How often do you apply to a new card? Give me your experience.

[Anonymous]

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@Remedios wrote:

You should apply for new credit when you need it. There should be no mandatory " Oh 💩, it's been 5 months since I applied" 

Whenever a recommendation is made to wait a certain period of time, it's not because that's the best pace, only an estimate on how long is needed to avoid denials, AA,  and/or maybe improve odds for future approvals. 

Bottom line, don't apply for credit just because you want it or it may not be there when you need it. 

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This.   The exception is if you are a churner going for regular SUBs, in which case you should know what you are doing

On this forum, there are people with a lot of credit cards for some coherent purpose, and many others also with lots of credit cards "just because".   Best not to be in the latter group!

[wasCB14]

It averages about once every 4 months...but it could be 1 month or 1 year between apps.

The trigger is generally some large tax bill or other off-category transaction...or an increased travel bonus on a card I'd already been considering.

[NRB525]

Do you want the 2015 version of me, or the 2019 version?

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am curious to hear how often everybody applies for a new credit card. Do you have a strategy when applying to new cards? Do you garden? If so, what time period. I am trying to learn as much as possible and would love to hear everybody's strategies. This could include your experience, what cards you got and what you did to prepare for the apps.

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Strategy: I only apply for a card when that particular card presents some significant increase from the value I'm already deriving from my existing cards. I'm very unlikely to move on a new card if the gain is marginal. I never factor sign-up bonuses into this equation, but if there are multiple offers going around I'll hold out until I attain the highest one available.

Frequency: Since 2014 I've acquired 3 cards: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase MileagePlus Club (since downgraded to Explorer as my flying has shifted heavily to Delta instead of United), and American Express Platinum. I don't garden - that implies intentionally avoiding applications for some gain. I just don't apply for cards that aren't worth my time, and since those don't come around often I end up "gardening" by virtue of being selective.

Preparation: Nothing. Cold apped both Chase cards I acquired since 2014 and I had been receiving constant 100,000 point offers from American Express for the Platinum, so I eventually accepted one of those.

[kdm31091]

I don't think it makes sense to assign a timeframe like "oh, haven't apped in 6 months, time to get a new card". It can be useful to say "I will not app for 6 months" if you are having excessive credit temptation, but just because a certain timeframe passes doesn't mean you have to get a new card.

I apply when and if I see a need, but I'm also pretty minimal with my strategy and prefer not to use a dozen cards to eek out every possible penny. Some people just apply because they want to get their foot in the door with certain banks, or they want a sign up bonus, or they want to do a BT, or a large purchase, or any number of reasons, and those are all fine too. It's really just up to you, your wants, needs, what you're willing to manage, and what you want your credit to do for you.

[NaaryalHead]

I usually app after 4-6 months. So far I haven't been denied a card because of the gap.

Since I got my first card less than two years ago, I'm pretty late to credit in general and am yet to Get all the cards I have on my wish list.

There are people content with just 2-3 cards. For me I think I'll stop at 8 or 9 and then trim the cards I no longer need.

[FireMedic1]

OP I went by the 4-6 month course. I researched every single card below and what I could get from reading on this forum. You see the stats below. 10-0. Never denied in just less than 4 yrs out of BK. I knew what I couldnt get and what I could get. I got what would work for me. To this day I have not paid 1 red cent in interest and wont. You want me to use your card? Pay me. Spread apps out and you could go undefeated just like myself. Good Luck!

[kdm31091]

Note also that most banks are cracking down more and more on excessive credit seeking, so keep that in mind. More algorithims are being developed by various banks it seems and it's best to keep applications spaced out more than may have been necessary a few years back.

[Kforce]

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@EdMan63 wrote:

Credit is a very personal thing.

There is no one size fits all.

There are those with many cards and there are those that are fine with just a few.

My goal was always to have a few great cards that compliment my lifestyle

I don't need a bunch of cards or to have spend spread out over several cards.

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+ 100

With 50+ years of credit history, I have had 10 credit cards total.

Closed a gas card and had two credit cards nerfed to death, so i closed them also.

Have 7 with 5 used every month and 2 just keeping alive for age.

This year will close one of the old ones, and my least used of the current 5

Should be down to 1 old and 4 for use.

A card for every 10 years of credit history !

[Anonymous]

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@Kforce wrote:

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A card for every 10 years of credit history !

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There's a spectrum from "aggressive credit seeking" to "just plain lazy credit seeking"!