After you open a credit card how long do you wait to reapply for the next one ?
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I have self-control, and not that interested in the available cards, so I might wait two years.
Depends on the issuer your gunning for. When I do decide to pull the trigger, I go all out and apply for as many as they will give me, for the SUB's. I don't worry about hard pulls, closed/new accounts, credit will bounce back fast with a little gardening. 6 months is a good guide (Citi), 12 months for US Bank, and for Chase, forget about it, 5/24.
Citi:
US Bank:
Chase:
Aven:
RH:
The case book answer that I give is (no more than) one new card every six months. That's just a rough guideline that will normally keep a consumer within what most lenders consider "reasonable" credit-seeking behavior, will minimize denials for new accounts or inquiries, and will minimize the potential low SLs associated with aggressive credit-seeking. It works wells with new profiles as well as experienced ones. (That works out to 1/6; 2/12; 4/24 on-average.)
That said, life happens and sometimes we want (or need) a new card or account more often than the "ideal." That's fine as long as we remember that the farther off the normal track we go, the more likely we will see consequences from it such as lower limits or denials or the need to garden for longer than six months to clean up the wreckage. I have sometimes applied more often because I saw an opportunistic SUB and didn't want to miss it. Other times, I've gone years in between applications. There was a period a couple of years ago that I took a long break in the garden to "reset" after a period of actively adding new accounts.
I tend to avoid major "sprees" but I have been known to add just two or three accounts within 30 days of each other to avoid the impact of other new accounts on my approval or SL, and when I had a strategic purpose for each new account.
There are different schools of thought on needing versus wanting credit, and I don't judge others on the forums for whichever direction they choose. We have many members who enjoy adding and managing new accounts, and it's as much of a hobby as anything. As long as they have financial discipline to not overspend and they don't mind the responsibility that comes with many accounts, I see no harm in having credit in excess of true "needs." Yes, the general rule of thumb (for most people) is to apply for credit only when you need it. But that includes many consumers who may not have the discipline to use their cards carefully and could end up getting in over their heads. And most people, outside of the enthusiast forums like My FICO or the like, have no need or desire to manage more than the average 4 or so cards per consumer.
There's a lot of angles that our members take when it to comes our credit cards. We have some members who want to see how many total cards they can attain. We have some members who enjoy experiencing many different lenders and learning about their products by having their cards. We have some members like myself who don't want 75 to 100 cards but we want to push credit limits higher on our most important cards for padding utilization or just for the sport of it. We have some members who try to optimize rewards, whether that is in cash back or some form of travel points, or combinations, and they end up with a lot of cards that benefit them in various ways. (This statement also applies to my motives since I enjoy diversifying into cash back as well as various travel point systems.) We have some members who like to apply for many new cards for the generous SUBs so that they can maximize their rewards with SUBs instead of normal card rewards. It's all good, as long as we are mindful of the pro's and con's of our approach, and respect that there are many ways to build to a card profile.
I'll also add that the longer a consumer has had credit, the more likely that they will have more credit cards, at least until at some point they start purposefully down-sizing in retirement as needs change and there is a desire for simplicity. While I have closed a lot of accounts over the years, I also have some accounts that I plan to keep open as much for their beneficial credit age as other factors.
Not into collecting cards and atm my spend is pretty low, especially compared to what I read around here, so haven't been concerned with applying in sprees. Nor did I have a specific plan or enough knowledge to apply for cards that would be most useful. 6 ish years ago applied for first two cards, 2 ish years ago another two and recently in Jan the QS (instant regret there).
This time around focused on cards that would cover my highest spend categories. Went for Altitude Connect this month (approved), tried to push my luck with a Cash+ app - recon TBD, and two days ago applied for Chase Amazon with pre-approval. Intended to also apply for Citibank CC with pre-approval but changed my mind. Would rather give it two years and focus on profile improvement. Hopefully next time around it'll be instant approvals vs. anxiety filled waiting and/or denials.
@Aim_High wrote:The case book answer that I give is (no more than) one new card every six months. That's just a rough guideline that will normally keep a consumer within what most lenders consider "reasonable" credit-seeking behavior, will minimize denials for new accounts or inquiries, and will minimize the potential low SLs associated with aggressive credit-seeking. It works wells with new profiles as well as experienced ones. (That works out to 1/6; 2/12; 4/24 on-average.)
That said, life happens and sometimes we want (or need) a new card or account more often than the "ideal." That's fine as long as we remember that the farther off the normal track we go, the more likely we will see consequences from it such as lower limits or denials or the need to garden for longer than six months to clean up the wreckage. I have sometimes applied more often because I saw an opportunistic SUB and didn't want to miss it. Other times, I've gone years in between applications. There was a period a couple of years ago that I took a long break in the garden to "reset" after a period of actively adding new accounts.
I tend to avoid major "sprees" but I have been known to add just two or three accounts within 30 days of each other to avoid the impact of other new accounts on my approval or SL, and when I had a strategic purpose for each new account.
There are different schools of thought on needing versus wanting credit, and I don't judge others on the forums for whichever direction they choose. We have many members who enjoy adding and managing new accounts, and it's as much of a hobby as anything. As long as they have financial discipline to not overspend and they don't mind the responsibility that comes with many accounts, I see no harm in having credit in excess of true "needs." Yes, the general rule of thumb (for most people) is to apply for credit only when you need it. But that includes many consumers who may not have the discipline to use their cards carefully and could end up getting in over their heads. And most people, outside of the enthusiast forums like My FICO or the like, have no need or desire to manage more than the average 4 or so cards per consumer.
There's a lot of angles that our members take when it to comes our credit cards. We have some members who want to see how many total cards they can attain. We have some members who enjoy experiencing many different lenders and learning about their products by having their cards. We have some members like myself who don't want 75 to 100 cards but we want to push credit limits higher on our most important cards for padding utilization or just for the sport of it. We have some members who try to optimize rewards, whether that is in cash back or some form of travel points, or combinations, and they end up with a lot of cards that benefit them in various ways. (This statement also applies to my motives since I enjoy diversifying into cash back as well as various travel point systems.) We have some members who like to apply for many new cards for the generous SUBs so that they can maximize their rewards with SUBs instead of normal card rewards. It's all good, as long as we are mindful of the pro's and con's of our approach, and respect that there are many ways to build to a card profile.
I'll also add that the longer a consumer has had credit, the more likely that they will have more credit cards, at least until at some point they start purposefully down-sizing in retirement as needs change and there is a desire for simplicity. While I have closed a lot of accounts over the years, I also have some accounts that I plan to keep open as much for their beneficial credit age as other factors.
@Aim_High 's reply pretty much covers all of the approaches I've taken over the years. With positive credit history going back well over 40 years, I've been able to accumulate a nice portfolio of cards through a variety of application strategies. I average about 1 card per year, but the range has been from zero to 5 per year. The 5 only happened once, about a decade ago, during the golden age of signup bonuses. More recently, banks have begun to place more restrictions on the velocity of new accounts that are considered acceptable. This is where the 4/24, 1/12, and 0/6 types of cutoffs have come into play. So, those rules influence my application strategy today. I don't apply for anything unless I am at least 0/6. If a desired lender is known to favor 0/12, then I'll garden for at least a year if I really want to do business with that lender. If I know I will have a large expense coming up, I will try to time an application to earn a good signup bonus within a single statement period.
