It’s app-o-rama time! My recent round of applications was modest but meaningful as I applied for three cards–one each from Citi, Chase, and Comenity Bank. The cards and the results:

CITI EXECUTIVE SUPER AWESOME AMERICAN AIRLINES 100,000-MILE CARD: It’s hard to say no to 100,000 miles, even at a cost of $250, since those miles will take care of a few plane tickets to see in-laws in Central America. Upon submitting the app, I received the “Please call us immediately to verify information” message. This may be surprising to you, but apparently Citi had already extended to me as much credit as they felt comfortable with, so I had to move some credit lines around. Result: Approved.

CHASE IHG 80,000-POINT DOUBLE TOP SECRET LINK: My wife already has the card, and it would be nice to have two rooms to use each year instead of one, seeing as how we have a whole bunch of kids. (Random fact: I’ve discovered that four kids is the point at which I start having difficulty remembering their names and birthdays.) Upon submitting the app I received the “Please call us immediately to verify information” message. This may be surprising to you, but apparently Chase had already extended to me as much credit as they felt comfortable with, so I had to move some credit lines around. Result: Approved.

MARATHON VISA: This is the gas station credit card and has nothing to do with the mysterious figure known as Marathon Man. I applied because I wrote about this card a couple of months ago and I wanted to try the card out. Comenity’s response: “Your application is now under review. We will contact you by mail within 7-10 business days regarding the status of your application.” I have plenty of credit card fun on my plate with the first two cards, so I’m going to wait to see what Comenity do. Result: Deferred.

And that’s all, folks. Just as you don’t need ten million points, you also don’t need to apply for 20 cards at a time either (although that would be kind of fun). Everybody’s situation is different and nobody knows you better than you.