Fellow Churners - When Can I Apply Again for Maximum Chances of Getting Approved?

Zaenille on 17/08/2017 - 12:52
Last edited 17/08/2017 - 12:54

CC Portfolio

Current cards:

  • 28 Deg MC - $6000 limit
  • Westpac Altitude Black (cancelling within the next 2 months to avoid annual fee) - $15k limit
  • ANZ Rewards Black (cancelling in the next 2 weeks) - $15k limit
  • Westpac 55 day low rate (cancelling once I receive the $200 cashback) - $1000 limit

Total limit: $37k

Got rejected for the St George Signature card (60k Qantas Points) couple weeks ago. Probably stupid of me to apply for this 1 week after the Westpac 55 day low rate one.

Recently cancelled the Amex Qantas Discovery to start the 18 month timer.

Credit score of 616 from Credit Savvy.

Never paid a cent of interest - always paid full and on time.
No mortgage or car loan.

How often do you guys apply for credit cards? Does cancelling credit cards before applying for new ones help your application? I've heard from the lady at St George that credit card cancellations are a bit of a red flag, but didn't really explain why. She told me to not apply for any more cards for 6 months, and apply again, but 6 months is too long IMO.

Financial

Comments

  • noyesmaybeok on 17/08/2017 - 13:56
    +2
    • No exact science, different banks have different criteria, changes from time to time
    • Most cards are for customers not within last 12 months. So you want to close them, to get that period over with, so can apply for next asap
    • I applied for 6 or 7 cards within about a week and got approved for all. No exceptional income or anything. Left it for 6 months and just applied for 2 more, 1 was instantly approved, other was approved pending finance docs. So :/ Most are already cancelled (signup, get points, close).
    • AFAIK they can only see your requests, not your active or cancelled cards. Within banks maybe they have access to more info (given some banks own multiple). So having 5 requests will be bad if 4 ended up denying, because to bank #6 it looks like you've got a ton of cards even though you really have 1!

    Have seen ANZ deny a card with $35k min income, meanwhile AMEX with $65k min income happily approved. It's clearly not as simple as "only do one every 6 months" or anything.

    • Zaenille on 17/08/2017 - 15:12

      Great info there rochow. Also, amazing for getting approved for 6-7 cards within a week! Teach me your ways!

      Yeah, I should've cancelled the Westpac Altitude Black earlier, but it's my highest points earning card at the moment and I feel bad spending money on a card without rewards points.

      I also feel like there's enough cards to go around anyway that I can let this one run for 11 months.

      • noyesmaybeok on 17/08/2017 - 16:04
        +1

        Just applied :)

        Oh yeah, keep your main ones - for me it's an AMEX and a VISA.

        BUT

        Logically I should probably piss off the AMEX, wait 12 months and apply again.
        Their bonus is so big that who cares about the 15,000 points I may have lost when I can keep reaping 100,000 signup points.

  • sw0rdy on 17/08/2017 - 13:58

    I generally apply for one a year, remember though, that the application stays on your credit file for 5 years.

    It would probably be better to see your credit score at get credit score as they use the Veda credit file which i'm pretty sure most banks use.

  • apple2016 on 17/08/2017 - 14:25
    -1

    Never paid a cent of interest - always paid full and on time.
    No mortgage or car loan.

    I am not an expert, but I believe bank prefer customers who have a loan/cc where they pay interest. That is how they make $$$…
    Your credit rating will not reduce but it might not improve as well.

    • noyesmaybeok on 17/08/2017 - 14:27

      Not possible to know, unless you could see a default (which isn't exactly good)

  • R-Man on 17/08/2017 - 15:34

    Warning about Credit Savvy: for me, the report showed 3 duplicate enquiries when actually I only made one. This was for the ANZ Frequent Flyer Platinum card. After an investigation with ANZ, they confirmed there should be only 1 enquiry and they requested Experian (Credit savvy) remove those other 2 enquiries. Experian has now removed them without any protest.

    Not sure if system glitch or if Experian do this on purpose to then "guide" me to their credit counselling services. My Dun and Bradstreet report however always correctly shows only 1 enquiry.

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