Whats the magic number of Inquiries for Amex, Discover and Chase...

[Pilotdude]

Hey folks,

I am now in the final days of cleaning up one hell of a credit mess which began over 7 years ago.

What I want to know is basically what is in the subject line:  What are the magic number of inquiries which Discover, Amex and Chase will pretty much tolerate when considering approving a new credit card application? 

Here is where I sit as far as my Credit reports go:

Experian:  690  No lates, No baddies, Higher utilization (paying off all cards with tax refund though) 5 hard inquiries

Equifax:  690 No lates, no baddies, higher utilization (paying off all cards with tax refund)  2 hard inquiries

Transunion:  690 No lates, no baddies, higher utilization (paying off with tax refund)  1 Hard inquiry.

Total inquires is 5 though as the equifax and transunion ones also appear on Experian.

I have my own Capital One Cash rewards card (go figgur...they turned me down for the usual Platinum one but gave me the Cash rewards one).

I am an Authorized User on my wife's Discover (1000 limit), Amex Green, Cap One platinum (750 starter limit for 24 months now lol)

What I am wanting to do is pay off all mine and my wife's cards to zero balances, wait for the issuers to report, then hit up Discover, Chase and/or Amex for cards with real limits on my standing alone.  I also plan to try first and foremost sending an email to the Capone executive office for a CLI since they have no issued one to either myself or my wife...EVER.  (Each time we asked, the CSR we spoke with always told us Customer CLI requests are not accepted)

I am thinking this plan should leave me sitting pretty well with a couple prime cards, decent scores and nice low utilization.  Then I will just let time work its magic again as far as AAoA goes.

What I want to avoid is taking any hard hits and being denied.  Hard inquiries resulting in denials are teh suck.

EDIT:  AAoA appears to be 2.2 years at the moment. 

Thanks

[SpeedingWheels]

whats your AAoA? 

[Pilotdude]

AAoA is 2.2 years currently.

[SpeedingWheels]

Knock down your UTIL to a reasonable level and you should be able to take your pick of the cards you listed. 

Make sure you wait till the statements cut with the lower UTIL and report before you apply though. 

[Pilotdude]

thanks. 

What is the AAoA that Discover, Amex and Chase really like to see minimum?

The reason mine is 2.2 is from one reporting since 2004 which is still a positive.  If I take that one away, it reduces my AAoA to about 1.5 years

[SpeedingWheels]

I dont know if Discover has a real AAoA requirement but when I recon'd with Chase they told me straight out that they want to see at least 1 acct with over a year and "at least a couple other accts". 

From everything you have stated you're in a better position than I was when I app'd for Discover and I got instant approved for 1.5k back in October. 

Also instant approved for Amex Delta for 2k this past week. 

Knock down that UTIL and then app for the ones you want. 

Just make sure that the card you're going for is within your reach (I wouldn't look at Visa Signature or Amex BCP or Plat for example)

[Pilotdude]

Okay

thanks

[chnceit]

Honestly all of these lenders are YMMV because there is no set number of inquiries and UTI. It just really depends what in your report.

I would definitely pay down your cards before applying for anything and you will also see an increase in your scores.

[Pilotdude]

Yea. 

My plan is all about paying down to zero before applying for anything.

Once I have two primes or just one prime, its back in the garden I go til my Hard inquiries hit zero. (this year )

Then I will happily trade one Hard inquiry per year for another decent prime card til I have three and an AAoC of 4 years or better.

Then its mortage time.

Everything in its time and not before.

[chnceit]

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@Pilotdude wrote:

Yea. 

My plan is all about paying down to zero before applying for anything.

Once I have two primes or just one prime, its back in the garden I go til my Hard inquiries hit zero. (this year )

Then I will happily trade one Hard inquiry per year for another decent prime card til I have three and an AAoC of 4 years or better.

Then its mortage time.

Everything in its time and not before.

---

Paying down to zero is great, but some lenders dont like that. Try to report and keep your UTI down to below 10% across all your cards. Because they could come back stating you are not utilizing your credit. Hope this helps and good luck