Why CC and CLI sprees?

[Anonymous]

I've read from several forum members their experiences and results from CC application and/or CLI sprees. I'm confused! Why do this? From what I've read, the inquiries affect their FICO scores and your stuck with all these inquiries on your report for 2 years! I'm not criticizing those that do this, I'm just curious as to why and what benefits were they seeking. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

When you go on a spree, you have inquiries but not the new accounts reporting. It’s basically a way to squeak a bunch of approvals that wouldn’t otherwise happen and also take all of the damage at once. 

Plus sometimes you get that adrenaline rush from an approval and just can’t stop at one. I suspect a lot of us have the latter rather than an actual plan of attack for sprees (except for sensitive lenders like Chase and Barclays). 

[Gmood1]

It's not necessarily the inqs, the reason why folks spree. It's the reporting of the new accounts.
The new accounts will ding your scores more than the inqs will. Hence grabbing several before any of them report to the CBs.
Also those accounts will all age at the same rate as well as the inqs falling off at the same time.
Basically taking the credit ding all at once verses spreading them over a longer period time.

Not advisable for those with a weak profile, that contains multiple baddies.

Definitely a personal choice. Not everyone can spree and come out smelling like roses on the other side.

[Anonymous]

ah okay, that makes sense from that point of view. For sure not a thing that everyone could or want to do.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
From what I've read, the inquiries affect their FICO scores and your stuck with all these inquiries on your report for 2 years!

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Two points regarding inquiries.  One, while they're present for 2 years on your CR, they only adversely impact score for 1 year.  Second, inquiries are one of the least score-impacting criteria of the FICO pie.  A big deal is often made about them when in fact in the grand scheme of things they don't matter all too much.

[pinkandgrey]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When you go on a spree, you have inquiries but not the new accounts reporting. It’s basically a way to squeak a bunch of approvals that wouldn’t otherwise happen and also take all of the damage at once. 

Plus sometimes you get that adrenaline rush from an approval and just can’t stop at one. I suspect a lot of us have the latter rather than an actual plan of attack for sprees (except for sensitive lenders like Chase and Barclays). 

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Couldn’t have said it better. Once you get one approval, the frenzy starts lol. You have to step back and get some distance from apping in order for the desire to abate. 

[FlaDude]

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@Anonymous wrote:
ah okay, that makes sense from that point of view. For sure not a thing that everyone could or want to do.

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And if you are into signup bonuses, spreading them out to meet the spend requirements might preclude spreeing.

[Rogue46]

Also take into account if you have a thick and long file the inquiries do very little damage compared to someone with a thinner file.

[LakeLife]

Of course, a HP for CLI is not always performed.  I just requested a CLI on two cards that I'm running BT balances on just to lower my utilization, and they came through without a HP.  For me personally, I wouldn't request a CLI if a HP was required.  Both Discover and Citi were good about letting me know what would nessesitate a HP before I clicked to submit the CLI.

[Anonymous]

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@Rogue46 wrote:

Also take into account if you have a thick and long file the inquiries do very little damage compared to someone with a thinner file.

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While signal strength of inquiries may be a factor here on a thick vs thin file based on scorecard, the real difference would be the age of accounts factors (specifically AAoA) being reduced far less from the addition of a new account or accounts on a thick file verses a thin one.