Bulk App-o-rama questions

[Anonymous]

I'm applying for over 30 cards at once. I've done the due diligence as far as issuers and their respective guidelines on having more than one of their cards. I have 2 high limit trade lines (20k, 2002 Discover, and 15k Bofa 2013 card) and a high FICO, as well as over 3 years of positive primary credit with a good mix of accounts. My goal is to leverage all of that and secure those accounts now so that as the years progress my average age of accounts becomes impenetrably high. I know that many new accounts will hurt my score in the short term, I have good income so I'm not worried about the near future, this is a long term play. I want to eventually get to 1 million in available credit, so I plan on strategically funneling my expenses through the multiple accounts in an effort to grow the limits over time. Also, in 2 or 3 years, if I wanna add 5 or so cards to my collection, my AAoA won't really go down because of the sheer number of accounts. 

I want to know, does anyone have experience, feedback, or knowledge regarding so many apps at once? I plan on pre-filling out all 30 applications to where they all just need a final click to process. At that point I'll tab through and hit apply on them almost all simultaneously. I'm actually gonna have 15 or so of them on my laptop, and have my friend click through those while I'm doing it on my desktop.  I can even have my roommate command another laptop and split it 3 ways. My hope is that it's too quick for the bureaus to report the inquiries to all the CC apps. Just in case, I'm prioritizing the more important cards to be more in the beginning of the line. My main concern is if this will flag anything and automatically freeze my credit with any of the bureaus. 

Feel free to discuss, I appreciate any and all feedback. 

[Anonymous]

Between 4/16-5/16 I added 7 new cards.  I think when it was all done; I lost 1.3 yrs of AOA and the largest score drop was my EQ which was about 18 points. All scores started recovering at around the 3month mark. Hope this helps.

Oh by the way Welcome to the forums

[CreditInspired]

My only worry would be if during a monthly AR, once the lenders see all the new accounts posting and the scores dropping drastically, will some of them start taking AA and closing the account(s).

[Anonymous]

Applying for 'over' 30 credit cards at once is far too many.  First, it's doubtful that your plan to prevent other creditors from seeing the inquiries as they occur will work.  Even if it does that's the least of the potential problems.  Let's say that you are approved for all 30, those creditors will see that you opened that many cards after the fact and very likely take some sort of adverse action against you.  After you are approved, new creditors will routinely soft pull your credit reports and when they see that many cards opened at once it's likely that they will see you as someone that intends to run up high balances right away and proactively shut down your accounts.  Opening up that many new accounts at once is so far out of the normal consumer practice that it will set off alarm bells.  Honestly it's not even normal for the posters here who hold far more credit cards than typical people.

Additionally your AAoA will tank and your scores will drop quite a bit, far more than the impact of the inquiries.  That alone could cause AA and combined with what I already posted there is a high likelihood of accounts being shut down.  I cannot strongly enough encourage you to reconsider.  At best, apply for 10 and work with those.  Even that number is a lot at once.  In short, there is absolutely no sound reason to apply for 30 cards at once and then intend to apply for 5 more in down the road.  You are asking for a disaster to happen and there is absolutely no reason to apply for that many at once.

[JoeLuvsHisCredit]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Applying for 'over' 30 credit cards at once is far too many.  First, it's doubtful that your plan to prevent other creditors from seeing the inquiries as they occur will work.  Even if it does that's the least of the potential problems.  Let's say that you are approved for all 30, those creditors will see that you opened that many cards after the fact and very likely take some sort of adverse action against you.  After you are approved, new creditors will routinely soft pull your credit reports and when they see that many cards opened at once it's likely that they will see you as someone that intends to run up high balances right away and proactively shut down your accounts.  Opening up that many new accounts at once is so far out of the normal consumer practice that it will set off alarm bells.  Honestly it's not even normal for the posters here who hold far more credit cards than typical people.

Additionally your AAoA will tank and your scores will drop quite a bit, far more than the impact of the inquiries.  That alone could cause AA and combined with what I already posted there is a high likelihood of accounts being shut down.  I cannot strongly enough encourage you to reconsider.  At best, apply for 10 and work with those.  Even that number is a lot at once.  In short, there is absolutely no sound reason to apply for 30 cards at once and then intend to apply for 5 more in down the road.  You are asking for a disaster to happen and there is absolutely no reason to apply for that many at once.

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+1

[AverageJoesCredit]

+30

Op, i admire your guts and your master plan is grand in its undertaking . If this research for college or something, something tells me youll have all the data you need real quick.

If your income supports high limits, there are better ways to get your profile rock steady and inpenatrable. A million in credit is a lofty goal and can be done but not in a day. . Basically what Irish said . Even though you have 2 high limit cards, that in reality arent the highest that can be had, that and your income doesnt mwan you will be approved. So what happens if you apply 30 and get approved for 15. Then some of those AA, you're left with a few accounts , a shot aaol, and very likely will have a hard time gaining good credit for awhile because youll look as a desperate credit seeker, high risk. I hope you reconsider. Strategize which cards are most important, the ones that can grow really well, and in a couple years you could have a half mil in credit but do it right. Best of luck

[MrDisco99]

I agree this sounds like a terrible idea.

However, if you do go through with it, we'd love to hear the results.

[mattmyFIC0]

I'd say the worst case scenario would involve your well aged accounts getting closed. To me that would sting a lot more than a new account getting shut down.

I have been fairly aggressive in my portfolio of cards but not 30 in one day aggressive. Good luck with whatever you decide to do and keep us updated!

[Anonymous]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

I agree this sounds like a terrible idea.

However, if you do go through with it, we'd love to hear the results.

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haaha! +1!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the feedback. 

I'll state again, I have no need for credit in the short term. I understand all of those inquiries will kill my score for a while. I have 2 primary credit cards and they were credit-building options anyway. I also have 1 auto loan that's almost paid off and one that's 6 months old. The tradelines have my FICOs at or above 800 currently, so I figure to use that now to get approved for as many cards as possible, garden them all. If a few drop off a result of them seeing all the other accounts later, let's say even 10 of the 30 cards drop off, then I still have 20 cards gardening. As far as getting to 1 million in credit, it is definitely lofty won't be easy at all, but if this mass app session is somewhat successful it is definitely a good start. I'd rather just tough it out for 2 years with a crappy AAoA and then be done worrying about any new accounts being able to even affect it really. 

Do you guys who are saying they will AA my accounts later and pre-emptively close accounts, have any stories of this happening? I wasn't really able to find much info on something of this scale. I will definitely post the results in a couple weeks or so. I'm trading in my car so after that finalizes I'm doing the app-fest. My main hope is that with 3 computers and teamwork all of the hard pulls will be in such rapid succession that all they won't show right away. I don't couldn't find any info on that but I guess we're going to find out!