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The Art of Apping: A question

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MontegoMack
Frequent Contributor

The Art of Apping: A question

My credit has gotten better with time and effort, so I'm hoping to put my toe in the pool of prime cards. I've come across all kinds of wiggling and jiggling of the "system" to best avoid too many hard pulls and for getting creditors to see one's best scores at the right time.

 

What are some of the "rules of thumb" that have actually worked?

 

Apping all cards in one 24 hour period? Waiting until what time in the cycle of reporting? 

 

I live in CT, my income is about $90k, my utilization is less than 10% on my RZMC and BofA Gold card (an upgrade from a prepaid card from about 8 years ago). No collections or BKs. 

 

I have an interest in BofA's 1-2-3, in Amex (while I don't know my definitive EX score, I do know that my EX report looks better than my EQ report and perhaps that'll be reflected in the score calculation) and maybe Citi or Chase because my interest in Discover is fairly low. The good thing is that I'm not in a rush. I do know that prime cards and high CLIs influence creditors and I'd like to finally be seen as a responsible adult and be rewarded as such.

 

 

AmEx Platinum - AmEx BCP - Chase Freedom - NFCU Platinum - Chase Amazon Prime - Citi Costco - Citi Best Buy
Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

App spree time.  Good chance at bofa.  Amex blue is decent chance! But good chance at Amex co brand revolvers.  Shoe in for Amex charge card.  Good chance at most issuers.  Not sure if okay for high cl as more related to existing cl.  I would pick issuers with cli friendly policies like Amex.  Citibank can be generous.  I would stay away for chase unless you are happy with your existing cl size as chase is good about kind of beating existing cl's but their cli policies aren't that good for building cl.

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 2 of 9
MontegoMack
Frequent Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

Do I do this "spree" all in the same 24 hour period? Does that even matter?

 

I've seen this tactic mentioned before, but I'm not sure if it works or what is the actual intent.

 

*edited for grammar.

AmEx Platinum - AmEx BCP - Chase Freedom - NFCU Platinum - Chase Amazon Prime - Citi Costco - Citi Best Buy
Message 3 of 9
CreditChampion
Frequent Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

All that matters is that you do it before the cards start reporting.

Fico Scores:800+Club

Marvel MC 25K AMEX BCE 18K AMEX Blue Sky 13.6K AMEX BCE 13.5K AMEX Zync
NPSL(AU) Citi Double Cash 14.5K PenFed Plat Rewards 14.5K Citi Forward 10.3k Discover it 9.5K Wells Fargo Cash Back 7.2K BankAmericard Better Balance $700 Chase Freedom $500 Capital One Quicksilver $6K Capital One Platinum (AU) $500 Capital One Secured Card (AU) $251(Closed) PenFed PLOC 14K
PenFed Promise 5K
Message 4 of 9
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

Credit score gets lowered from new accounts for a few reasons.  One, hard inquiry from app.  Two, reduced aaoa.  Three, ding from having new account.  The idea behind app spree is to app at around same time before new accounts hit credit report.  This way hard inquiries age together.  New account ding is taken once for several accounts.  Not much you can do about aaoa reduction.  Not always a good thing but techique results in fastest recovery in score given the number of new cards.  

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 5 of 9
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

App sprees are good as you can get approved for accounts without having to worry about inquiries or new accounts affecting approval, and they age/grow all together, which is great for your credit history.

 

Your AAoA and current limits will affect the issuers approval decision; Barclay's would prob be a good bet imho.

Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 6 of 9
Jlu
Established Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

My last spree that netted me 4/4 Chase Freedom, GE Amazon, GE Walmart, WFNBB Express was done the following way: Open multiple windows/tabs and entered all the information in all the apps and hit submit button on all the apps within a 5-second window I was approved for 3/4 and reconned the Chase app. Not sure this is necessary or that it helps but I figured it might prevent an inquiry from hitting so it looks like a fresh app and not an app spree.

AMEX BCP $35k | Citi Double Cash $30k | PenFed PlatRewards $25k | Barclaycard $40k | Chase Freedom $25k | BofA Cash Rewards $40K | US Bank Cash+ $4500 | Discover IT $25k | NASA Platinum-Advantage $40k | CapOne Quicksilver $15k | Amazon Card $10k | Ten years on myFICO from 510 to 780 scores
Message 7 of 9
iMacDrew
Frequent Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

App sprees IMO are good because when accepted those accounts will age together and the inquiries will fall off together.. on top of those new accounts not being reported on your CR yet.

Lender pulled 10-10-13
EQ Fico 715 | EX Fico 714 | TU Fico 703
Message 8 of 9
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: The Art of Apping: A question

Assuming you get approved for several accounts on an app spree, you can also significantly reduce your util. too., which increases your score substantially! In January, I knew that my util was going up, so I opened like $10-20k in credit lines, which increased my overall score... even though I opened like four accounts at that time. Went from like 650-680 ish FICO.
Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 9 of 9
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