You probably shipped your pants the day you heard that I had applied for five credit cards in one day. You probably order the undertaker to lower my credit score down to below 100 (which isn’t even possible). Your heart skipped a beat.
Disclaimer: Please make the most responsible decisions for your credit. We do our best to explain how this stuff works, but ultimately you are responsible for the decisions you make.
How crazy was I to apply for five credit cards in one day?
Back in the beginning of February, I made the plunge and applied for five cards in one day. After reaping over 250,000 miles, I felt like a potato farmer admiring his beautiful crop.
I’ll be honest. My blood pressure ran about 400/200 when I was pulling the trigger on the cards. The rush was greater than that of riding a crazy rollercoaster…. And I can’t wait to do it again.
What was my Credit Like Before the App O Rama?
I had 8 years of solid credit reporting. Never missed a payment, and never paid interest. It’s that simple. You shouldn’t be paying interest either.
Here are some more details:
- One mortgage for four years
- Seven other credit cards
- Four of those cards were active at the time I did the App O Rama
- I had just been approved for a new mortgage
My score was floating at about 760 at the time that I decided to make the plunge.
How Has the App O Rama Affected My Score?
My Credit Karma Report from January through September
CreditKarma is a free service that gives you an estimate of your TransUnion credit score. Their service is bomb.com and you should really use it whether you apply for credit cards through the App O Rama process or not.
They look at all of the information from your score without performing a “hard pull” on your credit. The soft pull gives them an idea of your approximate score, and they share it with you for free.
Proved you wrong! You thought my score would drop like a hot rock, but instead it has actually improved according to Credit Karma.
What Factors of an App O Rama Would Negatively Affect your Credit?
You’ll benefit by doing an App O Rama by:
- Using a Credit Card
- Paying it off each month
- Increasing the amount of accounts
You’ll be negatively affected by doing an App O Rama by:
- Lowering your age of credit history
- Making a new credit inquiry
The initial affects of an App O Rama can definitely be seen as the worst of it. My credit score took a dive of about 20 points a couple months after the day I applied for five credit cards in one day. The new inquiries and the lowering of my average credit age definitely hurt me in the short run.
However, in the long run it has been working out great. With more credit accounts and more on-time payments my score has actually improved from the App O Rama. Today they’ve got me estimated at 777, which is higher than I was when I started.
Once you’ve proven yourself as a worthy creditor, the benefits can really start to outweigh the the costs.
When Should You Avoid Doing an App O Rama?
Whether you’re talking about exercise, getting a vasectomy, or joining a new religion the answer is the same. You need to research. Be prepared, because a vasectomy isn’t easy to undo, and neither is your credit.
Here are a couple of reasons why you should NOT do an App O Rama:
- You have not established credit history
- You have a credit score lower than 720
- You only have one or two items in your credit history
- You plan on making a serious purchase within the next 2 years
If you’d like more information on this topic, check out our post about Planning a Successful App O Rama, and see how My First App O Rama worked out for me.
