I have a post about App-O-Rama long time ago. It seems the idea of App-O-Rama is not so popular as before. I think the main reason is the credit card issuers like Citi, Chase, Bank of America, and American Express are cut the chances of sign-up bonuses and 0% APR offers and they also added huge amount of fees (~$100) on balance transfers. However, I think it’s still necessary to write a complete introduction of App-O-Rama for those who have a good credit and want to profit from credit card applications.

App-O-Rama is a word set out by Wall Street Journal and refers to a frenzy of applications. App-O-Rama can be defined as a strategy of completing multiple credit card applications in a short time period (typically less than 45 min). App-O-Rama also commonly known as AppORama, Application-O-Rama, App-a-Rama, or AOR. The purpose of an AOR is to take advantage of the way your credit score is calculated and credit applications are processed in order to get the most free moneys from credit card issuers.

Why App-O-Rama (AOR)?

• To obtain as many credit card sign-up bonuses (airline mileages or hotel rewards points) as possible.
• To obtain many balance transfer offers and transfer to a high interest savings account or CD and earn 5%+ interest on the money borrowed at 0% APR introductory rates.
• Maximum your credit line and use it to pay off your interest-bearing loans, mortgages, and automobile payments, while paying 0% APR introductory rates on the money borrowed.
• Build a solid credit history (only after you pay of all the balances).

Consquences of App-O-Rama (AOR):

• Temporary drop of your credit score due to many new credit inquiries (Usually, credit inquiries less than 6 months will ding your credit score).
• New and existing accounts might also be closed due to sudden drop of credit score or increase of credit card balances (due to balance transfer). There are many cases of this.

Who can’t do App-O-Rama?

• Those with poor credit scores (Believe me, you won’t get many approvals.).
• Those without solid credit history (less than 2 years).
• Those always carry credit card balances or with credit card debit.

How to prepare for an App-O-Rama?

Again, before you start your App-O-Rama, please keep in mind that to take advantage of this you need a good FICO score (higher than 700) and a long history of established credit.

Step 1. Maximum your FICO score and pay down/off your credit card balances. You have to pay down as much of your credit card bills as possible. Due to the delay of reporting of your account balances, you need to do this at least a month or two before you launch your AOR. Then you should call up your current card issuers and request to increase your credit limit without a hard credit inquiry. In this way, you can get higher credit limit from your new credit card issuers which are likely to match your current maximum credit limit. You should also have to bump all of hard inquiries on your credit report (How to Get Hard Inquiries Off Your Credit Report).

Step 2. Choose the right credit cards. This is a time consuming process. You have to get a list of credit cards which will give you a certain amount of sign-up bonuses, 0% APR offers or other rewards. For example, you can choose the Starwood Prefferd Guest Card from American Express which is offering 10,000 bonus starpoints after first purchase. You can also choose the Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network which is offering 10,000 thankyou points after $250 in purchases. You might be also interested in the Blue Cash from American Express which is offering up to 15 month 0% APR on purchases and 4.99% fixed APR for life on balance transfer. You can refer to this post to choose some credit cards.

Step 3. Plan the right time and start to pull the trigger! Now you have a list of credit cards on hand. You need to plan the time a little bit better. Early in the morning and Monday or Tuesday is highly recommended for App-O-Rama. When the credit approval system can’t approve your application, your information will be delivered to a credit analyst. Before he/she looks over your credit report, you’d better make sure that he/she can’t see your other applications. So you want to let your information presented to him/her as early as possible. That’s why you should plan your AOR in the morning and Monday or Tuesday.

Card companies say only a small number of their cardholders play this game. But if you have a solid credit history and a perfect credit score, why not try this? You deserve to get those money because you have a good credit performance.