Credit Card Application Strategies For 2017

After we found out about the new application rules at Citi, I thought it would be worth looking at the two viable credit card application strategies that I think are currently in play to help you maximize the amount of rewards you can earn from credit card rewards. I first wrote about my own card application strategy in January of 2015, if you’ve been following along then you’ll know the credit card sign up bonus landscape has dramatically changed.

Things To Know

Before we get started, there are a few posts I’d recommend reading first to help make sense of this post:

• Best Current Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses
• List Of Churnable Credit Cards
• Chase 5/24 Rule Explained In Detail – What You Need To Know

Additional Tools

• Spreadsheet/tracking tool. You should have some sort of system set up that records important information, such as when you applied for a card, when it was approved, when you met the minimum spend requirement, when the bonus posts and when the card is/was closed.
• Way to monitor your credit. It can be useful to know what credit card issuers pull what credit bureau. We have a post on how to monitor your credit for free found here.
• Follow us on Twitter. This way you’ll see new credit card offers as they are added to the site (you could also add us to your RSS feed or subscribe to our newsletter).

Chase Focus Strategy (CFS)

This strategy puts it’s main focus on being able to get four/five Chase cards that fall under the Chase 5/24 every ~24 months. If you’ve read our post on the Chase 5/24 rule then you’ll know they won’t approve you for a lot of their cards if you have five or more new accounts appearing on your account within the past twenty four months.

An important thing to note is that not all business cards will report to your personal credit report (and that’s how the number of new accounts is calculated). The following card issuers do not report business cards to your personal report:

• American Express
• Bank of America
• Barclaycard
• Chase
• Citi
• U.S. Bank
• Wells Fargo

Especially interesting is that even Chase’s own business cards don’t seem to count toward 5/24 for future Chase applications, although business cards themselves are often subject to 5/24 from previous personal applications. So if you are at 4/24 and apply for an INK card you can get approved, and it won’t count as card #5, meaning that you’ll still be able to be approved for another Chase card.

The other rule with Chase is that you’re not eligible for a bonus if you’ve received a sign up bonus on that card within the past twenty four months. Last rule to be aware of is that you’re normally limit to two Chase cards every 30 days.  The basic strategy for this is as follows:

• Apply for business cards that do not report to your personal report whenever there is a bonus of interest (keep in mind the once per lifetime rule for American Express and limited applications for Citi cards)
• Wait until your credit report shows no new accounts within the past 24 months/4 or under
• Apply for Chase Business cards (these do not affect your 5/24 status)
• Apply for two Chase cards on the same day
  • This will cause the inquiries to be combined (you’re also limited to two approvals per month, you can sometimes get a third but this doesn’t greatly help us – as we need to apply for a total of four)
  • Apply for the cards that have the best sign up bonus for your situation (keep in mind any long term benefits the cards might have if you want to keep them)
  • Remember that Chase will usually match the sign up bonus if they increase it within the next 90 days, so keep track of the sign up bonuses of the cards you apply for and ask for a match if they are increased
• Wait 30 days & apply for another two Chase cards. Same things to keep in mind as above.
• Wait another 30 days & apply for two Chase cards, this allows you to get 6 cards within your window rather than 5.
• Apply for as many other credit cards that appeal to you, in a short of time as possible (you might also want to consider Chase cards that don’t fall under 5/24)
• Wait 24 months & repeat

Pros

• Gives you access to Chase cards that the 5/24 rule applies to
• You can still sign up for some business credit cards
• You can go on an application spree after getting your Chase cards

Cons

• Limited flexbility, if a great personal card offer comes up then chances are you won’t be able to apply for it
• Landscape for credit card bonuses is constantly changing. No guarantee that when you fall under Chase 5/24 that the same rules will still apply
• There are ways to bypass the Chase 5/24 rule (e.g in branch pre-approvals and selected offers for you).

Verdict

Personally I don’t think this strategy is the best for most people because of the above. It could make sense in some circumstances for couples to have one partner follow this strategy (especially if your partner does not like signing up for a lot of cards) and you have specific cards you want to target (e.g Southwest cards for the companion pass – but even then there is no guarantee that will be an option when they fall under 5/24).

Non Chase Focus Strategy (NCFS)

This strategy is pretty simple:

• Apply for cards whenever there is a bonus of interest
• Keep in mind not all Chase cards are subjected to the 5/24 rule
• Regularly check for in branch pre-approved Chase offers and selected for you Chase offers as these bypass 5/24

If you’re following this tactic then you should still follow the previous application strategy I described in this post. Where possible you’ll want to spread out your inquiries between the three credit bureaus and also get inquiries combined.

Pros

• Eligible for all credit cards at any time apart from a few Chase cards
• Can sign up for offers as you see fit/what fits with your travel goals
• Still eligible for Chase cards that fall under the 5/24 rule if you can use one of the bypass methods.

Cons

• Not eligible for some Chase cards unless you’re pre-approved or get a selected offer for you
• Cannot get companion pass easily

Verdict

This is the application strategy that I follow and I think the what most people should follow as well. You’re really only restricting yourself from a few Chase cards and even then in the two year period you’d likely have to wait anyway chances are you’ll receive a pre-approval or selected offer.

Our Verdict

As mentioned in the post, I really only recommend the CFS for people that have partners that aren’t comfortable making lots of credit card applications. Otherwise I think you’ll get significantly better value by following NCFS. That being said, everybody is different and everybody has different goals & spending patterns. Let me know what your current application strategy is in the comments below.