@KJinNC wrote:Random question, and this seems like a good place to ask it. I know NFCU cards have a reputation for growing. Are there any specific no-AF NFCU cards that grow better or worse than others, or are they all about the same as far as that goes? How do USAA cards compare in terms of starting limits and growth? I know USAA tends to require HPs for CLIs. Or any other options available to me for the goal of "large CL, no AF"? Thanks!
I have moderate experience with both NFCU and USAA, @KJinNC. From my observation, it would appear that USAA is more pragmatic on your starting limit relative to profile, regardless of relationship unlike Navy that tends to want to get to know you before they become generous. But like some other lenders, it seems that USAA is more realistic up-front and then slower to grow. Navy is often ultra-conservative on first approvals (and especially for new members) but then the limits grow better over time. Plus the limits become much more generous relative-to-profile that USAA. And I believe USAA has a $50K lending cap per customer like PenFed, whereas Navy goes to $80K revolving credit lending cap per customer.
@KJinNC wrote:You can probably get more detailed advice about this on the load board, but last year, I opened two cards last April, two cards last May, and got a 3.54% car loan in June. Interest rates have come down a little since then, so that doesn't sound as good now as it did then, but the point is, a couple of new cards probably won't radically change your car loan situation. Car loans are relatively easy to qualify for, since there is collateral. JMO, good luck!
The last two cards are from PenFed. Since PenFed apparently loves me, I'm going to try to finance the car through them.
Actually got preapproved for the car I'm looking at, at a much lower rate than I expected. But that was before this latest couple of cards. Saving up a downpayment.
EQ8 775, TU8 764, EX8 776 as of August 16
@Aim_High wrote:For the community, how do you set limits for yourself on new cards or inquiries and do you have a process before applying for new credit? How long do you plan or do you impulsively app? Is impulsive or excessive app'ing a problem or a concern? We're in the last three weeks of 2020. As it draws to a close, what are your credit goals for 2021?
..... Kudos to @Remedios for the topic.
After my first card I waited 6 months to get my second. I went for Chase first because I had read about the limitations here. Then I waited 2 years for both those cards to fall off and applied for 3 cards I had been eyeing over those two years. I wanted to build relationships with other banks and new cards but I was hoping for higher starting CL by waiting. So this year I wait will wait some more. I thought about buying a car last year but since I am work from home right now I have just held off (car is fully paid off and I drive it maybe 2x a month). If I can I'll probably wait till July to start looking for a car because that will mean the 3 cards will hit the 1 year mark and my credit score will get a slight boost. I would like to get a credit card from Navy Fed and PNC but I'm just going to wait on those two. I have bank accounts with both so I'm at least building some relationship with them. I do click the Luv button for Disco every chance I get but the last press resulted in them saying I haven't used the card enough (this is true because Chase Amazon Prime made an offer of 4% on everything until February and I've been using that card a lot as a result).
My credit goal is to keep tending the garden and see if I find any nice deals on the cars I've been eyeing in the meantime. I may try to lower APR on my cards and increase the CLs on some but I haven't been using them too much lately and don't hold a balance as I'm trying to reduce spending in these strained times so I'm not sure how much anyone will be willing to reduce and increase those numbers.
I think your strategy for adding cards will heavily depend on where you are on your credit journey and where you are trying to get. In my case, I made some early ill-informed choices, such as applying for Visa Signature cards when I could barely qualify for secured cards; applying willy-nilly for car loans because I thought car loans would build my credit and I wasn't aware that a bunch of hard inquiries were bad for credit; adding more secured cards than I needed because I was in a hurry to get to the next stage. Somewhere around this point, I started to somewhat know what I was doing, and backed into a strategy that I think largely worked for me.
In those first crazy months, I kept getting advice to slow down, wait a year before I apply for another card, etc. I didn't follow that advice, initially due to ignorance and impatience, but I also gradually noticed that what I was doing was actually working, in a way. I WAS getting better cards. This allowed me to cycle from no-reward, annual fee, secured cards into reward cards from major banks very rapidly. Also, I had decided that I in terms of cards or accounts I would want to open any time in the next year or two, I wanted to do them all close together in time so that they would age together. So, this idea prompted me to rush some applications, which sometimes resulted in approvals and sometimes not. I knew that there were drawbacks to such an aggressive approach, but I was coming from pretty much nothing, so I didn't feel like I had much to lose. I was thinking in terms of several years in the future and wanted a thick and increasingly aged profile by then.
So, that WAS my strategy. I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, but I feel like it worked for me. Having said that, my profile still has some radioactive fallout from that strategy. I wouldn't qualify for what one might assume, based on my scores. I accept that and figure the "intangibles" will get better over the next 12-24 months.
My strategy now is to be very selective, with only specific goals, and no rush to apply to any of them. I get my first gold spade of my MyFico era on Feb. 7. I doubt I'll apply for anything before then, and even then, not sure. But if I do apply for one, I'll probably apply for a couple of other things at the same time, since I lose my spade anyway 
