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Yesterday I outlined my 8 credit card applications last Friday.
Here are the results.
No applications auto-approved, all went to some form of pending.
Bank of America:
- Alaska Airlines® Visa Signature® and Virgin Atlantic American Express®. Both went to pending, I was busy Friday afternoon and called reconsideration too late, so called Monday. By then Virgin was denied and Alaska pending. Agent immediately approved Virgin, no mention that I previously had the same card. Alaska she wanted more information and rather than issue a new card, offered to upgrade one of the three no fee cards I have with them from prior downgrades, including the old Schwab card. Both approved.
Barclays:
- Barclaycard ArrivalTM World Mastercard® and Lufthansa Miles & More MasterCard®. Both went from pending to denied over the weekend. In line with many recent reports, Barclays has gotten very tight and reconsideration would not budge. They were most concerned about overall number of recent accounts and want me to have a longer track record with existing Barclays accounts. Similar happened with my wife a month earlier for the Arrival even though she has only ever had one Barclays card, the US Airways, and that for a year. So I think it may be best early on to go for one big Barclays score like the 4 I got last December and then let them cool for a year or more.
Chase:
- Fairmont Visa Signature® Credit Card went to pending, I discussed with an agent who got it approved by moving credit from an existing card. At least I thought so. A few days later I saw no update in my account and called back in. The agent said the computer thought it was the same card as the old Priority Club, now IHG Rewards, and it then took a supervisor to work it out.
- United MileagePlus® Explorer Business Card, I put in a courtesy call and was told they are so busy that I should expect to wait two weeks.
Citi:
- The Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® Visa Signature® went from application to offer for online chat to seek approval, which I did. The agent offered either a small line of credit or if I needed larger, to move some existing. I took the small line. I was told to wait 24 hours for final review “because of the extent of your relationship with Citi,” and the next day received an approval email.
Discover:
- For the Discover it® Card I received an email asking me to call to verify my info, which I did that evening and was quickly approved.
Key lesson learned for me is to not bother with Barclays for at least another 6 months.
As always, your miles may vary.
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95% of my hard pulls are on Experian. Can’t believe how unlucky I’ve been – now have 20 pulls on EXP. I did some bumpage on Equifax and Transunion and now have zero pulls on them.
Do you think freezing EXP will be worthwhile, or just a futile exercise?
@Paul – very worthwhile for everything but Amex and Citi.
@Elliot – this time I had Experian frozen but last December when I got the Ink Bold and Ink Plus I had it frozen and they agreed to pull a different report.
When you had Experian frozen, did you apply for any Chase business cards? I’ve read some reports that Chase personal worked fine but Chase business refused to pull anything else. Thanks!
@Elliot – I unfroze Experian for this round, had let it settle for some time so wanted to give Equifax a rest.
Re: Chase – is your Experian still frozen, and did they give you any trouble over that?
@tim2 – 30k for the BOA Alaska already posted before I got the card.
@tim2 – wow, that’s the first I have heard of such a thing. I hope that doesn’t prevent you from later getting an Arrival bonus if you want it.
My Frontier card was switched to the arrival because i live in mke
@tim2 – she did not give any indication that would make a difference, I did not think to ask, it was a card conversion from a non-Alaska card so I think it should be ok but will have to see what happens. @Narayana S – I have not tried it but I do not see any issue with that. BOA is fine issuing multiple cards, even multiple business cards at the same time like last Dec I got the Alaska Biz and Hawaii Biz together, so I think it should not be an issue. @DJ – there are conflicting reports… Read more »
Wow great job! Seems to me you got approved for everything except the Barclays cards. Either Barclays is stingy or responsible when it comes to approving credit cards.
I somehow got a second US Air card last week. But my last new cards were in December. I will wait awhile to try to get the Arrival. I wonder if the US Air cards will become Arrival cards?
Hi I got a Citi AA visa a yr ago, is it 18 months before I am eligible for another AA with bonus miles?
Would it be possible to apply for the BOA AS personal and business at the same time or should I apply separately?
I applied for the US Airways card was approved immediately. Applied for the 50k Lufthansa card right after and was put into pending. Didn’t bother calling the reconsideration line and was approved a few days later. I was notified of the decision via a welcome email.
@UnitedEF – excellent news!
I told my mom to get the B of A Alaska CC. She got the 30k bonus miles before she even got the card in the mail. Gotta love 30k miles on approval.
In regards to the Alaska card. Do you still get the bonus if she just did an upgrade?