Time for my first SPREE?!!

[Anonymous]

 I plan to apply for a Chase AARP & Chase freedom today or tomorrow. I spoke with someone on the phone at Chase who said it would be treated as two pulls, because the system they use randomly picks the CRA. I am also considering getting a Citi Double Cash card. I am not sure if I should go for all three or not due to my relatively thin file, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Currently prequalified for Freedom & Double Cash.

     After this spree I will not be getting any new cards for at least a year (probably longer) although I do plan on applying to Alliant Credit Union and DCU after I am done. My main goal is to establish a solid base of cards to keep forever and build AAoA as well as payment history.

Discover More just PC to Discover IT – 2k – Opened August 2010 - TU 759 FICO 08 on 9/20/15
Sallie Mae World MasterCard – 3.5k – Opened October 2015 – TU 769 FICO 08 on 9/04/15

I am 24 with no baddies, just not a lot reporting other than my two current cards. I have 1-3 inquiries at each bureau currently. I realize this spree is going to drop my score, but I am thinking long term and have no plans for a car or home loan anytime soon. Thanks in advance for your responses; I look forward to contributing and growing on these forums!

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 I plan to apply for a Chase AARP & Chase freedom today or tomorrow. I spoke with someone on the phone at Chase who said it would be treated as two pulls, because the system they use randomly picks the CRA. I am also considering getting a Citi Double Cash card. I am not sure if I should go for all three or not due to my relatively thin file, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Currently prequalified for Freedom & Double Cash.

     After this spree I will not be getting any new cards for at least a year (probably longer) although I do plan on applying to Alliant Credit Union and DCU after I am done. My main goal is to establish a solid base of cards to keep forever and build AAoA as well as payment history.

Discover More just PC to Discover IT – 2k – Opened August 2010 - TU 759 FICO 08 on 9/20/15
Sallie Mae World MasterCard – 3.5k – Opened October 2015 – TU 769 FICO 08 on 9/04/15

I am 24 with no baddies, just not a lot reporting other than my two current cards. I have 1-3 inquiries at each bureau currently. I realize this spree is going to drop my score, but I am thinking long term and have no plans for a car or home loan anytime soon. Thanks in advance for your responses; I look forward to contributing and growing on these forums!

---

Maybe, maybe not. Chase usually just pulls 1. But often times they pull a 2nd.  As long as you do them the same day... I would think they would end up merging by the end of the day.  If this was a Freedom/Slate combo, I'd say you are pretty much golden at a decent chance for 1 inquiry.

Now the issue with these cobranded cards .... sometimes its best to just let them process for a week or two so this is a stick area.

Good news is, you shouldnt end up with 4 inquiries between the two chase cards...which is what could happen if you did them months apart.

What does your DC offer say for APR?  They tend to get better over time by mail. They send better and better offers.  Citi could pull a 2nd bureau too.  

[Anonymous]

Gotcha, so chase cards are greenlighted. Any strategy to do all three cards within the same day, or should I let chase report first. I know they are all solid cards just not what sure what order I should go after them. On the Citi DC my offer is 0% APR for 15 months and a brutal 22.99% after that. Although I do not intend to carry a balance at all.

[Anonymous]

Citi has been pulling ex and eq. They did for me and countless others lately.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Gotcha, so chase cards are greenlighted. Any strategy to do all three cards within the same day, or should I let chase report first. I know they are all solid cards just not what sure what order I should go after them. On the Citi DC my offer is 0% APR for 15 months and a brutal 22.99% after that. Although I do not intend to carry a balance at all.

---

Chase definitely first.  Freedom first, AARP second. I would hold off on the DC unless you want to risk extra inquiry to increase the limit.

Your discover could've been enrolled in double cash back had u not pc'd...so even with general spend it would give you 2% across the board. So if its in the promo, I'd hold off on the DC for now.

What is your monthly spending like?

If you wait longer for DC, I guarantee you the APR will drop. One day it will go BAM and be super low. I promise you. (well hopefully). But if you want it, then get it.

Also, unless you are spending a ton on dining, the extra percent on the AARP isnt really going to make that much of a difference.  Not trying to tell you what to do though!!!

Could you afford 4k spend in 90 days?  If so, you would app for CSP and Freedom under 1-2 inqs. Then you would net 55k UR points (worth over a grand easily). And if you end up not using the CSP very much, you can move all the limit to the freedom or hope for a retention offer. But basically, the CSP when AF hits, you need to spend quite a bit to make it worth it.  But that first year, you are earning 2x points on dining, and UR points are worth 2 cents, so its 4% in essence.

The AARP is a great card though for cash back dining. Aside from sams MC, there arent very many to my knowledge.

[Anonymous]

The Discover More was only .25% until you broke a certain amount of spend for the year from my understanding with no options to double that from what I saw, so it was pretty much useless to me besides the rotating categories which I will still get with the IT. (As an aside I will most likely be getting wife an IT as her scores just shot up over 700 when I got a collection removed and added her as AU on my Discover, so we will get bonuses there)

Monthly spend on all cards is at most 1,000 a month. I could meet spend for the CSP, but I would be just spending for bonus. Not to mention the 1k I will need to spend for AARP & Freedom 100$ bonuses. One reason that drew me into the AARP card is the uncertainty with my Sallie Mae, I felt like it would be a nice card to fall back on for gas too if Sallie does get nerfed.

I am completely content waiting out the Citi DC, or any of these really if better options are out there. Please do not hesitate to tell me what cards to get or the number of them I should be shooting for!!!

My logic is that with AARP & Freedom I would have two rotating category cards, gas, grocery, and restaurants pretty well covered. I do exceed the 250$ 5% back on Sallie at grocery every month though because I use it at walmart for non-grocery items as we do not have a target. The only cards I would like to avoid are annual fees, although the Chase IHG is pretty tempting to me. My limits are pretty low currently at 2k & 3,500k so I thought the hotel card could help there too.

[Anonymous]

I'm in a similar position you are with scores and a thin file, but mine is a little wider (more cards) but shorter length (2yrs max).

If you aren't going to do anything else for another 1 year I would app for all 3 (if not more).  The inquiries will virtually fall off in a year and everything will be aged well and your scores will bounce back to where they were by then.

The CSP recommendation is a good idea if you can meet the spend.  Chase has a 5 max new cards in 24 mo rule that makes it a good idea to start opening up your long term Chase keeper cards first like the Freedom/CSP.  You can always app for Chase co-branded cards (like AARP, UnitedPlus, Southwest, Marriott, etc) at a later time and those don't have the 5/24 rule.

I would also recommend the following:

• NASA FCU Platinum Cash Rewards = soft pull, high SL, 0% 1% cash upto $1K/yr, 1.25% cash upto $2K/yr, 2% cash over $2K/yr.  Could be an alternative to the Citi DC.
• Citi Thank You Premier = 3pt Travel, 2pt Restaurant/Entertainment. Pts are said to be worth about 1.6cent/ea. So that is better than AARP.  Could be an alterative to the CSP. I guess it depends on which airlines you'll be traveling on more.
• US Bank Cash+ Signature = 5% on 2 categories you choose, 2% on 1 other category
• Upromise = extra 5% cash back online shopping thru Upromise portal (airlines, department stores, Amazon, etc.) There is also 5% for participating restaurants.

It really depends on what your spending categories are now and what you see in the future.

[Anonymous]

I really like the US Bank+, I just read that it was a tough one to obtain and gets nerfed a lot though. 5% on fast food would be epic for me as nothing I have catches that at the moment.

[NRB525]

OP, you have an interesting file, with the Discover since 2010. I also have a Discover from 2012, which I found out this year was the Discover More (Less) card which does indeed give you all of 0.25% rewards on the first non-category $3,000 per year of spend then boosts your earnings to 1% thereafter. Such a deal. I PC'd it to the IT a few months ago.

My suggestion would be to go to the Citi site and check the prequalification page, looking for "cash back" category cards. Do you get the Double Cash with a fixed APR? Or is it a range of APR? This is a good bellweather of where you stand, certainly in the eyes of Citi. i would even suggest it is a way to see how your apps look to other banks.

As to Chase, I'd be inclined to stay conservative and go for either the AARP or the Freedom, not both, and not the CSP. The reason for this is, the CSP is going to require a mega spend, and then a year from now it's going to have an AF. The benefits of points on dining are not enough with the CSP to outweigh the AARP, and probably not even the Freedom, since it's only one more point. If you have a good offer from Citi on the Double Cash, that can be a better long term no AF card than CSP.

The CSP (or similar version) will be there a year or two from now, and you can look at that to transfer some of your Freedom points (which you should ideally be stockpiling for that future transfer).

[Anonymous]

I would actually prefer the AARP to the Freedom if not both that is. The Citi DC came in at 0% for 15months and 22.99% after that. I pretty much let my discover run on auto pilot for 5 years while I was in college, although in retrospect I wish I had been building AAoA with multiple cards all that time. Any idea if I would stand a chance for US Bank+? I am about to start doing some research on approvals for it as soon as I finish typing. The trifecta of these three would cover every aspect of my spend as long as my grocery card (sallie mae) does not get nerfed.