HOW MANY, IS TOO MANY INQUIRIES

[Anonymous]

hello evryone, i have 7 months credit history, got bofa, citibank, td bank secured cards 7 months ago, bofa unsecured and increased the limit from 1500$ to 7000$, now i have 710 FICO Score, so last week i decided to apply for other credits;

citbank double cash-declined  (using their diamond secured credit card for 7 months now and did not get any rewards. (should i close this too) i have checking account with them too not less than 12k4 a month maintaning balance.

amex blue cash -declined

chase amazon, chase freedom- declined with checking maintaning balance 1501$

REASONS: TO MANY INQUIRIES,(i applied before when i did not have credit score and i did not know that) AGE OF CREDIT HISTORY, CANT FIND OPEN LOAN FILES

please give me advice friends on how can i get approved on the cards i wanted especially with rewards... im planning to close my td bank and hopefully replace with amex for rewards. TD bank have really bad customer service to me. 30-45 minutes waiting and not updated apps.

thank you very much.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

hello evryone, i have 7 months credit history, got bofa, citibank, td bank secured cards 7 months ago, bofa unsecured and increased the limit from 1500$ to 7000$, now i have 710 FICO Score, so last week i decided to apply for other credits;

citbank double cash-declined  (using their diamond secured credit card for 7 months now and did not get any rewards. (should i close this too) i have checking account with them too not less than 12k4 a month maintaning balance.

amex blue cash -declined

chase amazon, chase freedom- declined with checking maintaning balance 1501$

REASONS: TO MANY INQUIRIES,(i applied before when i did not have credit score and i did not know that) AGE OF CREDIT HISTORY, CANT FIND OPEN LOAN FILES

please give me advice friends on how can i get approved on the cards i wanted especially with rewards... im planning to close my td bank and hopefully replace with amex for rewards. TD bank have really bad customer service to me. 30-45 minutes waiting and not updated apps.

thank you very much.

---

In total how many INQ's do you have right now?, Also closing out accounts so early would not serve you best I'll wait for your reply.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

hello evryone, i have 7 months credit history, got bofa, citibank, td bank secured cards 7 months ago, bofa unsecured and increased the limit from 1500$ to 7000$, now i have 710 FICO Score, so last week i decided to apply for other credits;

citbank double cash-declined  (using their diamond secured credit card for 7 months now and did not get any rewards. (should i close this too) i have checking account with them too not less than 12k4 a month maintaning balance.

amex blue cash -declined

chase amazon, chase freedom- declined with checking maintaning balance 1501$

REASONS: TO MANY INQUIRIES,(i applied before when i did not have credit score and i did not know that) AGE OF CREDIT HISTORY, CANT FIND OPEN LOAN FILES

please give me advice friends on how can i get approved on the cards i wanted especially with rewards... im planning to close my td bank and hopefully replace with amex for rewards. TD bank have really bad customer service to me. 30-45 minutes waiting and not updated apps.

thank you very much.

---

Having only 7 months of history is probably the bigger reason why Chase declined. Sounds like you may have tons of inqs on your Ex specifically. Let those hit a year. You may consider Disco since they seem to like TU and EQ more than EX. Closing TD is probably ok, but I wouldn't close more than that because it can raise flags with new apps. If Citi graduates the Diamond you should be able to PC to DC. You already have the cash rewards, which is better than the BCE on everything except the 0.8% difference on groceries.

PS congrats on the epic BofA CLI! I'm hoping to get something like that soon too.

[HeavenOhio]

I'd wait a few months before applying for anything else. The accounts and inquiries will have begun to age.

Also, I'd try to tough it out with the crummy TD card until you have a successor for it. Three cards or more optimizes scoring. However, if the situation is bad enough that you can't tough it out, close it.

If you have no installment loans and have no plans for one, you might want to check out a Share Secure Loan from Alliant. In summary, you open a $500 savings account with Alliant, use it to secure a 5-year $500 loan, use the savings account to pay the loan down to $44, and spend the five years paying off the $44. Your interest costs will be around nine dollars. This is all done on a soft inquiry, meaning that lenders won't see it on your reports and that the inquiry won't affect your score. Check out the first three posts of this thread:

Adding an installment loan -- the Share Secure technique

[Anonymous]

Number of inquiries IMO really only matters relative to everything else.  If you're someone with an 800-850 credit score and you have 6-figure income, you could have a hundred inquiries and it probably wouldn't matter.  Why?  Because everything else in your profile is basically top-notch.

As other factors on your profile such as payment history, utilization, age of accounts etc. become less ideal, things like inquiries can become a bigger factor.  As indicated above by someone else already, your credit history is 7 months which is extremely short.  To me, that's your greatest constraint and one that when you factor in just a handful of inquiries can be viewed as "too many" by certain lenders.

[Anonymous]

So many great replies thus far.

The best strategy for you right now (as the other folks seem to be saying) is to sit tight for a year and apply for no more cards.  You already have five credit cards which is plenty from a scoring perspective.  Just use them a little each month, let them report, and then pay the statement balance in full.  And don't close any of them.

In a year your profile will look much better.  You'll have five revolving tradelines on which you will have demonstrated perfect payment history.  All your inquiries will have fallen off FICO's radar.  Your Age of Oldest Accoount will be not far from 2.0 years. 

Something fun to play with while you wait is implementing the SS loan technique, as others suggested, assuming you have no open loans.

A final thought about rewards cards:

The only people they give any real benefit to is people who have (a) a lot of spending which is (b) almost all really essential.  Unless both things are true about a person, there's not much benefit.  The best way by far to generate extra cash for yourself is not to spend it.  Every dollar you elect not to spend earns you 95 cents, even if you have a 5% cash card.  If you are properly following the strategy of keeping spending low, however, then your cash back rewards will also be low.  Rewards cards induce people to spend more which (as I say) hurts their bank account a lot more than it helps them.

All of which is to say that you don't need to be in a hurry to get rewards cards.  Get them eventually, sure, but they will likely not help you much, unless you are the person who spends a huge amount on absolute essentials.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So many great replies thus far.

The best strategy for you right now (as the other folks seem to be saying) is to sit tight for a year and apply for no more cards.  You already have five credit cards which is plenty from a scoring perspective.  Just use them a little each month, let them report, and then pay the statement balance in full.  And don't close any of them.

In a year your profile will look much better.  You'll have five revolving tradelines on which you will have demonstrated perfect payment history.  All your inquiries will have fallen off FICO's radar.  Your Age of Oldest Accoount will be not far from 2.0 years. 

Something fun to play with while you wait is implementing the SS loan technique, as others suggested, assuming you have no open loans.

A final thought about rewards cards:

The only people they give any real benefit to is people who have (a) a lot of spending which is (b) almost all really essential.  Unless both things are true about a person, where's not much benefit.  The best way by far to generate extra cash for yourself is not to spend it.  Every dollar you elect not to spend earns you 95 cents, even if you have a 5% cash card.  If you are properly following the strategy of keeping spending low, however, then your cash back rewards will also be low.  Rewards cards induce people to spend more which (as I say) hurts their bank account a lot more than it helps them.

All of which is to say that you don't need to be in a hurry to get rewards cards.  Get them eventually, sure, but they will likely not help you much, unless you are the person who spends a huge amount on absolute essentials.

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Agreed! Good stuff

[Anonymous]

In total how many INQ's do you have right now?, Also closing out accounts so early would not serve you best I'll wait for your reply. 

[Anonymous]

Having only 7 months of history is probably the bigger reason why Chase declined. Sounds like you may have tons of inqs on your Ex specifically. Let those hit a year. You may consider Disco since they seem to like TU and EQ more than EX. Closing TD is probably ok, but I wouldn't close more than that because it can raise flags with new apps. If Citi graduates the Diamond you should be able to PC to DC. You already have the cash rewards, which is better than the BCE on everything except the 0.8% difference on groceries.

PS congrats on the epic BofA CLI! I'm hoping to get something like that soon too.

thank you very much for the advice. i will do them and will freeze from applying for now and i will just wait for pre approved offers.. i will also avoid reading the APPROVAL SECTION..

yes sure you'll have the same with BOFA. 7 months history with them total of 9600$ credit line is great. thank you for the advice again

[Anonymous]

@heavenohio

Re: HOW MANY, IS TOO MANY INQUIRIES 

Options

‎09-26-2017 07:48 AM

I'd wait a few months before applying for anything else. The accounts and inquiries will have begun to age.

Also, I'd try to tough it out with the crummy TD card until you have a successor for it. Three cards or more optimizes scoring. However, if the situation is bad enough that you can't tough it out, close it.

If you have no installment loans and have no plans for one, you might want to check out a Share Secure Loan from Alliant. In summary, you open a $500 savings account with Alliant, use it to secure a 5-year $500 loan, use the savings account to pay the loan down to $44, and spend the five years paying off the $44. Your interest costs will be around nine dollars. This is all done on a soft inquiry, meaning that lenders won't see it on your reports and that the inquiry won't affect your score. Check out the first three posts of this thread:

Adding an installment loan -- the Share Secure technique

i will definitley follow your advice, make sense, will garden until january to get one amex and close my (td bank no rewards, very poor customer service or capital one with 400$ low limit).

i just recently signed up for alliant credit union online and they are processing my application.

your advice is greatly appreciated

thank you very much

[Anonymous]

I'd wait a few months before applying for anything else. The accounts and inquiries will have begun to age.

Also, I'd try to tough it out with the crummy TD card until you have a successor for it. Three cards or more optimizes scoring. However, if the situation is bad enough that you can't tough it out, close it.

If you have no installment loans and have no plans for one, you might want to check out a Share Secure Loan from Alliant. In summary, you open a $500 savings account with Alliant, use it to secure a 5-year $500 loan, use the savings account to pay the loan down to $44, and spend the five years paying off the $44. Your interest costs will be around nine dollars. This is all done on a soft inquiry, meaning that lenders won't see it on your reports and that the inquiry won't affect your score. Check out the first three posts of this thread:

Adding an installment loan -- the Share Secure technique

i will definitley follow your advice, make sense, will garden until january to get one amex and close my (td bank no rewards, very poor customer service or capital one with 400$ low limit).

i just recently signed up for alliant credit union online and they are processing my application.

your advice is greatly appreciated

thank you very much