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I decided to go ahead and apply for some new credit cards a few weeks ago. I was starting to get a little panicky over Chase’s new 5/24 rule, so I especially wanted to get my husband in for a Chase Ink Card since he has fewer applications on his credit report than I do. I applied for cards for both of us, which is a first for me. Usually I’ll just get cards for the one of us. But, I’ll explain in a minute why that was!
Capital One Venture
Ah yes, Capital One. You don’t hear much about “lucrative” Capital One cards. Their travel cards usually can’t be used to redeem fancy pants first class flights or $700/night hotel rooms unless you can shell out multitudes of points. But, as I mentioned a while back, we’re planning a family trip to Disney World, and I wanted a way to offset some of the costs of the Disney trip. I had read over at My Dollar Plan that Madison used Capital One Venture points for some of her Disney expenses. And I thought that was a fantastic idea.
So I applied for two cards. One for me and one for Ken.
Bonus: 40,000 points after spending $3000 in the first three months
Approval Details: Ken was approved immediately for a $30,000 credit limit. I received a “pending decision” message, and a few days later, I was denied. Why? Get this:
“Based on your credit report from Equifax, too few or no revolving accounts have a balance.”
So wait, Capital One doesn’t want to give me a card because I don’t have enough credit card debt? I didn’t bother to call for reconsideration because there are a lot of threads that say Capital One doesn’t even do “reconsiderations.” Womp womp.
Barclays World Arrival
I’ve had this card for several years now and have redeemed points at some great places, like the Anglers Hotel in Miami, and a few other hotels that have reviews forthcoming. In the same vein as the Capital One Venture card, I thought we could use some extra Barclays World Arrival points in the coffers to cover even more Disney expenses if necessary (and if not for Disney, they always come in handy for other expenses, like non-chain hotels).
Bonus: 40,000 points after spending $3000 in the first three months.
Approval Details: Had Ken apply and he was approved immediately with a $12,500 limit.
Chase Ink Bold
Chase recently changed their application rules and cards can be denied if you’ve had 5 credit applications (from ANY bank) in the past 24 months. At first this was just for Ultimate Rewards earning cards, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it will soon be applicable to all Chase cards. Yikes! Since Ken doesn’t apply for cards as often as I do, I definitely wanted to get one of the Ultimate Rewards cards before 5 credit card applications hit his credit report. I’ve had this card for several years now, so it was just Ken that applied for this card.
Bonus: 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5000 in the first three months.
Approval Details: Received “pending decision” message, but within a day, the application was approved with a $5000 limit without any action on our part.
Citi HHonors Signature Visa
It’s almost comical how many times I’ve applied for and been approved for this card. Seriously, I have never been denied and have probably had this card a half dozen times now. Well, this time was no different. It was just me who applied for this card, mostly because I didn’t want our minimum spending requirements to get too crazy for the next three months. I was running pretty low on HHonors points, so I thought it was a good time to apply.
Bonus: 50,000 HHonors points after spending $2000 in the first three months (However, shortly after I applied, there was an improved offer of 75,000 points, so I may call to see if I can get my bonus bumped up).
Approval Details: Approved immediately with a $15,500 limit.
Have you applied for any points and miles cards recently?
