Credit Card App-O-Rama Preparation: Freezing your ARS and IDA Credit Reports
Why would you want to freeze these credit reports? Good question. US Bank uses these two credit bureaus to check your credit score if you apply for any of their credit cards. The only credit card that might interest you is the Club Carlson Personal Credit Card from US Bank. In order to freeze both of your credit reports, you will need to contact each bureau.
To read the entire post, please click here.
I am planning a massive (7 card) App-O-Rama on Monday morning and this Club Carlson Personal Credit Card is at the top of my list. The other 6 cards on my list include:
- US Airways Personal (this will be my first Barclays card, hopefully they like me this time)
- Alaska Airlines Personal (30,000 Alaska Airlines miles for $89 annual fee)
- Platinum Mercedes Benz (50,000 Membership Rewards Points and Airline credits)
- Citi Dividend (rotating 5x / 5% categories – I don’t need any more AA or HH cards)
- IHG Hotel Personal (80,000 IHG points please, bye bye Marriott Card)
- Hilton HH Surpass (free upgrade from Amex Hilton HHonors card)
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
Can you explain why you are freezing the reports and how it is benefiting you?
There are reports out there that these 2 credit bureaus have a lot of info on credit card churners and make it almost impossible to get approved for a US Bank credit card. If I get approved for the Club Carlson credit card, it will probably be because I froze these two accounts. If you have time, I would read some of the comments on this post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-programs/1412784-us-bank-club-carlson-signature-visa-card-85k-sign-up-40k-yr-upon-renewal.html
I think the AS 25K + $100 statement credit is still svailable. Might be a better deal?
Hmm possibly, I’ll have to check FlyerTalk. Thanks for the heads up. Do you have an Alaska Airlines card?
I have one, awaiting my second in the mail (both this offer).
Can you post the link to the Alaska Airlines offer you mention?
Oh come on Grant, do we have to spoonfeed you bloggers everything? ;-) google “as 25k $100”
On a related note, I haven’t even received my BofA card in the mail but my 25K points posted. Very odd.
Which bureau does each of the 7 cards on your list pull (for your city if it differs by location)? Also, how many cards per bureau can you typically sign up for per app-o-rama? Hopefully, it’s possible to do more than 1 per bureau, a 3-card app-o-rama sounds boring.
What is the sign-up bonus for the Citi Dividend?
You can find out which bureau each bank uses by searching on this website: http://creditboards.com/forums/
The Citi Dividend only has a $100 sign up bonus, but I am trying to go for more cash back cards. I believe it is the Citi equivalent of a Chase Freedom or Discover It card. Not too exciting :/
hey Grant, have you had any problem with CVS with over buying VR, I always buy at my local place with DL scan for a few Ks but the other day, the cashier machine said i have exceed my limit and wouldnt allow to continue. have you seen this problem ?
I have only had my drivers license scanned twice in almost 2 years of VRC purchases. I would check FlyerTalk and see if there are similar posts like yours.
Hi Grant, so CVS tracks VR purchases thru DL scans? I always make sure that each transaction is below $1K so I usually just purchase 2 at a time with $496 so my total comes to $999.90.
I wouldn’t worry too much about CVS and their drivers license scans. I think it more of a scare tactic than anything else.
IME it’s just to make sure that you don’t exceed $5k/day. Without it’s its impossible to get $1000.
Why the fear?
By the way, please let us know how your AOR goes. I hope everything gets approved! How long ago was your last AOR?
My last card was the SWA card on August 5. I only got 1 card at that time. I will post an update tomorrow night on my results.