July 2015 round of credit card applications

I’ve applied for so many credit cards over the past 3 years that I’ve run out of cards to apply for.  Technically, that’s not really true.  It’s that companies like Chase are cracking down on “churners,” so it’s getting harder to apply for say 10 cards in a day.  I think most hard-core people do about ~7 in a day these days.  This also explains why I don’t bother trying to freeze my credit reports.  Anyway, my last credit card round was back in March.  I really only wanted 2 credit cards this round, but why pass up free miles and points right?  I was a bit worried since I had some recent hard pulls due to the auto loan, which by the way, the car dealership made a hard pull and so did the lender 15 minutes later.  Why the car dealership made the pull was beyond me since they weren’t doing the financing.  Here were my results (in order of applications)

Random Credit Union Visa Card – APPROVAL OVER EMAIL

I needed to get this card to unlock a level-up in a new MS game I’m playing.  I’ll blog about it later.

Barclays Arrival 40,000 points – INSTANT APPROVAL

My history with Barclays so far – got this card originally in November 2013.  Then got the US Airways card in December 2014.  Then tried to get the AF fee waived on the Arrival also around the same December 2014 timeframe.  They did not waive the fee, and so I downgraded to the free version (so that I could use up my remaining Arrival points).  Then 3 months later, after redeeming all of the points, I closed the free version.  The reason for that is because I read that there is higher chance of success of getting another one down the road if you don’t have ANY version of the Arrival card at the time of application.  I also haven’t made any purchases on my Aviator card since January either, so the belief that you need spend on your other Barclays card wasn’t true in my case.

Citi ATT Access More – APPROVED AFTER CALL

I wanted this card mainly for MS purposes (3X for online retail purchases.)  No, I don’t plan on using this card to buy reselling items; I’m going to see if my Buxx loads and giftcards.com will work as 3X and milk the hell out of it before Citi shuts that down.  I’ll also get the free iPhone6, which I’ll unlock and then resell for hopefully a ~$500 profit.  When I apply for a card these days, I think about the MS aspect of the card and not necessarily the sign-on bonus.  This was my 7th Citi card and I expected to move credit around to get it, but luckily, I was approved for a 9K credit line when I called in and waited about 5 minutes.

Bank of America Alaska Visa card 25K – INSTANT APPROVAL

I had gotten 2 back in March.  I only got 1 this time.  Didn’t even try a 2nd card for a) fear of shutdown and b) I actually didn’t want to be too greedy.

AMEX Delta Skymiles Business 60K – APPROVED AFTER 2 DAYS IN EMAIL

I realize Skypesos are crap, but even if they are worth a penny each, that’s $600 right there.  I had called in the morning after I applied, but they told me they needed another day to process the app.  The following morning, I got an email saying I was approved.  This is my 4th credit card (the max for AMEX) – my other cards are SPG, really old school Blue (for sentimental reasons), and Simply Cash.  I also have the business Gold and Platinum, but since those are charge cards, I can have as many as I want.

Capital One Spark Business $500 – APPROVAL AFTER 2 DAYS

I had closed my old Venture back in April (that I held for 3 years.)  I didn’t want to get this card since Cap1 pulls from all 3 credit bureaus, but the card does have a $500 bonus and gets 2% everywhere.  I also hear you can do some sweet things over the phone with Cap1.  I didn’t get an instant approval, but I called them 2 days later and they told me I was approved over phone for a 15K CL.

US Bank Flexperks AMEX – REJECTED

I was banned from USBank back in March 2014, so I just wanted to see if it’s been lifted or if I’m still in the doghouse.  The bastards pulled my credit, and I called them 2 days later.  The automated lady told me I was denied.  Honestly, US Bank is hard enough to get as is, so I can’t really say if I was denied due to the ban or so many hits on my credit report.  It’s safe to say US Bank is dead to me, or I am dead to US Bank.

Local Credit Union Visa – REJECTED

This card gets 5% in a certain category that MIGHT work for certain MS plays.  It’s why I applied for it last since I didn’t really care if I got it or not.  A couple of days later, they sent me a rejection email.

Bank of America checking account 25K Alaska – APPROVED OVER EMAIL DAY LATER

How do you get pending on trying to open a checking account?  Geez.  I’ve never had a BoA checking account before, so making 2 x $2K deposits for 25K miles is a no-brainer.  I got the approval email a day later.

Chase Cards – NONE

Notice there is no Chase card.  I didn’t want to learn about the Marriott program, so passed on those cards.  I considered the United card, but passed.  Then I thought about the BA card, but realized I already had too many BA points.  I figure may as well let the sleeping giant rest.

I did however have my wife call about the 2nd year annual fee on her Ink Plus that hit 3 months ago, and they were able to give her a credit towards it.  I told her to just call and ask if they could do anything about it.  I did NOT want her to play the ‘threaten to cancel’ game just in case they call her bluff and cancel it.

Other Cards

I considered applying for the Citi AA Biz 50K since it’s been since I had the card, but due to Citi’s rules, I’ll have to wait at least 8 days before applying again.  I don’t need any more AA miles, so I’ll let this sleeping giant rest too.  I’ll wait until Nov/Dec to get the Citi Premier so I can hopefully bang out 3 years of airline credits with it.