First Rejection

I got my first rejection today.  This bank called me twice today.  The first time was to get more information for my application. It included verifying my identity by asking me questions that they somehow got from a background check.  It was weird. The first question was pretty standard, about cars that I've owned.  Then the second was basically about my mother's age.  I asked why that bit of data was associated with my credit report, and the gut said that it wasn't necessarily associated with my credit, just my background, from some mysterious database.  Then he told me that he saw seven pulls of my credit card on 12/13, and asked what was going on there.  At this point I'm trying to keep from laughing a bit. I decided that the best way to answer was to claim that I was trying to find a good bank to deal with, and so I applied for a bunch of cards.  After that he asked me to email him a copy of a creditor's statement, showing my current address, and my driver's license, and my social security card.  I told him I'd get those to him, and the call ended.

I was at work when I was called, so I didn't really have a chance to get the stuff together to send.  But, before I left work, the same guy called me again, and told me that they weren't able to approve me, and they were going to send me a letter with more details as to why.

Discover Card

I forgot about Discover card.  I hate them a lot, but I'm not doing this out of love. I'm doing it to screw with the system.  Anyway, they approved me for 5,000.

8 Cards applied for

I just spent some time applying for credit cards.  Only 3 of the 8 gave me decisions right away.  So, I know that Capital One approved me for 10,000 and Citi Bank approved me for 2,000.  Chase also approved my application, but didn't tell me how much credit it was extending to me.

It also seems that it's harder to find cards that will give gifts. After searching for a while, I just gave up on that.  The only one I found that will give a gift is the one from Chase, which is an Amazon.com branded card.  They gave me a $50 Amazon.com gift card just for being approved.

Credit Bashing

So, I decided today that I want to see how many credit cards I can get, and see how much money companies will give me in revolving credit lines.  Several years ago, when I was young and irresponsible, I had something like 20K in available credit.  I was still going to school, and I had very little income.  Now I am working a full time job, and I have a decent salary.  I should be able to get loads more.

I'm also pretty sure that this will make my credit score tank.  That's something I'm willing to do however.  Right now it's at 764, which creditkarma.com tells me is excellent.

So here are the rules I've come up with for finding cards to apply for:

• No annual fee.  The point here is not to spend any money on these things.
• I'd like to find ones that have free gifts.  I might as well get something out of this.  This may be a hassle though, since I'll have to activate the card, and make a purchase.

Here's a screen grab of my credit Karma: