The App-O-Rama

So what is an App-O-Rama? An App-O-Rama is applying for multiple credit cards in a short period of time. The reason for this is because you receive a hard credit inquiry on your credit report every time you apply for a credit card. When you do an App-O-Rama you ensure that your credit score will reflect the highest score that it can for each application. If you apply for one credit card today, then apply for a second credit card tomorrow, your score will have decreased and a hard credit inquiry will show up on your credit report. There is some debate about how quickly hard credit inquiries show up on your credit report. This generally happens quite fast and hard credit inquiries may show up on your credit report in less than one hour. That is why it is important to submit all of your credit card applications in a very short period of time.

I usually have multiple browser tabs open and complete the applications together. When I finish, I submit all the applications almost simultaneously. Even if you have an excellent credit score, too many credit inquiries will result in declined credit card applications. So even if your credit score is 750, you could still be refused a credit card because you have too many hard credit inquiries in the last 90 days.

The strategy should be to apply for all credit cards in a short period of time, lets say within 15 minutes. Then you need to wait 90 days before apply for any other credit cards.

Credit card companies are concerned about recent hard credit inquiries because this shows that you have been pursuing new credit. Because you have done this recently, the new credit that you received may be showing up yet on your credit report. For this reason, even people with great credit scores will get declined for new credit if they have too many recent hard credit inquiries.

How many hard credit inquiries in the last 90 days is too many? This varies by banking institution. Sometimes just one other hard credit inquiry is sufficient to get you declined for a new credit inquiry. More than two hard credit inquiries is very likely to get you declined for a new credit card.

How many new credit cards can you apply for at one time? This will vary on the individual person. This depends on a host of factors including your credit score and ability to make minimum spending requirements. In general the maximum credit cards that you should be applying for at one time is one personal and one business credit card for each credit card issuer. This means that you could apply for one personal Chase credit card and one business Chase credit card, one Citi Personal credit card and one Citi Business credit card. Then you could also include two American Express credit cards. I have read of people applying for more than six credit cards, but I would not recommend it. I personally have never applied for more than four new credit cards at one time.

Keep following the blog. I will post a lot more great information on strategies for applying for credit cards.

If you have any specific questions, please leave a comment and I'm happy to respond.

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