Do you think App Sprees are a good idea? or bad?

[BluePoodle]

We all love reading about CC application success stories and app sprees.   I just wonder what everyone's thoughts are in regards to them?  Does the MyFico community encourage sprees?  I confess that I have apped for 5 new cards for 2014; 1 Jan, 3 May and my latest for July.  I would have never apped for so many had I not come to this community because I would have never learned about at least two of the cards I now have.

I love seeing the successes but sometimes I see people who should not be applying for the cards they are or seem addicted to the process. I will be the first to admit that Gardening can be a bit boring. But now that I have my latest card, I have not had the urge to ap.  

I am just curious what others think about App Spreeing and do you think it is a good or bad thing?  

Remember: Friendly, Supportive and Respectful answers please.

[Closingracer99]

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@BluePoodle wrote:

We all love reading about CC application success stories and app sprees.   I just wonder what everyone's thoughts are in regards to them?  Does the MyFico community encourage sprees?  I confess that I have apped for 5 new cards for 2014; 1 Jan, 3 May and my latest for July.  I would have never apped for so many had I not come to this community because I would have never learned about at least two of the cards I now have.

I love seeing the successes but sometimes I see people who should not be applying for the cards they are or seem addicted to the process. I will be the first to admit that Gardening can be a bit boring. But now that I have my latest card, I have not had the urge to ap.  

I am just curious what others think about App Spreeing and do you think it is a good or bad thing?  

Remember: Friendly, Supportive and Respectful answers please.

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They will all disappear off your report pretty close to each other which is better then say Apping for 2 in Jan then 2 in August and then 2 more next Jan 

[hizzaah]

I think it can be a good thing if you're doing it to time your inquiries sp that they fall off at the same time. I do agree that I've seen people over do it though. It's easy when you're surrounded by people on here who are constantly applying or when reading the success stories. You see a thread of someone getting approved for a card you want and think "I can do that!" even though you know you shouldn't. For that reason, I'm personally trying to avoid some threads lol.

I've learned a fair amount from this forum, but the personal accounts are what I enjoy. I'm a personal finance major and also study economics (Dec graduation!). The individual stories give an insight into the various thought processes people have in the the credit world that they just don't warn you about in school. Sorry for the tangent!

[Swapmeet]

I think that everyone's situation is a bit different. My last spree was in early Feb. It really got me exactly what I wanted, and like you, I didn't see myself needing to app for anything else for a while. Am I adicted to the process? I don't think so, but I am thinking about applying for a couple more cards and cli, since it has been six months since that spree, and there are still a couple cards that I want (same cards as before my last spree). Sprees can really help, and sprees can really hurt--depending on the underlying conditions. Since I think that I have a pretty responsible grasp on them, I think sprees are great--especially because they help consolidate inqs (at least group them together).

[pip3man]

I would think that will be in relation to the person's credit picture... generally someone with a long established history - a little app spree here and there wouldn't hurt as opposed to someone with a relatively thin and short history which would be kinda detrimental. However at the same time, a starter going on an app spree 6 months after initial credit approval wouldn't be bad because they need to acquire sufficient account for FICO scoring purposes then garden so all accounts can age uniformly. Therefore it's neither a good nor bad idea depending on the individual's profile

[BluePoodle]

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@pip3man wrote:

I would think that will be in relation to the person's credit picture... generally someone with a long established history - a little app spree here and there wouldn't hurt as opposed to someone with a relatively thin and short history which would be kinda detrimental. However at the same time, a starter going on an app spree 6 months after initial credit approval wouldn't be bad because they need to acquire sufficient account for FICO scoring purposes then garden so all accounts can age uniformly. Therefore it's neither a good nor bad idea depending on the individual's profile

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I agree with everyone and do find the psychology of app sprees interesting.  We use the term "garden/gardening" a lot and I just wonder what is considered sufficient garden time? 6 months? 12? Two years?  I know it depends based on the goals for future apps and the number of HP and their time spacing. But still, gardening just for the sake of againg accounts can vary in needs too.

[BluePoodle]

Another thing I see is in regards to the "Shopping cart trick" which ends up often being small limit/high interest store cards. I think they have a value but more often I see people with too many and wonder if they end up doing more harm than good to a credit file. 

[Swapmeet]

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@BluePoodle wrote:

Another thing I see is in regards to the "Shopping cart trick" which ends up often being small limit/high interest store cards. I think they have a value but more often I see people with too many and wonder if they end up doing more harm than good to a credit file. 

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Yes. I agree with this idea. App sprees consisting of the shopping cart trick usually do more harm than good. Store cards are reletively useless anyway, save for one or two for the purpose of having a good mix of credit. I have only one pure store card (wal mart) and one store card visa (sportsman's guide). I got the sg visa with the shopping cart trick. People think that they are improving their credit by having all these store cards without the inqs, but sabotaging their AAoA. People get way too out of hand with it and I don't think that there are many, if any reasons to do a spree of store cards. People get approved due to relaxed store card underwriting and love the rush of being approved....so they keep gong....shooting themselves in the foot a lot of times.

[Anonymous]

 I guess that depends on your definition of "spree." Spree, to me, conjures up the AOR model, where you apply for a dozen or so cards on a single day, hoping to get a big increase in your overall CL, rack up some starting bonuses, and possibly do some BT arbitrage. Doing them all the apps in the same day, of course, maximizes your chances of success, since the hits won't be reported until the next day, so none of the potential issuers will see the other dozen hits until after they've already approved you.

I personally haven't been a fan of that approach for the reason that it's too onerous and complicated to fulfill all of the requirements for the various cards. I mean, I'll MS to a point, but it just gets to be too much for me to do 8 x $3,000 in ninety days, and to keep track of it all. And the BT game is pretty much dead these days, what with very few 0 fee offers, and depressingly small returns on deposit accounts. Barely worth it even with a 0 fee offer.

For me, the limiting factor is credit hits. I'd be applying for a card every day of the year if not for that. Peronsally, I'm comfortable with about six hits on my report at any given time. That seems to be about the threshold where lenders start to give you the hairy eyeball. That's completely anecdotal, of course, but I tend to believe it. Since credit hits stay for two years, that means I can apply for about three cards per year on average. Several years of experience have led me to the conclusion that if I set a threshold of $400 in first-year-benefit for any given card, and only apply for a card when I see an offer that meets or exceeds that threshold, that will probably work out to about three apps per year. I figure if I go nine months or so without a qualifying offer, I may consider lowering my threshold. OTOH, if I start finding myself tempted with $400 offers and I've already done three offers within the last year, maybe I need to raise my threshold to $500. I do the same for my wife, and we often alternate offers as necessary to maximize exploitation of reward terms, avoid repeated hits by one or the other of us to a particular issuer, etc.

That's how I roll.

Chris.

[BluePoodle]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 I guess that depends on your definition of "spree." Spree, to me, conjures up the AOR model, where you apply for a dozen or so cards on a single day, hoping to get a big increase in your overall CL, rack up some starting bonuses, and possibly do some BT arbitrage. Doing them all the apps in the same day, of course, maximizes your chances of success, since the hits won't be reported until the next day, so none of the potential issuers will see the other dozen hits until after they've already approved you.

I personally haven't been a fan of that approach for the reason that it's too onerous and complicated to fulfill all of the requirements for the various cards. I mean, I'll MS to a point, but it just gets to be too much for me to do 8 x $3,000 in ninety days, and to keep track of it all. And the BT game is pretty much dead these days, what with very few 0 fee offers, and depressingly small returns on deposit accounts. Barely worth it even with a 0 fee offer.

For me, the limiting factor is credit hits. I'd be applying for a card every day of the year if not for that. Peronsally, I'm comfortable with about six hits on my report at any given time. That seems to be about the threshold where lenders start to give you the hairy eyeball. That's completely anecdotal, of course, but I tend to believe it. Since credit hits stay for two years, that means I can apply for about three cards per year on average. Several years of experience have led me to the conclusion that if I set a threshold of $400 in first-year-benefit for any given card, and only apply for a card when I see an offer that meets or exceeds that threshold, that will probably work out to about three apps per year. I figure if I go nine months or so without a qualifying offer, I may consider lowering my threshold. OTOH, if I start finding myself tempted with $400 offers and I've already done three offers within the last year, maybe I need to raise my threshold to $500. I do the same for my wife, and we often alternate offers as necessary to maximize exploitation of reward terms, avoid repeated hits by one or the other of us to a particular issuer, etc.

That's how I roll.

Chris.

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Thanks Chris for sharing. Very interesting way to approach value for your card selections. Do you consider the $400 benefit to be in bonuses or a combination of bonuses plus rewards on estimated spend in a given year?  I agree that for a me, as a household of 2, it is hard to meet spend for bonuses on lots of cards and thus has no interest or true value for excessive apping. But as I move forward, this is an interesting way to evaluate "do I really need the card?"