, no baddies since then, but also very little credit use. I got a Credit One card a short while after BK, and closed that when I got an HSBC card a few years later. I closed HSBC in Feb. 2012 when I got the USAA Visa.  Hindsight is 20/20 - I now know that closing both cards was a mistake, as it affected AAoA.

I'm sorry, I don't actually know my credit score from when I got the car in Oct. 2011. I'm assuming it was in the low to mid 600s though. I can tell you that when I applied for my USAA Visa in Feb. 2012 (4 months after car loan) they said it was 674 at EQ.

Discover reported my EQ score at 657 when I applied Aug. 7th. That was the first app in my spree, so I'm not sure why it was lower now than in Feb. All I can think of is that in February I still had the HSBC card which I had for a couple of years before, so my AAoA was probably longer then than now. That's just a guess though.

I can't really help much re. USAA. The only thing I've had with them up until now is various insurance policies ( homeowner, renter, auto ). I've had that for 14 years, and have never been late on a payment, so maybe that helped with getting my credit cards there. Even so, I was still shocked by the limits on both of them. I will definitely open a savings account with them now (I'm self-employed and will put my money for income taxes there). When I'm ready for a mortgage, I will also certainly give them preferred status for an FHA loan and homeowner's insurance.

NTX

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I do not believe your AAoA will be impacted by your decision to close the cards.  Only after they drop off your report in 10 years will it matter (and by then it shouldn't be a big deal).

[ntx]

Hi Middleswarth,

Thanks - that's interesting, and I certainly hope that's the case!

In fact, I should have mentioned that I do also have a number of positive accounts from 9-10 yrs ago - including a couple of major credit cards and a car loan - that had been paid off well before BK.

I don't know if those count for FICO AAoA purposes, but certainly any analyst could see them on my report, whether they can be officially counted or not.

Still don't know why EQ would have gone from 674 to 657 in 6 months though, with no new apps and perfect record during that time. My only other guess would be that USAA used an internal / PLUS score to get 674 in Feb. Their CMS is showing EQ now at 733 so I guess that's possible.

NTX

[Middleswarth]

The USAA score is useless.  My score has a 40 point difference between USAA and FICO.  Ignore it.

Also, the AAoA on USAA may be calculated on just open accounts.  FICO includes all accounts on your report.  Closed accounts stay on for at least 10 years.

[ntx]

>>>The USAA score is useless.  My score has a 40 point difference between USAA and FICO.  Ignore it.

I've been getting that feeling, from what I've read elsewhere on these forums. Their CMS is nice for the credit report updates, but their scoring doesn't really mean anything.

>>>FICO includes all accounts on your report.  Closed accounts stay on for at least 10 years.

I didn't realize that. I certainly won't complain   That will definitely help with AAoA.

Thanks for clarifying both ! 

[ssghandless]

I'd like to go on an App Spree. Does anyone have any preferences to what approach to take since I would like to buy a house next year? I have just paid off a Judgment and I am waiting for it to come off at the end of the Month. THen I would like to start the App spree. I paid off all my vehicles last month also but that Judgment seems to get me EVERY time. Any suggestions?