Guys, this week has got me a little stressed. My friend and 2 readers received an Amex Financial Review. My mom got denied for a couple cards. Another reader took a big hit to his credit score. So please pay attention because it seems like I need to review some old lessons:
- Don’t lie about income on your credit card applications. Especially to American Express.
- If you can’t pay cards off every month, you’re not ready for this game.
- If you’re late with payments because you’re disorganized, you’re not ready for this game.
- Closing cards is fine. It’s actually smart, because you don’t want to be stuck paying a bunch of annual fees. But for the love of God, stop closing those no-fee cards you’ve had for years and years. Length of credit history is very important, so it’s newer cards that should be closed.
- I keep the majority of my cards open for at least 6 months and close them before the 1-year mark. But my no-fee cards from 1998 will NEVER be closed.
If you’re not tracking your application dates in a spreadsheet, you’re getting yourself into trouble. You people who apply for Chase and Citibank cards every month aren’t being smart. Again, I do a round of applications every 3 months. In each round, I apply for a maximum of 1 card from each issuer (1 from Chase, 1 from Citibank, 1 from Bank of America, etc). I apply for all the cards on the same day. The only exception is the occasional Business version of a card.
If you’re coming up with your own strange way of doing things, making up income, and applying for different cards every week…don’t say I didn’t warn you.
MileNerd out.
