topic Re: The Spree I Decree in Credit Card Applications

The Spree I Decree

ElvisCaprice — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:21:10 GMT

I have become a strong advocate of the spree.

Garden till your given the nod. Preapps are the best indicator of letting you know when your ready for another spree. I no longer apply, HP, unless I am confident from a Preapp, SP, same issuer, on being approved (my newest rule). Make each HP count, better if you can avoid them and it still counts. Know which bureau they are going to pull from. Use all 3 to your advantage, spread out, freezing and thawing. Preapps will let you know when the spree is over, or a failed HP. There is no magic number of new CC's to when one should stop. Whatever you can handle (profile) or when they (issuers) stop you.

If they are willing to give you what you want today, why wait till tomorrow? Put it this way, the sooner you can spree for what you want, the sooner you can garden again for another spree.

What do you think? What has been your success/failure with a spree? Pro's vs cons?

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:38:26 GMT

I was also a fan of sprees during my building phase. My thought process was always that when you open a single revolver you experience scorecard reassignment (New Revolver) and realize that score loss and slightly weaker profile for the next 12 months, so you may as well open 2-3 at once. Take advantage of the diminishing returns. One new account can drop you (say) 30-35 points, but from there you're looking at a single-digit number of points for the next 1-2 accounts. Go big or go home; if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

I've only really applied for cards 5 times in the last decade. The first and last time were for single cards. The 3 times in the middle were all sprees during my building phase.

Re: The Spree I Decree

DXness — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:48:45 GMT

Going on a spree is MUCH more fun on dirty profiles where losing points for new accounts is not really a thing (I have never lost even a single point for a new account), nor is losing points for inquiries (although there is a 5 point drop every x pulls it seems). I am 100% a believer in "bins" for HPs given my history of several free HPs followed by a 5 point dinger, then several more free ones then another 5 pointer. Some day I'll go back through my HP history and write down the pattern, but not at 3:30 AM.

My one word of caution with sprees is that issuers can claw back their approvals if they SP you later and discover the spree. Chase in particular is known to do this. It's wise to view your approvals like a job offer conditional on a 1-3 month probationary period, rather than a single event all wrapped up on the day of. That said, YMMV since different issuers will tolerate different thresholds of credit seeking and stronger profiles can get away with more than weaker ones. You can see which banks are keeping close tabs on you by pulling your ACRs, Chase SPs me every month like clockwork, they are watching! Oddly, Amex goes really long periods without SPing...you'd think they'd also be hawks.

Personally, I don't do sprees - I want to look normal and boring to the algorithms, move along nothing to see here. What happens to the nail that sticks up? It gets hammered down...although if I were on a clean scorecard, I might reconsider this stance. Those point drops are huge like dayum!

Re: The Spree I Decree

AndySoCal — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:35:04 GMT

My sprees are usaully one card only. I had two sprees last one for my travel card and the other for the Walmart One Pay. This year it is gardening.

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:56:54 GMT

@DXness wrote:

My one word of caution with sprees is that issuers can claw back their approvals if they SP you later and discover the spree. Chase in particular is known to do this.

Can you provide a link to a data point of this happening? I have not heard of this before. What sort of communication/language does Chase (or any issuer) disclose when AA is taken in this manner / for this reason?

Re: The Spree I Decree

youngandcreditwrthy — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 17:05:40 GMT

I learned this shortly after becoming a member on my FICO over 12 years ago lol

once you start getting approvals that are like 1000 or $2000, that's when you stop lol

Re: The Spree I Decree

youngandcreditwrthy — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 17:10:10 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots Usually they just close all your **bleep** accounts at once. Lol

Chase, Citi, synchrony bank, Barclay's bank. These are all banks that are known for doing this. I think if you show a history of keeping the balance low on the account, you're far much less at risk as well as keeping your overall utilization low. And I mostly pay in full before the statement cuts on new accounts for the first 3 to 6 months. Only had one of 20+ closed.

because of all the soft pull approvals as well, I've resulted in a situation where I've opened 15 or more cards in the past 24 months and I only have like between one and six inquiries on each credit report LOL

and the last two cards I opened lowered my score only 4 points. Im still solidly 720+ bankcard Ficos.

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 01:30:11 GMT

I don't agree about "keeping utilization low" equating to lower risk.

Risk has to do with how you pay your cards, not what your utilization percentage is. If one is paying their statement balances in full monthly, they render utilization percentage irrelevant from a risk perspective. If they are carrying balances, they are an elevated risk.

If Cornelius is at 90% utilization but pays in full monthly, he's less of a risk than Rupert that is at 25% utilization all the time on carried balances - all other things being equal. If the bank is to reward one of them with a CLI, it's going to be Cornelius for his strong exhibition of responsible revolving credit use.

Re: The Spree I Decree

AndySoCal — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 05:40:58 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots This may help answer your question(s)

https://axis-intelligence.com/chase-bank-credit-card-account-closures/

A bank may or may not disclose nor do they have to disclose the reason for the adverse action. They probably would disclose the reason of no activity on the account. Other reasons maybe not. Or never will disclose it.

The problem with app sprees is this. The basic premise is consumers apply for only the credit they need. For example a consumer has 50000 total credit limit. An app sprees yields an additional 30000 in new credit limits. From the lender perspective the question is Why? Some times that is a bad omen that ends in disaster ie a bankruptcy chapter 7. The lender is left with a loss. Some lenders when they see that trait in a consumer profile will take an adverse action.

Re: The Spree I Decree

Patient957 — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 06:02:19 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
@DXness wrote:

My one word of caution with sprees is that issuers can claw back their approvals if they SP you later and discover the spree. Chase in particular is known to do this.
Can you provide a link to a data point of this happening? I have not heard of this before. What sort of communication/language does Chase (or any issuer) disclose when AA is taken in this manner / for this reason?

Here's a link to a very recent DP of Chase taking AA for a two card spree, which many wouldn't even consider a spree.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Chase-card-closed-is-it-a-permanent-ban/m-p/6856267

The link includes the language Chase used:

Here are the reasons we closed your account

• Too many accounts opened recently

• Not enough credit information on file

• The accounts on your credit report have not been open long enough

Re: The Spree I Decree

Patient957 — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 06:12:52 GMT

@ElvisCaprice wrote:
  I have become a strong advocate of the spree.

    Garden till your given the nod. Preapps are the best indicator of letting you know when your ready for another spree. I no longer apply, HP, unless I am confident from a Preapp, SP, same issuer, on being approved (my newest rule). Make each HP count, better if you can avoid them and it still counts. Know which bureau they are going to pull from. Use all 3 to your advantage, spread out, freezing and thawing. Preapps will let you know when the spree is over, or a failed HP. There is no magic number of new CC's to when one should stop. Whatever you can handle (profile) or when they (issuers) stop you.
If they are willing to give you what you want today, why wait till tomorrow?  Put it this way, the sooner you can spree for what you want, the sooner you can garden again for another spree.

What do you think? What has been your success/failure with a spree? Pro's vs cons?

Maybe y'all can enlighten me on the spree concept. What's the point? Thicken the file? Dopamine rush? It can't possibly be SUB churning, because how can you meet the sprnd requirements for a SUB when you open 10 cards at a time? I see folks talking about sprees, but SUBs don't get mentioned. At least if it were about SUBs, I could understand it. So for those into big sprees, what's *your* motivation?

Re: The Spree I Decree

ElvisCaprice — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:48:04 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:
@ElvisCaprice wrote:
  I have become a strong advocate of the spree.

    Garden till your given the nod. Preapps are the best indicator of letting you know when your ready for another spree. I no longer apply, HP, unless I am confident from a Preapp, SP, same issuer, on being approved (my newest rule). Make each HP count, better if you can avoid them and it still counts. Know which bureau they are going to pull from. Use all 3 to your advantage, spread out, freezing and thawing. Preapps will let you know when the spree is over, or a failed HP. There is no magic number of new CC's to when one should stop. Whatever you can handle (profile) or when they (issuers) stop you.
If they are willing to give you what you want today, why wait till tomorrow?  Put it this way, the sooner you can spree for what you want, the sooner you can garden again for another spree.

What do you think? What has been your success/failure with a spree? Pro's vs cons?
Maybe y'all can enlighten me on the spree concept. What's the point? Thicken the file? Dopamine rush? It can't possibly be SUB churning, because how can you meet the sprnd requirements for a SUB when you open 10 cards at a time? I see folks talking about sprees, but SUBs don't get mentioned. At least if it were about SUBs, I could understand it. So for those into big sprees, what's *your* motivation?

Yes, whatever you can handle, fullfilling a SUB would be one of those considerations. Hard to put a number on how many cards is enough, as everyone's abilities, spend, needs and profile can vary so greatly. Creative accounting can help with churn SUB's for a low spender such as myself. Why not do both? Churn & long term for rewards.

The spree idea is that once your profile has gardened into favorable acceptance status and you have CC's you desire, get as many as you can handle, at once, before the new accounts get reported and your profile becomes unacceptable. Whereas if you tried to space them out over time, it would more than likely take much longer to acquire those CC's, time lost, reward usage lost. So now, you can get back to gardening for your next spree or 1 off app, sooner. Put it this way, by using the differnt bureau pulls, along with gaming the time lapse before new accounts reported, one can more effectively, in time, open new CC's either to keep or churn. Nothing precludes you from mixing it up, accordingly to your needs, with a spree or 1 off, with a churn or keeper. Different strokes for different folks.

Re: The Spree I Decree

Vinjints — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:32:37 GMT

I would have thought sprees were more in favor of those that didn't have the core CC's they desired. Get those in a hurry to build your deck and then worry about whether or not you want to churn for subs or garden for the long haul/until something great pops up.

Re: The Spree I Decree

AndySoCal — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:29:00 GMT

The potential side affect of a spree of multiple card is a creditor may close your account(s). The premise is a consumer applies for the credit they need. On this forum that premise is not widely used much. I do not strictly follow it either. When a consumer that has 80k total credit limits goes on spree gets another 30 to 40k more in new credit limits. what is a creditor supposed to think based on the premise given? creditors have seen that scenario before that ends in a BK7. The lender opts out before it happens.

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:41:27 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:
Maybe y'all can enlighten me on the spree concept. What's the point? Thicken the file? Dopamine rush? It can't possibly be SUB churning, because how can you meet the sprnd requirements for a SUB when you open 10 cards at a time? I see folks talking about sprees, but SUBs don't get mentioned. At least if it were about SUBs, I could understand it. So for those into big sprees, what's *your* motivation?

None of the above for me, @Patient957. My personal motivation behind it was score-based, as with my sprees I was always very fixated on my scores and score preservation. There are rapidly diminishing returns when opening up multiple cards relative to one. Opening just one revolver equates to "New Revolver" scorecard reassignment for the next 12 months. Opening (say) 3 at the same time means one wears that same 12 month penalty; it's still gone in 12 months. If one were to open 1 revover a year for 3 years they'd be wearing that penalty 3X as long with the end result being the same - 3 cards opened. I've always been a fan of starting the clock on revolving aging metrics sooner rather than later. And, when doing a spree, the none of the apps "see" any of the other new accounts. They approve with the mindset that they are the only one you're hopping in bed with, so they're often more giving. When you space out apps, you see more denials for "too many recent accounts" or less favorable SLs, all other things being equal from my experience.

@AndySoCal I think examples of card closures like that have far less to do with sprees than it does an insufficiently strong credit profile to begin with. I've done sprees and know tons of people that have done them with no issues because of sufficiently strong credit profiles. One needs to know the limits and capabilities of their profile. If it isn't rock solid, a spree would be far less advised than on a strong file. So while there may be some examples out there of this, I'd venture to guess that the extreme vast majority of these AA examples come against weaker files. I think it's a myth more than anything to throw it out there that sprees can lead to AA without some sort of qualifier of the type of profile in question. It's like the credit myth that "credit cycling will get you shut down!" Not with a solid profile it won't. Any time you dig into a data point that supports that myth you find that the profile in question was weak. Dirty. Elevated carried balances. Missed/returned payments, etc. So was it the credit cycling, or was it the rest of the file that was truly the issue?

When you're talking credit cards, people don't apply for just what they need. Check out the credit cards forum. People shop around, product change, upgrade, replace cards, etc. If I have a TCL of $50k and open another $30k in cards it doesn't mean I need the $30k. It means I saw value in an additional credit product or two that cannot be satisfied by my existing $50k TCL. You say that may suggest financial strain. Perhaps. It can also suggest a potential loyal customer. Maybe I'm going to move a $10k/mo spend from one of those $50k TCL cards over to one of the new cards from that $30k limit if approved. Issuers look at the entire credit profile in question and will make determinations based on that along with whatever internal measures/metrics they have in place. I'm quite certain they are able to tease out who is the potential BK customer and who the potentially profitable one is if approved.

Re: The Spree I Decree

Patient957 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:37:41 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots

Makes sense. I guess it's the 10 card sprees that baffle me.

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:43:21 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:

Makes sense. I guess it's the 10 card sprees that baffle me.

I hear that. I've never done a spree of more than 3 cards at once. 10 wouldn't ever be a consideration; I don't even have 10 cards total.

Re: The Spree I Decree

odd_dog — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:32:03 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
@Patient957 wrote:
Maybe y'all can enlighten me on the spree concept. What's the point? Thicken the file? Dopamine rush? It can't possibly be SUB churning, because how can you meet the sprnd requirements for a SUB when you open 10 cards at a time? I see folks talking about sprees, but SUBs don't get mentioned. At least if it were about SUBs, I could understand it. So for those into big sprees, what's *your* motivation?
None of the above for me, @Patient957. My personal motivation behind it was score-based, as with my sprees I was always very fixated on my scores and score preservation. There are rapidly diminishing returns when opening up multiple cards relative to one. Opening just one revolver equates to "New Revolver" scorecard reassignment for the next 12 months. Opening (say) 3 at the same time means one wears that same 12 month penalty; it's still gone in 12 months. If one were to open 1 revover a year for 3 years they'd be wearing that penalty 3X as long with the end result being the same - 3 cards opened. I've always been a fan of starting the clock on revolving aging metrics sooner rather than later. And, when doing a spree, the none of the apps "see" any of the other new accounts. They approve with the mindset that they are the only one you're hopping in bed with, so they're often more giving. When you space out apps, you see more denials for "too many recent accounts" or less favorable SLs, all other things being equal from my experience.

@AndySoCal I think examples of card closures like that have far less to do with sprees than it does an insufficiently strong credit profile to begin with. I've done sprees and know tons of people that have done them with no issues because of sufficiently strong credit profiles. One needs to know the limits and capabilities of their profile. If it isn't rock solid, a spree would be far less advised than on a strong file. So while there may be some examples out there of this, I'd venture to guess that the extreme vast majority of these AA examples come against weaker files. I think it's a myth more than anything to throw it out there that sprees can lead to AA without some sort of qualifier of the type of profile in question. It's like the credit myth that "credit cycling will get you shut down!" Not with a solid profile it won't. Any time you dig into a data point that supports that myth you find that the profile in question was weak. Dirty. Elevated carried balances. Missed/returned payments, etc. So was it the credit cycling, or was it the rest of the file that was truly the issue?

When you're talking credit cards, people don't apply for just what they need. Check out the credit cards forum. People shop around, product change, upgrade, replace cards, etc. If I have a TCL of $50k and open another $30k in cards it doesn't mean I need the $30k. It means I saw value in an additional credit product or two that cannot be satisfied by my existing $50k TCL. You say that may suggest financial strain. Perhaps. It can also suggest a potential loyal customer. Maybe I'm going to move a $10k/mo spend from one of those $50k TCL cards over to one of the new cards from that $30k limit if approved. Issuers look at the entire credit profile in question and will make determinations based on that along with whatever internal measures/metrics they have in place. I'm quite certain they are able to tease out who is the potential BK customer and who the potentially profitable one is if approved.

For me it's THIS, in my situation Credit Cards are NOT ABOUT CREDIT they are about status and perks, and banks KNOW this.....if CC were about credit there would be ONE card PER BANK and maybe the hoopla would be over interest rates....I am amazed at Chase and 5/24 WHY offer different CO-BRANDED credit cards if you are LIMITING the consumer to a arbitrary NUMBER...so stupid....I understand the SUB chasers BUT Chase could easily do what AMEX does and give the card and perks without the sub.....real reasons for getting new cards....flying a NEW airline, upgrade to a NEW hotel chain....etc......

Re: The Spree I Decree

AndySoCal — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:57:58 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots Please define what constitutes a strong credit profle. I would like a detailed explanation please and or what is a weak credit profile

Re: The Spree I Decree

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 02:53:34 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots Please define what constitutes a strong credit profle. I would like a detailed explanation please and or what is a weak credit profile

@AndySoCal, I think the best way to look at it is through scorecard segmentation factors. The strongest credit profiles would be clean/thick/mature/no new revolver. The weakest credit profiles would be dirty/thin/young/new account(s). If you mix those factors together in some other combination, you'll arrive at a profile somewhere in the middle.

Naturally in addition to those credit profile factors, you have other profile factors such as income, existing lender relationship, etc.