Is it better to do app spree in one day?

[Anonymous]

The reaon is simple, if you apply for four cards from four diferent banks in one day, they all pulled the same credit report. 

So  the fourth lender can only see that you have three inquiries today just before this one. But if you spread out the four apps into one or two months, then there's a big chance that the fourth lender will see three newly opened accounts AND of course, three inquires, which I assumed will make them more nervious than only see inquiries, thus reducing the chance of approval.

Does this make sense? 

[jsucool76]

Yeah it does. An inquiry just means you're looking fir credit, new accounts mean you got it, and could be at risk of over extending yourself. If you're not doing a spree and just do like... One new account every 6 months, it isnt as big of a deal, but if you're apping for 8 cards over 3 months it could be an issue.

That is why we do sprees here. Plus this way all the accounts age at the same time and you're not constantly dropping your aaoa. One of the main issues with sprees though is trying to hit a ton of spend requirements at once.

[L0RDAVENTAD0R]

If you can justify an app spree (hitting the spending requirements for bonuses, etc), I would do it all in the same day so other lenders will just initially see inquiries versus seeing inquiries & a lot of new accounts.

[enharu]

it all depends on a lot of things. sprees can be a good thing or a bad thing.

For example, like others have said, all your accounts are aging at the same time, and your inquiries fall off at the same time. on top of that, you get to establish relationship with those banks earlier, as opposed to applying for the other cards 6-12 months down the road. This relationship thing can be a double edged sword though. If you're going to go on a spree and end up dragging high balances across different cards, then you're better off not establishing any relationship in the first place.

Also, an important thing to look at is how thick your CR is. If your file is on the thin side to start with, a spree might be a bad idea because it can really rub lenders in the wrong way. They do not have a lot of data on you due to your short history to do an accurate risk profile, so to them you will look really risky. If you have a thick file and high AAoA, a spree will probably just lower ur scores in the first few months of those inquiries and new account reporting, and afterwards it'll be back to what it was before.

Another thing to look at is how much debt you current owe across your accounts. If you're already in a sea of debt, the last thing you want to do is to go on a spree or even try to go on one. This will definitely send a red flag to any lender, current and prospective. There's lots of ugly stories you can read on the forums about what happened.

So in general, if your file is not thin, has no recent derogs, very low utilization ratio and everything else looks in good shape, then definitely go for it. Otherwise, it's best to be on the safe side and apply for 1-2 at a time.

[BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest]

interesting^^^^^^^^

[boomhower]

I try to space my apps over two or three CRA's.  You can do some research and have a pretty good idea what lender pulls in your area. 

[Creditaddict]

YES YES YES, Many banks don't like to see many new accounts opened in the last 6 months and start declining fantastic credit because.... My partner got flat denial out of USBank and after much work and frustration got $1k recon on a Citi Card, While Navy gave CLI to $35k, BofA and Barclay approved $15k lines.... go for everything you want in 1 to 2 swoops I think.

One of the modifications to the rule would be if you have no credit or have non prime... you might want a really good card and limit reporting and then hitting many banks at once... sometimes they don't want to be the first to issue that $5k line when you have $500 lines prior and others love to be that.... Citi seems to love to be that new card!

[CS800]

Good to do at once, then your inqs and account age at the same time

Bad when your other card companies SP you and see the influx of inqs and new credit lines. Might be a red flag for inq sensitive creditors out there.