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There’s general guidance on the points-and-miles blogosphere that applying for credit cards once per quarter is a pretty good strategy. Enough time has passed between inquiries on your credit report, and it’s good to always continue to have those credit card points and miles rolling in on a regular basis.
I don’t follow that rule hard and fast. I’ll apply for cards several times a year, but it’s not like I apply for a bunch of cards every three months precisely. I had just applied for a bunch of cards in early June, and didn’t really have any intention of applying for more until maybe right before the holidays.
But then, after nearly a year of mulling options, we decided to pull the trigger on a fairly major basement renovation (more on that in future posts!). Which meant some bigger expenses. Which meant that we could meet minimum spending requirements for some new credit cards pretty darn quickly.
So, lo and behold, I pretty much did apply for new cards almost exactly three months after my last app-o-rama. I’m calling this a “mini” app-o-rama because it only consisted of two cards, instead of my usual 3 or 4.
SPG American Express (Personal)
During the recent bonus increase for the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex Card, I decided to finally apply for this card. It seems to be a staple of many miles-and-points bloggers wallets, and I even had Ken apply for it a few years ago (when we wanted the points to stay at a W Hotel in St. Petersburg (a Starwood property), but I’ve never had this card!
Bonus: 30,000 SPG points after spending $3000 in the first three months.
Approval Details: Received “pending decision” message. My first ever for an Amex Card! I had to close out an old, unused Hilton HHonors Amex to be approved for the card. Easy Peasy. Approved with a $17,500 limit.
Discover It
This card has some VERY lucrative cashback offers for the next year. The bonus includes double cashback on all purchases for 12 billing cycles. So, that would be 2% cashback on normal, everyday purchases, and 10% cashback on their rotating quarterly bonus categories. Additionally, they’re offering 10% cashback when you use your Discover Card on Apple Pay! That was too good of a promotion to turn down, even though it doesn’t necessarily translate to “points and miles” easily, I still love the idea of some easy cash back!
Bonus: $100 bonus after first purchase within three months.
Approval Details: Approved immediately with a $3000 limit. Seriously Discover, a $3000 limit for somebody with a 790 credit score? I called to see if they could increase the limit, but they said that they wouldn’t do that until I had the card open for at least 90 days. Womp womp. I can still use the card obviously, but I don’t like having cards with lower limits because it puts me more at risk of easily reaching the “50% of my credit limit” guidance that can start to hurt your credit score. Oh well. I’ll work with it.
Have you applied for any new credit cards recently? What have been your top picks?
P.S. Message me if you’d like for me to email you an application link for either card!