DH's App-O-Rama ETA 7/16/04: FICO pamperer seeks advice & shares quest for higher, cheaper credit. Updated 10/9/04

With a nod to my friend and forum staple SIS's own credit-trashing App-O-Rama, I'm planning on submitting a batch of targeted applications with a somewhat different focus. instead of seeking signup bonuses, promos, etc. I'm looking to:

1) reduce the cost of my extensive investment borrowing as much as possible,
2) improve my borrowing power and credit scores long term.

Signup bonuses, signup offers, etc. will be nice perks, but they will NOT be a prime objective.

I've been compiling a strategy that trys to accomplish these objectives, which I'd like to run by the FW community in the hopes that I might benefit from your collective suggestions, and vice versa. I have a fairly narrow window right now: my home appraisal is still current for only a couple more months, and my new Cap One Loan and a couple of great promotional balances have yet to hit my report, so it's as attractive as it will be for awhile.

Here's my strategy:

-apply to reduce rates for my $150K primary HELOC, since my 1.9% penfed rate ended,
-apply to increase lines on current attractive cards to improve credit ratios and better exploit future offers, and
-selectively pick a couple of new lines/cards consistent with my AOR's objectives. (Keep this limited, so that average age of lines doesn't drop too sharply and inquiries don't spike too much.)


Finally, my thinking on current tactics/choices. (Here's where I could use the most help!)


CURRENT LINE ACTIONS:

-Apply to First IB to increase $25K unsecured LOC to $50K (prime + 2%, floor of 7%) to $50K or so. This line is super convenient, since it acts as overdraft protection, is free, and can be used by writing checks. It's also a couple of years old.

-Boost Principal Bank, MBNA, Discover, Chase, and Bankone e.card CC lines.


NEW APPS I'M LEANING TOWARDS:

-Apply to Schwab for a 1st position HELOC (70% LTV, prime -.75%), and Wachovia for a 2d position HELOC (100% LTV, prime -.5% if >$75K). This will not only cut my rates from Penfed's prime - 0% rate, but increase effective LTV from 90% to 100%.

-PROBABLE: USAA Platinum MasterCard (no info on their web site.) Normally awards $25K, but will go as high as $50K. Prime + 0% for best credit for purchases, 3% higher for BTs or cash advances with no transactions fees. (Apparently they run promos all the time as well.

-POSSIBLE: MBNA card. I like these cards because they increase rapidly and they offer some tasty new flavors, like the new stockback or Merrill Lynch cards.

-POSSIBLE: Second Capital One Loyalty loan (see above link). Got $50K in wife's name, might opt for the $50K in my name too, since it's fixed and unsecured.


Suggestions on other good new app candidates most welcome. I'll be glad to clarify my thinking too if anyone's interested. Thanks for any and all help!

EDIT to include more links, remove typos

Sure thing stso, and thanks for the kind words!

I don't know how much others will benefit from my thinking in this thread, but I'm confident I'll benefit from theirs

Currious about the wachovia HELOC. Where did you get this rate? The rate quoted here in New Jersey for a 100% LTV HELOC is more than prime.

Thanks zeego, I agree 100% about the coolness of biz credit to augment these personal lines, esp when they don't report. I haven't looked into the Citi and Bank1 biz lines--what do you like in particular about them? Any promo links or other info?consider the bifurcated strategy of biz card applications in conjunction with individual cards a training event for a future massive Olympic App-O-RamaIt sounds like we might have different goals here--your strategy sounds more like SIS's. And why bifuracte the app-o-rama? It seems to me to make more sense to take the hit at once...Dave, how do you track your FICO scores?Ah, for the days when creditwatch gave you true scores once a day! Now, I'm using the privacygaurd promo, not sure whether I'll keep it after the $1 intro period expires at month's end.

longwood8, I updated the OP to include the link. It may well vary by state...>$75K gets prime -.5% for excellent credit, while >$100K gets it for "good credit" here. You HAVE to be in SECOND lien position to get it, though.

davelanton, how big a line did you ask for, and what LTV did you ask for? I called, and was told that with excellent credit (750 "or so"), prime -.75 should be doable..

DH,

I was cruising the major CC issuers' web sites the other day looking for 0% APR offers on the web. Fusa still has two cards that offer 0% APR for 12 months, with $50-60 transaction fees. Here is one:
http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?card=237D&mkid=6B01&partner_dir_name=td_waterhouse_free_trades_35865_choice&page=trade

More generaly, I'm surprised you are not loading up on 0% APR offers of *any* duration, so long as the actual cost is low enough compared to ~ prime (or what prime will be 6 months from now). A round robin staggered group of CC's from yourself, your partner, and your wife might be good enough to 'float' 50 - 100K at 1.0 - 2.0% for the forseeable future.

Dave,

Here's the B1 link:

Bank1: http://www.bankone.com/answers/BolAnswersCompare.aspx?top=biz&segment=SMB&topic=CreditCards&item=B1 Link

The Bi-Appa-Lon subset strategy utilizes the same day app's as it's proginator the SIS creation. It emphasizes the biz cards first. More details can be found at the Office of Patents....z

OK, first update:

-Started with Schwab, since they are so fussy about scores. I'll give details in another thread, but they pulled all three CRAs (taking the middle score) and did confirm that we started with the following "true" scores:

Dave: 730 EXP 745 EQ 770 TU (FAKO via privacygaurd.com: 709)
Ms. Dave: 763 EXP 765 EQ 770 TU (FAKO via privacygaurd.com: 715)

While my credit wasn't high enough to get prime -.75, Ms. Dave's was. Stated income was sufficient up to $100K so we were approved for a first-position $100K line with no closing costs. Docs are en route.

-Wachovia. My scores were plenty high, but they only take appraisals 11 months old (counter to what I'd been told earlier.) If we can get an exception and have our 13-month old appraisal taken, we'll get $75K 2d HELOC at prime -.5%. Hopefully we'll find out Monday.

-Ms. Dave applied for an MBNA Stockback card (she has no MBNA lines currently.) As expected, the pulled TransUnion last night, right during the phone call. They'll let us know.

-I passed on USAA. Credit expert Czar from the excellent artofcredit.com confirms that their best rates are available only to military, which I am not.

-Submitted full docs to FirstIB for increase request. They couldn't get the paperwork processed Friday, so they likely won't pull until Monay, which may tube this request, we'll see.

-Called FirstUSA after hours to see about getting a line increase on my e.card, which has a tasty BT offer. They said even with a hard, I'd likely only get $5K more, so I passed. May try Monday if I can get a supervisor with more authority.


This AM, FAKO scores down to 699 for me, 704 for Ms. Dave. I have two new inquiries on each bureau, Ms. Dave has two new ones on EQ and TU, one on EXP. Otherwise, unchanged.

Next update:

NEW LINE ACTIONS

-Schwab HELOC at p - .75% was closed on 9/13/04. They were pretty sloppy with parts of the paperwork and instructions, but they will be sending checks that have BOTH me and Ms. Dave on them, even though the line will report in Ms. Dave's name only. I'm happy about that.

-Wachovia couldn't come through, so we went with DeepGreen instead. Their auto-app method ended up giving us a better line amount anyway, and we got in on the p -.51% deal, so I was very pleased with that. This one's in my name only. As always, DG pulled TU only.

-MBNA pulled two inquiries for Ms. Dave because the CUs list her business address, not home address (GRR...) That was recently corrected (finally.) They gave her $20K, and I'm an AU. I don't know whether they would have given her more but for the snafus with the address...


OLD LINE ACTIONS

-FirstIB. They've never yet processed my paperwork, which is strange since they said they got approval from the bank president to evaluate a $50K line. I think they're just busy. I haven't worried enough about it to push harder, but when scores are repaired a bit I'll push again.

-MBNA. After a TU inquiry and a chat with the credit department, line was bumped from $23K to $40K.

-BankOne. After a TU inquiry, e.card with a 2.99% for life BT offer was bumped from $10.5K to $25K, then another $21.4k was moved from two other BankOne cards (leaving $1K on each) to take the limit to $46.4K. Did the BT so that it was left with 49% utilization.

-Chase. Had $20K, requested a bump to $50K. TU inquiry and 9 days passed, was given $30K, didn't bother to appeal.

-Principal/Infibank. Requested a bump from $15 to $50K. Pulled EQ, spoke with a friendly credit supervisor, and after faxing in 1040s and asset statements was given $50K.

-Discover. Had $17K, Asked for $50K. After faxing in financials, was granted just $25K. Dissapointing because of the 0% BT for life offer, but oh well...


While discover was All in all, I'm very satisfied. I don't have accurate FICO scored to share, but the FAKO profiles on privacygaurd suggest that after a few more inquries age, I should be in almost as good a shape as before I did this app-o-rama. Meanwhile, available credit has gone way up, while the average age of our open accounts has decreased only slightly.


Going forward, I'll work down from the 49% utilization of the e.card, 69% utilization of the 0% for life discovercard, and otherwise try to keep our other 0% CC debt (around $150-200K worth) off the credit reports entirely by paying it off and redrawing it each month (see the discussion of "rolling maximization" on SIS's App-R-Rama thread.)