My Latest Application Spree Results
Over the last week or so I have been on somewhat of an application spree for myself and for my wife. The results weren’t so pretty for me but they worked out ok for my wife. It is getting hard these days folks! I may need to take a little bit of a breather from my applications and focus on spending bonuses and bank bonuses for the next 6 months or so. I will go over my wife’s results tomorrow but here is mine from the last week.
My Applications
For this round of applications I was trying to focus on cash back or somewhat equivalents. While looking at hotel options for my wife’s upcoming trip to Nassau I noticed the cash price for the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar was pretty reasonable. My goal of the applications was to find a way to cover that cost. That would allow me to pay the cash rate and upgrade her and her friend to a room with lounge access for only 3,000 Hyatt points a night. That was the plan at least!
Capital One Venture Card
I started with the Capital One Venture card with the recently increased 50,000 point sign up bonus ($500). This would have covered most of the cost of their room so it was a perfect fit. I decided on this over the Arrival Plus because that bonus recently dropped to 40,000.
Capital One is one of the more stingy lenders so I started with them first. I was denied for it about 6 months ago for too many recent accounts so I didn’t have the highest of hopes but went with it anyways. Capital One used to love me but not so much anymore!
RESULTS: Instant Denial
Barclaycard Wyndham Rewards
I had moved on from booking the room with cash and just transferred Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt. I was over it. The other applications were from last week and yesterday news broke about the Wyndham increased offer coming back.
Barclaycard has always been kind to me so I thought I should give this a try…I was desperate at this point. Also their tie in with Total Rewards gives me some options (more about that tomorrow) where I don’t have to stay in a Wyndham hotel and it is still a valuable sign up bonus.
The offer is for 30,000 points after your first purchase with another 15,000 after $2,000 in spend within 3 months. I decided to give it a go and got a pending message. No big deal, I thought, they probably want me to move credit over like when they approved me for the Arrival Plus a few months back.
I called in this morning and after a few questions I was denied for too many new accounts within the last 12 months. Rock bottom folks – that is what this is!
RESULTS: Delayed Denial
Chase Marriott Business Card
A few hours after getting off the phone with Barclaycard I was about to give up. I had been thinking about getting the Marriott Business card with the announcement that was made earlier in the week.
It sounds like there will be new Marriott offerings coming out in 2018 so I wanted to get this card before it potentially went away. It is not a part of 5/24 even though the personal card is so another feather in it’s cap.
I went back and forth about it for a little bit, not wanting another denial to bum me out. I finally just said YOLO. And to my utter shock I was instantly approved! Finally!!! The instant approval surprised me, I thought I would at least need to move some credit from my Ink over to get it approved.
RESULTS: Instant Approval
Conclusion
If you made it all the way through this you can somewhat feel my pain. I had originally planned on 1 or 2 applications but the denials just led to more applications. Not the best move on my part. One out of five isn’t even good in baseball!
This was by far the worst round of applications I have ever had. Times are a changing and I need to be a little less fast and loose with my applications.
My plan going forward is to focus on upgrade and authorized user offers from Amex. This will keep my hard pulls and new accounts down. I also want to focus more on increased spending. This should give me a decent cool off period. I haven’t really stopped in 5 years so I am probably due for a break. Amex still shows me love so I may get a card or two from them if I get the itch.
Let me know in the comments if you have been having similar results lately.
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Approved for USB Amex Gold Flex today (20,000 points after $1K spend / no AF 1st year). Wait and see on Barclay Best Western.
BofA has gotten really harsh. I’m platinum with them with $170K checking and just two open Alaska’s and they denied me, even for the BofA Travels Reward card. Asked reconsideration and my branch manager and still “no”.
Barclay’s is a paper tiger. HUCA.
I may have to once I get the letter in the mail. I was surprised they weren’t willing to move around the credit limit.
Instant approval on the Chase is intriguing. Did you apply with a new business with little or no income or an existing business? With SS as sole proprietor?
I applied as a sole prop – it was intended as a new business but everything was very similar to when I applied for my ink 5-6 years ago so they wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Interesting. I know I should get instant approval based based on my history with Chase and other factors. But I max my Ink every year and not sure I potentially want eyes on my account if I wasn’t auto approved.
I was also a little worried about that – but at that point I was so PO’d I didn’t care….threw caution to the wind lol.
I have been playing the credit card game for 23 years. Had never been denied until this year. Chase is definitely out for me due to the 5/24 rule. Have to cool off for now by increase spending and applying only when the bonuses are the highest. The easy days of getting freebies are over.
Ah I do miss the good ole days. Thanks for the comment Evelyn.
HUCA.
I haven’t decided if I am going to try to or not. There are less and less reports of HUCA working these days.
My wife and I went through this a few months ago. Denied for the Venture, BofA, BC and even a Synchrony card. Then suddenly was instantly approved for 2 AX cards and a store card. Funny how it works.
First ever rejection was CSR in bank right before the bitter end of 100,000 offer. Husband got rejected for a targeted United card recently. We’re pretty conservative. Never an aor ever. Pretty much I don’t bother unless it’s an increased bonus. I think things are tightening.
They are for sure….until the next recession most likely.
Brutal!
Massive carnage 🙁
I have not done any apps in ages. I am due for a few. I have alot of the common ones and got the bonuses. I will be strategic only going for cards that are offering the larger bonuses. Every few yrs I get AA business and personal when they have a decent bonus. I dont pay a dime in interest. Have a business but these days we are spending less on business charges since we dumped some vendors.
I am jealous that you can get some of the Chase sign ups :). Thanks for reading and the comment.
Curious what kind of redemption’s you get with AA. I often see targeted offer for 65K AA miles but have never applied for them. Mostly focusing on UR and some Delta for now.
If it makes you feel better, I’ve had the same problems for a few months. I’ve been playing the game for almost 7 years. Hubby and I focus on strategic spending (bonus categories, shopping portals, etc) and fewer sign-up bonuses as a result. We’ve pretty much narrowed it down to Chase URs, Amex MRs, SPGs, AA miles and Delta miles. Even with the change in strategy, we’re sitting on cumulative seven-figure stash of point and miles.
I’m getting close to closing all of my “sock-drawer” card accounts so I can stop monitoring them. I can afford to take the small hit to my credit score, which is well over 800. I’m old and not getting another mortgage any time soon.
Thanks for the comment Dee – yeah I think I need to sit on the sidelines for a little while and focus on maximizing spend….it is just so hard to give up the rush of new sign ups 🙂
I feel your pain, in the past, I kept getting pre approved offers for Discover Miles which I kept ignoring. Now that I’m interested to get one, when I tried to check for offers online, it keeps telling me I have NO offers at this time and it’s probably because I just opened DiscIT last year around this time. I was wrong in thinking Discover was easy to get 🙁
Geez, I felt my blood pressure shooting up just reading about that! 🙁 Can’t say I’ve ever done five in one day, but I feel your pain!
Haha – Well it was 3 in one day and then 2 in another day 🙂
Tim both my husband and I were approved for the Wyndham card today, even with the JetBlue about a month ago,and the Aviator in April… we were both at 16/24 before the application.
We did both have to call reconsideration.
Mark, would be interested in how many apps you have had in the past two years?
I am not sure on how many in 24….I have had 10 in the last 12 months which is what they mentioned…they didn’t seem to care as much about the 24 months.
Who said I was running up debt Tom?
lol
You really should consider paying with cash. Running up a huge debt with credit cards is a recipe for disaster.
Tom – I think most people that spend much time in pursuit of mile and points by credit card, and certainly the bloggers, know to always pay the statement in full. Also to keep any balance to below 20% of credit line or so.
So you’re not wrong, but it’s not an issue with most here. Travel cards also have notoriously high interest rates,
You do know the point of this blog right?
Obviously Tom doesn’t have a clue! Lol
LOL, Tom. I assume you’re just trying to keep things interesting around here.
Mark — I am thinking of applying for the Wyndham card. I have had 12 new cards in the past two years, with 5 of those in the last year, the last being an Amex in May 2017. One of the 12 cards was a Wyndham in February 2016 (closed March 2017). Since you were denied due to too many new accounts, I am curoius as to how many new accounts you have had over this timeframe?
I think at 5 in 12 months – 0 Barclaycard you should be fine. I got the Arrival Plus 5-6 months ago with more than that so you should be good! Let me know how it goes.
I was surprised. After a rejection by Barclays for too many cards, including a very recent Wyndham, I was approved on reconsideration for a new Wyndham. Old one was only closed a few months before.
Boa is getting more difficult as I was asked for tax docs on a biz cc
Yeah I think that is what they are looking to get from me and for $250 it isn’t worth it to me.