Just did an App-O-Rama!

[JackBondLove]

I still want to know how you plan on getting a mortgage if you don't have a job?

Well, I had about $38K in income in 2010 from doing a Roth conversion (and the guy from CapitalOne said that was good enough.) And I plan on getting a mortgage simply by showing my IRA account. Certainly, retirees with fat IRA's can get a mortgage with just the IRA. A lot of my income is abroad and untaxable (i.e., the deductions are so big, and there is no paper trail for it in any case, that the IRS tells me to not even list it) - although I may start getting an income stream that does report 1099 to the IRS. I am only looking for a HELOC that would have a top monthly note of about $200!

[JackBondLove]

Lenders get VERY nervous when they see a ton of new apps being applied for and the reason is they feel the consumer is on the brink of disaster and looking for any opportunity to survive by using the cards, especially the sub prime cards. Now how that plays into their decisioin making when the consumer just BK'd not too long ago, I don't know because they know you can't BK again however that doesn't mean your going to pay them either.

In this particular case, I dont think what the OP did was too harmful IF (and a huge IF) there is no need for credit for a couple years. If the two years is waited out, when credit is needed, none of this will be on his report. However if more than three or four subprime cards stay active then that will lower their score as different types of credit is also considered in the scores, and not too much of one kind of credit. My suggestion would be, for ultimate scores when credit is really needed, is over the next couple years try to close out the subprime cards and obtain one or two prime credit cards.

All of these accounts have ZERO annual fee - ergo, they are not sub-prime.

[Logan]

I still want to know how you plan on getting a mortgage if you don't have a job?

[JackBondLove]

Just got declined by Kohl's, with a score of 735 (12/19/2011, Experian) WHAT? 735? Interestingly, one of the reasons stated is:

Credit Rpt Shows Total Available Credit On Revolving Accounts Is Too Low

I also got declined by Partner's First ("partner" to National Ski Patrol). It says I have a credit score of 670 (12/20/2011, Equifax) Again, interestingly, one of the reasons stated is:

Too Many Inquiries Within The Last 12 Months

Perhaps the inquiries hit immeditately, which is why these creditors told me that I needed "further processing" for them to see if I did an app-o-rama? Or perhaps it was all those damn hard credit pulls that Wells Fargo & AT&T put on for opening up a checking account and internet service.

Also got denied for US Bank because I am outside the trade area.

Also got declined by Sears (which seems to be Citibank, a creditor that I defaulted a small amount), with the sole reason being BK.

Also got declined by macy*s (which seems to be Department Stores National Bank), with a score of 527 (12/20/2011, Experian) - it says "we calculated your score from Experian ..." - with one of the reasons being

AVERAGE CREDIT LIMIT ON ALL OPEN REVOLVING ACCOUNTS

TOO MANY PUBLIC RECORDS

At the time, I only had a CapitalOne account that was showing a $510 balance on a $750 limit! Not sure what too many public records means. There are other reason, which all use "delinquent" or "delinquency". I thought that after the BK, the records of delinquency are expunged, with only the BK filing, and the note from the creditors that the account was included in the BK. Is such including of an account in BK considered a delinquency? What if I had been up to date before the filing?

The score noted one of the reasons as

NUMBER OF RECENT INQUIRIES ON CREDIT REPORT

So - unless macy*s produced its own score - it appears that it one day, the credit score from Experian dropped from 735 to 527!

And finally, in the approval letter from Discover, it says I have a FICO of 637 (12/19/2011, Equifax) So the score from Equifax went up?

That's all from the mailbag today!

[JackBondLove]

1. More than likely, probably 99% chance, you will get fraud alerts on your credit reports. You could potentially get locked out of your credit and lenders will not be able to pull your credit. Will be kind of a pain in the ass to remove these fraud alerts.
2. 25 inquiries ouch... score drop
3. New accounts, again score drop
4. If by chance you do get some of these cards then you have more possible negative ramifications in that they might close the accounts after you get them because they see you are trying to get credit from so many places. Barclays Bank, for example, monitors credit for 6 months after approval and sometimes they will close your account if they even see inquiries on your credit report or new accounts added.
5. If you do get approved, you could potentially end up with "toy limit" cards. It does not look good having lots of cards with 100, 300, 500 limits.

2 & 3. I am not concerned at all about the credit score drop. I have no need for any credit for 2 years. If I can't get the credit want (a HELOC) because I don't have enough open accounts, then if I applied for no accounts, I would still be unable to get such credit.

4. I guess I'll see. I'll call up explaining my reasoning. BTW, I defaulted on an existing Barclays Bank CC for my Chapter 7. One thing you all forget is that I can't default on them for another 6 years. It seems that folks w/o a BK do app-o-ramas all the time, and they don't get the cards revoked. Even if I were to lose the CC, it still would have been worth it to try and achieve my goals.

5. I only want such "toy" accounts. I plan on buying like one thing, and paying it off over time, to get credit score "brownie points". And why does it not look good? On the contrary, more open accounts being paid on time causes the credit score to increase!

[pathfinders]

All great points Amy, very well said.........

[Amy26]

Wow! Ok, people who know me here know I'm not affraid of credit after BK...but woah! Yes, you may think this is a good experiment but OMG this could have serious ramifications. I do think what the OP did was harmful... here are my issues...

I will list them:
1. More than likely, probably 99% chance, you will get fraud alerts on your credit reports. You could potentially get locked out of your credit and lenders will not be able to pull your credit. Will be kind of a pain in the ass to remove these fraud alerts.
2. 25 inquiries ouch... score drop
3. New accounts, again score drop
4. If by chance you do get some of these cards then you have more possible negative ramifications in that they might close the accounts after you get them because they see you are trying to get credit from so many places. Barclays Bank, for example, monitors credit for 6 months after approval and sometimes they will close your account if they even see inquiries on your credit report or new accounts added.
5. If you do get approved, you could potentially end up with "toy limit" cards. It does not look good having lots of cards with 100, 300, 500 limits.

I usually don't offer opinions when they aren't asked for... but in the hopes that someone else will read this and NOT do the same thing ... I am sharing the info.

[df04527]

Lenders get VERY nervous when they see a ton of new apps being applied for and the reason is they feel the consumer is on the brink of disaster and looking for any opportunity to survive by using the cards, especially the sub prime cards. Now how that plays into their decisioin making when the consumer just BK'd not too long ago, I don't know because they know you can't BK again however that doesn't mean your going to pay them either.

In this particular case, I dont think what the OP did was too harmful IF (and a huge IF) there is no need for credit for a couple years. If the two years is waited out, when credit is needed, none of this will be on his report. However if more than three or four subprime cards stay active then that will lower their score as different types of credit is also considered in the scores, and not too much of one kind of credit. My suggestion would be, for ultimate scores when credit is really needed, is over the next couple years try to close out the subprime cards and obtain one or two prime credit cards.

[pathfinders]

Don I bet you are correct.... just plain gooffy... not a very good move

[doni49]

You say that you have three accounts now.

Now that you have accounts with these people, they will be monitoring your credit reports. When they see that you applied for TWENTY FIVE DIFFERENT credit accounts, I believe that AT LEAST one (maybe even all) will be closing your accounts soon after.

Good luck.

[IBroke]

When someone posts on a forum activity that may be followed by another poster than I think we all have the responsibility to question the actions of that poster and to give our opinions of why what they did might not have been a very smart move. I have never heard of an App-a-rama. Common sense tells me that it doesn't sound like something that would not harm most people that attempt this. I welcome the opinions of more knowledgeable forum members. Basically that is what a forum is...An avenue to exchange ideas and opinions. When you post, you are asking for others opinions whether or not you specifically ask or not. It's the nature of the beast.

Your common sense is right...just like the rest of your post.

[mountanddo]

This is a really interesting post and the information provided on the aftermath/decisions will probably be very helpful to a lot of people down the road. In the spirit of the forum, it's great that you would share this.

Jackbondlove, nowhere in your original post did you ask for anyone's opinion of your action. I've only read one page of responses and so far have found no shortage of opinions. So far I haven't seen anyone even try to answer your question (sorry, but I'm too fresh out of my own BK to be able to answer).

We've all been in a financial place where the only direction to go was up. There's no reason for anyone here to be throwing stones from their own glass house. Your life. Your choices. You know your situation better than anyone. I, for one, hope this works out well for you. Thank you for sharing so others can have the benefit of your experience.

When someone posts on a forum activity that may be followed by another poster than I think we all have the responsibility to question the actions of that poster and to give our opinions of why what they did might not have been a very smart move. I have never heard of an App-a-rama. Common sense tells me that it doesn't sound like something that would not harm most people that attempt this. I welcome the opinions of more knowledgeable forum members. Basically that is what a forum is...An avenue to exchange ideas and opinions. When you post, you are asking for others opinions whether or not you specifically ask or not. It's the nature of the beast.

[justbroke]

Jackbondlove, nowhere in your original post did you ask for anyone's opinion of your action. I've only read one page of responses and so far have found no shortage of opinions. So far I haven't seen anyone even try to answer your question (sorry, but I'm too fresh out of my own BK to be able to answer).

Actually go back to page one and re-read. Not only did I respond on how the app-o-rama may affect the scoring model... I also commented on how at least one creditor in the list deals with bankruptcy. He specifically asked...

Are there any BK friendly CC's with no annual fee that I should try for while in my App-O-Rama phase?

To which there were several answers. Additionally, the list provided within several posts showed all the BK friendly creditors as well as a (large) collection of non-friendly creditors.

[IBroke]

Now, this:

This is a really interesting post and the information provided on the aftermath/decisions will probably be very helpful to a lot of people down the road. In the spirit of the forum, it's great that you would share this.

...is directly tied to this:

Jackbondlove, nowhere in your original post did you ask for anyone's opinion of your action. I've only read one page of responses and so far have found no shortage of opinions.

Without opinions - no info. You can't have it both ways..

[GoGoGophers]

This is a really interesting post and the information provided on the aftermath/decisions will probably be very helpful to a lot of people down the road. In the spirit of the forum, it's great that you would share this.

Jackbondlove, nowhere in your original post did you ask for anyone's opinion of your action. I've only read one page of responses and so far have found no shortage of opinions. So far I haven't seen anyone even try to answer your question (sorry, but I'm too fresh out of my own BK to be able to answer).

We've all been in a financial place where the only direction to go was up. There's no reason for anyone here to be throwing stones from their own glass house. Your life. Your choices. You know your situation better than anyone. I, for one, hope this works out well for you. Thank you for sharing so others can have the benefit of your experience.